Best Before or Rubbish

It is with a lot of interest I have been following any news articles that are out on whether we should get rid of the 'best before' date on food?

Does it make any difference?
Would it save a lot of food waste?

These are the important questions that are being asked at present by the European Union in their bid to save millions of tons of food that is carelessly wasted each year.
They state that on average, 15% of what we buy from the supermarket will get thrown away!
Most of this is because we will look at the date on it and it states 'best before xyz' so we work out it is past that date and out it goes!

As they have mentioned 'best before' is a guideline. It does not mean the food has to be used by that date, it is a guideline to tell you that they recommend it is 'best before' that date, however most things can be used up to even 1-2 years past this date, it just takes common sense when going to use the food.
Does it look good? Does it smell ok?

Just because those choclate biscuits say best before Feb 2014, believe me I think they will be fine today in May of 2014! Well when I am in need of choclate its good enough for me.

So it definitely gives us something to stop and think about.
How do we feel about the term 'best before'?
How does this affect the food we eat and use in our cooking?
Does rice and pasta really need to be thrown out just because it didn't get used before the best before date printed on the packet?

Definitely going to make me think twice before I throw something away based on the date rather than whether it is something I could incorparate in our menu for the following few days to use up than throw out.

However you have to remember to not get this confused with the 'use by date' on food which is definitely there for a reason and must be followed as it gives the date by which a product must be consumed rather than a recommendation.

Just some food for thought on a Wednesday morning!

5 Years

No that is not the number of years I have been blogging (been doing that for the last 8 years!)
No, this number is the amount of years hubby and I celebrated for our anniversary last week.

Yes we are just mere fledglings when it comes to this marriage lark, well we have been together just coming up 14 years, so maybe not fledglings anymore!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma come look after the boys whilst we escaped for the night.
We went out for dinner, stayed the night in a cute little B&B and then had breakfast in a quaint cafe and then finally came home in time to collect the boys from school.

I just had to show you my dessert from our dinner out......

That is a white chocolate mousse, with dark chocolate ganache coating the inside of the glass topped with raspberry coulis and some sprinkled pistachio nuts.
Let's just put it this way, as hard as I tried there was still some left at the end!!

What I Am Loving

I am currently loving my new individual ramikin dishes.
They are large ones so are suitable to make individual dishes in.
I have served Chicken Pasta Bake in them and the other day I did individual Shepherds Pies.
Anything to try and make dinner more fun and appertising.

I have also found that it is a perfect size portion for people and I am loving serving them for dinner. The family are enjoying eating out of them too.

In fact I am loving them so much I think I may need to purchase 2 more to have a decent set of them in case we get company.
Watch out Grandma, individual dishes when you next have dinner here!

Breakfast

This morning I woke to hear the boys making breakfast!

Our bedroom is upstairs but directly down the stairs is the kitchen so we can hear what is going on in there.
I was not concerned, I established pretty soon on that we were going to receive something on a tray, however the snippets of conversation (that had me concerned) that I heard made me laugh and I even nudge Steve to check if he was awake and knowing what was coming our way.

The conversation I heard went something like this:
Ben: "Do you know how to make coffee?"
Alex: "Yes"
Ben: "Do you know how to boil the kettle?"
Alex: "Yes, but you need to put water in it"
Ben: "Do you know how to work the coffee thingy?"
Alex: "Yes, I'll do it"
Ben: "But we can't pour the boiling water, can we?"
Alex: "Yes"

What eventuated upstairs to us was 2 trays with a bowl of cereal each and a drink each. Mine was simple, cold juice, Steve's was coffee in the plunger and a cup with milk ready to go.

He asked who made this and they both smiled and said they had, however it soon became apparent that whilst making the coffee Alex (7) had remembered how to make it, adding coffee grounds etc but had forgotten to ensure it had been washed out of yesterday's grounds, so the coffee was made with double coffee half of which had been plunged yesterday!

We happily obliged as all good parents should, to eat what was given to us and say how wonderful it was.

J is for Jaffa Cakes & Judo

I have lived in New Zealand for over 14 years now and I have managed to survive without many things that I enjoyed from England.

1. Certain drinks
2. Sweets & Lollies of certain types
3. Ice cream of certain brands
4. & Jaffa Cakes

Well in fact I have not managed to live without Jaffa Cakes

These are the thing I can crave. I can dream of,  I can imagine eating and know just how they will taste! YUM
I have missed Jaffa Cakes for too long now.
Thank goodness some of the supermarkets have started stocking these thanks to an English Shop in Auckland.
However I can never justify buying them as they are so expensive here after all the travel involved in getting them to New Zealand.

