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

ceridwen

Well - after those further comments about fortification of our food -

I didnt realise until recently that to get the full "real deal" on the flour I buy it has to be not just wholemeal and organic - but stoneground as well.

I'm learning more myself as we go on with this thread - and pondering whether it would be advisable to have a "Subsistence Natural Eating Plan" somewhere along the line - ie:
- everything wholemeal - rather than white
- the flour being stoneground
- no canned food (errr...mea culpa...as I often resort to canned tomatoes)
- no sugar at all
- olive oil or coconut oil only

ie a "healthy mealplan - ceridwen fashion". Thinks....I'm no geek myself and wonder whether it would be possible to come in at £100 a month per PERSON with that one - but would be very glad of one like that myself.

Oh well - I'll "healthy-ise" the recipes on here and throw in handfuls of walnuts and seeds for the Omegas I hadnt realised are quite so important - whilst I wonder whether Fire Fox and Avocet might ....possibly...be interested to work out such a plan. (Thinking - "our Weezl has got enough on her plate anyway":D).

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On reading recently that it looks as if our mains water will be charged according to the time of year - ie a higher charge when we need it most (in the summer) - I'm heaving a sigh of relief that my waterbutt has already been in place for the last year or so. Going on from there to think "well - thats going to be rationing by price in effect on water". Wonders how much longer it will be before we have "rationing by price" on food? Well - I guess we already do to some extent - ersatz food tends to be cheaper than Real Food from what I can see.

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Still working on Shirl's tips - although very very slowly. Sorry not been posting much, real life crap getting in the way. I am still being weezl inspired though. We had home made bacon and cheese pasties yesterday and cheese and onion slice today. Not recipes on the weezl list but frugal inspired.
Weezl, keep yer chin up chuck, you are doing a great job.

Thanks howlin :A
sorry real life is being hard on you I really hope that's something that changes really soon

Fivenations wrote: »

Hi Wheezl. I make it with frozen peas which I add half way through rice cooking so they stay whole as I love the contrast of the round soft peas against the smooth creamy rice (I also add very unfrugal amounts of butter and parmesan cheese!) but as this is such an old peasant recipe that dates back even before the Venetians I'm sure there are no hard and fast rules, except that if you can eat it with a fork it's the wrong consistency so yes, more stock.

Not sure if I still have that book. When I get the chance I'll chance going up into the attic. I may be some time........

LOL about the attic:rotfl:

that makes it a lot clearer. I could definitely eat mine with a fork, so way too dry! Thanks... Would grana padano and butter in smaller quantities be a good vegetarian (planner 2 version?)

grandma247 wrote: »

Weezle. Sorry this is a bit like a shopping list but I had to write my thoughts down in wordpad first or I would forget what I wanted to say.
I have often made spanish omlette with those ingredients and anything else from the bottom of the fridge. It is very tasty and filling.

Also I have used readybrek in my usual oat biscuit recipe when I didn't have enough oats. they turned out well and tasted good. They are just finer textured.
Oil will give a softer biscuit.

I found 2 eggless cornbread recipes and I am sure they could be frugalized.
http://www.pcrm.org/health/recipes/recipe010903.html
http://www.compassionatecooks.com/r/cornbread.htm

grandma247 thanks!:T:T:T:T That sounds good news on the omelette, biscuit and cornbread.

Perhaps if we call it an oat cookie, B and S will forgive a softer biscuit? cookies are often a bit softer aren't they? Hve you got a recipe for your oat biscuit?

weezl74

ceridwen, it's a bit off topic sorry, but what is it you don't like about flour being fortified?

xxx

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

very interesting about folic acid! Well it will certainly help with the costs involved to the NHS of poor maternal diet. Soon our teeth will be ok thru flouride in the water and calcium and folic acid will all be in the flour...

They could just grind up a multivitamin into the flour and we can all forget about our 5 a day eh? :rotfl:

It's a shame fortification is required though.

Makes me glad I (mostly) grind my own wheat - I don't like the idea of them sneaking things in without telling us.

I was thinking about the calcium in flour actually and how you said there was a range of possible levels. I wondered whether it would be sensible to use the lowest possible figure for the calculations as Bob and Sirley may not necessarily get the specific flour you have used in your calculations (e.g. if they have some flour in already or if they use a different supermarket because Asda is too far away to be worthwhile). I don't know whetherit is important enough or makes a significant enough difference but just thought I'd mention it for consideration.

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

ceridwen, it's a bit off topic sorry, but what is it you don't like about flour being fortified?

xxx

A general gut reaction to any of our food having any non food items at all added to it ever is my main thing.

I would rather see flour being fortified than risk people missing out on essential nutrients 'tis true - its certainly the "lesser of two evils" - as compared to people missing out altogether.

