Week 3 of my supermarket savings!

Week 3 report for my shopping challenge.

I’m very pleased to announce yet another successful week with change left of $5.50.

It goes to show that with careful planning it can be done.  Once this week is completed I’ll be doing a summary to see how much I have saved/spent in comparison to the 4 weeks prior to starting the challenge. Last week a couple of staff members at Countdown mentioned they hadnt seen me much lately!

Here is how the last week went + a few recipes…

Monday: Chicken Pie.  Linc loves pies and I feel pretty happy serving this up to him.  This makes a very generous pie so we usually get a couple of extra serves in the freezer.

Chop and fry off 1 leek, add to the pan chopped (cooked) chicken, 2 chopped carrots (I cooked carrots on Sunday so used leftovers – I also had a cup of peas leftover so put them in too),  1 cup chicken stock + 2 teaspoons thyme.  Simmer for 15-20 mins. Add 1 tablespoon cornflour that has been mixed with 2 tablespoons water.  Cook till thickened. Season & allow to cool.  Prepare a pie dish with pastry.  I make my own pastry using the ‘Short Pastry’ recipe from the Edmonds (pg 72 in my book).  Its simple to make in the blitzer and I get to freeze 1/3 of it to use later for a quiche or smaller pies.  Place filling into pie. Cover with pastry lid. Brush with 1 beaten egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 200c for approx 30 mins.

I reserved some pie filling and made Lucy up a couple of ramekins with pie filling topped with mash for the freezer.

Tuesday: Thai Pumpkin Soup.  Simple recipe…I use a pumpkin soup recipe & add in 2 teaspoons thai green curry paste, 2 T fish sauce and 1 can coconut cream.  In place of coconut cream you can use 1 tin light & creamy evaporated  milk & 3 teaspoons of coconut essence.

Wednesday: Nachos. Beef casserole. Good old Edmonds recipe again.  Pretty much a cook-free day as I chopped everything the night before then threw it all in the crock pot in the morning.

Thursday: Leftover day.  Linc thought choosing something from the freezer was cool and picked out chicken pie and chicken fried rice.

Friday: Thai green chicken curry. Made with thai green curry paste, chicken, onion, 1 tin light & creamy evaporated milk & 3 teaspoons of coconut essence. Served on rice

Saturday: Pork chops. I marinated these in maple syrup and garlic. Served with mashed kumara with orange (just add some juice & finely grated orange zest) and green beans

This week’s menu all set.  I made the Lemon Cookies last night and have the soup already cooking. My bread making hasn’t gone particularly well but I am persevering with it!  

The menu for week 4