April 2008 Grocery Challenge

mrssnowy_2

Sunnyday wrote: »

Rofl - *wipes tea off screen*

Yesterday afternoon i put a bottle of long life milk in my wilco food flask and microwaved it, added some greek yogurt and put the lid on, this morning i opened the flask and now have a big tub of gorgeous tasting greek yog YUM!
I though it would need straining or something but it`s great just as it is. This will save me a fortune and i`ve also read that if i strain it through muslin in the fridge i can make soft cheese and add things like chives to it so i`m well impressed - just need to find somewhere now that sells muslin squares so that i can have a go.

Good luck with the rest of the month everyone - not long left now.
SD

Hi sunnyday,try use new unused J-cloth type,that will work.
yogurt sounds great I am going to have a go,but what is the wilco flask like?
I have a wide mouthed flask(not frog) and have made yogurt in that before.
Have now got £4 something left till Monday :eek:
I'll just have another NSD and clean the windows to take my mind off it.
Well done all

ifonlyitwaseasier

very spooky MrsM, i've been looking at it thinking "i really should try using you"

thank you, i'm having a look right now, some of the recipes look interesting, theres one for quinoa burgers that i might try this weekend

MSHAWX

I would have been within budget for this month if it wasn't all the lunches I have to provide to visitors. I like visitors but I never know how many and how frequent it's going to be. Can be anything from oe to seven extras. HM soup goes a long way and is appreciated, Twinks hobnobs are easy, delicious, and go down well, but cheese and pate can be expensive.
I think next month I'm going to have to do it in two parts, so Mrs M can you put me down for £100 for my OH and myself. I think I'll have to set myself a seperate budget of say £6 per lunch; soup will be cheap as it's mostly home grown vegs (jersulem artichokes or leek and potato at the moment) and what I save on the soup I'll put towards the cheese/pate. Any money left over I can put it in my sealed pot challenge

sashanut

Hi All

Anyone got any ideas how I can use up almost 2 large celeriac? DD likes it but DH is none too keen - I've tried it roasted before & might be able to smuggle some in the mashed taters, but any suggestions welcome!

BTW aubergines were only 26p in Lidl this week - I got 2 pretty large ones so thought they were a bargain for 52p. Also Blue Dragon soy sauce 38p a bottle...

Budget well blown & DD17 keeps asking for £1 for stir-fry - every day!!! Not to mention £1.30 for Alpro 'light' soya milk, I've told her we have soya milk (from Lidl @52p) & told her she should try not to blow her budget on tat like magazines & etc & should learn a lesson from that. She told me that yes, yes, yes - she learnt that lesson - every month! Groundhog day, anyone?

sashanut

MSHAWX wrote: »

I would have been within budget for this month if it wasn't all the lunches I have to provide to visitors. I like visitors but I never know how many and how frequent it's going to be. Can be anything from oe to seven extras. HM soup goes a long way and is appreciated, Twinks hobnobs are easy, delicious, and go down well, but cheese and pate can be expensive.

Have you tried making your own pate? I have a recipe (from Weezl I think) which uses the chicken livers you can buy in MrTs quite cheaply frozen in a tub. I think you can then freeze it once cooked & then could get it out when the visitors are expected....also I know you can at least make soft cheese - with herbs & things added - from strained natural youghurt you can make yourself. Not sure about making your own cheddar though!! HTH

bails

Sashanut, I had some celeriac round a friend's house the other week and they had cut it into very thin strips and roasted it in a creamy garlic sauce - I'm not a fan of it usually but done this way was yummy.

Thanks for the heads up about the Lidl aubergines - they were 49p at the beginning of this month and I thought that was cheap! Does anyone think the prices might be different in different parts of the country? I might go have a looksee. Can you freeze aubergine?

gunsandbanjos

Sashanut, celeriac soup is yummy:D

ifonlyitwaseasier

thanks sasha nut, will be in lidl after work tomorrow i think, then no more shopping!!!

MSHAWX

sashanut wrote: »

Have you tried making your own pate? I have a recipe (from Weezl I think) which uses the chicken livers you can buy in MrTs quite cheaply frozen in a tub. I think you can then freeze it once cooked & then could get it out when the visitors are expected....also I know you can at least make soft cheese - with herbs & things added - from strained natural youghurt you can make yourself. Not sure about making your own cheddar though!! HTH

Yes please if you have a recipe. Has anyone got a soft cheese recipe I could use?
anyone got any other ideas re lunches. They have to be quick and like a piece of elastic (don't know what elastic tastes like) expandable as I usually don't know how many are staying until the last moment.
I usually do: cheese and fruit, pate, HM smoked mackersl pate, soup HM, followed by hobnobs/fruit

bails

Sounds yummy, can I come round too? I've got Weezl's lentil pate if you're interested (sorry, didn't keep the meat ones).