April 2008 Grocery Challenge

sashanut

Here's the pate recipe - I am fairly sure it was Weezls - so all credit to her - & I think the prices are because it was part of the 'feed a family for under a fiver' Jamie challenge?? My only suggestion would be you could add any fresh herbs you have bought/growing in the garden such as chives marjoram etc!!

Many thanks for the celeriac suggestions - is there a soup recipe handy, much appreciated if you can post it.


here's the pate:

CHICKEN LIVER PATE
2 packs tesco frozen chicken livers-80p (defrost these overnight first)
2 cloves fresh garlic/garlic powder- 8p
salt
black pepper
250g butter- 85p

optional extras:

Splash of booze (red wine, white wine, ropy sherry someone got you at christmas, slug of whisky....) 22p for 50 ml white wine
2 medium onions- 10p

fry the onions, liver, including all the 'juice' in the tub (I swill some warm water round it and add it to the pan) and garlic in the butter until browned, season with salt and pepper. Pour everything into food processor and blitz til ultra smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour into the (washed) tubs the liver came in, and one other tub, an old hummous sized one should do nicely.

gunsandbanjos

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/slow-cooked-celery-and-celeriac-soup,1735,RC.html

Not sure if i'm allowed to post links to other websites, feel free to remove this if its inappropriate:o

This is the link to the delia recipe i like for celeriac soup.

madmittens

I was passing a large Asda yesterday, so popped in for a quick browse. No whoopsie's worth having (am still waiting to join that club!) but 6-packs of Whiskas were £2.93ea/2 for £5 so I picked up four packs. Also bought eggs 'at the farm gate' yesterday so altogether £11 to add to my total.

Nearly the end of my challenge - my last shop of the month may be tonight, but I have an evening meeting so if I shop afterwards dinner could be around 10pm! If I'm very hungry I'll just postpone mrT until tomorrow evening. Am hoping to stay within budget but I think it's going to only be by pennies. Have whittled my shopping list down to bare minimum - Saturday's slowcooker Red Beans & Rice is going to be Blackeye Beans instead so I don't have to buy kidney beans!

Will update siggy and declare final spend once I've been to mrT.

nessquic80

hi all, well today is the start of GC for me as it was payday (hooray!!!). nipped into mr ts this morning to get some bread flour still at 48p so got three bags a packet of yeast and eggs and natural got, total spend £3.79.
just cooking up a chicken and lentil curry from last nights roast and them damn lentils have been in that cupboard for god knows how long so i finally decided to use them. so enough curry for me and hubby tonight and freeze another two portions. goood luck to all those on there last week!!

jinky67

About to update my siggy again:o
I will be over budget....but for good reason:D
Was in local Co-op and they were selling yeast reduced so bought 16 packets.!:rotfl: :rotfl:
Better get the breadmaker on me thinks:p

apparently not as over budget as I thought:T :T :T
I would claim that as a success:D

clair2305

.....I'd like to say well done to everyone...on my first attempt I've stayed well within my budget, but to the detriment of my fridge which has look bare practically the whole month, cupboard and freezer fine and still pretty full. :T

But with all the advice, ideas, recipes and so on that I've received from you guys, I'm sure the May challenge will be a cinch and with a full fridge as well

I reckon in May I will buy a lot more to freeze like ham, cheese, etc and I will start my mushrooms and lettuce seeds off....by June I could be breadmaking AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! are you all turning me into a domestic goddess????? Food preparation/cooking is normally OH job, I normally just supply the ingredients.

I suppose if we really wanted to drastically reduce our shopping bills, we could send our OHs or kids, I know mine can do Aldi's in 10 mins flat....we'd have nothing nice to eat, no yoghurts, fruit, cereal, but we'd have what we needed...he he he!!

Anyway guys thanks for all your help on my first month's challenge :A ...I can't wait till payday on Wednesday, which yes I normally can't wait but who would've thought I'd be looking forward to my grocery shop!!

Can I ask I little question on the side? What does DD, DS and all those other abbreviations mean? I understand OH (other half) but not all of them.

Thanks

jinky67

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=397751&postcount=18
there you go;)

clair2305

thanks jinky67, so my OH is really DH

Keeping_Positive

Pretty much ready to declare but will be good and wait a bit. Payday tomorrow. Will be a five week month for May so going to be tight.

HM hobnobs a complete success third batch this week just made. BM rolls were good this time (helps if I dont burn them!;) ) so another batch to be done. Want to do some BM hot cross buns next but should be working.

Thought I would be low on meals this week but improvised with some whoopsied ham I had defrosted for sandwiches one night with an Aldi pineapple snack tub. Also got back late and exhausted yesterday and snuck a McD's on the way home:o . OH not hungry and kids out playing so ham sandwiches all round. Better and cheaper than chip shop. Will ensure large batch of veg for kids tonight to make up.

:T Well done for those who have made it and nevermind for those who havent.:T


ohhh just spotted its my 1000th post!

boredofbeingathome

angchris wrote: »

i make up a stack of sarnies to freeze for ds`s lunchbox this saves me faffing about and he just grabs one in the morning and by lunchtime its defrosted. cheese and meat freeze fine, anything with water in like cucumber and tomatoes lettuce etc these dont freeze at all well. another thing to avoid freezing is mayo as it separates.
i have been doing this for years and it saves me loads of time and it means that i only have to cook 1 big joint of meat,slice and package/freeze and i can get it all over and done with in one sitting rather than worry whether i will have fillings in for sandwiches mid/late month as i only shop once a month. if i were to shop more often i would invariably end up buying 4 slices of prepacked ham from tesco at £1.70ish a shot :eek: and it would work out incredibly expensive.

Thanks for that, i have often thought about it. They are all fussy about what goes into sandwiches, and the mayo one is a great tip. OH hates marg and his sandwiches are always on the dry side for my taste, so i bulk with toms and cucumbers, and if he keeps annoying me arsenic (wonder if that freezes):rotfl:
Thanks again. Bob x