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

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

oooh Allegra you've reminded me I never responded to this.

Why am I concerned that people don't manage their finances well?

• my main one: it points to the fact that people have not been taught how to live within means, and the importance of that from an early age. This is an indictment at a government level, and one I'd like to see addressed in my lifetime.
• If Bob and Shirley are currently like the families shown on economy gastronomy, then they are throwing away 15-10% of their food produce because they haven't been shown how to manage food without waste. This to me has 2 sad parts, environmentally, how sad that the ground has been worked to produce this, without need since it is now refuse and also globally, since we do live in a world where people still starve for lack of these things.
• It isn't true that one familys debt doesn't impact others. (please be aware that I do not think this is Bob and Shirley's fault) It does cost us all a lot. If this health psychologist statistic that this much debt is an equivalent health risk as smoking 75 to 100 cigarettes daily is correct, then Bob and Shirley create more costs for the NHS.
• If they have to become bankrupt, then our economy soaks up the costs that incurs to their debtors.
• If they have to have a sub-prime mortgage or accept a payday loan or loan shark agreement, they further a corrupt system which needs to end.
• If they make a lifestyle of living above one's means look very glamourous, and Jenny and Jason tease other children at school for not having snazzy, branded goods in their lunchboxes then other families will find it harder to live within their means too.

so socially, environmentally, economically, and at a level of demand on our welfare system and infrastructure (like the NHS) it matters to me how one family manages their cash.

And I'll just say this again, because I really believe it: It's not Bob and Shirley's fault.

The UK made it look glamorous, desirable and created a ridiculous banking system to support it

At many levels it does matter what one family does.

My belief here is that the personal is political.

And that is partly what fuels me

Step off soap box, interested to see if sparks will fly

To be honest, very much doubt they will, considering that we are all here because we subscribe, to some extent at least, to the same philosophy as you, Weezl. Take this post to discussion time, though.... Or even better, somewhere altogether separate from MSE on the whole, and yeah, there may well be fireworks !

Going back to my/Ceridwen's earlier exchange, though - that was not so much about why help people out of a hole (I get the impression that we all do think that this is very much a good thing), but how to make the rope that we are braiding for their rescue an attractive proposition. Much as I see the sense in the argument that many people will not even consider the rope because our rough, home-braided affair may scratch their hands and climbing it may be very hard work, my view is that, regardless of how attractive we make this rope of ours (lovingly hand-braided from home-tended, hand-weeded, raised on classical music and excerpts from "Chronicles of Narnia" 100% legal organic hemp, smoothed with ethically minded and ecologicaly fair-traded lanolin oil - this is not just any old rope, this is an MSE rope !), it will still be ignored until the people who need it make the necessary switch in their own mind to accept that, yes, they are in a hole, and yes, getting out really would be a jolly good thing, innit.

Backtracking here a wee bit, I used to work in the debt recovery department of a large lender, and specialised in insolvency for about 6 months or thereabouts, until it became a case of shift elsewhere or have a breakdown. So I shifted sideways for a while, eventually leaving the lender altogether for a job I find much more worth my, or anyone else's while. Why the autobiographical tangent ? Because I have to say that I do find it rather difficult to be sympathetic towards anyone whose debts were incurred by Ground-Force-inspired design garden makeover and the like, and this is definitely a hangover from all those work hours spent evaluating IVA proposals from people who thought nothing of suggesting that a large portion of their debt be wiped off whilst they keep their Sky package and gym membership.

On the other hand, there were times in my old job when I was damn near in tears, such as when filing the financial history of a woman who made herself bankrupt shopping in PoundStretcher or the lad who did the same after running up huge credit card bills on Domino's pizza and Blockbuster DVD rentals. Why ? Because it appeared to me that these two - and scores of others like them - tried to live frugally based on the generally available, half-way advice. She shopped in discount shops, he stayed in with pizza and DVDs instead of going out on the town with his mates. It wasn't enough.

