We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
The Forum is currently experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!
Comments
-
Hi Weezl! Can I join in too for the veggie things? (though not keen on beetroot so no Borscht for me :cool:)
I think I have everything (sort of) in for the carrot cake so I'll try it tomorrow. I'll need to use mixed dried fruit (minus the lemon peel
) as I don't have any raisins and a satsuma instead of an orange for a half recipie! I hope this is ok...
What size cake tin do I need? Also will it be ok to freeze it? Otherwise my collegues at work may be testing it too as I live alone and thats a lot of cake... :rotfl:
Hi Taka:A, the quantity I made (which I suggest you half if you live alone!) I baked in 2 10 inch square silicone cake pans. 2 x8 ins would be ok too, but no smaller. 12 ins would prob be too flat and dry out. It should be fine to freeze, I've not yet met a cake that didn't cope with it!
King_Weasel wrote: »Weezl, could we be related?
quite possibly, your highness.
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400 -
Recipe # 2 Frugalised Delia thick onion tart (nearly entitled post 'Delia-thick tart' but then thankfully re-read it and saved Martin a Libel case:rotfl:)
Ingredients
For the pastry:
2 oz (50 g) self-raising flour
2 oz (50 g) plain flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons smartprice mustard
2 oz (50 g) buttery spread (can't believe it's not/utterly butterly/butter believe it)
1½ oz (40 g) mature Cheddar cheese, grated
For the filling:
1½ lb (700 g) onions, chopped fairly small
2 oz (50 g) buttery spread (can't believe it's not/utterly butterly/butter believe it)
2 eggs, beaten
4 fl oz (110 ml) full fat milk
60g grated mature Cheddar cheese
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Pre-heat the oven, and a baking sheet, to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).
Method
First make the pastry by sifting the flours, salt and mustard powder into a mixing bowl, then rubbing in the fat until the mixture becomes crumbly. Then stir in the mature cheese and add enough cold water to make a dough that leaves the bowl clean. Leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Meanwhile, prep the filling. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, then add the onions, stir to get them well coated in the butter, and cook them (uncovered) over a medium heat for about half an hour until they have reduced and turned a deep brown.
Then roll out the pastry to line the tart tin, pr1ck the base with a fork (can't believe I have to get round the rude word checker on a Delia recipe!) , place it on the pre-heated baking sheet, and bake in the centre of oven for 15 minutes. After that remove from the oven and brush the inside of the pastry case with a little beaten egg (from the filling), and return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Then spread the onions all over the base of the tart, whisk the beaten eggs together with the cream and some seasoning, and pour this mixture over the onions.
Finally sprinkle cheese over the top, return the tart to the oven and bake for 30 minutes till the filling is puffy and golden brown.
recipe and photos originally taken from weezl's blog, my mse homepage if you click on my name!:)
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400 -
Thought you might like to know that this list (or the closest I can get to it) comes to £156.63 when entered into my Ocado trolley, using the lowest-priced options I could find but excluding special offers because they are so transient. In truth, it should add up to a bit more than that, because the weights of the belly pork, gammon steak and pickled cabbage that I have selected are lower than the Asda ones you mention, and I can't find any dry processed peas on the site so have left them out entirely. I assumed the cheese weight to be 750g.
You do get solid Waitrose quality for that money, though! And it includes some forced upgrades (such as free-range turkey mince and free-range eggs, and a whopping 300g of garam masala), as well as some choices you simply wouldn't make given the options available (frozen carrots work out dearer than fresh, for example, and buying five packs of six kiwi fruit seems rather excessive). But Ocado (undercutting Waitrose, and price-matching branded goods with Tesco) always works out cheaper than my local shops, so this is probably a realistic price structure for me in my Asdalessness.
(Not a criticism, by the way -- just thought you might like to get a feel for the upper boundary on prices for your menu plan, while you concentrate on minimising them.)
Avocet- Thank you for that :A
Wow! I had no idea!
This will of course not be a useful resource if step one is 'move to a place that's near an Asda!':o:)
clearly we must make a different Ocado-based plan.
Avocet, please would you help me out with some of the costings? I know you are good at that.
If for example you could cost up the onion tart using the asda list I posted earlier, that would be fab!
Don't worry if you can't though, I just thought it would appeal to your skillset
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400 -
I've got most things for the carrot cake so will test it tomorrow except the orange bit so will dunk them in some tea. will report back later
thank you!
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400 -
Just in process of writing down the onion tart recipe then - will have to lookout summat suitable for baking half quantity in then. On the other hand - presumably it freezes okay? (in which case I could make the full quantity and just freeze half).
That is actually a point re all the recipes - ie that some of us (me for instance) might not be that au fait with whether something would freeze okay or no. So - would it be possible to put on all the recipes their "freezing status" (ie "Freezes/Cannot be frozen)?
I was thinking "oh well - I'll make half quantity of that cake then and just have to give most of it away" - but, having read, subsequent comment by you thought "oh....I could just freeze the surplus" (which is a thought that hadnt actually occurred to me:o). So - I'm guessing that I could just bake that cake up in one of my square casserole dishes, slice up and put all those spare slices in the freezer interleaved with bits of greaseproof paper perhaps?
