What I Eat in a Day 3

Hello everyone and welcome back to another what I eat in a day post, I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am. I'm really enjoying trying to make my food look semi-decent before I scoff it, ha! I also feel like it may help me be a bit more mindful about the way I eat! I've tried all those mindfulness meditation things and they just don't work for me, my head is always so full of thoughts (mainly food) rushing around and colliding! But mindful eating is something I might be able to do, it's all about taking the time to appreciate your meal in the moment, enjoying it and then noticing when you are full and how it makes you feel. Hmm, we'll see, it seems like a pretty good concept. Anyway, back to my meals for the day. These meals were all very simple to prepare and took no time at all, so let's get cracking! Also, if you stay tuned to the end i'm going to share my very easy, throw everything in a wok,veggie stir fry recipe, so keep reading!

BREAKFAST

Porridge made with whole milk, topped with sliced banana, honey and cinnamon

.

Erm, so you see a recurring theme here. I get so stuck on one breakfast and never change until I am absolutely sick of it. Note to self, I must try something different for breakfast tomorrow. In my defence, porridge is like comfort food to me, it's so warm and cosy and perfect for these dark and cold mornings, yuck!

 LUNCH

 Home-made Olive and Rosemary wheaten bread topped with wilted spinach, guacamole, a fried egg and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil AND 3 miniscule oranges.

I had a bit more time this day for lunch so I thought I would make something different. I usually have leftovers from the night before, which is still very yummy but not very spur of the moment, seize the day ha! So, in a moment of spontaneity I came up with this and let me tell you it was delish! I just love avocados and they are perfect with my slightly toasted salty and sweet wheaten bread ( I may share my recipe for this at a later date if you are interested). Wheaten bread is a Northern Irish delicacy if your not familiar with it and not from the emerald isle, it's a national treasure which uses bicarbonate of soda as the rising agent.  My husband and I are trying to give up supermarket bread and bake our own, a big challenge. I've had a sourdough starter on the go for about a week now, it's like having a pet, a huge commitment I don't think I was a fully prepared for. We haven't actually used it to bake yet but I will let you know how that goes! Wheaten bread however, is so easy and tasty, 5mins prep and 45mins in the oven and you are done! I digressed quite dramatically here but I will try and document on the blog how our bread experiments work out.

DINNER

Vegetable Stir Fry and boiled basmati rice

This stir fry is so simple and quick to make, you can use any veg you have in the fridge. I just used whatever I had in the fridge but mushrooms, sugar snap peas, cabbage, spinach and pak choi are great in it too. This is my own made up recipe and is by no means traditional, it's just something I came up with, liked and used repeatedly. The recipe also doesn't have to be vegetarian, I have made it with prawns, duck, chicken and even some leftover roast goose at Christmas last year (a very extravagant mid-week meal). This dish is a great one for getting your 5 a day, you can get 3/4 portions of veg in this meal alone. It's great served with rice as I did last nice or with some noodles tossed through it. It's perfect for an easy, healthy and light mid-week meal. Go on, give it a try!

Easy Vegetable Stir Fry

Serves 4   30mins-ish

2 onions, finely sliced

2 carrots, peeled into ribbons

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 head of broccoli, broken into florets

2 red/orange/yellow peppers, cut into strips

thumb size piece of ginger, grated

1tsp chilli flakes

2tbsp sesame oil

2tbsp soy sauce

2tsp chines 5 spice

frozen peas, as much or as little as you like, I like loads!

2tbsp sesame seeds

2tbsp honey

basmati rice, boiled, to serve

1. Heat the sesame oil in a wok and add the onions. Fry on a medium heat until softened.

2. Add garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, soy sauce and Chinese 5 spice. Fry for another minute.

3. Add broccoli along with a little water and steam in wok for about 5-10mins, until slightly soft.

4. Add peppers and carrots and fry for another 5ish minutes, keep tossing everything so it gets coated in the lovely sauce.

5. Drizzle over the honey and mix.

6. Add the peas and turn the heat off. The residual heat in the wok will thaw the peas.

7. Serve with boiled rice topped with sesame seeds and drizzled with your chosen chilli sauce, or extra soy sauce.

So, there you have it, everything I ate yesterday! It was a particularly yummy and healthy day (not like me). Let me know if you try this recipe, or if you have any recommendations for stir fry recipes. What are your go to mid-week recipes? Thank you for taking the time to read my musings on food, I will be back soon with more foodie thoughts.

Rachael xo.

Meal Plan Monday- Quick and Easy

Hi everyone and welcome back to another meal plan Monday. I realised that last weeks meal plan featured a lot of long recipes, they weren't very difficult to prepare they just took a long time to cook and I also realise that this is not the most practical for a weekly meal plan. So, this week I have tried to feature recipes which are either very easy like the slow cooker chilli or are very quick, 30 minutes or less. That way when you get home from work and are starving, dinner is only 30 minutes away, yay! The weekend recipes however are slightly longer as we have a wee bit more time to cook on these days. You will notice that two of the recipes are the same as last week as we didn't end up eating them last week. Both meals are store-cupboard meals so they can be switched about whenever we feel like having them. So here we go...

Tuesday: Veggie Stir-Fry, my recipe

Wednesday: Tuscan Bean Soup and a cheese toastie, Avoca Soup

Thursday: Spaghetti Bolognese, my recipe

Friday: Mexican Chicken Burgers and Sweet Potato Wedges, Good Food November

Saturday: Sausage Beanpot, Good Food October

Sunday: Veggie Gurkha Curry, Jamie Oliver Family Classics

Monday: Slow Cooker Chilli and Rice, my recipe.

There you have it, that is what we will be eating this week. There's a bit more meat than we would normally have but that's because we have loads in the freezer. On a side note that is a great tip for meal planning. We always go to the butcher on a Saturday and get all our meat for the week and put it in the freezer as soon as we get home. This way you have exactly what you need and it doesn't go off so you eliminate any waste ( you just have to remember to take it out of the freezer to defrost, I have forgotten this so many times, oops).

Each week I am hoping to share a different meal plan with you for different circumstances, next weeks meal plan will be a weekly meal plan which will hopefully work out very cheap, along with a few tips on how to meal plan very cheaply. If you have any requests for meal plans please do let me know as I love to work them out for people and the more difficulties e.g. budget, time, vegetarian, low-carb etc. the better ( I like to give myself a challenge). Also, please feel free to share your meal plans with me as I would love to see them. I will be back later on in the week with a what I eat in a day post where I will let you know how I'm getting on with the plan and maybe share a cheeky recipe or two, so stay tuned for that. Again, thanks for reading and we will talk again soon,

Rachael xo.

October Foodie Favourites

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Tea Cozy Kitchen! October has been and gone and the 'C' word is just around the corner (seriously where has this year gone?) so I thought I would take this opportunity to talk through some of the foodie and not so foodie things that I have been loving in the month of October. This will be a monthly feature and will hopefully inspire you with recipes, recipe books, future purchases and some much loved TV shows to watch. so let's get started!

1. Porridge

I'm sure you know by now that I love porridge so it had to be included in the favourites as I have had it for breakfast nearly every day this month. It is the perfect cosy breakfast and I love that you can change it up with different fruit toppings and additions. This is one of my favourite combos at the moment, porridge cooked on the hob with whole milk topped with apple, honey and cinnamon, it's perfectly seasonal.

2. Charity Shops For Kitchen Stuff

So this month I have been trying to fill out my kitchen a little with some nice serving plates and platters etc. for taking food photos and for generally just making my food look better. I love that mix and match look, think Jamie Oliver's food styling. They have some great things in TK Maxx but at £20-£30 a pop that's a bit out of my price range. So, I thought I would give some charity shops a go and they were amazing. I got all these items for just £6 (I mean how great is that?) and they were just what I was looking for. I love that I can buy stuff at a great price and give money to charity. You do need to root around a bit but you can find some gems, I would just recommend giving them a wee wash first.

3. Recipe book favourites

These are my recipe book favourites for this month, as you can tell I've been eating mostly from these three resources for the whole month of October. I love eating seasonally and the good food and Tesco magazine are great for recipes featuring ingredients which are in season now and therefore tasting better and cheaper, yay! Also, as always I've been loving Jamie Oliver's Family Classics. I bought this book a couple of months ago and have been dipping in and out of it since. It's such a great book, all the meals are reasonably healthy and so tasty, well done Mr Oliver.

3. Pumpkin and Butternut Squashes

I couldn't have an October favourites and not feature our orange friend the pumpkin. Although great for carving they are also great for eating and are great in cosy stews at this time of year and are very good for you. I've been cooking a lot with these guys over the course of the month, I've made squash mac 'n' cheese, Sicilian squash and chickpea stew and a spicy pumpkin and lentil one pot meal. I've also have had them dotted about the house because they are cute and festive (I especially love the munchkin pumpkins, they are so cute).

4. Vanilla Nut Ground Coffee

I found this coffee in TK Max for £4 and thought I had to give it a go. I love Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte but wanted to have something like it at home and this just hits the spot. It's lovely and sweet and feels quite festive. It also gives off a lovely aroma in the kitchen when you are making a pot of it. I would really recommend TK Maxx for food, they usually have fancy and quite posh ingredients for a much lower price. I've seen very fancy truffles, different cured meats, nuts, syrups and flavourings all at very reasonable prices. So get yourself down there, they also had loads of different flavours of this particular brand of coffee. It's perfect with a cookie too!

5. Gilmore Girls

Not a foodie favourite but like everyone else I have been obsessed with the Gilmore girls this month, don't even get me started on how excited I am for the revival later this month, I am so excited. I don't know what it is about this show that everybody loves so much but it just seems to have that perfect formula of comedy, drama and sentimentality. I grew up with this show and missed a season or two as it was hard to see on UK TV  but I have been getting caught up on what I missed ready for the revival series, did I mention I'm so excited? The only problem is this show makes me so hungry, they always seem to be eating and talking about yummy food, not to mention all the coffee they drink. I have heard that there is a lady who has written a recipe book inspired by all the food talked about in the Gilmore Girls, I will have to get my hands on that! It's the perfect show to sit down and have a cuppa and escape for an hour or two.

There you go, those were my 5 foodie favourites for October. I'm sure there are loads more but you have to draw the line somewhere, I could go on and on about the things I love but I will stop here! Let me know what things you have been loving this month? And are you a Gilmore Girls fan? Also let me know if you have any recipe book recommendation's this month, I'm always on the look out for more inspiration in the kitchen.

Thanks for reading and stop by again soon,

Rachael xo.

What I Eat in a Day 2

Hey all! So i'm back today with a what I eat in a day post and checking in with how i'm getting on with my meal plan this week plus i'm going to share a sneaky wee recipe for my healthy-ish peanut butter, banana and dark chocolate ice cream, so stay tuned. The day which I am about to share is a normal day for me, not too healthy and not too unhealthy, just normal and easy. So, have a wee read and enjoy! Oh and please let me know if you try the ice-cream, I find it so yummy and it satisfies my sweet tooth without being too heavy or artificial tasting.

BREAKFAST

Porridge cooked with whole milk topped with banana, honey and cinnamon and a HUGE coffee.

I have to admit something now, I am porridge obsessed if this is even a thing. This time of year just brings out the porridge monster in me. I love coming up with new combinations and toppings and at the moment this is my favourite, it's just so warming and cosy. Plus, I recently read that cinnamon is really good for you so, win win! I know there is some controversy on how porridge is made ( my husband swears by using water to cook it and adding milk at the end, yuck!) but I always just cook mine with whole milk, as I like it really creamy. Then I just topped with sliced banana, drizzle over honey and sprinkle over cinnamon and there you go, it's as easy as that. I find that porridge does help me keep full to lunchtime as well, which is great as it stops me snacking on other things.

LUNCH

Left over slow cooked chicken madras with rice and 2 satsumas

The day before this day we had slow cooker chicken madras for dinner so I just reheated some leftovers for my lunch and cooked up some rice (mainly peas, I LOVE peas!). This recipe is from the Tesco food magazine for October and is well worth trying if you have a slow cooker. I love my slow cooker and jump at the chance of trying a new recipe in it. This was so simple to make and when it's dinner time you just have to serve it up and eat, there's not even that many dishes to do because you just have the one pot. Slow cookers are a great kitchen gadget, definitely worth having in your kitchen for a morning when you are winning at life and organisation and you can get dinner done and dusted before 10am, YES! Also, I always like to have some fruit with my lunch and because it's cold and flu season (yuck!), oranges won today to keep me topped up with vitamin c.

DINNER

Jamie Oliver's Family Classics Chicken and Chorizo Traybake

For dinner this evening I made this traybake from Jamie Oliver's family classics cookbook and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It was very easy to assemble, it was just a case of getting all the ingredients together in a tray and popping in the oven to cook. You can't really go wrong with sweet potatoes, chicken things, peppers, chorizo and almonds. It was the perfect bright and tasty pick me up for a horrible evening, I mean seriously the weather turned horrendous, it just bucketed rain out of the heavens. This was the first time I had tried this recipe and it was delicious so I will definitely be making it again, the only thing I would recommend doing would be to leave it in the oven for about 20mins longer than the recipe as my potatoes needed a little extra cooking.

EVENING SNACK

Home-made Peanut butter, banana and dark chocolate ice-cream

This evening because of the aforementioned weather I was really craving something chocolatey and comfort foodie and could not get ice-cream out of my head. So I decided to make something a little healthier than the delicious feasts that I was dreaming up in my imagination. You've probably seen recipes for this in loads of different places but I have my own that I thought I would share with you. It's a really great recipe for using up slightly over-ripe bananas, just chop them up and the put them in the freezer and you are 5mins away from home-made ice cream at all times. So here we go:

Peanut Butter, Banana and Dark Chocolate Ice cream

Serves 2 (About 3 scoops each)

You will need:

3 frozen bananas, frozen in slices

1-2 Tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter

a little whole milk

50g dark chocolate, cut into small chunks

1. Put your banana in a powerful food processor along with your peanut butter and a little milk and blend until you get a nice smooth consistency. You can keep adding the milk a little at a time to get it to your desired creaminess.

2. Add your chocolate chunks and stir in until evenly dispersed.

3. Scoop into your bowl and eat it away. It does melt quite fast but it usually doesn't last that long for this to be a problem.

Once you have the basics of this ice-cream down you can start playing, the possibilities are endless. You could add cocoa powder, chopped nuts, vanilla extract, almond extract or more fruit like raspberries. It really is that simple and yummy!

Okay, so thanks very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the journey through my day in food. If you have tried any of these recipes please do let me know how you got on with them. Also, any porridge ideas that are your favourite would be greatly appreciated.

Until next time,

Rachael xo.

Meal Plan Monday

Hi all! Sorry about the break from the blogosphere last week, I was having some serious technical difficulties i.e. my laptop was giving me the black screen of death. I'm back now and today I'm going to share with you my meal plan for this week. As I am obsessed with food and what my next meal is going to be ( anyone else like this? no, just me!) I love to read things like this, I find they help with inspiration for meal ideas, meal planning tips and recipe book recommendations.

Firstly, I would like to start of by saying that I am a bit of an organisational freak and I have been accused of over planning but I find that this is the best to way to keep my husband and I on a relatively healthy diet and budget and helps us eliminate food waste (this is something I feel very strongly about, I'm such a boring adult ha!). I tend to plan my meals Monday-Sunday with leftovers of main meals for lunches the next day, I order our groceries online and pick up from store on a Sunday afternoon, that way we are all stocked up for the week ahead. When planning my meals I take a few things into consideration, how many veg are in a dish, the length of time a recipe takes and if the ingredients can be kept if we don't end up making that dish on the night planned. This weeks recipes are mainly taken from Jamie Oliver's new book 'Superfood Family Classics'. On a brief side note, I absolutely adore this book, the recipes are quite simple, healthy and very tasty. I also decided to make a soup out of the Avoca Soup recipe book. this time of year always makes me feel like soup, it's so comforting and cosy, and if you throw in a cheese toastie i'm in heaven.

So here we go, here's what i'm making this week:

Monday: Slow cooker chicken madras (it's bubbling away as I type and wafting glorious spicy scents round the house). The recipe is from the Tesco Magazine, October Issue.

Tuesday: Tomato and Roast Pepper soup topped with sweetcorn and served with a cheese toastie, Avoca Soup.

Wednesday: Crispy Trout, Oats, Thyme and Veg, Jamie Oliver Family Classics.

Thursday: Super Shepherd's Pie, Jamie Oliver Family Classics.

Friday: Squash Mac 'n' Cheese, Jamie Oliver Family Classics.

Saturday: Chicken and Chorizo Bake, Jamie Oliver Family Classics.

Sunday: Veggie Gurkha Curry, Jamie Oliver Family Classics.

Monday: Merguez Beanpot, Good Food Magazine October.

There you go, that's what we will be eating for the next week. I always get quite excited when I meal plan as some of these dishes sound really yummy and also I haven't tried a lot of these recipes and I love making new things. Please let me know if you have tried any of these recipes, I would love to know what you thought. Also feel free to share your meal plan for the week or any tips and tricks you have when planning your meals. I will be checking in throughout the week with a 'what I eat in a day' post which will report back on how I get on with some of these recipes.

Thanks for reading and happy meal planning,

Rachael.

What I Eat in a Day

Hi again!! Now this might be quite a boring post or you might be thinking TMI when reading but I am literally obsessed with watching these videos on YouTube and reading posts just like this. I think they are great for getting meal inspiration and great easy ideas for meals and meal plans. This day that I have documented is just a normal day for me, not very healthy and not very unhealthy, just normal and easy. So let's get started, I hope you enjoy and get some foodie inspiration.

BREAKFAST

Full fat natural yoghurt, Banana and honey, Coffee and Water

 

This is my favourite breakfast at the moment, a good big dollop of FULL FAT natural yoghurt, I love Yeo Valley Organic or Onken Biopot. You will notice I have highlighted the fact that it is full fat, the low fat stuff is horrible and not very good for you, there's usually lots of sugar added. Natural Yoghurt is great for getting your good bacteria. I top this with a sliced banana and a good drizzle of honey, and that's it very quick, simple and easy. I also have a big cup of coffee and a big glass of water, I couldn't get through the morning without my coffee. As you will see I really struggle with breakfast, I always find something I like and stick with it until I move unto something else and have that religiously! I am getting better and have a great recipe for French toast and pancakes that I add in to the mix but usually on a Sunday (ha! i'm trying to get a Sunday tradition going).

LUNCH

 

Sausage, Bean and Pasta Stew, Apple and Water

 

Okay so for lunch I had leftovers from dinner the night before (very glam). As a rule I always make enough dinner for 4 (there's only 2 of us) this just means I always have something healthy, filling and free for my husband and I to take to work the next day for lunch ( although sometimes this backfires and we have been known to eat the whole thing, ooops). This is a new recipe I tried, and boy was it tasty. It was so easy to make, was about 4 of my 5a day and packed a punch flavour wise. Here's a very basic overview of the recipe

 

-fry 2 onions, 2 carrots and 6-8 sausages in some olive oil in a pan for about 20mins making sure that the sausages get some colour on the skin (this adds loads of flavour).

 

-Crush in 3 garlic cloves and fry for another minute then add in a tin of tomatoes and some chicken stock, simmer for another 10mins. Add the pasta (whatever you have on hand, we used macaroni but some whole wheat penne would be nice too). Cook for packet instructions.

 

-add in your beans (again whatever you have) and add in some frozen peas. Top with cheese and that's you done. Yum yum!

 

 

SNACK

 

2 Home-made salted caramel melt in the middle cookies and a coffee

 

 

Now, the good stuff! Ha! Anyone who knows me knows that I HAVE to have chocolate in some form every day, i'm actually addicted. I have been trying to work on this and wean myself off sooo much chocolate and I can now survive with only 1 chocolate treat a day, yay me! So, todays treat was these cookies which are so yummy and perfect with a cup of coffee. The recipe is an adapted recipe from the October Tesco Magazine. On a side note this magazine is free from Tesco and has amazing recipes in it, great for those who are just starting out in baking and cooking and don't want to spend loads of money on recipe books. The cookies are the perfect mix of crunchy and soft in the middle and are jam packed with chocolate chips and nuts. Just writing about them is making me want to bake some more! (see, ADDICTED!).

 

DINNER

 

 

Pea and Feta Pearl Barley Risotto

 

You may not have heard of using pearl barley in a risotto before but let me just tell you it is amazing and SO MUCH cheaper than traditional Arborio risotto rice. It works just like risotto rice, it's soft but with a bit of a bite and soaks up flavour amazingly well. Pearl barley is also so much easier to cook, none of this standing by the pot stirring and ladling like your life depended on it, you just add your stock and leave to simmer until it's done, ta-da! If you needed any more encouragement it is also very good for you, it's high in fibre and protein which is great for a vegetarian meal. It's such a great grain and is a perfect store cupboard ingredient. When you add salty feta and sweet peas with a hint of lemon and mint into the mix this is a very scrumptious dish and pretty healthy too. I got this recipe from the October issue of Good Food magazine and it has loads of amazing recipes using pearl barley on their website, go on give it a go! Gone are the days of it just floating about in a veggie soup in primary school (this was why it took me so long to try it, yuck!).

