I'm back! Trying to spend less on food!

beckstar1975

Blimey your prices are so good there! Jealous you have a veg shop too - though I've started going into the African shops/supermarkets and they do have v good prices and sizes of things (fresh herbs especially, got the most amazing armful of fresh thyme for a quid).

mumtoomany

We're very lucky with our veg shop. They do pound boxes, like the Lidl boxes. So for my £5 today I bought a £1 box with four large red peppers, a bulb of garlic, and four giant mushrooms will make good stuffed mushrooms. Not as full as normal. The punnet of  grapes and sweets were £1 each, the lettuce two for £1 and the bananas ten for £1.

Tea was the lasagne, left from last week, out of the freezer. Served with home made coleslaw and salad. After I opened a dented tin of rice pudding, served with some of the pears I opened the other day. 

Spent this afternoon, and yesterday afternoon, filling up two raised beds with sheep poop. We have a barn that  was used for several years by the sheep in winter. It is around a foot deep in sheep poop mixed with hay. It's rotting well. 

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

beckstar1975

Ha - just made lasagne for our tea - and had enough left over to make 4 double portions to freeze for DS to take back to uni on sunday. Did the mealplan before the weather turned nice

Shop sounds amazing - we do have a street market that does bowls for a quid but it's rather hit and miss and I don't have enough time to process it to make it worth while (combined with fussy/allergic kids).

I know I'll be gutted when the kids have all gone but I'm really looking forward to only cooking for 2 and cooking stuff that I can't at the moment - though realise they're like yoyos and they'll keep popping back home

gran3

realthing16 said:

I wonder if thsi is the right place to air this problem? I have a horrible, brown kitchen. 20 years old. Can I do anything with it at all? Neither of us are at all handy unfortunately. We were quoted 6 k for new doors, some years ago. Its not that big. 6k? Ridiculous!!!

Paint the doors, new handles Just done ours

t14cy_t

you could try wrapping the doors? lots of different styles and colours. well worth trying to do yourself.

mumtoomany

More tomatoes picked yesterday. I usually put what we won't eat immediately on a table at the gate. They sell for 50p a bag. Any left after a day or two get roasted or frozen. Must remember to check the courgettes today. They are not producing quite so quickly now. I picked a tub of blackberries yesterday too, from the back of the hay field. They seem to be producing at last. Lots of raspberries, too many to eat as I walk round, so some are making it inside. 

Tea last night was lamb chops, from our sheep. I used the mushrooms, stuffed them with savoury rice, found a packet in the cupboard, topped with grated cheese. And served them with home grown peas. Desert, I used the last two pear halves, sliced, in a pie dish, topped with puff pastry. I cooked this then flipped it over, made a sort of open tart, served with cream.

I also made some more peanut butter yesterday. Sort of recipe is: Most of a large bag of salted peanuts, (what's left after the grandchildren have been at them), spoonful of sugar, enough vegetable oil to make the right consistency. Put them in the food processor, zuzz, then jar. I buy the big bags of peanuts in January. They are often reduced after Christmas. 

Today may be pasta and meatballs with tomato sauce. I'll use some of the roast tomatoes.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx

Pollie

Thanks for the recipe @mumtoomany. Does the jar need to be sterilised or is this a recipe that needs eating within a few days?

mumtoomany

Hi, @Pollie.I just dishwash an old jam jar and lid. I don't fridge it, it normally lasts for a couple of months in the cupboard, would be longer if DGS1 didn't see it. Never had it go off, but sometimes the oil separates out a bit, just stir it well then.

Tea was home made meatballs, home made tomato sauce and spaghetti, sprinkled with grated cheese. Then we finished off the pear tart.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Hi all, not been on over the weekend, so updating now.

Still picking lots of fruit and veg, long may it last. I've noticed several butternut squash that are getting quite big. Raspberries still going, still got plenty of apples. The carrots, which were from carrot fly resitant seeds, appear to have carrot root fly damage! Not as bad as last year though.

On Saturday i made a huge pan of fridge soup. Used the rest of the tomato sauce from the meatballs, vegetable stock and lots of vegetables. Served for lunch all weekend. Tea Saturday was sausage, mash and veg. Yesterday I found a tub of chilli out of the freezer, served with rice. There is a little left for today for lunch. 

Hugs to all, catch up later, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Well Tuesday has rolled around again, so that normally means shopping. Went to Aldi for butter, cheese, milk, biscuits, sweets for dadtoomany, and flour. Spent £17.62. Home bargains had a loaf reduced to 67p, tiger loaf, so bought that too. Veg shop was £4.50, for which I got; iceberg lettuce, spinach and salad leaves, £1; eleven huge oranges £1; two enormous cauliflowers £1; fifteen pears £1.50. So nice this time of year when everything is growing here and i don't need to buy much in there. 

Yesterday I made more sourdough. The last two loaves stuck in the tin and I had to fight them out. Today I oiled a piece of greaseproof paper and lined the tin. I spent the best part of an hour trying to remove the paper that was stuck to the bread! What to do next time? Answers on a postcard please. Tastes ok, if you ignore the paper bits. 

I also made some wraps again yesterday. We had four for tea, with cooked chicken from the freezer, fried onions, sliced peppers, leftover carrots and some hoisin and garlic sauce. Served the rest of the coleslaw and some salad with them. For lunch we'd finished off the chilli, on toast. I had a wrap for lunch too. OH had sourdough bread and tinned soup.

Off to name tea now, what to have? Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx