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

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

weezl - you informed that 40g was your DH's usual allowance for the nut butter .

also carrot cake question: I've made the new eggless one with orange-y drizzle. Do I drizzle the whole lot on the cake now and it'll just soak in and we can eat it for the coming days/weeks? Or do I have to add the topping to pieces right before eating? (b/c the 2nd method is a PITA and makes me wonder how I will store the separate components plus send pieces with DH to work)...???? Storage is a problem with these cake things...how do other people do it?? seems very uneconomical to individually cling film each piece for the freezer

thanks! Oh I'm too boring to remember things I've said :rotfl:

I drizzled it over the whole lot. DH has been taking it to work but we have a teeny tupperware that goes inside his lunchbox which keeps the ooze off his sarnies!

Must think of a practical way in case bob wants to take it to work, altho sian's topping may be less oozy and we can swap for hers

Aless the fairy post just came! Thank you so much, a million thank yous. I just held a newborn babygro up next to Fergie and marvelled at how teeny Kester is going to seem :rotfl:

poohbear59

weezl74 wrote: »

I did thanks PB It's great

I'm debating between an oven bakes and a steamed version at the mo....

Although obviously Shirley can tweak as desired! Steaming creates a larger pudding, and therefore the feeling of a more substantial dinner IYSWIM?

Did anyone need supper last night?

Also I wanted to ask, if you didn't mind posting it, what your normal food budget is per person? It's just that you already seem to do so many of these things already!

I have tried both steamed and naked. My boys prefer the baked and then fill up on potato and cabbage when we have it.

My grocery budget is £10 per person per week but includes cleaning, laundry, shower gels etc. I am working it out in more detail this month to seperate the food from the grocery budget. So it is around £1.30 per day at the moment on groceries.

My £10 per person doesn't take into account DS3 from Friday pm to Sun pm or the other ones who 'drop in' for meals. I just eke everything out a bit further. Also have DD and SIL for Sunday dinner and pud every week.

It is still about double your budget. And DH although he is gettting the hang of things doesn't quite 'get it' yet/. He keeps popping into the co-op and picking up 'cheap'packets of hot cross buns.

Sweetcorn soup for lunch today. I usually make thick broths so it will be a change for the men.

Allegra

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

We are a highly motivated lot on OS and very up for saving in any way we can apply. However, we are not the norm and I think we need to bear that in mind, what motivates us won't necessarily motivate B&S

Very good points, as always, Lesley. Thing is, how do you make a person motivated ? How do you make them grab the rope ?

Allegra

poohbear59 wrote: »

I have tried both steamed and naked.

This is shaping up to be quite a different sort of thread.... :rotfl: (Sorry, couldn't resist !)

SusanC_2

ceridwen wrote: »

Ummm....that would mean 2 versions of many recipes though - a meat-eaters version with lard in and a veggie version with buttery spread in (unless we specified lard OR that solid vegetable oil stuff - Trex?) in each recipe concerned.

I'd never thought of that - because it's not "meat" I (incorrectly) think of it the same way as butter.

hornetgirl wrote: »

I was in S.ainsbury's yesterday, and noticed the latest issue of their magazine had an article called something like "Frugal, Filling and Fast - Evening Meals On a Budget." Since it sounded remarkably like what's going on here, I had a look. The first recipe cost £2.45 per head. That's for one person, for one meal! I put it back down in disgust.
This really clarified for me what Weezl is aiming for with £100 per month. Any fool can do it for £2.45 per meal - and no doubt plenty will. But to make a big dent in the debt, you need to make big changes - by doing things very differently. The £100 is definitely the hook on which to hang this project.

I always find all those "frugal" or "cheap" meals irritating too as they're always more than I spend per day never mind per meal - it's no wonder people don't think it's possible to eat healthily for so little when they're told that a £2.45 per head meal is cheap.

weezl74 wrote: »

If I knew people were comfortable with 400g (5 x the 80g) but split as maybe 70g caluflower and 90g tomatoes ie meeting the same vitamin load, then I feel we can achieve the squash. Does that make any sense?

It's just that people have been hammered on MSE threads before for not getting the exact 5 a day in the exact NHS way into children before, and I don't want that to be the reason we lose shirley.

Do you think the typical person spends time weighing out their fruit and veg and making sure they get equal portions of all the different colours every day? (On rereading, that question sounds a bit sarcastic but it isn't meant to be.) My method is just to buy/use a reasonable variety and use reasonable portions. I don't worry about the detail of the precise daily figures and I'm sure very few people do look at what they are eating in that much detail or think that it is that important to actually be that precise about their fruit and veg.

poohbear59

Allegra wrote: »

This is shaping up to be quite a different sort of thread.... :rotfl: (Sorry, couldn't resist !)

:rotfl::rotfl:That would be a bit cold too!!

aless02

wow, those were some speedy fairies, i only sent it yesterday! No probkem either - just "paying it forward".

Thx for carrot cake info, we have a tiny tupperware too, just trying to think of long term, ie freezer, storage.

Wow, poohbear, that's a fantastic budget!!

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

also carrot cake question: I've made the new eggless one with orange-y drizzle.

did yours rise ok Aless, I'm thinking mine might need a tad of vinegar as a raising agent... My parents find it doughy like a welsh cake rather than light like a sponge cake. They like the flavour though

other parent feedback: they love the pumpkin seed butter and have eaten nearly a jar of it :eek::)

the cereal apple slices are also a hit :T:T:T

My mim is secretly a tesco finest girl, so this is indeed a high accolade.

FrankieM

weezl I don't mind about the squash, of course my children may not feel the same way!
It is just giving me something more to think about.
I wonder whether we also have a tendency to see food as a reward and/or treat so the idea of being 'sustained' doesn't really figure into what we buy to cook and eat because we want to have what we want to have. We feel we deserve it so its about comfort food and what we perceive as quality...perhaps a bit 'live to eat' as opposed to 'eat to live'?

Sorry if I've gone off on a tangent...

aless02

weezl - I added a tsp of bking soda to be honest, b/c I noticed there was no rising agent in the mix! It was also mega-dry with no liquids in the recipe, so I added just enough oil to make a proper wet batter.