 

That's it! That's my first what I eat in a day done, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe picked up some tips along the way. If you have any suggestions for yummy quick breakfasts, please do share, i'm always looking for inspiration.

 

Thanks for reading! All this talking about food has made me hungry, I've got to go and get another one of those cookies. Bye!

 

 

Rachael xo

 









5 Tips for Grocery Shopping on a Budget

 

Hi all!! So whether you are absolutely skint like me (saving for a first home can do that to a person) or you just want a little extra cash in your purse at the end of the week for another holiday or some very expensive skincare (oops! guilty), I've got my five top tips for grocery shopping on a budget to share with you today. Now this might be quite boring and 'grown up' but its the kind of thing I'm always reading. I'm always looking for more tips and fresh ideas so if you have any pearls of wisdom please do share them with me in the comments, I'd love to hear them. So let's get down to the nitty gritty.

- tip number one is to make a list. Now this might seem like an obvious one but I take it up a notch. I start my list at the beginning of the week and add anything to it that I run out of as and when it happens. Then on the day I do my grocery shopping I add in all my regular items that I buy every week (eggs, milk, bla bla bla) and I make a meal plan (big spoiler this is the next top tip) and add all the ingredients to my list. Therefore I have a list that compiles everything I could need for the week ahead.

-tip number two as I have already given away is MEAL PLAN!! This is a biggie and I have found that it has really helped cut down on our weekly food bill. When I say meal plan I mean detail each evening meal that you will have each night of the week. When I do my meal plan I look through recipe books and pick the meals that I want to cook, I check my cupboards to see what I need and I write this down on my list to make sure that I do not duplicate buy anything. In my meal plan I reference the page number of the recipe and also how long it takes just so I can plan my day better. I also will pick one or two meals that are mainly freezer/ store cupboard ingredients so that if we are feeling spontaneous and want to go out we can have that meal the next week ( for this read if we get sick of healthy food and want a greasy takeaway). If you want I can do a more detailed post on this as I have become quite the expert, if I do say so myself, and I can share my wisdom with y'all.

-tip three is to shop online. let me just say that supermarkets make me CRAZY, I get so angry, I definitely suffer from road rage in supermarkets with a trolley. It's much safer for all involved if I just shop from the comfort of my own home. It is so much easier to shop online, you don't get tempted to buy any random stuff you don't need and you can compare prices without feeling someone is going to run you over with a trolley because you are spending too long looking at frozen peas ( I admit, that's me, sorry). The big bonus is it's free depending on which slot you choose to pick it up, I shop online and collect it from store all ready to go. So if you're supermarket does this I definitely recommend it.

- tip four is to go meat free a couple of nights a week. I would typically have meat about 3 nights and the rest would be vegetarian. This really cuts cost and it makes you a little bit more adventurous in the kitchen. I do feel like we need to eat less meat as a nation and  not every meal has to be centred around a big piece of meat, vegetables are tasty too and you have to be more creative with them as you can't rely on the meat to bring the flavour. Leading on from this I would highly recommend going to a butcher for your meat. It takes a while to find THE ONE but once you know, you know. We have found our ONE and she is amazing. A butcher is the best place to get your meat from, they know where it has come from, they know how to cook it, how to store it and can suggest alternatives if needed. The meat is usually better quality and cheaper than in a supermarket as well, yay!



(This is an example vegetarian meal that I made that was super scrummy, spinach, squash, feta and fennel galette. Mmmmm, so good!)

- tip five is to use your freezer. This might sound a bit obvious but your freezer really is your friend. Frozen vegetables are amazing for adding to meals to bulk them out and adding a bit more nutrition when needed and they can be pretty cheap. My faves are frozen peas, sweetcorn, broad beans, peppers, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. Using your freezer can also mean batch cooking, like making a big pot of soup and freezing some portions for a lunch one day or freezing leftover wine in small bags to add in to cooking at a later date (ha! there's never much wine left over at our house).

Okay so there you have it, my five top tips on grocery shopping on a budget. I did have many more and it was very difficult to narrow them down to five. If you want the rest some time- give me a wee comment. I must be the weirdest person who enjoys budgeting. I hope you enjoyed this post. I am definitely hoping to be blogging a lot more and I have some great ideas for this space. I am so happy to be back.

Talk soon and happy budgeting,

Rachael.