First Pinterest recipe

Hi all,  I know that when I started this blog I said that I would try to do one pinterest recipe every Sunday.  Well somehow I just forgot about that.  I don't really know why, but it just didn't happen until last night.
I did my first one.  What I made is from my pinterest board "spoonful of good eats." http://www.pinterest.com/pin/125045327129815691/

Here is a picture of what the recipe looked like.

Here are the steps to what I did. 

THIS PART WAS THE HARDEST PART.  Of course on the blog post this recipe comes from it doesn't tell you anything about how to do this or the best technique.  I just scooped very delicately and did my best.  It wasn't perfect and the apples I had didn't have the toughest skin.  Of course I didn't use the honey crisp apples that they use in the blog, I just used whatever apples I had on hand.  It also seemed like such a waste to cut up and discard all the leftover apple so I recommend throwing it into a blender and blend with some greens for a powerful green smoothie. 

This is a before picture.  I placed them in these individual aluminum ramekins/muffin tin things.  It just seemed like a safer idea since the bottom of the apples weren't smooth.  I didn't want them moving about and it worked just fine.  I had just enough filling for three apples. 

This was the end result.  Of course mine didn't come out as beautifully as the ones on the original recipe blog but of course I'm not an expert in food photography, placement and photoshop.  I did allow my husband to eat one and I sprinkled homemade granola and honey on the top and he loved it.  He really really like it.  I had a small taste and it was really good.  My husband said the soft apple afterwards was a nice touch.  

I did modify the recipe a little.  I really don't like using a lot of sugar so I cut that in half and use less fat cream cheese.  Tasted great.  RECOMMENDED and very easy. 

REDUCED FOR QUICK SALE!

On Monday I went to Aldi.  This was the first time in a month.  I've been doing the rest of my shopping at other stores but only buying things that were listed on the checkout smart app and the shopitize app.  I also only buy things that are reduced for quick sale.  I don't buy any meat because I don't think that it's all that much reduced but fresh veggies and fruit I will usually buy.

For example,
I've learned that Food Co-Op marks down their prices extraordinary at the end of the day.  I bought a few heads of lettuce for .10 pence.  .10 pence, thats all! I went back the next time during mid-day and the same head of lettuce was only marked down to .60 p.  Not a good bargain considering that M & S next door was selling fresh heads of lettuces for .60 p.

I also bought a bag of potatoes for .10 p the other day at Tesco, not end of day.  They also had bags of salad and fresh that were reduced so much that I bought all the bags.

I've also learned that the person that is marking them down has a lot of wiggle room regarding price.  Some days they are reduced heavily and other days they aren't.  I sincerely believe that this has to do with the person marking them down.  I'm still trying work out the best days to go shopping at the stores but so far it really seems like hit or miss.

I also tried to follow some advice given but this youtuber about going at the end of the day and most of the time that doesn't work.  Either all the items are gone or they haven't been reduced further.  There's no reasons for me to wait all day and then go in the evening when its exponentially colder to try to score some basement prices.

I've also learned that I can bargain for lower prices.  Once, just once, there were something on reduced and I saw another item that was similar for a lower price and I thought why aren't these the same price. I ask if I could have both for the same low price and the manager said yes.  So don't be afraid to ask.

Now, the freshness of reduced for quick sale items. I've generally found that veggies last a week past the use by date.  They stay fresh as long as you keep them in the crisper and keep them dry.   I'm happy to announce that the many bags of produce I bought lasted for more than a week and I was able to eat salads and fresh cooked veggies for days and days.  It was wonderful.
So go for the clearance items and hope these tips work for you.

:)

Taking time to stop eating!

Last week my husband and I decided we should do a fast.  It is a discipline and a way for us to remember that man does not live on bread alone.  We live by the words of God as well.  I'll just say this now...It was really really hard!
I love to eat. I really do.  I love to cook and think about food and planning about food and everything that has to do with food.

I also complain very loudly about being hungry something that really annoyed my husband.  It's hard for me to feel hungry because it's natural for people to just reach for food when we are hungry.

It made me think about how much time I think about eating and planning and how much I take for granted having food in the fridge.
I have food in the fridge most of the time and if I don't I just go out and buy something more to eat.  It's very simple and I couldn't help but think about the people in most of the world that don't have things to eat for days.
If not eating for one day was this difficult I can't even imagine how difficult it would be not to eat two days in a row.
It was very eye opening for me.  Just thinking about food gives me happiness.  I love planning my meals and figuring out new recipes but to stop all of that put so many things into perspective for me.
I just want to challenge you to try to not eat two meals.  Don't do breakfast because that's too easy and don't do it on a day where you have work all day because you won't really think about it that much.
On a Saturday when you have time at home, try to not eat lunch or dinner.  Or just don't eat dinner and see how you feel.  Suddenly you'll see that you have lots of time on your hands and how much you appreciate living in a country where food is easily accessible.
Food is a great thing and we only live because we eat food but our soul also needs to eat.  Our soul needs to be woken up to all the things in the world and grow to have compassion, patience and gratitude.
If you think you can do it, give it a try and let me know how it goes.

The husband and I have decided to fast three meals a week, mostly dinners on different days and to save the money and give that amount to the poor.  Hopefully we can do and I hope you try.
Fast so that you can go slow and give thanks.

Cooking for four

My husband's parents come to live with us for a week and it has been really fun.  I have a great relationship with my in-laws and I know I will miss them when they leave.  Since they have been here they have helped buy the groceries and make purchases for us.  It's been wonderful to not have to swipe the credit card as often or make any huge purchases.
I'm sorry that I haven't updated for a week but I have some great dinners for you to see.  I've been cooking up a storm but the most fun one to make was Nutella Star bread.  It is really easy to make and really good.

First I have to build up to the grand finale.  One evening I had to cook something really quick and had some beef steaks in the fridge. I sliced it up into strips and started sautéing them.  I then cut up some celery and broccoli.  I had to do something with those as they were starting to go bad.  I also had some tofu in the cupboard so I cut that up and tossed it together with the celery.  I tossed the beef strips with the broccoli, made some steamed rice and called it dinner.  This dinner took me a totally of 20 minutes and allowed me to watch the salt content, oil content and fat.  I was really happy and so was my husband.  He almost ate all of it.  I really want to try to eat less meat, less refined carbs and more veggie carbs and meat.  But moving on to the next picture you'll see that not true yet. 

So I had ground beef that also needed to be used so I decided to make a simple lasagna.  I'm one of those people that likes to look up recipes but when it comes to lasagna, I say anything goes and this was no exception.  I layered it the traditional way but I through it two layers of frozen mixed vegetables.  The vegetables were the perfect tenderness and added some much needed color to this dish.  I would high recommend doing that for all mothers who have picky eaters. 

Lastly I had this apple pie.  I'll be the first to admit that I didn't make this one. I bought it half off at Sainsbury's.  Usually 5 quid but on sale for 2.50.  I was really happy with how it came out and it wasn't sweet at all but nice and sour.  The way I like apple pie, you can taste the sourness. 

Now, the grand finale! Here is a picture:  I know....you are practically drooling over the computer right now.  And trust me it's as good as it looks.

I would recommend doing this and it's really easy.  Just make a basic bread dough, roll out four circles and layer with Nutella.  Then cut strips and twist.  Brush with egg wash and bake! Done!

GO NUTS

The end results and a new challenge

Hey!
I finished my challenge of not spending more than 40 GBP a month on groceries and these are the results.
It's not possible! It was difficult but what I did learn was that I could survive on 40 GBP for about 16-20 days.
There are some things that I had to buy more often for example eggs/bread/milks.  Things that expired sooner rather than later.
I looked over all the receipts for the last month and it looks like I spent a total of 85 GBP for the month on groceries and other non-perishables.  That's not too terrible considering that we started with nothing.
I went shopping the last day in October for groceries because my refrigerator was literally empty as was my pantry.  Picture below.  I had one chicken left that I roasted and used for the next few days.
We had a friend stay with us for a week so I had to buy a few more items to take into consideration that this person probably wanted to eat something different and fresh.

I did try to BBQ in my oven and it worked out well.  I used a yogurt curry indian marinade and skewered the chicken and it came out really well.  It was very tasty and I'll probably try to do it again.
I bought a total of 50 GBP worth of groceries.  My goal it to not spend more than 80 GBP for the month but we will see how it goes.  My husband's parents are coming for about 10 days so I don't know how well I can keep that goal but you never know.
Things I've learned about stretching the dollar.
Buying fresh vegetables is a gift and cooking them and storing them the minute you get home keeps them around longer.
Milk goes bad very quickly.
Meat is overrated and we are learned to eat less meat and more greens.
My husband really has a sweet tooth and loves chips, granola and sweets.  Things I don't usually buy because it is not in the budget but when I do buy them they are gone in minutes. (its a problem.)
Below are pictures of some  of the dishes I made, if you are interested in the recipe drop me a line.

My way of stretching the dollar. I had very little roast chicken left but I had some spinach, and puff pastry left so I just combined it and rolled it up.  They were really good and my husband loved it.  This cost .25 pence to make per serving!

