Black-Saturn's Menu Planner

Curry_Queen

black-saturn wrote:

Its only 1 mug full a day. Its quite a runny soup I must admit.

I'm not being funny or anything but I really can't see how you could manage to produce 9 portions, even if just a mug full each, from the quantities you've given. You're only using half a pint of liquid, which is little over a mug full in itself, so with the added ingredients you'd only get two, possibly three portions at most

I'm not trying to have a go at you here, or belittle your attempts at producing a "budget menu" but I do worry that a lot of what you're claiming is very misleading to others who are also trying to trim their budgets and want to try and match what you claim to achieve. I can't see how it's possible to adequately feed your family on the quantities you've given.

I know it's none of my business but I think to cut back to the extremes you have cannot be healthy for either you or your children. For example, you list one carrot and one loaf of bread for a whole week to feed three of you :eek: ... I usually allow one carrot per person per meal (unless they're huge ones) and that's not including the 2-3 carrots a day my DS snacks on! They're not exactly expensive items of food

I could possibly understand it if you had no choice but to compromise to this level - some people have to if they're heavily in debt - but you claim to do this so you can "afford to buy a DVD player, go on holiday and have all the nice things in life", which to be honest I find a little hard to comprehend. I don't want to come over as holier than though, as I'm far from it, but my childrens' diets are far more important to me than material possessions and holidays, and I would sacrifice anything to ensure they were receiving an adequate and healthy diet.

Someone commented that "at least your kids will have memories of nice things instead of eating expensive food when they grow up" which I found rather sad, because with such a limited diet as this they might not grow up healthy enough to even reflect back on their earlier life. I know that might sound harsh but I'm afraid it's a fact, and as Gillian McKeith says (not that I'm a great fan of hers par se) ... WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!

black-saturn

All very well and good for you but if you just took 1 look at my children you would see that they are both fit and healthy and there is nothing at all the matter with them.

I think before you judge you should try feeding 3 people, paying the bills and clothing on 9k per year and THEN see if you can afford granary bread and fruit. My guess is you couldnt.

We eat large meals every day and neither of my children ever complain about feeling hungry.

I'm also not going to let someone come along and tell me I think about material things MORE than my children. I have sacrificed EVERYTHING for them including my job, my home, my money and my own material things. So to get someone come along and say I dont put my children first is a bit much.

Thanks.

Curry_Queen

black-saturn wrote:

I think before you judge you should try feeding 3 people, paying the bills and clothing on 9k per year and THEN see if you can afford granary bread and fruit. My guess is you couldnt.

I already do

And apologies if I've offended you, it wasn't my intention, but I think I'm only saying what a lot of people are thinking

black-saturn

Well maybe you should put your meal planner up and see if I can afford to eat it

Curry_Queen

black-saturn wrote:

Well maybe you should put your meal planner up and see if I can afford to eat it

I wrote out a 14 day meal plan, which is what we're eating this week and next, and posted it in the "feed people for £12 a week thread", I think

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Quote:
Originally Posted by black-saturn
Recipe for lunchtime soup

Take 1 small chicken breast, 1 onion, half a packet of scotch broth mix, handful of mixed herbs, a few frozen peas, one potato peeled and chopped and 1 carrot peeled and chopped. Put all these ingredients in a slow cooker with about half a pint of boiling water and cook in the slow cooker for about 4 or 5 hours.

When cooked puree and either transfer into individual portions and freeze or transfer to one large container and chill.




How on earth do you make that stretch to 9 portions? :eek:

Maybe we're just greedy here but I'd struggle to make two decent portions from those quantities

Me too, and if I'd mowed the lawn, done some gardening and housework and gone for a walk during the morning I'd eat this in one sitting, with fruit to follow.

Bogof_Babe

To be fair, re. the soup, if the quantity of liquid was increased without necessarily adding more of the other ingredients then I think it would still make a reasonable consistency soup. Half a pack of those soup mix pulses will absorb a lot of liquid.

My own reaction was to wonder how BS gets away with so little water, with all those "dry" ingredients.

I make about 3 pints of soup at weekends, from 2 potatoes, 2 large-ish carrots, half an big onion, one leek and a handful of lentils, with bouillon and soy sauce to flavour it. I probably use a good 2 pints of water, if not more. Not much difference cost-wise from BS's recipe if you substitute the extra veg for the chicken breast.

black-saturn

Maybe I miscalculated the water a bit asI dont measure anything, I just throw it in. Put more water in and you will get more soup.

Curry_Queen

black-saturn wrote:

I think before you judge you should try feeding 3 people, paying the bills and clothing on 9k per year and THEN see if you can afford granary bread and fruit. My guess is you couldnt.

Sorry, I know it might start to look as though I'm picking on you, and I'm not honestly ... but again what you've quoted above is rather misleading for some people as the £9K is not a true figure for annual income, as that doesn't include rent or council tax, again povided free from the council. A truer figure would probably be nearer the £14K mark, which isn't much less than what a lot of people earn

Liz19

Are we not starting to get a bit side tracked here. I think it is wonderful of Black-Saturn to share her meal planner and recipes but I don't think we should be nitpicking at her finances in this way as it really isn't any of our business. She is being so helpful and this kind of thing could put her off.