Its been a while since I read about the difference between "synthetic" lower-level vitamins, etc that are available (which is the level I would imagine that gets put into food for "fortifying" purposes) - and the higher-quality vitamins, etc, one can buy. I just recall the basic conclusions reached - which were along the lines of many mid-priced synthetic vitamins even "arent that much cop" in effect (so goodness knows about the standard of the cheapest ones). I reeled at the cost of the vitamins/etc I would have to buy for supplementing food purposes if I actually wanted something decent-quality (I'd easily be spending tens of £s per month on diet supplements to get just a few decent quality food supplements....:eek:). I felt I would be seeing the back of £50 or more a month to get a small range of supplements I would be happy with. Hence one of my reasons for a decision at that point to stick to as near as possible to a "Real Food" diet - and just get all my nutrients direct from my food itself.

If I find any links to this sorta research on here I'll post them up.

weezl74

SusanC wrote: »

I was thinking about the calcium in flour actually and how you said there was a range of possible levels. I wondered whether it would be sensible to use the lowest possible figure for the calculations as Bob and Sirley may not necessarily get the specific flour you have used in your calculations (e.g. if they have some flour in already or if they use a different supermarket because Asda is too far away to be worthwhile). I don't know whetherit is important enough or makes a significant enough difference but just thought I'd mention it for consideration.

interesting that you raised the range of fortification question

I'm not sure if people think I do this sort of thing behind the scenes of the thread so you might all think I'm being a bit strange to bother with it at this level of detail, but I'll explain anyway :rotfl:

So I contacted asda, very hard to get an answer about a precise amount. But spoke to a very helpful guy who disclosed the name of the flour supplier. Rang them. Interesting chat with the woman (product control) who explained a lot about how this is done. There is a range of calcium which must be present, but the equipment in the factories cannot be titrated accurately enough so that the amount per avery 100g is exactly the same miligrams of calcium, the calcium is just too tiny to ensure that, and how could you mix the flour so well that every spoonful has the exact same distribution IYSWIM? So what they do is just guarantee that for every tested 100g of flour, and amount of calcium in that range is definitely present.

So I then asked what figure the product controller thought it was safe to assume would be present, and she and I had an interesting debate, but we thought it would be sensible to not assume the lowest figure, because this would be extremely unlikely given that they are generous in order to meet the law's requirements, but to go about a third into the range to be conservative.

So that is the amount I used in my spreadsheet.

This is the level of detail I was prepared to go to for this type of project (not that I'm saying anyone is questioning this, just in case anyone's interested!)

Because I think it is pretty well thought through, and shows that I have properly attempted a diligent look at these things.

But I also need to keep a realistic sense of what this actually is and who it's for.

Basically even if Bob and Shirley were worried about their calcium and subjected their asda flour to micro analysis in a lab and found my figures were optimistic, there's no court in the land that would allow them to sue me for saying this planner is healthy. I believe I've already gone further in my caution about asserting this than most people would, I feel in similar circumstances :rotfl:

ceridwen

Just did a very quick search to see what I could find re fortified flour and found an extract that said in the course of milling flour (from wholemeal to white) the following nutrients are lost:
83% of the nutrients in total - with:
40% of the chromium lost
86% of the manganese
76% of the iron
89% of the cobalt
68% of the copper
78% of the zinc
48% of the molybdenum

.....whew....bit technical for me that is...hence a lotta "gut reaction" stuff to having my food "mucked about with" any more than I can help.

Reet.....w**k calls...

grandma247

Oat biscuits.
Basic melted oat mix.
Mix together 4oz.self raising flour, 4oz. oats,1/2 level tsp bic.soda, in a bowl.
In a pan put 4oz marge,4oz granulated sugar,1 rounded tsp golden syrup.
heat through gently stirring the mixture occasionally until marge has melted.
Remove from heat and stir into the dry mix. Mix well. If it seems a bit too wet wait a few minutes and it will thicken. Form into balls and place well apart on a greased tray. Flatten slightly.
Bake at gas4,180c,350f for 15 mins or till golden. Cool slightly then place on a wire rack.

This is the recipe as it was printed and I think it is close to twinks hob nobs.
I usually do 4x the mix and they last four of us about a week. I also sometimes add seeds,nuts and sometimes dried fruit. I chop larger fruit such as apricots.

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

interesting that you raised the range of fortification question

I'm not sure if people think I do this sort of thing behind the scenes of the thread so you might all think I'm being a bit strange to bother with it at this level of detail, but I'll explain anyway :rotfl:
...

Sounds reasonable. (And I don't think it's strange to go to that level of detail - I was thinking about it in the middle of the night.)

ariarnia

It's not as thick as golden syrup, but a recipe for fruit syrup might work in the hobnobs?

1 cup fruit (soft is best)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water Cook fruit with sugar and water until thick. Smash fruit while cooking.
For a thin syrup - press through strainer. For a thicker syrup, process cooked syrup in a food processor.