This week's dinners:-
Monday - Stir fried leeks, carrots, courgette, red and yellow peppers and Brussels sprouts, with a small amount of chorizo and some cubed halloumi.
Tuesday - Greek leek pie - sliced leeks and courgettes gently fried in olive oil until softened, then 200g crumbled feta and a tiny bit of blue cheese folded in, along with 2 beaten eggs, oregano, garlic, dill and pepper and a tablespoon of flour. Filo pastry layered in an oblong 1" deep tin, the layers brushed with olive oil, filling added then more filo layers on top. Baked for about an hour. It made enough for 6 portions, we had 2 warm with roasted cauliflower and asparagus.
Wednesday - 2 more portions of the Greek leek pie, at room temperature, with salad. The other 2 portions have been frozen.
Thursday - Heck chicken sausages, cut up and fried in a little olive oil, with sliced leeks and mushrooms, served on a packet mixture of brown rice, spelt and red quinoa.
Friday - Healthier pizza - I'm making the base with cubed raw sweet potato, oats and an egg all whizzed up in the food processor, then Italian herbs, Parmesan and a splash of olive oil mixed in, spread out on parchment on a baking tray and bake for 20 mins. Turn over, peel off the paper and bake for another 10 mins. Saw the recipe online but can't remember where, sorry. Leave to cool a bit before topping - I'm using tomato puree, sliced chicken sausages, sliced tomatoes and mushrooms, mozzarella and feta cheeses.
Not sure what I'm going to do for Saturday yet, possibly salmon. Sunday will probably be chicken.
Lunches this week are mainly leftovers from the previous day's dinner, or Greek salad with sourdough.
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Sunday, 24 March 2019
Lighter moussaka and going Greek
I am loving this Med way of eating, I think I must have been born in the wrong country. We did live in Gibraltar for a couple of years when I was a child of 6 or 7, I don't remember much about the food though, other than trees with big oranges and lemons growing at the side of the road, much like we have, say, ash or beech trees here. I'm sure we must have eaten a lot of salads, as it always seemed to be hot there.
We've discovered we particularly like Greek food, I found a lovely website www.olivetomato.com/ which has fantastic authentic Greek recipes, written by a Greek lady, unsurprisingly. She gives recipes that her mother and grandmother have handed down, some of which we've tried....we haven't yet found one we don't like. Of course, it helps if you like feta cheese, tomatoes and particularly olive oil. I absolutely hated olive oil when I was young....funny how tastes change. In fact, when I was young, olive oil was something Mum kept a small bottle of for the sole purpose of putting it in our ears when we had earache! No wonder I didn't like it back then, I just thought of it as a sort of ointment!
I can't wait for our own tomatoes this summer - the only option we have at the moment is buying foreign ones that have come 1000s of miles, which doesn't really sit well with me anymore - we want to eat seasonally and local as much as possible. And tomatoes that have come from abroad and been refrigerated for the whole journey just don't taste of much. There's nothing like the taste - and smell, shop bought ones don't have any smell - of home grown tomatoes, whichever country you live in.
I made moussaka yesterday, a much lighter version of the one I've always made before. I used a very small amount (150g) of extra lean minced beef, cooked up with onion, tinned chopped tomatoes and red lentils, along with sliced aubergines and courgettes, which I grilled first, having sprayed them with olive oil spray. Previously, I would have layered the mince (much more mince) and veg slices with cheese sauce, finishing up with a layer of part cooked potato slices and lots more cheese sauce. I know, not very authentic. This time, I used slices of Brie in between the layers, finishing with aubergines (no potatoes in this one). I beat 2 eggs with a tablespoon of cottage cheese and one of Greek yogurt and added some crumbled feta, then spooned that over the top before baking. Oh, it was delicious, husband said he preferred it to my usual version.
We had chicken biryani the other day....I usually use lamb, but chose chicken thighs instead as we're cutting down drastically on red meat. Very nice, although the house did stink of curry for a couple of days.