This is why I feel that a rope is a rope is a rope, and as long as it's, as you said, Weezl, a sturdy affair able to take on the combined weight of a whole family and their associated debts, it does not matter how unattractive it looks compared to the rainbow-velvet strings that my two bankrupt former clients tried to entrust their salvation to.

Want your soapbox back now ? :cool:

kezlou

Hi Weezl,

Just wanted to come on well done to you and everyone who's been helping you you have all done excellent jobs. I'm enjoying looking through the thread and gaining new recipes, ideas etc. Would also be happy to try out recipes if my budget allows it. Ican't test everything but i'm willing to try as much as i can. If that's all right with you?
I'm currently on page 31 of the thread so please be gentle as i haven't read it all through yet .

I currently feed 2 adults and 2 children and 2 adult cats on about, well the grocery challenge i've said £2000 for the year if current job / rent stays the same.That works out about £167ish to spend a month on food,pack lunches, drinks, snacks, pets i.e food and cat litter, all cleaning products and other needed in that area. In reality i actually have less than £100 and other months even less and that's being generous. a few years ago we had even less for two months and luckily i found this site and mbaz thread and my god that really helped me out beyond belief. I couldn't cook form scratch i tended to use more pastes/sauces but now i can. I was never taught has a child to cook in the slightest and ate junk food constantly as that was what on offer at the time. Were on a very low wage even with tax credits included, we pay for everything, NOT a sob story , just trying to show how tight the budget can be at its worst. Were in debt and live within our overdrafts but we are slowly paying our debts off and we realise we can't live like we used to.

To be honest i couldn't just spend £100 in Asda as i find it way too expensive for my needs and would very likely run out of food very quickly.My 9yr old eats an adults portion of food to himself. Instead i HAVE to shop around to accommodate my families needs. 95% of the food we eat is home made and very healthy, with each meal we have at least 2/3 portions of vegetables. Fruit is always availble both fresh and dry, dried fruit is given less because of the high sugar content.

In order to attempt to make a meal plan for people on low budgets which is healthy, filling and cheap, is to start with the basics. For instance i never knew how to make chicken stock until i read mbaz's thread, or be bothered to completely strip a chicken. so if you were going to release a book/blog etc its best to start simple. I'll try and keep to it using the asda grocery list and meal planner. I would also swap the pork belly for a chicken, but that's just my preference as it would make more meals..

Have say a weeks meal planner which revolves around a chicken.
1)Roast Chicken and Veg
then strip chicken completely and portion the cooked chicken.
2)Make stock using the chicken carcass and bones.
3)Use stock to make risotto (using long grain rice) , any stock leftover use it to make soup.
cooked chicken
3)use it make chicken curry and rice
4)chicken salad / chicken mayo in a wrap (wraps made from plain flour) or with jacket potato
5)chicken and leek pie / bake (use use left over puff pastry to make pasties or sweet things say peanut butter / marmalade on puff pastry?)

Could maybe make four or five meals out of one chicken if portioned correctly.

Also the recipe list could do with a basic bread recipe, a lot of people wouldn't have a clue how to make bread, pastry or pizza dough.

I'm sorry if i'm going on, feel free to ignore, remove this post if you so wish.

I'm not TRYING / TELLING you what/how to do anything, just thought i'd add some suggestions. Hope any of the above helps, if not sorry .

sarymclary

It's taken me the whole morning to catch up on 4 days worth of postings! So much good stuff to read, and didn't want to miss any of it.

I have to admit to being ever so slightly confused about the recipes we're using. The thread is just too massive to find individual updated/tweaked/improved recipes, so I'll have to presume the links to recipes on the 1st page are the ones we're expected to be testing?

Having been involved in other very large, fast-moving threads on here, I agree that the links to the shopping list, recipes, surveys and any other 'usable' documents have to be on the first page. It's the natural place to look, especially as the last page is ever changing. If Shirley logs onto this site for the first time, looking for help with reducing her grocery budget, it has to be made as user-friendly for her as possible. She will be short of time, have a lot of other things on her mind, and will need to be able to quickly dip in and out.

