Meal prep Monday and a food haul.

At the beginning of the week I like to try and get as organised as possible. Yesterday morning I made some Slow cooker porridge with some frozen apples and raspberries. I also used a couple of blueberries that we had left in the fridge that were getting a little soft. I also went shopping today so I took some time to wash all my fruit and to clean out my fridge. The last thing I did was hard boil some eggs for snacks. Doing this now means we have 6 breakfasts and our snacks are ready to eat. I find the helpful to have something healthy to grab. I also peeled the garlic that I brought and put this in our garlic jar.

After our Pantry challenge update we had £64 left. At the weekend we used £9 on some potatoes, baking potatoes, chocolate, pears and apples. Today I spend £28 on what you see below. I also got some toilet rolls which didn't make it into the picture.

Doing this challenge I realise that we use a lot of fresh produce which is generally my main reason for going to the shops. We have mainly red meat in our freezer so I decided to buy the chicken breasts. We had some left over chicken in the fridge to use for tonight's meal but I wanted to add a little more. The majority of this pack went in the freezer. There were a few organic products on offer and I'm happy with the amount of organic in this shop. After these two shops we have £27 left. I'm hoping that by doing a produce shop at aldi next week we will come in on budget.

What's in my pantry.

After doing my What's in my fridge and freezer post I thought I would show you my pantry. We keep most of our food items in one tall cupboard this is an over view below.

One the top shelf we have a couple bags of pasta. I brought these as they were reduced to clear at 62p each. We have two boxes of quick cook white rice and one brown. A couple tomato passata  that we use instead of jarred red sauce. I won a competition not that long ago which is why we have so many naked products. Coconut water is used either in smoothies or mixed with orange juice as I don't like the taste of it by itself.

On the next shelf we have most of our tins. These contain fruit, vegetables, spare sauces that don't fit I. The fridge such as jam. Small pots of honey and jam are from varies gift sets. There is more rice, some lentils, beans, quinoa and seeds. The next couple of shelves normally look a lot more organised than they do right now. We have some cereal, rice cakes, noodles, flaxseed and some popadoms. The bottom shelf is generally our snack area which has fruit pouches, pineapple pots, some quick cook oats, cereal bars, nuts and some larger jars of honey. At the bottom of this cupboard we keep long life almond milk and juice. The container keeps my corn flour in to make tortillas with and there are some gluten free ice cream comes in the back. We keep our spices and cooking supplies in a separate cupboard which you can see below. We keep most of our herbs on a spice rack but store back ups in here. Once I've opened dry goods I like to store them in jars. On our work too we have rice, pasta, cereal, homemade granola, slow cooking oats and our garlic pot.

What's in my fridge and freezer!

This month we are doing both the 100 days of real food mini pledges and Good cheap eats pantry challenge. These go very much hand in hand as each week we get a different challenge with 100 days so this enables us to eat the food in our pantry that may not meet each weeks challenge. With our pantry challenge this month we are hoping to keep to a budget so by using our pantry and freezer to the max we are hoping for a low spend. Once we have a pantry that isn't quite so full we we hoping to be able to restock on more clean foods.

Starting with our fridge. On the top shelf we have butter, mustard and  some chopped garlic. The next shelf down we have some cheese sticks, some jam that has now been used up and a couple of innocent drinks. We then have regular full fat cows milk and almond milk. At the bottom is a bottle of seasoning that my husband likes to use on meat occasionaly.

In the main bulk of our fridge on the top shelf  we have some BBQ sauce, some nandos sauce, tomato pasarta, not from concentrate orange juice and some maple syrup. There is also a couple of small Greek yogurt pots. In the plastic tub we keep things like cheese and lunch meat. We currently have some chorizo and German ham.

Next there is some wine from when we had guests the other day. I don't drink alcohol and my husband does very rarely but it seems a waste to throw it away. There are two tubs of yogurts, some left over sweet potatoes in the bowl and a bagged one in the back. Behind the bowl is a box with some Healthy truffles. Also there is a pot of soup.

On the bottom shelf there is some leftover chicken in a Tupperware box and also some cut up pineapple in the red one. There are some wrapped bacon lardons in the back. There are strawberries, hard boiled eggs and some salsa.

In the drawer there are apples, carrots, brussle sprouts, onions and peppers.

