Organic food in supermarkets

Edwardia

Aspall organic Suffolk cyder 500ml normally 2.25 each, currently 3 for £5 at ASDA
http://groceries.asda.com/asdawebstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/9197742

Abel & Cole has the new Fonseca Terra Prima organic reserve port 75cl for 16.25 which has me deliberating whether to be naughty and buy some for Christmas as it's bound to be good !
http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/fonseca-terra-prima-port

ASDA organic salmon fillets 120g were 2.50 each currently 2 for £4 at fish counter (freezable) had these recently and very good
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/81369578
ASDA wild sockeye salmon fillets were £3 each currently 2 for £5 from fish counter (freezable)

ASDA Butchers Selection whole organic free range chicken 5.88/kg
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/6351083

ASDA Butchers Selection organic beef rump steak 19.30 per kg
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/6076182

Cauldron organic smoked tofu 200g £2 ASDA
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/910001036921

At Fortnum & Mason Cropwell Bishop organic blue Stilton is 13.95 for 500g but if you buy 3 x 200g of the same cheese from Abel & Cole you get 600g for 10.50
http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/cropwell-bishop-blue-stilton-200g

50p over at 20.50 for a 1.25kg average bone out wild venison haunch from Abel & Cole to serve 4-5 people ie for 5 people 4.10 each. 3 working days notice required. If you order online now and specify a date in the drop down box you can reserve anything for a date nearer Christmas. Last year I got it all delivered on Christmas Eve for normal 99P
http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/wild-venison-haunch-bone-out-125g

Some Riverford franchisees are doing a Christmas Savings Club, you can specify how much and whether weekly or fortnightly, if yours is doing it AFAIK.

Edwardia

Kirri will moan: " it's too early" :P xx but many of us are used to spreading the budget-smashing load over several weeks/months. The earliest I started Christmas food shopping was August but the problem with cheese is that it dries out in the freezer, IME.

Holland & Barrett has dairy free organic Fairtrade chocolate advent calendars for 5.99 and Neal's Yard Wholefoods organic Bombay mix 1.45 for 150g
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=5353&prodid=6375
http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=2809&prodid=3830

H&B also has Whole Earth sparkling organic cranberry juice drink/ elderflower/cola/ lemonade 330ml cans for 75p right now saving 24p.

Iceland has 4 wild Atlantic salmon fillets for £6 see ad here
http://www.iceland.co.uk/tv/natural-salmon-fillets/

Tesco organic smoked salmon 100g £4
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=253773296

Ocado is currently out of stock of Duchy Originals from Waitrose organic mince pies 6 for 3.99 and Daylesford organic Christmas cake in tin 800g for an eyewatering 17.99. At that price making your own Christmas cake with organic ingredients sounds cheaper !!

Waitrose has organic bronze free range whole turkey available in 3-4.99kg and 5-7kg all 11.89 per kg (ouch)

More salmon.. always good for Christmas Eve.. Waitrose boneless wild Keta salmon fillets 220g £4 or 3 packs for £10 to 15/10

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

Iceland has Vegetarian Society-approved bean burgers which are medium carb at 11.4g each when oven baked. No additives (dextrose is otherwise known as D-glucose or grape sugar). Each burger contains only 4.3g protein and I reckon making them yourself would up that. At £1 for four though, I doubt home-made could beat the price - what do you think Kirri ?

http://groceries.iceland.co.uk/iceland-4-spicy-bean-burgers-340g/p/54085

Does seem cheap if buying, although as I grow my own borlotti beans/veg obviously, the recipes I do for bean burgers are really cheap as I'm not buying much extra (the vegan recipe I last used has 100g dried beans/1 carrot/1 onion/10g sunflower seeds, 25g flax, 30g oats, 25g engevita) and makes a lot more burgers (12 ish??) plus my percentage of beans must be way higher than their 25%.

I really don't like shop bought crispbake type things, even if feeling really lazy and not wanting to cook, they always seem a bit stodgy, uninteresting.

It was the Taifun grill sausages (carbs 6.5g/100g) I had today but think they also do frankfurters. I've got the Smoked Taifun tofu with almonds in the fridge too, lovely in stir fries. I tried the Cauldon organic prepped tofu the other week but didn't feel I got much for the money, I think I'll probably buy the blocks more.

Edwardia

I think your burgers sound delicious Kirri but I wouldn't dare eat them or my blood glucose would spike. Engevita is a yeast, yes ??

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

I think your burgers sound delicious Kirri but I wouldn't dare eat them or my blood glucose would spike. Engevita is a yeast, yes ??

