And so, the much procrastinated-over blog appears! Tension has been mounting in my kitchen over the last few months… in that final stretch of uni, my itchy fingers have been aching to get on with this blog – and here it finally is! Phew.

Although this is my first blog, I fear you will quickly learn something rather revealing about me – I CANNOT IGNORE A BARGAIN. Thus, whilst in the supermarket today, innocently looking for a raw ham (prosciutto? Serrano? Parma? The opportunities are endless) I found myself positively bombarded by the most excellent deals I have come across in, well, a good while. I am a sucker for reduced items. In for ham, out with my purse £20 lighter. But what a £20 well spent! (You see, I AM a massive sucker). The only draw back is their ‘use me quick, I am not long for this earth’ quality. However – I see this as the challenge. It’s me against the food, and I am determined to win.

So the next few blogs will contain my endeavours to use up all of these beautiful reduced ingredients. Yes, every item was sat on the shelf at an impressively reduced rate, beckoning me to swipe it up and stash it in my basket. Though this sort of debacle may raise a sigh or groan from my fiancé on occasion, my list of items procured from a top-quality supermarket (starts with wait- ends with -rose..) is quite spectacular. I’ll give you the run-down:

A chilli plant
Chorizo
Blackberries
Celery
tropicana Fruit juice
Veal escalope
Honey peach yoghurts
Curly kale
Chantenay carrots
Iceberg lettuce
2 tuna steaks
shallots
2 papaya

Okay, so you cannot deny, that is some serious deals plundering for under £20! I refuse to be beaten by use-by dates, so, ready, steady, cook!

So, meal one.