I am still waiting for the right opportunity to try out some recipes. I have copied out the falafel recipe, and am considering adapting the cottage pie recipe today. I plan to put sliced potatoes on top, to make it a bit more interesting.

I know that we're considering an egg-free shopping list, however, I have my own tried and tested Carrot Cake recipe, which I've been asked for twice this past weekend. I even made it as a birthday cake for my sister, and it was all eaten up, while the shop bought, iced birthday cake sat there with only 1 piece having been eaten (my a nut hater)!

Here is my recipe, which can be frualised considerably, if needed, and has a lot less oil than the original one on Pg1.

Sary's Carrot Cake
Ingredients: (Makes 20 portions easily)
140 ml Vegetable Oil
2 eggs
200g sugar (I use light brown)
300g carrots (you can add more to bulk out if you like, it seems to always work)
180g self raising flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
spices of choice: cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and my fave corriander
100g raisins (*optional, or sultanas, or apple, or mixed fruit or none at all)
75g nuts (*optional, pref walnuts/pecans, but I've used chopped monkey nuts or none)
Zest of an orange, plus juice (*optional)

Method: Preheat oven to 150C. Use a loaf, small roasting, or square brownie tin.
Whisk eggs. Add oil, sugar, carrots, [zest, juice, nuts & fruit (if used)], sift in flour, bicarb, salt & spices.

I make a choice of toppings; either a buttercream made with cheap cooking marg., icing sugar, and flavoured with orange zest (you can add the juice to the cake), bottled lemon juice, or some vanilla extract from the store cupboard. Or, I make a small amount of icing sugar with water, and drizzle it across the top after the cake has cooled.

If you leave out the orange zest/juice, it's actually a good base mix to add other flavourings, such as coffee to.

This really does make a very generous cake, so I'm thinking that if it's not used as an addition to packed lunches, or eaten after dinner at night, then half measures could be used, and it would eaily fit into an average sized sponge cake tin (7/8").

BTW, my OH has just noticed a picture of the eggless apple cake on y'blog, and he described it as 'food !!!!!!', so I think we may well be giving that one a go very soon! I'm going to make a coffee version of the carrot cake this week for the boys here to have a variety in their packed lunches.

Natty68

weezl74 wrote: »

YAY, thanks Definitely more testers required! Are you a vegetarian? Do you prefer testing cakes/snacks or main meals or luchtime pates and spreads?

Hi weezl, sorry we aren't vegetarians here and there are only two of us but we are prepared to try anything. The only problem hubby has is he is allergic to anything pork based - kind of a bane really as it doesn't leave a lot for us. I didn't realise how much stuff has pork based products in..

Apart from that we are flexible, I love testing anything although I have a penchant for cakes, snacks, pies, puddings heck anything..lol. Oh and we have a veg box delivered every week too which challenges me a lot, and I mean a lot..lol

weezl74

kezlou wrote: »

Hi Weezl,

Hi kezlou and welcome

I think you'll be pretty spooked as you read on and lots of what you've said is now incoporated, you are a psychic!

I'm encouraged that by shopping around you can have fresh fruit, having realised this can't be done with all the list at one supermarket, it's good to know we can explain to Shirley that when she feels able to go to lots of shops as well as all the batch cooking, bread baking etc she will be able to reintroduce this.

Is it a fruit and veg market you go to?

How much does a fresh piece of fruit work out as from there?

xxx

weezl74

sarymclary wrote: »

I have to admit to being ever so slightly confused about the recipes we're using. The thread is just too massive to find individual updated/tweaked/improved recipes, so I'll have to presume the links to recipes on the 1st page are the ones we're expected to be testing?

.

Hiya, we're in the process of compiling a new list, but it may be a few days

In the mean time, maybe post what you were thinking of trying and one of us can help with the newest version?

I hope that's ok, we are quite a new team whose project has become fast paced quicker than I was expecting, so this is all very much just at the work in progress stage! But yes, you're absolutely right, when we put it out there for shirley, it will be properly referenced and indexed and clear to read, or I think it won't be at all a worthwhile resource for her :D

aless02

weezl, I hadn't forgotten you - just had a busy evening & then morning!

