Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

hornetgirl · 26 February 2010 at 6:51PM

Love the new menu plan. I think it will be much easier to get people to buy into this one.
Love the rant - I think it sums up what we all think.
Love that the focus is coming back to the project.

weezl74 · 26 February 2010 at 6:54PM

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

But maybe a reason to have, say, three months worth of meal plans. And when they (or the first one) are ready to be published to the outside world, eventually, explanations of how they were arrived at, pence per meal targets and a guide to how to draw one up yourself if you wanted to

What do you think?

I really like the idea of sharing this thinking process as it has been fascinating.

Other months also intrigue me. But I confess to worrying a little about my capacity to do that in the early days of a new baby

. I guess a great deal will depend on what Kester is like and how well/quickly I recover from having him. But leaving those real life concerns aside, I'm up for it

artybear · 26 February 2010 at 7:00PM

Hello all!!

My head was fine this morning thank you Weezl!!!

Been to work all day urggg. I think publishing the thoughts behind the plan is a good idea as it may well raise points of discussion and realisation among new people.

artybearXXXX

weezl74 · 26 February 2010 at 7:02PM

taka wrote: »

I usually only have skimmed milk powder in. I only very, very rarely have fresh milk. My breadmaker bread (if I include milk at all), cakes, pancakes, soup (eg leek and potato) etc all have powdered milk in with no obvious problems... pretty much if it says in a recipe add milk I use powdered instead.

How much milk powder can you add per how much of flour Taka?

xxx

poohbear59 wrote: »

I may be jumping the gun a bit here but I have written my menu plan for the month ahead trying to incorporate as many of your 'Shirley and Bob' meals as possible.

We will do a shop tonight and will see if we can stick as close as we can to the plan. I will have some meals that I already have ingredients for in my freezer.

It will not be a fair test when we do it because we have is no Asda so shopping is either from Tesco or Aldi. We also have a lot of the store cupboard ingredients here.

Oh wow poohbear! How exciting/nerve wracking

Just as I said to artybear, I am really honoured you would want to try it out, the only thing I would say is please only embark if you feel sure you can cobble together enough info from my scant and patchy recipes plans etc, such that if I disappear all of a sudden you're not stranded with all this shopping and not sure what to put with what.

My fear is of coming back to a thread full of :mad::mad::mad: cos I'd abandoned without recipes etc, and I'd hate to let anyone down. I hope that's ok, sorry if it sounds at all rejecting of your offeres to help

Allegra wrote: »

Oh, and another thought - regarding rapeseed oil. My daughter's favourite way of eating potatoes is "Croatian potato salad" - potatoes boiled in their skins, peeled and sliced thinly, a raw onion sliced thinly, then mixed together, seasoned with salt and dressed with vegetable oil and vinegar. Perhaps this could be substituted for wedges on an occasion or two as a way to sneak in some uncooked oil in ?

This is a marvelous idea, and if served this way throughout the month, it would convert enough of the oil to be able to lose half a can of pilchards.:T:T:T (that's a LOT btw!)

Lesley_Gaye · 26 February 2010 at 7:26PM

weezl74 wrote: »

I really like the idea of sharing this thinking process as it has been fascinating.

Other months also intrigue me. But I confess to worrying a little about my capacity to do that in the early days of a new baby . I guess a great deal will depend on what Kester is like and how well/quickly I recover from having him. But leaving those real life concerns aside, I'm up for it

we haven't got any timescales, so doesn't matter really. I think we are all really aware that we have you on borrowed time at the moment. It's amazing that you can fit so much in when you are so near term and with a lively little one to boot.

I think that we may well have so many ideas and recipes that we could do another month or so with relative ease (not suggesting it's easy, far from it). There will be so much accumulated experience, it would be a shame to let that momentum go

As we would like Shirley & Bob to draw up their own, it will be interesting to see how we get on with any other monthly plans we do.

weezl74 · 26 February 2010 at 7:36PM

Spicy pea and apple soup, makes 2 batches, serves 4 each time but will need HM bread or a sarnie to fill hungry tummies

1 packet (250g) Leo marrowfat peas soaked and cooked as per packet instructions 28p
4 desertspoons pluspints milk powder
1 large Bramley apple weighing 290 ish grams 23p
desertspoon sugar
garam masala, garlic, salt and pepper

Lesley_Gaye · 26 February 2010 at 7:42PM

have just been looking for chickpeas, I think Natco have stopped selling the 2kg pk completely which would explain their disappearance in Asda. Thought I would check the price per 100g from other places. The original shopping list had them for 12.65p/100g. Ocado is the nearest at 13.5p.

Whilst looking, it occured to me that it may be one way to structure a 'how to do it' thingy. ie you will need 2kg of chick peas at xp/100g, Asda has them at x p on y date. It would give people with no Asda access a guide price to achieve the list (our nearest Asda is 17miles which I know is a lot nearer than a lot of other people).

I am wondering how much chick peas are at the Indian store in Tunbridge Wells where I usually get bulk packs of pulses and spices - all shops should be compulsorily registered with mySupermarket!!!

boredofbeingathome · 26 February 2010 at 7:52PM

weezl74 wrote: »

In Vino Veritas artybear!

I'm not keen on Bob either but I like BOB very much (t'other BOB who loves blackadder!)

He's turned into a bit of a tyrannical oaf in my head, not sure why!!! :rotfl:

Aww Thank you:kisses3:

Although Mr.B has taken to muttering about me being a Tin Pot Dictator at times:D:rotfl:

But i now smile sweetly:) as i am getting my own way on a lot of things re the budget. I am not saying he has seen the light- but he is no longer obscured by darkness:o

Oh I mentioned on m'diary that i will be following the food/meal planner, this month, bar anything with beetroot in it:p:eek: So i am giving it a bash and will see how far i get with it. I have already trimmed budget down but i am looking forward to further savings this month:D

I often use powdered milk too. Especially at the end of the past few months when i refuse to spend any more out until the new month.:D We also use it in the bread maker as well- and it is nom nom.:D

ceridwen · 26 February 2010 at 8:24PM

Thinking ahead to the vegetarian family plan to come - I've been having a bit of a browse of my 1960s/70s veggie cookbooks - they sure knew how to do frugal in those days...:D

Theres a coupla recipes I think might fill the meat/fish gaps on Mealplan No. 2 (ie for the veggie family)@

LENTIL CHEESE ROAST
4 oz lentils
1 large onion
1 oz margarine (or oil)
1 good teaspoonful yeast extract
0.5 teaspoonful dried mixed herbs
4 oz grated cheese
1 egg
seasoning

- Chop onion. Fry for few minutes in the margarine (or oil).
- Alternatively, cook the onion for a few minutes in water; add the lentils to the partly cooked onion and cook for about half an hour.
- If the onions are cooked in the margarine/oil - the lentils should be cooked with just sufficient water separately; should there be any surplus water, drain by placing lentils in a strainer.

- Mix all the ingredients and lastly the beaten egg.

- Bake in well-greased baking dish at 200C for 30-40 mins.
(Serve with vegetables and gravy - ie vegetarian gravy).

(Sorry recipe is bit confusing - I've copied it exactly as is from the book - apart from putting oil as substitute for margarine and updating oven temperature.)

***********************************************

ONION AND HARICOT BEAN SAVOURY
3 large onions
6 oz haricot beans (reckon one could substitute 2 tins washed baked beans - to avoid that lengthy cooking?)
2 oz margarine (or oil)
6 ozs Cheshire cheese (grated)
1 good teaspoon yeast extract
juice and a little rind of a lemon
1 egg
seasoning
a little mixed herbs.

- Soak the dried haricot beans overnight, drain and cook in sufficient water until tender - 2 to 2.5 hours (or just wash off those drained canned baked beans)
- Peel and chop the onions nice and fine and cook in the margarine/oil till tender (alternatively the onions can be cooked in water - draining off the water when done).
- Add the cooked/canned beans to the onions, together with just under half the cheese. Also add the lemon juice and rind/seasoning/beaten egg.
- Place mixture in flat greased baking dish.
- Cover top with remaining cheese. Bake in hot oven 30 minutes till cheese is nicely brown.
(Serve with cabbage, carrots, vegetarian gravy and jacket potatoes).

***********************************

I've done both recipes myself in the past - doing the saute in fat (in my case butter or oil) version - rather than cooking the onions in water. So - the sauted version of both is fine. Yep - the beans I used in recipe 2 were dried haricot beans (cooked in a pressure cooker in my case). I suggested the canned baked beans - as much quicker and canned Value baked beans are cheap enough (29p for Asda Smartprice ones per can).

aless02 · 26 February 2010 at 8:57PM

weezl74 wrote: »

with trepidation, and just for you ;)

no grana padano, unless you're choosing to omit it from the recipes that had been using it?

sad that chickpeas are gone, but c'est la vie!

Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

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