Sunday 11 May 2014

Bank Holiday Weekend BBQ #MorrisonsMum

Although we don't get that many a year I always look forward to Bank Holidays. As working parents, having an 'extra' day off to spend with our children is something of huge value to us and we always try to make the most of them.

To celebrate the May Day Bank Holiday we decided to have a family BBQ at the Grandparent's house (they have a bigger garden!).

I was thrilled to be chosen by Britmums as a #Morrisonsmum and sent some vouchers to do our bank holiday shopping at our local store in Whitefield, Greater Manchester.

You may be wondering what being a #Morrisonsmum means...

This month Morrison's launched a series of price cuts under the tagline 'I'm Cheaper', they want to continue to bring their customers the great quality food they're used to at new every day low prices. To share the news of this campaign they invited several influential Parent Bloggers to write about their experience of shopping in store and share a favourite recipe or two!

The weekend was a busy one for us as my husband and son were away at a Scout camp until Sunday evening and I was speaking at the the northern Blogging conference #BlogonMOSI. This meant that our shop had to be left until Monday morning. I admit that the idea of this made me a little nervous, in previous experience I've found supermarket shelves can start looking rather bare by the end of a long weekend.

I really needn't have worried though as on Monday we walked into a store with shelves full of fresh food! In our local Morrison store you walk straight into 'Market Street' where fresh fruit and vegetables are displayed in an attractive way and reminiscent to the open air food markets my Nanna used to take me shopping to as a child. This leads on to counters offering fresh fish, cheese, bakery products and a 'family butchers'.



The rainbow of colourful produce was spattered with yellow 'I'm Cheaper' signs drawing my attention to some really good savings. Among these were punnets of strawberries for 99p, 3 packs of peppers for 99p and a good selection of fruit and vegetables at 3 for just £1.50, this offer included pineapples, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrots and many more.

As well as purchasing food and drink for a family BBQ I was also doing my weekly shopping, making sure I had food for packed lunches, snacks and healthy family meals as well as stocking up on toiletries and cleaning products.

Wherever we shop we tend to buy a mixture of own brand 'basic' products and higher quality ingredients so that we can make nutritious meals on a limited budget, in Morrisons I found the 'Savers' range to be competitively priced and offer a wide selection. After using these products during the week I have found them to be of surprisingly good quality for the prices.

Focusing on our BBQ food: I was catering for adults and children; Vegetarians and Meat-eaters, so as well as the traditional burgers and sausages I wanted to offer a an appealing selection of summer dishes that would appeal to a variety of tastes.

In the chiller section I found an offer on meat products that included pork shoulder steaks, beef shish kebabs, and british diced beef as well as burgers and a lot of other options priced at £4 or 3 packs for £10.

We also bought some linconshire sausages from the butchers counter, frozen beef burgers, as well some vegetarian bean burgers and glamorgan sausages.

From the market street I bought the ingredients for salads, kebabs, stuffed peppers, baby potatoes and some pasta salad.

What's a burger without a bun? There was a good choice of bread products in the bakery with fingers rolls on promotion at 2 packs of 6 for £1. We also picked up some Branston relish for £1.65 and some sliced cheese to make the perfect BBQ burger.

Dining Al Fresco just isn't the same without some liquid refreshment so we went on to check out the drinks aisle and I was pleasantly surprised with the both the prices and the selection. We topped up our trolley with some Hooper's Alcoholic Dandelion & Burdock (If you haven't tried this, do give it a go, it's amazing!) which were on offer at 3 bottles for £5, some Brahma (lovely with a slice of lime!) and  a few bottles of Iron Maiden's Trooper Beer at just £1.99 a bottle as a treat for Daddy!

Britmums had asked me to share a favourite Bank Holiday recipe so I've decided to share with you a few of the simple but delicious dishes we enjoyed at our Bank Holiday BBQ...



Make your own Kebabs

This a delicious and fun addition to any barbecue but especially great if you have fussy eaters or a mixture of vegetarians and meat-eaters...

What you need:

Bamboo sticks (soak these in a glass of water before starting up the BBQ) - 50p pack

Diced Beef - (included in the £10 for 3) £3.33

Mushrooms (de-staalked) 89p pack

Courgettes - 3 for 99p (we used 1)

Butternut Squash 69p

Peppers - 3 for 99p (we used 1)

Cherry tomatoes - (3 for £1.50) 50p

Halloumi - £2.99

Celery - (3 for £1.50) 50p

Pineapple - (3 for £1.50) 50p

Marinade 

Fresh mixed herbs - 69p

oilve oil (storecupboard)

black pepper (store cupboard)

lime

Method

This is so simple I'm not sure if I can call it a method! Simply chop up your veg into chunks (not too small!) and serve in a platter or small bowls ready for your guests to make their own kebabs. For the marinade grind up mixed herbs in a pestle and mortar add olive oil, lime and black pepper to taste.

