May 2012 Grocery Challenge

Kylieminoag

Nearly fell over this morning when DS (18) said he would cook tea tonight to give me a rest! Hes doing spag bol.... cant wait!:j Just hope making tea includes clearing up after hes wrecked the kitchen too!:D


Doubt it will be very MS .... he will use twice as much meat as I would and refuses to add lentils - but never mind - I doubt it will happen often so it wont break the budget this once!:T

meg72

Kylieminoag wrote: »

Nearly fell over this morning when DS (18) said he would cook tea tonight to give me a rest! Hes doing spag bol.... cant wait!:j Just hope making tea includes clearing up after hes wrecked the kitchen too!:D


Doubt it will be very MS .... he will use twice as much meat as I would and refuses to add lentils - but never mind - I doubt it will happen often so it wont break the budget this once!:T

How lovely I wouldnt worry about being MS, just enjoy it, I would love someone to cook my tea sometimes.

debbym

Still picking up the pieces after a disasterous April. This has meant raiding the freezer for all the things lurking at the bottom since I don't know when

After a search for inspiration made this sausage casserole - would have been under £1 a head if I had had to buy the ingredients from scratch:)

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hello!
Just had a tally up, £73.11 spent so far. I have a £7 off £50 spend at Mr T which I will use tomorrow to stock up on loo roll, dishwasher tabs etc. kids have jackets, sausage and beans tonight (nice and easy as we have clubs) and we will have s pie (made tues) with beans.

Need to meal plan for next week and do a new freezer list. I made shortbread with the kids this week and it turned out really well so will definitely be doing that again.

Coxy11

Spent £6 in Sainsbobs today on spaghetti, parmesan, tomato pasta sauce and 3 toothbrushes. Not too bad considering toothbrushes are so blooming expensive!

They have refills of Nextcafe coffee, gold blend and alta rica with 30% off if anyone's interested.

Off to update sig.

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending

Hello I'm back from revising and exams. It will take me too long to catch up with everyone's posts but I'll be reading them again from now . Hope everyone's OK.

My spend last week was £89.56, so monthly spend so far of £151.73/£320. On schedule, so that's good and now that I'm free of uni work, I'm hoping to bake and be more economical, once I've caught up with gardening and housework .

Living_proof

Just couldn't stop myself looking in on A**i and L**l on the way to an appointment. £10.13 and £7.11 spent in the respective establishments and really wasn't needing anything, but I convinced myself that buying now would stop me having to go out at all over the weekend. We will see! I bought a few tins of the herring and salmon fillets from L as they are always handy for a quick lunch or salad. The only luxury was my scented lilies which I usually manage to buy half price, but was too late today. Must try harder to avoid all shops!

angelatgraceland

Well I baked my loaf last night and good but not what I wanted-I then noticed my yeast was out of date-ok that was a trial run!
Today-new yeast and tepid water rather than cold and here are the results. Also made 10 litres of laundry gloop which cost me 75p! Productive couple of hours!
http://s1174.photobucket.com/albums/r610/angelatgraceland/
Would have added the pics here but don't know how do do it-someone remind me please?Florenceem?
http://s1174.photobucket.com/albums/r610/angelatgraceland/

Cool_Nanna

I made some parsley sauce today for the first time.
I just made a basic white sauce and added some dried parsley, it was a bit thick but edible. I am getting a bit worried as I have already spent £180 out of this months budget of £250 and still have 2 weeks before payday.

jedi82

jumblejack wrote: »

JJ's 2 minute micro puds:

Method:

In a bowl, mix the following ingredients in the order below:

2oz fat (butter, margarine, spread, suet, etc.)
2oz sugar
1 egg
2oz self raising flour

Cook for 2-3 minutes on full power in the microwave.

Serves 4


Variations

1) Chocolate sponge:
Substitute 1/2 oz of self raising flour to cocoa powder

2) Syrup sponge:
Put a thick layer of syrup into the bowl before adding the cake mix.
Turn the servings upside down when served.

3) Banana sponge:
Mash a banana into the mixture.

4) Lemon drizzle sponge:
Add the zest of a lemon into the mixture.
Once cooked, sprinkle a generous layer of sugar onto the hot sponge and then pour the juice of the lemon over the sugar to soak in.

5) School dinner sponge:
Add a handful of dessicated coconut to the mixture.
Once cooked, smear hot jam into the top and decorate with a sprinkling of coconut.

6) Lemon curd/jam sponge:
Add a layer of curd/jam into the bowl before adding the mixture.
Turn the servings upside down when served.

7) Coffee sponge:
Add a teaspoon of coffee powder when adding the flour.
(You may also add walnuts if you have any in!)

8) Fruit sponge:
Add a handful of dried fruit to the mixture.
(Optional, smear the cooked sponge with warm apricot jam)

9) Caramelised apple sponge:
Use up an apple or two by cooking in a pan with a good knob of butter and some sugar. Once softened, pop the apples and sauce into the bowl before topping with the mixture.

10) ...Tidy up/experimental sponge:
Add whatever needs using up: fresh/tinned/dried fruit. Experiment with spices.... Try ginger with lemon zest, etc! Add poppy seeds for texture. Seriously, you can really get away with some whacky ideas with this method.
(the next one I'm trying is a nuts n 'nanas sponge using peanut butter as half of the fat and mashing a banana in the mix too!)

Go wild and have fun!

Oh my goodness!!!!! Just made the chocolate sponge with my 6yo and 2yo - how easy and how scrumptious!!!! Thank you JJ this is going to be the best 'standby' pud ever :T

jedi x