January 2008 Grocery Challenge

purpleivy

HI

have made Twink's hobnobs and they were fab. I love the Nairn's ginger oatcakes, but not the price! I think I probably have all the ingredients in the house, but lacking a recipe. Would you mind sharing? Possibly digestives as well, as ds likes those.

I've strained my yoghurt to make yog cheese and would love it to go in a cake or something. Any ideas folks?

Irish_Mom wrote: »

On Sat I also made oatcakes, Twinks hobnobs and digestive biscuits. The digestives are not sweet at all even though I added sugar so I'll use them as savoury. I also made youghurt which I strained until it made cheese so I want to experiment with it this afternoon and add black pepper ,frozen prawns etc to see if it could be another lunch.

mrssnowy_2

Hi Irish Mom
Scones,try rolling them thick and cook in very hot pre heated oven.
St delia recipe.
DH loves cheese scones,good quick (cheap?) filling tea.

irishwexford

Hope u feel better soon Irishmom. When I go to visit my family in Ireland I am shocked by the lack of choice. Small Tesco shop, if special offer on everyone is sending a text to family before it runs out. Lydl is a few miles away and does no restock shelves on day so after tea everything gone, the biggest supermarket is Dunns (I think). If my family lived here where we have Iceland, Lydl, Aldi and the big three plus Somerfield they would have such a good time.

irishwexford

Checked my spending diary today and so have spent £95.64 with £9 left in purse to last this week on milk and bread. I have allowed £10 per week for veggies for the next three weeks which should amount to £135.64 if I can manage it. Still have plenty of meat in freezer which includes beef from Christmas. I have two turkeys (free gifts) in freezer waiting to be cooked when I get around to it, most of this will be frozen for stir frys, pies etc. When I think that six months ago I was spending £200 and over on food per month for the two of us, now when I find a few veggies getting old instead of throwing them in composter I make a soup. Always threw chicken bones out instead of making stock and never checked fridge for sell by date until they had passed it. Just purchased Martins little book 'The Three Most Important Lessons You've Never Been Taught' for my grandson who has just left school and spends all his spare time on pc trying to spend his money.

Irish_Mom

Hi PurpleIvy,

I got the recipe from Shirley Goode website www.shirleygoode.com I haven't tried the savoury crackers yet. I think when I do the oatcakes next time I will put in more salt and black pepper. You could also put in garlic or celery salt.

I added the 1 oz sugar to the digesitives as she suggest but I thought they still lacked a sugar kick or maybe I'm too used to shopbought:rotfl:

Let me know how you get on

Best of Biscuits

With the holiday period in about 6 weeks, we will stocking up with the best cheeses, so why not bake great biscuits to go with them.
Digestive Biscuits - makes savoury or sweet
6 ox (175g) wholewheat flour
pinch salt
3 oz (75g) S.R.flour,
1 level tsp baking powder
2 oz (50g) each lard and margarine
very little milk to mix.
For sweet version add: 1 oz (25g) granulated sugar
For savoury version: add 1/2 tsp celery salt, or 1 tsp. dried herbs, black pepper
Mix the dry ingredients together and rub in fats thoroughly (you could blitz these in a processor). Mix in only enough milk to give a firm dough. Knead lightly then roll out on a floured board to approx. 1/4" thick. Cut into 3" r0unds and place on a greased and floured baking sheet, !!!!! well and bake at 190C, 375F, Gas 5 for 10-15 mins until just browning. Cool on a cake airer.
Tip: to make chocolate digestives, spread a thin layer of melted chocolate over the underside and drag a fork through to make a wiggly pattern. Keep in a tin when set.
To give a professional look to biscuits, buy a round 'needle holder' from a florists who use and sell these to hold flower arrangements. Keep yours just for pricking biscuits or pastry.

Oatcakes
8 oz (225g) fine oatmeal *
good pinch of salt
1 1/2 oz (40g) lard
Mix together the oatmeal and salt (* you can blitz porridge oats down to make a rough flour). Add the melted fat and only enough boiling water to bind. Knead in a bowl and turn out onto a board sprinkled with the oatmeal. Roll out thinly and cut into rounds, oblongs or triangles.
Place on a prepared baking sheet (as above) and bake at 200C, 400F, Gas 6 for 5-10 minutes until just crisp. Cool on a wire rack.

