Batch cooking on a tight budget

 

The Luna saga continues as last week she had an ear infection and needed antibiotics (Labs are prone to itchy ears!) and then yesterday she broke a tooth. Lower canine, totally split into 2 halves 🙄🙄 I've spoken to the vet on the phone and we're going tomorrow (Monday) to see if it needs to be removed.  She also went to puppy day care for a day and loved it so we'll keep that going for a wee while to let me 'get on with stuff' while she learns to behave around other dogs!

I'm so glad I have an emergency fund but it's almost all gone 🤯 So tightening my belt even further is necessary.  I got my November Sainsbury's delivery on the 1st and within an hour, I had an oven full of baking potatoes, sausages and a rice pudding using up some soya milk I had lurking in the cupboard!  And towards the end I put in a tray of bacon to cook.

I'd ordered one of these bargain £7.50 beef joints but they had none left.  So they subbed me with another beef joint that cost a whopping £22.90.  As the sub was a catchweight item it's not covered by their Promise to give you the higher cost item at the lower price of your original item.  So I handed it back to the driver.  They still charge you though and it takes up to 5 working days to get your refund. I'd planned to freeze the beef and use it for my Christmas day meal.  I'll need to think of something else now.

So my main meat for the month is 10 sausages (£3.33) and some frozen chicken breasts (£6 for 1kg) plus whatever else is lurking in the freezer!  I turned some of the potatoes (6 large potatoes for 95p) into wedges to freeze. I defrosted the chicken and cooked them in the Crockpot with a can of pear cider that was lurking in the fridge.  I made quite a few ready meals for the freezer that just need reheating in the microwave.

I chopped up some of the potatoes, sausages and bacon into small pieces and made some pasties!  They were delicious!!  I made some chicken pies that may go to my Lovely Mum at some point if she wants them.  I'm really enjoying making proper pastry again (butter/lard/flour) and using it in different ways.  It really stretches a small amount of meat!

It feels like time is marching on very quickly and I'm not achieving everything I want to quickly enough.  When you've got all the time you want I'm finding I need to be more disciplined than I am currently!