Voyeurism and Food Porn Part Two - the Freezers

Sometimes you have to stand back from things to find out where you are actually at and that was one of the main purposes for the no shopping foray around Waitrose the other day.  I like the quality of their food, I don't always like their prices but they do have some good offers especially on regular basic items and I certainly like the range of products they do offer.  Take for example, chopped tomatoes and Branston baked beans packs of four at £2 per pack.  I prefer the Branston baked beans and the Napolina tomatoes.  We use a lot of both.

Whenever I end up going to a freezer shop it is usually one like Iceland or Farm Fresh and I usually stock up in bulk there and then.  However on looking in the freezers on Friday afternoon Waitrose have some excellent frozen products at reasonable prices and as I have recently depleted my freezer stocks I really am looking to top up with lots of good basic stuff and some interesting additions. It will be done a bit at a time as it usually is, but usually after three or four months concerted effort on the meat and frozen product front I usually get the freezers stocked back up to optimum level.  However I also buy fresh veg, prepare it myself and I have quite a few plans on this front.  Looking in the freezers also gave me some more ideas as to things to do myself.  

I was particularly taken with the range of frozen food that they had and which they do have year round.  Particularly the frozen fruit.  As I have access to a very good fresh fruit and veg shop in any event I may not buy certain of these items from Waitrose as I can buy in bulk and get more for my money.  You have to be practical and a few pennies saved here and there add up and can be put towards something else like the bulk purchase of cherries I have every year.  They are something that we have as a staple but something of a requirement in this household as we both love them.

Waitrose do the petit-pois peas that we use year round at a very good price and also broad or kidney beans which I would not eat as a child and which I now absolutely love.  They do frozen baby ones of these and we love these.  We also eat a lot of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, courgettes (particularly yellow ones), French and runner beans (hopefully this year will have my own fresh out of the garden).  I also freeze cherry tomatoes when they are in season or when they are on offer and OH has them fried from frozen with a full English breakfast every so often.  They can also be blitzed to form the basis of a pasta sauce.  They also have packs of celery, onion and carrot finely chopped which I had not spotted before.  So that is something I am going to look into as that is a definite time saver especially if you are at work during the week.

I shall look in the other freezer shops as well to see what else I can utilize but in common practice I do a lot in any event myself.  So there is going to be a lot of planning and plotting on this front.  I shall also create a spreadsheet as to what is in there and mark off what is taken out so that I can keep tabs on what needs re-stocking as I go along.

I noted also that they do frozen uncooked croissants in bags and also other pastries but I am not sure that they work out as value for money. (M & S do these as well).  One thing I have noticed a lot of recently is that butter, things containing butter, any corn fed animals like chickens etc. the price has gone up a lot because of that and I suspect will go up again. Baked goods have gone up an awful lot too so I am going to carry on with my baking spot whenever I can and if need be also prepare some stuff up and then freeze it uncooked so that it can be taken out frozen and cooked as fresh.  Things like cookie dough, croissants, Danish pastries and raw bulk buys of frozen puff pastry.  I can never have enough of this as it is very good for making savoury and sweet items alike.

I do intend to buy in some butter and freeze it but I also intend to carry on taking advantage of any reductions I see on double cream and make my own butter and then freeze that as well.  It is well worth investing in a Kilner hand butter churner (but do search around for the best price on the internet) and then get it for the best price you can.  Mine is worth its weight in gold and the butter soon mixes up and for not a lot of effort.

I am not necessarily looking to add bought convenience foods to my freezer but I will certainly make up home made cottage pies, stews, stock, lasagna, and freeze a lot of other stuff myself.  The one thing I am not keen on out of the freezer though is fish.  Wherever possible I prefer to have fresh fish.  I think freezing it you lose some of the texture and the taste is often spoilt.

They do have a fantastic selection though on ice cream including a whole range for those who are diabetic.  I love ice cream but I also have an ice cream maker (a proper one) that has its own freezing unit and which I can make just with base ingredients like double cream and yogurt or even a custard base.  So for me having ice cream in bulk in the freezer is not necessarily a priority as there are more relevant items like meat which for me are a higher priority to freeze.  Not that we go without.

There are some further tranches on this section which will follow in due course as I really did find a lot to utilise when I had a good look around.

Tonight we are having simple roast chicken for tea, together with some mashed potatoes and roasties, peas, carrots and broccoli.  We have a pudding for a change a  home made rice pudding as well.

Hope you have had a good weekend.  

Catch you later on.

Pattypan

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