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

purpleivy

canidothis wrote: »

No no not entirely greek, I can keep up with the nutritional needs but just lost the plot for a second on what your total was, and wondered if I could help locate a missing gram or two - no need to simplify Weezl Im enjoying the thread as it is.

Have to say Ive spoken to some 'real' people about this thread and they look at me as if Im mad - you are so lucky to ISOM near by- a friend popped in yesterday and watched me portion out yoghurts and cooked apple - well I think ive just arrived from Mars by her reaction,

I had the same reaction when my SIL saw me putting onion peelings and carrot tops and bottoms etc etc into a plastic bag into the freezer. They were for stock! I try and avoid starting a new carrot, stick of celery or onion for stock purposes.

shanks77

I know most people know this so not trying to teach granny to suck eggs but Shirley might not know this remember to either microwave for a few secs or roll your oranges/lemons before use and you will yeild more juice from them. Just a thought

Puddleglum

weezl74 wrote: »

Example day for hungry teens, comments welcomed:

porridge with raisins and 15g skimmed milk powder 11.95p

3 slices toast with apple curd 7.8p

cereal bar 3.8p

carrot cake 6.5p

houmous sandwich 4p

risi e bisi 32.84p

garibaldi biscuit 1.7p

tea with milk 8p

total 76p

I'll give it a go and let you know how they do! Popcorn does go down well but I still remember DS watching me make him some popcorn and saying

"I can make that myself when I get home from school!":D

"Yeah, right, maybe." (hides bag of popcorn).:D:D

System

One of my hungry teens isn't quite so hungry, and skips breakfast (especially if it is porridge!) but she would still eat the raisins. The other hungry teen loves porridge, is permanently ravenous and grows taller every time I look at him -- he would need at least two hummus sandwiches at lunch (if not three), in addition to everything else. They would both eat the toast and apple curd as snacks later in the day (afternoon and evening), rather than at breakfast (in case you wanted to know that). The non-tea-drinker is happy enough with water (I'm a hard mother, and we don't often have interesting drinks), so our teabags might go a bit further.

The menu looks lovely, and has met with approval from all of my nearest and dearest. Well done :-)

System

Sorry... another random thought... We have bought a tub of bicarbonate of soda, but are using only 2 tsp of it so far (for the carrot cake), which seems like a not-too-good investment in larder stocking (with 190g of it left in the cupboard). Can it be omitted from the carrot cake, to save 56p? Or can it be used extensively in other food things, to get better value out of the purchase? I do cook a couple of things with it, although not recipes that would be particularly useful for this challenge. A quick google just now has come up with this e-cookbook: http://www.ciullodalcamo.com/peteraciullo/TheBakingSodaCookbook.pdf

Any ideas?

Fire_Fox

Can you make soda bread with normal milk?

shanks77

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Can you make soda bread with normal milk?

Firefox just add 1tbsp lemon juice or white vingear to a cup of milk stir and leave for 15mins stir again then use it will look curdled but it is supposed to. Can be used in place of buttermilk as well HTH

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

Sorry... another random thought... We have bought a tub of bicarbonate of soda, but are using only 2 tsp of it so far (for the carrot cake), which seems like a not-too-good investment in larder stocking (with 190g of it left in the cupboard). Can it be omitted from the carrot cake, to save 56p? Or can it be used extensively in other food things, to get better value out of the purchase? I do cook a couple of things with it, although not recipes that would be particularly useful for this challenge. A quick google just now has come up with this e-cookbook: http://www.ciullodalcamo.com/peteraciullo/TheBakingSodaCookbook.pdf

Any ideas?

I'd kind of like to get rid of it, but it yields more calcium bang for it's buck than anything else on the menu (unless I've a decimal point in the wrong place-probably! :rotfl:) I think we'd have a challenging 14g left to find if we lost it.

Hang on that sounds crazy, I need to check that out....

weezl74

OK back to the issue of these hungry teens. I'm grappling with the maths of this a bit.

When I work out a meal planner based on weight maintenance amounts of calories for Bob and Shirley, the feedback is most definitely that this will not be sufficient for some members of the family.

I want to provide plentifully, but if we cater for each member of the family the same (portions-wise) then someone in the family is going to end up with a weight problem! Or there will be a lot of food wastage at the end of the month, which will not be good for a subsistence plan.

Going back to other debates we've had, and mindful of the advice to keep things simple and staying confident in our original idea, here's a solution.

We publish (in some form) our meal planners and recipes and example days with calorie and nutritional info. each day allows a 2100 cal to 3200 cal range depending on snacks. Mrs average needs to eat the lower amount and young master average the galloping teen boy needs the top end with the other two in between.

Then, if anyone is still struggling to get enough snacks into their kids, we offer a series of extra add on recipes, costed and calorie counted, which 'Shirley mum of two lads training for the next olympic rowing event' can use quite happily.

The only other way seems to be to create a menu planner so stuffed with cals and fats that there'll be monster amounts of wastage, filling up on snacks rather than the good stuff, or more frighteningly we will have unwittingly contributed to a national epidemic of childhood obesity. Children today consume fewer calories than these averaged amounts, but gain weight due to the increasingly sedentary nature of their lives.

I'd rather start with what's needed for todays averages, and allow shirley to add more in. Does that make sense?

Avocet for example knew that the example day I gave would be a hummus sandwich short for her DS. Presumably though, at that many calories, there is another member of the family who might not need the 3 slices of toast with apple curd along with 3 square meals. So financially, all is still neutral.

I really hope that makes sense and I look forward to hearing what you all think

canidothis

weezl74 wrote: »

OK back to the issue of these hungry teens.
Avocet for example knew that the example day I gave would be a hummus sandwich short for her DS. Presumably though, at that many calories, there is another member of the family who might not need the 3 slices of toast with apple curd along with 3 square meals. So financially, all is still neutral.

I really hope that makes sense and I look forward to hearing what you all think

My experience with my two teens is that their food consumption is quite erratic, some days I feel like the 'locusts have landed' and theres no way I can keep up - so I go out and buy a few things to stock up the cupboards and all of a sudden they stop eating!
On first inspection I thought maybe the teenagers day may not be enough food however over a course of a month I think it will even out, if not from their food 'allowance' they might fill up from another family members 'allowance'.