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

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

ceridwen don't get your coat! I have an important question for you! You made the carrot cake sugarless, but with honey right? Would you be willing to try it again, sugar free and honey free, but up the carrot and raisin for more sweetness? You can also use 2 cans of this for some extra richness and sweetness from non-sugar sources.

As in - delete sugar (like I did anyway) - reet.

I'm not the inventive cook you are - so I'm wondering how MUCH more carrot and raisins you think? - Errr....at a guess....400gr of carrots (instead of 320gr) and 250gr raisins (instead of 200gr)?

I've been thinking "needs more raisins methinks ideally" anyway - so I'm guessing 25% as much again would do the trick?

Re the evaporated milk - then I guess thats a case of throw it in at "blitz all ingredients together" stage?

Presume you are thinking evaporated milk in order to get more calcium into this?

Would it be an idea to suggest to people instead of doing it that way - to just pour a bit of evaporated milk over the cake and have it as pudding (instead of a slice of cake at elevenses time)?

Not q..u..i..t..e sure what the finished texture/taste of the cake would be like with evap. milk in. Have you tried adding this in before - and what was it like?

System

weezl74 wrote: »

Avocet was it you who'd done some research into amounts constituting a 5 a day portion? Can you advise me how much tomato puree would be a portion?

20g of the sort labelled "double concentrated". It's excellent value for money, at 10 servings per standard 200g tube!

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

20g of the sort labelled "double concentrated". It's excellent value for money, at 10 servings per standard 200g tube!

asda don't seem to label it that way, can I work it out backwards from the calorie content?

homegrown_life

Rofl at calcium gate!!

happy to do any more calcium calculations - quite enjoyed it anyway Spreadsheet looked good, of course reassured me (plus some sleep) that my onion calculations were off :eek: Bloomin decimal points

I noticed yesterday while I was looking at things to add to bread etc that poppy seeds contain quite a bit. They could be added to bread. WOuld only work out at about 1g, but might be worth bearing in mind for future plans. Linseeds also have some, so again maybe helpful in the veggie and vegan plans.

System

weezl74 wrote: »

asda don't seem to label it that way, can I work it out backwards from the calorie content?

The one I use is labelled "double concentrated", and has the following nutritional breakdown:
Typical values per 100g
Energy 302kj
Protein 4.4g
Carbohydrate 12.9g
of which sugars 12.6g
Fat 0.2g
of which saturates Trace
Fibre 2.8g
Sodium Trace

weezl74

another possible tweak following calcium gate - family of 4 required to volunteer (more the merrier!)

please can I have a couple of volunteers?

1 asda smart price whole chicken, roasted, plus (per person): 250g potatoes roasted, 1/4 packet stuffing, gravy made from the meat juices, flour salt and peppper, no stock sorry, 80g carrot, 80g peas 80g roasted onion.

The burning question: can you slice the breast meat thinly enough and make the other bits big enough that at that roast meal, JUST THE BREAST IS ENOUGH?

ie we'll need all the dark meat for other things.

But is it just too stingy?

If anyone is up for this I would be so grateful.

Suggestion: serve it out as I've said, but have extra roasties on hand if you have a mutiny!!!!

ifonlyitwaseasier

Weezl - i'm going to have a go at the oaty honey bars too and the falefel (as we all like both) i'll prob make the bars tomorrow, but we polished off the carrot cake pretty quickly so i think it might be worth freezing some next time (for Shirley) so that it lasts as long as it should, it is far too snackable!!

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

My suggested way forward on the calcium challenge:

1 systematically go through our list and work out the calcium content of the entire list
(lots of work has already been done on this by you angels, but I think one post summarising it and broken down by item would be the most helpful tool at this stage)
Does anyone feel they have things to contribute to that list?
How would it be if all those people had access to a google docs spreadsheet which listed: item, quantity, calcium per unit and then cell 4 would calculate the total?

example googledocs environment for us to try this- NB the maths are a bit dodgy but I think it could work....

2 look at swaps which can be done to increase the calcium, but being conscious of what's being lost in so doing. (ie, I'm tempted to make all the cauliflower cheese meals into spinach gratin (ie same cheesiness, but different veg) because I've now read it's higher in calcium, but I think I need an easy tool which shows me what calcium we lose by dropping the cauliflower. Does that make sense?

I would be quite happy to add to this, but I don't know how to get access to update it. Is there a signon we use to get to it?

System

weezl74 wrote: »

1 asda smart price whole chicken, roasted ... can you slice the breast meat thinly enough and make the other bits big enough that at that roast meal, JUST THE BREAST IS ENOUGH?

Sorry, I can't help because of not shopping at Asda so wrong-sized chicken, no packet stuffing etc... I have done this sort of thing with a small chicken before, though, and nobody complained. (Sponge pudding for afters always helps!)

BUT... Had you thought of boiling the bird instead of roasting it? I have found that boiling a chicken makes the meat go further, creates more stock, and so is more cost effective:

(1) After boiling the chicken in water until cooked and tender, and removing its skin, it is very easy to pull off the entire breast meat sections, which come cleanly away from the bone leaving little debris behind. These can then be sliced neatly on a chopping board, rather than awkwardly while still on the bird. The brown meat is similarly easy to detach, and more of the "picking the bones" bits seem to be accessible. With roast chicken, I find the meat is harder to detach and there is more wastage.

(2) You get the cooking water as instant stock for the gravy (with loads leftover for risotto, soup etc) -- very highly flavoured.

(3) You still get to make another batch of stock from the carcase.

(4) The meat is lovely and tender.

Any use to you?

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

apple curd spread for breakfast toast
thick onion tart (like an oniony quiche, delia originally)
weetabix loaf
pasta puttanesca
cauliflower cheese with green bean and beetroot salad
sweetcorn soup
onion bhajias and chutney
allegra's risi e bisi
carrot cake
sweetcorn fritters (not the ketchup)
:staradminpork and apple burgers
spicy tomato meatballs and pasta
roast turkey leg and trimmings
roast belly pork and trimmings
HM pizza
corned beef hash
oaty raisin cereal bars
falafel
frugalised chutney
Lesley's chick pea crumble
chana mutter masala + rice
risotto pescatore
HM peanut butter
:staradminhash browns (with beans and toast)
lemon and raisin breakfast pancakes
firefox's frugal fishcakes
onion marmalade


okay most of these recipes have a linkie now.

Anymore willing testers?

Saves you having to do any horrid calcium maths!!!!

Are you asking for any recipes in particular to be tested Weezl, or do you want people to test something they haven't done yet?