January 2008 Grocery Challenge

egon

tattycath wrote: »

Hi all, Yesterday, I went to the local green grocer and asked how much for a sack of potatoes and he quoted over £9.00 for a large sack-is it that I'm out of touch or is that ever so slightly (bordering on real rip off) expensive??? Needless to say I let him keep them!!!

We paid £7.50 for a 25 kg bag at a local farm (Upton upon Severn)

TheBees

Managed 2 NSD's, Monday and Tuesday and was very pleased with myself. However had to buy some tinned tomatoes for a recipe today but got loads of £2 coins for our £2 challenge in the change so not too bad!

Made a nice new mince and rice recipe which I found in one of those free recipe leaflets in the butchers. (Basically a cottage/shepherds pie base with added yellow pepper, tin of toms, 4 rashers of bacon chopped and some paprika. Added 300g of cooked rice and stirred through.) I made double and so have frozen the spare one again ready for another day. It went down really well with the family so I was really pleased.

Going to Lidl tom to stock up on basics such as baked beans, tinned toms, milk, fruit and bread but hope not to spend too much.

Good luck all - we still have over 2 weeks to go as our challenge doesnt finish until 4th of the month.

The Bees

Mollymop5

mollymunchkin wrote: »

I think we pay about £4.50 for a sack from a local farmer.

We pay £4.50 from local farmer too

jpe20

Hi folks,
Being a guy I am rubbish knowing food stuff!! Can you freeze new potatoes say and then steam them straight away (got a tefal steamer last year) from frozen??? Do you lose much in taste? I assune you do not need to defrost frozen veg like brocoli b4 you steam it.
I am thinking of buying a load of brocoli ... preping it into florets then freezing. Or maybe I should simply buy a bag of frozen brocoli florets rather than wasting a load of brocoli stumps.
Must see if I can find a decent local farmer!! Living in the city without a car ain't easy!!
Jools

scotrae

tattycath wrote: »

Hi all, Yesterday, I went to the local green grocer and asked how much for a sack of potatoes and he quoted over £9.00 for a large sack-is it that I'm out of touch or is that ever so slightly (bordering on real rip off) expensive??? Needless to say I let him keep them!!!

We got our sack of spuds from the local farm shop for a fiver last weekend and they are actually really good - not too muddy and very few dodgy bits so far.

Just as well we spent something there. Prior to the GC we used to spend a good £25 a week there - mainly on fresh meats with a little cooked meat ans some fruit and veg. DH did sneak in for a pack of their 'special' sausages last week but apart from that I'm trying to see how long we can make the frozen meat here last for. The poor place would go out of business if all of its converts switched to the GC instead!

Sunnyday

Hi jpe20,
I don`t think that the new potatoes would steam from frozen as they usually take longer than veg to cook, i would probably par boil them , freeze and then thaw before steaming although i`ve never tried this myself, i`m sure someone will be along soon to give some advice.
Broccolli would probably need blanching before freezing, again i`ve never done this and if i was going to need it at the end of the week i would just buy frozen for convenience, the best part of buying fresh broccolli is that you can peel the stalks and use it to make soup etc but at the end of the day it`s whatever is easiest/convenient for you.
HTH
SD

jpe20

Hi again ... thinking possibly of getting a slow cooker around 20quid to do some meals. I would like to do something like chicken fillet with baby new potatoes and veg all in one pot/attempt ( I am super lazy!). I would do things like Irish stew m braised beef and casserole meals to try and replace say 2 of my 5 or 6 weekly ready meals. Would I save much money investing in a slow cooker (looks like I will be under budget by 60quid this month!!)

Jools

CanadaBound

Bad News : It is 10 to 1 in the morning and I still have about 1/2 hours work to do before I can call it a night...

Good News : A NSD! (Even if it was just because I didn't have time - poor dog had to have chicken and rice for his tea as I am out of dog food!) :T

jpe20

Hi sunny ... thanks .... I think I will go for the froaen option as they seem pretty cheap anyway and will save me the hassle of making the florets, As for the potatoes I suppose an overnight defrost would be ok.

Jools

nopot2pin

jpe20 wrote: »

Hi again ... thinking possibly of getting a slow cooker around 20quid to do some meals. I would like to do something like chicken fillet with baby new potatoes and veg all in one pot/attempt ( I am super lazy!). I would do things like Irish stew m braised beef and casserole meals to try and replace say 2 of my 5 or 6 weekly ready meals. Would I save much money investing in a slow cooker (looks like I will be under budget by 60quid this month!!)
Jools

Jools...
I just bought a SC at Argos in the sale ... It was only 8.49

I have only used mine once so far... as I only bought it last Friday... but it seems to do the job.
I think the thing with SC is that you can bulk cook with minimum effort. Then freeze in individual portions.
I am not sure how much money you will save, but it does seem to free up loads of time, which is good for me.

Heres the LINK for the one I bought