May 2012 Grocery Challenge

jumblejack

TheThriftyScrumpers wrote: »

I love looking at all the food pics makes me hungry though!

BBQ was lovely. I had three very overripe bananas lurking in the fruit bowl so I ran a knife down one side of each banana, squeezed in some chocolate buttons, wrapped the bananas in foil and put on the BBQ for about 15 minutes. The banana's and chocolate went all gooey and lovely. It made a lovely pudding and used up the fruit. Very mse

What an amazingly inspired idea:T

Love it:j

Florenceem

jumblejack wrote: »

I just grated a bit of cheese over the pastry and quickly worked or into the trimmings.

I rolled into sausages and made into knots.

The last of my eggy wash from glazing the pies was used over the twists and then
Sprinkled with sesame seeds.

I will use freeze them in and use them up in packed lunch boxes as a savoury snack.

I just couldn't be bothered to get an extra tray out for more jam tarts with the surplus.

I love your pasties, by the way. :T
They look really professional:)

Great idea - thanks.

HappyTorty

Some of those ideas look/sund scrumptious!
I've had a lot of NSD's so far! The second big shop of the month is looming! Only got onion, a couple of sweet potatoes and butternut squash left .

Made soup tonight for tomorrows dinner and possibly lunch! Had to use up the carrots as they were starting to turn, had half a leek that needed using up before it completely dried out (had already taken off about two layers of it to get to the god stuff!). lentils out of date end of may so decided to use them too. Then added sweet potato, onion, and various spices. Had a taste and it's yummy! Cant wait until tomorrow to eat it!

Carmilla

My GC is not going quite as well as I had hoped, despite my efforts I've spent loads of money so far this month. Mostly restocking but I lots a bunch of veggies to mold, I'm not sure how, but im going to keep a closer eye on the next lot.
On the plus side I'm now accounting for all of my purchases, I'm trying to meal plan and I've bought YS items for the freezer saving around £12. I even filleted a megrim sole which was 1/3 of the original price. I froze the head and bones to make fish stock soon too. Hubby is excited at saving money too, so we are both looking for ideas to try out, and better ways of strectching food. I've been collecting veg trimmings in a freezer bag to make stock with too, I'm very excited at trying this as I normally buy in veggies to make it, this one will be free as it is just scraps.
Hope everyone's month is going well!

debbym

£39.98 spent yesterday in L and Mr M's - couldn't resist the aubergines in Lidl as they were only 39P each but they weren't on my list
Got home and defrosted the bol. sauce from the freezer only to realise that DS1 had raided the cupboard (again!) and eaten all the lasagna sheets (crunchy things give him an extra buzz).
Choice no. 1 - just have pasta shapes with the bol. sauce for the 20th time running
no.2 go back to the supermarket (16 mile round trip)
no.3 use pancakes in lieu of pasta sheets as inspired by this recipe from weezl's blog.
Went with option no 3 and OH actually preferred it to normal. Bonus was that the boys love helping to make the pancakes as well and it didn't take so long in the oven at the end either since the pancakes don't start off hard and need to cook through. Have to work out the difference in cost but since I used skimmed milk powder and eggs from Lidl (65p for 6) I think it works out slightly cheaper as well.:) BTW weezl's recipe is veggie (uses red lentils), one step too far for my fussy brood at the moment, and when priced last year worked out at a fantastic 18p per adult portion so worth a look if you are struggling or doing the pound a day thing.

edited after finding the calculator!
Tesco value pasta is 39p a box - I would have had to buy 2 so 78p

1 batch pancakes:
1 egg 11p
10 g skim milk powder 3p
110 g plain flour 4p
300 ml water - for these purposes free
oil for frying 5p
total 23p

Another 50p up

PennyGrabber

Carmilla wrote: »

My GC is not going quite as well as I had hoped, despite my efforts I've spent loads of money so far this month. Mostly restocking but I lots a bunch of veggies to mold, I'm not sure how, but im going to keep a closer eye on the next lot.
On the plus side I'm now accounting for all of my purchases, I'm trying to meal plan and I've bought YS items for the freezer saving around £12. I even filleted a megrim sole which was 1/3 of the original price. I froze the head and bones to make fish stock soon too. Hubby is excited at saving money too, so we are both looking for ideas to try out, and better ways of strectching food. I've been collecting veg trimmings in a freezer bag to make stock with too, I'm very excited at trying this as I normally buy in veggies to make it, this one will be free as it is just scraps.
Hope everyone's month is going well!

