Getting your grocery shopping cheaper.

I thought I'd write a post on grocery shopping and how to make your weekly shop cheaper. Food is one area where everyone spends, but not everybody really takes notice of what they are buying. 

We have some friends who are the same age as us, who don't understand why they never have any money. This weekend, I spent some time with them, and also went food shopping with me and, to be honest, I was amazed. They went round the supermarket, just popping any random thing that took their fancy in the shopping cart. 

At the end, I asked them what kind of meals they were going to have this week, and my friend answered "Oh, I don't know. We'll work that out when we're going to eat."

How can you possibly go shopping for food (they spent over £80 in that shop) when you don't know what you need, what you're going to eat during the week, and what you already have in at home?

My tips are:

- Plan your menu. I can't stress this enough - knowing what you're going to make during the week is helpful for two reasons. 1 - you know what you're having so that you don't have to think about it during the week. 2 - you know what meals you're having so you know what ingredients you need to get. 

- Eat seasonal. There's a reason why strawberries/raspberries/pineapples are really expensive in January - because they're not in season. Eat things that are seasonal, because they tend to be cheaper. 

- Go veggie. Have one or twos meals during the week that don't include meat, as it's healthier and also lots cheaper. Maybe have a soup night once a week, again another cheap, healthy option. 

- Check what you have before you go. Seriously, my friends didn't know if they needed anything, because they hadn't got a clue what was in their kitchen at home. Before you plan, check and see if anything needs eating up. That goes onto the menu first. Then, once you've written your menu, check and see what you have at home first - I bet it's more than you think! 

- Think about cost of food vs. calorie value. This may seem a bit strange, but some things are cheap and easy to cook, and very good for you at the same time! Take porridge oats - get the basic ones as they're pretty much all the same. Oats are really good for you, and yet they don't cost too much. There's so many varieties you can do with oats - breakfast is an obvious one, but use them to bulk out meals too. Bananas are always on our list too, as they're cheap and nutritionally very good too. Same goes for eggs, 

I hope that's helpful to someone. I've been to get some food today - a mixture of the market and the supermarket, and I've spent £21.32 on our weekly shop. Our menu for the week is:

today - roast pork with the trimmings

Monday - chicken fajitas

Tuesday - pizza

Wednesday - coq au vin with rice

Thursday - pasta with sauce

Friday - fish and chips 

I love food.

Meals for the week.

I have not had time at all this week to get online really, so not had chance to write a post. I've not really done much, except work has been really busy, so spent most evenings doing stuff or sleeping as I'm shattered. 

Our meals for this week are:

today - roast lamb with veg and gravy

Monday - spag bol with garlic bread

Tuesday - pizza (DH) soup (me)

Wednesday - summer-in-winter chicken with rice

Thursday - pasta (DH) slim fast (me)

Friday - grilled pork chops with apple sauce and mash

Lots of simple recipes this week that require little concentration and effort, which is always a bonus. 

I've had a bit of a financial wobble this week. I'll post more on that tomorrow, and perhaps ask some advice on various things. Ho hum. 

What I wouldn't give to be somewhere warm right now, for a relax....

Meals for the week.

As per usual, Sunday's post is about the meals for the week and food shopping.

I was disappointed last week when we spent quite a lot at the supermarket, and was determined not to have a repeat of that! Due to using some of the things in the freezer and careful planning, our spends at the supermarket this week was £38.31 - that's more like it! This total even included some beer for DH, so I'm very pleased with that. 

Our meals for this week are:

today - out at the in-laws for Sunday dinner

Monday - coconut prawn curry

Tuesday -pizza 

Wednesday - chicken fajitas and salad

Thursday - pasta and sauce (DH) slim fast (me)

Friday - spaghetti bolognaise with garlic bread

Lots of stuff to be used from the fridge and freezer for this week's meals. 

A little confession next... I've given up chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cake and sweets for Lent, as I do every year. This year though, I'm finding chocolate especially hard, not sure why. So, I've been planning (as you do!) for when Lent is over. DH has a chocolate bar every day with his lunch, as he walk 7-8 miles a day in his job, so he can eat quite a bit. We buy chocolate bars on offer/whatever the best deal is. Over the past two weeks, I've been snaffling some of DH's chocolate bars and keeping them safe in a box.....:

Mmm.... the only thing I haven't bought in this box is the bag of peanut butter cup miniatures - they were a Christmas present - and all the rest were on good deals. I'm especially looking forward to the peanut butter kit kat chunky - yes, I'm cool! 

Have you given anything up for Lent? How are you finding it?

Happy Sunday everyone. 

Friday night.

Gosh, I'm so glad it's the weekend.

