Coopers new car harness and a walk!

As my husband is american he had Monday off for Presidents' Day. Once I had come home from work and we had breakfast we decided to go out. Our first stop of the day was pets at home. We have been holding cooper on our laps in the car but now that's he's going for slightly longer walks we decided it was time to get him a car harness so I can travel to nice walking spots with him. As you can see from the pictures below he didn't mind it but needed bribing at first!!

Not far from out house is elveden estate. This is a courtyard with some nice shops and a cafe but our main reason for going was for their nature trail. It was a nice day and we all really enjoyed being out in the fresh air. The fresh air defiantly made us hungry so we treated ourselves to a warm drink and a sandwich in their cafe. It's more expensive than we like to pay for a casual meal but we haven't eaten out much lately so we thought it would be a nice treat.

Once we were home cooper slept for most of the afternoon and we got to enjoy our beef stew which had been cooking away in the slow cooker all day.

Meal plan 16th February - 8th March

So after meaning to do a new meal plan for about a week I finally ticked it off my list tonight. This time I've done a three week meal plan which takes us up until we go away. Our cupboards are still pretty full after our tesco shop and I'm hoping we have enough meat to last us the next three weeks. There is currently only one night I'm out so I have planned a meal for most nights.

16 beef stew with salad on the side
17 salad and stuffed peppers
18 I'm out. My husband will have fish
19 chicken quarters and veg
20 chicken or veggie pasta
21 gammon steaks with pineapple and homemade chips
22 I have some mince. I'm thinking of doing either lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.

23 whole chicken in the slow cooker with veg
24 egg fried rice with leftover chicken
25 pasta with leftover chicken
26 pork chops
27 omelettes
28 homemade quiche
1 leftovers


2 chicken quarters and veg
3 something with chicken breasts
4 quinoa burgers
5 chicken pasta with leftover chicken
6 omelettes and salad
7 veggie curry
8 leftovers


I've figured this week I will need to buy eggs and gluten free flour to make a batch of Yorkshire puddings with but hoping that I may be able to have a week spending very little. I'm planning on spending no more than £150 again this month and will take what we don't spend as spending money for our week away. Deducting £14.21 from our tesco shop we have £135.79. What's on your meal plan this week? Claire

Tesco food haul

After our  Last shop we had £27 left in our budget. Tesco send  an email with a £15 off a £60 voucher and I also had a voucher though the post for £5 off £25. I decided if these worked together and that we could save £20 we would use it before they expire and take the extra money out of next months budget. The total shop came too £41.81. Therefore we will take £14.21 out of next month. I didn't take any photos but I will list the items below and include some recent pictures of our puppy towards the end.

Fruit and vegetables:

• Organic potatoes
• Pears
• Bananas
• Organic lemons
• Grapes
• Organic pink lady apples
• Mixed peppers

Fridge

• Cheese
• Organic Greek yogurts
• Organic milk

Meat

• Chicken leg quarters
• Chicken breast packs x2
• Steak x2
• Streaky bacon
• Gammon steaks
• Diced beef
• Salmon fillets

Other

• Popadoms
• Curry sauce
• Passata x3
• Ice cream
• Granola
• Cleaning spray for pets

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.

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