Our freezer is a jumble sale right now! We have a selection of meats, a couple whole chickens, beef mince, meatballs, pork joint, some fish, pork chops and some diced chicken.

In our other three drawers we have a selection of frozen fruit and vegetables. Homemade chicken stock, a couple different bits of leftovers and a couple of ice lollies.

Do you know what's in your fridge and freezer. Later I will be posting about what's in my pantry.

Pantry challenge update

So it's been almost a week since we started Good cheap eats pantry challenge. Since them I've done two small shops both at aldi.

I can't seem to download the photo of my first shop but if I'm able to I'll insert it below. This shop came to £7.80 and I brought two boxes of eggs, cream eggs, dried apricots and some garlic granules.

My second shop is below and came to £7.20. We only had apples left and no salad which were my main reasons for going. We use almond milk for our porridge but I personally enjoy drinking cows milk which is why I purchased this too.

After my Shop at waitrose last week I was left with £79 in our budget for the month. We have £64 left. Later on I will be uploading a post showing you what I have in my pantry.

Good cheap eats pantry challenge

A few months ago I came across Good cheap eats pantry challenge. I forgot about this until last week when I saw that she has started this again this January. On her website you will find the full details but the main part of the challenge is to use up what's in your freezer and food cupboards while saving money.

Our budget moves around a fair bit but on average it is about £250-£300 a month for the two of us. This works out at £62.50 a week if we are using a four week month. The last few months we have hosted a christmas party as well as a few get together a with friends. For the next four weeks we don't have anything big planned so I am hoping to reduce our budget to £150. After my Food shop at waitrose today I realised I can't fit anything else in my freezer and my main food cupboard is overflowing. I know that it may seems like a weird place in the month to start but I often do our food shopping on a Wednesday as I don't work.

I will start by doing an inventory and then a meal plan for the majority of the month. Off the top of my head I know we have three whole chickens, a couple packs or mince, a pork joint, some meatballs and burgers, fish and some diced chicken in our freezer. I'm hoping that as I don't have to buy meat for the rest of the month this will keep our budget down.

Today I spent £71 so I have £79 left. This budget is from 21/01/15 to 18/02/15.

If like me you feel that your cupboards and freezer are jam packed then head on over to good cheap eats as she is very inspiring and posts daily with what her family are eating.

Let me know if you plan on giving this a try.

Claire

Food shop at waitrose

Waitrose is my favourite supermarket. I love their range of organic/free range food and also that you can find things that are just a bit different. I shop here whenever our budget allows and right now they have some great offers on.

Starting with frozen and chilled.

I got my husband some frozen fish mainly for his lunches. I love how convenient frozen vegetables are. We used to have a small fridge so I think I am still in the habit of getting these but they do tend to avoid waste. We try to live by the 80/20 rule with eating healthily so the frozen yogurt is a treat.   Again for my husband are the Rachel's yogurts and the liberte yogurts are for myself. The soup will be for lunch one day and the ham and cheese for things such as sandwiches and omelettes. We didn't really need meat this week but the chickens and mince were half price so I thought I would get them for the freezer. The bacon lardons are for egg muffins and also to go with our brussel sprouts. The burgers and meatballs are things we haven't tried before but with being organic and gluten free I wanted to try them. I also thought the price wasn't bad as they were two for £5. We didn't need a huge amount of fruit and veg this week. Between us we eat 3-4 apples a day so I got two bags as these were half price. I ribboned veg are for a stir fry one night. We don't have children but we do like to have some of the Ella's pouches on hand. I often have one in my handbag with a cereal bar for a snack or we may have one after dinner occasionally. For the cupboard we got some organic sweet corn and rice pudding. I do like to try and make my own rice pudding but this is handy for a quick dessert. The dragonfly tea is also a new thing to try. The crisps are a rare treat but were on offer. When we open a large bag like this I like to portion them out into zip lock bags to avoid over eating. Hiding in the back are some tiger bread rolls for my husband. The plastic containers were reduced to clear so I purchased these. I do keep looking at glass containers but these are practical for my husband to take to work. My shop today came to £71 and some change. A while ago I came across a pantry challenge on good clean eats blog. I will be doing a post about this which includes tracking our spending on this blog too. Did you find any good deals this week? Do you have a budget for your family? Claire