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

artybear

Evening everyone-well thanks to you all I have had one of the most successful dinner parties I have ever had!!!!!!!!!!

Home made pizza is AWESUM (i have done a survey bit thought I would let you all know). The dough was so easy to make-even though I did end up going to my seminar my flour over my face lol!!

We halved the recipe and made four HUGE pizzas-we did the basic recipe Weezl has posted but added a few bits that were on offer in Tescos.

So we made

-Margarita
-spanish chorizo and german sausage
-veggie (mushrooms/peppers/courgettes)
-one with everything on

I also made HM wedges and a salad. There were three of us (me and Oh and our friend). Both Oh and friend go to the gym 5/6 times a week are 6ft odd and big big men! And both loved the pizzas. We could have easily done without the wedges and salad and it was a satisfying meal!!!

Friend said the tomato sauce was better than dominoes and couldn't believe how simple it was to make.

All in all a brill afternoon as me and OH had sooooooo much fun making the bases, and a lovely evening.

artybearXXXXXXXX

p.s I have piccys if anyone is nosey enough??

shanks77

p.s I have piccys if anyone is nosey enough??[/QUOTE]

Yes i am very nosy!!!!!!!!!! lol

artybear

There you go!!!!!! yummy yummy pizzas-I am so chuffed I made them from scratch and they were so much better than take away

XXXXXXXXX

queen_of_string

they are looking most nom artybear I am most inspired to taste them now

artybear

Thank you! Im just happy they worked so well-Weezl your a star!!!

XXXXXXX

Fivenations

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Re the gluten free products.

If you need gluten free products because you are coeliac, you can get many things via prescription. My brother has this condition and gets all his bread, pasta, flour and biscuits via a prescription season ticket.

Juvela flour is only available this way and makes very passable pastry and cakes. Haven't tried it for bread, that's the hard one of course

Thanks Lesley. I need a retest as when I was last tested I had been gluten free for over 3 months and only afterwards learnt this would have invalidated the test. I would need to start eating gluten again for four weeks and I dont fancy going back to how I was now I feel so well. I'm trying to pick a good time to to start as I know I will be ill but problems keep cropping up. I need to be on top of everything right now.

I'm managing with breads and cakes thanks to a book by Betty Hagman but the pasta is another stroy. I make delicious muffins that everyone thinks are made with wheat. And Dan Lepard has a great gluten free bread recipe that keeps me happy. Still working on the pasta though.

Fivenations

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Fivenations wrote: »

Fivenations I believe that i titled the dish egg free saucy pasta bake. I don't believe that I have referred to it as carbonara anywhere but if I have I apologise for any offence to you or any other Italians on the thread.

I did however post a separate recipes for a carbonara style dish which contained cream but was not baked.

Please could you share your authentic carbonara recipe as it sounds quite frugal?

Dont worry - No offence taken! I would have added a "tongue firmly in cheek" icon if I knew how to!

Here is the recipe I used to cook - it isn't frugal enough for this thread as it contains lots of bacon but that could be reduced and it would still be tasty. There are also no veg.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Ingredients
· 225g pancetta or smoked bacon, cut into 6mm strips
· 2 tablespoons olive oil
· small knob butter
· 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
· 4 tablespoons dry white wine - Optional
· 400- 500g spaghetti
· 3 eggs
· 25g Pecorino cheese
· 60 g Parmesan or grana cheese
· 2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Method
First make sure the table, any other dishes, and diners are ready as the pasta must be served as soon as it is ready.
Start heating uo water in a large pan - I use a stockpot.
Place oil, butter and crushed garlic into saucepan or small frying pan and turn on heat to medium high. When garlic turns a deep golden, remove and discard it.
Put the pancetta or bacon into the pan and gently fry until it begins to be crisp at the edges.
Optional - Add the wine, and let it boil away for a minute or two then turn off heat.
When the water has comemto a boil add spaghetti.
While pasta is cooking take the bowl from which you will be serving the pasta later and break into it three eggs. Beat them lightly then mix In the cheeses, parsley, salt and pepper.
When pasta is cooked - al dente – drain it and put it into the serving bowl with the bacon, egg and cheese mixture. Toss rapidly until well mixed and serve immediately!

weezl74

How very exciting to wake up to news of Arty's exciting pizza adventures, with yummy pictures :T:T:T:T

I think your story could be a great inclusion in our proposed FAQ's section, perhaps under 'We'd really like to have someone over for supper, which one of the dishes can we add a little to for a great dinner party evening?'