Today we're having Greek-style pork chops, they're marinating in apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary and oregano. I'm doing Greek potatoes with them - one of the recipes from the Olive Tomato site, sliced potatoes baked in olive oil, lemon, feta and oregano. I've also done a pan of Greek style peas.....that's peas cooked with sliced onion and carrot, in - you've guessed it - olive oil and tomato puree, with dill. Smells lovely.
We've been having variations of Greek salad for lunch most days - always tomato and cucumber and thinly sliced red onion, sometimes with beetroot, sometimes beans, a bit of chorizo, with either feta or halloumi, and a simple dressing, olive oil with either balsamic or cider vinegar.
I wish I'd taken more notice of the Mediterranean diet years ago.
We've discovered we particularly like Greek food, I found a lovely website www.olivetomato.com/ which has fantastic authentic Greek recipes, written by a Greek lady, unsurprisingly. She gives recipes that her mother and grandmother have handed down, some of which we've tried....we haven't yet found one we don't like. Of course, it helps if you like feta cheese, tomatoes and particularly olive oil. I absolutely hated olive oil when I was young....funny how tastes change. In fact, when I was young, olive oil was something Mum kept a small bottle of for the sole purpose of putting it in our ears when we had earache! No wonder I didn't like it back then, I just thought of it as a sort of ointment!
I can't wait for our own tomatoes this summer - the only option we have at the moment is buying foreign ones that have come 1000s of miles, which doesn't really sit well with me anymore - we want to eat seasonally and local as much as possible. And tomatoes that have come from abroad and been refrigerated for the whole journey just don't taste of much. There's nothing like the taste - and smell, shop bought ones don't have any smell - of home grown tomatoes, whichever country you live in.
I made moussaka yesterday, a much lighter version of the one I've always made before. I used a very small amount (150g) of extra lean minced beef, cooked up with onion, tinned chopped tomatoes and red lentils, along with sliced aubergines and courgettes, which I grilled first, having sprayed them with olive oil spray. Previously, I would have layered the mince (much more mince) and veg slices with cheese sauce, finishing up with a layer of part cooked potato slices and lots more cheese sauce. I know, not very authentic. This time, I used slices of Brie in between the layers, finishing with aubergines (no potatoes in this one). I beat 2 eggs with a tablespoon of cottage cheese and one of Greek yogurt and added some crumbled feta, then spooned that over the top before baking. Oh, it was delicious, husband said he preferred it to my usual version.
We had chicken biryani the other day....I usually use lamb, but chose chicken thighs instead as we're cutting down drastically on red meat. Very nice, although the house did stink of curry for a couple of days.
Today we're having Greek-style pork chops, they're marinating in apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary and oregano. I'm doing Greek potatoes with them - one of the recipes from the Olive Tomato site, sliced potatoes baked in olive oil, lemon, feta and oregano. I've also done a pan of Greek style peas.....that's peas cooked with sliced onion and carrot, in - you've guessed it - olive oil and tomato puree, with dill. Smells lovely.
We've been having variations of Greek salad for lunch most days - always tomato and cucumber and thinly sliced red onion, sometimes with beetroot, sometimes beans, a bit of chorizo, with either feta or halloumi, and a simple dressing, olive oil with either balsamic or cider vinegar.
I wish I'd taken more notice of the Mediterranean diet years ago.
Monday, 18 March 2019
Do you stick to recipes?
Like most of us I'm sure, I love reading new recipes. When I have something to use up, or want to make something for a particular meal or occasion, or make a cake, say, I sometimes have a quick flick through my cook books or, more often than not, google for a recipe. Having found one (or several, usually), I almost never follow the recipe exactly, instead using it as an idea and changing it around to suit what I have in, or just because I think another ingredient would work well - or even taste better!
