Stocktake Time - Brexit Countdown

[AldiIsla]

Can't believe we might actually have a No Deal crash.

Anyone else finding it overwhelming doing usual Christmas stuff, the winter weather preparations and then Brexit and being ready for more coronavirus stuff?

I need to do a stock take of food and toiletries.

We've been life prepping so boiler has been serviced early, electrics have had an upgrade this year. Car getting serviced next month.

I can't be arsed.
I feel sick.

Thank you Indignatio

Wow that's impressive AuldFox have so much to do. Gradually getting there, have stockings bought and filled, some of mains bought but still lots to buy. Am going to buy some courgettes and peppers to slice and freeze, I need to blanch them first don't I. You can also freeze grapes and I am going to cut up some peaches and nectarines to put in there too to boost up the fruit supply for January.

Hi MM
Don't know about courgettes, but I slice pepper, freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet and once frozen gather together into a plastic tub. Easy to use the amount you need straight from frozen

No blanching for peppers

Place marking.

Thanks guys, tried my tinned mandarins out tonight with custard and they were yum

@BlueistheNewme That sounds difficult for you to manage. I hope you can figure some meal ideas out. If you tell us what she likes maybe we can help?

Packed lunch wise we are ok assuming we can get bread. He's had a ham sandwich, dairylea cheese strip and grapes every day for past 6 years! I'm hoping if bread is short that he'll agree to a ham baguette, as he will eat them at home. So I don't think lunches will be a problem - hardest part is he eats no pasta, rice or noodles, and the only potatoes he'll eat are microwave fries and well done (burnt!) smilies.

Fruit is scaring me, as he eats grapes 2-3 times per day - which sounds like a lot, but the alternative is 6 sachets of movicol per day, and other than apples he eats no other fruit. Veg is sorted, as he eats nothing but sweetcorn, but loves it so much he eats it every single day, so I have an 8 week supply of sweetcorn.

I try to pad out his fruit and veg by giving him tomato soup, spaghetti hoops or baked beans every day, he'll happily have soup as a starter, then just have a plate of chicken nuggets and sweetcorn for tea. Not ideal, but its calories.

@BlackeyedSusan Glad to hear you survived the pizza bases! How did you find them? I've bought mixes to make our own, but I'm wondering if ready made bases would be better, as DS is more likely to eat it if they are smooth and even looking.

Totally agree about the Jamie thing. You have to feed your kids what they will eat. Before DS was diagnosed, he was under consultant for failure to thrive, and they used to give us these ridiculous diets that he would eat none of. The first time I saw ASD paed, he said just feed him whatever he'll eat.

DS has a choice of 3 cereal for breakfast, we rotate a box at a time, so this week its frosties, next week it will be coco pops. On school days he has a ham sandwich for lunch, weekends he has homemade pancakes or soup. Tea is chicken nuggets, turkey dinos or skinless sausages. And we just rotate over and over. It amazes me that he doesn't seem to get bored! He'll occasionally eat pizza if its super crispy, but he's not that keen, and we usually have to resort to bribery to get him to eat it. But if there were nothing else available, I think he'd cope with it.

Glad to hear you survived the pizza bases! How did you find them?

: underneath the dining room table, very dusty.

seriously: flat thin very even, crispy. (though that was because they were in a little too long) ds only eats them like that too. I once made pizza bases. once. didn't go down well. he still remembers several years on. I have two pizza base mixes but maybe not the best idea as ds really only likes ready made pizza or ready made bases.

three breakfast cereals is good. ds used to just eat one sort of weetabix. (square weetabix, ie the cheap ones. only available in limited places. ) the holiday where I spent a week cooking pasta for breakfast as we had run out of square weetabix and aldi was a forty mile round trip away along tourist windy roads.

ds now eats cherios, shreddies, cornflakes and cocopops. amazing. (only branded though)

we have quite a good selection of teas going on though.

the school dinners started off really well and ended up with a satsuma, box of fruit juce and some crackers before he refused packed lunch. he eats in the school canteen now. often not so healthy stuff. (oh for those days of healthy lunches. )

The pizza bases sound great. I might grab some for DS and keep the bases for DS1 and DD. She is also ASD but not as restrictive food wise as DS, as she likes soft food. Which makes meal times a nightmare, cooking 3 different meals, but at least I know she’ll eat the pasta and noodles I’ve bought.

I agree we are lucky with the cereal. Your holiday sounds like a nightmare! DS used to only eat multi grains when we were following original dietician advice, but now we go to specialist feeding clinic and they asked about sugary cereal - said even with sugar content it’s fab as so heavily fortified, so they recommend it. We started buying coco pops for DS1, and luckily DS2 got curious enough about the milk going chocolatey to ask to try it lol.

So it’s not so bad - I know 11 foods sounds terrible, but they class cereal as 1, and chicken nuggets/turkey dinos as 1 as they say they are similar taste/texture. So actually when you add up the actual foods he eats number is more like 18.

