Bank Holiday, Baking & Bargains

I was delighted to be selected as a #MorrisonsMum as part of the Britmums and Morrisons May Bank Holiday blogging project. I received a lovely letter containing Morrisons vouchers and in return I needed to shop over the Bank Holiday and then blog about my experience. Not exactly an arduous task, I'm always happy to shop & eat!

So armed with my shopping list I set off to Morrisons. I returned with armfuls of goodies and settled in for a weekend of cooking & feasting. I planned to do some baking on Saturday with my daughter, have a roast on Sunday and a homemade Fish Pie on Bank Holiday Monday.

Here's what we got up to...

Saturday

One of my daughter's favourite programs is "I can Cook" on Cbeebies. We'd seen a recipe for Blue Jewel Bakes a couple of weeks ago & I had promised her we would make them. So armed with Morrison's blueberries, milk, orange zest, eggs and honey, we set to work. We whisked, grated, counted, weighed and poured. After 15 minutes in the oven we had six delicious Blue Jewel Bakes and they were eaten as soon as they were cool enough. A big success.

Sunday

On Sunday we planned a traditional Chicken roast with lots of veg and a mouthwatering Morrison's cheesecake for pudding. I invited my Mum and my Grandmother round to join us. I was really impressed with value of vegetables and meat at Morrisons.

The main ingredients cost:

Chicken...£4.75

Broccoli...49p

Maris Piper potatoes...£2.25 (but they were used in Fish Pie, so potatoes made two meals)

Cheesecake...£3.49

The total cost approximately £11 and this roast and pudding fed four adults, one child and our two cats had a tummy-full of leftover chicken scraps, so I would estimate it cost £2.75 per serving, so this offers amazing value for money.

Monday

I wanted to make one of our favourite family meals on Bank Holiday Monday. I have been making this delicious Fish Pie since my daughter was about ten or eleven months old. At first she had it pureed, then in bigger chunks, now she helps herself straight from the dish & tucks into it with the rest of us. I got the recipe from the Truuuly Scrumptious Book of Organic Baby Purees book. The meals are designed to be made for the whole family with portions pureed for your baby. This means you aren't cooking lots of different meals for everyone and babies get to develop more 'grown up' tastes. The food in this book isn't bland and the authors encourage you to use mature cheese, garlic and other strong flavours. This Fish Pie has definitely grown with my daughter and we enjoy it as much as she does, a perfect family meal.

Again I was impressed with the quality of the fish at Morrisons. There was an in-store offer of three selected pre-packed meat or fish portions for £10. I stocked up on Salmon for the pie and I also bought two packets of smoked haddock to go in the freezer. I actually accidentally bought 'lightly smoked' Morrisons salmon, which I had never used before in this particular pie. But it was absolutely delicious, great quality and plenty of fish in the pack. I would definitely buy it again from Morrisons as I am converted to using the smoked version now!

The main ingredients cost:

Salmon...£3.30 (as part of three for £10 deal)

Broccoli...49p

Maris Piper potatoes...£2.25 (but they were used in chicken roast, so potatoes made two meals)

Milk...0.84p (this price is for four pints and you only use one pint in this recipe)

Total cost is approximately £6.80 and this pie fed two adults and one child, but would probably feed four adults. So based on feeding four adults the Fish Pie would be £1.70 per portion, which is very economical for such a delicious & filling meal.

So all in all we had a great weekend, the weather was lovely and we ate really well courtesy of Morrisons and Britmums. The only downside is the amount of dishes all this cooking produces. The Fish Pie in particular uses every dish & pan in the kitchen...luckily I have a little assistant who likes to help out...fingers crossed she doesn't grow out of her love of water & bubbles anytime soon!