Freegan October Food Challenge

Viking_mfw

Hello! Yes, we totted up and spent about half of our food and household budget. That would have been lower if I hadn't bought gin and  sherry mind you! And of course the required pumpkins. And we had one evening McDonald's after a hospital visit for an x ray (OH, nothing wrong).

Ol*o was the main source of food - and my free work lunches. 

We haven't stopped. We had pumpkin soup for lunch with additional ol*o veg and croutons made from ol*o gf bread. Dinner was bacon cabbage and potato with only the bacon bought. We need to find ways to use up mixed cauliflower and broccoli tomorrow. Perhaps with cheese sauce. 

I am not convinced the children have even noticed the difference. They've had to put up with alternatives to porridge more often than normal. There have been sufficient pizzas that we've been able to freeze and feed them that about every 10 days which is their main requirement for food happiness. 

So all in all as long as we can buy some cheddar, some bacon, baked beans, butter and ketchup, we can probably go on doing this relatively painlessly for a while at least. I've just ordered the Christmas cake ingredients which cost the earth as I also supply some other family members. So we will probably try to keep going aa much freegan as possible through November. 

I might make an apple pie or similar tomorrow with one of my preserved apple lots. We haven't actually had any for some weeks. Alternatively perhaps a carrot cake as we have batons in the freezer and finished the pumpkin cake at lunch... 

I will say we've eaten more veg than previously. It has taken more thinking about feeding everyone (OH defaults to omelette if nothing obvious). But it's been quite satisfactory and I appreciate the feeling of not taking things for granted. It feels a bit more like eating with the seasons apart from the fact that quite often it's completely not seasonal! 

PollyWollyDoodle

I’m so impressed with what you’ve achieved.  

You’ve obviously had to work hard at creative solutions, and I think you were right to buy food to help to stretch things out, it’s not fun if you’re eating the same things all the time. 

Please keep your diary going, I’d love to hear what else you come up with.  I take it that you’d regard a freezer as an essential part of your planning? 

Cherryfudge

I'm awed at your results. Of course the gin and sherry may have skewed the spending a little bit but that's a huge reduction in the food bill and lots of food saved from waste. Might you be inspired to turn Ol1o produce into wine at some point, thus reducing the alcohol bill?  

I hope you keep the diary up, as it's really interesting.

t14cy_t

absolutely love this thread!!. ive got to get abit creative with vac pac potatoes in a sauce left over from olio, 2 packs. made a wrap quiche yesterday to use all the bits hanging around in the fridge, very tasty!

Viking_mfw

We don't actually drink very much at all! The gin was for my mother. I do have the occasional sherry and we put odds and ends of that into things. 

Yes, @PollyWollyDoodle a freezer is definitely essential. Although it also gets over full at times! 

Tonight we are going to make the packs of cauliflower and broccoli into cauli and broc cheese, which will be served with the remaining frozen Quorn sausages for wheat eaters, baked beans and probably some chips. I'm going to empty all the random little packs of parmesan into the cheese sauce. 

Viking_mfw

I picked up a last minute collection at Toscos yesterday - literally there was 3 minutes to the time it was due and there was surplus food confirmed so if I hadn't, it would have been chucked. 

It had A LOT - like 50 - packs of little gem. Someone is coming to collect them, presumably for animal feed. 

There were also masses of crunchy salad bags, which at Mr T has red cabbage in instead of white so this morning I have spent about an hour separating those into cabbage, carrots and lettuce. I do like braised red cabbage. There will be a (very) big quantity so I will probably cook then freeze half. Apparently it only take 5 mins in the instant pot which seems like an easy Sunday job. 

This morning the kids have had some very precisely trimmed strawberries and are now making their way through unexpected quantities of snack pork pies. DS1 who is 7 has eaten 3 in a row. I can only assume any savings on food this month will be spent on bigger clothes...

Lunch will be vegan ham and mushroom pizzas for the others (experimental!) and a baked potato with a tub of tuna sweetcorn sandwich filling for me. 

Dinner will almost certainly be mainly Brussels...

Viking_mfw

Brussels bacon and potatoes.... seeing a theme? 

Red cabbage duly braised and tomorrow we'll have a faux roast with wafer thin chicken slices previously frozen, a range of veg, ready made mash and importantly, as much instant gravy as anyone can handle!

We were running v low on fruit so I did buy some.apples and bananas to keep the kiddos happy. Also a box of oat bars for DS1's school snack. 

Viking_mfw

Day 3 of mainly Brussels sprouts. 

Cherryfudge

Viking_mfw said:

Day 3 of mainly Brussels sprouts. 

Oh dear.  

Cherryfudge

Actually it sounds like one of those minimalist novels. You could win a prize somewhere for creating this story on a pin head.