Eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge - part two

Kirri

^ Irritating workmen treading on the plants, people are so careless.


Dishwasher disaster averted, Ocado kindly dropped off all my shopping off for me My excuse for having a dishwasher is that my kitchen is so small it keeps it tidy!

Kept to the bare minimum order, a few pence above the £40 min with all essentials and offers. Didn't add the choc as forgot I'd already added in two gorgeous Pots & co desserts when they were on offer (the pots are as nice as the contents). Oh and another small treat of the Belvoir elderflower fizzy drink (on offer). So couldn't really justify more sweet things

So I've still not got much actual food but I'm stocked up on the bare basics.. Am starting to put together my next order already for a couple of week's time, I only ever try and spend £40 so I put the treats in or the odd veggie pie and if I need other more important stuff they gradually have to be deleted.. Wish I'd kept the G&B choc in now though and taken out something like kitchen towel...

Lunch was a houmous & salad pitta. Then I was starving as I waited for the order to turn up as I had nothing to snack on!

Early dinner - another houmous pitta with the last portion of patatas bravas.
Followed by a Pots & Co orange cheesecake - my first treat in ages !

Veg & fruit box arriving tomorrow thankfully - only a small one, had to take a few things off the order to keep the cost down..
Need to make more houmous.
Will make a grain salad tomorrow and have with feta, for a change.

Older_But_Not_Wiser

^ ^ ^ Kirri that is EXACTLY how I shop :rotfl: It is so much easier to do an online shop than to wander round the supermarket picking things up and then have to go round again putting most of them back! Every now and again when I am superscrimping and longing for a bit of luxury, I do a virtual shop where I put everything I want into a virtual basket and promise myself that come payday I will actually buy it! Oddly enough, when payday comes I never want it enough to spend that much money. How weird is that?!

I'm off to google Pots & Co desserts now...

ms_night_ryder

Went to mr w yesterday, I got some reduced asparagus, cooked one bunch yesterday, so will eat the rest with the last of the cottage pie.

It was a toss up between asparagus, kale and sweetcorn risotto or chicken fillets with bulghar wheat, asparagus and corn for tomorrows diner as I had to buy either the wheat or rice. The latter one, I cant wait to try it.

done a small shop today, not much though.

Kirri

Rofl, Older, yep, in a shop I walk round either with a strict list as I pay in cash mostly or if I have a voucher I spend ages up and down the aisles working out the best value for what I fancy..

I long to win voucher comps just to have a splurge and buy things I can't justify at the moment..

Lunch - as I'd forgotten to get the houmous out the freezer I had to have something different for a change! Had a small lunch 40g of brown pasta with vegan pesto and diced green raw pepper on top - as I was following it by a mid pm snack of a lemon & lime posset which was 62% double cream :eek:

Dinner - made a pearl barley & cannellini bean salad with sweetcorn, green pepper and chilli. The pearl barley was originally bought for pet bladder issues but it works really well in a salad! Just as well as they didn't like it so I have to eat it. Sweetcorn used up from the freezer and the chilli was frozen from HG plants last autumn. Beans had been cooked from dried months ago and frozen. Dressing was a bit ad hoc - olive oil, salt & pepper, agave, smoked paprika & garlic. Added the last of the breadsticks, falafels, babyleaf salad & feta. The HM bean salad is not as good as the ones I get from WF but the feta and salad is so good I may buy some more feta next time I'm in Waitrose.

Edit - just managed to empty one more thing out the cupboard - rushing to clear up after dinner and the ground cumin jar fell out of the cupboard and smashed on the floor, what a mess.. my fave spice jar too.. may not replace it as I still have cumin seeds to use.

Older_But_Not_Wiser

Evening all


I feel I'm letting the side down as I haven't cooked anything at all today. Had beans on toast for lunch and am going to have a shop-bought mushroom risotto tonight. Now on day 3 of my berry crumble and plenty left over. Your meals all sound much more interesting and tasty, would gladly swap mine for any of yours! Still got workmen to-ing and fro-ing sorting out the crumbling wreck that is my home

I will try to make more of an effort to produce actual meals over the weekend, unless the weather is good in which case I'll be staining the garden fence (so basically I'm praying for rain :rotfl:)

Kirri, I went to Planet Organic today to find some nut butters as I fancied trying something other than my usual peanut butter (which I love!) but I nearly had heart failure at the price - £4 for a small jar! Is there anywhere I could get some that would be a bit less expensive? Shame about your cumin, it's a lovely spice isn't it, especially with cauliflower.

PS, had a scout at the Pots & Co desserts in Waitrose and they look SOOOOO good. Ocado have a 4 for £7 offer on so I've put some in my virtual basket, will see if they make the final cut when I order next month!

sharond101

Older_But_Not_Wiser wrote: »

Evening all


I feel I'm letting the side down as I haven't cooked anything at all today. Had beans on toast for lunch and am going to have a shop-bought mushroom risotto tonight. Now on day 3 of my berry crumble and plenty left over. Your meals all sound much more interesting and tasty, would gladly swap mine for any of yours! Still got workmen to-ing and fro-ing sorting out the crumbling wreck that is my home

I will try to make more of an effort to produce actual meals over the weekend, unless the weather is good in which case I'll be staining the garden fence (so basically I'm praying for rain :rotfl:)

Kirri, I went to Planet Organic today to find some nut butters as I fancied trying something other than my usual peanut butter (which I love!) but I nearly had heart failure at the price - £4 for a small jar! Is there anywhere I could get some that would be a bit less expensive? Shame about your cumin, it's a lovely spice isn't it, especially with cauliflower.

