May 2008 Grocery Challenge

savingfortravel

Our challenge finishes tomorrow so will declare final total then.

Mrs M could you put us down for £250 for June as its a five week month for us (including half term-so I'll be eating my main meal at home).

Thanks for all your hard work this month.

Great to read everyone's posts. Thanks..

SFT

OrkneyStar

mandy_moo_1 wrote: »

meant to share my sweet and sour sauce recipe with you!! it makes about 6-8 portions i think. i just bag it up in portion sizes and bung it in the freezer

you need:
16tbsp sherry
1 litre pineapple juice
6tbsp tom puree
8tbsp brown sugar
4tbsp soy sauce
5tbsp vinegar
4tbsp cornflour

reserve a bit of the pineapple juice to mix the cornflour to a paste, but bung all the other stuff in a wok, or a saucepan.
simmer gently, when warm add the cornflour paste and stir till the consistency you like it

i always open freeze a tin of pineapple chunks so then put them in a bag so i can just take 3 or 4 bits out to add to the sauce when i cook the meal

sorry for the strange measurements, but i adapted the recipe so i could use up a whole carton of pineapple juice in one go, and be able to freeze other portions

this is lovely with chicken or pork

i just chop the chicken/pork up, and cook it in a little olive oil. add few mushrooms, chopped peppers, onion and pineapple.add the sauce. cook it all together, then serve with rice. its one of my fave 'quick' meals to make

If I don't want any alcohol in it is there anything I can substitute for the sherry ? thanks

OrkneyStar

Hi,
Is this where I post my June budget figure ?
Sorry, I am not sure who organises this so please accept my apology for not using your name
I would like to put £165 for groceries, for a family of 2 adults and 1 baby, our month starts 29/5/8 and runs til 25/6/8. The freezer is quite full and meal planning like its going out of fashion so optimistic. It is my sons 1st birthday but the cake will be homemade and any extras will come from his treats fund!

Although we did not have it on here officially we managed £187.44/£190 last month, budget deliberately set higher as I wanted to stock up on a few things like washing powder and stuff on offer that I know I will use.

Many thanks,
OS

savingfortravel

Orkneystar-Yes you're in the right place-best to put your budget in bold red so Mrs M will see it and add you to one of the first pages of the June GC when its up and running.
HTH

Wow that's magic!! You just have!!

SFT

mandy_moo_1

OrkneyStar wrote: »

If I don't want any alcohol in it is there anything I can substitute for the sherry ? thanks

just leave it out, it should still be ok. by the time its cooked, any alcohol will have evaporated anyway.......sometimes i just put a glug of red wine in if there's any lying around

OrkneyStar

savingfortravel wrote: »

Orkneystar-Yes you're in the right place-best to put your budget in bold red so Mrs M will see it and add you to one of the first pages of the June GC when its up and running.
HTH

Wow that's magic!! You just have!!

SFT

Thanks, its magic lol. No, I decided to be less lazy and look back a bit to see if I could see what to do, and then edited it to be in red. Thanks again for your help, happy to be joining you all.

OrkneyStar

mandy_moo_1 wrote: »

just leave it out, it should still be ok. by the time its cooked, any alcohol will have evaporated anyway.......sometimes i just put a glug of red wine in if there's any lying around

Great
Is this the place to post recipe ideas too, or ask for them ?
Or is there a more dedicated thread ?
Thanks again, sorry to ask q's but then if you don't ask.....
ta:eek:

Pip-squeak_3

Hi
Spend for this week comes in at £23.46 more than i wanted but DH wanted to try some new gluten free flour (cannot eat wheat) It was £3.99 and only enough for one loaf :mad:. Good thing is if he likes it he will be able to get it on prescription.

Have about £20 left for the rest of the month so hope to be on target. Not sure i will be able to reduce next month though everything is so expensive. Just hope the courgettes, beans and tomatoes grow.

Have a good week

May target £100 total spend so far £80.55

OrkneyStar

Pip-squeak wrote: »

Hi
Spend for this week comes in at £23.46 more than i wanted but DH wanted to try some new gluten free flour (cannot eat wheat) It was £3.99 and only enough for one loaf :mad:. Good thing is if he likes it he will be able to get it on prescription.

Have about £20 left for the rest of the month so hope to be on target. Not sure i will be able to reduce next month though everything is so expensive. Just hope the courgettes, beans and tomatoes grow.

Have a good week

May target £100 total spend so far £80.55

Wow £3.99 is a lot :eek: but lets hope he likes it and can get the script for it.

mandy_moo_1

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Great
Is this the place to post recipe ideas too, or ask for them ?
Or is there a more dedicated thread ?
Thanks again, sorry to ask q's but then if you don't ask.....
ta:eek:

the complete collection of recipes for the MSE board is here

we might see you again in a couple of months by the time you've ploughed thru all the stuff on there :rotfl:

otherwise if you see on this thread that someone has made something you like the sound of, you can just ask for the recipe, and the poster will usually put the recipe on this grocery thread

don't ever worry about asking stuff....we were all newbies at this once, and like you say, if you don't ask, you'll never find out anything