May 2013 Grocery Challenge

Bluegreen143

WantToBeSE looks like you've been as busy baking as me bread looks fab.

Can't remember who asked, but here's the bread recipe - as I said, it's adapted from "Five Minute Bread" and is scaled down as they make enough dough for four loaves, to keep in the fridge and bake every couple of days. I just wanted one.

No Knead white bread

• 190ml warm water, not too hot
• 1/2 tbsp easy-blend yeast 11p
• 1/2 tbsp salt (less than 1/4p)
• 225g strong white flour 8p

Measure the water and and yeast into a bowl and add the flour and salt. Mix in, adding slightly more water if necessary to get a slightly wet, sticky dough. Cover and leave to rise for around two or three hours.

Dust the top of the dough and cover your hands in flour. The dough will be sticky, so keep your hands floured as you handle it. Pull each side down and round to create a ball with a tight top and bunched-together bottom. Place on a well-floured baking tray, cover and leave to rise for 40-60 minutes.

Place an empty roasting tin on the bottom of the oven and preheat to 220C for 20-40 minutes, to get it really hot. Take a bread knife and slash diagonally across the loaf, then pop the bread in the oven*.

Throw a small cup of hot water into the empty roasting tin and close the oven door. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is dark and the bread has a hollow sound when the bottom is tapped.

* The bottom of the bread will only get crusty if a pizza stone is used - I don't have one, but if you do, you can preheat that in the oven and then slide the bread onto it using a pizza peel or similar.



Will also add to the index.

bargain_hunter_2

aaaargh -failed miserably this weekend -went to shopping centre with oh and dd for some new clothes for her, there just happens to be a tesco superstore attached to it - £40 spent on groceries just like that. :mad:
Haven't fallen for that sucker punch since I joined o.s. in January !
Moral of the story is DO NOT TAKE OH AND DD TO SUPERMARKET !

Then had to go to aldi for honey and fruit etc for packed lunches - another £13 !

Signature updated - NSD til next weekend when we have friends coming for dinner !

Florenceem

NSD here.
For dinner we had HM suet sausage pie with roast potatoes and roasted beetroot/red onions/asparagus. The pie was in the freezer - not so hot when Mr F got it out but anyway - we were hungry after sorting the garage.

Florenceem

I realised I needed to add another £4 spend to my sig - so way over last week.

minicooper272

I'm drooling at all the fresh bread photos... If I was reduced to living on bread and butter, I don't think I'd mind, as long as it was as lovely as this stuff looks!

Thankfully I've not been reduced to bread and butter just yet, and after my first week I have spent £15/75, which isn't too bad, given I spent the weekend cooking for 2 and had to spend a fair bit on bottles of water because my OH refuses to drink the local tap water :rotfl:. I reckon I should have plenty to last to the end of the week, and think the remaining £60 will comfortably see me to the end of the month.

I've bought a really cute little money box to keep any leftover grocery money in at the end of the month. Still don't know what I'll spend it on though. Maybe a really fancy restaurant or treats for Christmas?

pinkypig

51p on three bottles of SP sparkling water, otherwise a NS Bank Holiday
Sig updated and my spends look awful :eek: However we will only need milk and cheese this week and fruit and milk next week so we shold be ok as I have meal planned until pay day and the freezer and cupboards are chockablock
Hope everyone has enjoyed the sunshine.

PP xx

lizalloareds

spends today

£1.28 Mr M

K9sandFelines

K9sandFelines wrote: »

A few more spends in Mr A. I have deducted £2.00 for a YS Bayliss and Harding gift that was reduced from £6.00. Also got some YS Tropicana juice which was pomegranate and blueberry or similar. I thought it was cordial but turned out it was already diluted :rotfl:, good job was only 50p. Final YS was two bottles of conditioner (40p each) which have olive oil as ingredient and promote detangling (bargain)!!

I found out today that my so called conditioner was actually kids hair moisturiser with olive oil; but, not until i had liberally slapped it on in the shower, and thought hmmmm this doesn't feel right :rotfl:. The end result was me looking remarkably like i had been dunked in an oil vat :eek:. Even four attempts at washing it out haven't got rid of the residue; so my :money: search for YS bargains has gone pear-shaped, as i now need to go and look for a clarifying shampoo to rid me of my greasy locks. I can see the funny side now, thankfully .

On a plus note, it was a NSD today. I made what would have been a lovely tea, only another boo-boo was the ingredient of Szechuan Peppercorns required to make it; which completely ruined the whole thing :mad:. Next time ( if there is one) i will probably just use harissa paste.

Hope you have all had a nice BH Monday.

Szechuan chicken

getting-sorted-sarah

CherryPie wrote: »

Look delicious as usual! Can I ask about not peeling the squash, can you eat the peel? I saw this on a cookery programme the other day and thought what a great idea. Love squash, but hate peeling it!

:rotfl:

If I roast squash the peel on is fine, but boiled, eg in soup, it is tough I find.

becsxxx

Hello everyone, hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday sunshine.

Reporting £12 in spends between ald1 and £shop -fresh bits plus shower gel and a vanilla cheesecake (!!). Overall quite happy as shouldn't need to shop until next Mon.

Meal plan is:
Tue - veggie stuffed peppers and salad
Wed - griddled pork steaks and roast veg
Thu - spicy fish and cous cous
Fri - omelette (as we're going out)
Sat & Sun - away for the weekend