So Jaffa Cakes....I love you...but alas you are still a dream to me.

Judo

Judo is something that is big in this house. Bigger than soccer or cricket, bigger than any other sport come to think about it.
It is undertaken all year round (it is an inside sport) and both the boys love doing it as well as Steve.

although they both have yellow belts now

So I am officially a Judo Mum, one day I will get a t-shirt with that written on in nice letters!
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
I love watching them all enjoy this sport.

What sport is played in your house?

Heat Wave

Yes, just like everyone else I am going to blog about the heat!

Yes it is hot,
Yes it has been a while since we had this.
Yes we would all like it to be slightly cooler.
But then we all complain it is not hot enough, so we can't win really.

But then our friends up in the Northern Hemisphere are wondering if their winter is ever going to be over with the cold snap that keeps on coming through. Would love to have a cold snap of snow like them, but not at the moment I am enjoying my summer way too much.

Although the heat is reaking havoc with other areas of our life. I am finding at present that I have to go to the supermarket everyday.
Now I try hard to budget, we do a weekly shop every Saturday and then usually I can get away with going to the supermarket for fresh bread, milk and veg 2 more times during the week. Sophie Gray, Destitute Gourmet, says you should try to make it last for the week otherwise you spend even more money, when you go to the shop. Now I am on the whole pretty good when going in mid week for the basics, although going in everyday has been a huge challenge.

It is mainly bread that I am going in for. I am finding that the bread is just not lasting more than 24hrs (and no it is not due to us having none left!) the bread is going dry and even mouldy very very quickly. Usually I will buy 2 loafs and this will see us through at least 2 days if not even into the 3rd, then it is time to go back to the shop. Sadly at present I am not making it past the 24 hr mark and so I am back to the shop after work everyday. Man it is a struggle to not walk out with the odd packet of nice biscuits as a treat, the odd little medium bag of lollies or even the latest special on meat.

So as much as I am loving, to an extent, this heat wave I will be glad when it chills just a scrap so food lasts a little longer and I don't have to enter the cool fresh air conditioned supermarket everyday!

What gives...?

After rock climbing today we called in to the supermarket to grab some stuff for lunch.
Ben decided that he wanted hotdogs and Alex wanted chicken nuggets.
I happily sellected 6 frankfurters and a pack of 6 hot dog buns.
Then I spied something.......

A ready made up ready to cook pack of hotdogs (sausages, buns and cheese)
For 2 secs I wondered if this was the better way to go as it was $7.99

A quick check at what I had in my basket, 6 franks at $2.41 and pkt 6 buns at what I thought was probably $3.99 (normal price) as there was no sign.
I immediately realised that no I didn't need this made up pack as what I had was cheaper, ok only by about $1.50 but it did include cheese, so would probably work out cheaper, although who wants cheese on a hot dog? Mustard and Ketchup are fine thanks.

Imagine my surprise when going through the checkout to realise that the buns were actually only $2 for the 6, so I spent a grand total of $4.41 for my 6.
I am so glad I am more concious about what things cost nowadays and also that I know the prices of some basic things in my store to know whether they are actually on special or not!

New Shop

We have a new shop that has just opened round the corner from us.
A good old fashion Green Grocers

You know the type I mean, like our parents tell us about when they reminise or the ones you can remember going to with your Grandparents when they did their weekly shopping. The ones where the fruit and veg are huge and juicy looking, fresh and so inviting you just want to buy everything and race home and make a salad of some kind.
A friendly neighbourhood shop where you know the owners name - Paul - and they are always ready to help you with anything you want to know. And you know they have been up since 4am because that is when they have visited the fruit market to get the latest and freshest stuff.
If you don't know how is the best way to store a certain fruit or vegetable and want it to last, then just ask and advice is freely flowing.

We visited the shop last weekend prior to doing our weekly shop. I don't think we spent too much on the gorgeous items, but I did happen to have the receipt with us when we got to the supermarket.
I didn't feel that the items were too expensive in the Green Grocers, in fact it turned out that some of the stuff was way cheaper than the supermarket but others things were pretty much the same price.
So it was a little of swings and roundabouts, what you saved on one made up for the other.

As a friendly local shop then I will try my hardest to support it and hope that it stayes.
After all, it is nice to have the personal touch with shopping again like we had in the olden days.

Crock Pot

I love crock pots / slow cookers. They can make life so easy and the wonder of walking into a house at the end of a hard day and smell dinner cooking away in the corner is awesome.

