May 2022 Grocery Challenge

JingsMyBucket

Naturelover22 said:

Will be making up breakfast and lunch for next 2 days at work tonight. Friends are visiting next weekend and I think I'll bake something, needs to be lactose free so will do some research and trial baking this weekend.

@na@Naturelover22 try a cake using almond flour. Usually olive oil cakes are good for this and you can add various fruits to them as well.  

ragz_2

Wicked_Lady said:

ragz_2 said:

JingsMyBucket said:

@DawnW your pie does sound really good. I have a bunch of frozen spinach in the freezer. Do you mind me asking for a link to the spinach filling recipe? 

@ragz_2 where do you buy your low carb rolls and breads? I'd like to start reincorporating those back into my diet. 

Seriously Low Carb. They had an offer last month of 30% off so I stocked up as it's hard to justify full price when we're tight but they will last a while as I try not to use them every day. Eating low carb on a budget is tricky as all my go to cheap meals are carb heavy! DH cooks 4 nights a week and often doesn't know what to do for me, so at least I have the option of rolls for burgers or toast/bread with whatever he's cooked. Yesterday I had chili on toast, which was lovely, while they had jacket potatoes with their chili (that we all had when I cooked it the day before). 

I'm having my first go at cauliflower rice tonight, to go with a h/m chilli. Messy business so, if I like it, I'll do the next batch in the mini chopper! 
Will take a look at Seriously Low Carb too; thanks for the info.

You can freeze cauliflower rice. Last time I made a whole cauliflower worth (in the mini chopper, next time I'll use the food processor!) and froze some in bags. I defrosted yesterday in the microwave as it was in a solid lump, then fried it. Actually tasted better than it did fresh. 

K9sandFelines

DawnW said:

Just realised I haven't joined the May thread yet - 8 pages in already and it is only the 1st!

My budget for May will be £250 to cover groceries, dog food, toiletries and cleaning items

First spend of the month was today at the market, £2.00 for tomatoes and £5 for 3 x 300g blocks of posh branded cheese. Nothing else will be needed until Wednesday when I do the weekly shop.

I made a vegetarian pie yesterday, which actually looks quite nice, despite the fact that it all went a bit wrong. I only ever buy filo pastry, specifically to make a Greek style pie with home grown spinach and feta (or the cheap supermarket equivalent). One packet of filo is enough for 2 spinach pies, and it makes for a couple of cheap meals with spinach that grows like weeds in the garden. Other than that we make do with home made shortcrust when pastry is called for. But when I got my 'filo' out of the fridge, it turned out that I had bought puff pastry by mistake, a ready rolled sheet which wasn't big enough to both line the pie dish and cover it. Then the spinach seemed rather tough and leathery when I cooked it. It was the last cut of the season, and the plants have now been composted. Now I am not at all sure what a puff pastry version of my normal filo spinach pie would be like, especially with past-its-best spinach. I therefore decided to jazz it up a bit by adding half a jar of lurking sundried tomatoes and a sauteed onion, lined the dish, filled it with the spinach, feta, tomato and onion mixture, laid the leftover strips of pastry over it in a rough sort of  lattice pattern, brushed it all over with egg and baked it. It looks quite nice, so I am hoping that it is, as it will be dinner tonight!

You've made me want to try that, but a vegan version. Your tweaked version sounds similar to a pizza tartlet I make; but will try the filo version with vegan feta and spinach. 

Wicked_Lady

ragz_2 said:

Wicked_Lady said:

ragz_2 said:

JingsMyBucket said:

@DawnW your pie does sound really good. I have a bunch of frozen spinach in the freezer. Do you mind me asking for a link to the spinach filling recipe? 

@ragz_2 where do you buy your low carb rolls and breads? I'd like to start reincorporating those back into my diet. 

Seriously Low Carb. They had an offer last month of 30% off so I stocked up as it's hard to justify full price when we're tight but they will last a while as I try not to use them every day. Eating low carb on a budget is tricky as all my go to cheap meals are carb heavy! DH cooks 4 nights a week and often doesn't know what to do for me, so at least I have the option of rolls for burgers or toast/bread with whatever he's cooked. Yesterday I had chili on toast, which was lovely, while they had jacket potatoes with their chili (that we all had when I cooked it the day before). 

I'm having my first go at cauliflower rice tonight, to go with a h/m chilli. Messy business so, if I like it, I'll do the next batch in the mini chopper! 
Will take a look at Seriously Low Carb too; thanks for the info.

You can freeze cauliflower rice. Last time I made a whole cauliflower worth (in the mini chopper, next time I'll use the food processor!) and froze some in bags. I defrosted yesterday in the microwave as it was in a solid lump, then fried it. Actually tasted better than it did fresh. 