Our own verdict on the bacon roll. Hmmmmn. Not such a resoundidng success here. Mr BE's recipe calls for Gas mark 6 for an hour but after 40mins it had caught on both enda and the pastry was very dry on the outside I fancy a rehash, but I would like to do it as a steamed pudding. So will experiment further and let you know.

The other thing I would do is soak the cooking bacon first, because even a salt-free suetcrust pastry absorbed such a lot of salt from the bacon that we felt it was too salty. I think shirley could use the bacon soaking water as the base of a nice stock for a pea soup, rather as Lesley did with that find of bones from the butcher

Very off topic weezl update for people who like that sort of thing:

After the all clear from the obstetrician on tuesday, I managed to complete my last major worry task about Kester coming which was to arrange delivery of a birth pool in time for Tuesday, which is the earliest he's allowed to arrive at home (cos 37 weeks doesn't count as premature). Sarah Joanne is very kindly lending us hers:A and it arrives by courier on Monday :):):):)

And parcelforce 48 is a very user-friendly courier method if anyone needs that kind of thing in the future....

Ahem, back on topic!

I've been thinking a bit about susan's development of lesley's thoughts about making the rope attractive enough that Bob and shirley want to use it.

I realise I have a lot of resistance to this and I've been asking myself why. I think Lesley asked me why as well and I haven't really answered yet!

I'll try now.

• for me the plan already represents compromise rather than extremism (yep reader! That's how extreme I am! Even my compromises are extreme ) I know a normal family can do this for cheaper. If Bob and shirley lived on 50p a day we'd save them a further £438 in a year as a family. When I discovered we could meet the calcium requirement by fortifying with calcium citrate (PS I've checked, and interestingly we can do this with battery chicken eggshells Ceridwen, all eggshell is made of calcium, like human teeth and bones, it's just that arguably a FR chicken may have a stronger shell due to better nutrition. It would be the difference between using 99 FR eggshells or 100 battery farmed chicken eggshells though, ie barely noticeable) and that it would save us £9 in the month, everything in me wanted to get shirley to do it. But I did compromise

• my belief that debt and financial struggle is a silent killer. I can't get away from this chain smoking Bob and Shirley. I am hugely impacted by that statistic. 75-100 cigarettes daily! I know I go on about that. But it really fuels me. For me none of the other discussions we have carry that much clout, excepting that we must provide enough protein and energy that no-one starves, or vitamins and minerals that they damage their bodies long term. Above that, all else is luxury.

• my belief that the attitude we are up against is wrong and a product of a greedy economy which filters down unhealthily. And therefore I HATE that we have to bow down to it.

Even if Shirley is the only woman at work who baked her own bread and fortified it herself using a fantastically inventive waste not want not method. And everyone else thought she was weird beyond measure: I DON'T CARE! I think she's right (I know I'm a hypocrite about the kids getting bullied :))
if Shirley earns £15000 a year, she would have to earn £4,860.00 over her working life not to use that extreme method, and that's if she'd only drink powdered instead. If she'd insisted on fresh milk, the saving of doing this over her working life would be £21,060.00. (source Martin's demotivator calculator )
I'm just sharing these thoughts so people know how far I'm already pushing myself to try to make the rope as attractive as possible :)

• Finally: I really struggle if to make the rope attractive enough, we have to reduce it's effectivity proportionally. For me adding to the budget represents this. I feel that every £5 we add to the budget is a weakening of our rope's ability to pull shirley out of her hole. I want to offer her a strong sturdy rope. I struggle to offer her a flimsy bit of string just cos she doesn't like the way the rope hangs in her hole!

So, It's like you, this lovely team are in a really interesting middle place! You see Shirley, unwilling to compromise, but might try a few things, and you see weezl, who is very much trying to compromise but really feels she's gone as far as she can :rotfl:. And you guys in the middle!