My mum came to stay once and as she left she put what food I had left out for dinner in the crock pot, unbeknown to me.
The smell and awesome feeling I got when I walked in the door later that evening with 2 kids under 4 after a hard day at work was amazing. In fact I was so grateful, I had tears in my eyes as I realised what she had done for us. I was touched by something so simple yet so wonderful a thing to do.
The recipe she used was a made up one, what ever she happen to find in my pantry at the time, but it was awesome, in fact I got her to tell me what she put in there and I have since made it loads of times. She called it Chicken Hotpot and I have shared it with several friends who love it too. I will try and remember to put it up here soon so you can all try it, very simple and easy.

I have an awesome large crock pot. Must be about 5 or 6 litres in size. I can nicely cook a large whole chicken in there with no problem.

If you want to make chilli for 20 then this is the beast to have, but that is the problem, there are only 4 of us!

When you make a casserole, I find that it cooks very very quickly because there is hardly anything in the bottom of the pot. It only fills about an inch or 2 at the bottom. Handy if you forget to put it on and need something done in half the time, but not so good when you want to put something on for 8 hours on low and hope that it is nicely cooked when you return, not fried to a crisp and dried out!

So with the remainders of some Christmas vouchers and a very nice sale, I purchased this for us last week.

A nice 3 litre crock pot, that will hold a casserole for 4 very nicely, will cook it in the appropriate time and will not dry everything out because of over cooking.

I put a nice chicken dish in there yesterday and it cooked beautifully. The chicken was perfect and moist where it had slowly cooked for 8 hours rather than speed cooked in 3!

I love my crock pots.

Grocery Challenge Update

This last Saturday, with my trusty list in hand, I made my way to the supermarket.
I came away having spent a good $30 less than I usually spend per week.
We have still had the same dinners each evening that we would have had had I spent the full amount.
I watched how many of things I brought, did we really need 6 tins of something when in fact we would only be using 4 during the week. That sort of thing is how I got round the shop.

I have been to the shop once this week for fresh bread and milk.
Steve has been once as well for bread, milk and fruit and I would say that we have been good and probably saved about $15 during the week in total from the mid week excursions.

So in total, we have managed to save about $45 this week and I was aiming for $50.
So I am impressed with our first week effort.

Chilli

You take 1kg of beef mince, add 4 tins of chilli beans, some garlic (4 tsp) some beef stock (4 cups), onions (2 chopped), tomato sauce (1/2 cup) and cumin (2 tsp).


Cook it all together.

Put it into containers that can go in the freezer

and hey presto you have dinner for 5 different nights when you need something quick and easy when you have to work late or don't have an hour to prepare dinner with!

I also went on to make 5 spahetti Bolognese to go in the freezer as well.

September Challenge

Mary over at Owlhaven has many times before set challenges to spend less each week on groceries.

She has even written 2 books on the subject of feeding a feast on a set amount per week and also how she survives with 12 in the family! Yes she has 10 children!

So I have decided that I am going to try my hardest to cut down on our grocery bill during September. It means no more impulse buys in September. No deciding to just nip to the supermarket for some meat for dinner when there is plenty at home in the freezer.

I do go to the supermarket during the week, but only for bread and fresh fruit. I have always done this and have always managed to walk in and walk out again with only the things I need. Sadly I love fresh bread rather than frozen and I am not stopping this as this is one area I will not compromise on!

It means sticking to the menu that my shopping list is built around.

It means using what we have at home in the cupboard first before deciding to rush out to the supermarket because we feel there is nothing to eat. Maybe even making up a batch of cookies from scratch so that there are sweet things to eat if someone fancies something.

I do already look at our weekly bill and sometimes wonder where the money goes, I do follow a budget shopping list that I created, along with the menu, with advise from Sophie Grey, Destitute Gourmet. But still each week I look at the bill as we pay and wonder what the hell I have brought that made it cost so much?

I could go the whole hog and totally buy budget products on everything, but I am sorry, you only live once so why should I have to eat tasteless spaghetti on toast and use shampoo that always seems to dry my hair out?

I do already look at the cost of what I am buying and see if there is something slightly cheaper. I also check out the cost of buying the product in bulk over the single pack we need.

A classic for this is the rice we buy. You can buy it in a 1kg bag or a 5kg bag.

The 1kg bag is about $3.75 whereas the 5kg bag is $19.99.

A quick calculation and you soon realise that it is cheaper to buy 5 x 1kg bads than it is to buy 1 x 5kg bag. Sneaky on their part!

