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

Sian_the_Green

weezl74 wrote: »

awww thanks sian

erm, we've axed the pork and turkey to get those essential omegas and calcium. there's some cooking bacon and 4 cans pilchards but that's it :rotfl:

Wow, is that the only meat we have now? I guess this shows doesn't it, how much it costs to be healthy.
Are we prepared to have any wiggle room on costs? An extra £10 a month could help substantially on this type of plan. Could we do a veggie plan for £100 and a carnivorous plan for £110?



Weezl, I still think you are fabulous, with or without pork burgers

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

I think the reason we came to for not shopping around was that it seemed exclusive of those who couldn't access those shops. What I thought I'd do is say, 'here's the £100 asda list. If you had been able to shop around a bit that month, it is possible to achieve a further £5 saving '

Makes perfect sense, as always, Weezl. Plus finding a bargain - and managing to save a bit from the budget, or redirect it towards little luxuries - is always a huge boost to a novice. That feeling of "Yes, I am getting the hang of this, I can do this" is priceless.

I used to shop around a fair bit doing the 50p a day challenge and countless times it seemed to put people off rather than help people to buy in to the plan sadly

It's certainly another layer of difficulties for someone attempting to change their whole lifestyle in the space of one short month. Having said that, when our family does start feeling brave enough to venture beyond Asda's aisles, I would warmly recommend a visit to Sainsbury's for pearl barley (39p for a 500g packet -significantly cheaper than Asda) which can be used as a more nutritionally sound alternative to white rice - and although even at 39p a packet it's slightly more expensive per 100g, barley does go further than rice - I'd say that for every recipe using 100g of rice, I would only use 75g of pearl barley.

phizzimum

Allegra wrote: »

Oh, and I would be happy to test the new improved risi e bisi, but I am hardly an impartial tester there, so I do hope someone else joins in - else the lack of interest does not really bode well at all for the survival of my little contribution, innit .

oh allegra i feel bad now! I keep looking at the recipe but it's the dried peas that put me off to be honest . do they taste like peas when they're cooked or more like split peas? still, a few years ago i always said the one thing i couldn't stomach were chick peas and i love them now, so maybe i should be brave!

girls are still getting their appetite back after nasty tummy bug here so i'm not really able to experiment - we're confined to very boring bland food (and i'm polishing off all the cake, oops!)

aless02

we're probably not the typical British family (since I'm not British at all :rotfl:), but we rarely have "Sunday roast". My DH grew up with it and the ILs still do it rain-or-shine every Sunday, but in his adult life he could care less.

TBH with only pilchards and cooking bacon on the menu, it might as well be vegetarian! I think B&S would rather have the less-healthy-but-more-meaty menu plans posted earlier .

I confess to never having made weetabix cake, so that's this afternoon's project.

Anyone wanting to try apple curd can get Morrison's 30p apple packs for the pleasure!

ariarnia

we have something with potatoes and stuffing in the winter once a week and maybe leftovers on another day if theirs enough. This month it's been pie, pork, gammon, and chicken. previously we've had meat loaf, sausage, veg cutlets, pigs in blankets. We do however always have something as we have lots of 'economy' meals in the week (chilli with 100g mince between 3 and loads of veg and lots of leftovers) and one 'good' meal (even if it doesn't contain a lot of meat in itself) kind of brings back the balance.

Why not compromise and have 6 veg? still more than the gov recommended amount and still a load more a day that a lot of people are having.

System

Allegra wrote: »

Oh, and I would be happy to test the new improved risi e bisi, but I am hardly an impartial tester there, so I do hope someone else joins in - else the lack of interest does not really bode well at all for the survival of my little contribution, innit

I love risi e bisi, and would happily try the dried pea version if only I could buy the dried peas. Currently trying to work out how many 300g tins of marrowfats would be a direct equivalent...

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

TBH with only pilchards and cooking bacon on the menu, it might as well be vegetarian! I think B&S would rather have the less-healthy-but-more-meaty menu plans posted earlier .

that's what I started off thinking, but the poll I did on old-style made me think people rate 'healthy' as defined in very fruit and veg terms above meat. I'd still like to publish the other planner because I like it's variety and I still think it's a great health improvement over people's 'normal diet'. But the hugest winner was FR eggs! So that has to be the next planner, by popular demand!

Sian_the_Green

Umm, I wonder if you might get more takers if you rename it
Stupid but I would feel more able to make rice and peas than risi e bisi!
Making pasta with frozen peas and the rest of my cooking bacon for tea otherwise I would have been on board!

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

Oh, and I would be happy to test the new improved risi e bisi, but I am hardly an impartial tester there, so I do hope someone else joins in - else the lack of interest does not really bode well at all for the survival of my little contribution, innit Regarding the lack of vitamin C in the dish - once our Shirl is growing her own herbs (and Bob is off fishing :cool:), that parsley on the top is gonna go a long way towards rectifying that - Just 2 tbsp of parsley contain about 20% of vitamin C RDA, I believe.

My peas are soaking as we speak Allegra

weezl74

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Umm, I wonder if you might get more takers if you rename it
Stupid but I would feel more able to make rice and peas than risi e bisi!
Making pasta with frozen peas and the rest of my cooking bacon for tea otherwise I would have been on board!

:rotfl:Oh I thought it'd make it sound all posh! Didn't realise it'd put folk off!