October 2019 Grocery Challenge

PipneyJane

MerlinsBeard, hope you feel better soon.

joedenise wrote: »

Couldn't believe I needed to pop out to get some onions as realised I hadn't got enough to make faggots and onion gravy for dinner tonight....

Denise

Denise, please share your recipe. While I regularly find faggots marked down to 40p in MrT’s, I’m still trying to find a reliable recipe for faggots and onion gravy.

So far this month, I’ve been a totally uninspired cook. I reached the point on Thursday where I phoned DH on his way home and asked him to pop into Co$tco to buy something, anything, for dinner. He bought home an absolutely huge - oven shelf sized - pizza for £5.99.

Yesterday afternoon was another “Meh” afternoon. I had a choir rehearsal; DH collected me afterwards and we popped into L1dl on the way home for one of their salmon en croute plus a couple of other items (freeze dried instant coffee for £1.98, cashew nuts, black bread). We spent £9.28.

The above brings our spend to £15.27/£125.10, leaving £109.83 for the remainder of the month.

Dinner tonight is Kipper Kedgeree. Tomorrow’s is a lamb stew, which I’ll do in the slow cooker. I’m away with work on Tuesday night, so DH will probably eat in the pub (we do a pub quiz on a Tuesday with friends). Wednesday will be Refried Beans (served in tortillas with cheese) and Thursday should be Parsnip And Cashew Nut Roast.

- Pip

ETA: I noticed in L1dl that their mature cheddar will be on sale next weekend. I think it’s £1 off, so £2.99 for 800g. Will be stocking up on it then.

thriftwizard

£7.30 flew from my clutches at the market just now, on carrots, lettuce & broccoli (much needed) and pomegranates, lemons, leeks & sweetcorn, which were not quite so necessary but will be used & were a very good price.

DD2 & I are Not Around this week to bump up the food bill so this may be a chance to snatch back September's over-spend!

joedenise

PJ the recipes you asked for:

Onion Gravy

Spray oil
2 medium onions - 1 sliced; 1 chopped
2 peeled garlic cloves
1 beef stock cube, crumbled
1/2 Tbs tomato puree
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp Marmite
freshly ground black pepper

Spray a pan and heat over a medium head. Add the sliced onion and fry for about 10 minutes until slightly caramelised adding a splash of water if it starts to stick.
Meanwhile put for chopped onion & garlic into a food processor with 2 Tbs of water and whizz to a puree.
Add the onion/garlic puree to the onions in the pan along with the stock cube, tomato puree, thyme, Marmite and 250ml of water.
Turn the heat up to high and bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Season with black pepper (and a little sugar if desired) to taste.

I usually make double the quantity as there is never enough for the amount of faggots I make.

Will post the faggot recipe in a separate post.

Denise

joedenise

PJ the faggot recipe:

500g pork mince (I use 5% mince)
250g lamb's liver
2 medium onions
3 Original Ryvita, broken up
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 beef stock cubes, crumbled
1 egg (if needed - I don't find it necessary as mix is usually combined enough)

Blitz onions and Ryvita in a food processor until finely chopped.

Then add everything else (except the egg) and blitz until combined. Turn out into a large bowl or onto a plate. Make into balls (up to you how big but I usually make them quite small - got 32 out of the mix yesterday!).

Spray a pan with oil and then add faggots and brown all over to seal and transfer to baking tin. Once all the faggots have been browned and added to the tin cover with the gravy and bake in the oven at about 180-190 for 30 minutes.

I usually serve with mashed potatoes & green veg along with some of the gravy.

Those left freeze really well in the gravy. We just had 4 each and it was plenty with the mash and veg. So this mix made enough for 4 meals for 2 of us.

Denise

pamsdish

Sorry to hi-jack but this is a recipe I got off this forum in 2014, courtesy of mcculloch29, they are delicious, I have made them using pork mince.
Here we are. Nicer than Mr Brain's. I got this from another thread and changed it slightly for my needs. You really need a mincer, blender or food processor, though you can do it without if you are prepared to spend time shredding - you need to cook the meat first in that case.

Be sure to pulse the breadcrumbs last as the liver leaves the food processor very messy and the breadcrumbs clean it. They also save any scraps of liver from being wasted.

1 kg of belly pork
500g of lamb's liver
500g of bacon offcuts - salty gammon is good
5 bread crust -
2 Free range eggs
500g onions - more if you make onion gravy
Salt, pepper and dried sage.
If you have your own food processor or mincer, then these are really easy to make.!

1. Cut the rind off the belly pork, cut into cubes and pulse in the food processor until minced.
2. Add to a large mixing bowl, or clean washing up bowl.
3. Cut bacon into chunks, I use 'bacon off cuts', and again, pulse in the food processor until minced, add to the mix.
4. Skin and roughly chop the onions and then blitz until small chunks. If making onion gravy, chop 1kg and put half aside.
5. Cut liver into chunks and pulse, be careful not to puree it, add to mix.
6. Place five bread crusts in the processor and blitz, add to the mix.
7. Add four heaped tablespoons of dried sage, one tablespoon of salt and one tablespoon of ground black pepper.
8. Crack two eggs into the mix.
9. Roll up sleeves, get your hands in and mix thoroughly.
10. Form into balls and place into several deep baking dishes and roast in a hot oven for approx. 30 - 40 minutes.
11. Whilst they are cooking, fry the onions if using, pour gravy granules on top and make a litre and a half of gravy. I don't bother with onion gravy.


12. After 30 minutes, add the gravy evenly over the dishes and cook for another 10 minutes.

13. Leave to cool.
14. Bag into portion sizes for your needs.

I made 20 massive 'meatballs' but could easily have made them smaller to get 24.
I ran out of gravy for the last lot, as I only made a litre (!) so froze the faggots in a bag when cooked, without gravy.
When using, I defrosted them in the micro, then added gravy and warmed them through in a glass dish in the micro. With mustard instant mash and frozen peas, a tasty meal was ready in under 15 minutes.

joedenise

Thanks pamsdish. My recipe is an adaptation of another recipe I found which is similar to yours but as I follow Slimming World belly pork is a a definite no-no as it's too fatty!

I've also found there is never enough gravy so when I freeze I just put some gravy with them and then add extra when I'm reheating them!

Denise

pamsdish

I eat LCHF, so less carby bits for me, I personally don`t make any gravy as I like to freeze free flow, I make the gravy on the day .

Vanlady

£50.70/£210 3/16 NSD
afternoon everyone!
Run out of milk so ended up doing the planned Aldeee shop yesterday instead of today.
Some great tips coming through, and Cherry Burton, loving your idea of having bulky items delivered.
We have been watching jamies vegetarian series, some nice recipes and inspiration going on there, so tonight we are going to give his leek carbonara a go, will let you know how it goes:D.
Tomorrow evening I'm making morrocan style chickpea soup with hm garlic bread and Tuesday night, potatoes, vegetables and omelette. Ds is coming for dinner on weds night, he works out so is always hungry:eek: so my plan is chicken stew in the slow cooker with mustard dumplings, potatoes and vegetables. I've come across a large packet of semolina in the cupboard so will make some of that with frozen berries for pudding.
Pipney Jane, - would love your recipie for your parsnip and cashew nut roast.

XSpender

Little treacle puddings were a success even if most of the syrup soaked into the sponge.

Total stands at £106.57/£220. Not planning to buy anything until Friday if I can make the milk last that long. This week's shop should be a smaller one as I am planning to streeeetch a chicken into 3 meals; roast dinner, risotto and curry.

Meal plan will have to be amended as I have had 2 work visits (4 nights) cancelled across the next 2 weeks and will be at home eating my own food rather than food paid for by work.

I have crossed a lot of things off my freezer list and will need to write it out again as it is a bit of a mess now.

quintwins

Hello everyone, I haven't been too well. Spent 88p on thur as I needed to break a £10 note for the kids who needed multiple amounts for multiple schools on Friday. Then £32.52 in lidl yesterday, this is a lesson in not taking all your kids shopping with you. They had no full fat milk so I spent another £2.10 in the filling station just to tide us over.

I'm now at £153.20 which is much higher than I would like will see how it goes never know it might be fine, I have dinners for the next week, I am bit cornered that the only dinner bits in my budget is veg at the moment. its going to jump way up when I run my freezer down.