Freezer meals for the frugal...

So in order to get baby ready and also to prepare for the inevitable drop in our incomes (due to my maternity leave) I've been doing some research into ways to reduce the costs of our weekly shop.

Step 1: Change our way of shopping and possibly our supermarket
We'd got into the habit of popping into our local Sainsbury's every few days to stock up for a few meals and this is a costly way of shopping as you end up picking up lots of non-essentials. Plus Sainsbury's isn't the cheapest supermarket - but it is the biggest in our town and the little Asda often doesn't stock the fruit and veg I needed. We reasoned that we were collecting Nectar points and they do lots of vouchers and money off coupons.

So we decided to check out the local Aldi after work one night. Surprisingly it wasn't always cheaper.

The best deals we found were the packets of ten individually wrapped pain au chocolates for a pound - we often used to get these fresh in Sainsbury's two for 79p at the end of the night on 'sale.' The Belgian is fond of his pastries you see...perhaps the cheapest option would be to make them. One for the summer bucket list methinks.

 Also they seem to be winning the competition for cheapest nappies - only 7p each for the newborn size, whilst the Asda Little Angels are 9p each. Shame we had already stocked up at Asda!
There were things that were cheaper in Sainsbury's though, as these basics tortilla chips are around 45p there and Aldi was selling a similar pack for a pound.

 

However I think we cannot deny that in the competition to be the cheapest Asda is the winner and so to stock up for our big freezer meals shop we travelled a bit further to the biggest Asda superstore in Pudsey Leeds.

Step 2: So onto the part you've all been interested in...freezer meals. Bulk cooking and bulk buying with cheap ingredients and deals.

The Belgian spent a few hours on a Saturday and he made:

 8 spiced pepper pilafs

 5 mini (portions for two for a meal) golden veggie shepherd's pies

 12 meatballs with spaghetti sauce

 Six portions of spiced carrot and lentil soup

Then I spent an hour making a Macaroni and Beef cheese bake which I bulked up with some grated carrot leftover from the soup and it made three portions for the two of us.

Storage ideas:

• Ziploc bags with cooking / reheating instructions written on with a sharpie
• Ice-cream containers
• Tupperware
• We found some good disposable foil containers in the home section of Asda

  
Some other useful recipes and links:
Joyful Momma's top 5 freezer meals
Joyful Momma's Quesedilla Casserole
Joyful Momma's 10 more freezer meals for fall
Frugal Foodie's pinterest freezer meals board

Overall benefits of freezer meals:

• An afternoon or morning of cooking and you have meals for a week or fortnight
• These recipes all use cheap ingredients like beef, tinned tomatoes, carrots and onions and these can be found in bulk to get a good deal
• You can make a recipe for tea that night but double it and freeze the remainder
• Soup lasts about a month when frozen the other meals last about two to three weeks
• When you want the meal you just put in in the fridge for a day to defrost or you can use the microwave
• You don't have to think of ideas for dinner every night

We are definitely converts and I think that once you have a bigger family it makes sense - but even for a couple like us we're noticing less waste and cheaper food bills.
So...do you freeze meals? What ideas do you have for reducing food bills?

A winter warmer - Julia Child's Potatoe Soup

So day 3 of the trip will be broadcast shortly in blogland.
However for now I thought I'd share this soup I made to stave off the winter chills - is anyone esle sick of all of the rain outside?? How can the weather have changed so dramatically? Or is it just the North * shudder!*

Here is the recipe from the great foodie blog Mouth of Wonder:

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
Hot soup and a cold winter day go together like nothing else. The smell of simmering onions in butter is like perfume to me. It's like culinary foreplay, if you will! This is a recipe from the queen herself, Julia Child, for the classic potato leek soup. Here’s an old joke my father told me a hundred times... “How do you make vichyssoise? First, you take a leek.”

