September 2021 Grocery Challenge

boultdj

Today's shop takes me to £164.85/ £150.00, so over by £14.85, but I have got a full freezer, fridge and cupboards and 'should' not need to shop till the end of the month as I've remembered to get long life milk in, which was the normal reason for nipping to the shop.

joedenise

When I use butternut squash to make anything I always grate some of it and freeze in about 150g portions which I add to butter chicken (which we eat at least a couple of times a month!).  I would think you could add it to anything where you want a slightly sweet taste but without using sugar so good for losing weight or if you're diabetic!

nannygladys

Haven't been out at all today, well only to put the bins out , so no money spent. Not sure if I will need to spend before I'm paid on Wednesday but may need coffee and milk I'll have to check.
Nannyg

Balancinglife

Spent £5 on Thursday as had to get DS ingredients for school. 

Yesterday
£37 in ald!
£5 te$co
£3 F food 
£5 l!dl

Total of £55 this week
£339/£350

My new month starts 25th 

Pixiehouse55

Naughty last night and had Chinese takeaway £28 for two of us but we also had a meal out of it today- this selling, packing charity stuff and throwing out is not good for my back and other problems so I felt a bit lazy, I couldn't of stood in the kitchen and cooked! Apart from that, no spends.  Picked up our motor home Thursday ready for the off on September 30th. Don't know what meals I will be cooking then 🤣😂....... 

goldfinches

@Suffolk_lass - Nigella posted a lovely soup recipe for yellow courgettes a few days ago Happiness Soup | Nigella's Recipes | Nigella Lawson and the comments from people who've made it were all positive so I added it to my queue but haven't got round to it myself yet.

I've spent this evening at the local playhouse to hear Niki Segnit in conversation with Yotam Ottolenghi about his book Flavour which was a lovely treat and I've come home inspired to look again at the contents of the fridge, freezer and larder.

Night all, goldfinches.

joedenise

@Pixiehouse55 - I try and take a range of HM ready meals for when we are away in our motorhome.  How much you can take depends on how big your fridge/freezer is.  I've only got an under counter fridge with icebox across the top but I can manage to get enough meals for 2 of us for about a week as long as they are flat packed - can get so much more in when they are flat packed!  Enjoy your motorhome.  We're going away for a couple of nights from tomorrow so need to decide what we're going to be eating; it won't be what I'd previously planned!  Will need to check out what meals I've got in the freezers.

PipneyJane

Lunch ideas and salad recipes

@poppysmic. Hello.  You asked about lunch ideas, a few days back, and what others do.  I nearly always take my lunch to work but I long ago decided that I make pretty rubbish sandwiches.  When I do have to make sandwiches, my choice is to make a batch using pre-sliced meats, red onion bagels and some fancy bagged salad.  I’ll try to buy the ingredients marked down, make up the batch for the week and take one per day.  (Also, I don’t butter my bagels.  Instead, I smear over a little mayo, which adds some bite as well as moisture.)

Do you have access to a microwave?  Since virtually every recipe is for 4 and there are only 2 of us, Most of the time, I take leftovers to work and zap them at lunchtime.  Ditto my husband. I will dish them up as I am dishing up the evening meal, which also acts as portion control.  (My husband would eat an extra portion as “seconds” if I let him.).   You need good, water tight containers - Lock-n-Lock are the best - but it only takes 2 minutes to reheat in the microwave at work.  (Before I owned my Lock-n-Locks, I had various disasters when boxes leaked, so would alway put my lunchbox in a ziplock bag for protection.)

When we haven’t had anything that generated leftovers, I will take a “baked potato”.  Scrub and zap a potato for 10 minutes at home, then wrap it in cling film.  Transport it cold, together with a couple of slices of cheddar.  When you are ready to eat lunch, remove the plastic, put the potato on a plate, slash it across the top and insert your cheese, then zap for 2 minutes.   Lunch in 2 minutes and you haven’t monopolised the microwave for ages, while your hungry colleagues are waiting to do their meal.

If you don’t have access to a microwave, may I recommend some salads?  These will make a batch of lunches - probably a week’s worth - but that’s a week you don’t have to buy lunch.  For all of the recipes below, you can use cooking bacon, a portion of smoked mackerel, a salmon steak, pickled anchovies (NOT salted), leftover roast, or a can of tuna. 

1). Bacon pasta salad.  Cook up a 500g bag of pasta shapes (this works well with shells or butterflies or elbows, but it’s fine with quills).  Meanwhile, chop some cooking bacon into batons and dry fry  (200g-300g).  When the pasta is cooked, and drained, toss through the bacon and the bacon fat.  Leave to cool.  Once cool, slice up some spring onions, a yellow or red pepper (or 2) and, maybe, some cherry tomatoes.  Stir through the pasta/bacon mixture together with a large dollop of mayonnaise.  Divide into 5 or more containers and that’s lunch for the week.

