Thanks to Morrisons and Britmums I was chosen to be a part of the  #MorrisonsMum / #MorrisonsDad project to help promote their recent 'I'm Cheaper'campaign,  permanent price drops on thousands of every day items.  Rather than increase their savers range, they've decided to make higher quality products cheaper, so you get better for essentially less.  In their own words, they're 'cutting prices, not corners'.  It isn't just Morrisons own lines either, you'll find thousands of popular every day branded items.

Our brief?  To descend upon our local Morrisons store and do some shopping using vouchers they kindly provided us with to experience the price drops and resultant food over the bank holiday weekend.  We actually chose the second closest as our usual branch is quite small and we wanted to visit the cafe too.

Seeing as The Preschooler had been poorly previously in the week, we decided to fortify him first with a hearty dinner in the Morrisons Cafe.  Yum!

We're no stranger to Morrisons, as our own local supermarket happens to be a Morrisons, however in the past we've only really used it for bare basics having to venture further afield to be able to feed our family on our small weekly budget.  However, despite our familiarity we were greeted at every turn with price drops.  There was no need to look for them, I went in armed with a list to make three meals (Thai Curry, Creamy Chicken Pasta and wholemeal calzones) over the weekend yet found often when I reached for something, it was cheaper!  This is where the the penny drops, it really is buying your usual items and getting them cheaper.  It really is everyday items you probably buy anyway.  Often you'll find in supermarkets that the items on offer are those that you don't actually need and wouldn't ordinarily buy which although make a nice treat, it's a bit of backwards economics as you end up buying them in addition to your usual items.  Brilliant for the supermarkets yet not so good for our purses.

This meant there was room for the odd extra that wasn't needed nor on the list such as the bargain £2.49 Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Shush, I'm pregnant.  It's medicinal.  Oh and some cheeky king prawns.....

So what did we eat chez Tiaras & Prozac this weekend?

Firstly The Husband and I had a delicious Thai curry which although I have a picture of the ingredients, there's no picture of the finished article....I was hungry.  It didn't hang around long enough to be photographed!  It's unusual to ever get any meal that all of The Family will eat together so The Spawn had an old favourate, sausages and garlic bread.  Morrisons cheesy garlic pizza breads have been a firm favourate of ours for years and they're nearly always on offer so a bargain to boot.  Yet i'll admit to being pleasantly surprised at finding the sausages cheaper too.

If you look here, you'll see The Preschooler making some Jammie Dodgems with the #ImCheaper jam we bought.  He's only just turned four, so be kind.  He's an excellent baker.

Another night I made is a Creamy Chicken dish adapted from one of the recipes found on Morrisons own site with their basic range garlic baguettes, which again are firm favourates of ours.  They're cheap as chips  (only 30p each!)yet tasty too.

To make our version we used:

Serves four 

* 300g pasta (We used Farfalle instead of spaghetti) - £0.95p for 500g.
* 200g smoked middle bacon snipped into pieces (the recipe says 100g, what can I say though? we love bacon) - £2.18 for 240g #ImCheaper
* 200g cooked chicken-  £2.00
* 1 crumbled Stock Cube (From store cupboard)
* 300ml reduced fat creme fraiche - £0.90 #Imcheaper
* 1 tbs wholegrain mustard (From store cupboard)
* Garlic & mixed herbs (From cupboard)

* x3 Garlic baguettes @ 30p each.

Total cost : £6.93
Cost per person: £1.73

Surely that's a bargain in anyone's book?

It's super easy to make:

- Cook the pasta as specified on the pack.
- Dry fry the bacon then add the chicken (we used Morrisons Savers cooked pieces) with a crumbled stock cube and 4tbs water.
- Combine the Mustard, garlic, herbs and  Creme Fraiche then add to the meat.
- Stir in the cooked pasta
- Serve!

The Baguettes easily cook in the oven whilst the pasta cooks on the hob.  A quick and easy meal.

Last night we made our own wholemeal Calzones using my favourate quick pizza dough recipe.  These are an absolute favourate with all of us, the bonus is The Spawn make theirs themselves, we find that if you involve them in the making process they enjoy eating it even more.  We're huge meat eaters (Sorry Babe) so we had a mix of chicken, pepperoni, salami and ham.

I really do urge you to go to your local Morrisons and see how much of your usual shopping you can get for cheaper.  As soon as you enter you're presented with a mass selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, many of these, you've guessed it, are included in the 'I'm Cheaper' price drops too and the price drops just continue around each subsequent department you walk through.

***I received Morrisons gift vouchers to purchase the food however all opinions expressed and experiences described remain my own.


This post is part of the #MorrisonsMums promotion, why not visit the Britmums linky and see how some of the other mums got on and find some more tasty recipes!

Easy pizza dough recipe

You may have noticed I've made a fair share of pizza lately or should I say three garlic breads, four calzones and one pizza. I used to make dough from scratch but got rather bored of the whole 'waiting' element, what can I say, I'm impatient.  I resorted to packet mixes yet decided I wanted to do it from scratch but without the waiting so I found the recipe below and it works a treat.  I made The Sprogs some garlic bread using wholemeal bread flour in the pizza dough and it was a success, they scoffed the lot!  I find the below recipe makes approximately two 9" pizza's with a little spare, if you like them thinnish.

 

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with flour. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.  recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-and-easy-pizza-crust/

Meal planning friday

So today is Friday which is weekly shopping day.  I do the shop online since we don't drive and it helps to keep a track on spending.

As usual I go through adding things to my basket and then spend an excruciating amount of time removing said items trying to feed us and be able to actually pay for said food.  I find it ridiculous that 12-18 months ago we'd buy more and actually pay less.

It's becoming increasingly hard to afford it to be quite frank.  especially seeing as we don't smoke, The Husband rarely drinks and we very rarely buy any treats whatsoever, it really is the basics.

Like many families on a tight budget these days we utilise menu planning to try and ensure we only buy what we need and what will be eaten.  Granted I rarely stick to the days meals and pick whichever one I feel like cooking each day.

So what's for tea next week?

Saturday: Pork steaks in sage & onion crust with savoury rice and large flat garlic mushrooms.
Sunday: White fish in creamy sauce with boiled potatoes and brown bread
Monday: Chicken chop suey
Tuesday: Hot bacon, sausage,  mushroom and potato salad
Wednesday: Enchiladas
Thursday:  Lentil & veg stew with dumplings or Chicken korma
Friday: Sweet chilli & garlic beef with egg fried rice

I should probably mention that the meals are generally for The Husband, The Toddler and myself with Thing One and Thing Two being fussy little sods.  Where did we go wrong?  They used to eat real food when they were weaned!