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

sashanut

Hi all:j Have been following the thread with interest but have difficulty finsing the apple curd recipe? Looked as if it was there the other day when the list was posted, but it linked to the stuffing balls, then was removed altogether. Sorry to be stupid, but I have searched, honest:D Can someone point me in the right direct, before my apples go rotten?? Thankyou, everyones doing a great job :T

weezl74

ariarnia thanks for the heat research and fish pie tips

grandma247 wrote: »

Weezle we eat fish once a week and sometimes two if we have sardines on toast for lunch. I also use sunflower oil for frying and some cakes. I use a little oil and meat fat for roasting potatoes.
I have not been able to do any more testing since the last lot as dh was off work for a week and we spent time at the allotment. I did not fill in the survey either but will wait till it is back up.

Thankyou grandma 247, glad you've been enjoying the allotment and many thanks for your testing, there's no rush, we're just very happy that everything is getting sampled by real people

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

yep, that's fine. I'll do a couple of things and repost it

Ta

Allegra wrote: »

According to this link, "Calcium carbonate is 40% elemental calcium. 1000 mg will provide 400 mg of calcium." Therefore - and please don't laugh if my calculations stink, I blame the PC's calculator - 100g of flour would contain 94-156mg of calcium.

thanks allegra!

Allegra

sashanut wrote: »

Hi all:j Have been following the thread with interest but have difficulty finsing the apple curd recipe? Looked as if it was there the other day when the list was posted, but it linked to the stuffing balls, then was removed altogether. Sorry to be stupid, but I have searched, honest:D Can someone point me in the right direct, before my apples go rotten?? Thankyou, everyones doing a great job :T

Here you go

weezl74

weezl74 wrote: »

Apple curd spread on HM toast,

385g net weight apples so use approx 400g 50p
50g buttery spread 12.5p
75g sugar 7.35p
2 tsp garam masala or mixed spice/cinnamon if you have it 2p

remove stalk from apple, cut into quarters, don't core or seed it. Put a tablespoon of water in a pan and gently stew the apples down into it. stir in the butter and sugar and spice. When apple is totally mushed, puree til smooth in a liquidiser or blender

70p per 490g batch with 3 slices HM toast from a 2lb loaf tin, breakfast is 7.8p

sachanut this one has had good reviews.

The next step is to remove the butter spread and to replace with oil stirred in when cold.

It sounds bad, but we have just done this and I think it's great, I really do

The apples being used are now bramleys

HTH

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

We do, however, use Asda vegetable oil to dress all our salads (as DD hates the taste and I hate the expense of olive oil), as well as in making pesto and the like.

the bean pate and seed spreads and even apple curd all cope really well with having their oil added cold. I hope those dishes also help to get enough oil into DD!

Allegra can I have some advice about the potato salad? Is it an oil to vinegar/lemon ratio of 4:1 ish and is it just potato and finely chopped raw onion? On our budget it could also have grated raw carrot if you think that would be a good addition...

Meals I think it could go with, but would value your input:

sweetcorn fritters, HM chutney and potato salad
delia tart with carrots and potato salad
Chicken and onion pie, spinach and potato salad
with the veggie burgers/cutlets/rissoles?

Obviously if eaten everyday, a bit much but this would be a side dish once every approx 4 days... How does that sound?

Weezl x

weezl74

Further thoughts from weezl about shirley's kit list.

Firstly, hugest thanks to ceridwen for your research. I am sooo greatful and you have written a fantastic resource.

I've read the lists and the old-style thread thoroughly now. I am very happy with the lists as they stand, with 2 additions.

And I'm going to be a bit bossy now!

Bread tins: I would really like to stipulate that these be good quality silicone tins. And 4 as she has to make 4 at a time. I have found these online for as little as £1.99 each.

I have debated this in my mind quite a bit, very much wanting to go along with the creative ideas being offered and knowing that of course bread can be made in even a plant pot, so shirley can be inventive.