Your packed lunch sounded ok - shame they don’t eat that anymore, as at least you can stock up on the juice and crackers. I’m actually glad mine don’t have school dinners - with 3 kids it would cost me £33 per week! And I like to be able to monitor how much DS eats (they have to bring their rubbish home)

There’s also the issue that he wouldn’t eat most of it, and if they gave him chicken nuggets that were “wrong” he might then refuse to eat them at home. He’s very fussy about brands, which drives me crazy. But dietician says it’s about trust and anxiety. He needs to have control over his food, and know it will taste the same every single time in order to control his anxiety around food, so I try to be understanding, but it’s frustrating.

I have been really lucky with food other than a few issues around breakfast cereal and fruit a while back. It could have been so much worse. Ds needs a "proper tea" (one of the meals I cook) so no shirking on tea if he has had cooked lunch.

My lot would love pasta for breakfast dinner and tea in my house that would have been really popular with them Blackeyed Have really found it hard to get flavoured tea in Lidl for the past two months so have resorted to Sainsburys where I must say they had loads.

northern tea aka dinner or supper.... ie I can't get away with him eating sandwiches if he has had a big meal at lunch, still have to cook. but I am not cooking one of 18 things so that is a big bonus! Must be such a worry whether you can get the 18 things after December and during lockdown.

PS why do communists only drink herbal tea?

because propertea is theft...

I'm used to calling tea for dinner growing up too. I think that's why it's important to buy whatever we need after Christmas now.

Hollard and Barrett have 25% off their own label products when you spend over £20 today. They have 2 for £5/£7 offers you can use at the same time. I love their dried mango! 30g of dried fruit is a serve so an easy way to supplement frozen or tinned fruit.

@EveLe thank you for documenting your DS' food issues; I came on here to discuss my DS' requirements and it sounds like yours are similar!! He's borderline ASD and his food habits are one of the most difficult aspects - mainly bland carbs and a very small amount of veg. I am very much hoping that Brexit does not affect our supply of cream crackers

dietician says it’s about trust and anxiety. He needs to have control over his food, and know it will taste the same every single time in order to control his anxiety around food, so I try to be understanding, but it’s frustrating.

The HV said this to me too and essentially that any food is better than no food, but it is very frustrating when the list of foods that he'll eat is shrinking! I took him on a course to help him try out new foods, which did help a bit (stopped him rejecting them outright - he will at least smell/ touch them now!) but he still won't eat much more than a handful of things. DS2 will try anything so I know he'd be fine if food supplies were limited, but DS1...

We have milk and veg box deliveries set up now and I'm trying to keep my regular shopping delivery slot too, but I do need to do a big Aldi/ Lidl shop soon as well. Brexit really worries me with the uncertainty of supplies, hence I thought I'd look on here for some help and ideas.

I have been readying all your food concerns with kids in mind, it has been very interesting. I have the opposite problem. My son (grown up but still lives as home) eats vast amounts of food as he does lots of gym workouts and weight lifting. Generally very healthy but costs me a fortune. His favourite is tinned tuna with instant noodles or chicken breast and rice. Loads of fruit, veg, cereal, bread, beans and cake! My worry is mainly around raising food prices after Brexit.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl going by my experience cream crackers are OK if it's Jacobs but if you want sainsburys own brand then good luck. My not ASD DD will have to cope without! Obviously I would get Jacobs if I had to but I resent paying double the price for a smaller pack. She goes through phases of being all about (own brand) ritz, then cream crackers, then sandwiches but not being ASD will just pout and grumble if I have run out of this week's favorite. I opened my last pack of cream crackers 2 weeks ago and haven't been able to replace them, luckily she has switched away since then but I have none in my stash which caught me out a bit to be honest I didn't realise how many we had gone through.
I seriously respect you all for dealing with such restricted food lists, I am so glad I don't have to.

I wonder if the terror of running out of x supermarkets specific item with the resulting melt down of child (or parent) has meant that we are more focussed on ensuring supplies continue at home and thus there are more of us into prepping generally?

(can't just pick up what there is
are more aware of supply and demand issues)

I’ve been doing some more stock taking today. The DPD delivery driver left my parcel in one of their big hard plastic boxes. That’s been requisitioned, and is now under the shoe storage in the porch 😂.

I’ve got an Asda delivery on Thu, there are at least 12 items that have gone out of stock. That included tinned fruit, macaroni, a lot of own brand stuff.

Asda click and collect tonight and we had 6 things out of stock. I have been buying macaroni, but not from Asda. I did buy three lots of pasta though as ex has hardly any. only one of the three types of wholemeal pasta was available, probably because it was on offer.

Tinned fruit has not really recovered since March. I did get dried Apricots though.

I find you have to keep trying and hope they eventually have whatever it is in stock.

I find Morrisons more consistent.

I find that Blue when I go online, but I think its best to go into store as then all the things that were supposedly 'out of stock' appear again it's like magic

I’m having to avoid going at the moment, I keep coming out with loads more stuff.
I’ll try to get to Morrison’s for Maxaroni though.

Yes that's what I'm like Blue but can't go atm as shielding till end of lockdown, so have to send DH so he will buy just what's on list not like me always looking for offers etc