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

jinky67

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

It has been mentioned about cake tins on here- well i have successfully used sweet tins and they have turned out fine. Just remember that they will need a lot of greasing.

Smart thinking:j:j

I think I need to start looking outside the box a bit more:o this thread will be good for me, IF I can keep up with it:rotfl:


Stupid thing is BOB, that I had used those same potatoes the night before and he never noticed a thing:p:T:rotfl:

boredofbeingathome

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

I helped out with a conference at church yesterday and was given some fruit to bring home. They had done chilli and jacket potatoes and I asked to have some potatoes to bring home too. I had potato skins for lunch by scooping out and mashing the potato with some butter and seasoning, popping in the skin with a little bit of brie and some chopped fresh tomato and a sliver of cheese on each one. Gotta love the recycling.
Have made chips before with peelings, a little space intensive though, have to be thinly spread to crisp up, delish with parsnip and carrot peelings though!

I do that too- mmm i love crispy potato skins. A whole industry has been made out of this with Organic crisps-Terrance Stamp ones, a £1 a bag in some places.:eek:

boredofbeingathome

jinky67 wrote: »

Smart thinking:j:j

I think I need to start looking outside the box a bit more:o this thread will be good for me, IF I can keep up with it:rotfl:


Stupid thing is BOB, that I had used those same potatoes the night before and he never noticed a thing:p:T:rotfl:

The Hexagon ones make interesting cakes- folk think i spent a fortune on them:D:rotfl: Bit difficult getting them out - so plenty of greaseproof paper.

JayJay14

jinky67 wrote: »

I would get lynched if I was caught doing that.....we had a conversation yesterday about sprouting potatoes and how they should be thrown out:eek:

No way says I and referred him to a thread on here:D

Iv'e been known to deep fry potato peelings and OH eats them as crisps:D

weezl74

Hello all fab testers it's superb to have these levels of detailed feedback about the plans! I really do feel we can together make a very powerful useful resource.

I feel very lucky that MSE has given me access to all your brains, willing hands, kitchens and storecupboards as well as my own

SunnyGirl, about the milk, I was kind of hoping that our mythical impoverished family are up for drinking tea, rather than sacrificing other things.:o I so didn't challenge this assumption that I didn't include it as a non-negotiable in the poll on old-style that was my 'market research' for this thread, and now I think it's too late to find out if that would have been the deal breaker for people.... D'oh, silly weezl! I thought that perhaps for families where there are younger children, and therefore that milk is still a very important way of getting sufficient energy and calcium, that the children's smaller portions would balance out the greater milk needs IYSWIM?

Hmmmmmn, what do people think? What could/should shift if more milk is required?

About the cheese in the tart, would anyone be prepared to try a cheeseless version (realise it's a it of a risk!) to see if Jinky's suggestion works?:T:T:T

Thanks shaz, for the pork and apple burger recipe idea What's the minimum meat percentage you put in your sausages?

Have added princess Loki, will add BOB now... Did anyone spot if I missed anyone?:o

xxx

gallygirl

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Do you know the potato skins, make it lovely and creamy and when the soup is whizzed up tastes very thick and satisfying. Serve with HM bread and he won't argue:D:rotfl:

I just pick the sprouts off too;) :rotfl:

Bob, just about to make some chicken soup - will use the skins from dinner - thanks for that

Em, has anyone tried stir frying the potato sprouts? Would volunteer but unfortunately mine are sproutless at the mo

phizzimum

somebody, on some thread (vague, moi?) said that the sprouts are poisonous - like the bits of the potato that have gone green. not sure if this is true or not...anyone?

tart is due out of oven any minute now...serving it with jacket spuds and salady bits. will report back later!

System

weezl74 wrote: »

#1 of the monthly shopping list. I'm grateful for any responses:

Hi Weezl,

I've been thinking about the shopping list:

(1) I have two teenagers, and there would definitely be dark mutterings and undercurrents of rebellion if we had 64 apples (all of the same type) and 30 kiwi fruit in a single month. In fact, I would end up having to cook with them, rather than leave them lingering ignored in the fruit bowl (and I can tell you from just such an experience that kiwi fruit muffins are delicious). Might more variety in fruit options be possible? Looking at https://www.mysupermarket.com:
~Smartprice apples are 68p for eight, so 8.5p each (are these apples large enough to count as a whole serving, by the way, with 80g of edible flesh?)
~Smartprice kiwi fruit are £1 for ten, so 10p each (but it takes two to make an NHS-approved five-a-day fruit serving, so 20p per serving)
~Smartprice oranges are 68p for six, so 11.3p each
~Smartprice pears are 78p for six, 13p each
~Smartprice bananas are £1.28 for what looks like seven, so 18.3p each (that seems dear to me - are there more in the bag than that?)
~The frozen food section has 500g bags of mango, summer fruit or rhubarb at £2.00, making a cost of 32p per 80g serving
Of course, the serving size is less relevant if you are considering fresh fruit more as a recreational thing, on top of the solid seven-a-day mentioned elsewhere.

(2) I would consider dropping the teabags and putting the 28p to use elsewhere (28p!!! really??? is it drinkable???). Reason -- no accommodation made for coffee drinking, and 80 isn't really enough teabags to accommodate four proper tea drinkers for a whole 31-day month.

(3) There's no fish. Obviously a vegetarian plan wouldn't have fish in it, but shouldn't an omnivorous version attempt to deliver the recommended one portion of oily fish a week? Sardines, tuna and rollmops aren't terribly expensive, and I see from mysupermarket that Asda offer a 420g tin of Glenryck South Atlantic Pilchards in Tomato Sauce for only 65p (although I don't know if they are edible in anything more than a technical sense).

(4) The buttery spread thing really sticks out as the only truly artificial-looking processed item. Not sure what you can do about it on such a tight budget, though, because the Asda Smartprice butter works out at £3.40 for the same weight, compared to £2.28 for the spread (non-reduced price), and that is quite a lot of difference to make up.

(5) Still wondering about the frozen carrots (not least because I always think they have a bit of a funny texture). However, my main query is financial. Why buy 2kg of frozen carrots for £2.44 when your list shows that you could buy a further 2kg of fresh for £1.08? Even allowing for wastage when preparing the fresh carrots, the frozen ones seem expensive in comparison.

Other than that, I think it looks grand. It even has a couple of more unusual items, which should help to relieve monotony (a major problem on economy-based menu plans).

Penelope_Penguin

weezl74 wrote: »

advice/testing welcomed there please Penny, if the belly pork were served with 250g raw weight of potatoes roasted, 3 stuffing balls, carrots, peas and fine green beans (80g of each veg) and gravy, how little raw weight meat of pork belly do you feel we [STRIKE]can get away with[/STRIKE] frugally allow our mythical impoverished family of 4? And would it help if I added roast onions?

xxx

OK :j I'll make this on Wednesday (when I'm off work, and can get to the butchers )

To clarify, you'd like me to make the dish, and do costings for it?

Anyone have a recipe for stuffing balls?

Penny. x

jinky67

weezl74 wrote: »

About the cheese in the tart, would anyone be prepared to try a cheeseless version (realise it's a it of a risk!) to see if Jinky's suggestion works?:T:T:T

Notice I didnt volunteer do it myself:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:but only cos fussy child doesnt like onions:mad: