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.