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

taka

I've managed to insert some of the info but I have some more questions...

(a) Your calcium list includes 5 things that are not on the mealplanner spreadsheet. (Cheese mature, plain flour, milk powder, spinach and sesame seeds) Do you want these added to the stock checker tab along with values?
(b) are the kidney beans dried or canned?
(c) are the potatoes going to be used peeled or with their skins?
(d) is vegetable oil the same as canola oil?
(e) what is the difference between the veg oil and the raw veg oil in the stock checker?
(f) do you want all the nutrient info inputted or just the calorie, protein
and calcium info for now?
(g) I'm using recipecal for values - is this ok? Its a bit of a guess as to which variation of the foods to use.
(h) Does anyone know if frozen sweetcorn/cauliflower/peas/green beans are frozen raw or cooked? The values are different! - should I presume they are cooked as this is how they will be eaten on this planner I think?
(i) What you say you are using in the stockchecker isn't necessarily what is on the shopping list.
(j) do you want values for the items that are currently listed but with a 0 for amounts eg honey, walnuts, lemon juice, beetroot etc?

Sorry for the 1001 questions.

I'll be back probably teatime tomorrow as I'm off doing mothering sunday stuff till then... Is anyone likely to be around tomorrow evening if I need some recipecal help? (I'm copying each ingredient from recipecal and pasting it into an individual tab of a spreadsheet - but its taking ages to find each thing on recipecal... and we have ~40 ingredients! :eek: I've only managed to do 13 so far... :rotfl:).

Right time for a meander round here then bed I think!

weezl74

taka wrote: »

I've managed to insert some of the info but I have some more questions...

(a) Your calcium list includes 5 things that are not on the mealplanner spreadsheet. (Cheese mature, plain flour, milk powder, spinach and sesame seeds) Do you want these added to the stock checker tab along with values? yes please they are there so that the planner can be easily adapted to future meal planners cheese mature should be there tho as row 8?
(b) are the kidney beans dried or canned? canned
(c) are the potatoes going to be used peeled or with their skins? with skins
(d) is vegetable oil the same as canola oil? yep, canola is the american name for rapeseed oil
(e) what is the difference between the veg oil and the raw veg oil in the stock checker? I need to keep them seperate to ensure enough raw oil is used to preserve omegas, but no other difference nutritionally, so please just use the canola values
(f) do you want all the nutrient info inputted or just the calorie, protein
and calcium info for now? Just those for now, else I fear I will have asked too much of you, poor lass! If you are loving it though, do say and we'll analyse carbs and fibre. I think we need to look at things which would be a major health detriment first IYSWIM?
(g) I'm using recipecal for values - is this ok? Its a bit of a guess as to which variation of the foods to use.recipe cal is fine, it links to the USDA food database which is very thorough. Use the usda one for easier user interface, I'll pop the linkie below...
(h) Does anyone know if frozen sweetcorn/cauliflower/peas/green beans are frozen raw or cooked? The values are different! - should I presume they are cooked as this is how they will be eaten on this planner I think? I've been entering them as frozen, raw because that is the weight we will be using, (the frozen raw weight. Otherwise they will all shrink and we won't have the correct values...)
(i) What you say you are using in the stockchecker isn't necessarily what is on the shopping list. Hmmmmmmn, that's worrying, what have I done there? Can you give me a coupla examples?
(j) do you want values for the items that are currently listed but with a 0 for amounts eg honey, walnuts, lemon juice, beetroot etc? yes please for reasons in (a)

Sorry for the 1001 questions.

I'll be back probably teatime tomorrow as I'm off doing mothering sunday stuff till then... Is anyone likely to be around tomorrow evening if I need some recipecal help? (I'm copying each ingredient from recipecal and pasting it into an individual tab of a spreadsheet - but its taking ages to find each thing on recipecal... and we have ~40 ingredients! :eek: I've only managed to do 13 so far... :rotfl:).

Right time for a meander round here then bed I think!

usda food database (fab tool as long as you know the american name for stuff!) Gimme a shout if you're struggling!

weezl74

edit: Oh and Taka...


Thank you!

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

1 oz butter or spread
1 oz flour
about a pint of hot stock
2-3oz of whatever hard cheese you have, grated. If using parmesan or gran padano less cheese is needed.
1 heaped tsp of grey mustard or mustard powder for Shirl.

Make a roux with the butter and flour. Add the hot stock in about 4 goes. Between each addition of stock stir the mixture until all the liquid incorporates into the flour and butter. (If you lift the pan off the heat and beat hard with a wooden spoon after the liquid is incorporated your sauce will be beautifully glossy). By the time all the liquid is added you should have a sauce which will coat the back of a spoon. If not add more water or stock. Stir in the mustard and most of the cheese. Leave a spoonful of cheese for the top.

