April 2008 Grocery Challenge

JennyBee_2

Chicken, Cheese and Leek Pasta Bake

• Leftover Chicken
• 400g dried tortiglioni or rigatoni pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 or 2 leeks or 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 500g jar tomato pasta sauce
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 100g baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Roughly chop chicken
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook pasta until just tender. Drain. Return to saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion/leek. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes or until tender. Add onion and garlic, pasta sauce, chicken, 3/4 cup cheese and spinach to hot pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Toss gently until well combined.
4. Spoon pasta mixture into a 7cm deep, 24cm x 19cm (base) baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and heated through. Serve.

JennyBee_2

ps I'm not a big fan of spinach so normally leave that out!

Savvy_sewing

weezl74 wrote: »

Hiya mooloo,

There was a thread on the christmas and special occasions board, and I started a little one about OS hampers. My challenge wasn't really based on a thread, but my aim was that christmas would effectively not 'cost' anything. :money:

We were on a £50 a month food budget then, so we aimed to buy the stuff for the hampers out of that as well. We made chutneys, herb oils, rich dark chocolate sauce, apple cheese, chilli jam, caramelised onion relish... :T

We had a 4% cashback credit card at the time, for 3 months leading up to christmas, so I put food shopping, council tax, all my train fares to work, fuel for the car.... etc, onto that, and used the 4% cashback to buy wool to knit HM handbags, scarves, cushion covers, even a jumper (a bit wonky, but loved by my gothic neice!!!:D).

Others find inventive other ways of making christmas 'cash neutral', hope you are successful with a way that suits you.;)

Hope that all makes sense!

Weezl x

I think I will have to have a go at doing this. A bit late into the year I suppose but I am sure I can do something with the making side. I managed to buy several food hampers from tesco for about £10 a basket in January. I used one to give to my parents for their birthdays as they are in February, only one week apart.
I have just lined another one, and am using that as a basket for my BF's Dad and his new bride. ( I removed the christmas puddings).
I have another one, that I will adapt later in the year for my eldest daughter and her fella. Now you have got me thinking. As I am already a bankrupt I cant use the cards etc for the cash back, but perhaps I ought to make more gifts from what I have lying around.

Bargain_Rzl

JennyBee wrote: »

Hiya

I saw the asian specials in Lidl as well but had a quick look on the asda website and they seem to have the same size tin of coconut milk for 34p.

Thought you might be interested

Jen

I just had a look myself and couldn't see anything under 64p - however I did a search for "coconut" and found that for some reason the next thing that was coming up after Blue Dragon coconut milk was baking powder for 34p it wasn't this you saw, was it?

Anyway, I've been to Lidl, stocked up, spent £25.62 :eek: though £5.98 of that was on two chrome and rubber doorstops which will come out of a different budget. So £19.64 on groceries, of which £5.34 was stuff I would probably have bought this week anyway, including a large bar of very nice white chocolate So, total spend on stocking up (i.e. the Asian stuff and 4 bags of bread flour) was £14.30. No chance of meeting this month's target - but still glad I went. I might even go back for more, later in the week. That was all I could fit in the trolley. As for my spending target for the month, I'll be happy if I come in below £65 - that's now realistic with the same budgetary constraints as I started off with, if you see what I mean.

MRSMCAWBER

MrDT

I think i am going to make "emptying the freezers" my challenge for May..and probably June too ... I have some sort of compulsion to keep my freezers -mine are like the "magic porridge pot story".. i take something out to cook and end up putting more back in :rolleyes: . Made a bit of space over the last couple of days..but today i have put 6 pots of HM soup in there..so now its full again

Weezl74...

Thanks for reminding me.. i started knitting things for xmas and i have trailed off and im in the midst of doing a beautiful x stitch for my mum -but haven't touched it in a while...so i need to get my bum into gear .
Maybe i should stop shopping and get more done... want to buy as few pressies as possible this year..not just for the cost but so they are more personal....
someone please keep asking me if i have done anymore..pester power may help :rotfl:

Bargainrzl.. was the flour stil on offer in Lidl then? hope so

Bargain_Rzl

Yep, flour still 48p

angelnikki

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

I just had a look myself and couldn't see anything under 64p - however I did a search for "coconut" and found that for some reason the next thing that was coming up after Blue Dragon coconut milk was baking powder for 34p it wasn't this you saw, was it?

It's Dunn's River Coconut Milk (400ml) that is 34p at ASDA. It's out of stock online though.

MrsM i thought maybe my flour might be heavier but thought I'd sound silly suggesting it.


Nikki
x

ifonlyitwaseasier

sainsburys stil have the flour for 48p too

SAVVYMUMMY_2

JennyBee wrote: »

Chicken, Cheese and Leek Pasta Bake

• Leftover Chicken
• 400g dried tortiglioni or rigatoni pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 or 2 leeks or 1 small red onion, finely chopped
• 500g jar tomato pasta sauce
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 100g baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Roughly chop chicken
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook pasta until just tender. Drain. Return to saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion/leek. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes or until tender. Add onion and garlic, pasta sauce, chicken, 3/4 cup cheese and spinach to hot pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Toss gently until well combined.
4. Spoon pasta mixture into a 7cm deep, 24cm x 19cm (base) baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and heated through. Serve.

Thanks jennybee, sounds yummmmmmmm. Will perhaps try this tomorrow instead of the curry and freeze batch the curry.

JennyBee_2

My lovely other half just looked at me like I'd gone mental. We had gorgeous sausage and red wine casserole for tea with a portion for freezing but there was loads of the sauce left so I was there dutifully putting it in another pot for freezing. Am I strange to do that? I thought it would be nice as a red wine "gravy" next time we have sausage and mash or something?

Please don't let this money saving thing be getting to me so much that I'm now freezing random food!!