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

shanks77

vandanfc wrote: »

Weezl how about going right back to the original "original" plan.

It contained variety, was not unhealthy, probably healthier than B & S 's normal diet.

The plan you originally created was then tweaked to death to meet the requirements to have the "perfect" diet.

I think you should carry on as well and i am quite happy to help where i can but hopefully some of the brainy ones will stay on to help with the things like spreadsheets etc. At the end of the day this is your thread and you should do what makes you happy Weezl. The original plan was good and varied and whilst it did lack a bit of the essentials that were needed it wouldnt kill them to do it for a couple of months and after Shirley has bought her first month of herbs and spices salt etc that would free up some money for next month to buy more of the food stuffs that do have the extra calcium/omega. I dont think my diet is full of these things at the moment but its not too bad and i am fairly healthy and it will be good for Bob and Shirley as i imagine them to be eating ready meals and carryouts so whatever we give them will be a huge improvement on what they are already eating.
Looking forward to moving forward with this thread and hope you achieve your aim before the birth.
Let me know how if i can help (in the untechnical way) and i will be happy to do what i can. Well done so far look how far you/we have come and how many people have come together with ideas and help. Lets see it through to the end.:)

Ok will climb down from my soap box now getting a nosebleed from the height

poohbear59

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi there!

Can I get some views on bob and shirley having reconstituted milk (ie from powder) in their tea rather than fresh milk? It will represent a saving that will make the rest of the meal planner much more palatable and normal seeming

Love weezl x

Hi I have been AWOL recently.
I make up a jug of milk from powder and keep it in the fridge. I wouldn't put the milk straight onto the tea as it can go lumpy.

It is not too good on cereal but in tea my sons haven't noticed. I will try it on DH this afternoon and see what he thinks.

spotdogkez

HiI too belong to the 'it's taken me a week to read this' and I think it is fantastic.I would be sad to see it go and have taken quite a few hints, tips and recipes on board.Weezl, isn't there also another message in all of this - does it not show how expensive it is to eat healthily. Could this hard work and research also be used to lobby government about changes to the pricing structure of foods. Those convenience, high fat, generally unhealthier type foods should be made more expensive and the funds used to subsidise the healthier fruits and veg etc.I, personally, would like to see you continue along the lines of what others have suggested - a basic (the original £100)) meal plan that is someway to being healthy but with alternative recipes and costings for those who want more meat, more Omegas, more fresh fruit etc. As has already been said, it would then have the added value of being adaptable for a larger range of people/families. Please don't let this be the end. I see this as the continuation of a very worthwhile project.

phizzimum

weezl74 wrote: »

But it's not for us. It's subsistence.

this is where I'm getting confused...when we started there was talk of how you could live on a diet of just baked beans and porridge, or peanut butter sandwiches and milk. I have no doubt that a person could - to me, this is subsistence.

then we turned to making this a perfect diet. from the discussions we've had i've come to realise that my diet is far from perfect when it comes to colours, calcium and omega 3. but is this subsistence?

so originally subsistence was the unique selling point. then it became nutrional balance. weezl, I just feel like we're in danger of falling between two stools here - do you really think we can achieve both? if you do - yay! let's go for it! if we're going to go back to a purely subsistence menu - decide now.

I know people will say that no-one in this country should be living on a subsitence diet. but the fact that we frequently see threads called "help! only have £x to feed family till end of month" shows that sadly it does happen.

I also agree that for most "average" (whatever that means) people making these dietary changes will be hard. As ceridwen says, you can take a horse to water but can't make it drink. but you can ensure that the water they are offered is healthy and appealing as possible.

sorry, guess I'm waffling now! what I really want to say is that I think we need Weezl to clarify the parameters of the project. then we can get on with road testing more yummy recipes!

poohbear59

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi there!

Can I get some views on bob and shirley having reconstituted milk (ie from powder) in their tea rather than fresh milk? It will represent a saving that will make the rest of the meal planner much more palatable and normal seeming

Love weezl x

Just to let you know the men are drinking tea and coffee with reconstituted milk in it and haven't noticed/ mentioned it!! As you already know I use it in sauces already with no complaints.

