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

Sian_the_Green

Shirley, honey, save yourself a lot of effort (and tears!) and get yourself a food processor. Then, take your 2kg of onion and dice them all up and portion up into bags and freeze, believe me, you won't regret it!

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

But first, we need to know the basics...

(1) What allowance have you made for milk in tea each day? I was hoping that shirley et al would do what DH and I do which is to buy full fat milk and dilute it to the same fat content as semi and then freeze it in 1 pt cartons. We use 3 of these per week and do quite like our cups of tea and coffee. We yield 10 of these from a 6pt bottle.

(2) What ingredients/quantities are needed for each of the following:

• bread 1.5kg bread flour 3 tsp salt and 10g dried yeast (you can get away with 7g but the yeast needs a little sugar) yields 4 loaves each yielding 18 weezl slices and 15-16 Mr Weezl slices if we say 16 slices then there are 4.12 slices of bread per person per day from our 8 bags after the pizza is made.
• porridge was thinking of merging this with the breakfast below, to give extra purpleness
• porridge with raisins 60g oats and 30g raisins makes a hefty breakfast for me, but DH has 2 toasts as well.
• fish pate was hoping the pilchards might be reducible in the risotto, and we could mash the rest with onion and lemon juice and a touch of oil and make sarnies
• houmous good point, we put 20g houmous in a sarnie, no butter. I will post recipe
• weetabix with milk more of an attempt to not waste the leftover weetabix from the weetabix loaves, because it's quite a milk drainer on the resources...Not very thought through that one!
• potato wedges I think I've posted that now, but per person it's 250g potato with it's skin on, scrubbed, and quartered lengthways, with 15ml of oil and then roasted. Quantities are per person.
• peanut butter The remaining 350g nuts (after 2 of Lesley's crumbles accounted for, blended with 90g oil) oil is raw here so a good omega source. Again quite runny so spreads easily and no need for butter.

(3) How many tins of beans per person for beans on toast? And for hash browns with beans? I thought of half a can of beans per person for those meals, but maybe 1/3rd if with hash browns too. Would appreciate some of the mums saying if this seems big enough for their growing lads/lasses
(4) How many loaves of bread will be made in the month? (total figure, allowing for sandwiches, breakfasts, snacking etc - aim high because bread is cheap and tasty, and teenagers can fill up on it if necessary) 32 loaves currently, from the 8 bags. But I can increase this
(4) How much buttery spread is needed for each of those loaves (excluding the loaves set aside specifically for sandwiches, which you have explained already have wet-ish fillings)? I'm assuming 10g buttery spread per slice based on a digital scales measurement of mine and mr weezl's spreading techniques

ok, chin up it is! This is the ministry of food! Come on Weezl let's see the spirit that built the empire

OK pep talk administered, new lease of life from you, maltesers and Sian who is concerned for me :D:D:D

Here we go, I'll tackle the list in little bits (spookily you and maltesers see the way forward very similarly! The guardian angels of our challenge have given us multiple project manager brains, singing from the same hymn sheet :T:T:T:T:T)

System

Actually, I have just read Maltesers' comments, from a few posts back. First, I'd like to clarify that the shopping list used is the current one, from post 1358 (not the original one), and that there is no starter larder food store.

We are not really what you could call "over budget" because we don't have a full menu plan yet so we have no idea of the total required. However, given the dishes already chosen for inclusion, we have certainly used greater quantities of a few ingredients than expected at the outset; this can be addressed either by modifying the shopping list or by changing the recipes and menus that draw on its contents. It's not the end of the world!

Maltesers raises an interesting point about the general approach to this project, suggesting that the shopping list shouldn't drive the menu plan but vice versa, based on the cost of individual recipes. Before I comment, please let me say that I have no particular attachment to analysing the menu plan in conjunction with the shopping list, and I won't feel even remotely put out if you don't want me to do it! :-)

But my understanding is that the reasoning behind having a shopping list is to ensure that, spread across the month, there is adequate provision of fruit and vegetables, oily fish etc. It doesn't much matter when these are consumed, as long as they are consumed over the course of the month. This is exceptionally hard to retrofit to a plan driven by financial considerations rather than by a list of required ingredients, and I assume that this is why Weezl launched her initiative with a shopping list containing the required quantities of F&V.

