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

weezl74

canidothis wrote: »

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'.

Thanks

The dinner portions are really quite large too, which may not be immediately apparent from looking at the day planner

You're up early!

weezl74

Tangy bean pate (possible hummus substitute)

1 can SP beans in tom sauce
scant half tspn chilli
tspn gia garlic
dessertspn mustard
dessertspn lemon juice
2 dessertspn oil
one leftover endy bit of HM bread (mine weighed 46g) broken into little bits

total 39p

Put all ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer for 10ish mins til the beans are ready to fall apart under the gentle pressure of your potato masher. Mash up the pate. Leave to cool. Enjoy

recipe and photos originally at weezl's blog

ceridwen

canidothis wrote: »

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 think there may be generational differences in what way people would react to this.

Being "of a certain age" - my parents are now elderly and remember World War 2 and the aftermath clearly. When I explained about my younger virtual friend over in Wales and the Challenge we are all doing together they didnt bat an eyelid. I got the impression they approve.

canidothis

weezl74 wrote: »

Thanks

The dinner portions are really quite large too, which may not be immediately apparent from looking at the day planner

You're up early!

Got an early start at work today - however just recently I seem to be waking early with food, nutrition and costings on my mind......I wonder why that is:rotfl:
To put my mind at rest can someone check the costings for the Weetabix cake, I cant seem to work out the sugar and cant get it as low as the recipe - sorry not sure how to do links and clever things that you lot do.

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

Tangy bean pate (possible hummus substitute)

1 can SP beans in tom sauce
scant half tspn chilli
tspn gia garlic
dessertspn mustard
dessertspn lemon juice
2 dessertspn oil
one leftover endy bit of HM bread (mine weighed 46g) broken into little bits

total 39p

Put all ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer for 10ish mins til the beans are ready to fall apart under the gentle pressure of your potato masher. Mash up the pate. Leave to cool. Enjoy

1. Whats "gia garlic"?
2. By mustard - you mean made-up mustard I guess? (though presumably a bit of mustard powder made up into paste with water would do)

weezl74

canidothis wrote: »

Got an early start at work today - however just recently I seem to be waking early with food, nutrition and costings on my mind......I wonder why that is:rotfl:
To put my mind at rest can someone check the costings for the Weetabix cake, I cant seem to work out the sugar and cant get it as low as the recipe - sorry not sure how to do links and clever things that you lot do.

I think that could be because I copied and pasted that recipe from my MFW thread, and the sugar price is lower there because the sugar comes from a larger bag. Shirley CAN buy that one, but her outlay of costs in month one will be higher....

Thanks for spotting, I'll change it

ceridwen wrote: »

1. Whats "gia garlic"?
2. By mustard - you mean made-up mustard I guess? (though presumably a bit of mustard powder made up into paste with water would do)

Gia is incredible value, It is equivalent to 1kg fresh garlic. It therefore also yields 12.5 of your 5 a day But don't eat it all at once unless you have a severe vampire repellance issue

weezl74

weezl74 wrote: »

Tangy bean pate (possible hummus substitute)

1 can SP beans in tom sauce
scant half tspn chilli
tspn gia garlic
dessertspn mustard
dessertspn lemon juice
2 dessertspn oil upped to 5, as end result too dry and lacking in good mothfeel
one leftover endy bit of HM bread (mine weighed 46g) broken into little bits
2 pinches salt and 2 pinches ground black pepper

total 39p

Put all ingredients together in a saucepan and simmer for 10ish mins til the beans are ready to fall apart under the gentle pressure of your potato masher. Mash up the pate. Leave to cool. Enjoy

Have now taste tested and made the green tweaks

mumtoomany

Morning all,

thought I would add my 2 penny worth on the chicken. When I roast a chicken we tend to have the legs and wings for the roasted meal. Shirley and Bob could have a thigh each, children a drumstick and wing each. That way mine think they are getting more meat, the portions appear bigger because the bones are still in them, and it takes longer to eat as they have to "dismantle" them. This leaves both breasts for another day or two. The only downside could be not having these bones for stock. Although Shirley could maybe rescue them from the plates after, what the eye doesn't see.....

Tempted fate on here the other day! Yesterday DH broke (another) flask. Coffee in it this time. I wonder if I say on here I'm going to win the lottery, would that work? Or maybe I have to buy a ticket as well!

Have a good day all, of to make sure all are for school, college, etc.

Mumtoomany.

System

weezl74 wrote: »

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

That makes perfect sense. As it happens, there is no way I could eat all that without ending up the size of an imposing castle (I'm already the size of a house, so I've had a bit of a head start on the architectural analogy).

I think it will be easy for a family to accept that a growing lad will cost them a bit more, if they find that they can't keep him fuelled just by reshuffling the existing allocations. So, yes, some extra teenager-fillers, outside the plan rather than in it, would get my vote.

System

weezl74 wrote: »

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.

And presumably that figure would only apply if we ate the entire tub. At the moment, we are using 10g of it, and 10g of baking soda cannot possibly yield 14g of calcium! :-)