I am an adventurous cook and love experimenting with ingredients. Sometimes something might not work as well as I thought it might, but it's always edible (well, nearly always) and my husband is a willing tester and will eat whatever I give him. I don't always work to a recipe, quite often I just wing it, an idea will come to me (usually in the middle of the night!) and I build on it with whatever else I've got in. I do think this comes with experience, when we're young and just starting cooking, I guess we do tend to stick to a recipe. When we get older, more experienced and our confidence grows, we realise that we don't have to stick slavishly to recipes, however.
I belong to a Mediterranean diet (way of eating) group on FB, I joined it to get new ideas for meals. Well, some of the questions asked on there, and some of the responses, make me either laugh out loud or shake my head in despair. There's no doubt that some people on there are just too fanatical for their own good - as an example, someone recently posted a photo of a meal they'd made that included some bacon lardons, whereupon they were told by somebody in no uncertain terms that bacon 'is not allowed on the Med diet'. Really?! And someone else yesterday said they were making a meal containing beans and realised at the last minute that they didn't have the type of beans stated in the recipe they were following, and so asked on the group page if another type of bean they had would be ok to use? Again, really?! It's like they were asking for permission! Just use your initiative and use what you have, for goodness sake. And as for the bacon 'not being allowed' - I didn't realise the Med diet was governed by 'Rules' with a capital 'R'. Ok, so red meat and especially processed meats are not encouraged, but it's hardly going to kill you if you eat them in moderation, is it?
Since when did cooking and eating food become so regimented and regulated and fraught with anxiety and the danger of being told off for not following a regime slavishly? We don't have the Food Police standing over us in our kitchens with an electric cattle prod, ready to zap us if we don't follow the rules.
Food is one of the great pleasures in life, it's interesting and exciting coming up with ideas and preparing meals, I firmly believe we should have fun in the kitchen! If people want to follow recipes - fine, somebody else has done the hard work in coming up with the idea and testing it out, so you more or less know it will work out ok. But going off piste and running with an idea is fine too, if it works out (and it probably will) then you have a nice new meal to add to your repertoire. If it's not what you expected, well then you know you can either stick to the recipe or change it up for something else next time.
Gemma's Person, your husband's comment did make me laugh! I don't consider I cook fancy meals at all - I do like colourful meals with a lot of taste and variety. I don't use fancy ingredients (generally too expensive!) and my presentation sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. But thank him for me anyway, I'm glad he was impressed!
I am an adventurous cook and love experimenting with ingredients. Sometimes something might not work as well as I thought it might, but it's always edible (well, nearly always) and my husband is a willing tester and will eat whatever I give him. I don't always work to a recipe, quite often I just wing it, an idea will come to me (usually in the middle of the night!) and I build on it with whatever else I've got in. I do think this comes with experience, when we're young and just starting cooking, I guess we do tend to stick to a recipe. When we get older, more experienced and our confidence grows, we realise that we don't have to stick slavishly to recipes, however.
I belong to a Mediterranean diet (way of eating) group on FB, I joined it to get new ideas for meals. Well, some of the questions asked on there, and some of the responses, make me either laugh out loud or shake my head in despair. There's no doubt that some people on there are just too fanatical for their own good - as an example, someone recently posted a photo of a meal they'd made that included some bacon lardons, whereupon they were told by somebody in no uncertain terms that bacon 'is not allowed on the Med diet'. Really?! And someone else yesterday said they were making a meal containing beans and realised at the last minute that they didn't have the type of beans stated in the recipe they were following, and so asked on the group page if another type of bean they had would be ok to use? Again, really?! It's like they were asking for permission! Just use your initiative and use what you have, for goodness sake. And as for the bacon 'not being allowed' - I didn't realise the Med diet was governed by 'Rules' with a capital 'R'. Ok, so red meat and especially processed meats are not encouraged, but it's hardly going to kill you if you eat them in moderation, is it?
Since when did cooking and eating food become so regimented and regulated and fraught with anxiety and the danger of being told off for not following a regime slavishly? We don't have the Food Police standing over us in our kitchens with an electric cattle prod, ready to zap us if we don't follow the rules.
