February 2014 Grocery Challenge

Billie-jo

Have carrots, onions, kale, sweet corn, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, celery, lettuce, apples, oranges, bananas & pears already in so today has been a NSD.(very unusual for a Sat) I have cooked up some mince & onions and tomorrow we are having a minced beef & onion pie for a change. Also put the slow cooker on a short time ago and am doing a double amount of rice pudding which we will have tomorrow and Monday and also mum can take an extra dish of it home with her tomorrow when she goes. Have doubled all the quantities up except the sugar as Dh is type 2 diabetic and if its not sweet enough can always add a little more in later. I often find things to be too sweet anyway.
Hope everyone is keeping dry and warm, so cold here today and the wind is starting to get a little stronger. No rain to speak of though . . . . .yet.


Another one here who would cook before freezing. I also save the empty butter/margarine/ice cream containers to freeze in. they are easy to stack, wash and re-use.

meg72

kayester wrote: »

advice please (sorry im REALLY not good at the freezer thing)

Ok so I want to batch cook some lasagne, chilli and bolognaise.

i have done a little research and figured that i am going to prepare 2 lots of lasagne, NOT cook them, freeze, defrost, cook (is this right)

chilli I know how to cook it, do i just store in containers, defrost and heat in the pan?
is this same for bolognaise? help!

You can cook . freeze. defrost and reheat, no problem.

kayester

thanks, i am wanting to reheat in oven, i guess its just trial and error, i will try both ways and see which i prefer.
also doing the same with meat pie this week too, freezing it uncooked. i will learn to love my freezer....one day _pale_

at the moment my freezer only contains lots of ice pops, chips, frozen nuggets/fish fingers for kids and some frozen chicken breasts that ive been scared to defrost lol

fingersxed

Hi

I am joining the February challenge please. I am sticking at £400 as I failed to meet my target in January. This is for Four adults n 2 dogs n 2 cats!

minicooper272

First food shop of the month done, and i've spent £17.59/80. Not bad, as this included £6 of chicken, £2 bag of chapati flour and a lot of veg for my cookery course.

Shops in general were very busy today, and you could tell it was pay day weekend for lots! A lot of very full trolleys, and people who looked pleased they could afford to eat proper food again.

islandhoppa

NSD again today


I have cooked mince onions and peas in slow cooker. Most has gone into a cottage pie which I have topped with mash but not yet baked as I will have this on Monday for tea. The rest of the mince mix has been made into 4 pasties as I had a frozen puff pastry sheet in (was left over from what DD had for cookery at school). This is my first attempt at these, going to have them with oven chips and beans, Also defrosting a large chicken for a roast tomorrow and curry Tuesday so tomorrow will be a NSD too:)
Also made flapjacks which have just come out of the oven (see, I'm even using oven more sensibly, trying to cook things together to save electric which I never even considered prior to this forum) these should stop hubby and kids noticing we haven't been shopping this weekend!

jammy_dodger

well February has finally arrived but I have steered clear of shopping my neighbour popped in on our way back from walking our dogs but i declined . nowt im needing
as i am passing an aldi tomorrow shall pick up some firelighters and thai mug shot pasta thingies for work, they are delicious and make a cheap quick lunch for days i have no left overs to take in
I'm making macaronni cheese for supper tonight and a portion to freeze for another day
fancying something sweet so may make a pear and chocolate cake for the next few days to munch on
JD xx

Franigan

Not happy..spent money on utter rubbish between yesterday evening and today..!

Mouthwash £2.47
Food £21.49

Mouthwash was bought by bf when I sent him to get eggs. :mad:
Part of the amount for food was for taco filling stuff, salsas, samosas and onion bhajis for our meals last night and tonight...expensive and unhealthy!

Right: let's forget about it and let's carry on!

Hope you are all having a nice weekend

Ps: weekends kill me as on friday evenings my partner looks at me, pulls a face and goes:"it's friday, I need junk food"..of course, im no saint as I dont need to be told twice!!

Ches

May I join again please. I tried the GC about a year ago but failed because I lumped all cash spending together ie. birthdays/hairdresser/printer ink etc so failed dismally. This year I have decided to use 2 purses £100 per month for the sort of items mentioned and £200 for groceries only ie food/cleaning stuff/toiletries etc.

So I started off the month with £200 and have spent £21.42p so will put that in my sig.

mrs-moneypenny

day one and ive already made quite a big ole in the budget. hoping that the rest of the month will be light as a lot of this was stock up items.

hm pizza for tonight