2) French lentil salad.  Cook 300g of small brown or black lentils until soft.  (Bring to boil and simmer for about 20-25 minutes.). Drain and, while still hot, pour over approximately 60ml (1/4 cup) of vinaigrette, stir, put the saucepan lid on and leave to cool.   While the lentils are cooling, fry up a large salmon steak, slice up some spring onions and a couple of sweet peppers (yellow or red).  Flake the salmon into a salad bowl, pour over the lentils and add the veg.  Toss through and portion up.

3). Potato salad.  Follow your favourite potato salad recipe and add a drained tin or two of tuna.  If you don’t have a potato salad recipe mine is: scrub and cube 600-700g potatoes and boil for 15-20 minutes or until soft.  Drain, return to the hot pan and pour over 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar/balsamic vinegar/red wine vinegar.  Leave to steam.  Meanwhile combine 3 or 4 tablespoons of mayo with the same quantity of sour cream/creme fraiche/Greek yoghurt.  Slice some spring onion.  Drain your tuna. Combine the mayo mixture, with the spring onion and tuna and stir through the potatoes.  Portion up.

HTH 

- Pip

@Elsiepac, please add to the recipe index.

nannygladys

Goldfinches - just made a pot of courgette and potato soup, then saw your post and had a look and it sounds lovely so the next soup is going to be that one as my aubergine s have gone a bit crazy!

I have been looking at the recipe section at the start of the challenge for ideas and had forgotten how many frugal recipes and ideas there are. If you get stuck for ideas it's definitely worth a look. Twinks are on the horizon this week as I haven't made those for ages and they are so easy, I have a coupe of visitors layer this week so these will be ideal to have with a tea/coffee! 

Going the the drs, library and allotment after lunch which is is said courgette soup and that will be it for today.
My month ends tomorrow so I think I will start doing the challenge weekly instead of 4 weekly, it makes more sense I think. Anyway back to meal planning and trying to think how I can use all the veg in the fridge, I won't be bringing anything from the allotment today!! 
Nannyg

elsiepac

@Suffolk_lass haha I know - total turnaround!  In fairness, it's partially out of necessity as I am particularly stretched at the moment.  So I'm kind of proving something to myself I guess! Stir fry oil is one I get from Tesco - I really recommend it - it's a mix of vegetable oils, sesame oil, and ginger and garlic.  Really makes a nice stir fry.
Re deodorant I actually discovered that Soft & Gentle aerosol in vegan!  I double on their website and they apparently already had a no animal testing policy, but now have several products that are vegan and they are working to become a full vegan company! Who knew! So I'll be going with them - even betterI can get it on Amazon Subscribe & Save!

I've had a lot of little revelations:

• Some of the things I keep a spare of, I really don't use that often - at least at the moment - so I'm going to lessen the variety of "stock" items I keep in.
• In my house (which I rent), it came with an under counter fridge in the kitchen (with a freezer compartment, so VERY little room) and an under counter freezer that was hooked up in the garage.  You guys may remember I managed to find a really good fridge freezer on FB Marketplace for £50 so that is my main one now but I still use the kitchen fridge for small things and had less used things in the garage freezer.  The white goods were all gifted to me when I moved in (presumably so they didn't have upkeep responsibility).  ANYWAY, I realised I keep so little in the garage freezer that I actually don't need it.  So I've listed it on FB and so I'll save that extra electric too which is a bonus!
• I have a terrible habit of buying lots of spice mixes/seasonings/sauces... my vow now is to use these up before I'm allowed to buy more (apart from the basic herbs and spices of course).
• Fresh veg is super important to me - I'm definitely missing variety this month.  However, I definitely don't need to buy loads in one go (3 broccolis anyone?) - so I'm going to make a concerted effort to buy a bit more sensibly.  This will be the absolute hardest part for me to stick to!  I will try and incorporate this with more meal planning - the "gentle" meal planning I've been doing this month has got my meal plan hat back on! (hopefully it'll stay on)

Made a huge vat of red lentil and roast pepper soup for lunches - super easy:

• 2 onions
• 1/2 butternut
• stock pot
• garlic & herb passata
• red lentils
• salt, pepper and harissa spices

yum.  Got 6 portions BUT made it wayyy too thick even for my taste so I think when reheating I will divide each in 2 and water down.

Off to do the new thread...