May 2012 Grocery Challenge

Fiasco55

Catching up as usual - still have so many pages to go...

No spend days yesterday and today. I was out for lunch yesterday as part of a leaving lunch for a team member but that comes out of another budget. Didn't need dinner last night after that.

Today I spent the afternoon chopping onions and peppers for the freezer. I am making HM pizza for dinner tonight for me and a friend. We are off to the cinema afterwards but I don't have any goodies in so will make a quick call into L!dls for some chocs.

DundeeDoll

Lidl week's shop £41.76 then Tesco for loose tea (don't do it in Lidl) where they had D/Eg coffee 1/2 price so bought large jar (and drink for son as we walked to Mr T) bringing total to £48.01 Then on way home found a trail of coins - very bizarre. We picked them up (36 pennies, 7 tuppenny and 2 fives) wondering if we'd find the witch's house at the end! I suspect students. MC bill came in and have been very good at ticking off things. A few items had been forgotten so have adjusted xmas and rainy day funds accordingly

NickJW

DundeeDoll wrote: »

Lidl week's shop £41.76 then Tesco for loose tea (don't do it in Lidl) where they had D/Eg coffee 1/2 price so bought large jar (and drink for son as we walked to Mr T) bringing total to £48.01 Then on way home found a trail of coins - very bizarre. We picked them up (36 pennies, 7 tuppenny and 2 fives) wondering if we'd find the witch's house at the end! I suspect students. MC bill came in and have been very good at ticking off things. A few items had been forgotten so have adjusted xmas and rainy day funds accordingly

How strange! I had a similar incident today (not as productive however) - 4 2p's together, then a penny a minute later, one 5p a few seconds after that and a 50p 5 minutes later. There was no-one on the road so I thought hey, why not.

NSD today - need to get the biryani ready soon. It was a regular meal of mine a few years ago but haven't done it for over year so I hope it goes okay.

Hope everybody is well.

Possession

Thankyou to whoever on the OS boards put up the idea for easy chicken & sweetcorn soup. I adapted slightly and just used chicken bouillon and a tin of creamed sweetcorn (29p from Approved Foods) but it was delicious and I wouldn't have thought of doing it. Also took about 5 minutes!
NSD today but DH did buy a bottle of wine last night.

NickJW

I just need to ask...I've searched and searched online, but can't get an answer.

What can I use 2 cans of brown Princes crab meat (in brine) for? A while ago I wanted to use a recipe using crab meat but when I got home I realized it was with white crab meat not brown.

All the recipes online call for white crab meat or fresh crab meat. They were only £1 a can from £land so it won't be a big loss if I can't use them , but I would ideally like to find something to make with them if I can (I've never had crab before so I'm a bit scared of experimenting hence the reason why they are still in the cupboard - with a BB Jan 2014 I must add)

If anyone can assist I would be VERY grateful! :A

Possession

You could make crab cakes, or chowder, or personally I would be happy to use it in a pasta dish as I think the brown meat has more flavour.
here's a recipe for crabcakes which doesn't specify brown or white:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/asianstylecrabcakesw_87709

NickJW wrote: »

I just need to ask...I've searched and searched online, but can't get an answer.

What can I use 2 cans of brown Princes crab meat (in brine) for? A while ago I wanted to use a recipe using crab meat but when I got home I realized it was with white crab meat not brown.

All the recipes online call for white crab meat or fresh crab meat. They were only £1 a can from £land so it won't be a big loss if I can't use them , but I would ideally like to find something to make with them if I can (I've never had crab before so I'm a bit scared of experimenting hence the reason why they are still in the cupboard - with a BB Jan 2014 I must add)

If anyone can assist I would be VERY grateful! :A

NickJW

Possession wrote: »

You could make crab cakes, or chowder, or personally I would be happy to use it in a pasta dish as I think the brown meat has more flavour.
here's a recipe for crabcakes which doesn't specify brown or white:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/asianstylecrabcakesw_87709

Thank you for that - since I have 2 tins I might experiment with 2 different recipes. How would you make the pasta - would you advise a cream or tomato based sauce?

I must admit I've scared myself reading about brown crab online since I'm not a fan of offal (I say that but I've never tried much of it - just don't like the 'thought' of it!) - has it got this sort of taste, or is it more like tuna?

It's nice to get a few ideas - I had resigned myself into thinking it would be thrown away which is not very MSE at all!

MrsCD

fozziebeartoo wrote: »

Taken sausages out of freezer for tea....

Talking of sausages, I read somewhere (maybe Second Purse thread???) someone simmered sausages for 20 minutes before grilling - anyone else do that???

My friend who is here for tea has problems swallowing, and although I have never cooked sausages like that (or even HEARD of it actually) I am thinking it would make the skins softer and easier to chew and less likely to get stuck in the throat???

Any thoughts on simmering sausages please????

Never heard of simmering them, but you could just take the skins off before cooking them.

EyesWideOpen wrote: »

By the way, I have been wondering if you all feel you eat better now you're meal planning etc or have you substituted say fresh fish for fish fingers or fresh beef for minced/sausages? I am trying to keep to the healthy food groups, just trading down in quality (so slow cooking meat rather than fry it in the pan) but must admit I am currently having lots more mince than ever before. Not sure if that is terribly healthy as of course I am having the cheapest mince I can get, rather than the leanest etc. Interested to hear your thoughts

When it comes to meat I'm a bit picky. I don't like the value meat with more fat etc., so I buy what I prefer. Today I bought a huge shoulder of lamb for £8 which will cut in half hopefully to do 2 Sundays. I also buy good quality brisket from the butcher and freeze some. I cook it in the slow cooker overnight and it comes out really tender. I save by cutting out the bought cakes and expensive biscuits, and only buy what fruit & veg we're going to use so I'm not throwing out rotten veg etc.

craigywv wrote: »

hi, just a thought i too also went to s...world bit decided it was too expensive so myself ,my aunt and cousin got a 1.00 moneybox out of pound shop and a notebook weighed ourselves and evey week we "weighed in" and paid a fiver into the tin it gave us something to strive for each trying to outdo each other we did this from june last year to christmas then opened the tin we then got all our money back about 130 quid anls we had all lost near 2 stone each....this time we doing january to dec so christmas present money is sorted and WE get the money not SW!!! i honestly dont think i would have lost anymore had i stayed at SW!!!:)

What a brilliant idea. Well done:T

jumblejack

Kidney bean curry with basmati and yoghurt:
There was enough left over for a couple of freezer meals:

I did the costing on a previous post. About 25p per serving which costs in the basmati n yoghurt too:T

Forgot to say, loads of basmati left over so I can make my leftover rice pudding in the thermal cooker tomorrow too!
As I've already costed it in with the curry, the actual cost will just be in the milk, sugar etc!!

jumblejack

Curried parsnip soup. Dead easy. Dead cheap!
Parsnips were YS at 19p a big bag of loose parsnips. Some were used on other meals so they didn't even cost the full 19p. I used a couple of onions which are just 10p a kilo from the Asian shop. The curry powder is only a penny or 2 as I buy the big bags of spices and you only need a bit. The stock is home made.
Total cost around 30p (probably less). 8 servings makes the cost of each bowl..... (drumroll please)....less than 4p!!!:T