Small Savoury Crackers - makes 6 - 7 dozen
9 oz (250g) S.R.flour
1 tsp salt
2 oz (50g) margarine
cold water
Additional flavours: Parmesan, celery salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, black pepper.
Sieve flour and salt, rub in margarine and mix to a firm dough with water. Turn out onto a floured board and knead well. Decide how many flavours you wish to use and divide the dough into that amount. Roll out each ball into an oblong and sprinkle with chosen flavour. Fold into three and repeat twice more. Finally roll out thinly and cut into circles with a 2" cutter. Repeat using each ball with its own flavour. !!!!! the biscuits and place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 180C etc. until light gold and turning crisp.
Tip: Remove a biscuit after 5 minutes to check if it is cooked. If not, keep checking every 30 seconds or so until you are satisfied. Remember you can always return biscuits to the oven if not crisp enough. Always store biscuits in an airtight tin.

Irish_Mom

Hi IrishWexford,

The lack of choice here is a killer and so are the high prices.
Meanmarie mentioned organid chickens being €13-15 each!!
I'm allergic to Dunnes I think they are so expensive. I lived in London for years and when I first moved back I nearly starved!! They looked at me like I had 2 heads when I asked for couscous and bulgar wheat.Even the milk was marked differently -low fat instead of semi skimmed so it took me ages to work it out.

IM

cheerfulness4

lil_me wrote: »

Angel I've frozen that once before and thought it was fine, but as long as you'll use it all by then then not to worry of course.

I've been freezing it successfully, too. Not sure why they don't recommend it. At £1 a bottle its a bargain so shame not to get extra in.

lalapalooza

Wow -you guys put me to shame.... I couldn't even tell you the price of a tin of beans - I never look :-(

I am intending to look at my spending this month - there is only the two of us (and 4 cats) and I am sure we spend far too much on food during the month.

I do like to purchase my meat and veg from the farmers market where I can (so mainly local and free-range/organic) and am making a real effort to use every bit for more meals, as we both need to lose weight also.....

The new year intention is to plan menus, count calories, reduce waste and throwing food away, and be basically more frugal.

I remember mum making spag bol one day and using the leftover mince mix to make pasties with - a long lost art I guess!

Anyway, next month I hope to have a budget set and stick to it.

How much do you think should be the average you aim for, for 2 folk?

Debs

Rowan9

£3 on toothpaste yesterday - Superdrug had 2 for £3 on those new Aquafresh types (I think they're £1.99 each) which i like. Mind you, i also use tesco complete or whatever it's called if I run out and there are no specials on the branded stuff. What do others think about toothpaste and supermarkets own? i always worry because i want to keep my teeth as long as i can

My total is now £76.58 out of £120 but I'm unsure how to set up a sig for myself and alter it. Had a quick search but haven't had success. can anyone point me in the right direction? thanks.

You are all so good at keeping me on track with this challenge. I cut down our grocery spend about a year ago and rarely throw anything out now but this challenge has inspired me to think outside the box, as has been said on here, which opens my eyes to new recipes and matching up different foods which i wouldn't have before. My OH is even getting onside - if he buys something he always tells me when it has been on offer and he really looks for a bargain now (well...most of the time!). He is a changed Andrex-only man and now doesn't even complain when I put tesco shower gel in the bathroom. He despairs when i don't buy fairy washing up liquid but that's about it (we currently have 3 bottles of Fairy in the cupboard now, thanks to his last despair -he went out and bought them.... Still, if it encourages him to wash up I'm not complaining )
wen

editied to say - welcome debs - someone will come along and give you ideas about a budget. Well done for using the farmers' market. I'm sure you'll find peeps on here who use up food to make other meals as your mum did - this is the place for that!!

JoJoB

£12 in tescos today, was still a fairly frugal shop with a mind to making meals for batch freezing etc.

£6 on a pair of trainers which was good! And a wee splurge in the boots 75% off sale, but only 12 quid so was fairly restrained. just adding the tescos shop to the grocery budget though.