Every Friday night we curl up and have our “movie night” with the boys. It’s the only night where they get to stay up a bit later than their little sister, stay downstairs I mean, and spend some quality time without the most demanding member of the family interrupting everything and killing their movie vibe. They love it and so do we, we introduced them to the movie and takeaway night idea, giving them the chance to pick movies each week, some old, some new and chow down on something deeeelish.
Now don’t get me wrong, we love a take away – erm, hello, who doesn’t? – but it’s not always the way things pan out and like every household, some months we are trying to keep a closer eye on the pennies and work out what we can save and where. Take aways are undeniably the easiest way to save your moola, we spend a small fortune on them in this house and whilst I am in no way ashamed to admit that because I know I’m living my best life with food that I haven’t had to cook that has been hand delivered to my door, it is the first thing to go when I want to tighten the belt.
There are so many ways to substitute takeaway food now, but if I’m really honest one of my favourite things to substitute is pizza. I love pizza – again, who doesn’t? – and the kids do too. In fact, I’m pretty confident that 99% of our small market town in the middle of nowhere loves pizza because if I call after 6pm on a Friday the wait times are insane… but you know what? I can cook an amazing pizza that is genuinely just as delicious as the take away ones and half the cost.
Where do these come from?
Goodfella’s Romano.
You really aren’t compromising anything with these beauties, from the slightly more special Four cheese and basil pesto topping that we reluctantly share with the offspring because, ya know, ya gotta feed em, to the delectable Calabrese salami and Spicy Nduja sausage one that Adam loves, you’re getting a banging flavour in every bite and they only take 14-16 minutes in the oven, which I feel is just enough time to argue over which film to have on, pour glasses of wine, juice or whatever tipple tickles your fancy and grab the pizza out of the oven.
We’ve tried:
· Calabrese Salami and Spicy Nduja Sausage
· Four Cheese and Basil pesto
· Pepperoni and Chorizo
· Chicken, roquito pepper and red onion
· Chargrilled vegetable
Whilst the children LOVED the four cheese and basil pesto and the pepperoni and Chorizo pizza, Adam and I really enjoyed sharing (as in we cooked them all and I ate around 60% to his 40%…) the other three, with the chicken coming out just on top for me.
Whilst we’re on the topic of saving the pennies, there are a tonne of films at the moment that we’ve been wanting to go and see, especially ones for the boys – Jurassic World anyone? – and usually we would head to one of our fave restaurants or even a fast food chain beforehand in order to grab some food and start off our evening right, but to be honest this has been harder and harder now that Edith is aware that we are taking the boys for a treat but leaving her behind. We’re not alone in our love of heading out for a family meal or trip to the cinema with us Brits spending in excess of £2602 every year to keep our kiddos entertained according to Goodfella’s research team. As the 6 week holidays loom I know that there are more cost effective ways for us to spend our money – including avoiding that £35 per month that tonnes of us are spending on toys during these “special” trips out. There is something to be said for eating as a family and popping her in bed before we go, or even eating as a family and telling the old white lie that we are off to something to do with school that is oh-so-boring and totally not her thing… doing it this way saves us cash, time and makes for a very smiley Edith instead of a grouch.
You can find the new Goodfella’s Romano pizza range here.
H ? x
My boys love Pizza, especially my 8 year old who is pizza mad. His favourite is pepperoni and if he can persuade us to get a takeaway then he will but usually we have to compromise on shop bought ones with a side of peas, you know – just for balance haha. We haven’t tried these ones before though so I think i might get one and see if he can tell if it’s a takeaway or shop bought.
We’re the same – the first thing to go when money is tight is take-away. We don’t have them too often, as we live in an even smaller market town than you 10 miles up the road our choice isn’t brilliant. That being said we do indulge in Friday night chip shop more than we really should, but my excuse is H works there so we have to support the place! We spent £15 in Morrisons yesterday on 2 of the there take-away meals for 2. Now, this might seem a lot but had we gone to the local Chinese or only Indian I will eat from around here then it would have been at least double this for all six of us. But, and this is a big BUT, you always know it’s not a takeaway and for me, this is why it never truly replaces the takeaway.