Prepping: the new world...

suzeesu2000

Did my stocking-up-on-tea shop and, guess what…..out of stock! Did get subs which will suffice though. 

Does anyone freeze cheese and what’s the texture like after it thaws? I am looking at that way to store it as we love cheese in this house. Would only be freezing cheddar. If you want a really tasty off brand one, we love the Stamford Street mature in Sainsburys. Would say it’s equally as good as Cathedral City if not better. 

Floss

suzeesu2000 said:

Does anyone freeze cheese and what’s the texture like after it thaws? I am looking at that way to store it as we love cheese in this house. Would only be freezing cheddar. If you want a really tasty off brand one, we love the Stamford Street mature in Sainsburys. Would say it’s equally as good as Cathedral City if not better. 

I grate & freeze, then it can be used from frozen without any noticeable difference in texture.

Auntycaz

Can't believe how much teabags have gone up in price. I was paying £3.00 to £3.50 a box of 240 pg tips and now its about £5.00 for a box of 160..  I had quite a good stock so never noticed until i went to buy some today.
@suzeesu2000 did you see the add for sainsburys bank on nectar where you get 25 points for watching a video and answering a question.

ArbitraryRandom

A couple of times a year I visit somewhere with a local market that has a good cheese stall, so I buy a couple (or three) kilos at a time. I then chunk it up into usable blocks and freeze it. As long as it's well wrapped to avoid air getting to it, and it's packed in a drawer together so me rummaging through the freezer doesn't mean it to starts to thaw, AND it's defrosted in the fridge still wrapped, you can't really tell it's been frozen. It's maybe a little more crumbly to slice (but I tend to buy extra mature, so it's already a bit more crumbly than mild...) 

On the topic of reviewing stocks, this month (Feb) I'm trying to spend no money at all (my version of lent to cut down impulse buying). I'm two weeks in, and I'm more or less out of fresh fruit and veg, plus bread, and anything easy to cook from the freezer. By no means am I out of food... but it's really opening my eyes to what goes first and what's hanging around because it seemed like a good idea at the time* but I just don't want to cook it. I'm going to manage the next couple of weeks fine, though I may need to be a little more open minded and creative around meal planning - but it's certainly going to inform my restocking in March.  


*including the packs of frozen heart, liver, kidneys and just roll pastry because I watched a video on making a 'historical' meat pie a while back and fancied trying it... until it was time to actually try making it  

suzeesu2000

Auntycaz said:

Can't believe how much teabags have gone up in price. I was paying £3.00 to £3.50 a box of 240 pg tips and now its about £5.00 for a box of 160..  I had quite a good stock so never noticed until i went to buy some today.
@suzeesu2000 did you see the add for sainsburys bank on nectar where you get 25 points for watching a video and answering a question.

Goodness me haven’t Tea bags risen in price!! And there used to be quite a gap between PG Tips and Yorkshire and now they are same price. 

I haven’t seen the advert but will be keeping an eye out for it. I have my nectar linked to anywhere that I can to get points. 

suzeesu2000

Floss & ArbitraryRandom thanks for the tips. Shall be putting both to good use. Never thought of grating it before but will be doing that definitely and also making sure to properly wrap and follow your instructions re freezing in a block. Thank you both.

have a great weekend everyone x

daz378

Nice to see the prepping  forum active again, only a prepper insofar as a well stocked cupboard, especially coffee...urban apartment prepping is limited...also  have led lights, tea lights...its comforting in these uncertain times...remember the forums  10..15 years...talking about prepping...seemed a little more abstract then

sammy_kaye18

Have been sat watching videos on sourdough bread most the morning and starting to think that with it being a lower GI index than most breads it will surely do wonders to help with my diabetes and high cholesterol. Now just to brave actually making a starter! 
@ArbitraryRandom I feel this may go the way as your historical meat pie but I have good intentions with it and maybe my sourdough can accompany you pie LOL 

I am sat trying to do a food shop at the minute. Must remember to add some tea bags to it. 

Husband told me the other day that with the garage next to his work that hes spending so much money on junk food that hes convinced thats where his weight gain is coming from that hes not happy with. (He works on an industrial estate so its mostly fast easy food or a local garage) and he doesnt have much access to cooking means in work....so I am looking to make up a load of breakfast muffins and wraps for him with the likes of patties, egg, bacon, hash brown etc in them (not all but a mix if you know what I mean) and then he can take them with him as a substantial breakfast as well as a lunchbox. He said he had been eating cereal but then coming home starving since he works from 8-6 most days. 

