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

weezl74

Mazcabs wrote: »

Ah didnt use seeds, ground cumin instead... going to add the rest of the balti sauce to it and maybe some tom puree, what do you think?

sounds nice

Please give my love to the parents club thread.

queen_of_string

To add to the roast dinner debate, there have been periods in my life when we have gone for months without a roast dinner. I dont think it's quite the staple it used to be.

Now I am not working, we tend to eat one once a fortnight, but we now eat lots of things we didnt when I worked shifts full time, like home made bread :-).

I think the meal plan now is very light on meat, but if that's how it has to be to spend so little, and given people are doing this because they have to (mostly) to survive, then you have to eat what you can afford. There are plenty of things on the plan I wouldn't normally expect the kids to eat, however, in dire finanacial circumstances, I would know they were all on board with the direness of the situation and there would be an expectation that people ate what was placed in front of them.

I find it frustrating that we are planning for someone who is not used to OS, as I think for me, being familiar with living like that, I know that sometimes there would be leftovers and/or peelings to make occassional soups to vary things. I also know that ASDA is the king of the yellow sticker and, with luck, I could get most of my veg some weeks for pennies and that personally I would be spending that money on some chicken thighs or sausage meat or pork mince. On a REALLY good week, I'd be spending it on some 20p meat items from the chiller :-D.

I think a paragraph some where that talks about this might have value, but I dont know where to begin with writing it I'm afraid.


Just my thoughts, I am hugely enjoying the thread and seeing what is possible.

weezl74

arty bear, You offered your googling fingers

If the family eat 1 kg of cooking bacon over the month at 3.9g sodium per 100g, how much of their total sodium in diet would this use up or exceed? We're going for a 31 day month, and we're assuming the kids are 12 and 14 and mum and dad are 45 ish... normal build if that helps

If you fancy looking up some of the health implications of the nitrates the bacon contains too, that would be fab.

Fire fox, I hope that doesn't double up with you, I figured you may have hands full with magnesium etc...

weezl74

queen_of_string wrote: »

To add to the roast dinner debate, there have been periods in my life when we have gone for months without a roast dinner. I dont think it's quite the staple it used to be.

Now I am not working, we tend to eat one once a fortnight, but we now eat lots of things we didnt when I worked shifts full time, like home made bread :-).

I think the meal plan now is very light on meat, but if that's how it has to be to spend so little, and given people are doing this because they have to (mostly) to survive, then you have to eat what you can afford. There are plenty of things on the plan I wouldn't normally expect the kids to eat, however, in dire finanacial circumstances, I would know they were all on board with the direness of the situation and there would be an expectation that people ate what was placed in front of them.

I find it frustrating that we are planning for someone who is not used to OS, as I think for me, being familiar with living like that, I know that sometimes there would be leftovers and/or peelings to make occassional soups to vary things. I also know that ASDA is the king of the yellow sticker and, with luck, I could get most of my veg some weeks for pennies and that personally I would be spending that money on some chicken thighs or sausage meat or pork mince. On a REALLY good week, I'd be spending it on some 20p meat items from the chiller :-D.

I think a paragraph some where that talks about this might have value, but I dont know where to begin with writing it I'm afraid.


Just my thoughts, I am hugely enjoying the thread and seeing what is possible.

thank you QOS! I found a thrifty meal planner from canada the other day, and either thrifty is quite different to how I see it, or it costs a packet to live frugally in Canada, so hats off to you My lovely great uncle and Aunt are in ottawa and grow their own and keep bees etc for trading/sales and Great Uncle sells his timber too, so they keep their costs fairly low. He sold his black walnut tree for timber for $400 a couple of years back... That'd pay for a few groceries hey?

xxx

rachbc

Hi I've not commented much so hope no one minds me chipping in with my two penneth on the health v accessibilty debate - my feeling is that it/we/ you should aim to meet the broad recommendations for 5 a day, calorie intake (with additions for active/ hungry people) fibre intake, not exceed sat fat, salt guidelines etc and worry less about getting every trace mineral or vitamin spot on.

A diet can be broadly speaking 'healthy' without being nutritionally perfect can't it?And if striving to make it so causes it to becomes increasingly alienating for the man on the street then imho its better to have more folks eating 95% well than less eating 99% well....

In addition I also want t say I think you are all awesome - I am truely moved that a bunch of strangers can work so brilliantly together on a project like this for no individual gain- the hard work and dedication is inspirational

artybear

Ok... this is what I have found so far -please tell me if its not useful!!!

Sodium and salt are interchangeable for some guidance bodies which I thought was interesting as obviously sodium is just Na however salt is sodium chloride NaCl. Many of these figures come form American websites as they seem more concerned with sodium as a lone element rather than as a compound in salt. British websites rarely discuss Sodium just our salt intake. I wasn't sure exactly which you wanted so just thought I would point this out.

So the RDA for sodium seems to be between 1.6 and 2.4g a day for a healthy adult. Obviously children are recommended less but they seem to class children as <10 so our strapping lads are fine.

Therefore the bacon works out as 39g for the month which works out at 1.25g per day meaning there can be leeway of up to 1.15 a day or 35.65g per month at the upper limit.

