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

weezl74

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

The recipe I was thinking of is Butter Bean and Vegetable Curry, but I'm sure chick peas would work just as well used in place of the butter beans. Do you have a particular recipe in mind for the curry?

I also have a chickpea crumble recipe. Happy to post if you want them, although I think the point of this thread is to frugalise a pre chosen list of recipes/dishes?

Hiya lesley I'm grateful for all suggestions and it makes for a much more useful thread! I guess the reason for being quite tight on which ingredients is that if this particular imaginary family of 4 only have £100, then we need to make it go as far as possible, so use each ingredient up totally once it's bought... Hence trying to find a fair few uses for chick peas :D Does that make sense?

But I'm sure there are loads of monthly shopping lists which are potentials. And I also think that if this proves popular, then just 1 months ideas wouldn't be enough variety. So keep em coming lovely lady

PS Lesley I hope you don't mind me saying but I think you must've been doing a healthy challenge yourself, your new avvy seems to show a slimmer you

weezl74

ceridwen wrote: »

Frugalising first thoughts:
- I dont think icing is necessary on carrot cake and adds to the calories/sugar element. Think that recipe might be adaptable - by my using higher level of dried fruit than they say and no sugar.

- Like look of onion tart. See the self-raising flour. Am I correct in thinking one can just add a bit of baking powder to ordinary plain flour to turn it into self-raising flour? If so - then it would save people having to buy two types of flour.

agree about the icing, was definitely going to lose that. White sugar if used at all.

I just made a version of the tart, the pastry was lovely. Sadly not wholemeal on this budget. But the vegetarian one will certainly be able to have WM flour in cos it's loads cheaper.

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

Hiya lesley I'm grateful for all suggestions and it makes for a much more useful thread! I guess the reason for being quite tight on which ingredients is that if this particular imaginary family of 4 only have £100, then we need to make it go as far as possible, so use each ingredient up totally once it's bought... Hence trying to find a fair few uses for chick peas :D Does that make sense?

Waste is where a lot of many peoples food budgets goes IYSWIM. I've certainly found that I'm not spending any more on food - despite recent price rises - because I'm being more aware of trying to use up all my food than previously.

Does that count as extreme moneysaving to blitz a leftover sandwich in the liquidiser and throw the resultant breadcrumbs over the top of a savoury bake for instance? Previously - I would have just thrown it away...

I know what I was going to say - I guess we can take it as read that that £100 for a family of 4 is per MONTH, rather than per WEEK??

vandanfc

Weezl, I use this recipe to make muffins, but don't see why you couldn't make it into a cake. I add more carrots and less sugar, but if it was all sp stuff, could it work out cheaper than your recipe do you think ?

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/muffins.html

BigMummaF

Maybe I should sign up for this too, as portion control is a major issue for us Not sure how I'd work it either if I'm honest, as we are a four adult [& a Pup!] household, but we can give our opinion on taste if that's any help? It would be interesting actually, as The Offspring don't naturally choose anything like veggie/ spicy/ casseroled alternative so their feed-back would be brutally honest

weezl74

ceridwen wrote: »

I know what I was going to say - I guess we can take it as read that that £100 for a family of 4 is per MONTH, rather than per WEEK??

That's my aim-monthly Did I write per week somewhere

Thanks Vanda will check it out

ceridwen

vandanfc wrote: »

Weezl, I use this recipe to make muffins, but don't see why you couldn't make it into a cake. I add more carrots and less sugar, but if it was all sp stuff, could it work out cheaper than your recipe do you think ?

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/muffins.html

Well - one thought - as regards caster sugar or icing sugar ever (ie I wouldnt be using that anyways myself - to keep it healthy) - I have never seen the reason for using "special" sugars anyway - one can just blitz granulated sugar in a liquidizer.

vandanfc

"Waste is where a lot of many peoples food budgets goes "

I totally agree, the key is about re-educating ourselves to stop and think before we automatically throw something away. Is it re-useable in a different form? is not a question we are used to asking ourselves - we are after all in a throw way society, were this is encouraged by the retailers in order to keep their profits up.

A long slow job, but do-able with a little patience.

ceridwen

BigMummaF wrote: »

Maybe I should sign up for this too, as portion control is a major issue for us Not sure how I'd work it either if I'm honest, as we are a four adult [& a Pup!] household, but we can give our opinion on taste if that's any help? It would be interesting actually, as The Offspring don't naturally choose anything like veggie/ spicy/ casseroled alternative so their feed-back would be brutally honest

Well actually BigMumma - we know that Pup eats human-style food actually and - following on from that article I referred to the other day - that human-style food seems to be a lot healthier for cats/dogs anyway (and that link from Rhonda Jean's blog about animal food was along much the same lines).

I've added those facts together in my mind and am bearing in mind the many household pets across Britain - and wondering if you might like to throw in any comments on feeding Britain's pets cheaply & healthily?:) - a sorta little sub-thread or summat.....

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

Happy to test, as long as the ingredients aren't specific to a particular shop and don't require too much compromise on quality/sourcing compared to our usual choices. (You mentioned Asda, but that is too far from us; we shop with Ocado or in local independent shops. Can provide you with costings for comparison purposes, if you wish.)

Let me know what you would like us to try. From your list so far, the following look like possibilities:
~thick onion tart
~carrot cake
~sweetcorn fritters
~chick pea curry
~veg risotto
~home made chutney
~pork and apple burgers
~pasta, pesto and green beans
~borscht
~pizza with gammon and green beans
~carrot and chick pea veggie burgers

With the exception of the gammon-and-green-bean-pizza(!), this is all the sort of thing we might eat anyway. In case you are interested for consumer research purposes, the reasons for discounting the other recipes on the list are as follows:
~turkey leg: we tried it once and found it tough so no one liked it; I have not seen it for sale at my current shopping places
~pork belly: too fatty for our tastes; we only like very lean meat
~meatballs and pasta: I suspect this is beef, which I don't eat -- if it is lamb or pork instead, add it to my list of possibles!

Good luck with the project! I look forwards to seeing the results. :-)

thank you Avocet. I'm not sure whether the testing needs to be of the same ingredients.. I guess for portion size, not, but from a taste perspective-yes.... will ponder more. Thanks for the feedback about the turkey leg, did you oven roast or slo-cooker it?