Fry some bacon bits, chopped bacon or ham from ham joint. Add cooked bacon to the sauce and season sauce with pepper and salt.

Stir sauce into shed load of cooked pasta (I use most of a 500g bag but I am a piggy).

Put saucy pasta in baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Shove in oven at 180 until there are nice brown crunchy bits on the top.

Stuff face.

If Shirl has them available she could add mushrooms or some peas or diced cooked potato to the dish. To enrich for calcium purposes she could add a splash of milk or some milk powder to the sauce.

This is just as nice without the bacon even my fuss-a*se dp enjoys it.

this is the recipe I'd like to roll out for bob and shirl, as it best uses the ingredients we have. So a couple of questions to help me in my tweakery:

We have not bought shirley any stock cubes

so our stock of stock (IYSWIM?) is meagre! for this one, can shirl get away with water and more seasonings, or do you feel I need to grab back some stock from elsewhere?

when you guys have it without the bacon, (planner 2a) does it need anything else for va va voom, or is it good to go?

And finally I'm guessing it doesn't need a side dish?

Many thanks

Weezl xxxx

ceridwen

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

doing well with the costs of meals, but I have just worked out that the 4 portions of fruit I have a day cost about 60p - eeek

It's looking likely to be £1.50pppd if I have roughly the pence per meal on this plan, plus the fresh fruit, but I have yet to add in the fresh veg we have with dinners, about 3x80g each

I'll carry on and see where I end up, it's finding it an interesting exercise

Yep - would be interested to see this. I can certainly believe the extra cost with adding in more fruit.

I've taken to breaking-down my food spending into categories: drinks, fruit and veg, bread, other food. At this time of year I'm coming in at around £10-£15 per week for the fruit and veg. alone (having said that - quite a bit of this is organic - as I only buy non-organic if the organic version isnt available). Weeks that I havent got time to make bread = £2+ (depending on whether I buy any more "luxury" type bread).

Got suspicions that even eating cheap meals - my spend will probably be more like £3 per day (excluding my drinks and any extra cost from having to buy bread - rather than make it).

....goes off thinking "maybe I ought to try a month on the vegetarian plan some time and see what my version of foods bought would bring the cost to..."

weezl74

A few more detail points that I haven't made super-clear:

When we are suggesting frugalisations of recipes, please don't suggest that oil/fat or sugar COULD be reduced, unless you feel there is a definate taste detriment caused by the current amounts. With other ingredients, (apart from the carb staples) it is fine to suggest a lowering of the value of the ingredient.

Does that make sense?

Murrell, could you post the shortbread recipe with your tweaks suggested perhaps in another colour, sorry my tired brain can't seem to equate the recipe with your suggestions, and I wondered if you'd be prepared to pop them both in the one post?!

re: grainy texture in the rissoles... I think this can be an issue with cornmeal... I wonder if I need to pre cook the mix first a little in a sauce pan before finally shaping into patties, adding stock and oil and baked bean juices...

Whaddya think?

Thanks for all your help with the vegan planner, I know twinklestar has lovely wedding plans to make, and so I'm delighted we have another vegan willing to step into the breech! :A

weezl74

Lesley I think the launch of planner 3 will see you very pleased, as by shopping around I think the vegan planner would leave you £15 spare with which you could add in more fresh fruit (and there's already 1 piece daily) and some cheese so the delia tart and chickpea crumble would still be doable IYSWIM? xxx

FrankieM

Morning,
Just a quick one before church and then the Grand Prix...:)

My golden syrup didn't turn out...ooopppsss. Obviously while I'm happy to give these things ago, it would seem I'm not actually that skilled!
Anyway I tried another flapjack recipe and it still hasn't turned out well. The consistncey is better but it just doesn't taste right. I can't decide whether it's the oil? Or it could be the Ready Brek as suggested earlier....I'm not really sure what else to try?

weezl74

FrankieM wrote: »

Morning,
Just a quick one before church and then the Grand Prix...:)

My golden syrup didn't turn out...ooopppsss. Obviously while I'm happy to give these things ago, it would seem I'm not actually that skilled!
Anyway I tried another flapjack recipe and it still hasn't turned out well. The consistncey is better but it just doesn't taste right. I can't decide whether it's the oil? Or it could be the Ready Brek as suggested earlier....I'm not really sure what else to try?

aww frankie I'm gutted for you! I'm going to google ready brek recipes and see if some kind soul has done this annoying leg work already!!!!!

FrankieM

That's a great idea. Sorry I didn't think of it. I'm happy to test any that you find so feel free to post and if I don't get to them today I'll have time tomorrow.

Have you had a tester for you bacon pasta bake yet?