On the other hand the Uk RDA for salt (NaCl) seems to be 6g- however reading reports this is more because they are trying to reduce the nations intake from a much higher number, not because they feel it is a suitable amount to eat.

Goodness I knew my Chemistry A level would come in handy one day lol!!!

ArtybearXXXX

Puddleglum

Reporting back on opperation "Hollow Leg".

Family was pleasantly surprised to have porridge and toast given to them this morning even though they had to get out of their pits early to get it. DS had 2 slices of toast, DD one and I don't know if DH had any at all.

I didn't have any apple curd so replaced it with a vegan banana and cocoa spread made with bananas from the freezer. That was not well received and prompted DS to give the meal 9/10. DD didn't eat all of her toast.

They also had a cup of tea.

DS had his lunch at 11 o'clock (don't ask!) and said that his hollow legs were ok until 1.30 when he became excruciatingly hungry. DD has declined to comment but has put in quite a bit of snacking.

I didn't have the ingredient's for Allegra's Risi el Bisi so concocted a lentil and egg with rice dish of approximately the same proportions. DS and DD finished about 20 mins ago and still haven't wanted to snack. I would be seriously worried if they did though!:j

Puddleglum

homegrown_life

weezl74 wrote: »

I wondered if anyone might do a little research about whether adding bicarb to lemon juice destroys the vitamin C.

I'm still none the wiser on this one and am in danger of being lost in the depths of google!! :rotfl:

Mostly I've seen that bicarb will destroy vitamin c when added to vegetables (wonders if the steeping tablet is bicarb and can be liberated from the dried peas.... if I wasn't in bed I'd check the box downstairs).

*technical bit alert* Anyway, I also stumbled across sodium ascorbate which is made when you mix ascorbic acid (or vitamin C) with Bicarbonate of Soda. I know we're planning Bicarb and lemon juice but lemon juice will have ascorbic acid so wondered if same thing should be left?? But I am out of my depth here and wondered if anyone with any chemistry knowledge knew any more. All I can find is bicarb destroys vit c, but something should be left and with the knowledge above, well I was just curious.

I may google more in the morning, but like I said I'm in danger of being lost!! :eek:

Murrell

Is it possible to add a fruit or a drink of orange juice (fruit better for fibre and diabetics) that isn't dried to go with the porridge (at least on the veggie days) so that the vitamin C in the fruit will make the iron in the oats available?
I hope i've explained this ok. I of course don't want to muck up your plan or make it more expensive.

I do have dried fruit in my porride but always have fruit such as banana, mandarin or blueberries with mine, depending on what I have in. Of course blueberries are expensive, but bananas and mandarins are usually on offer. I do this because I am vegan. I know that fruit varies in price a lot, I am not on the breadline, so luckily have not had to compare prices, although we are looking into eating our healthy plan a little cheaper, as will have less money from April, so this has been an interesting thread to look at when I have the time.

Sorry if this has already been discussed. Haven't read every post.

I think what you are doing is great and all the help you are getting is also great.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Sandra
x

weezl74

rachbc wrote: »

Hi I've not commented much so hope no one minds me chipping in with my two penneth on the health v accessibilty debate - my feeling is that it/we/ you should aim to meet the broad recommendations for 5 a day, calorie intake (with additions for active/ hungry people) fibre intake, not exceed sat fat, salt guidelines etc and worry less about getting every trace mineral or vitamin spot on.

A diet can be broadly speaking 'healthy' without being nutritionally perfect can't it?And if striving to make it so causes it to becomes increasingly alienating for the man on the street then imho its better to have more folks eating 95% well than less eating 99% well....

In addition I also want t say I think you are all awesome - I am truely moved that a bunch of strangers can work so brilliantly together on a project like this for no individual gain- the hard work and dedication is inspirational

Thanks Rach It's really amazing me too how willing folk are to contribute, and thanks to you too for sharing your thoughts, you're a part of it now!

artybear wrote: »

Ok... this is what I have found so far -please tell me if its not useful!!!

Sodium and salt are interchangeable for some guidance bodies which I thought was interesting as obviously sodium is just Na however salt is sodium chloride NaCl. Many of these figures come form American websites as they seem more concerned with sodium as a lone element rather than as a compound in salt. British websites rarely discuss Sodium just our salt intake. I wasn't sure exactly which you wanted so just thought I would point this out.

So the RDA for sodium seems to be between 1.6 and 2.4g a day for a healthy adult. Obviously children are recommended less but they seem to class children as <10 so our strapping lads are fine.

Therefore the bacon works out as 39g for the month which works out at 1.25g per day meaning there can be leeway of up to 1.15 a day or 35.65g per month at the upper limit.

On the other hand the Uk RDA for salt (NaCl) seems to be 6g- however reading reports this is more because they are trying to reduce the nations intake from a much higher number, not because they feel it is a suitable amount to eat.

Goodness I knew my Chemistry A level would come in handy one day lol!!!

ArtybearXXXX

Fan flippin tastic artybear

The only other thing that seems to contain much salt is that each bag of bread flour needs 15g salt adding to make the bread. We're making 8 bags worth of bread. How does that further diminish our headroom? When's the poker over, I'll give you a really long list!:rotfl:

I've just been dusting off my french and have learnt that france like the uk wants 5 a day, but doesn't count potatoes