October 2018 Grocery Challenge

luckofthe_irish

K9sandFelines wrote: »

I think it's the bread and pasta i am going to miss, though i have tried some GF pasta tonight for the first time and it was actually very nice; and not too badly priced in Morrisons. I have also managed to get some bits like cereal, and other stuff from Approved Foods of all places. I tried to make a homemade gf loaf, and the taste was awful; which is why i just wanted to try a store bought one. The only one gf and vegan in Morrisons by mine, is Morrisons own free from buns. I am very much a sandwich or crackers for dinner and curry for tea kind of girl, and like bread with my soup!
I haven't had my bloods back from the doctors yet, but i have to eliminate wheat at the moment and keep a food diary. However, i don't know whether it will eventually be oats aswell, and cross contamination elimination also. I am still finding it hard to think out of the box. Do you have any meal plans or anything i could take inspiration from?

I don't usually eat bread as I am not a very bready person :rotfl: but the best one I have found is in the Asda Free From section - the seeded loaf. Great for toasting & sambos. I eat a lot of rice crackers as well with different toppings for snacks. If you can get YS wraps, cut them up and pop them in the oven to bake and they are like nachos! Poppadoms are also gluten free so you could have them with your curry. If you can get hold of gram flour (chickpea flour) you can make delish wraps & chapatti style breads from that! I also eat a LOT of gluten free oats - I love porridge and use oat flour (blended oats) in pretty much all of my baking. I get the gluten free ones from Aldi so they are not too pricey.

My meal plan for the week is as follows:
Breakfast - overnight oats made with almond milk, berries, seeds, nuts, peanut butter.
Snack - homemade blueberry oat muffins with greek yogurt or some rice cakes with peanut butter.
Lunch - mushroom & veggie rice with jelly for dessert.
Snack (before my workout) - fruit (apple, pears banana etc), homemade oat flapjack, a fruit bar (from Aldi - just made with pure fruit) and sometimes a packet of pea crisps from Aldi which are gluten free and only 99p for a 6-pack.
Dinner - slow cooker pork stew with potatoes.
Dessert - bowl of oats or greek yogurt with berries, dark chocolate, peanut butter.

I appreciate I eat a lot :rotfl: (I am involved in competitive sport) but I still manage to get loads of yummy food in on a small budget! I hope that helps, any questions please ask!

Last spends of the month done for me - £29.27 in Aldi and £0.59 in Lidl. Total of: £29.86.

Total for the month: £124.41/£125 so JUST under budget! I am absolutely delighted to have another month under budget - couldn't do it without the accountability of this group so THANK YOU ! Roll on November!

JingsMyBucket

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Last spends of the month done for me - £29.27 in Aldi and £0.59 in Lidl. Total of: £29.86.

Total for the month: £124.41/£125 so JUST under budget! I am absolutely delighted to have another month under budget - couldn't do it without the accountability of this group so THANK YOU ! Roll on November!

Well done, @luckofthe_irish!

Yesterday was a NSD for me. Hopefully I can start racking up some of them. It's chilly, dark and a bit rainy here this morning so I'm eating the last of the Thai shrimp soup for breakfast to warm me up. I'm really pleased with how many servings I got out of it. I'll definitely make a veg version of this for OH.

TOTALS SO FAR:
7/12 NSDs
€236.48/ €300.00

Tales17

Hi all,

Quick update for the month, doing well at only £306.77 out of my £600 budget for the month but I know we are running low on some things in the pantry cupboard so I will need to do a bigger stock up spend in the next couple of weeks! Hopefully be on budget this month though!

flubberyzing

Spent £12.57 in Tesco.
Had quite a long look at all the different amounts and prices of chicken breasts... I've got sister coming for tea tomorrow, who has requested chicken enchiladas, so needed enough for that. Ended up with 2 300g packets, which is probably too much, but I'll have any leftovers for lunch the next day.
Also trying out the Tesco version of the enchilada kit, as opposed to the Old El Paso version, which worked out the better part of £2 cheaper. We'll see if it's any good.
I'll do one more food shop on Sunday or next Monday, but should come in well under budget again.

K9sandFelines

Doom_and_Gloom wrote: »

I'll be honest the recipe isn't the same. It's the best one so far. Ready made gluten free vegan bread best one so far is the one from Abel and Cole, however not cheap at £3.50 or £3.70 usually for a 450g loaf depended if it's plain or seeded. Even when on offer it isn't cheap. Every now and then I treat myself.

I don't really meal plan as such anymore. As it is the OH has to cook for me a lot though my multi cooker helps when I want to 'cook'.

Stir fry. Veg and rice, rice noodles, 100% buckwheat noodles.
Curries, just be careful about some spices having wheat in the mix if already made. Again with rice, potatoes or quinoa.
Love chilli. Had the last of that today with a jacket potato.
Veg soup. I have with rice cakes. Not the same but I've gotten used to it I admit. Again when I treat myself or make the bread I have that. Rice in soup works too as does gluten free pasta.
Vegan lasagne. The gluten free sheets aren't cheap but it is worth it in my opinion.

The original Nutri-Brex is a good wheatabix substitute (buy when on offer). Even means you can make a wheatabix cake with that and some gluten free self raise flour if you really feel like a treat. Good with Alpro custard :cool:.

Thank you Doom and Gloom for your advice. It's ptobably stuff I know, but just can't think straight.
I have a pack of Konjac noodles when I was toying wiyhbthe idea of Keto, which are gluten free and probabpy still got soba noodles still lurking somewhere. I have also just ordered rice noodles in the approved food order. I lioe these in stir fry and vietnamese rice rolls. (Another idea for dinners) I did have wholewheat noodles the other night, as I forgot I had the others and they didn't affect me.
I wouldn't mind the gluten free pasta or rice with chilli, and potatoe or rice with curry so tyat I can leave with. Of course there also, spialised veg with pasta sauces. When you said wheat in the spice mixes do you mean in things like jarred spices?
Soup is ok at home, but for me personally is difficult to eat whilst i am in work as we don't get a proper sit down break (another issue in itself); so it's easier to try and eat before I leave and take a snack or have something easy. Cup a soup miht work, but not very nutritious or tasty
I don't have an Abel and Cole (or is this something you order online?), so will be hit and miss on the bread side of things. I've been recommended to try Asda and Sainsbury's bread, but haven't had the opportunity yet.i am currently on oatcakes which are hit and miss symptoms wise. If they prove to be more hit than miss I eill start buying the gluten free ones, but I also love a good corn thin so that is also another option.
Things don't seem quite so daunting the more I write it down in black and white.

K9sandFelines

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

K9 it will of course depend on what your elimination diet ends up being but we have cut out all wheat (bread, pasta), rice and potatoes to lose weight. I use the outer sheets of a leek to make lasagne and as long as you cut them to portion size (necessary so the whole sheet does not pull out when you serve it) it is very tasty and a sauce thickened with corn-starch (cornflour) or just grated cheese (veg or dairy dependent) is just as good.

For breakfast I have greek yogurt (depends on your dairy position) with frozen berries and a mix of nuts and seeds (always pumpkin for the potassium and zinc) and oats if you can (whole, not milled). It is very filling and delicious.

I gave up sandwiches by making up salads with avocado and raw cashew nuts so that it is quite filling, with some berry fruits for lunch. High protein and reasonably low fat too

And roasted squash, onion/leek, carrot and sweet potato and some peeled whole garlic is fantastic for supper (with or without meat) and some steamed cabbage.

I have got used to stir-fry without noodles or rice, and use lots more bean sprouts, but buckwheat noodles is something to look at trying.

And my chili is always padded out with carrots, lentils, peas and beans so that I don't miss rice, bread or potatoes with it.

I do most meals like this, but am used to a side of carbs. I could do the yoghurt and berries, using Alpro Go On. Or even chia pudding but not sure I would like the texture of that. I have some gluten free cornflakes and some cereals on their way from Approved foods. As I said above to Domm and Gloom, I have actually got buckwheat noodles left still (I think), so can live with using those and I love beansprouts.
The lasagne sounds good, but I find it tricky to make as a vegan. So it's one I tend not to make that often. Never tried it with leeks, but did have this idea in mind a while back via a recipe from Hairy Bikers.

Like you said it all depends on the results and what i need to properly eliminate, so at the mo it's a bit up and down.

Thanks for replying.

trulymadlyhannah

Hello 👋 Is it too late to join?

I thought we were doing quite well with our food shopping until I added up all our spends I realised we had been spending over £500 a month 🙈. Things have been really tight recently (through no fault of our own) and last week we had £20 left to get us through the week. I think sometimes it takes a week like that to help me realise how unneeded some of our previous spending was, and I've never been so cross at spending precious money on toilet roll! :rotfl: .

So far this month we have spent £145.12, and I am hoping we can keep October's spend below £280 - not sure how realistic this is as the freezer is almost empty.

Mon: chicken curry w/ HM naan bread
Tues: chicken alfredo
Wed: sausages in onion gravy w/ mash & veg
Thurs: mushroom risotto
Fri: HM burgers w/ wedges and side salad
Sat: tomato & basil pasta bake
Sun: roast chicken w/ HM Yorkshires and veg

Plus lots of baking for desserts for the children's desserts and lunchboxes. We made our own pancakes for yesterday's breakfast and quadrupled the recipe so there was enough to feed 6 for breakfast this morning too... Will definitely be a regular thing, my picky monkeys loved them.

hedgesparrow

Some spends since my last post

£3 for a pumpkin (my friend grew them to raise money for the air ambulance)
£5 on some beer for the weekend
£3.19 on cat litter
£2.50 on some garlic to plant at the allotment (we did save some of our own but none of it came up.)
50p on some chile seeds (new variety) for the greenhouse

Not much money left now. Going on a yellow sticker hunt tonight.

JingsMyBucket

@K9sandFelines Abel & Cole is a box scheme company but you can also order things separately from their veg or meal boxes. Just go to their Fridge, Pantry or Bakery sections: https://www.abelandcole.co.uk.

If you put in your postal code, you'll see what is the delivery day for your house/street. They'll only deliver once a month. When I lived in London, mine just happened to be Wednesday for that particular neighbourhood. So, I'd spend time during the week adding things to my cart then check out in time deadline and it would be delivered like a nice little food xmas each week.

In terms of flour, I was also going to suggest using either King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill flour. They're both American companies but are excellent for truly gluten free products. Bob's Red Mill was the first gluten free certified mill in the US and they maintain completely separate facilities to eliminate contamination. You can find some of their stuff on Amazon UK I think.

Matron_Midge

Declaring October at £373.60/£400
Again, very pleased with that.
My freezers and store cupboards are looking relatively healthy too but I have ordered my Christmas meat from our butcher and that is substantially more money than last year (according to the estimate he gave me) so, with that in mind, I will still need to be frugal again in November to ensure my annual budget is less than I originally allocated.
I'll see you over on the November thread once it is opened.