We went to Aldi on Saturday, as is now becoming a ritual to start the weekend off. We have a coffee in Booths and then get over to Aldi nice and early before the masses arrive. Although to be fair our Aldi seems even busier on a Sunday!
I mostly bought just what I needed, which this week was Weetabix, orange juice and paracetamols, but I was obviously influenced by a talk that I went to last week on inflammation and osteoporosis. Where we were reminded how important it is for many ailments, especially those that include any sort of inflammation to 'eat the rainbow'.
Well I managed to get four colours of the rainbow ... now I just have to eat them more regularly. 😄🌈
My receipt for posterity ... and to celebrate that I am managing to get to the end of my pension-less days by the skin of my teeth.
As I went to the fridge to put my new purchases away I realised just how much progress I had made eating up all the little tubs of leftovers last week. So, as I always do, I moved the last couple of things off this shelf and gave it a good wipe down. Cleaning the fridge one shelf at a time is so much easier than having to hoick everything out and do the whole thing all at once, with it beeping at me like a crazy guinea pig.
This week I think I will concentrate more on the bits and pieces in the freezer, of which there are many little bags, tubs and half packets. I want to batch cook some more meals and all the tiddly bits are just taking up too much space.
While I was peeking in there to see what I had, I spied the blueberries left over from our final Riverford order. So as I had a very ripe banana glaring at me from the side, it just had to be a batch of Blueberry and Banana muffins*.
I used my usual method of weighing the eggs and then adding the same weight in flour, fat and sugar and as luck would have it, I had the exact amount of flour left in the jar to be able to stick to this criteria.
Perfection.
Sue xx
*There are no photos of the finished muffins ... we ate them all. 😁
Being a bit under the weather last week my sleeping patterns were all over the place. I was watching something mindless on tv the other night and fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up, what should be on the tv but The Good Old Days! After your post last week I thought it was quite funny and, despite it now being about 1 a.m. I settled in to watch it and it was just as good as I remembered it. The finale act was Ken Dodd (another old favourite). I'd sort of forgotten that the audience were all dressed in period costume and joined in with plenty of oohs and aahs as well. It was from 1975 according to the date on the credits (was that really 51 years ago?). It was on BBC4 if you want to watch again but after midnight. I just thought it was a funny coincidence.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird how these coincidences happen isn't it. 😄 Oh gosh, please don't tell me 1975 was 51 years ago!! 😬
DeleteI'm sure that 1975 was just last week!
DeleteExactly Sue. 😄
DeleteAldi have been dropping the price on a few selected items each week, the kilo of Greek style yoghourt, 100% peanut butter, some blocks of cheese, and evaporated milk were included this week. Thank you for suggesting tinned pink salmon, a good price, their tinned sardines are still 49p. I bought wonky fruit and veg, super 6 offer British apples which store well in the garage, and got lovely strawberries half price.
ReplyDeleteYou are an inspiration.
It's nice to see a few prices going down again isn't it. Taking full advantage of any offers is the only way to keep the budget bearable these days.
DeleteI've never thought of myself as being inspirational, thank you. I'm happy to help. ❤️
That was very lucky with the flour 😀
ReplyDeleteReminds me I’ve got a small amount of pizza topping in our freezer, I might try using the flatbreads after seeing your tip the other day.
Alison in Devon x
It was flukey, that's why I took the photo. I was all set to use a bit of bread flour if necessary. 😀
DeleteI was thinking of a flatbread pizza for my tea tonight as well. I've just made up some roasted vegetables. Happy coincidence. 😄
The muffins wouldn’t have lasted long in our house either! 1975 was definitely 51 years ago as our only child was born in March that year! Catriona
ReplyDeleteHow did our children get so old? 😬😄
DeleteSomehow I lost track of your blog, so it is nice to visit again and see that you are still pursuing a thrifty life. Our closest Aldi's is 30 miles away, but we try to get there every other week. Gasoline is much cheaper in that rown, as much as 50 cents a gallon less than here locally.
ReplyDeleteThose muffins sound delicious.
Welcome back, I wasn't hiding honest! ;-)
DeleteHad to laugh that there were no leftover muffins (considering your previous post). Some things just seem to disappear more rapidly than others. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a bad blogger, forgetting to photograph my muffins. They were very photogenic too, so I missed a trick there didn't I. :-)
DeleteBlueberries are supposed to be soke kind of superfood... so those muffins would have been Very Good for you!
ReplyDeleteAnd you have got to love a cake that is good for you haven't you. :-)
DeleteI try and have blueberries daily, and a little punnet of strawberries with breakfast for as long as they last, as I love them. A shame though that they are sprayed with something which is impossible to irradicate and is NOT good for you. I wash them, but it doesn't wash off. Eating the rainbow is good.
ReplyDeleteOne teaspoon baking soda in one litre warm (not hot) water. Leave fruit to soak for 15 mins and then wash thoroughly. Well worth the effort for the peace of mind.
DeleteBB - Happily these were organic, as will all the berries that I buy from now on if possible, and obviously my own homegrown blueberries are. I wonder if it's possible to buy organic frozen blueberries?
DeleteHI - I've just been reading up on this, it seems it work to neutralise most pesticides. Do strawberries survive a 15 minute soak in warm water without going too mushy ? I need to try this out.
DeleteOh blow it! I'll stop examining your photos for a glimse of those tasty- sounding muffins then. Never mind; I had pancakes for my dinner, with lemon juice and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sugar! Sshhhh
ReplyDeleteHaha ... I apologise profusely for the missing photo. ;-)
DeleteI've not had pancakes with lemon juice and sugar for a long time, I will have to rectify that.
I clean my fridge the same way. Much easier.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's so much easier isn't it, a quick wipe down and no job that is being put off and put off.
DeleteThose muffins sound yummy and made even more brilliantly by the fact you had just the right amount of ingredients, don't ya love it when a plan comes together lol. Our old fridge had that dreaded beepy sound which at the time we thought yeah that'll be useful but oh no we quickly grew to hate it lol. So when we had to get a new fridge I made sure there was no beeping lol. Now that we don't have to worry about the dreaded beep we can put our shopping away without having to do it at the speed of an olympic sprinter!
ReplyDeleteI really do. :-)
DeleteThe beeping is handy in some respects I guess, but as you say trying to put shopping away in the fridge's timescale of patience is a bit much isn't it!
Love the idea of that recipe, of ingredients ratio to egg weight, never heard of that before, something to try I think.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing it for years now, it's never failed. 😀
DeleteThat morning ritual of a Booths coffee before hitting a quiet Aldi sounds like the absolute perfect way to start the weekend. I love your approach to cleaning the fridge one shelf at a time, you are so right about avoiding that frantic, guinea-pig-beeping alarm! Good luck tackling the freezer "tiddly bits" this week, though it looks like you're already off to a flying start. That exact-weight flour miracle for the blueberry banana muffins was pure kitchen serendipity!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice when things work out so perfectly isn't it. Rare, but nice. 😀
DeleteNow I am wanting muffins! I do have a banana in the freezer and freshly picked blueberries from my garden...
ReplyDeleteThat sounds perfect. 😀
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