Made a beef stroganoff for my husband.  Very good!

BBQ some chicken, yogurt flavored.  Very nice. 

Fresh made pita bread with a nice salad and the chicken.  Great meal!

Our very empty fridge. The yogurt I bought was on reduced clearence.  We need to get our protein somehow. 

My first time making yorkshire pudding.  I was very proud!

A lovely roast chicken. 

Roasted veggies with steamed kale topped with a savory lemon dressing. 

Only 5 more days to go

So we made it another week on our crazy budget for food. I do have to confess that I did go shopping again because we have a friend staying with us and I can very well have him starve and think that we are nuts with nothing in the fridge.

I also found this really cool app called shopitize that gives you cash back on items that you buy from tesco, asda, morrison and the like.  For example one of the things that you could buy was milk and you would get a whole quid back.  Which basically means that the milk I bought was free.  I also stumbled upon a store called iceland.
Everything in there is basically frozen and very cheap. I haven't bought a lot of ice cream so I decided to buy jonas some ice cream since he loves it and it was only .89 pence.
Iceland had some really good discounts so I decided to buy a few things from Iceland to cook for this week for our extra guest.
I did go to tesco to buy a few things such as fresh veggies.  It was painful to buy those items considering how much cheaper they are at Aldi. I will try with all my might to not shop at tesco as long as there isn't a good discount such as the milk.
My neighbor and I will be going to Aldi again to use our awesome 5 quid off vouchers! I was so happy to see that Aldi was doing that again and it saves us a good amount in the long run.  At the end of this month I'll take a picture of our fridge and cupboards to show you how scare things have become.  It really looks like we have no food.
Tomorrow I'm making spaghetti and meatballs and this last weekend I made a beef stroganoff. Jonas loves this dish and I had to use the sour cream I bought the 1st of October.
My grocery bill including the food I bought for this week to account for the extra guest comes to 88 quid.  That's roughly 22 quid a month which was my estimate.  If it was just for Jonas and I, I think I could have kept it at around 65 quid.  I also learned from a few of my mistakes from before of things that I can buy that last for a long time and things that I shouldn't buy.  I also do allow myself certain luxury items such as chips and dips but in the next shopping drip I'll have to control myself.

In the home stretch! What a crazy experiment. Next month I'll be working with a 65 quid budget but breaking that up into two shopping trips.  So on this next shopping trip with my neighbor my goal is to buy only 40 quid worth of items. These items will feature a lot of frozen items, some fresh and lots of root type of vegetables.  I'll buy a few more things of flour as I'll be making lots of bread as well.

A very vegetarian week

Last week my husband and I ate only vegetarian food.  We did this for two reasons.  1) to save some of the meat in the freezer to last until the end of the month and 2) It's always good to eat less meat and try to focus more on greens.

It wasn't an easy week but we made it work.  Yesterday we had a roast chicken and it was marvellous.  I'm hoping to do this vegetarian week thing at least 7 days out of the month.

We had vegetarian pot pie, baked tomato pasta, vegetarian stir fry, broccoli creamy pasta, rice and cajun beans and some burritos.  It wasn't hard to think of vegetarian foods but it was hard making sure that the food had enough protein in it.  We didn't seem to miss any meat and it was easy to cook this way.  I was pretty happy with the way things turned out and hopefully we can do this again.

Only 10 more days until the next shopping trip. So far I've spent around 65 quid on groceries, just food including some flours, oils, butters, fresh potted herbs.  I thought about not including those items in my total food bill since those things last a long time but I thought it was probably better to include them.

We did eat out once so that did cut into our food bill but I think it will be okay.  Now that I have a few extra items I think I can buy some other types of food this time but it seems a bit hard to go shopping once a week.  I think it makes more sense to have a food budget of 60 quid a month and go twice a month.  But I like challenges and I'll try this time to last on 50 quid a month.  40 quid is a bit low and towards the end of the month we ran out of things like fruit so I'll allow myself a little bit more space to cook with and hopefully it will work out.

I'm still tweaking costs so hopefully I can find a good relatively low budget and stick to it.   Still have one frozen chicken in the freezer along with some ground meats.

We'll keep you updated.

Half way mark

I'm halfway there!! Only 15 more days to go and I can go on an actual shopping trip!