BUT:

this particular bread recipe is the frugalest by far, and DH and I have spent a year frugalising it further. In the war it was created to yield 3x 2lb loaves, and we eeeek it out to make 4. Our recipe makes up for her frugality by being somewhat temperamental if handled wrongly (ye gads, she is like me!).

I think without good kit, shirley's bread will fail, and it's such a staple, and makes such a saving each month to the budget that a failed batch will cost a lot to buy bread to supplement with and will lead her to opt out.

If people come back and say that this £8 is too much initial outlay, I feel it so strongly that I'd feel I'd have to try to make £8 further of savings in month 1 to accommodate :rotfl:

My second addition. The nut and seed butter and soups and apple curd really do need a food processor.

I tried to use a pestle and mortar/stick blender and I think the waste is too high in the apple curd, and the grinding of nuts and seeds without one is laughable, sorry

I realise some people are thinking of bob and shirley as having a kitchen with no kit in it...

I'm not sure that's how I see them. Did anyone see the last martin documentary going into that couple's home who had all those motorbikes and £13k credit card debt?

I picture them really. They had all the gear.

It's just that they're actually poorer than these people we're picturing who haven't got a saucepan to their name!

Does this make any sense?

I'm happy to say more about my decision if people think it's loopy, but there it is.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish using some string knotted to an old coathanger that keeps falling off when he puts it into water: feed him for a day. (and handle one hacked off would-be fisherman:D) teach him to fish with decent kit: feed him for life.

weezl74

Hi there,

can I also just clarify: we are attempting to come up with 3 planners, each one aims to solve a non-negotiable for people, it will also be healthy within the definition we described.

planner 1: Bob and shirley: healthy, £100 a month, contains meat at 3 ish meals per week. only 1-2 cuppas a day though with skimmed milk. Meets the non negotiable of keeping meat in the diet. Also has a roast meal once a month

planner 2: healthy, £100 a month, no meat or eggs. Therefore meets 2 non-negotiables, 5 cuppas are available with fresh milk, and no battery eggs are used (because no eggs are used)

planner 3: healthy, £100 a month, vegan, but meets the non-negotiable of a piece of fresh fruit daily.

if anyone notices that I have wrongly summed up the non-negotiables and therefore am catering the whole thing wrongly:(, now would be a VERY good time to tell me!:)

Love Weezl x

Murrell

My omegas are from ground flaxseeds (1 heaped tbsp a day) or less if I am using rapeseed oil that day. I divide it into three, first tsp on oats for brekkie, second sprinkled on my salad on in my sandwich and then if we are not using rapeseed for our cooked evening meal I sprinkle it on the veg and put gravy on top! I always add last unless its going in something cold like a homemade sandwich bean type spread and then it goes in when I make it. I used to grind it myself, but found I could buy ready ground organic for only a few pence more, saving me time grinding it every few days, as its does keep well, when you grind it yourself, unless you keep it in the freezer.

My calcium is from soya milk 600mg daily, plus brocoli daily. Then from a variety of sources that are not daily, but at least one of them everyday. Tofu, tahini and chickpeas in my houmous or just chickpeas if I am doing a chickpea dish. Almond butter, ground almonds added to dishes, like a chickea crumble, they went in the crumble instead of the cheese. Curly kale is also eaten a lot and parsley when in season or dried gets added also to things. Also figs.

The soya milk we buy either tesco or sainsburys fortified with calcium and vits provides us in our porridge alone, we use 500ml per person.

vit D 76% rda 3.8
vit E 76% rda 7.6
B2 76% rda 1.2
B12 250% rda 2.6ug
calcium 76% rda 600mg

Basically we eat 4 meals a day around 500 calaries each. We have oats with raisins and half a banana for breakfast, sandwiches with salad or full salad for lunch with something like marinated tofu and a vegetable based meal for dinner with a veggie roast type addition or sometimes a indian or italian based meal with oil added. For supper its usually toast and hot chocolate made with soya milk. Snacks are usually apples, pears or toast for hubbie and for me either these or homemade cakes/flapjacks. We like to eat and enjoy our food!