Certainly one thought that applies to me personally - and I dont know how many other people - but I dont actually own cake tins. I did recently buy a couple of muffin tins - but I certainly dont own cake tins as such and I presume there are probably plenty of other people who dont either. So - any cakes I test I will be either splitting into my muffin pans or baking as a "traybake" in a square casserole dish. Its a thought to bear in mind - ie that a lot of people may be too hard-up to purchase the more "luxury" items (like those cake tins) on the one hand - or do have the money but are living in such restricted accommodation (ie with tiny kitchens or the like) that they can barely find room for the basic equipment. Thinks (not very lovingly.......:cool:) of my time spent having to live in bedsits all those years ago:(. I have a house now - but its only got a small kitchen - so equipment has to double-up to some extent.
I remember the first cookbook I ever bought - "Cooking in a bedsit" - and seem to recall her comment that the larder might in fact be a suitcase under the bed...(was it Katherine Whitethorn as the author? - not sure if my memory serves me right). Another famous comment of hers from there - words along the lines of "but you might have quite a posh room and a landlady that comes tittuping up the stairs at any sign of cooking in your room" - summat like that...Now there was an author who understood the restrictions her readers might have....
Further thoughts - hmm...thats an idea to use butter spread instead of butter as such for things. Right - that will be me using the spreadable butter I buy (either Anchor or Lurpak in my case) instead of butter. That would mean that I dont have to buy butter as well - will only have to get the one product = less chance of summat going off on me before I can use it and less storage space needed.
Query on that front = I tend to buy the "lighter" (ie lower fat) version of my Anchor/Lurpak spreadable butter. Would that work just as well as the standard full-fat version do you think?0 -
this is #1 of the monthly shopping list. I'm grateful for any responses:
Fruit & Vegetables
8 x ASDA Smartprice Apples (8) 5.44
3 x ASDA Smartprice Kiwi Fruit (10) 3.00
2 x ASDA Smartprice Beetroot (500g) 1.08
2 x ASDA Smartprice British Carrots (2Kg) 2.16
5 x ASDA Smartprice Brown Onions (2Kg) 3.90
4 x ASDA Smartprice Potatoes (2.5Kg) 3.36
1 x ASDA Smartprice Salted Peanuts (200g) 0.27
5 x ASDA Smartprice Raisins (500g) 3.25
2 x Batchelors Bigga Dried Peas (250g) 0.48
etc. etc.
I went to Countrywide Feeds & they had sacks of carrots (for ponies I assume) for £1.80. Looked fine through the net from what I could see.
A few weeks ago they were talking about poverty on the radio & saying about a family of 4 having to live off £30 a week for food. I thought of you Weezl, and how I would do it:
1. Get a chest freezer & bread maker off freecycle.
2. Go to farm shop & Asda & Asian supermarket in nearest city &, after yesterday, Countrywide Feeds. Buy sacks of potatoes, carrots, onions, rice, pasta, flour, lentils, split peas, beans etc. Also tubs of spices from Asian supermarkets.
3. Store veg in garage, dry stuff in pantry (ok, understairs cupboard in kitchen
).
4. Get on approved foods etc. & place order.
5. Hunt down meat bargains on mysupermarket.
6. Bulk buy milk from Wilkinsons & freeze.
7. Menu plan, using Weezl and other internet sites, & cost up meals.
8. Batch cook
Doing all that, I'm sure it can be done. Then I thought about each step & the reality for a lot of those in that situation. E.g. single parent living on 10th floor of inner city flats.
1. Do I know what freecycle is? Down to library for 30 minutes free computer use. Back down next day for hopefully replies, next day to arrange collection etc. Go to collect. Can't have chest freezer, no room. With luck can walk to library & to collect breadmaker. If not, bus, money spent.
2. & 3. No farm shops etc. nearby. Nowhere to store sacks of veg. Worried about damp in flour, pasta etc. Lift not working, would have to carry up 10 flights. In any case, can't afford to spend £5 on lentils, even if it would last for ages.
4. Can't afford to fork out & nowhere to store.
5. Great. Back down library. Sainsburys doing 3 chickens for £10. £2 bus fare, 2 hr round trip with pushchair. Nowhere to store frozen or cooked chickens. Eat chicken for a week, morning, noon & night.
6. Can't bulk buy, no room & no money, but can buy if in town. If run out, 65p pint in local shop.
7. Back down library. Find book which helps. Suggests buying pigs trotters. May be cheap but don't know where nearest butchers is. Would cost bus fare to get there.
8. Can't store anywhere.
So, in reality, off on bus to supermarket buying small sizes which are more expensive, prepared meals which are rubbish & more expensive but more feasible to carry up 10 flights of stairs than bags of potatoes etc. May have some fresh veg but when it runs out nowhere local to buy any more & can't afford bus fare & veg.