This week has been so strange and the weather hasn't helped. It hasn't snowed here today really, nothing has settled. There's still plenty of ice around though, so driving near our house is still a bit tricky.

Friday night normally means a slightly unhealthier tea than normal, and something that is straight forward. Tonight was no exception:

Gammon, pineapple, egg and chips. Just lovely. 

Have a good weekend, everyone. 

Meals for the week ahead.

As it's Sunday, it means planning for the week ahead, meal-wise. I look at what I've got in, what needs using up sooner rather than later, and then make a list.

Our menu for this week is:

Monday - mushroom and pesto spaghetti 

Tuesday - chicken fajitas

Wednesday - pizza (dh) slim fast (me)

Thursday - mushroom stroganoff and rice

Friday - gammon, egg and chips

The pesto needs using up, so that'll be done tomorrow. I'm still working through the last tin of slim fast I bought before the wedding... so a little more shall disappear on Wednesday, and DH has requested gammon, which I've never cooked before(...!) so that's on Friday.

It's starting snowing here! 

Meals for the week and a sweet treat.

So, yesterday I spent some time looking through the cupboards, making a note of things that needed eating up and then set about writing a menu for the week, then a shopping list. 

Our meals this week look like:

today - out at the in-laws

Monday - chicken, waffles and beans

Tuesday - summer-in-winter chicken

Wednesday - pizza (DH) slim fast (me)

Thursday - filled pasta and sauce

Friday - garlic chicken with chips (DH) and salad (me)

Lots of chicken this week, but not complaining :) quite a lot of this is from our freezer, and every meal this week is something easy and relatively quick to eat. I'm probably going to be pretty tired this week, so easy and quick is what is required. 

Our breakfasts are going to be toast/cereal/porridge/breakfast biscuits, and then lunches are sandwiches, with fruit. 

Now, my DH is very slim and does a lot of walking each day for his job, so he always needs more calories than me. I have a browse online, and decided to make some rocky road for him to take as part of his lunches this week. The only thing I had to buy was some value chocolate, and off I went!

Mmm. I am going to try and stay away from this! If you keep the base of milk chocolate/dark chocolate/golden syrup/butter, you can add pretty much what you want. I added ginger biscuits/digestives/marshmallows/pistachios/almonds/raisins and DH assures me it's very very tasty. Also, I got to use my new tin! We got a set of three as a wedding present, but I've not used any yet, until now! 

Here's to the week ahead. 

N xxx

Small comforts and uncertain times.

Our house is looking a bit sad at the moment. You see, we haven't put up any Christmas decorations. We are the only house on our street that doesn't have any lights sparkling outside. In fact, this:

[sorry for the bad pic] 

is the only thing we have in our house that is at all festive. This is because we could be moving house at any point, and don't want to put all the decorations up to them have to take them all down again. But, our house looks sad. 

As always, small comforts make life better. I did stray from my usual porridge and had this:

This is banana cinnamon porridge topped with chopped berries and peanut butter. It was nice, but not as nice as this:

Cinnamon porridge topped with warmed berries and peanut butter. Can anyone else see a smiley face in the peanut butter, or is it just me? The warmed berries and the syrup they produce is just heavenly. I will not stray again any time soon. 

And, a picture in a magazine made me smile, so I took a [poor] picture of it:

Aww! 

Oh, and happy 12/12/12. 

N xxx

Meal planning and making your pennies go further.

Things I have done today:

- Used a 10p off a litre of petrol voucher that would have expired today, had I not used it, saving me a whole £2.90!

- Went Christmas shopping with my mum and had a lovely time

- Had a posh brunch and tea

- Managed to buy 4 more Christmas presents

- Wrote most of my Christmas cards

A productive day!

I also wrote our menu plan for the week:

Sunday - mushroom risotto

Monday - soup and a sandwich

Tuesday - summer-in-winter chicken with rice

Wednesday - stir fry with noodles

Thursday - pizza

Friday - chicken with mushrooms and rice

Lots of rice this week, but then we've got lots of rice on the freezer. The chicken with mushrooms dish is already in the freezer, so no spends there, as was the pizza. Soup from the store cupboard and the only thing I needed to buy for the risotto was the mushrooms! 

Today has been a good day. How's your Saturday been?

[I love the house in this picture - it looks magical with snow on as well. ]

Food for the week and a little treat.

It now seems to be coming the norm, but Saturday is our food shopping day. I spend a bit of time searching through the cupboards/fridge/freezer and then plan what we are eating for the week. Then off I pop to the shops!

