I hate supermarket shopping – we buy a weekly veg box, Pete trundles off to various independent shops on his bicycle most weekends, and the rest is made up from our excellent village CoOp, or from the not so good farm shop.

However, needs must from time to time, and so yesterday I sallied forth to Sainsburys – mostly because I needed some raw turkey for the cats, and some fizzy water (the CoOp’s price for this is larcenous); I’ve managed to restrain myself to just one pint most days, which I take to bed at night, but I still* can’t quite give it up (*apologies for the play on words).

The young lad rang it all through and demanded £63, which I thought was a huge amount, so for my own musings, I’m going to try and remember what I bought:

• 2 organic mozzarella
• 1 lump of parmegiano reggiano
• 2 aubergines (for last night’s moussaka-y thing
• 1 bottle of red wine, half price at £3.99, as a treat for Pete
• 2 packs of sausages (1 Toulouse, 1 Sicilian) on special offer.  They’re always on special offer, as far as I can see, but we love sossidge, and there’s room in the freezers at the moment
• 2 packs prawns, similarly on special offer, for the freezer
• 1 block feta (as I knew I was going to use some last night – they do sell it in the CoOp, but might as well get it while I was there)
• 2 packs chopped turkey for the cats – no turkey mince, woe.  Iggy doesn’t really like it home minced, lord knows why, but I’ll mince it all up today and give it a try
• 1 pack of organic mini duck fillets – I have no idea what “mini” emeans in this context but they’ll make 3 stir fries/risottos, so 4 quid seemed not unreasonable
• 1 large poppy seed bloomer.  Half went in the freezer for another day, and we had toast for lunch yesterday, and for breakfast this morning
• 2 packs of cold meat for this week’s lunches
• 2 packs of waffer thin poultry for the cats – 1 chicken, 1 turkey
• 2 big bags of fair trade golden caster sugar – I can’t get this locally, so was stocking up
• 1 drum of bicarbonate of soda for baking
• 8 bottles of Caledonian spring water at about 30p a bottle.  I do usually get the Asda stuff at 12p, but I simply didn’t have the energy to go and do battle with the Walmatian ones – it’s madness in there on a Saturday, and further to drive3
• 3 packs of plain, own brand bikkits, as I’m not feeling too great right now, and a bikkit is a great sugar hit – fruit shortcakes, ordinary shortbread, custard creams; all great for dunking
• a bag of frozen peas (the only frozen veg we ever have)
• a little oil can, so I can at last get the Luque olive oil out of its bottle with the dreadful “pourer” (which doesn’t pour at all)
• a silicone whisk, something I’ve been after for a while – I only own one non-stick saucepan, which is a small one used for making white sauces, and all my whisks are metal.  I tried it out last night while doing dinner, and it works a treat.

So I suppose there was a fair bit there, but because we do our shopping in dribs and drabs, the bill startled me somewhat.

Pete also went foraging on his bike, and brought back a big bunch of coriander, some blackcurrant juice, shallots, red onions, cucumber, chillis, and two sorts of cereals from the ScoopShop, and cream (the latter from the CoOp later to accompany the blackberry and apple crumble).