It's a health-driven approach which aims to achieve a particular price point, rather than a price-driven approach which aims to achieve a particular level of healthiness. I do think that the two approaches are different, and require slightly different starting points to prevent having to retrofit those elements which are key. It is the difference between "how do we use up all these ingredients which will give us at least the minimum levels of everything we need for health" and "what are the cheapest recipes we can construct that are tasty and nutritional, but which we will have to revisit later when we build them into an overall menu plan to ensure that across the month we have incorporated everything we need for health".

Not that I know a lot about it, of course; it's just a gut feel! :-)

domesticgoddess789

Hi all,

Just popping in to say that the carrot cake really does keep well (if it lasts that long!). Still lovely and fresh today. Am also very glad to have found a second use for the big tub of garam masala that I have that needs using up that's not curry :T

(Also am very keen to test out the oaty raisin cereal bars this week, they sound delicious!)

OH and I are both very much interested in going to the Ministry of Food exhibition so would definitely be up for a meet up there.

Keep up the good work, you are all doing great!


Hayley

weezl74

thanks pinkhayley will be nice to see you and any other challengees who fancy it.

Allegra

Weezl wrote:
I thought of half a can of beans per person for those meals, but maybe 1/3rd if with hash browns too. Would appreciate some of the mums saying if this seems big enough for their growing lads/lasses

Probably not, to be honest, unless Bob and Shirley would be happy for the JJs to stuff their faces on biscuits afterwards. My DD would require 1 tin for beans on toast, might be able to manage on 1/2 tin with hash browns. (She'd still stuff her face on biscuits afterwards, though.)To be honest, I'd need the same, if there was no snacking to be had afterwards - but I am in all probability fair bit bigger than our Shirl, plus have a physically demanding job and a long walk daily to get there ! So I guess Shirl should be able to manage okay on your quantities.

ETA: Oh, and I'd love to come and meet you and yours in London

Sian_the_Green

WEEZL, how are you feeling?
Anything we can do to help you feel calm and relaxed?

About to put some weetabix cake in oven and onion marmalade is cooking. Then gonna make soup. I tell you, I was born to make some man very happy he he

weezl74

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

WEEZL, how are you feeling?
Anything we can do to help you feel calm and relaxed?

just have a little chat for me to the big guy in your sig Sian and see if you can arrange a pain free delivery of a happy healthy Kester Or am I asking a bit much :rotfl:

Oooooooooh, you meant the challenge probably dintcha?

I agree our sian would make a chappie very happy with her baking

DH likes your cake recipe BTW, I haven't even iced it yet...

Fire_Fox

Fibre: the good, the bad and the ugly? :cool:

Department of Health guidelines are for a minimum of 18g per person per day, same for adolescents as far as I can see, so 2232g for the family over one month.

2 x 48 wheat bisks = 1728g cereal = 173g
5kg porridge oats = 425g
2kg chickpeas = 232g
1.25kg marrowfat peas = 164g
12 x baked beans = 186g
200g peanuts = 12g

16kg onions = 400g - assuming no waste
7.5kg potatoes = 90g - assuming all skins eaten
2.9kg carrots = 81g
4kg raisins = 80g
15 x tomatoes = 48g
3.6kg frozen peas = 181g
3kg fine beans = 129g
1.8kg sweetcorn = 40g
1.8kg cauliflower = 22g
16 Braeburn apples = 22g
12 oranges = 15g

Total 2300g unless there is a glaring error. :beer:

The bad: my gut feeling is there is a good deal of soluble fibre (heart health, regulates blood sugar) but not sufficient insoluble fibre (digestive health). Insoluble fibre is found in wholegrain wheat, brown rice, nuts and seeds, potato skins, leafy veg. Soluble fibre is found in oats, barley, pulses, fruit and veg.

The ugly: Asda keeps throwing me out of the website! :mad:

maltesers_2

I have porridge (winter) or bircher muesli (summer) several times a week. I use 25g of oats and make it with 200ml full cream milk (for protein).
Cal. 242 protein 9.62 carb 25.1 fat 9.3 Fibre 2.05 calcium 244
I soak the oats overnight in water - this raises protein content and makes the porridge softer and taste sweeter too (I don't use sugar)

The 'Benefit Book' allows 40z/115g oats and 1 1/2 -2 pts milk for family 4-6 people and 'Eating for Victory' a wartime book also allows 4oz for 4 people.

60g is a very generous serving Weezl - but you are eating for 2

If 25g per person was the serving it would only cost 6p per serving for the oats part of breakfast.