Food is one of the great pleasures in life, it's interesting and exciting coming up with ideas and preparing meals, I firmly believe we should have fun in the kitchen! If people want to follow recipes - fine, somebody else has done the hard work in coming up with the idea and testing it out, so you more or less know it will work out ok. But going off piste and running with an idea is fine too, if it works out (and it probably will) then you have a nice new meal to add to your repertoire. If it's not what you expected, well then you know you can either stick to the recipe or change it up for something else next time.
Gemma's Person, your husband's comment did make me laugh! I don't consider I cook fancy meals at all - I do like colourful meals with a lot of taste and variety. I don't use fancy ingredients (generally too expensive!) and my presentation sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. But thank him for me anyway, I'm glad he was impressed!
Sunday, 17 March 2019
Loving the Med way of eating
Not blogged about our diet much lately as we've been so preoccupied with other stuff. In times past that would have meant full on comfort eating of carb-heavy stuff, resulting in feeling bloated, sick and achey. Not anymore though. Never thought I'd ever say this, but I'm actually really enjoying our new Med way of eating and don't really want to go back to stodgy stuff.
We eat all good healthy things Mon-Fri, but do relax it a bit at weekends. For instance, yesterday we had burgers for dinner (our first red meat in a fortnight or so), but they were homemade, not bought. I made them with butcher's minced beef with tomato puree, smoked paprika and salt & pepper, with a cube of French blue cheese hidden in the middle. I made spicy roasted sweet potato wedges to go with them, and a Greek-style salad with a homemade cider vinegar, olive oil, honey and lemon dressing. We had the rest of the salad for lunch today, with some goats cheese and a hunk of my sourdough bread to mop up the juices. For dinner tonight we're having roast pork with roast potatoes, French beans, carrots and peas. I would normally have done stuffing and Yorkshire puds to go with it, but that would just be extra unnecessary carbs, so we're not having them, we both agreed we didn't want them.
The leftover pork we'll have cold with another Greek-style salad with added beans of some kind tomorrow. I never used to like salad, of any kind (other than potato salad drenched in mayo or salad cream)....now I really enjoy it. As for dressings, I now prefer a mixed mayo/yogurt dressing with lemon juice, heavy on the yogurt, or a classic oil and vinegar one. Who knew!!
We eat all good healthy things Mon-Fri, but do relax it a bit at weekends. For instance, yesterday we had burgers for dinner (our first red meat in a fortnight or so), but they were homemade, not bought. I made them with butcher's minced beef with tomato puree, smoked paprika and salt & pepper, with a cube of French blue cheese hidden in the middle. I made spicy roasted sweet potato wedges to go with them, and a Greek-style salad with a homemade cider vinegar, olive oil, honey and lemon dressing. We had the rest of the salad for lunch today, with some goats cheese and a hunk of my sourdough bread to mop up the juices. For dinner tonight we're having roast pork with roast potatoes, French beans, carrots and peas. I would normally have done stuffing and Yorkshire puds to go with it, but that would just be extra unnecessary carbs, so we're not having them, we both agreed we didn't want them.
The leftover pork we'll have cold with another Greek-style salad with added beans of some kind tomorrow. I never used to like salad, of any kind (other than potato salad drenched in mayo or salad cream)....now I really enjoy it. As for dressings, I now prefer a mixed mayo/yogurt dressing with lemon juice, heavy on the yogurt, or a classic oil and vinegar one. Who knew!!
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Really getting into the Med diet
For the past couple of weeks I've been reading up as much as I can on the Mediterranean diet - well, way of eating, not a weight reduction diet (although that would be a bonus too). The A&E doctor I saw (I know I do keep on about her, but she was the most helpful doctor I've ever seen) said that the Med way of eating is generally acknowledged to be the healthiest there is.
