Wednesday, 21 January 2015
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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
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
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
Saturday, 17 January 2015
Homemade popcorn
For a wedding present we got a stove top popcorn machine. It has a handle to keep moving the popcorn so none of it burns. I don't use it very often but every time I do I always think that I should be using it more. If you do not have one of these you can still follow this recipe by using a pan with a good fitting list.
You will need:
Once you hear that these have popped add the rest of your popcorn kernels. Add the lid again and either turn your handle or shake your pot to keep the kernels moving. Keep going until you only hear a couple of pops left.
Once the popping stops you will be left with a lovely bowl of popcorn. Add salt to taste and enjoy.
I'm hoping to find a sweet recipe that uses honey or maple syrup. I will share it if I find a good one.
Claire
You will need:
- Popcorn kernels
- An oil of your choice, I use coconut oil
- Salt
Start by melting your oil in your pan. Once it's melted add a couple of kernels and close the lid.
Once you hear that these have popped add the rest of your popcorn kernels. Add the lid again and either turn your handle or shake your pot to keep the kernels moving. Keep going until you only hear a couple of pops left.
Once the popping stops you will be left with a lovely bowl of popcorn. Add salt to taste and enjoy.
Planning a healthy girls night in
Last night I had a group of friends over for a girls movie night. With me wanting to stick to plan and having a few people there watching their weight. I often find that when you are trying to eat healthier that meals with friends can leave you off track. With going though our challenge right now I prefer to eat at home as I can control what I am eating.
Here was my food shop
Most of this was for tonight. My meal plan was
Do you manage a healthy balance when you have guests round?
Claire
Here was my food shop
- Home made cheese and bacon quiche
- Salad with leftover chicken, pecans, pink lady apple and feta cheese.
- Carrot and cucumber sticks withhummus
- Tomatoes and oranges on the side
- Cheese sticks
- Homemade popcorn (ingredients already in cupboards)
With it being a movie night there were also a few treats. I have some friends that don't embrace eating whole foods so I like to offer them the choice of having a treat. I try to buy things individually wrapped rather than a whole dessert as you don't end up with leftovers you need to eat up.
Not all of these were eaten and I've put them in our cupboard for next time we have visitors. Here are a few more pictures from the night.
Sunday, 11 January 2015
Meal plan 12/01/15
We kept to our meal plan last week fairly well which I'm happy about. We are planned on stacking our food challenges so again this week we will be trying to add two servings of fruit or veg at each meal.
This is our meal plan for this week:
For breakfast I plan on making a batch of egg muffins and Slow cooker porridge. As we both work early mornings this really helps us when I'm organised as we won't grab anything unhealthy.
Lunches again tends to be pretty random. If we have leftovers we will have them. Alternatively I have some chicken stock from yesterday's roast chicken so I may make soup.
This is our meal plan for this week:
For breakfast I plan on making a batch of egg muffins and Slow cooker porridge. As we both work early mornings this really helps us when I'm organised as we won't grab anything unhealthy.
Lunches again tends to be pretty random. If we have leftovers we will have them. Alternatively I have some chicken stock from yesterday's roast chicken so I may make soup.
- Monday - we have friends over for dinner so will be doing a big sausage casserole or pasta bake with salad. I think we will have a dessert this day but I'm not sure what yet.
- Tuesday - homemade chicken nuggets and chips with frozen veg mix
- Wednesday - I had eggplant Parmesan on the menu but it didn't arrive on my online shop so I may improvise with what we already have indoors and change this
- Thursday - leftovers. I'm hoping there will be some leftovers this week.
- Friday - quinoa veggie burgers. This is a new recipe I'm trying and looking forward to it.
- Saturday - basil pork chops and veg
- Sunday - slow cooker roast chicken.
What are you having this week?
Week 1 of real food mini challenge review
I would say that our first week of Real food mini pledges has been successful. There was only one dinner that we didn't have two servings of either fruit or veg. We also stuck to our Meal plan fairly well.
Breakfast was probably the easiest as we tend to have eggs with peppers, spinach and mushrooms or porridge with a fruit cooked in and one on the side.
Lunches most days were leftovers which we added more fruit or veg too. We also enjoy doing lunch picnic style when we are both in.
The only meal we didn't have was tacos. The mince I had brought unfortunately went bad before it's best before so we improvised and added some veggies and leftover chicken to rice which you can see below.
We've also been using fruit as a dessert. I have a real sweet tooth so I have been trying to cut back in preparation for some of the other weeks,
Here are some pictures of some of our meals this week.
How did you do this week?
Breakfast was probably the easiest as we tend to have eggs with peppers, spinach and mushrooms or porridge with a fruit cooked in and one on the side.
Lunches most days were leftovers which we added more fruit or veg too. We also enjoy doing lunch picnic style when we are both in.
The only meal we didn't have was tacos. The mince I had brought unfortunately went bad before it's best before so we improvised and added some veggies and leftover chicken to rice which you can see below.
We've also been using fruit as a dessert. I have a real sweet tooth so I have been trying to cut back in preparation for some of the other weeks,
Here are some pictures of some of our meals this week.
How did you do this week?
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