Wednesday, 28 January 2015

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.


Monday, 26 January 2015

Egg muffins

Here is a great on the go breakfast idea. We make these most weeks and vary what we include.


You will need:


  • Eggs I used 3 which made 12 muffins
  • Bacon
  • Peppers
  • Mushrooms
  • Salt,pepper and garlic
You can use any ingredients you like for this. Start by cooking you filling on the stove top. 





Once these are cooked add them into a bowl with you beaten eggs. Oil your muffin pan or use cupcake cases if you like and spoon the mixture evenly into them. I have a fan assisted oven and I cooked these for 15minutes at 180 degrees. Cook these until a knife comes out clean. Once cooked place on a wire rack to cool if you are not eating straight away. These can be stored in the fridge for a few days or frozen and taken out the night before you want them. Let me know if you try these. Claire

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.

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Puppy update

So cooper has been with us for 12 days!  He's settled in well and is feeling very much at home!

The picture above is him after he had his first bath! He's a real water baby he even licks water off the ground  when it's been raining! Since being here he has learn to sit, he goes in his crate by himself and is happy most of the time to west his collar. He is also mostly toilet trained with just a couple of accidents indoors.

On Tuesday he went to the vets for his second round of vaccines and was really well behaved. We had him weighed and we guessed correctly with him being 5.8kg. He is a typical Labrador who loves food and will do anything for it so we are hoping this will help with trick training.

Today he is meeting my cousins dog who is an 8 year old Labrador so we are excited to see how he reacts.






Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Last weeks food

Here are a few pictures of some of our meals from last week.






What did you eat this week? Have you done a meal plan?

Bloglovin

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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