We want to cut down on red meat and eat more chicken, fish, veggies and whole grains, so it seems sensible to adopt a diet that focuses on all of that, plus healthy fats like olive oil.
I've found a Facebook group that's helpful (although some people on there are quite fanatical about the diet and do seem to be judgemental if you eat something that's a bit off-plan...live and let live, for goodness sake!). There are also loads of websites dedicated to Med food, one of the best I've found is written by a Greek lady called Sylia http://30daysofgreekfood.com/
I've been experimenting with various different Med-type recipes over the past week or two...Italian, Spanish and Greek-influenced, mainly. They've pretty much all been delicious, husband really likes them too. Some recent favourites:-
A beetroot, feta and orange pasta salad, using wholewheat pasta (it's a pity you can't easily get wholewheat pasta in shapes other than penne or twists!), with walnuts, tomatoes and cucumber and a lemon, olive oil and cider vinegar dressing. I've had oranges in Florida-type salads before, with apples and walnuts, but never thought to pair it with beetroot and feta....try it, it's delicious, the flavours go really well together.
Braised cauliflower, one of Sylia's recipes....cauli florets braised with carrots and onion (I used a leek, as we have so many homegrown still) in olive oil and vegetable stock. We had it on a bed of brown basmati rice with roasted peppers and aubergine, with some crumbled goats cheese on top and a hunk of my sourdough to soak up the juices. Lovely.
Citrus chicken and rice - chicken thighs fried in olive oil until the skin browns, then briefly fry onions (leek again), peppers, aubergine and squash in an oven-proof pan, stir in brown rice, chicken stock and the juice of an orange and a lemon, add the chicken thighs back in, skin side up and top with slices of another orange and lemon, bake until liquid evaporated and everything cooked through. We had that on Sunday, oh it was fabulous.
I'm doing a Greek flat flour pie for lunch, again it's one of Sylia's recipes from the 30 days of Greek food site. Basically, it's a cheese pie (feta, cream cheese and mozzarella - I have no mozz so have just used a bit of creamy Cheddar and some cottage cheese that needed using up - with flour, eggs and milk beaten along with the cheeses - oh, and mint added. It's (well, they, it made 2) in the oven at the mo and smells divine, husband keeps asking if it's ready yet!
For dinner tonight we're having a tray of roasted Med veggies topped with a cod fillet. And do you know what, we've not missed having red meat!
We want to cut down on red meat and eat more chicken, fish, veggies and whole grains, so it seems sensible to adopt a diet that focuses on all of that, plus healthy fats like olive oil.
I've found a Facebook group that's helpful (although some people on there are quite fanatical about the diet and do seem to be judgemental if you eat something that's a bit off-plan...live and let live, for goodness sake!). There are also loads of websites dedicated to Med food, one of the best I've found is written by a Greek lady called Sylia http://30daysofgreekfood.com/
I've been experimenting with various different Med-type recipes over the past week or two...Italian, Spanish and Greek-influenced, mainly. They've pretty much all been delicious, husband really likes them too. Some recent favourites:-
A beetroot, feta and orange pasta salad, using wholewheat pasta (it's a pity you can't easily get wholewheat pasta in shapes other than penne or twists!), with walnuts, tomatoes and cucumber and a lemon, olive oil and cider vinegar dressing. I've had oranges in Florida-type salads before, with apples and walnuts, but never thought to pair it with beetroot and feta....try it, it's delicious, the flavours go really well together.
Braised cauliflower, one of Sylia's recipes....cauli florets braised with carrots and onion (I used a leek, as we have so many homegrown still) in olive oil and vegetable stock. We had it on a bed of brown basmati rice with roasted peppers and aubergine, with some crumbled goats cheese on top and a hunk of my sourdough to soak up the juices. Lovely.
Citrus chicken and rice - chicken thighs fried in olive oil until the skin browns, then briefly fry onions (leek again), peppers, aubergine and squash in an oven-proof pan, stir in brown rice, chicken stock and the juice of an orange and a lemon, add the chicken thighs back in, skin side up and top with slices of another orange and lemon, bake until liquid evaporated and everything cooked through. We had that on Sunday, oh it was fabulous.
