May 2018 Grocery Challenge

turtlemonkey

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

If you are serious about getting a grip on your sugar cravings - try reading the 8-week low blood-sugar diet by Dr Michael Moseley (he of "Trust me, I'm a Doctor" on BBC). It took four days and lots of water and then everything improves and the achievement incentive kicked in for me. Not diabetic but my word I feel better

Thank you, Suffolk lass, I will definitely look that up!

pamsdish wrote: »

Turtlemonkey, I always scan my receipt before I leave the shop, been over charged too many times at Aldi, in fact I was on Friday, only 44p much to the annoyance of the cashier, but less chat between operative on next till it may not have happened. I live less than a mile away but still saves my ire.

I will definitely do that from now on, pamsdish! They scan the food much quicker than I can bag it, so it's no wonder they make errors, really.

PipneyJane

Save_Dosh wrote: »

Freebies from work - 2 cartons of plant milk, some rolled pastry and a 1kg bag of pine nut kernels, priced @ £36 - I don't have a clue what to do with them, a colleague said pesto, any suggestions greatly received - will have a Google.

Lucky you! I adore pine nut kernels. 1kg will last for ages. Store them in the fridge or somewhere cold and dry, to keep them fresh for as long as possible. I’ve got some recipe ideas for you:-

Pesto

My pesto recipe is based on the one on the BBC Good Food website, but it flexes well if you don’t have quite the right quantities. Also, it freezes well, if you want to batch make but it will turn black-ish (due to the basil).

50g pine nut kernels
80g fresh basil
50g parmesan cheese
150ml extra virgin olive oil
2-4 garlic cloves

In a frying pan over a low heat, toast the pine nut kernels until they’re a light brown/smell toasted. Combine with all the other ingredients in a food processor/mini-food-processor and whiz until chopped

Stir through freshly cooked pasta and enjoy.

Garlic Prawn Pasta

I’ve been allergic to prawns for over a decade but, pre-allergy, I used to make this fairly regularly. Apologies if the quantities are a little sketchy. The pine nut kernels are an optional extra - I’d add them when I could find them, which wasn’t that often back in the day.

Enough bow-tie shaped dried pasta to feed 4
100g-250g ice-glazed frozen prawns (do not defrost)
1 onion chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
50g butter
Splash oil
1/4 teaspoon paprika (for the colour)
1/4 cup pine nut kernels (optional)
100g small mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1). Put the pasta on to cook.
2). In a large pan, gently melt the butter. Add a splash of oil, to stop it burning, and fry the onions, mushrooms (if using) and garlic until the onions are translucent.
3). Stir in the paprika and the frozen prawns. Keep stirring while the prawns defrost. The water from the prawns will emulsify with the butter to form the sauce.
4). When the prawns are definitely defrosted, stir in the pine nut kernels and warm through.
5). When the pasta is cooked, drain well. Dump back into the cooking pot and stir through your garlic prawn sauce, ensuring everything is coated well.
6). Serve in deep bowls.

(I’ve wondered about making this with cubes of fresh salmon instead of prawns. I might give it a go, someday.)

Nut Roast

This seems a bit of a waste, to me, but you could substitute pine nut kernels for the stated nuts in any recipe that uses hazelnuts or cashews. Here’s one I use which is based on one from Rose Elliot’s Cheap & Easy cookbook.

100g Hazel nuts (substitute the pine nut kernels)
1 onion, quartered
2 large carrots, chunked
2 thick slices of bread
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
2 eggs

1). Preheat the oven to 180c and line a 2lb loaf pan with grease-proof paper/non-stick liner/foil if desperate.
2). In a frying pan over a low heat, toast the nuts until you can smell them. (I don’t usually bother with hazel nuts but it does bring out the flavour)
3). In a food processor, combine with the next 4 ingredients and chop fine. (It will be very noisy at first.)
4). Add the eggs and process until you have a rough dough/batter of sorts.
5). Decant into your lined loaf pan and bake for approximately 55 minutes or until cooked.


HTH

- Pip

MadamMim2013

Sorted out receipts £31.66 spend on various essentials and a few treats!
Working this pm so will make up a list of things we do need from Mr Lidels this week, have to wait till my car is back from the garage, no real issue though, it's making me be far more inventive in using up freezer and cupboard stocks! :T

PipneyJane

(I’m posting this seperately to keep the above recipes “clean”.)

I have a couple of spends to declare from yesterday: £8 at the farm shop, £7.15 at MrT’s, and £17.27 at Lidl.

