Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

NewShadow · 10 December 2014 at 11:18PM

nursemaggie wrote: »

I had forgotten the name of Monday pie. I am sure it did not have soya mince in it when I first cooked it. It was in the dairy diary about 35 years ago. I have adapted it lots of ways. It is a good recipe if you do not have enough cold meat to go round.

I do have to say I wasn't born 35 years ago, so I can't say it was always called monday pie. That's just what I alway's called it.

I've found soya mince leaves it a better texture - less 'gloopy' - than using oats or lentils. Its also 14% protein (which isn't bad for your buck given it's also fat free). Oats would have 4 x as many cals per gram if you were looking to gain (I'm trying to lose) weight and more grated onion would help break up the gloopyness.

Please share any of your tips for bulking meat. Always interested in trying new things.

Butterfly_Brain · 10 December 2014 at 11:59PM

During the war people survived on stodgy suet puddings, cooked with lard, dripping and bacon fat, lots of vegetables,fish and very little meat, plus they ate seasonally, they didn't have freezers like we have today, they stored their harvests by salting (fermentation), pickling, chutneys, jams, bottling fruits and foraging.
Yet they are known as the healthiest generation

I think that we have all been sold a crock with dietary advice and we should get away from heat treated oils and hydrogenated fats apart from olive oil and coconut oil.

There is a brilliant blog called the 1940's experiment, it makes really interesting reading and has lots of recipes.

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/rationing-diet-sheets/

Butterfly_Brain · 11 December 2014 at 12:02AM

NewShadow wrote: »

I do have to say I wasn't born 35 years ago, so I can't say it was always called monday pie. That's just what I alway's called it.

I've found soya mince leaves it a better texture - less 'gloopy' - than using oats or lentils. Its also 14% protein (which isn't bad for your buck given it's also fat free). Oats would have 4 x as many cals per gram if you were looking to gain (I'm trying to lose) weight and more grated onion would help break up the gloopyness.

Please share any of your tips for bulking meat. Always interested in trying new things.

My Mum's Monday pie was basically what was left of the Sunday dinner, roast meat, roast potatoes, gravy and veggies all shoved into a pie.

aklmatthews · 11 December 2014 at 5:44AM

For a very tight budget I think a Christmas dinner for 4 or 5 if it includes young children can be done for about £8 it would not be a luxury meal but it would definitely pass as Christmas dinner and uses mostly fresh ingredients bought in 2 supermarkets.

Tesco value whole chicken 1kg £2.48
Tesco value cooking bacon 500g use 250g £0.80
Asda smartprice sausages 12 use 4 £0.99
Tesco king edward potatoes 2.5kg £1.00
Tesco loose carrots 150g £0.37
Asda sprouts £0.57
Asda parsnips 250g £0.33
Tesco value gravy granules £0.20
Asda smartprice stuffing £0.15
Asda mince pies 6 £0.80 = £7.69

add a bit of chopped onion and meat from 2 sausages to stuffing mix for a tasty budget stuffing

Add some bread and there will be enough sausage and bacon to do sandwiches for breakfast.
ASDA Smartprice Medium Sliced Brown Bread(800g) £0.45

Add some ham sausage rolls and and a Trifle for tea
ASDA Smartprice Cooked Ham(125g) £0.61
ASDA Smartprice Sausage Rolls(50 per pack - 700g) use 20 £0.88

Trifull = £1.71
ASDA Smartprice Broken Mandarins in Light Syrup(312g)
35p

ASDA Chosen by You No Added Sugar Orange Jelly
38p
ASDA Smartprice Instant Custard Mix(70g)
15p
Elmlea Double Cream Substitute(284ml)
79p
Add salted nuts with rest off sausage rolls for evening snacks
ASDA Smartprice Salted Peanuts(200g)
48p

Total under £12
Like i said not luxury but will feed every one without breaking the bank. I am sure others can do better or reduce prices using more shops.

nursemaggie · 11 December 2014 at 6:21AM

I can't remember which thread but someone posted about the fats myth. There was also stuff about corn syrup which is the real danger. Most of the hidden sugar in processed food is corn syrup. I think it was a TED lecture which are usually very good and he did have lots of evidence to back everything up.

Whether it is right or not sugar has no food value and they certainly had very little sugar in the war and in my early childhood. I think it was the absence of sugar in my early diet that leads me not to like very sweet things. Sugar came off ration when I six.

I switched back to lard for most cooking the next day after seeing the flaws in the fat studies. It is a great deal cheaper and tastes much better.

They had very little fat during the war. Have you ever seen how little fat the ration of fat was. When you actually see it rather than just know the weight it is awfully small. I think I would struggle.