I'm starting to get a bit worried though.  My cupboards and pantry are starting to look scarce.  It's a strange feeling to think about using up all the food in the house before going shopping again.  As you know this week has been vegetarian week.  It was a good idea to go vegetarian this week which will help push me through the next two weeks.  I still have those chickens in the freezer and the ground beef.  I'm running low on bread but I did buy a bread mix at Aldi on October 1st so I'm going to try to make some bread.
This week so far I've made a tomato basil pasta bake, vegetarian pot pie, vegetarian and tofu stir fry, vegetarian pizza, pita bread and chips, hummus (bought chickpeas last friday) and nutritional yeast baked tofu.
Tomorrow I'm making spinach quiche and on Friday I'm making some chinese steamed buns. On Saturday I'll make a broccoli cream pasta.  I'm surprised that Jonas hasn't complained about the meat but it seems like we aren't missing it.  
Sunday I'm actually going to roast a chicken finally.  I have a good amount of potatoes, onions and garlic left with a little bit of rosemary so it should make for a really good chicken.
I do feel like I've cheated because I bought that flour on Friday and I've made a few good breakfast items with them.  I've made some muffins, scones and pizza.  If I hadn't bought that on Friday I don't know what we would be eating.  Well I tend to eat bran with milk and Jonas eats toast with peanut butter.  We are having nice breakfasts because we have a friend staying with us and I want her to have a good time.
Although I will say that its has been really fun to bake and make things from scratch. I'm still learning how to do it but practice makes for good scones eventually.  
We will see what kind of food I end up making towards the end. I'm sure it will be odds and ends of weird combinations.  Adventures adventures...makes for strange combinations.

got a pretty decent puff in my pita pocket. 

pita bread and soon to be pita chips (baked)

Baked hash brown eggs.  (way too much pepper because I shook a little too hard) 

Looks weird because I didn't want to throw away the extra crust but tasted great. 

Legit chow mein (I'm taiwanese)

Nutritional Yeast baked tofu

Pizza (two ingredient Pizza dough) Flour and greek yogurt.  Google it, its legit and super easy to make this pizza dough, tastes great!

Went shopping...Its not what you think!

Confession: Last Thursday I went shopping at ASDA.
My wonderful neighbour that I have been telling you guys about mentioned that she was going to go to ASDA that day and I really wanted to go.  I had made a simple list of things I wanted to buy.  I still hadn't bought any olive oil or flour and I just wanted to get these two things, oh and a swiffer to mop up the floors.

But as always, when you go to the store you end up buying more than you anticipated.  Although in my defence I bought more non-perishable items than perishable.
I bought loads of flour and some sauces.  I also bought yeast for breads and baking sheets.  I bought some spices and olive oil, things that are pantry essentials to food go from good to great! Oh and I had to buy some cleaning supplies.

I didn't buy that many things as my total bill came to 20 quid.  These things should last longer than necessary so I don't know if I would count it as shopping for found for the month.

So that makes my monthly total up to about 70 quid.  A little less but lets round up.
This week is vegetarian week and so far I've made rice and beans and tomato, basil baked pasta. Tomorrow I'm making a vegetarian pot pie.

Hope you guys can all forgive me.  Technically I am still cooking off of the 43 quid that I spent at Aldi on Oct 1st.

I still have half the month to go and I know for sure I can make it.  What do you guys think? Does this count as my monthly cost for food?  I'm really hoping that I can cook food for the two of us for 40-60 quid a month.  Lately we've been having some people visit so it's always costly to host dinner parties but so far it works.
I still have two frozen chickens in the freezer along with some ground beef and turkey.
Will post pictures of this weeks vegetarin adventures.

Crackling pork courtesy of Jamie Oliver

So on Wednesday night I made "crackling pork roast"  By Jamie Oliver.  Here is the link for the recipe: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/6-hour-slow-roasted-pork-shoulder/

It wasn't hard but it took time.  I had to adjust the time since I only wanted to cook a 1 kg pork shoulder and his recipe calls for 2 kg.

The fun part of making this was seeing the skin puff up off the pork.  It took about 4 hours to make and came out really well.
My neighbor also came over to use my oven so it ended up not as crispy as I wanted it to be.  Her oven had broken and she wanted to roast a chicken and some potatoes.  It was fun to see how hard my oven was working with a pork roast, chicken roast and two types of potatoes inside.  The chicken ended up taking 4 hours to make as well because of the distribution of heat.  We even turned up the temperature to make up for the crowded space.  It's amazing how much food we ended up with after everything was done.  The chicken, pork, vegetables and potatoes came out well although nothing came out extremely crispy.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures but you get the idea.  The pork has lasted until Saturday.  We have a friend staying with us who is a vegetarian so you'll be seeing more vegetarian dishes in the next few days which is a good thing since I have so many bags of frozen vegetables that I need to use.

