May 2022 Grocery Challenge

Greying_Pilgrim

K9sandFelines said:

......Have you tried making it?

In my lifetime, yes I have made butter (from YS'd cream), but I haven't done it for.....oh, 10? years.  My problem - as ever - is not being able to easily/freely get to the shops when the '10p' type reductions are made, so I wouldn't have the cream (cheaply) as the initial raw ingredient if you see what I mean.  Unfortunately, butter will - in our household - go the way of other products and not be bought 🙁 At present, there are some substitutes available for most dishes, but I've got a horrible feeling that options are shrinking rapidly 🙁 But we've still got options at the mo, and for that I remain grateful.

Greying X

K9sandFelines

Greying_Pilgrim said:

K9sandFelines said:

......Have you tried making it?

In my lifetime, yes I have made butter (from YS'd cream), but I haven't done it for.....oh, 10? years.  My problem - as ever - is not being able to easily/freely get to the shops when the '10p' type reductions are made, so I wouldn't have the cream (cheaply) as the initial raw ingredient if you see what I mean.  Unfortunately, butter will - in our household - go the way of other products and not be bought 🙁 At present, there are some substitutes available for most dishes, but I've got a horrible feeling that options are shrinking rapidly 🙁 But we've still got options at the mo, and for that I remain grateful.

Greying X

Yes totally understand. I can't get to where there where normally the YS either and A1di don't have 10p ones, so have to buy 95% full price. 

wishus

Adding a spend of £21.79. Trundled my shopping trolley to two places and I think I made the most of it alright. Had Perkbox for Asda, so that's 4% off that shop. Bit disappointed that the bananas I picked up have already split - why didn't I spot that? - but they are for a cake anyway so that's fine...I suppose. £60.38 remaining.

DawnW

wishus said:

Bit disappointed that the bananas I picked up have already split - why didn't I spot that? - but they are for a cake anyway so that's fine...I suppose.

I read somewhere that wrapping foil around the stalk on a bunch of bananas delays their going over ripe. I was sceptical, but tried it, and it really does work. Last week's bananas, or what is left of them, are still ok, whereas they would normally be black by now. Such an easy and low cost thing to do, too!

Vanlady

Wishus, I have a shopping trolley too, an ikea groovey jobbie , which I LOVE, and between that and mr Van with his rucksack, we hardly ever need to get the van out, so ker-ching to petrol!

No spends for me, but the pork I bought on thursday  is now marinading in lots of spices in the slow cooker pot in the fridge ready to be switched on high in the morning and magically transformed into pulled pork tomorrow for our guests. I spent a laborious 45 minutes cutting out all the bones which then went into another slow cooker  to make a stock ( yes, I am a slow cooker hoarder!), which is now decanted into old butter containers for future soups/risotto etc.

I bought a 4 pack mr Al*eees avocados about 2 weeks ago....that's how long they have taken to ripen up , but all the flesh was perfect so cannot complain.  They have been mashed up with lemon juice and garlic and frozen into 2 blocks to make guacamole in the next few weeks,  just need to add yoghurt and chilli......yum yum 

goldfinches

K9sandFelines said:

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Well, good intentions and all that.  DH was taking LG to the library to return some books and asked if I needed anything......  So a £2 coin was issued and instructions issued to purchase a pat of butter NOT branded; unsalted for preference, but either salted/unsalted would suffice.  Last time I bought butter, it was about £1.48, which i thought was dear then.......  I did set an upper limit to not pay above, and it seems that I must have price approximations ingrained in my dna, as I was spot on with my £1.75 upper limit, as that is what a pat of MrL's own brand u/s butter now costs.......  it will add to the asparagus dish, but.....................Even DH was surprised, as he was very good during the first lockdown and did most of the shopping, and recalled that on the few occasions he'd been asked to get it, the butter had been under £1 to buy.

Greying X

I remember years ago when I used to eat 'real' butter an dlong before going vegan, that the Tesco value one was £0.85p. I am going back about fifteen years though. Inflation is crazy.
Have you tried making it?
I make my own vegan butter if I ever run out and its not on offer ( as i buy Naturli and its super close to tasting like the real thing, as opposed to cheap marg). I used to make it pre-vegan days when I could get reduced cream. 