The quantities on the list given on that blog were the beginning of the war fat went down about 3 times. I can remember when I was a kid mum carefully saving every little drop of fat. I don't think it was rationed then but the war years were when she learned to cook so she always did it.

moneyistooshorttomention · 11 December 2014 at 8:07AM

Re the sanctioning of your sons benefit - can I suggest getting in touch with your local MP and explaining the situation to him/her.

If you can get an MP "on side" then they will write a letter to the Department concerned (in this case the DWP) and that will likely put a rocket under their backsides to get them to sort out this mess of your son being sanctioned when he shouldn't have been.

First rule of being in a civil service job is "protect your own personal backside from all potential sources of trouble" and an MP is a pretty big potential source of trouble and things tend to start moving accordingly once they are sniffing around helping out a constituent of theirs.

nursemaggie · 11 December 2014 at 9:18AM

Thanks Money actually there is a select committee investigating sanctions. I had an email from someone yesterday I supported her champagne to get this select committee because her brother died because of being sanctioned. He was just 5 minutes late for his appointment and they sanctioned him. He was diabetic and died because he had no food.

I was going to write to them today but I don't really think I should interfere it is after all my son's business it is just that it is me that gets the financial worries not him. I think they would not accept it coming from me.

I think the woman he spoke to on the phone forgot to cancel his second appointment and your first rule came into play. They only sanctioned him for missing one appointment not the two he had while on the course which proves they got the message. She could easily lie and say he did not tell her the dates and times of the course.

I will offer him both alternatives

moneyistooshorttomention · 11 December 2014 at 9:28AM

I know its strictly your sons business nursemaggie, but its impacting back on you because of you helping him out financially because of his lack of income.

If he's that depressed, then he may not have the "oomph" necessary to write this letter for himself anyway. Perhaps you could tell him ("tell" - not "ask" !!) that you are going to do this and he might actually be quite relieved that you are doing so.

Maybe/quite possibly the civil servants concerned would refuse to listen to you and cite something like the Data Protection Act at you as an excuse for not doing so. But....I would think an MP would listen to you (not got the same fear for own personal backside!).

You could always write out a letter for your son, in which he authorises you to act on his behalf, and get him to sign it and then I would think even civil servants would listen to you - as they do (understandably) want proof someone is authorised to act on someone else's behalf.

So - yep write to that select committee. But, right now, do out that letter for your son to sign and write to your local MP (a much quicker process than waiting on anything a select committee might or might not do).

***********

As regards future dealings your son has with the DWP personally, in his position I would type up a suitable letter confirming that I had kept appointment at such-and-such time on such-and-such date (or whatever action I had taken) or physically told someone that I couldn't do so and given the reason. Either way - get whichever DWP official I spoke to to sign and print their name on it after reading it in front of me if I possibly could. That way, if they said "We weren't told", then I could say "I can produce a letter signed by official x when he/she was told". Lower officials in pecking order might or might not sign it but, if they refused, then just stand ground and refuse to move whilst asking for a higher official to come and sign it. Someone will probably do so at some point in order to prevent a "disturbance" or because they want to lock the office up for the night.

WantToBeSE · 11 December 2014 at 11:57AM

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

During the war people survived on stodgy suet puddings, cooked with lard, dripping and bacon fat, lots of vegetables,fish and very little meat, plus they ate seasonally, they didn't have freezers like we have today, they stored their harvests by salting (fermentation), pickling, chutneys, jams, bottling fruits and foraging.
Yet they are known as the healthiest generation

I think that we have all been sold a crock with dietary advice and we should get away from heat treated oils and hydrogenated fats apart from olive oil and coconut oil.

There is a brilliant blog called the 1940's experiment, it makes really interesting reading and has lots of recipes.

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/rationing-diet-sheets/

I totally agree. I think we have been told a load of BS about fat.
I was reading somewhere that low fat products are the worst for you, as when they take fat out of a product then it tastes disgusting. So they replace that fat with sugar, which makes it much worse (BTW, I know that its not true just because I read it somewhere online, but I do believe it). I'd rather have fat than sugar.

I have made a few changes in our diet recently. I have replaced any low fat products with full fat, changed from marg to butter and from veg oil to coconut oil, and am trying to cut back on sugar as much as possible.

I actually did it very strictly for 2 weeks and lots 6lbs in those 2 weeks. Never felt in the slightest bit hungry and felt so much healthier.

Sorry, I know I sound like a bore, but its something I am really interested in.

Butterfly_Brain · 11 December 2014 at 4:18PM

WantTobeBeSE
I totally agree, we have been taken for mugs by the food industry and I have lost weight as well since going back to lard for cooking and real butter, in fact I am always on the look out for reduced price cream and then I make my own butter.
Our bodies cannot handle hydrogenated oils and fats which are in most processed foods these days not to mention HFCS.
It is totally beyond me why they use HFCS and ordinary sugar in the same food item.

I believe that most of our problems with obesity lie with the food manufacturers.

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Feed a family of four for £20 a week challenge

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