Yes it's a yeast, I bought a pot for vegan month last year, seems to be added for a cheese flavour in recipes, not that I could tell. Which bit affects blood glucose, the carb level in general? (luckily had mine tested and was ok recently despite problems in the family with it..).

I also did a new bean/pesto/egg burger from a Waitrose recipe recently - depends if I have eggs in or not..

Edwardia

Whenever anyone eats carbs, it prompts the production of insulin. Carbs, be they sugars or foods like bread, potatoes and pasta are processed into glucose. The insulin acts like a key to the cell wall and allows the glucose in. If the glucose isn't then burned as energy, it is laid down as fat.

Over time, in people pre-disposed to diabetes, excessive carbs cause insulin resistance so the body pumps out more insulin to try to overcome it and eventually the pancreas starts to fail. The more insulin in your body the harder it is to lose weight.

Before injectable insulin, people who didn't make their own at all (type 1 diabetes) died young because they couldn't keep weight on.

Insulin resistance (in type 1s it makes them type 1.5) is a malfunction which impairs the key effect and doesn't get the cell wall opened for glucose.

Even in people without diabetes or other blood sugar probs, blood sugar fluctuates, going up as you eat carbs and down as the insulin moves glucose out of the bloodstream.

If ppl eat a lot of carbs they can feel unwell at times because their blood sugar is rollercoasting all day long in an exaggerated fashion - and that's why skipping meals isn't a good idea especially if subbing with carby snacks.

There are foods which I react really badly to so it's not just a high level of carbs which would make me ill, it could be one tin of parsnip soup.

smallblueplanet

Hey good to see you back Edwardia!

Shame on you if you're not gonna make your own Christmas pud though...recommend Delia's recipe. We use melted butter instead of suet and mix and match the dried fruit/nuts as we fancy. Stir-up Sunday (when xmas puds are traditionally made) is 24 Nov. this year!

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/traditional-christmas-pudding.html

Edwardia

Last year I bought organic ingredients and and my mother made two Christmas puddings. She says she still has one which she's feeding brandy :eek:. Last year OH got to try Duchy Originals from Waitrose Christmas pudding, this year it will be F&M. I can't eat it, much too sweet for me.

My mother always makes her puds in October so they have plenty of time to mature and soak up brandy.

Last year I had ONE of the mini star Abel & Cole organic mince pies which was delicious. OH made mince pies using Meridian organic mince pie filling but I don't think he was too impressed IIRC.

My husband and mother both think the bet bit of Christmas is the sliced stuff with pickles. We do nut roast for my mother and last year got some pretty good veggie stuff from A&C. OH and mother also lurved the organic baked chocolate cheesecake from A&C.

Not sure yet whether we will do sit down proper lunch or skip straight to the supper stuff picnic style again which certainly made it all feel more relaxed.

The good thing about going organic is that you can do all your tried and trusted recipes, just with organic ingredients.

smallblueplanet

I was looking at Riverford's organic site (well the site's not organic...but you know what I mean) and as I've never ordered from the was reading the FAQs and such. We grow some of our own organic veggies and salad mainly in summer/autumn and so was interested to read this, thought it would be a lot higher and always thought it would be what made organic dearer...

Planting is finished for the year and, with most crops growing well, we’re busy catching up on weeding. My first summer of veg growing was spent bent at the waist, pulling up fat hen and cleavers; I didn’t like it much and we’ve spent the last 26 years developing ways to control weeds without hand work... [info on weeding regimes]
...Pulling out weeds on hands and knees feels all wrong in the 21st century. It has even, on very bleak days when we are losing the battle, led me to question farming organically. In truth if we are following the principles above it is seldom that bad; weed control typically adds just 5% to cropping costs on a well-run organic farm. With time I have no doubt we will get it lower still.

ps a good thing about making your own xmas pud you can make it as sweet as you like. We even make our own candied peel as the bought stuff is horrible.

Edwardia

Riverford uses covers a lot, you'll often find used ones for sale on the website.

My mother coerced me into getting up early and doing a quiz for her WI tomorrow and printer was having funny five mins. She can't unattach attachments from emails so she's driving an hour to collect it and she wants to drag me to Waitrose.

Anyone else got a shopaholic mother ?

OH was supposed to make himself salad last night to go with potato salad from A&C, and either large sausage roll (it's not that large) or scotch egg also from A&C. Instead he took sausage roll and scotch egg and noo salad at all not even the potato one. Yup total carb lover

OH hated the cocoa delight Nakd bars but liked the berry one. He noticed Duchy Originals from Waitrose yogurts are made by Yeo Valley and recommends the rhubarb one.

If I see any offers in Waitrose will report back xxx