Did order the fencing for my garden veg plot yesterday so I can spend the next few dry days sectioning off where my veg growing will be this year and have it protected from the dogs. Swines they are. Also brought a hoop house for the strawberries as well to keep them safe from dogs! Literally trying to figure out how I will save my harvests and different ways to store it. 

Grated cheese in my opinion tastes no different. I always use to keep it in a sealed tub and never had any issues. I remember at first being hesitant so would only use it for things like on pizza, cheese sauces etc and fresh cheese for sandwiches etc but honestly cant tell the difference. Plus I use much less if I buy a stronger more mature cheese too because my kids love grated cheese on pasta. 

Another thing Im thinking of today is crafting some bird feeders. My mother in laws birthday is coming up and she has a new bird feeder from her husband for her birthday because they are re-doing their garden. My husband has organised a load of plum colored slate chippings for them which is part of her gift and she has recently been getting lots of birds and squirrels visiting the little make shift feeding station she has so Im thinking I might get some suet, seed and lard and make her some pretty little feeders with my daughter Holly. We have also brought her a gnome for her collection which is grandma and her birdhouse. 

-taff

ArbitraryRandom said:

On the topic of reviewing stocks, this month (Feb) I'm trying to spend no money at all (my version of lent to cut down impulse buying). I'm two weeks in, and I'm more or less out of fresh fruit and veg, plus bread, and anything easy to cook from the freezer. By no means am I out of food... but it's really opening my eyes to what goes first and what's hanging around because it seemed like a good idea at the time* but I just don't want to cook it. I'm going to manage the next couple of weeks fine, though I may need to be a little more open minded and creative around meal planning - but it's certainly going to inform my restocking in March.  


*including the packs of frozen heart, liver, kidneys and just roll pastry because I watched a video on making a 'historical' meat pie a while back and fancied trying it... until it was time to actually try making it  

Same. I have some pretty esoteric things in my shelves that I havent used...yet! I hope...And I buy some ingredients for pretty much the same reasons...I'm like a magpie for shiny recipes...Perhaps I ought to identfy one thing a week and make a meal from it...And if I could prefect falafel from scratch I think my stash of dried chickpeas would definitely go down...which would mean I could use some of the oil I have stashed to fry them.[Only stashed because I'm not throwing away oil that just tastes a bit spicy]...

And yes, freeze the cheese pre grated [great idea!]  and you avoid trying to cut slices when it crumbles..But you can freeze any cheese, I've frozen camembert[ yes, I know, sacrilege], brie, haven't tried cottage yet but that never lasts long. Now I have a hankering to get some Caerphilly cheese [ but unlike other stuff, that deifnitely won't mind going crumbly ]

@Sammy, you can make a bread with  soaked red lentils and half flour which will be lower GI too, have a google...I have tried making red lentil wraps they [finally!] work well, but you defiitely need a blender to make the batter properly.

ArbitraryRandom

sammy_kaye18 said:

So I am looking to make up a load of breakfast muffins and wraps for him with the likes of patties, egg, bacon, hash brown etc in them (not all but a mix if you know what I mean) and then he can take them with him as a substantial breakfast as well as a lunchbox. He said he had been eating cereal but then coming home starving since he works from 8-6 most days. 

Might be sucking eggs, but when I had a long commute a few years back, I used to make batches of 'breakfast parcels'.

Basically any mix of bacon, sausage, black pud, beans, mushroom, peppers, hash brown, cheese (no egg) cooked and cold in the middle of a tortilla wrap, sometimes with spicy ketchup or bbq. Fold it all into the middle to make a roundish parcel and put it in a hot pan fold down for a few minutes to toast the bottom to seal (you can do both sides but must do the bottom). 

They are easy to batch a month in advance, take up surprisingly little room, freeze and defrost really well, are tasty cold but even better with a minute in the microwave, and you can eat them on the go. 

I also tried a few others (ham, cheese and chutney; tuna melt, fishcakes etc) and most things with some cheese/a bit of sauce worked well, but I kept coming back to breakfast wraps. Eggs never freeze well for me. 

@-taff Hummous is also quick and easy (with summer coming up?)  you don't actually need all the faffy ingredients if you've got chickpeas, garlic, oil, and a bit of lemon/acid.