I am busy boiling kidney beans, chick peas and marrowfat peas for freezing. Haven't caught up properly on here yet but noticed a mention of using bicarb. If that was for the peas we stopped using it years ago as it reduces the vit c. Just soak overnight and boil as they are. Then freeze when cooled in bags or plastic cups.

poohbear59

I just told DB that I had experimented on him with the milk and he looked horrified and asked me if it was breast milk!! I must add I am far too old to have breast milk in the house.

He says the tea is fine with reconstituted milk in it.

phizzimum

poohbear59 wrote: »

I just told DB that I had experimented on him with the milk and he looked horrified and asked me if it was breast milk!! I must add I am far too old to have breast milk in the house.

He says the tea is fine with reconstituted milk in it.

well done poohbear! maybe we need to do a little sneaky experimenting

poohbear59

phizzimum wrote: »

well done poohbear! maybe we need to do a little sneaky experimenting

I always do sneaky experimenting:)

Sometimes the cheapest veggie meals turn out to be the favourites. My very carnivorous DS1 absolutely loves spicy lentil stew, shepherds pie and soup. He was introduced to it without me telling him the meat was missing!!

BTW We are almost subsistence living here as we have five adults out of work.
Maybe I could phrase that better. Two students, two self employed with no work and me!

JayJay14

Just to let you know I made the falafel yesterday and OH and I have just had them for lunch.

As there are only two of us I really should have halved the recipe but they were fine. OH keeps going back and pinching those that are left. We had them with pitta bread (Asda SP 19p for 6) with a few salad leaves that we had left over in the fridge. I also put some onion chutney in - not HM as it was left over from Xmas.

This was the first time I had ever had falafel and they were quite nice. OH certainly had no problem with them. I might fiddle with the spicing a bit when I make them again.

taka

Oh blimey Weezl... I'm sorry! But this is waaaaaay to important to give up on.

This is your dream, passion and hope to help families in financial hardship. I want to help with that any way I can but some decisions need to be made, preferably by you. Do you want to feed the family...


(a) on as little as poss £££s, not necessarily meeting the government healthy eating/nutrient guidelines

• True subsistance, I guess.
• Very Cheap.
• Might or might not be easy to "sell" the meal plan to the people it could help, depending on what is included.
• You may not get the support from health/government/charity sources or whomsoever you wish to lobby as it does not meet their guidelines.

(b)... on as little as poss £££s, meeting the government/healthy eating/nutrient guidelines.

• Lets call it "heathy" subsistance eg 5 a day, full Omega, calcium etc.
• Might or might not be easy to "sell" the meal plan to the people it could help, depending on what is included.
• You may get some support from health/government/charity sources as it ticks their responsible healthy eating boxes.
• Cheap but not as much as (a).

(c)... meeting the government/ healthy eating/nutrient guidelines with an interesting "normalish" meal plan (eg a balanced version of last weeks without the sunday roast?)

• Not subsistance any more.
• Much easier to "sell" the meal plan to the people it would help.
• You may get the support from health/government/charity sources as it'd tick their responsible healthy eating boxes. They may be more willing to look at it as it would appeal to a larger section of people.
• More expensive than (a) and (b) but one hell of a lot less than 99% of the population spend on food. By the sounds of it ~ £20 or so more than the £100 ASDA plan? *need shruggy smiley here*
• You may get wider interest from people trying to eat healthier or frugally in general - which may mean it reaches more people, including those it is designed for (now or in the future if they hit a crisis).

I think we are currently torn somewhere between (a) and (b)... its a healthyish plan but not 100% so, it might not be the most appealing but it probably wouldn't cause major harm to live on for a short while.

Personally, I think (c) would be the best as it'd capture so many more people (those who it'd help AND those who'd point others in its direction)and make them believe it is possible and fully attainable. We could still point out that if you dropped/swapped XYZ you could live on (b) plan and save an extra £x but we'd already have got, and KEPT, their attention. Maybe in month 2 when the family has got used to living uber frugally a bit more pland (b) could be used?

I think plan (c) would scare off less people initially and in the end help them more (even if it does cost more)... They may stick with it instead of a dieter style binge on forbidden foods that they can't afford and would probably cost them more than the difference between the (b) and (c) plans.

This thread has also made me face up to the fact that MY diet needs a fair bit of tweeking and I dare say thats true for a lot of people, even those who think they eat healthily already.

I don't know. This thread has got me thinking (and worrying lol) about Bob and Shirley et al and I just want it to work somehow...

Where do you want this to go Weezl? What do you want to do with this?