Tag Archives: food

$70 challenge, update 3

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We’ve currently got only $30.44 left for this week and quite a few items on the shopping list that we’ll probably need before the end of the week.  And it’s only tuesday! The reason for the $40 spend… I was given a yogurt maker by my sister for my birthday and Woolworths had the yogurt powder sachets at 2 for $7 so we spent $14 on those yesterday.  This is 4-6 weeks worth of yogurt so we’re ahead on that.

We’ve been eating a lot of salad sandwiches lately which was something we started a couple of weeks before the $70 challenge.  Andrew worked out that we are eating about $1.70 worth of sandwich for each one we have (so $3.40 per day out of the $10 per day budget).  We usually have wholemeal bread, although pictured here is white bread (The One by Tip Top).  Our sandwiches have lettuce, carrot, sprouts (we sprout our own in a sprouter using an approx. $4 bag of mung beans, this probably makes each lot of sprouts 5 cents), beetroot (I pickle my own, here), tomato, cucumber, mushrooms, capsicum, celery, cheese and ham.  Andrew prepared the salad and makes 2 days worth at a time.

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I mentioned the hot chook, $8, we picked up last week which served us for 3 meals, 2 lots of sandwiches and a chicken soup.  These chooks go a long way and I have to say that each serve we had was more than enough.

Chicken soup recipe
*Chicken from a hot chook, make sure the bits of chicken are chunky
*2 chicken stock cubes OR 1 chicken and 1 vegetable
*some mixed veg.  I used carrot and sweet potato and frozen peas and corn
*Noodles (whatever you want, I used 2 minute style noodles)

Boil your hard veges in the stock, about 1 litre of water with the cubes.  They should be tender after about 30 mins.  Add the peas and corn.  Add the chicken and cook for about 5-10 minutes which enough to heat it through.  Add the noodles and cook til they’re done.
Super easy and damn tasty!  This whole meal would have been about $4 in total.

The thing I am thinking about at the moment is that it is really essential to spend time planning meals as well as thinking about what foods you need to make sure you eat to get the correct nutritional requirements.  I feel that if we were more on top of the planning part of it we’d be able to spend at least a little less.

$70 challenge, update 2

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Last week, our first week, we spent $67.41.  This week we’ve spent $12.25 so far (it’s Tuesday).  I will need to pick up Spinach tomorrow (for the bird) and we do need veges.  This week we’ve spent $8 on a chook from Coles and $4.25 on a loaf of bread and 1l milk. The chook has fed us for 3 meals.  2 lots of chicken sandwiches and tonight I’m making chicken soup.  That’s $2.66 per meal.

As we had chook for lunch yesterday we had roasted vegetables, Jaipur Vegetables and rice last night. Jaipur Vegetables are by the brand Tasty Bite and can be found in Woolworths with the Indian foods (they are in a sachet and are microwaved for 1.5mins).  When they are half price they are $1.50.

We’ve definitely been eating what we normally eat but we’re paying a little more attention to what things cost and how many serves each food is, especially meat. A few weeks ago we started doing salad sandwiches for lunch.  My partner doesn’t like salad sandwiches without ham so we have bought those Bertocchi ham pieces that are shrink wrapped. They last about a week and provide us both with plenty of ham across the week for sandwiches as well as we used the last piece of it in a pasta carbonara.   I do think the ham is a little pricey but I’m interested in seeing how they price out across the 4 weeks.

I’ve been using the eatforhealth.com.au website to get nutritional info to make sure we’re getting the right foods each day.  In fact since we started eating the daily salad sandwich I’ve been feeling very contentedly full most of the afternoon and usually just want something small for afternoon tea.  So far my afternoon tea’s are my normal Weetbix (yes I have Weetbix for afternoon tea and I love them!)

In the next post I’ll post a bit more about our day to day eating habits.

$70 challenge update

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It’s Friday and we’ve spent $61.41.  I don’t think we need to buy anything else this week. If we do it’ll be a visit to the fruit shop.

We’ve been to Aldi twice to pick up general groceries.  Cheese, bread, milk, muesli, etc. We even bought a brownie mix from Aldi and I made that yesterday.  Aldi brownie mix is $2.99 and is really yummy for a packet mix. Making brownies from scratch is actually quite costly as it has so much sugar, eggs and chocolate in it.  We bought beef mince at Coles which for the 2 of us is 2 meals, 2 left overs.  It’s $7 a pack for the 4 star stuff.  I made Taco’s last night and we’re having the left over’s tonight.  I chucked 75g of red lentils into the Taco mix (as well as lots of veg).  Adding lentils adds protein and is also part of a serve of fruit/veg and a meat substitute.  I think it’s something I’ll be doing a lot more.

For the taco meal we used an Old El Paso box, I only ever buy these when they are half price.  I can’t remember the exact price but its around $3.25.  This has the soft taco’s, seasoning and salsa.  Of course you need mince, or a meat substitute& some veg (onions, grated carrots, grated zucchini).  I made a tomato salsa mix to add to the Taco’s.  We grow tomatoes so I had heaps to use.  I also love picking green tomatoes for salsa.