We're all very lucky that we afford to live frugally & healthily I suppose is what I am saying. Lots of people just have to live frugally.
I remember reading Bianca Jagger saying it was funny, but when she was poor & unknown she had to buy her own clothes but when she married Mick Jagger & was rich & famous she got given fabulous clothes for free.A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort Mortgage Balance = £0
"Do what others won't early in life so you can do what others can't later in life"0 -
Yes, of course, happily.help me out with some of the costings? ... cost up the onion tart using the asda list I posted earlier
Regarding costing the ingredients for the onion tart...
(1) There is no wholemeal flour in the Asda shopping list. Do you have a guide price?
(2) There is no Asda SmartPrice mustard in the shopping list. Would you like me to substitute the same weight of Colman's mustard powder? Or is the SmartPrice one pre-made?
(3) What is the weight of the mature cheddar? The shopping list gives the price but not the quantity.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
Yes, of course, happily.
Regarding costing the ingredients for the onion tart...
(1) There is no wholemeal flour in the Asda shopping list. Do you have a guide price?
(2) There is no Asda SmartPrice mustard in the shopping list. Would you like me to substitute the same weight of Colman's mustard powder? Or is the SmartPrice one pre-made?
(3) What is the weight of the mature cheddar? The shopping list gives the price but not the quantity.
Thank you:A
apologies, I substituted all white flour to frugalise the recipe, plain and SR are the same value at Asda.
Mustard was 2p as I used the ready made Smart price at 40p a jar
That block of cheddar is 809g
HTH x
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400 -
One resource people might like to use for costing purposes:
www.mysupermarket.com
I DO find it frustrating that it only features 4 of the supermarkets - as I'd quite often like to "flip over" and scout out other supermarkets. I do find it useful for comparing the two I have access to - ie Sainsburys and Tesco.0 -
Just in process of writing down the onion tart recipe then - will have to lookout summat suitable for baking half quantity in then. On the other hand - presumably it freezes okay? (in which case I could make the full quantity and just freeze half).
it's the same ingredients as most quiches which freeze well, so I'd say yes!
That is actually a point re all the recipes - ie that some of us (me for instance) might not be that au fait with whether something would freeze okay or no. So - would it be possible to put on all the recipes their "freezing status" (ie "Freezes/Cannot be frozen)?
Will do!
I was thinking "oh well - I'll make half quantity of that cake then and just have to give most of it away" - but, having read, subsequent comment by you thought "oh....I could just freeze the surplus" (which is a thought that hadnt actually occurred to me:o). So - I'm guessing that I could just bake that cake up in one of my square casserole dishes, slice up and put all those spare slices in the freezer interleaved with bits of greaseproof paper perhaps?
Yep, good idea
Certainly one thought that applies to me personally - and I dont know how many other people - but I dont actually own cake tins. I did recently buy a couple of muffin tins - but I certainly dont own cake tins as such and I presume there are probably plenty of other people who dont either. So - any cakes I test I will be either splitting into my muffin pans or baking as a "traybake" in a square casserole dish. Its a thought to bear in mind - ie that a lot of people may be too hard-up to purchase the more "luxury" items (like those cake tins) on the one hand - or do have the money but are living in such restricted accommodation (ie with tiny kitchens or the like) that they can barely find room for the basic equipment. Thinks (not very lovingly.......:cool:) of my time spent having to live in bedsits all those years ago:(. I have a house now - but its only got a small kitchen - so equipment has to double-up to some extent.
Good point! The silicone tins aren't compulsory:D
I remember the first cookbook I ever bought - "Cooking in a bedsit" - and seem to recall her comment that the larder might in fact be a suitcase under the bed...(was it Katherine Whitethorn as the author? - not sure if my memory serves me right). Another famous comment of hers from there - words along the lines of "but you might have quite a posh room and a landlady that comes tittuping up the stairs at any sign of cooking in your room" - summat like that...Now there was an author who understood the restrictions her readers might have....
Further thoughts - hmm...thats an idea to use butter spread instead of butter as such for things. Right - that will be me using the spreadable butter I buy (either Anchor or Lurpak in my case) instead of butter. That would mean that I dont have to buy butter as well - will only have to get the one product = less chance of summat going off on me before I can use it and less storage space needed.
Query on that front = I tend to buy the "lighter" (ie lower fat) version of my Anchor/Lurpak spreadable butter. Would that work just as well as the standard full-fat version do you think?
sometimes the light butter is created by adding extra water which would impair the texture of the pastry I think, so you might have to either try it and see, or go for the full fat stuff...
xxx
:hello:Jonathan 'Fergie' Fergus William, born 05/03/09, 7lb 4.4oz:hello:
Benjamin 'Kezzie' Kester Jacob, born 18/03/10, 7lb 5oz:)
cash neutral gifts 2011, value of purchased gifts/actual paid/amount earnt to cover it £67/£3.60/£0
january grocery challenge, feed 4 of us for £400
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 350.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.3K Spending & Discounts
- 243.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.7K Life & Family
- 256.5K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards