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joedenise

Really wish we had a Farm Foods near to us.  My DSis was telling me about some of the current offers when I was on the phone to her today - didn't realise she had one near her otherwise I'd have had a nosey -sure there would have been some things we could have bought and brought back in the car!

@annabanana82 - what recipe do you use for your sweet potato curry?  Would make a good cheap meal and plenty of extra for the freezer!  

bubbs

maman said:

You did well to hold that watermelon in one hand @bubbs. Penny Mordaunt eat your heart out! 🤣

🤣🤣 when i went in i said will you be getting the watermelons and it started today and because i am always early i am usually there before delivery. He knows me in there , he is such a lovely guy, he said we have them out the back, i'll go and get you them, i said 2 big ones please 😂 he brought the pallet out so i could choose

They also have pilgrims mature cheddar for £1.99!! 

strawb_shortcake

@joedenise, I do tend to make it depending which spices I have in the cupboard. 

Today I used 1 heaped tsp garam masala, 3 tsp tandoori curry powder, a shake of cumin and coriander and a pinch of chilli powder (its really hot). 

I baked chopped sweet potato for around 15 mins. Then dry fried ginger, garlic and onion until soft, stirred in the spices then added 2 tins tomatoes, a tin of chicken peas and the sweet potato and left to cook. I usually stir in a bag of spinach towards the end for extra speed 

Abbafan1972

maman said:

Ironically @Abbafan1972, there's a podcast on the SW app today about 'getting your husband on board with Food Optimising', so you're not the only one! 🤣

I do about 95 % of my shop in Aldi. 👍

I know, I looked at the podcasts earlier today but haven’t listened to it yet. 

Re:- Farmfoods - we have one of these close by where we go for Pepsi max and a few other bits, but no very often. The shopping centre where it’s located is very run down with mostly empty shop units and a empty pub that had it’s roof set alight. There’s only 2 shops left, Farmfoods & The Card Factory. Nobody knows when, but it’s supposed to be demolished and a new Lidl being built there. Don’t know what will be happening to Farmfoods. 

joedenise

Morning all, a very busy morning coming up!  DH's car needs to go into the garage this morning as the front brakes are juddering a bit - no doubt an expensive job to sort out.

We need to get blood tests done, go to the Food Warehouse to stock up on meat and fish then Morrisons for my bread and a couple of other things and then off to our nearest town to Tesco to get the rest of the shopping.  Will also need to pick up our prescriptions at some time but will probably leave that until tomorrow as that's in the next village along the coast so not really on the way to anywhere we need to go today!

Thanks for the recipe @annabanana82; will give that a try at some point but probably not for a while as this month's menu plan is already sorted out and we're away all of next month and not sure whether we'll be wanting hot curries in the summer months!  I've added the recipe to my list of SW friendly ones on my laptop.

Today's plan:

B - Porridge, strawberries, raspberries , blueberries & grapes - HEB; S; F; 1
L - bacon and mushroom carbonara - P; S; F (using up LO mushroom stroganoff)
D - haddock, chorizo and new potato one pot (new recipe - BBC); garlic bread P; S; F; 6.5

HEA - milk
HEB - oats
Syns - Sweet Freedom Caramel 1; chorizo 3.5; half Schlar roll for garlic bread 3

Have a good day everyone.

Longwalker

@Abbafan1972, if you are a Pepsi max drinker, now believe me here, go to Lidl. They do their own brand, Freeway MAX - 55p for 2 litres - its nicer then the real mccoy. I dont know what the cans are like, I didnt like the cans of diet Freeway so haven't tried the cans in the max. Blind tasting of the bottle stuff - you will not know the difference  and you save a fortune 

Actually I do 99% of my food shop in Lidl, very very few items Ive not like. Their deli range is superb , well tbh I could vouch and wax lyrically about all their products

You know your problem you are having getting everyone on board with dinner? Do you meal plan at all? Or is it a case of hitting the supermarket and every man woman and child throws in what they fancy? 

I meal plan - kind of - Im more of a reverse meal planer I know what my two like and dont like, I know what their favourite meals are and the ones they will eat but wouldn't be first choice - mum would eat fried cod in batter every day of the week with maybe the odd fry to ring the changes, Mr L - hes a meat and 3 veg man, Im just not fussed on food full stop and will eat what I have to  - so my meal plan takes on board their favourites , but it all depends on cost. Im surviving on a small works pension at the moment so money is tight. Cash poor/time rich  - I have time to cook from scratch 

A weeks menu for us goes along the lines of a roast,( not always on a Sunday either ) the left overs as maybe cold meat and bubble and squeak, or another roast if Ive still got a lot of veggies. Or is there is only a small bit of chicken left - sweet and sour or a stir fry. Then there will be mince or sausages  - mince can be anything from cottage pie to lasagne or even a Keema curry. Sausages - sausage and mash ( I cant abide and wont eat ) or sausage and chips - I will eat or sausage casserole - we all will eat. We might have pork chops or liver and bacon, chicken and turkey appears a lot, ( its cheapish still ) and depending on what Ive picked up theres a zillion choices we have from HM KFC to turkey and leak pie, curries and chinese , tray bakes - just about anything and everything can be made with those. And of course fish - fish pie, fish fingers, grilled fish, battered fish - HM fish cakes . I shop out of the reduced aisle first, I try never to pay full price for meat and fish - half price or less please So thats why I reverse meal plan - what is out there that I can afford to buy and work with that 

And of course, throw nothing away. In my house, those chicken pieces would have gone in the freezer for another day

Mr L will sometimes sit and whinge - I dont like fish and chips - and I say - tough, mum does and Im not cooking twice - eat it - hes 61 and can act like a child like the best of us Theres a lot of dishes me and he likes that mum doesn't, I dont cook for mum on Saturday ( its my day off, pub night  ) so thats when we have those, just the two of us - and that will be the pasta dishes, the simple omelette , a hm kebab type food 

I have to be tough, I cant afford not to be Seriously money is tight and the only wiggle room is on the groceries so I have to keep a tight reign. For a while there, before I received my pension ( and it is tiny ) I had no income at all and Mr L had to pay for everything - he soon wised up to how much the food shop had gone up and has stopped whinging so much when he doesn't get want he wants.

And this brings me back to why Im actually enjoying SW, I just have to make a few tweaks and we all carry on eating what we always have , only I get a free get out of jail card when it really is a meal I hate, and sit and have pasta and salad or an omelette  

maman

That’s a really useful post @Longwalker. It’s good to get a reminder of all the things that we can eat on SW and that it doesn’t have to be expensive! I think most posters on here are cost conscious  as it’s a mse site. Personally I just hate being ripped off! Fortunately I, too, have more time now to cook from scratch.

I’ve always meal planned as when I was working silly hours I found it saved time to nip around the SM with my shopping list just once a week than dither about thinking what I needed every night.  I did buy some prepared meals (like chilled chicken already in a sauce) but mostly I’d batch cook at weekends to save time on school nights.

Let us know how you get on with the haddock and chorizo recipe @joedenise. We tend to have our fish just plain baked as it’s so expensive (even YS) that it seems wrong to hide the taste. Although I suppose I could buy the bags of frozen cod/haddock from Iceland/Farmfoods which are mis-shapes but taste fine usually.

Today’s EE plan-

B- HEB toast, HEA milk for drinks, bacon, eggs (P), tomatoes (S)

L- ham (P), 1 potato (F), fried veg and pickles (S)

D- Baked haddock (P), sweet potato (F), spicy cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes (S)

Syns= 0

Longwalker

@maman , Tesco do a bag of  frozen pollock I think it is, for £2.50. Now its thin, very thin, Id have used the whole bag for the 3 of us if I was battering it, but its just the job to mix in with a packet of reduced fish pie mix to stretch it. Jaimie Oliver done a fish pie on his £1 meals programme using it. Excellent value for money 

I always shop YS for fish - if its something we will eat, I lift it and freeze it till theres enough for the three of us. I was dead lucky a couple of weeks ago, it looked like Asda were swopping suppliers of their fresh salmon Danes, I picked up 5 packs at £2 each 

Last night I went for a good walk instead of having dinner. I wasnt hungry and I really didnt fancy what we were having - I really dont like mash or boiled potatoes and then add pork chops - to me its a rather insipid dinner and whilst I would eat it if I had to, I chose not to - Mr L ate my chop I got hungry at about 10pm so had a bowl of yoghurt and a handful of granola stirred into it

This morning I had my overnight oats as HEB

We were to go out for lunch which would have meant no dinner required, but the weather isnt the best. Ive some mince already cooked in the freezer so will get that out and make cottage pie with baked beans  - all free food I believe

Seeing as I just had breakfast about an hour ago, I dont think Ill be needing anything till dinner tonight 

Coxy11

Morning all,

Sorry for not being around. We did a load of weeding and tidying in the garden on Sunday afternoon then went to DSis's to collect Dad. BIL had cooked a roast which was lovely but I know that the roasties were in goose fat....oh dear. Bought DDad back here and we went to the Tottenham stadium for the Dare Walk and tour yesterday. It was a really good day and he hasn't stopped smiling. Loving making memories Food for breakfast and lunch yesterday was on plan but choices at the stadium were pie and mash or sausage roll and chips!

Food today:
B - Weetabix choc melts, mullerlight vanilla, blueberries - HEB, 0.5, S
L - LO savoury rice, 2 babybel light - free, HEA
D - smoked salmon and pea pasta - contains single cream so 3
HEA - milk
Syns - 3.5

Get well soon @annabanana82 x
Have a good day all
Coxy

bubbs

Evening all 😁

Another lovely day, another 2 loads washed and dried 😁

Pepsi max cans 2 x 24 trays in Tesco from tomorrow club card price £12, i'll be stocking up 😁

I don't meal plan as such but my cupboards and freezers always full, every week i buy a tonne of yoghurt, fruit, veg , salad and eggs, top up spices if i need them, ham, rolls and pitta that's mainly my shopping every week, but i usually stock up on meat at company shop, we use longlife milk anyway so if it's on offer i stock up.

Food today

poached eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes fried, baked beans

melon and ham

pulled pork pitta, hexb and half hexa, salad , air fried tinned new potatoes, BBQ sauce 3 syns