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

sarymclary

Thank you for the warm welcome... it always surprises me that I may be 'known' elsewhere on this site!

Recipes I'm up for trying out over the next few days include:
falafels
cottage pie
cereal bars

I've just done a whole batch of cakes this weekend for the packed lunches, so next week I'll do the carrot cake.

Re. the lasagne sheets debate. The basics ones in Sainsburys are only 30p, I've been buying them for a couple of years now. Sometimes, when the family have been fancying a lasagne, but I've not had enough sheets to make one, I've created a pasta shapes 'lasagne' instead. It's actually more satisfying in portion size than an ordinary lasagne.

I'd suggest making the ordinary ragu, cooking pasta shapes until al dente, making a value style white sauce (I use some strong hard cheese as others suggest) sprinkle a little nutmeg & seasoning, and use a 70/30 water/milk ratio for the white sauce. Assemble either in layers, or just mix the ragu with the pasta, place in ovenproof dish, pour over the white sauce, sprinkle a sparing amount of cheese on top, but enough to go golden. Bake for 30 mins, or until piping hot.

I've had some thoughts about Shirley's bread baking too. I make my own bread, unless I pick up supermarket whoopsies (I live about 10 doors from a Co-op) and this evening stocked up the freezer on 10p loaves. Ideal for toast, and I can get the wholegrain, speciality breads. However, when Shirley is making her bread batches, she could, even without the Poundland tins make bloomers, but also create her own demi-baguettes, which with a bit of garlic paste and marg, would work well as accompaniments to the pasta or chilli dishes. By stocking these in the freezer as part-baked, she'd be saving time.

I had another thought too, where Shirley can adapt her ingredients during a month, and create alternatives. The ingredients she will be buying, will enable her to bake things like a hot cross bun fruit loaf, which would be a nice breakfast alternative, or even lunchbox addition. She could be grating the zest off the oranges she's buying and using that in some of her recipes.

If I were using the list, and thinking of myself as Shirley, I think I would aim to treat myself to one additional store cupboard item each month, of say up to £1. That way I could increase my options for spices/herbs, which would last a long time, but help to keep the mealplan new and interesting. I guess we have to hope that a time goes on, Shirley becomes naturally more creative.

The calorie/nutrition site I've been using is : http://www.foodfocus.co.uk/aboutus.php

In_Search_Of_Me

phew just back from knitting and trying to catch up! Mum coming later in the week so will give the alafels a go. Did make a variation of weezles chick pea and sun dried tom pate today but added some olives too...yummy!
Aww gorgeous Ferg!! Now peple can see how cute he is but hard to appreciate just a photo as while looking like he has a twinkle he is (in my personal and professional opinion) a calm, serine and content boy and even when hes unhappy it barely gets a grizzle! Looking forward to meeting his brother too...do you think we can get weezl away from comp while in labor...have visions of her cooking and commenting on a recipe mid way...!!!

queen_of_string

I have tried something!!!

These are very very easy to make. The herbs dont seem to add much but I added 1/2tsp not 1 tsp so maybe more next time.

You only need about a teaspoon of bacon per turnover so probably one rasher per 4 turnovers.

They are very very yummy, the outsides go crispy with the fat and they are softer and chewy inside. I had 2 for my lunch and would probably have 2 for breakfast tbh.

HTH

I had a spot of ketchup with mine, they need something moist I think.


Edit: also nice cold, herbs more noticeable in cold ones.

FrankieM

Chilli Mince,
Everyone ate it and was full up. I made half again to feed 6 people and I had a portion leftover as well so 7 portions. There was loads in the saucepan.

We generally found it a bit sweet. I'm not sure if that was the added carrot or if something needed to be added to the tomatoes...perhaps a dash of Worcestershire Sauce??
The rice and peas were a hit though and I had about 3 portions of that leftover too.

I have a picture but it won't load...can I send it to someone's email address and they could load it for me?

queen_of_string

I dont know how widespread this is, but I thought it worth a mention. If there were ever sqeezing room in the budget, can I put in a vote for ketchup please? The reason being, my 15 yr old DS, when faced with a dinner that is less than a favourite ( a score of 3 on Mr Allegra's scale) will plough through it without complaint, especially if it can be dosed with ketchup. It's also an ingredient I throw a blob of into lots of things for body. Some of even the value ones are made with real food now. I was just thinking it may be a way of easing the passage of new and maybe more challenging meals into the family diet.

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

There was also a delicious looking St David's day recipe on the good food website today - a welsh onion cake which was just butter, onions, tatties and rosemary. I wondered if we could do something with this idea for the veggie frugal plan?

Going to give it a go tomorrow as this might make a frugal pudding for one of the planners. It could provide some calories and dessicated coconut appears to contain some Iron, folate and Omega 6 going by some of the websites I've just looked at.

thanks I'll look up that welsh recipe now!

Frugal pudding: I guess it really depends how stuck on the cups of tea with fresh milk we think people are. I can do a pudding without custard 3ish times a week if we axe the tea, or we can use the sweet snacks as a meal ender if people want to keep the tea?

weezl74

new recipe index needed!

Anyone up for a little stint of indexing

weezl74

Recipe index

chilli mince with rice and peas
cottage pie
egg free onion tart
lasagne with a garlic and mustard sauce
egg free carrot cake
onion tart
breakfast pancakes
chutney
HM pizza
tangy bean pate

weezl74

anyone willing to recipe test this, it's for Bob and shirl's breakfast toast and keeps the family getting enough omega 3s

MrsBartolozzi

queen_of_string wrote: »

I dont know how widespread this is, but I thought it worth a mention. If there were ever sqeezing room in the budget, can I put in a vote for ketchup please? The reason being, my 15 yr old DS, when faced with a dinner that is less than a favourite ( a score of 3 on Mr Allegra's scale) will plough through it without complaint, especially if it can be dosed with ketchup. It's also an ingredient I throw a blob of into lots of things for body. Some of even the value ones are made with real food now. I was just thinking it may be a way of easing the passage of new and maybe more challenging meals into the family diet.

I agree, my mother wasn't a great cook and I might have died from malnutrition if it weren't for tomato sauce, an integral part of every meal .
It doesn't have to be expensive either, we love Sains basics at 38p and I imagine Asda's is a similar price.