Ingredients
3-4 cups of diced peeled potatoes (1 lb.)
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, including the tender greens
2 quarts water
1 Tablespoon salt
6 tablespoons heavy cream or 3 tablespoons softened butter
3 tablespoons minced chives or parsley

Procedure
Simmer vegetables, salt, and water together, partially covered for 40-50 minutes in a 3-4 quart saucepan. Mash the vegetables into the soup with a fork or pass through a food mill. Julia does not like the texture of soup pureed in a blender, your call. Adjust salt and pepper. You can stop at this point. When ready to serve, bring soup back to simmering. Then off the heat, stir in the cream or butter and top with chopped chives or parsley. It does not get much better than that! Makes 2 quarts of soup for 6-8 servings

***

So have a go. It was super easy and super tasty. Let me know how it goes...

Come Dine with Me Champions

So you may remember my earlier post about our Gastro Pub night. Before that our friend Mike hosted a Greek food night and before that our friends the Flinn's hosted a tapas night where I forgot to take pics as there was so much good food distracting me!
We had soooo much fun and it was just like having a free posh restaurant meal out, I would totally recommend you guys have a go with some friends. We enjoyed it cos we're real foodies and were loving the chance to try lots of new and exciting recipes. We now make the bread used in our starter often and it's still as delicious and we have tried different variations like adding sun dried tomotoes too.
So Saturday night was the last evening and the one where we would add all the scores together. Esther and Jared put on a Thai feast and named their night - "Come Thai'n with me!" which I thought was a great name! The food was delish and they won for their starters. I didn't take any pics as we took so many on holiday and just wanted to enjoy the evening.
We were voted the overall winners with an average score of 8.7. Our dessert also won overall for that category. We were pleased, but also found it a bit awkward to have to score each other and place someone last when we had all tried so hard.

Come Dine with me - Gastro Pub Night

So it was our turn to host the Come Dine with Me contest we are holding with five of our friends. We'd had tapas night, Greek night and so we chose Gastro Pub due to a convo we had at the last event about Britain lacking a specific cuisine. Although I must admit our menu was inspired by lots of French cooking, however they are the type of dishes you would find at a gastro pub (that was our disclaimer anyway!)

Here was the menu we sent out - we had a lot of fun thinking of creative names for the dishes:-

Aperitif: Ploughman’s crunch & Wimbledon cooler 

Starter: Anglophile Avocado soup with hunky homemade pumpkin bread

Main: Frank Spencer’s Fruity pork steaks (ohhh Betty!)

Pesto and goats cheese summer tartlet

Romford’s own Ratatouille

Princely Potatoes’ Dauphinoise

Ministry of Mushy Peas

Dessert: Trio of summer treats…

Pink panther cupcakes

Luscious Lemon roulade

Yorkshire Raspberry Ripper ice-cream

Union Jack flowers

Parsnip Crisps - a real success

Homemade pumpkin bread was my fav

Minty mushy peas and tartlets

Potatoe Dauphinoise

Romford's own ratatoille

Fruity pork steaks

One of the trio of deserts - Pink Lemonade cupcakes

All of these recipes were so simple and really delicious. Some we had tried before and are becoming dinner party staples - such as the fruity pork steaks and the lemon roulade (I will post this recipe later as it is on paper.) Unfortunately due to being busy hosting I didn't get a picture of the trio of deserts - only the cupcake above. I added a slice of lemon roulade and a scoop of homemade raspberry ripple icecream. The ice-cream was so tasty and so easy as I borrowed an ice-cream maker from my friend Sally at work, but now we want one! I knew that would happen!
We don't know the outcome yet as everyone scored us for each course, but the scores will only be revealed on the last one in August. We are definately going to carry it on next year as it's really good to have an opportunity to try out some new recipes and it's a real feast to look forward to for foodies like us.
The parsnip crisps are a bit faffy as you have to cook them in batches, but they are so tasty and a lot cheaper than the ones you buy in shops.
I notice I have lost a follower and feel this may be related to the lack of scrap stuff recently - life has really just taken over and I keep thinking of all the pretty stash I will get in California and the great pics I will have to scrap - watch this space!!!