I'm doing a Greek flat flour pie for lunch, again it's one of Sylia's recipes from the 30 days of Greek food site. Basically, it's a cheese pie (feta, cream cheese and mozzarella - I have no mozz so have just used a bit of creamy Cheddar and some cottage cheese that needed using up - with flour, eggs and milk beaten along with the cheeses - oh, and mint added. It's (well, they, it made 2) in the oven at the mo and smells divine, husband keeps asking if it's ready yet!
For dinner tonight we're having a tray of roasted Med veggies topped with a cod fillet. And do you know what, we've not missed having red meat!
Sunday, 3 March 2019
Mediterranean eating for health
Husband and I have both been suffering a bit health-wise lately, his arthritis is causing him a lot of pain, my joints are aching and I've had sinusitis and gut problems. A chance remark and then discussion with the doctor I saw in A&E last weekend (the one who recommended The Sleep Book to me, she really was very helpful) led me to understand that inflammation in the body can cause so many problems. Having done a fair bit of google research this past week, as recommended by the doctor, on what to eat/not eat for inflammatory conditions, it seems that a Mediterranean type diet is best. Which is fine by us.
So that means less red meat, gluten and wheat based products, simple carbs, high fat dairy and sugars (not that we have many sugary things anyhow). More vegetables and vegetarian based meals, fish, chicken, fruits (the lower sugar ones like berries), olive oil, lower fat dairy, whole grains, pulses. Such a lot of variety!
So having already done our meal plan for this week, today I'm redoing it to make it more Mediterranean. E.g., this morning we were going to have crumpets, fried eggs and bacon for breakfast, instead we're having my sourdough bread toasted, topped with avocado and bacon (having already got the bacon out of the freezer yesterday, it needs using). Dinner will be the belly pork slices I'd already got out of the freezer, but instead of roast potatoes and Yorkshires, we'll have a tray of roasted Mediterranean veggies, fortunately, I'd bought some yesterday.
We do like and eat a Mediterranean style diet occasionally, it lapses though after a while, especially during the winter. Hence our current health problems.
So that means less red meat, gluten and wheat based products, simple carbs, high fat dairy and sugars (not that we have many sugary things anyhow). More vegetables and vegetarian based meals, fish, chicken, fruits (the lower sugar ones like berries), olive oil, lower fat dairy, whole grains, pulses. Such a lot of variety!
So having already done our meal plan for this week, today I'm redoing it to make it more Mediterranean. E.g., this morning we were going to have crumpets, fried eggs and bacon for breakfast, instead we're having my sourdough bread toasted, topped with avocado and bacon (having already got the bacon out of the freezer yesterday, it needs using). Dinner will be the belly pork slices I'd already got out of the freezer, but instead of roast potatoes and Yorkshires, we'll have a tray of roasted Mediterranean veggies, fortunately, I'd bought some yesterday.
We do like and eat a Mediterranean style diet occasionally, it lapses though after a while, especially during the winter. Hence our current health problems.
Friday, 1 March 2019
End of the Feb £100 shopping challenge
Thank you for the kind comments on the sourdough tutorial. I should just mention that if you do decide to try making your own sourdoughs, don't expect your first few loaves to have that distinctive sourdough tang. That comes with age - the age of your starter, that is, not your age! The longer you have your starter, the more your loaves will acquire the tang.
My last weekly shop I did mostly in Lidl, going into Morrisons as well to pick up a few things I couldn't get from Lidl. I spent £19.47 in Lidl, £6.60 in Morrisons, bringing the total spend for February to £103.91, which I'm very pleased with. It's worked so well, we're going to continue it for this month - next month might be a bit harder though, as we run down the freezer and larder contents.
