May 2022 Grocery Challenge

pamsdish

£11.97 in A1D1 yesterday.

ancientmum

Well I made some bread, but it did not turn out well, although I have kept it to have with soup.   Didn't check before baking, but the yeast is out of date, so that will have to go.  Does anyone know if I can put in the compost heap?

The current grocery spend is £371.14/370 for the year so far.  

Son and girlfriend are coming to Sunday lunch so I did some creative accounting and bought ice cream and tonic water from the treats fund.  We can have the tonic water on its own or with some sloe gin that I made last year.  I'm so looking forward to seeing them.

mumtoomany

Morning all. Congratulations @MissRikkiC and family on the birth if your new son. 
We did a big shop on Wednesday, as OH was at the dentist. Also picked up some yellow sticker pork steaks yesterday and DD3 brought in some passata and more milk last night. Total for all these is, £136.56. New total for the year is, £1153.73/£2640. More than it should be for the five month mark. Will try and see if i can bring it back under control next month. Of vegetables starting to grow now, which will help. I also have a lot of stuff in the freezers and the pantry, might try to reduce that a little. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

PS. In our house he's known as Hugh Fibbly-wibblefish. 

PipneyJane

FrugalHedonist said:

I made a pizza - it turned out OK taste wise but think I should have split the dough as the crust was very thick - I think they call the haphazard way it looked rustic these days 🤣 The sauce was very nice though and I wasn't expecting much as I just fried some garlic and dried oregano, added plum Tom's with some salt, sugar, black pepper and a pinch of bicarb as I heard this helps to reduce the acidity and it worked! Grated a bit of cheese on the top with some sliced cherry Tom's. I think I'm going to try and perfect the art  

Sounds lovely.

I’m declaring for May at £146.30/£146.30 with £0 to roll over to June.

We walked down to L!dl yesterday after work.  We needed milk, black bread  and washing up sponges.  DH informed me that he didn’t fancy what I’d planned for dinner, so we also bought some YS marinated pork chops, potato salad and rocket.  (I’d managed to get home from work early enough on Thursday to roast Wednesday’s chicken, so had planned a risotto with the leftovers.).  

£7.22 spent but, in our change, we got a £2 coin.  I am kicking myself.  We have a house rule that £2 coins can’t be spent - they all go to the Running Away Fund.  I stood in L!dl with a box of 15 eggs in my hand, debating whether to buy them and put them back.  If I hadn’t put them back, we would have had enough eggs to tide us through to late June.  Instead, we have 5 and three of those are earmarked for breakfast today. Normally, I  bake on a Sunday, 2 cakes at a time, usually using 2 eggs each, but won’t be able to do that this weekend because there is officially no money left to buy the eggs needed.

- Pip

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning May GC'rs

Aiming for a NSD today.  

At least the replacement parts for my pressure cooker turned up, and I managed to follow the instructions and fit them myself.  It holds pressure again, and so is useable.  YAY!

Lentil bolognese for tea tonight, but I was so busy whipping up crumbles last night, that I totally forgot to cook baked pots to go with tonight's tea (doh! 🙄).  At least the rhubarb crumble (27p YS'd fruit) was appreciated, and I thought about it, and whipped up a (smaller) apple crumble as I knew LG wouldn't like rhubarb, but it made good use of 2 'g0ld3n D3l1cious' apples from the MrL box, with a few frozen blueberries chucked in.  So the oven was full, but not necessarily of the right things...... Although the rhubarb needed using up, before it went over.  It was tart, so I had to add sugar, but DH liked it.  I may put a portion of it into the freezer, as there is quite a bit left, with the apple crumble, for pudding tonight.

Greying X

K9sandFelines

£7.22 spent but, in our change, we got a £2 coin.  I am kicking myself.  We have a house rule that £2 coins can’t be spent - they all go to the Running Away Fund. 