Wow, tricky! I'm amazed it's a journey you still want to go on.;):beer:

And after my rant it probably won't be

Anyhooo, that's my thought-through answer to Lesley's question about my clinging so tightly to this random budget figure

weezl74

PS I don't mean my last post to sound defensive or huffy. Just that I think people are a bit perplexed by me and were genuinely wanting an explanation. I in no way mind being asked, and just hope I'm not too controversial for anyone

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

PS I don't mean my last post to sound defensive or huffy. Just that I think people are a bit perplexed by me and were genuinely wanting an explanation. I in no way mind being asked, and just hope I'm not too controversial for anyone

'Morning Weezl

Dont think that sounds defensive. I think we all know where you are coming from. Actually - you are more compromising than me in some ways - as ITRW I would turn round to Bob & Shirley and say "You choose - either food or cigarettes. No-one's forcing you to light up - so if you want to get out a match in one hand and a £5 note in the other one and set light to that £5 note - your choice/your downfall. Just dont come moaning to me that you cant afford to eat if you decide to continue smoking."

So - I'm a harsh lady in that respect our Weezl.

My personal concern in any financial situation (including my own) - is to ask first and foremost "Who put me/them in that situation? Whose doing was it?" and the answer for me and I suspect a huge number of other people is:
"If its my fault/choice - then I'll sacrifice a lot to get out of the hole"
BUT
"If its been forced onto me - eg an employer cutting my salary/fuel bills leaping up/etc - then dont expect much co-operation from me. I'll only do what suits me and wont cause me too much hardship."

Hence - my "the rock on which to build" stance I hold.

Give 'em the Weezl Dead Basics and then those of us who know that WE ourselves arent responsible for the "hole" we are in - so are prepared to make very few compromises as a consequence - will add in the bits "vital" to us.

So - if I, for instance, made a deliberate decision to go for a more ethical job and had a drastic paycut as a consequence then I would follow the Plan to probably a 90% type level.

If "outside agencies" (employers/fuel companies/etc) had put me in that position - then I would use the Plan but:
- eggs would remain F.R.
- I'd still have my coffee on top
- it would still be olive oil/honey for sweetening/wholemeal everything/higher quality butter spread/organic basic dairy products/plenty of fruit & veg

but I would be using the recipes given in the Plan and regarding myself as being very economical for not having ingredients like fancy cheeses/shop-bought bread/fancy pastas/doing without my balsamic vinegar/etc IYSWIM.

So - yep...full speed ahead with the Plan - knowing that people will bear these considerations in mind and/or get influenced by other family members who are doing so if the cook isnt. One point I am aware of - though single myself (so only my wishes to consider) is that I wonder whether many OH's who subvert economical foodplanning in a household are telling themselves "Well - I am the one who is earning the bulk of the money in this household - so I should be able to say what I eat out of that money." Fully understandable position to take actually - and I would think that how "entitled" Bob was to hold this viewpoint would depend entirely on the "family politics" within each individual family. If Bob hasnt had his say in important family decisions (eg how many children to have and when/where to live/fair shares on the paid work involved in "keeping the ship afloat" - ie Shirley recognises that he has just as much right to cut his job to part-time and expect support from O.H. as she has) - then he will dig his heels in and expect the food he expects (and I would support him in this - because Shirley hadnt been fair to him in the first place).

If Shirley had always been fair to Bob and important decisions like that had always been joint ones - then Shirley would be entitled to hide away food/follow economy food strategies/etc as necessary.

So - in both situations - the:
- shortage of money coming into the household situation
and
- the enough money if family priorities are right but maybe Shirley hasnt been fair to Bob in the "family politics" set-up

there might well be someone digging their heels in and being a "refusenik" - because "outside agencies" or Shirley had put them in this situation - rather than it being their own doing IYSWIM.

Hence - the argument to "make the rope more attractive".

....errrmmm..thinks we've wandered back onto the Plan as a rock on which to build - and we suggest healthier and/or nicer options to Bob & Shirley if their budget allows or someone in the household is entitled to be a refusenik if they choose (because of reasons above).