Chicken & onion pie
Serves 4.
Short Information

Values for one serving Energy 437.001 Cal Protein 26.164 g Fats 3.852 g Polyunsaturates 0.983 g Monosaturates 1.347 g Saturates 0.961 g Cholesterol 42.10 mg Carbohydrates 72.295 g

Detailed Information

Values for one serving Element Value Food energy (kcal) 437.001 Protein (g) 26.164 Fat (Total lipids)(g) 3.852 Ash (g) 5.053 Carbohydrate, by difference (g) 72.295 Total dietary fiber (g) 3.654 Sugar Total (g) 6.815 Calcium (mg) 294.406 Iron (mg) 4.498 Magnesium (mg) 42.951 Phosphorus (mg) 600.535 Potassium (mg) 477.353 Sodium (mg) 1227.66 Zinc (mg) 1.318 Copper (mg) 0.218 Manganese (mg) 0.933 Selenium (mcg) 41.127 Vitamin C (mg) 7.55 Thiamin (mg) 0.632 Riboflavin (mg) 0.506 Niacin (mg) 10.685 Pantothenic acid (mg) 0.763 Vitamin B6 (mg) 0.448 Folate (mcg) 177.972 Folic acid (mcg) 120.475 Food Folate (mcg) 57.498 Folate DFE (mcg Dietary Folate equivalent) 262.61 Vitamin B12 (mcg) 0.115 Vitamin A_IU (IU) 16.95 Vitamin A_RAE (mcg retinol activity equivalents) 4.288 Retinol (mcg) 4.20 Vitamin E alpha-tocopherol (mg) 0.239 Vitamin K ( phylloquinone) (mcg) 1.079 Alpha-carotene (mcg) 0.00 Beta-carotene (mcg) 1.975 Beta-cryptoxanthin (mcg) 0.238 Lycopene (mcg) 0.00 Lutein+Zeazanthin (mcg) 21.558 Saturated fatty acid (g) 0.961 Monounsaturated fatty acids (g) 1.347 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (g) 0.983 Cholesterol (mg) 42.10

lizzyshep

I've just found this and can't believe how quickly it's grown! Thank you all, it looks like a wonderful idea. I've subscribed and will read through at my leisure.

weezl74

weezl74 wrote: »

At the start I said I thought that by going mostly vegan, our third mythical family would be able to have a fresh piece of fruit each everyday. Sadly this is not possible, since vegan sources of calcium are more costly than our milk powder.

If family 3 are happy to eat vegan meals (ie lose the taste of cheese and eggs from the diet) but keep the milk powder in cooking for a calcium booster then we may be able to achieve it. What do people think? It was because after FR eggs, a FRESH piece of fruit consumed daily was the next non-negotiable in both our polls AFAIK:)

I'm just reposting this in order to retract it, because what I said wasn't accurate, sorry. It also shows that it is not accurate about a vegan diet being more expensive to be as healthy.

Even with using the milk powder, there still can't be fresh fruit daily, no matter which other non-negotiables go (other than the basic health ones).

If people want to be healthy and live on 80p a day, shopping from 1 uk supermarket with prices as they stand in March 2010, then fresh fruit daily for 4 people is simply not an option regretfully

Still, onwards and upwards! And thankfully frozen caanned and dried F and V still provide as good if not better nutritional bang for their buck!

(and we have a blackberry, blackcurrant, rhubarb and apple tree in our garden that yield 60 portions per year between them with no maintenance at all, so shirley needn't give up hope! After all what did Bob spend all that money at B and Q on the new garden on? Surely he must have a fruit tree :rotfl:)

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

weezl, I hadn't forgotten you - just had a busy evening & then morning!

Thank you that's brilliant :T:T:T

How did hubby do?

My poor dad had his pole kicked accidentally by a runner, lost his footing and hurt his head and leg, and couldn't make up the lost time sadly so the record is still there for him to beat next time