- Pip

I save £2s aswell. I also had to spend one not so long ago, as it was the only funds I had in my purse at the time, and no card with me. I used to get so many, but don't seem to any more. Maybe because the pandemic meant everyone was using their card more 🤔

EssexHebridean

We spent £7 at the market this morning but for that we got: a big bottle of F@iry Liquid, 2 boxes of decaf teabags, two pouches of T1lda mixed rice/grains, two large bags of Tyr3lls crisps and two bags of Bombay mix - so I’m pretty happy with that. There was also a £1 spend on two tubes of toothpaste and another £1 on two bars of Gr33n&Blacks almond milk chocolate but they are from different budgets! So I need to remember that £7 when I come to total things up. 

Vanlady

Greying Pilgrim,
Please could you share your recipie for lentil bolognese? I've tried to make one before but didnt seem to get it quite right......right enough to not want to make it again that is .
Much appreciated,  x

Greying_Pilgrim

Vanlady said:

Greying Pilgrim,
Please could you share your recipie for lentil bolognese? I've tried to make one before but didnt seem to get it quite right......right enough to not want to make it again that is .
Much appreciated,  x

Hi hun - erm...... well, you know me & recipes.......  I've tended to make this my own by more or less concentrating on making a really tasty base sauce, which then means you can use virtually any type of lentils.  I've used (home cooked) puy-style, brown and green lentils (but not red), and I've used bought pouched beluga lentils and on holiday/camping I've used tinned lentils.  The only thing I would say about the lentils is whatever type you use, it's best to make sure they are as drained as possible, as they can quickly make a sauce watery.  For my base sauce, I always try to start with onion, garlic and celery.  I haven't always got celery, but I find it makes a tremendous difference if it's in there.  So I start frying those off (in oil - whatever you have), then I always try to add at least carrots (chopped up/or peeled strands), and fry. If I have any peppers - fresh frozen or jarred, I add them in next, with a bay leaf..  Then I add in paprika (quite a bit), cinnamon (half a teaspoon?), and a smidge of allspice or ground cloves (adds a slight savoury note).  Then after a stir, I add in chopped tomatoes (or passata if I'm flush!)  If needs be I add in a splash of water - maybe half a can, and a sprinkle of sugar.  I let that all cook down until the veggies are soft, remove the bay leaf and blitz it with the hand blender.  I check for seasoning S & P, and then add dried herbs - usually parsley, basil, a pinch of thyme and some oregano.  

I always try to add the sauce to the lentils - that way it's easier to get either the lentils just coated, or more saucy if you prefer it like that (better when adding to pasta).  

If you ate my lentil bolognese, perhaps you wouldn't like it, but I think the aim is to get the sauce as well flavoured as you can, and that then makes the dish nice if you see what I mean.  Tonight, I am using pre-cooked (by me) brown lentils, and HM tomato veg sauce out of the freezer.  I'm de-frosting them and I'll combine and heat through and serve with baked potatoes/pasta.  The potatoes will have to be microwaved as I forgot to put them in the oven for a bit last night.  

Originally, I did use the recipe from "The Vegetarian Student Handbook" published by Hamlyn (pg 118), but that has extra vegetables that I don't always have to hand - ie mushrooms and courgettes, so over the years I've kind of adapted the dish to a (hopefully) flavoursome tomato sauce with lentils.  HTH.

Made leek and potato soup for lunch in the pressure cooker.  The leek wouldn't have lasted much longer, although it's not strictly soup weather.  I used an onion and 3 small tatties which all came out of the MrL box, and cut up 2 sticks of celery too.  4 minutes of cooking (a little longer to get up to pressure, but ring switched off before the end of cooking), produced a tasty soup, that I served blitzed today.  

Greying X

Vanlady

Many thanks for your recipie Greying Pilgrim, I will have another crack at it.
I think where I went wrong was I used red lentils.....turned out too mushy, so I'll use a sturdier type next time, and I possibly didnt add enough spices/herbs to it.
And a cracking tip about adding the sauce to the lentils....wheres the thumbs up emoji when you need it

X

Ps I'm also a massive soup fan, we have it about 3 times a week for lunch, dont care if it's not soup weather, rebel that I am.
Talking of which, I made a cauli cheese soup the other day for the first time, 'kinda' followed a recipie, but really took the best bits out of a few,  so used strong cheddar, garlic, mustard and onions, but still not a keeper for me, a bit bland. But.....I have 4 more portions in the freezer and they WILL get eaten, by hook or by crook, eventually