I found it quite easy to stick to my budget (other than the tiny overspend), but there are several reasons why we could manage to spend only that much:-
1. We started off with a very well stocked freezer and larder - they were very nearly full, actually. So I planned meals based around what we already had in, rather than just going to the shop out of habit and buying haphazardly, just because we fancied something.
2. I did a freezer and larder inventory, followed by a week's menu plan based on food we had in and then a shopping list to add on things to complete the meals, every week. Every single week, without fail. I think this is the single most important thing to do to cut your food spending.
3. If we ran out of something, because of an oversight on my part (or husband using the last of something and not telling me!), then we improvised or went without. It didn't kill us.
4. Following on from No. 3....normally in the past, if we were out of or running low on something (milk or eggs or cheese, usually), we'd go to the shop to get more, and end up buying other things as well, just because we were there. So another big thing to cut our spending is...not to go to the shops! It's so obvious when you think about it, isn't it. This time, when we were getting short of milk, I just used a carton of long life milk, which we always have in - I keep them for emergencies but don't tend to use them often as husband doesn't like the taste of it in hot drinks. So I used it for making a sauce and kept the remaining fresh milk for drinks, so avoided going to the shop until our planned shopping day two days later.
5. At the start of the month, I took out £100 cash for the shopping and kept it in a separate purse, using only this cash for shopping and sticking to my shopping list, although I did buy a few extras of things that I knew we would be using within the month and which happened to be on special offer. Having a limited amount of cash in your purse and telling yourself that this is all that's available concentrates the mind wonderfully.
It just shows that we can stick to a much reduced food budget, by planning meticulously and being disciplined...all the time. Hard work, but doable. We want to save up for a couple of things, as well as trying to get our emergency savings fund up again following the hugely expensive car repairs last year, so I will continue to budget carefully for food shopping every month.
My last weekly shop I did mostly in Lidl, going into Morrisons as well to pick up a few things I couldn't get from Lidl. I spent £19.47 in Lidl, £6.60 in Morrisons, bringing the total spend for February to £103.91, which I'm very pleased with. It's worked so well, we're going to continue it for this month - next month might be a bit harder though, as we run down the freezer and larder contents.
I found it quite easy to stick to my budget (other than the tiny overspend), but there are several reasons why we could manage to spend only that much:-
1. We started off with a very well stocked freezer and larder - they were very nearly full, actually. So I planned meals based around what we already had in, rather than just going to the shop out of habit and buying haphazardly, just because we fancied something.
2. I did a freezer and larder inventory, followed by a week's menu plan based on food we had in and then a shopping list to add on things to complete the meals, every week. Every single week, without fail. I think this is the single most important thing to do to cut your food spending.
3. If we ran out of something, because of an oversight on my part (or husband using the last of something and not telling me!), then we improvised or went without. It didn't kill us.
4. Following on from No. 3....normally in the past, if we were out of or running low on something (milk or eggs or cheese, usually), we'd go to the shop to get more, and end up buying other things as well, just because we were there. So another big thing to cut our spending is...not to go to the shops! It's so obvious when you think about it, isn't it. This time, when we were getting short of milk, I just used a carton of long life milk, which we always have in - I keep them for emergencies but don't tend to use them often as husband doesn't like the taste of it in hot drinks. So I used it for making a sauce and kept the remaining fresh milk for drinks, so avoided going to the shop until our planned shopping day two days later.
5. At the start of the month, I took out £100 cash for the shopping and kept it in a separate purse, using only this cash for shopping and sticking to my shopping list, although I did buy a few extras of things that I knew we would be using within the month and which happened to be on special offer. Having a limited amount of cash in your purse and telling yourself that this is all that's available concentrates the mind wonderfully.
It just shows that we can stick to a much reduced food budget, by planning meticulously and being disciplined...all the time. Hard work, but doable. We want to save up for a couple of things, as well as trying to get our emergency savings fund up again following the hugely expensive car repairs last year, so I will continue to budget carefully for food shopping every month.
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