Buying too much mince meat. Day 6/30

When I went to Aldi I bought 1 kg of ground beef and 500 grams of ground turkey.

As I was thinking about what to make I realised that I probably bought to much ground beef and not enough actual meat chunks.  So my plan is to making spaghetti and meatballs, a meatloaf dish and chili with ground turkey.

On Monday I made spaghetti and meatballs.  As you know Sunday we had a bbq so there wasn't really any reason for me to cook that day but I did sneak home three bbq chickens and saved those for lunch on Monday.

Anyways back to the meatballs; I didn't have the usual suspects on hand.  With meatballs people usually want to make it with eggs, italian herb seasoning, breadcrumbs, cheese and ricotta or something creamy like that.  I didn't have any of that except eggs so I improvised.
I use 400 grams of ground beef and 250 grams of ground turkey.  I left out pieces of bread the night before to let it go stale and through that into the mix.  I didn't have any cheese so I used a mixture of creme fraiche and sour cream.  I put in some different seasonings, salt, pepper, garlic, and diced onions.  I mixed that all together and started forming meatballs.
While I waited for the meat to rest a little I put together the sauce.  I used 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of whole tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, hearty spaghetti seasoning from wild tree, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste.  I let that simmer for 30 minutes and threw six raw meatballs and the rest of the meatballs I cooked in the oven at 160 C.
Then I cooked some spaghetti and called it a day.
It was pretty good, moist and flavorful.  My husband really enjoyed it and for the next two days he had meatballs for lunches and dinner.  For lunches to go I didn't cook spaghetti and steamed some vegetables and poured the meatballs over it.
I made that on Monday and today (Wednesday Oct 8) I made crackling pork shoulder.
I'll share that with you tomorrow!  It was good but I have no frame of reference.

Stretching that dollar, quid, krone, whatever currency

Yesterday I calculated the cost of making the roast chicken and how much it cost for us to have dinner last night.  

Last night I made a Japanese curry with the leftover roast chicken I made on Thursday.

The roast chicken, with potatoes and boiled vegetables cost a total of 1.50 quid per serving, but the we didn't eat the whole chicken.  I used the same chicken that cost 2.99 quid to make the Japanese chicken curry.

The curry consisted of :

1/4 Chinese curry paste

1 zucchini

7 salad potatoes

6 mini portobello mushrooms

1 tomatoes

2 carrots

1/2 onions

1/2 block of tofu (cooked in soy sauce)

leftover chicken.

I made a huge pot of it on Friday for dinner and we had it again for dinner tonight Saturday. Jonas will also have it for lunch on Monday at school.  It made a total of 6 servings.  Each serving only cost .70 pence. 

For lunch we've had ham sandwiches with chips (crisps)  Very simple lunches and breakfast also consists of bran cereal, eggs, oatmeal, fruit and wholegrain toast.  Very simple and clean.

Aside from the crisps, everything we've eaten has been clean and cheap.  The curry was chock full of veggies, I only used half of the left over chicken and will use that to make a some chicken lettuce wraps for Jonas on Monday's lunch, including the rest of the curry.   I also didn't add any salt to the curry.  You could really taste the vegetables through the subtle curry notes.  I didn't take a picture of the curry but I will take pictures of the chicken lettuce wraps.  I'm really excited about that. 

Here is a picture of our breakfast spread breakfast. Looks good right??

I still have two frozen chickens, frozen vegetables, fresh vegetables, ground beef, ground turkey and pork shoulder loin with lots of potatoes and onions.  Only have 26 days to go!  I know I can make one grocery trip last the whole month.  

I"ll be making meat loaf, meat balls and chili with the ground beef/turkey.  Still thinking about what to do with the pork shoulder. 

With the left over chicken bones I plan to make my own chicken stock.  

Wherever you live in the world, stretch that money note in your hand!

Live well, give generously!

Love -

PS tomorrow we have church and a bbq.  Yay free food! I still have to make dinner.  Ha. maybe bbq leftovers. 

Million Dollar chicken- Day 2 of 30.

Today is the second day of my challenge of not stepping foot inside a grocery and I failed.  I actually did step foot inside a Tesco today but that was to compare prices from Aldi. A huge difference.  I did end up buying a few items at the asian food store though.  These are just things that I can't seem to find anywhere else.  I bought sesame seed oil and good black vinegar.  If you are asian you'll know what I mean.  Sometimes you just need to have it and I'll be cooking a good share of asian food and its hard to make those things taste like home when I don't have the right ingredients.

Anyway today I made "Million Dollar Chicken" by Chef John from Food wishes.  Have you heard of food wishes, I love this blog and if you get a chance you should check it out.  Here is a link: http://foodwishes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/million-dollar-chicken-of-course-it.html

I made simple cottage fries and some boiled vegetables.  My husband really likes gravy and sauce so I made some gravy as well, though we didn't even touch it.

The cottage fries came out okay.  I bought some coarse sea salt today because I had no salt since moving in last week and thought I should probably buy some.  This was my first time buying coarse sea salt as opposed to regular granulated sea salt.  Because I didn't know really how much to use, I ended up using a little bit too much and the cottage fries came out a bit salty.  My husband really likes salt so for him it was perfect, but for me it was too salty.  The big pieces tasted fine but the small pieces were just over the top.  Here are some pictures.

The hand in the picture is of my husband reaching to eat a piece.

The chicken on the other hand was really good, although I did have a small problem again with the coarse salt. I'm pretty sure without even googling it that I just don't need that much.  Just something I have to get use to.  The salt didn't make the chicken too salty but it did make some of the bread pieces a bit salty.
The chicken tasted just right, skin was crispy and the meat was moist.  It wasn't hard to make and regarding the crème fraiche I didn't have shallots so I used regular white onion and didn't have the apellepo pepper so I just ground black pepper.  It seemed to work fine and tasted great so I imagine if I had used the right ingredients it would have tasted even better but I guess we will never know. (for now) 
The chicken was a hit and my husband had a hard time not eating the whole thing but I reminded him that this chicken needed to last us at least 3 more days so he ate some more vegetables instead.  The chicken was paired with the cottage fries, boiled veggies and gravy. 
Here are some pictures of the results.  The final product of the chicken didn't look that great but trust me it tasted really good.  

 

You should give it a try.  I'm planning on making a chicken stock with the bones and for tomorrow lunch tomorrow I'll make a sandwich and for dinner I'll make a big pot of chicken curry that will be good for the next day as well.  From there I'll see what leftovers we have and make something for Sunday.  I'll update you on how many days we got out of the chicken on Saturday.  Until then, eat well and give generously.  :)

Going shopping yesterday

As you all know I went shopping for groceries that should last us the entire month. I ended up going yesterday October 1st instead of today October 2nd because I thought it would probably be better to go the first day of the month.

I ended up getting a lot of stuff and stayed pretty close to my budget.

Here is a picture of the receipt.

  The 5 quid off voucher really helped out. Although on the receipt it looks like I used 5 quid and then paid another 43 quid but the 5 quid was the voucher.  They pretty much treated it like cash.
My budget was 40 quid and I paid a total of 43.01 quid, not too bad.  There were some items I probably didn't need to buy but bought them anyway.  For example I bought three pints of greek yogurt.  I am crazy about greek yogurt and it was the first place that I've seen that actually carries it in large quantities and for a fair price.  Aldi is definitely way cheaper than all the other stores but I have yet to decide on the quality, so far it seems to be about the same but I've only made one meal so far. Check out Aldi's website here. : https://www.aldi.co.uk

I bought a good amount of meats but in retrospect I probably bought too many types of ground meat and not enough cuts.  I ended up getting ground beef and turkey to make different type of meatballs and burgers.  I bought a big cut of pork shoulder and three 1.25kg chickens.
I then bought a good amount of fruit and veggies.  I bought a lot of potatoes, probably more than I can eat in a month, a lot of mushrooms, tomatoes and a big bag of onions (my husband loves onions) and a pack of garlic.  I also bought a basil plant.  I think I"ll also buy rosemary and thyme next month but for now basil will have to do.  I also bought lots of dried and canned goods such as pasta, rice, beans etc.   Vegetable wise I ended up buying more frozen vegetables because I figured the veggies would go bad quickly in the fridge.  I did buy zucchini, broccoli, carrots and cabbage but I'll cook those soon and keep them in the fridge.  I bought a huge thing of Bran Cereal (gotta get my fiber) and loads of bread.  Here are a few pictures of my haul.

It was a pretty big haul and I'm really thankful for my neighbor who gave me a lift.  She was super nice about everything.  All in all I'm pretty happy with the amount of food I was able to buy for a reasonable cost.   Here's hoping I can make it a whole month without stepping into a grocery store.

Making leftovers new again

On Monday I made a poor version of eggplant lasagna.  The eggplant was still a bit raw and it just tasted funny.  My mouth itched, does raw eggplant do that to you?  Anyway, we eat most of what we could and saved the rest for left overs.
Today I was looking in the fridge and noticed that I had: two tablespoons of cottage cheese, left over eggplant lasagna, some pie dough, baby potatoes, three small portobello mushrooms and frozen spinach, frozen carrots and of course the usual suspects, onion and garlic.

I went online and searched for a website that would allow me to punch in all those items and give me a quick list of recipes.  I found one called Recipe Matcher. (recipematcher.com) I put in all the items I had on hand and it gave me a complete list of recipes I could make.  They were all useless because they all required me to go out and buy something new.  The whole idea was to make something right now and not have to buy anything.

So I put down the computer and just got to work.
I cut the baby potatoes in half and added it to a boiling pot of water.
While that was going, I minced garlic and onions and tossed them into a hot pan.  I also diced up the mushrooms and threw them on top of the garlic and onions.  I let them cook down for a while.
I took out the left over lasagna and pulled out the raw pieces of eggplant, chopped them up and threw them into the pan as well.

Once that looks like it was cooked through, I grabbed a bit of frozen spinach and frozen baby carrots and threw them in as well.

While I waited for the spinach and carrots to defrost, I drained the baby potatoes that were not soft and ready to be mashed.  I added butter, some seasonings, nutritional yeast, and cottage cheese run off.  Mashed it together with a fork and called it done.  I then took the left over eggplant lasagna which was now just ground beef, sauce (red and white) zucchini, broccoli, and mushroom and placed it in a loaf tin.  On top of that I put the mash potatoes and let it sit while I got everything else ready.

The spinach was melted by now but I wanted to wait for the water to cook out.  While I waited, I took the dough out of the fridge and started rolling pieces out to flatten into discs.
Once the water had cooked out, I added the cottage cheese and turned of the stove to cool.

I continued to flatten dough out like mini pizzas and set them aside.  Once the mixture was cool enough I took a tablespoon of the mixture and put it in the middle of the dough, the closed it up.  I put the dough filled balls seam side down onto a greased pan and kept going until I ran out of dough.  I was able to fit 14 dough balls in the pan before I ran out of dough.  With the leftover mixture I spooned it on top of the mash potatoes and placed everything in the oven. (carrot poking out of the middle one)

I had pre-heated the oven to 150 C and left it to bake for 30 minutes.  The results came out well and I didn't even get a chance to photograph it.  My husband ate seven of the dough balls and half of the "cottage pie."  He loved it and I have to say, it was pretty darn tasty.

And had no added salt at all with very little oil. Some butter for the mash and to grease the pan but thats for looks anyway.  I was pretty happy with it.  Next time you have leftover, try making something new and fun!  Its all going to the same place anyway, your stomach.

Preparing for a huge shopping trip!

On Thursday, I am heading to Aldi to try and stock up for the next month.

The goal: Buy groceries for the next month  (30 days)
The purpose: To save money and stretch that dollar.
The challenge:  Not step foot into a grocery store for the next 30 days after the big shopping trip on Thursday.

When Jonas and I moved here, I had a very very strict budget.  I haven't been able to keep that budget since we've moved here.  In fact I've been way over budget.  There were things that I needed to buy that I didn't even think about.  For example, cooking oils, spices, herbs, kitchen gadgets, cookware, foil, sandwich bags etc.  I've tried my best to find the cheapest price possible (going to the "Pound store") and somehow I am way over budget.

But now that I've been to all the major grocery stores, I'm ready to take on this next challenge.
I must stick to my budget!  I know I can do it.

This means that I only buy whole foods or frozen foods and no junk.  My husband and I love crisp (chips for US) and he loves sweets but I'm just going to have to try not buy it or buy the cheapest one possible.

I have a coupon (voucher) for Aldi where if I spend 40 quid I will get an additional 5 quid off.
My budget for this shopping trip is 40 quid.  That's it.  For the next month! Maybe I'm crazy but I really think I can do it.  I hope.

Here's hoping.  I'll share with you the receipt and items bought.  Currently I am brain storming meal ideas to save the most money and make the most.  Wish me luck!!

To and from London

Sorry about not posting anything on Sunday.  I know I said I would post an attempt at a Pinterest recipe but after our long journey to London I didn't have the energy.  Although on Thursday night I did attempt at making zucchini ravioli but failed.

I tried making this :http://www.pinterest.com/pin/125045327128557421/

but I failed miserably.  Well thats not true.  One came out perfect but the other ones did not.  The reason for that is because I did not have a proper vegetable peeler.  Since we just moved in we don't have many kitchen tools and who would have thought that a vegetable peeler would be that important to making food.  

I ended up just taking all the thick zucchini strips and placing them in a baking dish and layering it like a lasagna.  I also made some lettuce wraps again and a few egg rolls.  I actually didn't make real egg rolls as I didn't have the egg roll wrappers.  

I ended up making a vegetable stir fry minus the soy sauce and sesame oil and all the other flavours that denote a stir fry and placing them in the middle of pieces of white bread. 

I took the white bread beforehand and flattened it as flat as possible to make it resemble some sort of dough.  I place the stir fry in the middle and tried to roll it up.  Fried it a little on each side in a frying pan and let it finished in the oven.  

They ended up looking a little worse than this.  Think more bread like.

I've been using Nutritional yeast for everything to try to cover our protein needs.  I am attempting to eat less meat every week with more fresh vegetables.  So far it seems like my fiancé doesn't seem to miss the meat but who knows what cravings we might have later. 

I think I'll try making this for Sunday:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/125045327129386989/ 

Looks good doesn't it.

For now here is a video of our trip to London. 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10101409864187967&set=vb.30608405&type=2&theater

Some sort of chicken pot pie...

 After cooking and playing many rounds of "plants vs zombies" I was a bit tired so unfortunately I didn't get around to posting yesterday night.

On Monday night I had made this simple roasted chicken.  The chicken was seasoned with salt only and it sat upon a bed of celery, potatoes, broccoli stems, onions, and mushrooms.  

I also made a simple tomato, cheese (actually used nutritional yeast) broccoli florets soup, I didn't have any broth on hand so I used water. 

Both were very good and not heavy on the waist since I didn't use any dairy really.  Maybe a little bit of skim milk for the soup.

Well yesterday night I was looking at the leftovers and thinking, "well I could serve this again and just heat it up in the microwave or re-invent it!"  (I'm trying to see how long I can go without using my microwave, so far I haven't even plugged it in all week) 

I decided to make something new.  I looked in the fridge and noticed I still had some eggplant and zucchini so I grab them and got to work.  I also grabbed a stalk of celery as well.

I started by making a simple roux (pictured below) and added the eggplant and zucchini. 

While that thickened I took out yesterdays chicken and tore the chicken off the bones.  I roughly chopped the chicken and tossed it in.  

Added a bit more water and milk and kept stirring.  Finally I added two heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast and decided I liked the constancy and tossed in the rest of the left over vegetables from the roast chicken, frozen carrots for colour and a bit of herb seasoning.  

I have been using wild tree seasoning.  It has been great because I am also trying to see how long I can go without using salt.  Apart from the chicken on Monday I haven't used salt in any of my cooking at all.  And I've made lettuce wraps, zucchini ravioli, zucchini pie, and stir fry.  (My husband ate most of it before I could take pictures.) 

Once the chicken mix was done I rolled the pie crust dough onto my rolling pin and grabbed the baking dish.  I pour the mixture into the dish and unrolled the pie crust on top.  Pinched the edges and popped it into the oven. 

I let it bake for about 45 mins and we dug in.  It was delicious and warm.  It's so cold in Oxford that it warmed my toes right away.  I was happy with the results, although it was a bit too soupy but next time I'll let it simmer a bit longer.  

The pie cost 3 quid to make for 6 servings!

Shopping around...really around.

We moved to Oxford on September 21st 2014.  It has been wonderful to say the least but also more than I bargained for.  We don't live far from the City Center as it takes about 50 minutes to walk but trying to find out the best place to shop hasn't been easy.  Everyone has their opinions and since I've been here for the past three days I've learned a few things.  These are the grocery stores that I have visited.
Tesco Metro, Sainsbury, M & S, and the Food Co-Operative.  (I have not been able to go to Aldi yet)
These are the things that I compared among the stores; meat, vegetables, fruit and bread.
As far as meat goes the cheapest and best quality that I noted was from M & S.  For example take a whole chicken.  They were selling 3 whole chickens for  £10. while the Food Co-Operative was selling 2 for  £10. Tesco Metro and Sainsbury were selling one chicken for  £4-7 depending on size.

Vegetables were about the same price across the board but M & S and Sainsbury did sell for a bit higher but I did notice that M & S sold fresh potted herbs which is a very nice option for those who are interested in keeping fresh herbs.

Fruit was the cheapest at Tesco Metro especially if you simply buy the fruit that is marked down.

Bread was cheap across the board but I have yet to go to a local bakery and buy bread at the end of the day which I heard is better.

I was unable to keep my receipts for this round but I spent a total of  £40 for food for the next two weeks. Here is hoping that I can stretch that  £ as far as possible.  Will send a picture of dinner tonight along with the recipe.