Salsa
Tomatoes cut into little bits, mix of red and green if possible
Capsicum
Salt
Sugar
Splash of Apple cider vinegar
Pepper

We recently tried the Lyttos Greek Yog from Aldi and it’s really yummy, and cheap!  We used the yogurt as a sour cream substitute as we always throw out sour cream left overs.  It was pretty yummy.  I think this yogurt will be really versatile for sweet and savoury meals.  We don’t eat yogurt by the bowl full but usually have it in smoothies or a spoonful here and there.

Andrew, my partner, has made some notes of what we’ve eaten and thinks that between us we’re having $8-$12 of food between us a day.  I’ll later do some posts telling you what kinda things we’re eating and what we’re buying. This is already long enough!

$70 a week food challenge

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This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long while, a cheap eating food challenge.

My partner and I almost always add up the cost of each of our meals to see how much $$ we’re eating.  So from today, Monday 14 November, we’re doing a 4 week challenge where we can only spend $70 a week on food.

The Rules
*$70 per week for 4 weeks.  If we spend over one week we have to spend under one of the other weeks.
*We will still be eating food from the freezer/pantry but we will keep tabs on what we use and what we put back in.
*Shop where we normally shop.
*If someone else buys us food that’s fine, but we’ll tell you.
*We must eat nutritious food.

My partner and I usually eat at home.  I think we only eat out once a fortnight at most so we aren’t spending crazy $$ regularly just for some avocado on toast, in fact I’m allergic to avocado.  Also, I have GORD so I do watch what I eat most of the time and I’m never too keep to eat out (apart from the odd visit to Hungry Jacks).

Why do this challenge?  It’s personal.  I want to force myself to think about food and spending more.  To not waste money buying junk food as well as making sure I am well nourished by the food I am eating.  I want to take these 4 weeks and learn a bit more about what a serving is & what I should be eating.

I also hope others will read this and get some value, whether from a recipe, or be inspired to think about their own eating habits.

So, today is day 1.  I’ll post again in a few days about how we’re going.

Best Chicken Burger

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Have you ever tried the Kentucky Burger from KFC?  This is a (mostly) home-made burger similar to the Kentucky Burger, but much better.

The roll is one of those squishy pre-packed things.

We made the coleslaw.  It’s cabbage (we use sugarloaf), carrot, red onion, radish, kohl rabi and sometimes snow peas. Coleslaw dressing is usually just the Coles brand one.

Next it’s chicken pieces.  I just get the crumbed Breasts or Tenders from Coles meat dept. I HATE crumbing meat so just buy it pre-crumbed and oven bake.

Then cheese.  Aldi cheese slices. 1 or 2, whatever you like.

Bacon is optional and is on the KFC burger but I find it gets lost in all the rest flavours of this burger.

Also add BBQ sauce.  I like the Beerenberg Smokey Bourbon Sauce but just regular BBQ is also good.

And that’s the best burger!

 

 

Scones

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Scones

Scones are easily one of the best treats to add to your day.  They make me feel happy and comforted and like I am at home.  Unfortunately they also make me feel really full and a bit unwell because I always have 2 of the giant things with jam and cream.

I have been making my scones from a recipe that has Buttermilk in it.  The recipe was originally sourced from Pauls as they are the Aussie supplier of Buttermilk (and probably the nicest Aussie milk-no I am not sponsored by Pauls, I just like dairy products!)

Buttermilk Scones

Mix your dry ingredients in a bowl.  They are 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of bi-carb soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 teaspoons of caster sugar and 250 grams of flour (about 1 3/4 cups).  Melt 3 tablespoons of butter, remove from heat and stir through 200 ml of buttermilk.  Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour in about 1/2 of the buttermilk and butter mixture, mix this in with a butter knife and check the consistency, add as much more of the buttermilk/butter mixture as they need to become easy to gently knead out onto a floured surface.

Use a scone cutter to get round scones or just cut into square scones if you want to.  I arrange them on the tray so they are about 1 cm apart. This way they cook evenly.

Bake at 200c for about 10-15 minutes.

Eat while warm!

Cinnamon Cake

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My partner and I went on holiday a couple of weeks ago. We went to Heron Island and the food is buffet style. After eating double serves of desserts at lunch and dinner I came home wanting to eat sweet stuff all the time.  I am not usually the biggest eater of sugary desserts  but I had a taste for them.   I made this cake as at some stage on my first day back I had a cinnamon doughnut craving.

Cinnamon Tea Cake
Preheat oven to 180c and grease and line a 20cm square pan. Beat 150 grams softened Butter, 2 eggs and 3/4 cup of caster sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in 1 1/4 cups of Self Raising Flour and 1/2 cup milk. Fold through.
Bake for 40-50 minutes.
Mix 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 3 teaspoons of caster sugar in a cup or bowl. Spread butter over the cake while still hot (I used about a table spoon over the entire cake). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar immediately after buttering up the cake.

The basic cake mix is the same I use to make Lemon Cake. To make a Lemon Cake add in the finely grated rind of 1 Lemon to the cake mix.
When the cake is done warm the juice from the lemon with icing sugar to taste. Prick the cake all over and drizzle with the Lemon Syrup. This is one of my favourite cakes. I am a big fan of Lemon flavoured everything.

What are your favourite cakes?  Any suggestions for a future variation with this basic cake mix?

Below, the Cinnamon Cake.

Cinnamon Cake