I also fried my cauliflower rice in butter and oil and it was rather yummy. Might consider doing a batch and freezing individually another time.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs

Did a shop at mrL this morning.  Shan't claim it to be a weekly shop, it was a top-up shop and no more.  Not because our fridge and cupboards are groaning wif 'good stuff' but simply coz the money ain't there.

There were 4 or 5 of the £1.50 boxes in-store, but I didn't spend my money today.  I'm afraid that they have become a p*** take and the contents weren't really worth £1.50.  I can appreciate you get odds & ends, and that the stuff isn't supposed to be pristine nor in vast quantities, but neither is it supposed to be DEAD.  No amount of cold-water revival would have worked on the dried up lettuce that was in the only box that may have slightly yielded possibilities.  But coupled with potatoes and onions dumped on top of random strawberries and plum cherry toms, it was a squishy disaster in a box.  I would have been paying to fill my compost bin.  Poor I may be, stupid I am not.  I refuse to pay MrL's waste disposal bill.

Just as well that I stocked up on porridge oats in MrAl t'other day, as MrL still didn't have any in, to the extent that they'd filled the space with a completely different porridge product.  But they did have black olives back in stock (YAY!).  But their mushy peas have now gone up to 25p a tin 🙁  The one item that I purchased, that was a 'luxury' - but given I bought no veg box' was just about affordable, was a bundle of British Asparagus 🥰 250g was £1.89.  Expensive, but a definite treat, which I am happy(ier) to purchase when it is the British season.  Asparagus risotto will now appear on the meal plan on the weekend, so a shuffle is in order.

So, £8.82 spent in total, with the asparagus the only real 'ingredient' bought - everything else was a 'component', ie bread, olive spread.........

Greying X

joedenise

My MrL hasn't had any £1.50 boxes for a long time when I've been in there.  I was reasonably early yesterday, before 9.30am but still no boxes.  It was all I popped in for really so ended up buying a couple of tins of beans for the store cupboard so I didn't get fined for parking!  Cheaper than the £90 fine for not scanning a shopping barcode!

I bought porridge oats in Sainsbugs yesterday, same price as MrL @ 75p/Kg.  They look OK but won't really know until I use them of course.

SausageDogSandwich

Just caught up with the thread, I was a few pages behind. I have a spend of £28.52 so far this month. Still running low / out of a lot of items but going to have to try to get by with what we have for another week. 

Today is bean stew in the slow cooker, which the kids loved last week, I have added mushrooms and spinach today to make it go a bit further. I will have make stuffed mushrooms or something for me.
Tomorrow- have lots of mushrooms to use up that I got y/s, so will make a mushroom curry with rice I think.
Saturday- hot dogs using the only meat I have left in the house  and fries.
Sunday- Quo*n sweet and sour

SausageDogSandwich

Forgot I had spent £5.22 in co*p on the way home from school on Tuesday, making my total £33.74/£150

Vanlady

Hello there GC's.
First shop of the month to declare:
£54.30/£200
That includes about £25 worth of meat and drinks as we have guests at the weekend. 
Plus the usual fruit, veg, milk, cheese, yoghurt,  and a stock up of some spices and tins. Also washing powder and a few cleaning products. 

Loving your photos of fabulous food GP and Jings 

I'm having an easy day and reaping the benefits of my domestic goddess day recently - potato, pulse and veg soup for lunch with HM bread, and sweet potato and veg curry with brown rice and HM nans for dinner, all defrosting as we speak.

Tomorrow dinner- mr Van is having his speciality HM chicken curry with rice and HM nans out of the freezer. Thank goodness he doesn't mind eating curry 2 nights on the trot
I'll have cajun samoln and salad. It's not that I mind having curry 2 nights on the trot either, but I bought fresh salad today so I'll make in roads into that.

Saturday- hm pizzas

Sunday , we have guests, so - pulled pork in the slow cooker, salad, oven roasted potatoes and soft bread buns and chocolate cake out of the freezer that I made last week. Just need to add cream and icing to the cake. 
This is a my favourite go-to meal for guests as it can all be prepared in advance, meaning i can be with them tasting the wine aka getting tipsy, and not being stuck in the kitchen. That's my plan anyway ......

ragz_2

£8.20 at MrL on 2 packs of Greek yoghurts for my breakfasts at work, bag of reduced to 20p salad leaves (rocket, spinach and watercress), cheese coleslaw, ham and cheese (forgot to take lunch to work).

Looked at their veg boxed but none were worth it. Mostly ropey fruit (which I'm not eating as low carbing) and potatoes (ditto plus I have loads).

Have only just managed to cram everything in the chest freezer from the MrT delivery the other day - we downsized by one whole freezer recently due to energy costs and I hadn't considered that when I ordered 2+ weeks worth of bread and meat! Will do a proper meal plan at the weekend as I only got up to 10 days worth and then gave up.

I'll have to pop to MrT tomorrow in my lunch break as DS2 has requested protein bars and snacks for his cadet camp this weekend. I may put that under the clubs and activities budget though.