Starting the day without coffee + a Waitrose food shop

I don't necessarily show it very often on the blog, but I start every morning with a latte. My few moments peace before the rush of getting everyone ready for the day.

This morning, however, we were completely out of milk. Uh oh. No point nipping to the shops to buy some as we were aiming to go to Waitrose as soon as it opened at 10am anyway. I'd also run out of my squash, so no drink for me.

Luckily I remembered I had one carton of chocolate soy milk left in the fridge, so I ran downstairs to get it, ran back upstairs, drank it in bed and then got dressed. Yup, I'm strange.

FYI, chocolate soy milk is delicious, but a cold drink through a straw is not a substitute for a hot latte on a cold January morning!

After that we were off to Waitrose to buy some "essentials". The January budget has been going pretty well, so we only go to Waitrose occasionally now to buy things we can't get elsewhere. I think this was actually our first trip in 2012. I'm finding that it works out cheaper to do an almost daily small shop in Lidl, rather than a big weekly shop in Waitrose. Plus I prefer the quality of Lidl fruit and veg, so we only really need Waitrose for the more speciality stuff.

The first thing I did when we got home from Waitrose was have my missed drinks - a latte and a glass of Ribena squash:

And then I took some photos of my favourite purchases, as you do...!!

The best find? Waitrose are now doing frozen yoghurt!! I was so excited that I took a photo to Instagram and Tweet whilst still in store:

and brought home a tub of the pomegranate flavour. We were meant to be sticking to just the things on our list, but my justification was that I didn't know that Waitrose sold this to put on the list in the first place, did I?! I haven't tried this yet but I'll be sure to let you know when I do!

I couldn't decide whether to buy this one or the plain flavoured one. The passion fruit one has pulp in it whereas this one seems to be made with just pomegranate juice. I'm not always keen on seeds in things - I'd much rather add my own toppings to change the texture!

Other less interesting, but still tasty purchases were...

Fresh section - caramelised onion houmous, tofu, paneer and cottage cheese:

Drinks - Alpro chocolate soy milk (which is 2p cheaper in Waitrose than Tesco, whoop, and much cheaper than the cows milk equivalents) and Ribena squash. I really should drink plain water, but this stuff makes it so much tastier!

Dry goods - tinned pineapple and coconut milk (for Thai fried quinoa) plus coconut cream, quinoa, wholewheat pasta:

Plus the usual milks, childrens' yoghurts, squash for Liam etc. No fruit and veg except for bananas and apples (we were completely out & Liam takes them to work each day) as I can buy those for cheaper and better quality at Lidl tomorrow.

For lunch the others had tuna quesadillas, so I had breakfast for lunch that I could have actually made before we did the food shop - no milk required!

Averie's Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake. Every time I have this, I ask myself why I don't make it more often, and then forget about it again for another month or so! It is so delicious though, especially with melty peanut butter on top, and super easy to make.

We're having quite a relaxed day today - the children are both having naps at the moment and Liam is visiting his Nan in hospital...I suppose I should get on with the washing up after I finish writing this! Yesterday we took the children swimming as Izzy needed a bit of practise to get her confidence back before her lesson tomorrow. Toby managed half an hour before the teeth chattering got too much for him - a record for him - although he was less cold sitting on the side playing with the toys (we went at the toddler toy bit time) rather than in the water, odd.

What have you been up to this weekend? What would be your "essential" treaty bits when doing a food shop? Things like paneer and houmous for me! I haven't found anywhere else in my town to buy paneer - which I love in curries - so it is always a treat when we have it. I did actually spot it in a big Tesco I went to the other day, but their version seemed much more cottage cheesey. I know that's what it is, but still - the Tesco one had lots of holes in it whereas the Waitrose one is firmer so that I can fry it into cubes of "squeaky cheese" as Izzy calls it! I like buying nice granolas too, but I bought a box of "apple and cinnamon crisp" from Lidl a couple of days ago, which is granola in another name really, so I couldn't justify a trip to the cereal aisle today!