Grocery Shopping - Advance Planning

Image by Ian Britton, used under Creative Commons licence

 Money is going to be tight when I go back to university. I already know that, and I've got a rough idea of how much I'm going to have - not anything like as much as in previous years, so I need to make some big savings!

Most of the savings will be through not buying clothes, not going on foreign holidays, not eating out as much or visiting the cinema as often; all the usual things that get cut back when the budget has shrunk.

But I'm really hoping that I'll be able to make big savings by being canny with my groceries.

In the Spotlight: Strawberries

Image by Digital Wallpapers, used under Creative Commons licence

It's strawberry time! Our strawberry patch is beginning to produce several ripe strawberries a day, which is great because we all love strawberries. At the height of strawberry season in previous years we've had too many to eat before they start to go off, so many are either frozen whole, or pureed and then frozen. It's a great way to make sure we've got fruit throughout the winter.

Chocolate Curd

Earlier today I was at a local garden centre, idly browsing the shelves, when I came across something so delicious that I almost couldn't believe it was real... chocolate curd.

You can buy this glory through Amazon

I'm a huge fan of lemon curd, and I'm a huge fan of chocolate, so the idea that I could get the two together was fabulous. It was quite expensive, though, so I thought I might try my hand at making my own first.

In the Spotlight... Carrots

The edible part of a carrot, like many other vegetables, is the root. It is possible to eat the leafy greens as well, but that's less common.

Image by Sunrise, used under Creative Commons licence

Bubble and Squeak Cakes

I tried this weeks ago, back in our cabbage glut before the excess made its inevitable trip to the freezer, and then forgot all about it until now. Loosely inspired by this recipe, here is how I made bubble & squeak cakes.

Red Bean Burritos

Yesterday afternoon I swung by a supermarket on the way home to pick up some tortilla wraps, some guacamole and some tomato salsa. I had asked my stepdad to get them for me when he went shopping, but he wasn't sure he'd even recognise them and had no idea where to look, so we figured it would be quicker for me to go.

Before it was wrapped - you can see the second tortilla underneath

Mexican food isn't popular in a big way here in the UK like it seems to be in the States. When I was visiting the Mid-West we went to Chipotle several times and there was a Mexican restaurant on almost every food court, but here choice is very limited. Some of the big cities have started to have Mexican places, but here in my little town we don't even have a McDonald's so I doubt we'll be getting Mexican any time soon.