When I lived in the UK I used Tesco.com delivery all the time. Some say its lazy, but for me it saved time, definitely saved money as you can see how much everything is as you go along and it also helps save your waistline as you are not tempted by the power of the supermarkets marketing.

Packed and delivered by Mathem.se

I mean did you really set out to buy the Death by Chocolate and end up having two as it was buy one get one free?

I decided to try a similar Swedish service called Mathem. It works on the same premise as Tescos Home delivery. You register, search for what you want, select a timescale, ok they only offer Monday to Friday but early till late, then pay with the credit card of your choice and thats it.

Mathem has a very easy interface to use and I had no trouble finding most items. In fact its great practice for my Swedish!

The cost of delivery was 85 SEK but I think thats good value for money when you consider the time and effort they save you. Especially for those like me who do not own a car.

The timeslots are two hours, so I picked 7-9 on Monday.

The guy actually arrived at 18.40, so thats good and bad, what if I wasn’t home in time?

I am sure they would have come back. The delivery driver was very polite and helpful and insisted bringing the bags into the flat. Nice.

I felt so sorry for him though when I lifted them as the bags were really heavy and he came up three flights of stairs with them!

The reason I used Mathem this week is that I am still juicing! Yes believe or not, not a juice fast. Two or Three a day with a home made soup in the evening for seven day and then 2 or 3 juices a day replacing meals and then whatever I want (within reason.)

Juice yourself slim...my fridge goes through a makeover!

Last time I was back and forth to ICA or COOP all the time, it was expensive and heavy! Also a bit frustrating when they didnt have some of the fruit and veg I needed. So with this I know what I need.

In truth I wasnt expecting the best with this. I never ordered fruit and veg with Tesco because I knew they didnt care what fruit and veg I got, in terms of quality I mean. However the fruit and veg picked by Mathem was very good!

In total with delivery my weekly shop came in at 950 SEK, roughly 95 Euro. Yeah quite a lot but organic fruit and veg aint cheap anywhere so…

I will do a comparison with Tesco like I did with the Sunday Dinner costs comparison that I blogged on before.

I really recommend Mathem and will definitely use them again!

Related posts:

1. Real Swedish Food
2. My Juicer
3. Day 6 of Juicing Recipes

The thing I love about the blogosphere is we can all be adventurous with our cooking. In days gone by you would have to scour through your cookbooks or frantically write down the ingredients from a cooking show and try and remember how the celebrity chef knocked it all together.

I do read a lot of cooking blogs even though I wouldnt say I was a ‘foodie’ or a great cook. I just enjoy cooking new things.

One of the blogs I stumbled on last week is called The Cheeselover and they had a competition on for the best Macaroni Cheese.  The blogger Fiona Beckett has a book out called ‘Fiona Becketts Cheese Course‘ which I just had to buy.  As you know I am trying to et my weight down another 10 kilos or so, cheese is clearly not a great idea but you have to have treats occasionally right?

All the recipes look good but clearly my mother would be an outright winner of this as I remember her Macaroni Cheese from when I was a kid and it was out of this world.

Anyway I digress.

I was getting really hungry reading about the entries for this competition when I stumbled upon Swedish Mike’s Makaronilåda (Macaroni Box) recipe. Sounded good and I attempted it last night.

I like Swedish Mike’s blog as it home cooking done well. He is the opposite of me as he is a Swede living in England.

So some photos, bear in mind presentation is not my best point. Here I cooked it exactly as Mike did but I cooked the lardons and onions in a chili infused olive oil and mixed some worcester sauce into the macaroni with the lardons and onions.  I also had some rashers left over so I put them on the top… I will savour the memory of this when I am on my juice and soup regime next week.

Makaronilåda

Now I have nothing to do with Fiona Becketts site but I hope Swedish Mike does well as this tasted the business…and having been out for a few hours in minus 10 really warmed me up!

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1. Paddy K Swedish Extravaganza
2. Political Debate Swedish Style
3. The most popular Swedish baby names of 2009