It actually wasn't a terrible experience. I didn't know that Countdown opened at 9am now instead of 7am, so I arrived at 8.15am. When I got there, people had already started queuing outside, but I managed to come in at about tenth in line.
In the hour between 8am and 9am, Countdown was letting essential workers in, but not the elderly, which seemed a bit wrong to me. One lady was waving her Gold card around, getting quite upset that she had to stand in a queue. I sympathised with her.
The line kept growing as I waited, and I soon couldn't see where it ended. Luckily, I had brought a book with me, so I just read that as I waited.
When Countdown opened its doors to the wider public at 9am, I got to go in very quickly because they let the first 100 people in all at once, and then moved to a one out/one in system.
The supermarket had pretty much everything I wanted and I bought enough food to last us for two weeks, so that I can now isolate myself for that length of time in case I picked up any nasty bugs. (I'm looking at you, Coronavirus.)
Here's what we've been eating this week, thanks to my supermarket top up and my wonderful garden.
Sunday
Lunch - Paul made the kids baked bean cheese toasties. I ate leftover lasagne (pictured above).
Snack - Apples
Dinner - Paul made chicken chippee tortilla wraps. My eldest daughter and I had ours wrapped in fresh lettuce from the garden. So crisp and satisfying.
Monday
Lunch - Hot cross buns (from the supermarket) and a fresh vegetable platter.
Snack - Chocolate cake pops. (I pulled these out of the freezer and Miss S helped me ice them with melted chocolate and sprinkles. I posted a photo of them over on Instagram, if you want to see how they turned out.)
Dinner - Roast lamb, mashed potatoes and broccoli (pictured above). I started the lamb in the slow cooker in the morning, and then Paul moved it to the oven to finish browning just before serving time.
Tuesday
Lunch - Lamb/salami sandwiches with cheese, cucumber, tomato, mayo and gherkins.
Snack - Raspberry White Chocolate muesli bars (store-bought).
Dinner - Creamy sun-dried tomato chicken on spiral pasta, served with green beans and peas (pictured above).
Wednesday
Lunch - Sausage rolls with tomato sauce, apples and peanut butter for me and the kids; Paul made a lamb sandwich, using cold cuts from Monday night's roast.
Snack - Chocolate zucchini muffins that I pulled out of the freezer. (Whenever I bake, I pop a few into the freezer for easy lunchbox fillers, but since we haven't been needing lunchboxes lately, I've been using up all the previously-frozen baking for afternoon snacks.
Dinner - Lamb and Quinoa Tabouleh Salad (pictured above). I really liked how last week I was able to make three dinners from one roast chicken, so this week I tried to make the most of Monday's roast lamb. I searched up uses for leftover roast lamb and this recipe came up. I changed out a few things so that I was able to use mainly fresh ingredients from my garden, like spinach, coriander, parsley, mint, lime and NZ cranberries. Paul and I thought the salad turned out so delicious, although a couple of our kids weren't fussed on it.
Thursday
Lunch - Paul make lamb sandwiches for us both, and he cooked two minute noodles for the kids.
Snack - Mini salami sticks, feijoas from our garden and carrot sticks.
Dinner - Rosemary and balsamic roast chicken thighs (pictured above) with crispy potato cubes, green beans and broccoli. (These were big chicken thighs, and we had a lot of meat leftover, so I set that aside to use for the following night's dinner.)
Good Friday
Lunch - Miss S made 2-minute noodles for her and her siblings, while Miss L sliced up an apple and served it with peanut butter for all the kiddos. I had store-bought rosemary and garlic crackers topped with basil pesto, cheese and tomato slices. I also made myself a sugar-free chocolate frappe, which Miss S liked so much, she drank half of it.
Snack - Chocolate hot cross buns (pictured above). I made these with the help of my trusty bread-maker. I wanted to do something this Easter to help us remember what our wonderful saviour has done for us. The actual buns turned out kind of dense, but most of us liked them anyway. Miss S made the crosses for the top. Didn't she do well?
Dinner - Butter Chicken Soup, using up the leftover chicken from Thursday night's dinner, as well as homemade chicken stock and pumpkin puree and grated zucchini from our garden that I had previously frozen. I also found chicken gravy in the fridge that still seemed good, so I threw that into the soup for extra flavour. Waste not, want not. I served the soup with homemade naan bread that I made using my trusty bread-maker.
Saturday
Lunch - Leftover naan bread and hot cross buns.
Snack - Apples. Raspberry and white chocolate muesli bars.
Dinner - Mince and cheese pie and a quick garden salad. The pie was a store-bought Ponsonby Pie. I didn't feel like spending heaps of time in the kitchen today, and this pie is about as easy as dinner gets. For the salad, I simply picked lettuce, basil, beans and cherry tomatoes from the garden and threw them into a bowl with some carrot sticks (after washing everything, of course).
So there you have it. Another week of meals done and dusted. I've especially enjoyed the time around the table with my family this week. Seeing their precious faces all day every day is lovely.
I always love to see what you guys are eating and feeding your families, so please do tag me into any Instagram or Facebook posts you share. You may see me copying your ideas in next week's menu.
Happy Easter my friends!
Love Emma
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