I am going to give dougboys a go here as well. I have a beef casserole cooking in the crockpot.The Potatoes were like bullets still at lunch time even though I cut them quite small. (Med potatoe into about 8 pieces) So I added some boiling water to make sure all potatoes, carrots etc were covered and have had it on high the last 2 hours.I am going to make my first doughboys tonight. I have settled on the recipe from trade me cooks. 1 cup of flour to 1tsp B Powder to a pinch of salt mixed with water. it won't make many but will let me see if the family likes it for next time. Then i am going to use all the left over slop (and there will be quite a bit) as a base for a minestrone soup to have with burgers tommorrow night.Pak'n'save had Kings soup mix for $1.99 which I thought was the best i had seen it.
toadfish,
Jul 3, 3:37am
cont'd My shop came to $188 this week (No veg and the only 1 lot of meat - I got a reduced Sage & Onion Stuffed Size 22 chicken for $10) If you spent over $200 you got an extra 4c off your petrol (making it 10c off) so I brought a $20 gift voucher for next week. Luckily the freezer is quite full of meat and a neighbour just gave a UFO he tells me is venison. not sure what to do with it though. Also got burger buns reduced to $1.35 so brought 5 packs of them.They were really soft (had one for lunch) and had a date of the 5th July on the tag so not quite sure why they were reduced. but hey I am not going to complain.Roast Dinner at Ma & pasin the weekend.My goal now is to not shop till next Friday (8 days) or might even stretch it till Monday 13th.(11 days)
darlingmole,
Jul 3, 5:17am
wow ~ go toady! Yeah I got the Kings soup mix for the same price at Albany, hence the vegetable soup tonight.Made my dumplings with lots of pepper n salt and some parsley - already to cook after I pick a son up from work.Hope they like them!My freezer has next to nothing in it - some leftovers, frozen butter, a few veges, mince (always a staple part of our diet).Am going to introduce more pasta dishes with ham etc in it (goes without saying I'll be adding veges) and we're having pudding nearly every night to fill the family up (wish I had a sweet tooth but I don't, so it's crackers for me).As for the burger buns Toadfish - I don't find they freeze very well which is why we eat them the day we buy them (normally a Tues) as they get freezer burnt and soggy.May be it's my old jalloppy of a freezer!
ange164,
Jul 3, 5:21am
I think it's more the defrosting of them in the bag. They seem to condense and sog up less if taken out and defrosted just on a bench or some such without the plastic bag still on them. (seems illogical given sliced bread defrosts just fine. But you could give that a whirl some time.)
gaspodetwd,
Jul 3, 5:22am
I just made french onion soup and it tastes divine! Stock left from the beef joint, a few onions, a splash of alcohol, sugar. It tastes incredible! GO ME! SO CHEAP!
toadfish,
Jul 3, 7:13am
Well the dumplings were a huge success I used 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 tsp B Powder, pinch of salt and about 1 tsp dried Rosemary mixed together with water. made 8 decent sized dumplings and the troops loved them.Had heaps of "slop" left over and chucked that into the minestrone as planned and its delicious. so thats tommorrow nights dinner sorted.With the Buns, I take them out of the freezer about 4 or 5pm and take them out of the bag straight away and put them on a plate.Cut them in half semi frozen and put all the salad stuff on them.and they are defrosted by the time the patties are done. lovely and fresh tasting.Haven't had your freezer problems but mine is "relatively" new.
saltness,
Jul 3, 9:22am
DM. I see your in albany.If you pop up to Dads Pies (in silverdale) you can buy a big tray of pies for a few dollars.These are pies that are made for service stations and work about to be about 50c each for standard mince etc, gourmet ones like steak were a little more.great for feeding teenagers with a side of salad/veg
saltness,
Jul 3, 9:23am
if you travel west at some point there is an ice cream factory shop on Swanson rd, and a cheap chicken place just a bit further down.I don't live on the shore, but i'm guessing there might be something similar out your way
darlingmole,
Jul 3, 9:49am
The dumplings weren't the screaming sucess I'd have hoped for but yes, we all ate them and yes, we were all full!I'll find out where that "dads pies" is and check it out saltness so thanks for that.Unfamiliar with Swanson but the chicken place could well be worth a visit.Do you know the name of the shop by any chance so I can look it up!Thanks for the info by the way . It's amazing really - I started this thread in a very down and feeling sorry for myself moment but have realised that there is a silver lining in this:there really are good people in the world after all :-)
brendawitch,
Jul 3, 10:02am
Do your menu planning on Monday morning. First up go on the net and see what everyone has on special then work from there. Also as someone earlier said some supermarkets mark their meat and fancy bread and buns down either a couple of hours before closing or first thing in the morning.
purplegoanna,
Jul 3, 8:39pm
this is my pumpkin soup recipe, not only is it very popular but i thought i might ad it on here for you because it is very thick when first made and can be watered down lots, you'll end up with a giant pot full. Roast Pumpkin & Garlic Soup I use a whole lge white skinned ‘Crown or Grey pumpkins’, cut into wedges, peel skin, deseeded then half again, roast in olive oil with 1-2 lge garlic bulbs, broken into cloves and peeled. Separately dice & fry 5-6 rashers of bacon in a large saucepan. After bacon is browned add pumpkin pieces & garlic. Use a stick blender to blend into a smooth mix, adding enough chicken stock while blending until you get a nice thick soup consistency, then add, salt, pepper & 1tsp curry powder to taste. Reheat on low heat slowly and serve with grilled cheese toast. To impress guests add a dollop of sour cream just before serving, use a toothpick and draw lines from sour cream out into soup, then serve. Or add 1/2c of coconut cream for extra richness.
ange164,
Jul 3, 11:02pm
Watching a vidio on U-tube about how to bone out a chicken was useful to me. This week I bought a size 20 frozen chook for $10.50. (Just discovered today its easier to bone out while still slightly frozen in the middle. It stops the meat from jellying all over the place while trying to cut it from the bone.) I've taken the skin off, and put the carcass in the freezer to join another one in there for soup one day. Out of that I got 2 large skinless chicken breasts, 6 chicken nibbles from the wings, two thighs and two drumsticks. (totalling 1.4 kilos of peices. $10.50 / 1.4kilos = $7.50 a kilo for all those peices. (not to mention that carcass which is not in that equation.)) The chicken breasts will be stirfried tonight, (could actually get away with just one breast in the stir fry for just the two of us) and the peices will be (edmonds cook book) crispy coated chicken peices with cornflakes in it, roasted up on sunday.
saltness,
Jul 4, 6:33am
found some info for you http://www.dadspies.co.nz/ over the bridge, on the opposite side of silverdale than bendon and other shops, in an industrial area.very easy to find.seconds are great , just have a bit of gravey spilling out etc (eg not perfect).Chicken place is http://www.wises.co.nz/p/the-chicken-man/2hf6/The Chicken Man, and while looking, i see that the ice cream factory shop is also in albany http://www.icecream.co.nz/contactus.cfm
saltness,
Jul 4, 6:34am
Hope those 3 links help And (last one, I promise) http://www.factoryshops.co.nz/index.asp is a list of factory shops, not just for food that is around new zealand.obviously, this may not be all of them as some companies keep theirs private, but is it is a good starting point.
twinsforus,
Jul 4, 8:53am
I haven't read every post here, so sorry if its been said! I use red lentils to bulk up a mince based meal. I have experimented with different ratios and have managed to use a third to half less mince for things like spag bol, nachos by adding a half to one cup of lentils and grating in a carrot and some pumpkin/kumara/parsnip/zuchini- . One kg of mince can now do us four meals instead of two (2 adults 2 toddlers one baby).
darlingmole,
Jul 4, 10:17pm
awesome saltiness!I'm going to head up to Silverdale soon - will let you know how I get on.Twinsforus - I add lentils for mince mixtures aswell and they make a lovely curry dinner when you add vegetables and serve on rice :-)
darlingmole,
Jul 5, 3:05am
rightio - went to Dad's pies . you get 12 pies for $10, or 10 gourmet pies for 12 bucks ~ but it depends on the day, there's not a lot of seconds - went there today and! nothing!But well worth a look everyone (hope I'm not cutting myself out here ha ha!)
New World seem to be having a "bakers" special this week.For $10.30 i brought. 400gms Raisins, 400gms Sultanas, 400gms Mixed Fruit, 400gms of dates & 1.5kgs Flour.All because i couldn't bring myself to pay $2.20 for a naff Bakers delight scone. we will have scones coming out of our ears now. not to mention Weetbix slice (that uses the cake fruit mix).I save all the crumbs at the bottom of the weetbix packets till I have 75gms and then make weetbix slice. yummo! The recipe says to use 5 weetbix.
kob,
Jul 9, 4:01am
oh Julia you are just like me, I never could throw the crumbs out either and they are excatlty the same as crumbling them .the kids could never see it, they would call be all the scroggers under the sun but tell me the difference standing over a bowl and crushing 4 weetbix or emptying two boxes and using the crumbs NONE i rest my case.
toadfish,
Jul 9, 4:13am
lol. I even have a nice "huge" Mocconna Jar in my pantry I empty them into . lol.
valentino,
Jul 9, 4:30am
Please do not jump on me with this one. Recently bought some beef meats for my Persian cats to try and have, very highly recommended. Jimbos Pet foods sells and has a web site ( www.jimbos.co.nz ) but at $5.50 per kilo is half the price of buying Gravy beef or mince. Think this sounds silly for us to use though but neverless is actually 100% beef. I have a shipment arriving tomorrow getting ready to split up into portions and freeze.ready for the animals but I will do an experiment and cook a little just to see how good it really is. LOL. Cheers.
amazing_grace,
Jul 9, 5:36am
OK, I have a family of 7 and we feed and grocery all of us for about $180 per week, it can be done! this is including toilet paper, washing powder etc.The first trick is NOT to use your local supermarket.We are part of a "buying group".Get together with some friends who also need to save money on groceries and research local wholesalers in your area.Not all of them will offer you an account, and not all of them will be cheaper than the supermarket, but do a bit of reading of their price lists etc (some can be got online).Come up with a name for your group, then ask for an account.You can buy dry goods such as flour, sugar, cocoa, hot chocolate, toilet paper, pasta etc often cheaper this way.We also food swap from our gardens.
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