Sounds like you#'re making great progress, well done! It's great that your hubby is on board too.

debbym wrote: »

£39.98 spent yesterday in L and Mr M's - couldn't resist the aubergines in Lidl as they were only 39P each but they weren't on my list
Got home and defrosted the bol. sauce from the freezer only to realise that DS1 had raided the cupboard (again!) and eaten all the lasagna sheets (crunchy things give him an extra buzz).
Choice no. 1 - just have pasta shapes with the bol. sauce for the 20th time running
no.2 go back to the supermarket (16 mile round trip)
no.3 use pancakes in lieu of pasta sheets as inspired by this recipe from weezl's blog.
Went with option no 3 and OH actually preferred it to normal. Bonus was that the boys love helping to make the pancakes as well and it didn't take so long in the oven at the end either since the pancakes don't start off hard and need to cook through. Have to work out the difference in cost but since I used skimmed milk powder and eggs from Lidl (65p for 6) I think it works out slightly cheaper as well.:) BTW weezl's recipe is veggie (uses red lentils), one step too far for my fussy brood at the moment, and when priced last year worked out at a fantastic 18p per adult portion so worth a look if you are struggling or doing the pound a day thing.

Great recovery there! Well done for resisting the 16 miles' worth of fuel just to get some lasagne sheets, which wouldn't have been the only thing you bought, because you had to justify the fuel expense....!!!

I often look at weezl's site, but still end up making the same old things. However, I have made a new recipe this month, so :A. My aim is a new thing a month, so that's it for May now!!!

Possession

PennyGrabber wrote: »

I often look at weezl's site, but still end up making the same old things. However, I have made a new recipe this month, so :A. My aim is a new thing a month, so that's it for May now!!!

Unfortunately I'm the same....unfortunate because I have more than 200 cookbooks and I still cook the same old thing! For various reasons I have more time now so I'm going to be sure to try some new things out. I am making a menu plan but I don't like to go too far in advance so just doing this week at the moment. Any more than that and it starts to make me feel rather constrained.

mummybearx

Well, I have well and truly blew the budget already this month :mad:

Up to £243.72. For me and DH plus one small dog. Not good at all. :eek:

On the plus side (!), we are stocked up til at least the end of June with coffee, on offer at MrT's with 80-odd pence off, first time it's been reduced for about 6 months, so we have grabbed 8 packs. Got 2 for £7 on the Velvet toilet rolls as well, that will do us a few weeks.

Freezer is fit to burst with ys meats, veg drawers in the fridge are full with carrots, onions, celery, need peppers though. I have lots of lentils, lots of tinned beans, I need tins of chopped toms though.

Really need to get a grip on things. Between me and DH being lazy, not meal planning, not thinking ahead, we are just not keeping track of things. I made a pot of soup last night for lunches at work, going to make another tonight for tomorrows lunch. Need to stop buying lunches, buying cakes every day....

Hope everyone else is doing better than me :T

fozziebeartoo

jumblejack wrote: »

I just grated a bit of cheese over the pastry and quickly worked or into the trimmings.

I rolled into sausages and made into knots.

The last of my eggy wash from glazing the pies was used over the twists and then
Sprinkled with sesame seeds.

I will use freeze them in and use them up in packed lunch boxes as a savoury snack.

What a good idea!

I will try that if I have some pastry left when I make a quiche today :T

tjp70

First challenge passed with flying colours. We had run out of cat litter which I buy from Mr M's. I went in and bought it and nothing else. That is a major achievement for me.

Tonight's meal is bacon & pea risotto. The troops will not be happy with this but tough, we have bacon to use up and I have frozen peas plus risotto rice which is not being used.

Yesterday I made scones so we have some left for pudding tonight.

So far so good.