February 2014 Grocery Challenge

First_Trouble

kayester wrote: »

advice please. chicken breast in freezer in original packaging. it says freeze and eat within a month. date on it says 21st december, safe to have in next 2 weeks or bin? (some of you may guess im not very confident on freezing and defrosting fresh meat. and how to safely defrost please

Defrost it if it looks ok and smells ok. I would still eat it.

Ladyluck1

£3.01 in Mr M
£3.38 in coop
Got a few reduced bits and things I needed for a bulk cook (had a big pack of salmon so made fish cakes and Thai fish cakes for the freezer as well as salmon for tea tonight)

xmillyx

Had to pop into Mr T today to get a a couple of bits I missed off yesterday.
Pretty pleased with it though as I managed to get it from £3.63 to £1.33 through vouchers! In that was a pack of butter and 4 breaded chicken breasts, that will do me for 4 dinners

So total now is 33.65/100. I shouldn't have to buy too much next week only veg/bread etc so hoping for a cheaper one

Meal plan is:

04/02 - HM Spag bol (From freezer)
05/02 - HM Cauliflower cheese and salad
06/02 - LO Cauliflower cheese and salad
07/02 - HM Spanish chicken bake with roasted veg and brown rice (OH is round)
08/02 - LO Spanish chicken and rice
09/02 - LO Spanish chicken and rice
10/02 - HM Cauli cheese (from freezer)
11/02 - LO Cauli cheese
12/02 - Steak and Ale pie and veg (TBC)
13/02 - Eating out
14/02 - OH cooking dinner!

Lunches are HM stilton and broccoli soup or sandwiches.

It all sounds really boring but when you only cook for one person it means that there is a lot to use up! Plus I only have one shelf in a small freezer as I'm student. And I try to cook most things from scratch!

SarahB1989_2

First_Trouble wrote: »

I got a tesco gift card though the sun promotion and I managed to use that for in store purchases only. You can't use it online which did annoy me a smidge.

I don't do much grocery shopping online so just pleased it works instore. Forgot I'd ordered one from the Sun though, thanks for the inadvertent reminder! How long did it take for yours to arrive?

Islandmaid

NSD today

First_Trouble

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!

I always make up big batches of Bolognaise and bechamel sauce and freeze in pots. Defrost what you will need and just make it up put in the oven. It also saves on freezer space.

kayester

ok so after making my meat and potato puff pastry pies yesterday (4 in freezer now) i have had another day of batch cooking. I have made lasagnas, chilli, bolognaise and curry (curry is tonights meal) going to serve it with basmati rice, naan and popadoms

my pies


chilli



bolognaise



lasagna



curry

kayester

also thanks for the advice on the freezer situations

marris

NSD today. may get some tinned tuna in Morrisons 2morrow

norabatty_2

Hi,

Can I sign up for this challenge please? I managed to get my monthly grocery to average £163 last summer when I wasn't at university and had time to focus on meal planning and shopping, etc but it has fallen by the wayside over the past few months and my spreadsheets inform me that I have been spending an average of £230 per month since going back to university and my spending was a whooping £311.45 in January!

I would like to spend less than £180 in February to cover all food/toiletries/baby stuff for me, DH and little girl (20 months).

On Sunday, I wrote a list of all foods in our cupboards and freezer and I think there is enough there to cover all eating until the 16th Feb (except for milk, bread and fruit). I plan on doing my first online grocery shop with Mr S at some stage over the month where I will stock up on meat and tinned foods.

Thanks,

Nora Batty