Our menu for the week:

Tonight - Chicken with mushrooms served with mash

Sunday - shepherds pie and gravy

Monday - Mushroom stroganoff served with rice

Tuesday - spaghetti with tomatoes, capers and anchovies

Wednesday - chilli and rice

Thursday - chicken fajitas

Friday - sweet and sour chicken (from freezer) with rice

Trying out a couple of new recipes this week, just so we don't end up eating the same things week in, week out. 

And, because it is Saturday, I treated myself to breakfast out this morning:

This was a very tasty eggs benedict. Yum! 

And also, I bought myself a new mug (definitely didn't need this, have loads in the cupboard!)

I thought it was pretty. Good size too. 

How was your Saturday? What meals are you having this week?

N xxx

A simple supper.

This evening I made one of the most simple, yet tasty, dishes for tea. 

Spaghetti with tomatoes, anchovies and capers (a modified version of spaghetti puttanesca). 

You need:

- 2 garlic cloves, crushed

- a tin of chopped tomatoes

- 1 tbsp of capers

- 1 tin of anchovies, in olive oil

- spaghetti

- big pinch of chili flakes

Drain the olive oil from the anchovies into a frying pan. Add the garlic cloves and cook for about a minute, stirring so it doesn't become brown. Add in the chopped tomatoes, capers, anchovies and chili flakes. Simmer for 10 minutes or so. The sauce should thicken beautiful into a lovely thick sauce. The anchovies will disintegrate into the sauce, leaving a great deal of flavour behind.

Boil some water and cook spaghetti. Then combine sauce and spaghetti, grate on a bit of parmesan if you have some in, and serve.

 This amount serves 2, and I always add all of the anchovies, as both me and my husband like anchovies, and I find if I leave some in the tin, they just end up getting thrown out anyway, so it's better to use them up.  And the best thing? This takes less than 20 minutes from start to plate. Perfect after a long day at work.

N xxx

Lazy weeks and dark nights.

Well, the weather this half term hasn't been that great, but wouldn't expect anything less to be honest! 

I still have indulged in various things, such as:

Peanut butter and blueberry jam on toast

More peanut butter - YUM! 

Healthy lunches that can be savored rather than eaten in a rush whilst trying to do something else at the same time! 

Decadent breakfast that can be eaten as slowly as you like - cinnamon porridge with warmed berries and - you guessed it! - peanut butter

I make this using value oats and these berries:

which are about £1.29 I think? So it's a very frugal breakfast, but tastes amazing. Try it! 

I also popped to our local farm shop and got some tasty wholemeal bread:

which was very nice dunked into some soup. I also got:

a massive jar of peanut butter with no added sugar - trying to watch our processed food intake at the moment and within that added sugar, so this was a good find! 

And finally, I have nearly finished this book:

which has been an enjoyable read - it's light hearted and funny and just what you want as a holiday read. 

Phew! It's been a good week.

N xxx

Long time no see.

I'll be honest, I did think about deleting this blog. I have nothing to write about - life is not particularly exciting. But then I thought about all the nice things I get to do, all of the things I get to see, all of the things I experience, and I thought to myself that I want to write about it, so I can look back on the good times I've had.

So, the most obvious thing to say is that I am obsessed with peanut butter on toast. 

With some red grapes on the side to add a bit more health to the plate:

And, clearly the best combination is this:

Peanut butter on toast with sliced banana on top is amazing. The peach on the side was just an added bonus...

The blueberries added a nice touch too.

So, to add a bit of variety to breakfast time, I did try another experiment which resulted in this.....:

This is cinnamon porridge, with warmed summer berries on top and a big spoonful of peanut butter. The cinnamon porridge was an amazing base by itself, the warmed berries added a certain sweetness and then the peanut butter melted into it all creating an amazing bowlful of goodness. I'm not gonna lie, I was sad when I finished it!

I have also tried a pumpkin spice latte:

and a salted caramel hot chocolate, which was very nice:

I have also stocked up on these:

as they're currently £1 in a well known supermarket with green writing ;) and as the use by dates aren't until June 2013, thought it was too good to miss! 

I have been reading:

and I've been walking here:

This blog is going to take a shift in direction soon, as I focus on the next stage of our life, so watch this space....

It won't be so long next time, promise!

N xxx

Food.

Sorry, things have been busy lately, and to be honest, my life is not exciting! So, nothing really to post. 

But, here's some things I've been eating lately:

Poached egg on toast, with a mini babybel and some cherries :) with a coffee made with almond milk

Veg and noodle stir fry

Spaghetti with tomatoes, garlic, capers and anchovies

And sometimes, just because I can, I had this for tea:

Pancake with nutella, banana and raspberries - YUM!

N xxx