January 2008 Grocery Challenge

Sunnyday

jpe20 wrote: »

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

I think that the overnight defrost would be fine, i got a slow cooker before christmas and went mad and got the Morphy Richards 6.5 litre one :eek:

There are only two of us so i make a massive cooker full and portion the rest up and freeze for home made ready meals, i do things like soups, stews, shepherds pie chilli, curry etc and it saves a fortune without having to cook all the time.
The plus points are that you arn`t eating all the preservatives etc that are in shop bought ready meals and you can make a huge amount for such a small price. Sometimes i fill the cooker sometimes i run it only half full, it depends how much room i have in the freezer and at the moment it`s rammed!
SD

jpe20

nopot: Thanks for the suggestion on the SC though I would like a chrome/stainless steel one to match my other utensils! Looked cheap enough though!!!

Sunny : Saw that morphy richards SC on Amazon and must admit I am tempted by the higher capacity one ... less cooking in long term using 6.5litre compared to the 3litre ones!

Nite Nite folks

Jools

NEgirl

I spent £24.67 in mr t yesterday so will add the £14 that was groceries to the total - suprising how quickly 'a few bits' adds up when nothing is reduced!! :rotfl:

Savvy_sewing

Still managed to go without doing a tesco order. So perhaps I am not so far off budget afterall. Managed a No spend day yesterday, and hopefully the same again today. I will eek out the storecupboards. I will....

MRSMCAWBER

Morning everyone

No egon i didn't forget the recipes ..you have no idea how much more mess a chaos i created trying to remember to weigh and measure :eek: I have decided that I am deffinitely a "throw it in" kinda girl :rotfl: .....which can be a b*gger when trying to do the same thing twice

anyway here is the goulash recipe -such as it is ... its cut n pasted so i will add the extra bits of info at the bottom...as i made a huge batch, and folks may want to alter stuff to suit -so i would say use it as a base and the fiddle with it according to taste

this made enough soup for 6 flasks for hubby (not full mind) so you can easily half it - I think its has cost me roughly €1.50 in total for 6 meals :j what with cobs working out at 2p each hubby is eating lunch for about 29p :rotfl: and he loves it so we are both happy

SPICY GOULASH SOUP -

1 kilo “soup pork” *
Splash oil
8oz carrot -diced about 1cm
8oz potato - “ “
8oz onion - chopped
4tbs flour
4tsp sweet smoked paprika (or normal)
Squirt of tomato puree -about 2tbs
4 stock cubes
2x 500g pasatta
2pt stock
1 tin red kidney beans
4oz frozen peas
4 small dried chilies (optional)

Place pork in slow cooker until tender
Remove pork from bones and return bones to slow cooker with 2pt cold water to make stock

• Place oil in a large pan and heat
• Add onion, potato and carrot and cook for a couple of minutes
• Add meat -shredded as small as you like
• Add flour, puree, stock cubes, paprika and stir well -over the heat for aminute or two
• Pour in passata and stir well
• Add stock, bring to the boil -stirring occasionally
• Transfer to slow cooker (on high) and leave to cook until potatoes are tender (stirring occasionally)
• Add the drained, rinsed tin of kidney beans, chilies -crushed
• Leave in slow cooker until heated through and then add a handful of frozen peas.
• At this point I add a sprinkle of beef gravy granules to take the edge off the tomatoes as hubby prefers it..Season well and serve…..

• * soup pork -here soup pork is the bones from when the butcher has jointed up the carcass... I got about 10oz of meat off it and at €0.50c per kilo its too good to miss ... so you can always use leftover sunday joint etc.
• If you like you can use more meat -and i probably would if i was planning on using it on rice etc..but with the beans in Its plenty for soup
• I use stock -just because i have the bones, but water should be fine as you add stock cubes anyway
• This will be quite thick as i freeze it and hubby adds a drop of water when he heats it up (saves room in the freezer)
• and you can always add more veg and chunkier.... I only chop small for the flask

I think that is about it ...please feel free to ask if you have any questions as i don't half ramble -but have probably missed something obvious

Right i will get off and type the chicken and sweetcorn 1 up now

halia

damn, was hoping for a NSD today but had to go to GP with painful earache and it requires antibiotics so thats £6.95. On the plus side I resisted the temptation of a latte on the way home!

Going ot need more fresh groceries soon, bread I can make myself but will need fruit, milk and water at the weekend.

tranquil_2

Had to pop to supermarket after school yesterday - spent £13.03. End of day with kids, we did buy things we didn't need (snack for girls and chocolate to get me through to end of day!). However there were things on my list that got brought and a couple of special offers we picked up. Will try to keep to morning shopping now when have one child and more energy!

Above wounldn't have been too bad except that DH went to (different) supermarket for his lunch and got seduced by the BOGOFs too. Therefore total yesterday was over £20 with not a lot to show for it.

Another days tea from the cupboard to make up for it.

Sunnyday

nopot2pin wrote: »

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

Just been catching up from lastnight, i looked at your link for the slowcooker and it`s almost identical to my old one, we were bought it as a wedding present when we were first married and i was learning to cook different things. That brought back some happy memories. Thanks nopot2pin .

When it finally packed in it was in the summer and it was not being used much so i never replaced it and was given my mums old pressure cooker so i started to use that instead it`s only a couple of months ago that i got a new SC and started the batch cooking again and i can`t believe how i`ve managed without it.
SD

Rowan9

CanadaBound - your poor dog - mine would love chicken and rice for tea - watch he doesn't get in the habit of wanting that.

Bags potatoes - I'm looking to buy some as well and they seem to go for around £6 a bag here.

Well, so much for thinking I wouldn't need any more shopping. i was out today and went into Somerfield for a pack of their £1.50 mince (offer at the mo - it's very lean). Ended up with £7.88 spend but for this i got 2x mince, 2 Italia lasagne ready meals which were £2, reduced to 55p each, red bush tea, on offer, reduced sausages, half price actimel and a reduced wholemeal loaf - 35p. Have just looked at my receipt and because the ready meal lasagnes were get £1 off if you buy 2, that has come off my bill! Wow - this means they cost me 5p each. I've never had a bargain like that before. I'll def try that again with reduced foods being on offer for multi buys as well and see if it works again. Anyone else done this or is this a shop mistake?
Went to greengrocer next and spent £4.80 but got a lot for that including blueberries (not very OS but very yum).
wen

Justamum

Had to get some fruit as the fruit bowl was looking a bit empty. I also needed some loo rolls. There was special offer on the 12 packs - normal price £4.50, two for £5. Mind you those same loo rolls not so long ago were £2.99 for 12 as their normal price. Hopefully not much more to buy this week except fresh veg. The contents of the freezer are still quite plentiful so we are going to have to work really quickly next week unpacking the freezer, moving it to the new house and packing it all in again.

I'm really, really enjoying the GC. I've found a "control freak" streak I didn't know existed!