Morrisons Mum - The Food

I made a few things myself, such as a couscous salad, potato salad, halloumi kebabs, chicken tikka kebabs and Eton Mess.  The rest I bought Morrisons own branded food and went for the Morrisons Signature range which is the premium food that Morrisons offer.  I wanted to compare their meat to that of my local butcher who we use for our BBQs.

The burgers I chose were Signature Mature Cheddar & Sweet Onion Quarter Pounders, they looked a good size burger as I can't stand burgers that are tiny and fill half the bun.  I have to say I was very disappointed as these burgers shrivelled to nothing on the BBQ.  The burgers we buy from our butchers work out at about £1 each, these were the same as a pack of 4 was £4, however if you bought three lots it worked out at £10 for 12.  They tasted okay but I wouldn't rave about them, they were nowhere near as tasty as our local butcher's burgers which also don't shrivel up on the BBQ.

I chose Signature Thick Pork & Caramelised Onion Sausages which came in a pack of 6 and you could buy two packs for £5.  Again they were okay, they weren't chewy, the skins weren't hard, they weren't lumpy but again taste wise there was just no comparison between them and the sausages from our local butchers.  In terms of cost, again about the same as the butcher.

Finally we had some Signature Spiced Lamb Kebabs with Apricot, these were part of the three packs for £10 deal and contained 5 kebabs.  They were nice but I have had nicer lamb kebabs from Sainsburys for similar sort of money.

For dessert I had been looking forward to making my Eton Mess but I came to open the strawberries and this was what I found!!

Mouldy as anything, these were 2 days old, kept in a cool dry place and they looked like this, couldn't believe it as normally strawberries will last longer than that!!  I ended up walking down to our Co-op who had them on offer and mixed them with Morrisons Double Cream and Morrisons meringues which were really nice and light.

We had non alcoholic punch to drink which consisted of Morrisons fruit which was nice and fresh and priced well, a bag of lemons for £1.  Morrisons orange juice and lemonade which I couldn't find fault with. I also used Welch's Grape Juice which I have since found in Sainsburys for only £1, it was £1.39 in Morrisons.  Sainsburys also do their own brand grape juice which works out cheaper but Morrisons do not offer this.

Soooooooo, no I won't be shopping at Morrisons, I will continue to do my online shopping through Tesco and obtain my meat from the local butcher. The thing is Tesco have got me, the more I spend, the more vouchers I get and Morrisons just don't seem that much cheaper. Tesco have sent me a £15 off a £50 shop this week and I have been collecting money off petrol with them too.

Here we all are enjoying some good food, even though the sun wasn't shining!  All in all probably worked out about £8 a head which was a burger, hot dog, lamb kebab, veggie kebab, chicken kebab, corn each, punch and salads.  The couscous salad was probably the favourite.

Recipes - all from BBC Good Food

CousCous Salad - £0.63 per person

Ingredients
100g couscous
200ml hot low salt vegetable stock (from a cube is fine)
2 spring onions
1 red pepper
½ cucumber
50g feta cheese, cubed
2 tbsp pesto
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Method
Tip couscous into a large bowl, pour over stock. Cover, then leave for 10 mins, until fluffy and all the stock has been absorbed. Meanwhile, slice the onions and pepper and dice the cucumber. Add these to the couscous, fork through pesto, crumble in feta, then sprinkle over pine nuts to serve.

Lemony Potato Salad - £0.52 per person

Ingredients

900g halved new potatoes

3 tsp olive oil

juice 1 lemon

1 tsp each toasted black mustard seeds and toasted cumin seeds

1 finely chopped green chilli (optional)

½ finger-length piece grated ginger

pinch turmeric

4 sliced spring onions

Method

Boil the new potatoes for 15 mins until just slightly overcooked but still holding their shape. While still warm, toss with all the other ingredients. Season. Can be made up to a day ahead and chilled, but take out of the fridge a good few hours before serving.

Halloumi kebabs with thyme & lemon baste - £0.75 per person

Ingredients

For the kebabs

2 medium courgettes

1 large red onion

250g low fat halloumi cheese, cut into 16 chunks (we used Cypressa Halloumi Lite)

16 cherry tomatoes

For the lemon baste

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (preferably lemon thyme)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Method

Halve the courgettes lengthways, then thickly slice. Cut the onion into wedges and separate into pieces. Thread the halloumi, cherry tomatoes, courgettes and onion onto eight skewers. Cover and chill the kebabs until you are ready to cook (You can do this up to half a day ahead.)

To make the baste, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, mustard and seasoning. (This can be made ahead and chilled too.)

Preheat the barbecue or grill and arrange the kebabs on the rack. Brush with the baste, stirring it first to make sure the ingredients are blended. Cook for 4-5 minutes, turning often, until the cheese begins to turn golden and the vegetables are just tender.

What I did find with this recipe is the halloumi tended to split as soon as you pushed the skewer through it so I ended up squashing the cheese between two bits of courgette to hold it on!  These kebabs were divine though!

Morrisons Mum - The Shop!

Thanks to Britmums & Morrisons we received some vouchers to spend this Bank Holiday weekend. We intend to have a family BBQ - hope the weather is kind!!

We made our way on a drab, grey, drizzly day to our second closest Morrisons as our closest one doesn't have fuel and I needed to top up (knowing Morrisons are offering 6p off a £40 spend). It's the Kingswinford branch and its probably about 7 miles away.

As I had my daughter with me we nabbed the closest (and last) available parent & child space. I wouldn't mind if these weren't right by the doors as for me its having the width so that I can open the door fully and get Macy out of her car seat comfortably. Never really understood why they have to be so close. 

There were loads of different types of trolley available and all parked undercover so Macy didn't end up with a wet bum! 

The store was bright and colourful and I do like the idea of having market street for all the fruit and veg, it was laid out nicely.

Service in store was fantastic, I asked if they had any wooden skewers to which the manager said no but he could get me some from the meat counter with no charge - excellent! I walked up to a completely empty checkout of which there were several & the helpful checkout assistant packed my shopping for me as she scanned.

I usually shop online with Tesco and did find that Morrisons are probably about on a par price wise. The only downside being that they don't brand match like Tesco and also I usually get lots of vouchers each month with Tesco's clubcard - as far as I am aware Morrisons don't offer a reward card? If they do its not very well advertised.

Everything was sensibly laid out and easy to find. The only things I didn't manage to buy were the wooden skewers and non alcoholic wine. I picked up a honeysuckle plant but when I looked at it, it was half dead which was a bit disappointing so I put it back.

Now the cooking and tasting begins!!