June 2012 Grocery Challenge

elsiepac

MrsCD wrote: »

You're welcome, elsiepac. It's nice to be able to share sometimes If you're sharing a fridge. will you be sharing the cooking?

No, everyone looks after themselves, although last the Polish lorry driver who looks scary but is actually very sweet, was trying to inisist I have some pasta/mince he made - I had to politely decline as I'm veggie so then he brought me some garlic bread! Bless! But no, as a rule, we all buy our own, store separately and cook for ourselves. For me, it's the same setup as when I was at mum and dads, so I'm used to it. Less fridge space though - you should see how much I have rammed on my shelf!

I took your suggestion for the pasta salad today, and I've made 5 portions for the next 5 days lunches - I was trying to clear space in the fridge by using up jars of random bits, basically so I would have room to actually store my 5 pots of pasta salad!! hehe, I did

all of my penne
a super six broccoli (thrown in with the pasta last minute)
a whole 250g punnet of super 6 cherry toms
the remains of a jar of black olives in brine (L1d! - the flavour was good but the texture is tough and chewy, not sure these are worth the 20-30p saving off Mr T own brand...)
the remains of a jar of sundried toms in oil with capers (again L1d! - these are very nice, not too strong)
the tin of spicy bean salad, which I've never tried before but it was different beans in a red sauce which I assume has a kick!

I just stirred the lot together when I'd cooled the pasta and broccoli a bit, so it should taste ok...nothing in there to suggest otherwise?!

For my lunch today I had crusty wholemeal rolls from Mr T bakery, with A1d! low fat mozzarella (first time tried it, am pleased, it's lovely, specially at 44p!), A1d! vine toms and rocket (which was meant to be babyleaf rocket salad which I'm addicted to, but I picked up the wrong bag as a silly woman wouldn't move so I had to do some acrobatics around her!).

Tonight for tea I just did some cous cous with roast veg from the freezer (again, A1d!, it's a ready done bag and you just saute it, they say a bit of oil, but I don't bother, really good to keep a bag on hand for emergencies or lazy days!), and then as I'm trying to use up sauces in the fridge I put a load of Caribbean jerk marinade on it. Was actually very nice, if a little too much. However, as I have no fridge space left, I simply had to eat it all or chuck it... obviously I ate it, don't like waste!!!

As you can tell...loving having the A1d! literally down the road from me :j

Don't know what I shall do for tea tomorrow or Weds, I can't spend any more on food before I get paid on thursday when my june GC starts, so I shall have to be creative - not easy when you're not sure what pots and pans are available and there's other people trying to cook as well so you don't want to get in the way!

Night all

LC

Florenceem

Today was a spending day - £8.59 - I will go and do my sig. I am going away on Thursday - I will tell Mr F - try to spend as little as possible. :rotfl:
We had roast potatoes, roast parsnips, pork spare ribs, gravy, roasted vegetables - cauliflower, mushroom, onion, red pepper & tomatoes for dinner.

jumblejack

Florenceem wrote: »

Today was a spending day - £8.59 - I will go and do my sig. I am going away on Thursday - I will tell Mr F - try to spend as little as possible. :rotfl:
We had roast potatoes, roast parsnips, pork spare ribs, gravy, roasted vegetables - cauliflower, mushroom, onion, red pepper & tomatoes for dinner.

I love your dinners. You must get your 5 a day on every dinner plate :T
Great examples!

Florenceem

We love our fruit and veggies.
For breakfast I had HM apricot crumble with custard - for my calcium intake. For elevenses Mr F and I shared a piece of eldest DGS's Birthday cake plus I had a cup of tea - no sugar + hint of skimmed milk.
Lunch was a JJ herby cheese bread piece with a thin layer of cheese spread + matchbox size amount of cheese. Followed by a satsuma and a cup of tea.
Afternoon break was some mango and a cup of tea. Then you have seen the dinner we had.
We tend to eat little and often.

[Deleted User]

Welcome to all newbies -

MrsCD - the potatoes shoudl be fine to eat, just take off the sprouts, you should not eat them if they are green, or cut them bits off, other than that its fine, or you could plant them. Because they are not seed potatoes, which are specially grown to be virus free, i would put them in a container if you decide to do this, so that you dont end up giving any future tomatoes you grow, blight.

Mrs_Cookie

jumblejack wrote: »

My girly herby bread is a success. Yay:j

Looks lovely, tried the leafy version yesterday it was a big hit with the other half who has taken it for his pack up today with ham and grainy mustard on :T I left out the mustard cos I'm not a fan, and added fine garlic granules and thyme, marjoram and chives, lush! Got loads of herb/spice combos planned now to accompany things like chilli, so simple to make and so tasty, thanks JJ

Managed a NSD yesterday, go me, one small step etc... Made choc chip and banana bread/cake yesterday whilst the herby bread was baking so I didn't get told off by Florenceem Used some bananas that pre the GC I would have thrown out, because they'd gone black and spotty, cake was yummy, will be making it again. I split the mix for banana bread off the front page into 4 small loaf tins as it's just two of us so we had one yesterday, one for afternoon tea when Mr C comes home and the other 2 are in the freezer. I may need a second freezer methinks or is that wrong if there's just two of us? The YS chicken we got for £2 has done 2 meals, plus a bag went in the freezer for turning into soup, made Mr C's sarnies yesterday and scraps for the cats so a bargain.

Looks like it's cooling off here, a bit greyer today and loads cooler, so I think it's time to get some more gardening and seed potting on, got chillies and tomatoes to plant up and some scented bits and bobs, need to sow more sorrel, rocket and mizuna for summer salads as well and the rhubarb looks like it needs harvesting so lots to do. Have a good money saving day everyone

meg72

My back lawn was claimed for veggies a few years ago when i realised I did not need a lawn anymore, grandkids no longer played on it and I HATE mowing, its saved me a small fortune and I LOVE my homegrown.

[Deleted User]

have copied this from May, as i posted there by mistake

Morning all, its glorious here. Hope its nice where you are. Have decided my budget is going to be £90 for June, this is to run from today until June 30th, this is to include everything, food, alcohol, toiletries, etc. I am going to give myself a little buffer of £40, as its my birthday at the end of the month and my twins birthday in about a week, just in case i need it.

jumblejack

Yay!!!!

I have just learned that cornflowers are also edible:j

I have LOADS of these in my garden. They self seed every year and I love the prettiness of them. They are also blooming at the moment so I will have to experiment with these as well.

Who'd have thought it!

The prettiest free ingredients around!

Possession

A £10.30 spend today on milk and snacky stuff for our holiday. Made the mistake of letting DH shop for his toiletries and the till receipt is horrendous so am not counting that bit as groceries!