April 2022 Grocery Challenge

Ginmonster

I'm really enjoying seeing your recipes @Greying_Pilgrim. Thanks so much for posting them, it's giving me loads of good ideas. I'm going to try the chocolate parsnip cake one for sure as I tried a parsnip cake recipe from Thrifty Lesley and it wasn't great. It had lemon juice & zest and maple syrup in so I thought it would have plenty of flavour but honestly it came out tasting of nothing and we had to add custard to enjoy it. If I made the recipe again I would certainly add some vanilla or mixed spice but I think I'll try your one instead as, having a child in the house, I know that chocolate cake will be a winner.

I'm also a strong believer in using what sugar you happen to have in baking. Every darned recipe seems to specify some different type! I'm not sure some of the recipe writers have a clue what a normal kitchen contains. 🤷

QueenJess

Ginmonster said:

I'm also a strong believer in using what sugar you happen to have in baking. Every darned recipe seems to specify some different type! I'm not sure some of the recipe writers have a clue what a normal kitchen contains. 🤷

Flour is just as bad these days and I often am replacing with usual plain flour. They just want us to spend more money in the shops now baking is more popular.

 Thanks for the recipe @Greying_Pilgrim. I was wanting to make a parsnip cake as I found quite a few at the bottom of the fridge, but wasn’t sure what one to make.

Suffolk_lass

Off to market shortly. Going to minimise purchases there, drop off plastic containers for the refills lady, pick up running-out essentials (including wet food and cat litter for indoor Stealth cat) and some cream - to make my soup more tasty and use in the braised lettuce recipe. My plan to buy nothing before hols is slightly modified.

Gave a carrier of baked products to DS (bread, bagels, finger rolls, pain au chocolate) mainly to make room in the (reportedly full chest) freezer - I will need to play tetris as DH has been putting stuff away.

I removed a loaf of multi-seed bread and a pizza from the gift bag so that he has these here while cat and house sitting

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 - I agree that it's worth having a cooked breakfast so that you don't need to snack before lunch!  I used to just have cereal or fruit and yoghurt when I was working but since retiring and having plenty of time tend to have a cooked breakfast or porridge most mornings.

Today's was scrambled eggs and spinach on toast; weekends are always fry ups, sometimes with bacon and sometimes with sausages - it's sausages this weekend before I've got some in the freezer!

Greying_Pilgrim

Well dear reader, I'm ducking in to claim my PRIZE PARSNIP OF THE DAY award, on account of I just made a batch of Dark chocolate and parsnip cakes, and only blooming forgot to put baking powder in the mix - DOH!  and of course, I also made some chocolate brownies, which don't need bp in them, but of course, I didn't make them first did I????? DOH! 

Anyhoo, I have spent the morning washing up baking, and have made the Chocolate parsnip cakes (half mixture), Jamie O's Banana cake and Nigella's chocolate brownies (1/2 mixture).  I chose JO's banana cake, as it only needed 2 eggs, all the other recipes I found used more eggs, which I couldn't quite understand as in vegan baking, banana can sometimes be used as an egg substitute.  But still, JO's recipe looks and smells like it may well have yielded a perfectly yummy cake, so it's good enough for me.

I've tried to take a pic of the parsnip cakes to illustrate that you can get 12 buns out of half of the given mixture - you'll have to forgive me for forgetting the baking powder, as they would have risen more had I remembered to add it!  Plus the texture in the cake would have been a bit more airy had i remembered it 🙁I also took the woody bit out of the centre of my parsnips before grating, and then I blasted the grated parsnip in the microwave for about 30 seconds (stirred half way thru) with a teaspoon of water.  I personally don't think grated parsnip needs to be boiled for 5 minutes......  But as I hope you can see from the pic, it's not obvious that the cakes have parsnip in them.  My buns are slightly more dense than they should be, because of no raising agent, but they are edible (actually not dissimilar to a brownie), and will be eaten.  



Greying X

Vanlady

Hey GPilgrim, I think your buns look bloomin marvellous, and shhhh, dont tell anyone about the baking powder and just tell them they're brownies.....substance always trumps style in home baking.

Hands up here, I'm another who only keeps 2 types of sugar, granulated and any kind of brown ( usually whichever is cheapest), and definately yes, brown sugar on porridge is delish! I  keep 4 types of flour, white bread, wholemeal bread, plain and self raising....I'm not confident enough to use plain flour and add baking powder to it instead of SR  but I know some people do.

So, have still managed to stay away from the shops and list being written for monday as planned. I'm going to Lidlee,  about 10 miles away, as I have to go to that town for another reason. I've never scored one of their £1.50 boxes. Saw one once but the produce looked too far gone. But I will keep my eyes open for a good one.