PS, had a scout at the Pots & Co desserts in Waitrose and they look SOOOOO good. Ocado have a 4 for £7 offer on so I've put some in my virtual basket, will see if they make the final cut when I order next month!

B&M Bargains have 3 nut butter spread (mix of peanut, cashew and hazlenut butters) at 49p for 227g jar.

Kirri

Older_But_Not_Wiser wrote: »

Kirri, I went to Planet Organic today to find some nut butters as I fancied trying something other than my usual peanut butter (which I love!) but I nearly had heart failure at the price - £4 for a small jar! Is there anywhere I could get some that would be a bit less expensive? Shame about your cumin, it's a lovely spice isn't it, especially with cauliflower.

PS, had a scout at the Pots & Co desserts in Waitrose and they look SOOOOO good. Ocado have a 4 for £7 offer on so I've put some in my virtual basket, will see if they make the final cut when I order next month!

Was that Planet Org's own nut butters? I've not tried them. You could try Wholefoods, it's the only one I like so far - it's all freshly made, ie the machine is in store - but there is usually a stand next to it where the staff have ready filled and priced pots of it otherwise you literally just press the on button and hold the pot under! It's not organic but it's just the nuts so there are no other ingredients - looked at the pots of cashew butter in my fridge and one is £2.03 and one is £1.67, it's all by weight so you could just try a small pot to test it - the peanut butter is about half the price of the cashew butter I think, sure most pots were priced around £1? The cashew is nicer though! It's quite different from shop sold jars which is why I like it (MNR didn't get on with it though iirc!) - it's harder to spread as there's no added oil but with a firm knife it goes onto sourdough ok! (They sell the sourdough in store and slice it if asked, think it's the flour power city one, £2 or £3.50, it's so good...).

I am tempted to go to WF this weekend.. I fancy a slice of their carrot cake.. (they do individual slices, best not to look at the price though..).

The cumin has made the kitchen smell quite fragrant despite sweeping it up! I'd only just washed the floor a day or so ago too..

Re pots & co I like the choc orange best, then salted caramel and then orange cheesecake/lemon & lime posset - all nice but I'm more of a choc fan.. may have to try the other 2 flavours to get a complete set of the ceramic pots though In Waitrose stores each store seems to stock only 1 or 2 and they differ store to store annoyingly. Ocado had them individually on offer when I got them luckily.

Wish I had some choc in the fridge... I've eaten both desserts, drunk the Belvoir elderflower presse and I've got nothing else sweet or snackable..

ms_night_ryder

Kirri I love cashew butter, took a friend into WF Fulham on Friday, she was like its so expensive, I was like yup! hahahaha, she did buy some Fiji water and a bag though, I got some cashew butter then, but I think the Kensington branch is the only one I have tried where the butter melts if left, when I went for a refund at regent street, the manager said he thinks they maybe different because Kensington might be using roasted cashews, as that is what produces the oil. I did try a jar, it was nice for free, but I like the fresh with a little oil, ala Kensington store. The others are very hard to spread and crumbly and tear the bread lol.

Older I got my very first pot in mr s, it was a little over £2, but watch it because some are mixed with peanuts, I think it was by sunpat, cant remember.

I am a fan of cashew butter thanks to kirri, might visit the Kensington store soon, only trouble was I spent £13 on their hot food counter! but those colourful cookies, oh my!

Kirri what happened to your baking? you were baking every week at one point.

Older I know what you mean about the heart failiure, that's how I felt about the kit kats lol.

Kirri

Yup, MNR, do need a good sturdy loaf for it! and rofl at the expensive comment, yep, do need to be a bit strict in there.. Interesting point about roasted nuts or not, I've only been in the Richmond and Clapham stores so far (and Clapham is quite small and didn't even notice it in there) but I have noticed differing consistencies even in the same store. I want to visit the Fulham store to see what it's like. £13 for hot food?! I thought my over £4 salad bar selection was bad enough lol. Talking of heart failure, have a look at the price of the salted marcona almonds near the olive bar section :eek: they are really good though.

Re the baking - I think I'm just too lazy/busy at the moment to bother! I'll still eat it if it's put in front of me! I'm mostly eating quite basic, easy stuff lately - probably go back to baking and cooking more in the winter..

Older_But_Not_Wiser

sharond101 wrote: »

B&M Bargains have 3 nut butter spread (mix of peanut, cashew and hazlenut butters) at 49p for 227g jar.

Really wish we had a B&M around here as I keep hearing about bargain priced stuff, but I don't think there are any in London. I don't have a WholeFoods nearby either but will probably go through West or Central London at some point where I can explore a bit more. I'll try the local MrS to see if they have any (stupidly, it didn't occur to me to try while I was out yesterday, I only tried the deli type places which are always expensive)