The Lidl shop includes £11.49 of cooking whisky, Glen Margot. No idea what it tastes like but we will use it for hot toddies. We also bought a new hand-held mini vacuum cleaner, to replace our existing one which died after 4 years; £14.99, but that comes out of a different budget.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that MrT’s were selling 10kg sacks of chapatti flour for £3 instead of the usual £5, and we were um-ing and ahh-ing about buying it. Well, since it was still on offer, we bought it but were promptly charged £5 at the till. Went to customer services and argued the point, complete with a photo of the shelf label, got our money back. I’ve been caught before by shelf-labels not relating to the items above them (e.g. an offer on mayonnaise applying to own brand but showing up under Helmann’s), so I’m very careful to check them to ensure that I’m buying the right product.

After a bit of arguing, DH pursuaded me that the meat fund should pay for last weekend’s Giggly Pig purchases (£20 back into the grocery challenge). That money, together with the above, brings our total spend for May to £75.77/£120, leaving £44.23 for the rest of the month.

Meal planning-wise, we’ve got a couple of things that need using up: plenty of fresh veg, plain yoghurt, some cooking bacon. Today, I’ll be making an Austrian Potato Pudding for dinner tomorrow, which will use up the yoghurt together with some black pudding (from an ancient Sainsbury’s cookbook); and dinner tonight will be Cuban Black Bean Stew (uses up the cooking bacon).

- Pip

CRANKY40

£31.30 spent and signature updated. I did forget a few things bit I'll be going for fresh fruit/salad things probably Wednesday so I'll get anything else that I need then.

JingsMyBucket

@pipkin71 and @pamsdish, you’re very welcome. Glad the recipe piqued your interests. Since my cauliflower is frozen, I'll skip the first step and just steam them while I slice the garlic and capers.

Today after breakfast with a friend I headed down the block to my market where I spent €2.98 on some juicy local strawberries at one vendor and €2.50 at my usual vendors for a hand of ginger, a bulb of garlic, and an eggplant.

Spent another €2.20 on ramen at an Asian store and ended up speaking to the owner for 20 min. That felt nice and neighbourly. Total of €7.68 today.

TOTALS SO FAR:
€112.63 / €400.00
6 / 10 NSD

Menu Plan:
[STRIKE]Keema curry[/STRIKE] - cooked today with the beef. I had two servings and there’s probably enough left for another three servings this week. Delicious but I definitely want to try it with lamb. Next weekend I think I'll head to the big market/abattoir to get ground lamb in bulk. I’ll also pick up some pork shoulder while there to make some sausage later in the month.

[STRIKE]Lentil and spinach curry[/STRIKE] - made this today and OH loved it. He ate half the pot, aka three very large servings! I had a few spoonfuls with my keema.

[STRIKE]Fried or stewed eggplant[/STRIKE] - I cut this into small cubes and roasted them in olive oil, S & P. They came out a bit charred but were still lovely with the curries. I’ll do the same with the remaining eggplant in the fridge.

Banana bread - I’ll tackle this tonight after I clean the apartment a bit.

Warm cauliflower salad - for tomorrow evening to eat with the steak I bought yesterday.

thriftwizard

And another £3 gone - which bought us one pineapple, 6 pomegranates, and 20 (!) limes as our 3-day local market closed down. I feel a batch of lime curd coming on, which will also use up some eggs.

GunShotResidue

I managed not to spend anything on groceries before the bank holiday weekend, which we spent staying with family so didn't spend anything then either! We got back late Monday, and I spent £4.05 in the corner shop on Tuesday on some yellow sticker bargains and some dairy to keep us going. Had a lasagna from the fridge that night, then spent £38.46 on a main shop on the Wednesday.

Also spent £11.40 on a chicken (£11.40!!!) at the butchers on Saturday. We had some friends round for a roast yesterday, then I'll do chicken pie tonight and chicken risotto tomorrow. Also sent my husband to work with a roast chicken and stuffing sandwich which he'll appreciate! Hoping to make some stock today once I've got all the meat off, and then some soup for the freezer from the left over veg.

£56.09 left, which I'm going to try and split into 2x £25 main shops and a few trips to the corner shop for YS bits. Might end up being a bit over budget this month.

zafiro1984

Spent 30.16 at the weekend on essentials which brings the total up to 76.57/150 and its half way through the month so I think if I'm careful I should be OK. Next shop will be for the dog as he's getting low on food, maybe I could have a look in the freezer and use some of that for him.

pamsdish

Small spends in Morries, 2 store cupboard coffee, 3 fuchsia, 4 tonic water, and 2 coffee pods for a friend 2x£2 coupons for those think it was £15.60, can`t find receipt.

But, got a 5000 points on £50 spend voucher, as returning Wednesday, friends to dentist by Morries, will be easy to attain.