Any chance of a recipe for this please? It goes in and out of stock locally so unpredictably that it would be immensely helpful to be able to make my own version.

I spent £5.27 at M*rks on f/f greek style yoghurt, bread, a cauliflower, red cabbage, onions and new potatoes and then £9.90 at Mr T's on 3x frozen fruit and 2x plums which makes my new total £45.19/£124 and my average daily spend £6.45 which is horrifying. I shall just have to work with what I've got from now until at least the middle of the month, off to work out a meal plan, night all, goldfinches.

Greying_Pilgrim

Made the asparagus casarecce for tea last night.  The dressing was made with red onion, garlic, lemon zest and juice and olive oil.  I shall give you 3 guesses which key ingredient got forgotten in cooking the asparagus........ 🙄doh...........🤣 Because I wasn't fully concentrating, I cut the asparagus into smaller pieces than I intended, but it was still yummy.  The red onion really was that pink - it was the lemon juice wot dun it 😊 LG had a different tea, but they did eat a piece of asparagus - their initial reaction was 'don't like it', but they were asked to at least finish that piece, which they did.  One step at a time.


Greying X

maddiemay

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Made the asparagus casarecce for tea last night.  The dressing was made with red onion, garlic, lemon zest and juice and olive oil.  I shall give you 3 guesses which key ingredient got forgotten in cooking the asparagus........ 🙄doh...........🤣 Because I wasn't fully concentrating, I cut the asparagus into smaller pieces than I intended, but it was still yummy.  The red onion really was that pink - it was the lemon juice wot dun it 😊 LG had a different tea, but they did eat a piece of asparagus - their initial reaction was 'don't like it', but they were asked to at least finish that piece, which they did.  One step at a time.

Greying X

Greying that looks delish, may try it with whatever GF pasta I can find, perhaps fusilli.
Thank you for your kind comment on another thread, it's tough, but we will get by. xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good to 'see' you maddiemay - take care 😘

Well, I have just been for a gallop down nostalgia avenue!  😊  I used up most of the chestnut style mushrooms I got from MrAl to make up 2 pots of ratatouille, to utilise the scraggy aubergine I'd got in last week's MrL box.   There were some smaller mushies left, and I decided that they would be enough for a small portion of Mushroom Curry (which on a curry 'plate' with other l/o curries would be sufficient for 2).  Anyhoo, in pondering what 'flavour' to make the curry, I was flicking through my recipe book and came across a recipe for Base Balti Sauce (from 'Vegetarian Balti Cooking' - by Mridula Baljekar).  I've not made this recipe for yonks!  Easily not since LG has been around, anyway.  So I popped all the ingredients in the PC, and 6 minutes later and a blitz with the stick blender, I had my balti base sauce.  10 minutes later, I had mushroom balti curry, and an extra portion of base sauce, chilling ready to put in the freezer.  

Although recipes differ for balti base sauce, they do seem to have turmeric, coriander, cumin and paprika as 'common' ingredients - all of which I have in my storecupboard.  I also added in methi leaves (dried) to my version, as fenugreek was mentioned in some recipes and I like it (I was trying to find a link to the base sauce recipe to put up here - no dice, unfortunately).  Balti sauce is a straightforward sauce to make (if you have the ingredients - I appreciate), and has enabled me to use up the last of the mushrooms to make a dish for another day, plus I have a sauce to curry 'something' in the future.  

Greying X

Soontobeoap

Aldi shop today. Had time to spare so getting meals ready for GS stay. 2 are allergic to milk products, gluten and soya. Soya is in absolutely everything so definitely lots of fruit veg and basic meals when they come. I bought a pack of 10 eggs reduced to 32p, 2 pack meatballs, I pack minced beef and some potatoes. Batch cooking lasagna and shepherds pies this afternoon. Total£12.38. I am already close to end budget for May but Don’t want to be caught out unprepared again so most of what I bought today will be a saving in June! That’s my thinking anyway. 

I fancied ice lollies in this glorious weather but as I had walked to shop they would have been melted when I got home people anyway! 😂