Once the kebabs are made heat on the BBQ for around 15 mins turning regularly.

Makes approx 20 kebabs for £11.74 - price per portion: 59p



Greek Salad

This is a family favourite, great for picnics BBQ's or just a summer lunch!

What you need:

Salad tomatoes - 59p

Red onions 49p

Cucumber 49p

Olives £1.00

Feta Cheese £1.60 (used 1/2 pack)

Dressing

Oregano

Black pepper

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar 

Method

Chop tomatoes cucumber and onion into chunks add olives and cubed feta cheese. Mix together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oregano and black pepper and pour over salad to serve. Enjoy!


Total cost £3.37 makes 6 portions - Price per serving 56p


Stuffed Peppers

Another favourite these are a quick and easy vegetarian meal all year round but even nicer done on the BBQ!

What you need:

Peppers - 99p for 3

Cous cous (3 packs for £1.20) 40p

Feta cheese £1.60 (used 1/2 pack)

Olive oil

Method

Chop peppers in half length ways keeping stalks on if possible, scrape out seeds and pulp, place on a baking tray and drizzle over some olive oil, heat in over or on BBQ (in foil) for around ten minutes. Prepare cous cous as per packet instructions (usually using boiled water and stirring then leave for 5 minutes, Fill pepper halves with cous cous and crumble Feta Cheese on top. Add seasoning then then pop back in oven or on BBQ for 15 - 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Total cost £2.19 makes 6 portions - Price per serving 37p



I'm really pleased with our Bank Holiday Shop at Morrisons, the new price reductions meant that I really noticed the difference in prices of some products that we buy every week.

As a committed Bargain Hunter who's lucky enough to have most of the main supermarkets nearby, I'm not really loyal to one in particular and tend to let promotions sway me as to where I will shop each week depending on what meals I plan to cook. I found the quality of the fresh produce at Morrisons to be excellent and the price cuts mean that the 'yellow' supermarket will now be a serious contender when I make my shopping decisions.

Although really pleased with both the quality and value of this shopping experience the one thing that I think Morrisons is lacking is a loyalty card. Although they offer loyalty schemes where you can gain a significant discount on both your grocery shop and your fuel bill if you keep the receipts from four consecutive shops in a month, I personally favour schemes such as the one offered by the 'blue' supermarket, which allows you to exchange loyalty points for small luxuries in other areas of life such as meals out, cinema vouchers or theme park tickets. I enjoy saving up the vouchers I earn through shopping to give my family a nice little treat now and again and I'd love to see Morrisons introduce something similar in the future.

I'd like to thank both Morrisons and Britmums for the opportunity to be a #MorrisonsMum this Bank Holiday weekend and I look forward to shopping there in the future. Check out the other #Morrisonsmum posts here.

Do let me know what you think if you try out any of my recipes!

Disclaimer: As a #Morrisonsmum I was sent £80 of vouchers to spend on shopping at Morrisons over Bank Holiday weekend all views and opinions are my own.


8 comments:

  1. Those stuffed peppers look delicious and greek salad is my favourite. BBQ's at your house look so much fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. disqus_dIRjNoslspMonday, May 12, 2014

    What a feast you had for your BBQ! Shame I don't live nearer! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. chantelle hazeldenMonday, May 12, 2014

    and now I feel really hungry!!! lol fab post x

    ReplyDelete
  4. MymummyspenniesMonday, May 12, 2014

    It was great fun and the weather stayed dry which is a bonus! Greek Salad is my favourite too, so simple yet so tasty!

    ReplyDelete
  5. MymummyspenniesMonday, May 12, 2014

    It was a feast! If you're ever up north you'll have to pop rouud for a BBQ!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MymummyspenniesMonday, May 12, 2014

    Thank you, it was so delicious and we had plenty of left overs for the following few days too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You Baby Me MummyMonday, May 12, 2014

    We did this too, it is great how much you can get in there for your money. Those Kebabs look yummy x

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awww so many yummy things to try =) #recipeoftheweek

    ReplyDelete

I love to read your comments, thank you for sharing your thoughts.