I am also getting very good now at buying only what we need for that week, not just deciding that we need tomatoes, so lets just buy 3 tins, when in fact for the week we only need 1.

So here goes the challenge, on Saturday, our first weekly shop for September (as I only just read about the challenge today so couldn't start it at the weekend just gone!) I will indever to bring our shopping bill down, I will question every item that goes in the trolley to ensure we actually need it. I will try to find a slightly cheaper alternative with out compromising my taste.

I will also keep you posted with how it is all going.

Wish me luck....! Oh and maybe you could set yourself a challenge too?

Pikelets and Pancakes

The boys love pikelets or pancakes.

There doesn't seem to be a weekend that goes by without them asking for them for breakfast.

Now we don't always oblige with making them, depends on the time they have asked us as to whether we have enough time to make them!

But last weekend, well I had all the time in the world, so pikelets is what they got for breakfast.

And if I do say so myself, they were the best I have made for ages.

So whilst I was stood there making up the batch, I decided to get creative......!

The first pikelets we all got to eat was our initial.

Who says you can't have fun with breakfast?

Food

Ben is a fussy eater, there is no 2 ways to put it to even say he is not.
He just doesn't have the wide palate of taste of others and so is very limited on the foods he will eat.
He doesn't like dairy, no cheese, yoghurt etc
He is not a great fan of tomato based sauces or spicy.
He only likes potatoes that are mashed, doesn't like things that are fried. Not a great fan of the fat. (not that that is a bad thing)
He is also not a great fan of sugar, again not a bad thing. He does like chocolate cake and twix bars but doesn't eat candy.
He will eat rice and pasta, plain, until there is nothing left! He will also eat bread continuously until there is nothing left!

He loves Apricot chicken, mac cheese and fish fingers, chicken noodle soup, meat balls and fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, mince and pots with sweetcorn and sausages.

So when you do serve a dinner that he likes, then it disappears very fast sometimes.

BUT he has got into, not sure if it is a habit or not, of wanting something to eat an hour later just as he is going to bed. Now usually it is cereal and I have no problem with what he is eating prior to bed, it is just the fact that sometimes he is planning this cereal whilst eating his dinner!

He will finish dinner, in which he will eat everything given to him. We will then sit down and watch Friends on the tv, and he will then say 'Can I have something to eat please?'
10 minutes prior to this as finishing dinner he will say he is full and then suddenly he is hungry and wants food?

We tell him that he has to wait for his food to go down, to even register that he has eaten dinner, which he will do but he is still then planning food prior to bed.

So is he really needing this food at bedtime or has he got into a habit?

It doesn't happen every night, so he can do without it. But it is the fact he is planning it during dinner time. He will say 'if I finish all this can I have cereal before bed?' We do then tell him that finishing dinner has nothing to do with getting food later and that if he is hungry then to say now and we will get more food for him, but then he says he is full and doesn't want anything!
Sometimes he is having as much on his plate as I eat. I am nearly 40 and he is 5 1/2!

Is this normal?

Sandwiches

Where on earth does a 3 1/2 yr old get his sandwich choice from?
I have always offered them a variety, cheese, jam (jelly), ham etc.
I can understand cheese and marmite, love it myself so no worries.
I have even introduced them to the good old PBJ, not that it is a popular choice here in NZ but hey, open to all things.

So where does Alex get the idea for cheese and jam (jelly)?

I have sure never offered that combination to him! I know his grandfather likes it, but he hasn't been to stay for quite a while now and Alex would never have been old enough when he last stayed to hear him ask for that!

The wonderful minds of a little guy!

Low or No Sugar

As you are aware Steve is a Type 1 Diabetic.

Has been for many years now, like 23 odd or so.

Yes it has its moments, but nothing too over powering to our life.

Food is food and I haven't been totally radical and banned sugar completely, I mean there are sometimes when we need sugar in the house, and believe me when we need it we need it, can't make the excuse of 'hang on, just nip to the dairy and get some!' when Steve is feeling low in blood sugar and needs some pick up.

Ok we don't posess a sugar bowl and unfortunately anyone who comes to visit and wants sugar in their coffee, well they have to scoop it straight out of the 1L Tupperware container that holds the castor sugar! Castor sugar because I do use sugar in cooking and this works better than granulated sugar.

We do however have diet products in the house, again not because we are all diet crazed, but because low calorie or no sugar products are to a certain point benificial to Steve.

Only problem we have is Alex. He likes Steve's jam.