Great site for making veggie roasts is the magical loaf studio, you basically make it around what you have, and everyone I have done as turned out nice, some better than others of course, but thats just taste preferences.

http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html

Also as I mentioned the book plant based nutrition by stephen walsh, I thought you might like to see the leaflet that has been produced and put online, which is a shortened version. Stephen spent 3 years, 20 hours a week researching all the science and nutriton articles before writing the book.
http://www.vegansociety.com/uploadedFiles/References_and_Resources/Downloads/PBN.pdf

also this page on calcium for the vegan society may be of interest.

http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/calcium.aspx

Hope this helps, better go and do some cleaning now! Will be on again later and then won't be around until the evenings Thursday or Friday, but will help if I can on simple things like this.

Sandra
x

Lesley_Gaye

Weezl, have added prices to the spreadsheet.

If you enter the qty of ingredient and the price, it should now calculate how much each meal, split by breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, how much each portion is, and how much per person for the time period used, as well as holding a running total of the shopping list you enter. Note that the time period can be anything, a day, week, month, year or anything else. So long as all the ingredients, meals and prices are entered, it will work out the rest

When tweaking, it can cope with meals not being used, but gives a divide by zero error if you have taken any ingredients off the shopping list of any meals not currently being used.

The only way round it I can find is to leave eg garlic paste, entered as 1 item on the shopping list, but set the price to 0p.

The only drawback with that, is that the stock check now thinks you have 90g of garlic available. So when checking stock, be careful you have no bought with 0p items. Doing it that way round would mean that you can tweak away without having to constantly remove and re-enter the ingredients for dishes you want to swap in and out

I have also added some nutritional columns on the rhs so you can see what I mean - do you think it would help you with your plans?

I have loaded it to Google docs here. I have a copy on my pc, so do what you like with it. I have the backup!!

I have loaded it with edit access for everyone. Any feedback from anyone else would be good. When Weezl and I were practising geekery yesterday we thought that it may be useful for general menu planning and costing.

I am hoping it is not too complicated to use for non-techies, am happy to talk it through with anyone if they think it might be of use. Bear in mind tho, it is currently a work in progress and is likely to be changed

weezl74

Murrell wrote: »

My omegas are from ground flaxseeds

please can I ask more about why flax is your preferred supplement? taste, health benefits, cost?

My calcium is from soya milk 600mg daily, plus brocoli daily. Then from a variety of sources that are not daily, but at least one of them everyday. Tofu, tahini and chickpeas in my houmous or just chickpeas if I am doing a chickpea dish. Almond butter, ground almonds added to dishes, like a chickea crumble, they went in the crumble instead of the cheese. Curly kale is also eaten a lot and parsley when in season or dried gets added also to things. Also figs, either on there own or in fig rolls!

The soya milk we buy either tesco or sainsburys fortified with calcium and vits provides us in our porridge alone, we use 500ml per person.

vit D 76% rda 3.8
vit E 76% rda 7.6
B2 76% rda 1.2
B12 250% rda 2.6ug
calcium 76% rda 600mg

that's great stuff. Am thinking that 500ml of soy milk daily is just over 31p per day each for this family out of their 80p so I sadly can't accomodate it. I was going to ask if you might be willing to test drive the vegan month to just check all the amounts add up (so £50 for food for 2 of you), but I wonder from reading your fab sounding diet at the moment whether you and DH might find it quite a comedown from a lot of the flavours you regularly have . Still, I'll put the suggestion out there in case you guys are willing at all! I'm asking this specifically because I think it will be a lot easier to get whole month testers for the other planners.


Sandra
x

Thanks sandra, lots of useful things for me to check out and a couple more questions when you have time