Just a quickie post today, because I've to finish packing for my camping holiday in Donegal and get ready for tonight's scouting activities. DG's gone into town to collect essential items, such as camping gas and inhalers and I've luxuriated at home, drinking tea and posting on my blogs. Somehow, I think I should have got myself a lot more organised than this, but what the heck?
One little snippet of useless foodie information for you all is the fact that Cadbury's have kindly re-launched their Old Jamaica bourneville chocolate bar. Just the name of it conjures up many childhood memories of special treats and rum n raisin flavoured favourites, ice-cream, fudge and of course chocolate!
This particular favourite used, like all chocolate back then, to come in a foil and paper package. The foil however was a lovely golden colour and the paper and organgey-reddish colour with a picture of an old fashioned cutter on the front. Why they took Old Jamaica off the market I don't know, but I do know that I have polished off two big bars of it in as many weeks...
Also, for anyone who likes their burger's last weekend we celebrated LB's birthday. Yes, I know! It was exactly six months late, but by doing it this way he was guaranteed of having a few guests turn up. In fact we only lost one, which makes a huge change from the usual round of "I can't come because I've got to go shopping for presents with Daddy..." excuses at Christmas time. Why men leave it to the last minute, I don't know. What I do know is that poor LB misses out something terrible, but I digress...
The whole point of this is that I went shopping last Friday, with a wad of cash in my hand. For several reasons I went to Lidl, not least because the parking is handy and the food good. Considering the lovel weather and the fact that the boys would be camping out I'd already decided that we'd be having a barbecue buffet so I settled on Lidl's own brand pizza's, quarter pounder's and frankfurter sausages along with all the usual accoutrements.
My oven is still acting up so the pizzas were nuked in the microwave for ten minutes and then placed under a hot grill to finish. They disappeared in a flash and their were no complaints!
The frankfurters were warmed up, and served with fried onions to make hot dogs and even my Mum remarked on how nice they were - these ones were in the fridge section in packets of ten.
As for the quarter pounders, they were lovely, to the point that you could mistake them for homemade!
The total cost of the food for the party was less than €120.00, which included a couple of bottles of wine, minerals, cleaning materials and lot of food left over in the freezer for the weeks to come. Refreshments, crisps, sweets were also used for school lunches this week and we have juices to take with us on our hols.
All in all this represented terrific value for money, enabled LB to have a great party with lots of goodies to share with his mates, school lunches, breakfasts, dinners and teas plus some refreshments for the older members of the family! For those who say ugh! Lidl is there for people who can't afford to buy better quality food, I say wise up and shop sensibly.
Sure you may save a few euro's, but you will also pick up some top quality own and premium brand food which sometimes can't be purchased elsewhere. Look after the pennies and the pounds WILL look after themselves...
All in all it's been a great week for shopping and eating. One word of caution to anyone who is thinking of following our example and heading up north, if you shop in Aldi or Lidl they tend to use the same pricing structure north and south of the border, ie pound = euro prices. Bearing this in mind, I certainly intend to do a shop or two while I'm up there, but it will be in the Republic due to the less expensive pricing thanks to the exchange rate! Do not use up your pounds unnecessarily, save them for Junction 1 and lots of bargains up there instead...
Happy Hols Everyone - see ya in two weeks!