Lunch today
Hm flatbreads, salad  pickles and hm hummus.    I started making my own hummus years ago, took me a while to perfect it so that I prefer it to shop bought, heres how I make it in case anyone is interested: 1 tin of chickpeas, drained,  a desert spoon of tahini, a splash of lemon juice - fresh or bottled, black pepper, garlic-fresh or dried, a rounded teaspoon each of cumin, coriander powder and garam masala, and a splash of olive oil. Use a blender or potato masher to mash it up to your preferred thickness and add water or lemon juice to suit your consistency. Better to add too many spices in my opinion, and always tastes better made the day before. Very nice with chopped black olives too.
Does anyone else have a favourite recipie for hummus?

Dinner
Spaghetti puttanesca. No parmesan left so whatever cheese is lurking .

Tomorrow 
Breakfast
Porridge....maybe with brown sugar, yum, or I might be an  and have with frozen berries, chopped nuts, seeds and cinnamon

Lunch
Hm calzone and salad

Dinner
 fishcakes made with dried potato (very useful for thickening soups and panko), a tin of sardines, dried parsley, black pepper, and baked beans with a splash of peri peri 

SausageDogSandwich

I had spent 7.99 on loo rolls, milk, reduced bread and ice lollies, making my total £49.87 but then my husband forgot to take a drink to work so spent 90p, taking me over by 77p  However i don’t think it’s gone to badly as usually I will let things slide like a pack of sweets or crisps for the kids, or reduced only shopping trips and I have included every spend this week. 

A new £50 starts today, My eldest will be going to the shop at reduction time to hopefully get some reduced bread ready for tomorrow but that is all that will be spent today. Tomorrow I am going on a biscuit hunt, for broken biscuits as all the usual places I buy them haven’t had them for a while, so that could prove dangerous to the grocery budget 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Need2bthrifty

Spends for w/e 07 April are Sainbugs - £3.97 & Fish shop - £6.78 = £10.75, that takes my overall total to £54.37/£80.00. Although the fish is a bit pricey both the salmon and haddock fillets were quite large so I cut them in half before I froze them.

Got some black beans soaking overnight and will cook them in the slow cooker tomorrow and use some for a burger then freeze the rest for later.

Apart from a new to me recipe on Monday, the rest is from freezer RTH stocks.

Fri - Chicken & pineapple curry, rice, poppodum.

Sat - Pizza (part-baked baguette/h/m tomato sauce, salami & cheese)

Sun - Black bean burger, salsa & salad.

Mon - Moroccan Salmon & Couscous Recipe | Tesco Real Food. 

Tues - Spiced turkey meatballs.

Thurs - Roman gnocchi.

Fri - Smoked haddock gratin.

lushlifesaver

Hello, can I sneak in?

We started our April budgets when we got paid for March (24th) so we're half way through however I want to get a grip on our budget now as we need to reign it in in all areas. We've gone back to cash budgeting and it's been great so far apart from the very first week but we had eldest's birthday and changed the plan last minute to have a tea party/buffet at home and still kept to within £5 of the budget!

However, because we had full freezers and went over by the little bit we do have plenty in and it's just top ups each week. So for the next two weeks I'm going for'

£30 a week. 

This is to cover any food and toiletries/household items (pets, personal purchases etc. are all from their own, different budgets) this should be more than enough as we only spent £20 last week(!) next month will likely be different as we will have run down much of the additional stuff in the cupboards though the freezer will remain well stocked

thriftwizard

£43.23 spent between the bakery & the market this morning. Quite pleased with that as I'd mentally "allowed" £50. Meal plan as follows:
Tonight: trout in an almond & lemon sauce, with new potatoes, purple sprouting & carrots
Saturday: Sausage (pork & veggie) mash, onions & lightly-sauted hispi cabbage
Sunday: Roast chicken/nut roast, roast spuds, whatever veg come to hand! Probably broccoli, leeks & carrots
Monday: Sausage & chorizo/veg sausage & halloumi casserole with bulgur wheat, peas & sweetcorn
Tuesday: Chicken/sweet potato curry, rice & frozen HG runner beans
Wednesday: HM pizza or stir-fry, depending on availability of leftover chicken & mushrooms
Thursday: Baked potatoes & whatever's still in the fridge!

Rinse & repeat...
As per usual, there may be a top-up shop required Tuesday-ish, though there are plenty of bananas & there's bread in the freezer, and numbers are quite low this week - just 4 of us over the weekend & 5 for most of the week, though 6 on Tuesday I believe. So I hope to stay out of the supermarket for once!