Now I am not a person who spreads jam on bread or toast thick enough so you leave teeth marks! I have a thin layer, enough to get the flavour but not ruin the toast.

Now I could go on about people's preferences on toast but that can be another post for another day!

I am happy to let Alex have some of the jam occassionally, Steve is not.

As he is not constantly eating products filled with sweetners and is getting adequate calorie, vitamin and nutrient intake as required for his little growing body then I have no problems.

I came across this website that mentioned the harm of Aspartame in children. This is what they said:

Studies have documented that aspartame is safe for use by children. However, children need calories to achieve proper growth and development. Thus, parents should supervise their children’s diet to avoid dietary excesses or nutritional deficiencies.

Exactly what I just said, we are not using them as a dietary supplement, we are just letting him have jam on toast occassionally and a mouthful of Pepsi Max from our glass.

Sushi

I have discovered the wonderful taste of sushi in the last year or so.

Nothing too exotic, just chicken and tuna ones.

There is a wonderful little sushi cafe here in Hamilton just round the corner from where we live, that serves gorgeous sushi.

Now several times this year I have stopped to get myself some for lunch and the boys have watch me eat it, whilst they have their lunch.

That was until last week when Ben suddenly said that he wanted sushi too.

So I brought an extra piece of chicken sushi for him and Alex to try.

And yes they tried it and yes they liked it. Now this didn't amaze me with Alex as he will eat just about anything, but it did amaze me with Ben as this is definitely not like him. But good on him for trying it.

Today, I have to confess I had sushi for lunch, and yes this time I had to buy a piece each for the boys. Luckily I came across this little dwarf sushi piece in the cafe, so for 70c each they got a piece of their own.

_______________________________________

Oh and Alex is now up again, decided not to have a sleep and I have all the lala's, swapped them for a bowl of noodles that he had for lunch.

The sun is shinning, the washing is on the line and I might even get up the oomph to take the boys out in a minute to ride their bikes somewhere for 1/2 an hour.

Who knows what else the day will bring!

Not as They Seem

I have been over here in NZ for just over 10 years now.

There isn't really anything I miss from England apart from some nice food items.


Jaffa Cakes:

These are small round biscuit like cakes with a round orange jam slice on the top, topped with chocolate. They are devine and unfortunately the small pack of 12 you can buy just seems to dissappear way too quick for anyones liking.

There has even been debate throughout England at one stage as to whether this was in fact a biscuit or a cake, apparently it came down to how much tax McVities was prepared to pay on them. You apparently pay more tax on biscuits than you do cake in England.


Finger of Fudge:

This is a small finger of fudge covered in chocolate made by Cadbury's UK.
It is a small confectionary item and sells for about 15p (about 75c to a $1 NZ)

They again are devine and just big enough for a treat, well that is what the advertising campaign said all those years ago!

Alpen Cereal:

Alpen is a muesli cereal with hazlenuts and sultanas, made by the company Weetabix, same people who make Weetabix and Cocopops etc in UK

I am not a dried fruit person but this cereal is lovely and so easy to pick out the fruit part (I know fussy people!)



Now these 3 items are things that you can not get here in NZ freely, as in they are not in the supermarkets.
They are however imported by some people who have set up British Food Shops within New Zealand.
There is one such shop in Auckland, just round the corner from where we use to live.
We have frequented this shop occassionally and in fact I visited it on my way home from the funeral last week.

Now as usual what your memory remembers and what you think things where like are usually different and this time it is not different.
Jaffa Cakes and Fudges will never change, there is nothing they can do to them to ruin them in anyway shape or form.

Alpen on the other hand, well, I am sure if I had been eating it often over the last 10 years I wouldn't have noticed the difference, but having just eaten some for the first time in about 6 years or so, I definitely noticed a difference and I will not be rushing out to purchase another over priced box of imported cereal.

It just doesn't taste the same as I remember it!

Sudden Picnic

Dinner all planned and ready to cook, when I realise that the beef mince doesn't smell as good as it should!
Quickly get more out but must have been a bad batch as that isn't much better.
Due to a committee meeting at 7, decide oh well off to Noodle Canteen for noodles and fried rice with chicken.
Steve had this wonderful idea to eat it in the park, so grab the plates and forks, he grabs the picnic blanket and we rush on out.
20 minutes later we are sat in the park eating noodles and rice and having an inpromptu picnic dinner, ok it could have been a little warmer to make it more enjoyable, but hey you can't have everything.

The boys had fun and that was the most important thing.