November 2013 Grocery Challenge

candygirl

Spent £15 in ALD1 yest, will update at the end of the month again, but am havin a takeaway tonight cos cba cooking :j:j

CountingPennies

Been to Mr T's. Had no intention of shopping this weekend however some extra shifts at work for both me and DH mean some packed lunches need doing or else a fortune will be spent in the canteen, so i also bought quite a few other bits and piece we were running low on. Anyway, £29.49p spent but did get quite a few bits.

Kids had friends round for tea tonight, so simple sausage and actifry chips for tea were made.

CP xx

NickJW

XSpender wrote: »

Hi NickJW please could you share your recipe for the chicken as it sounds delicious:)

Hi XSpender - of course (though I'm pretty late responding I'm afraid)

Garlic, Mushroom and Balsamic chicken

Pack of chicken/diced turkey
250g pack mushrooms
About 200ml chicken/veg stock
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
8 (garlic cloves, chopped. (less if you don't like garlic as much as me - you can always crush some in at a later stage if you want to up the flavour)
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and Pepper

Chop the chicken (or place the pre chopped turkey) into a bowl, add flour and S+P and coat
Heat some oil in a pan (medium heat), cook chicken for a few mins, then add garlic, turn over chicken, then add mushrooms. Cook for another couple of minutes, then add balsamic, stock and thyme. This also 'de glazes' the flour from the pan.
I 'go by eye', so, cook away until the chicken is ready.

Serve with pasta, mash or rice

*Depending on whether you want the sauce 'saucy' or 'syrupy' you can of course add some extra cornflour mixed with cold water.

**I've only had this with pasta, since I usually can't be bothered to peel potatoes when it comes to the end of the day

***Use enough chicken/turkey you would normally use per person when cooking. I'm a bit greedy...

Faete

Big shop today as I'm off on a girly 80s weekend at Butlins Bognor next week so I had to get supplies in for the BF when he's home alone. :rotfl: (my spending money was put by for this some weeks ago)

£100.62, but it did include lots of things like loo rolls, toothpaste, laundry products etc. which all gets a bit expensive when they need replacing at the same time.

Currently cooking a large vat of Jamie Oliver's beef rogan josh using YS meat - will do us for tonight and some for the freezer. Happy days!

Fae xx

NickJW

Okay - another long stint from posting, but as always, I have been reading!

Last Saturday didn't end up having the Balsamic chicken, because I wanted to try a new recipe - African Chicken in a red sauce. I made my own bebere (Ethiopian spice), and whilst it was cooking, it just smelt like chicken in mulled wine (the mix had cloves, cinnamon, cayenne etc)! :eek: It was nice in the end when it reduced and came more syrupy, but I'm not sure if it was worth the extra effort compared to my usual Indian curries.

I have enough mix for another meal though, so I think I'll do some sort of rub/marinade, rather than the recipe I did.

Meals this week have been/will be:

Monday (housemate cooked): HM Chicken teriyaki with sushi rice and edaname beans.
Tuesday (I cooked): the aforementioned Balsamic/garlic chicken
Wednesday (I cooked): Stir fry using the very last of the sriracha sauce, chicken and l/o veg
Thursday (I cooked): Chicken Biryani
Friday (housemate cooked) - Harissa chicken with bulghur wheat and pine nuts
Saturday (I'll cook): Tuna/pepper/mushroom tomato and chilli pasta.
Sunday (housemate will cook): Roast Pork with all the trimmings.

Spends this week include:

£1 in Mr S on the 1st Nov
£1.45 in Mr S on the 2nd Nov
£1.10 in Mr S on the 4th Nov
£3.04 in Mr S on the 5th Nov
£50.37 on a Mr T delivery on the 5th Nov
£1 in Mr T on the 5th Nov
£7.36 in Mr S on the 7th Nov
£3.77 in Mr S on the 9th Nov

Total = £69.09

Happy birthday Fairy3 and hope everyone has a good weekend.

meg72

Went to asda to get the £10 Baileys for my DD. Didn't need anything food wise and was determined to be good, BUT spotted £5 gammon joints reduced to 2.00 and a £2.00 chicken now I couldn't leave them could I, :rotfl: I got 2 gammon joints and the chicken, so a £6.00 spend but would have been £14. Don't need it this month but it will get used probably in the new year.

Then I spotted the Halloween reductions, nail sets, yo-yos fancy hats , lipstick and nail lvarnish all at 10p instead of £1.00 and £1.50 so stocked up, will save my niece a fortune next year. Just have to remember I bought them and where I put them when the time comes.

Soworried

hex2 wrote: »

Hi,

I make Delia's rough puff fairly regularly and have not had a bad batch. I usually make awful shortcrust pastry so this is a good result

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/baking/how-to-make-quick-flaky-pastry.html

Thankyou hex, that sounds perfect. I'll try it on Monday and let you know how it goes. I normally buy it but it is going up and up.

Happy birthday Fairy3 :j

A spend of £5.19 in the chemist today. I got myself so worried yesterday over making ends meet that I now have a whopping big coldsore I don't have a budget for this so I have taken out of the grocery cash.

flyinggiraffe_2

NickJW wrote: »

Okay - another long stint from posting, but as always, I have been reading!

Last Saturday didn't end up having the Balsamic chicken, because I wanted to try a new recipe - African Chicken in a red sauce. I made my own bebere (Ethiopian spice), and whilst it was cooking, it just smelt like chicken in mulled wine (the mix had cloves, cinnamon, cayenne etc)! :eek: It was nice in the end when it reduced and came more syrupy, but I'm not sure if it was worth the extra effort compared to my usual Indian curries.

I have enough mix for another meal though, so I think I'll do some sort of rub/marinade, rather than the recipe I did.

Meals this week have been/will be:

Monday (housemate cooked): HM Chicken teriyaki with sushi rice and edaname beans.
Tuesday (I cooked): the aforementioned Balsamic/garlic chicken
Wednesday (I cooked): Stir fry using the very last of the sriracha sauce, chicken and l/o veg
Thursday (I cooked): Chicken Biryani
Friday (housemate cooked) - Harissa chicken with bulghur wheat and pine nuts
Saturday (I'll cook): Tuna/pepper/mushroom tomato and chilli pasta.
Sunday (housemate will cook): Roast Pork with all the trimmings.
.

Nick, your meals always sound so tasty! Going to have to get looking for some new recipes to try myself as I've gone casserole mad recently.

I bought a bar of chocolate and some squinty cream so I can have some hot chocolate and a nibble whilst watching rubbish tv tonight. After a busy week I'm looking forward to a night of absolutely nothing!

£2 spend, which I think is fair.

Signature updated

chocoholic_chick

Exactly £20 spend today, still have a fairly well stocked fridge and freezer so didn't need loads. Confident that I will come in on budget this month Need to sort out meal plan for next week but with us both working away or working late most of this coming week the prepared meals in the freezer will be coming in useful. No meal plan this week as it's just not practical, I'm away with work for 4 days so food will be provided and there's plenty of meals for 1 in the freezer for DH Just have to hope he uses those rather than ordering takeaways!!

Faete

Soworried wrote: »

A spend of £5.19 in the chemist today. I got myself so worried yesterday over making ends meet that I now have a whopping big coldsore I don't have a budget for this so I have taken out of the grocery cash.

Ouch! Hope it clears up soon!

Fae xx