We're now three weeks in to eating our way through our stockpiled and forgotten groceries. We have done some shopping but it's been for essential fresh food, mainly vegetables, milk and eggs. Have there been failures? Oh yes: going out to work, forgetting to turn the slowcooker on and coming home to an uncooked chicken casserole that had been sitting out all day and had to be disposed of was one such failure. Rice pudding made with coconut milk and chopped apple was another. We've also thrown out some things that were hanging round in the freezer for too long to be sure about and that we didn't want to take risks with.
A big victory has been saving money on work lunches. Neither me nor Mr CB buy many work lunches but lunches made at home can get boring (soup, AGAIN) or expensive when we try to jazz them up with something different. Cue leftovers: I've been cooking a little bit extra of things like rice and pasta dishes and we've had the extra next day for lunch, which costs next to nothing. I know, I know, leftovers for lunch aren't exactly revolutionary, but it's got me into good habits and made lunches more varied.
At this point we're running out of meal ideas, although I've found two bags of Quorn pieces in the freezer and a packet of fajita chicken mix in the cupboard, so they'll be making each other's acquaintance. Mr Crafty Blueberry will be making cottage pie some time this week and we'll be marinating some chicken legs from the freezer in curry paste and roasting them at the weekend. Tomorrow's a cheat day though as Mr CB found 20p stir fry veg in a reduced bin so we'll be buying some spicy tofu to fry it with. Got to have Tofu Thursday, it's one of this household's finest traditions!
A big victory has been saving money on work lunches. Neither me nor Mr CB buy many work lunches but lunches made at home can get boring (soup, AGAIN) or expensive when we try to jazz them up with something different. Cue leftovers: I've been cooking a little bit extra of things like rice and pasta dishes and we've had the extra next day for lunch, which costs next to nothing. I know, I know, leftovers for lunch aren't exactly revolutionary, but it's got me into good habits and made lunches more varied.
At this point we're running out of meal ideas, although I've found two bags of Quorn pieces in the freezer and a packet of fajita chicken mix in the cupboard, so they'll be making each other's acquaintance. Mr Crafty Blueberry will be making cottage pie some time this week and we'll be marinating some chicken legs from the freezer in curry paste and roasting them at the weekend. Tomorrow's a cheat day though as Mr CB found 20p stir fry veg in a reduced bin so we'll be buying some spicy tofu to fry it with. Got to have Tofu Thursday, it's one of this household's finest traditions!