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

poohbear59

weezl74 wrote: »

Hiya shanks, thanks so much for doing the testing even though you have been having a rough day. I'm sorry to read about the row, conflicts can be very unsettling I think

great feedback I wonder if you can also please say whether you think a quarter of the recipe you did would streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch that half chicken a really long way? ie did it take up a nice amount of the plate and make things look more substantial?

thank you

I found the recipe for stuffing and have used it with a quarter of a chicken from Monday's roast, bubble and squeak using loads of mashed potatoes and leftover cabbage and carrots.
With the bubble and squeak and the chicken it does add to the plate and makes the dinner more filling. I made enough for two and shared between four of us.

To avoid having to wash the processor bowl I tried to use my hand blender, big mistake as it turns it to pulp. I agree that it could be grated, especially if using the crusts.

I also cheated to speed things up as mash was already cooked and I fried it in a non stick pan (with a spray of oil) so I didn't have to put the oven on. Boys thought it was scrummy and would eat it again. I used dried herbs and lemon from a bottle.
I usually make my own stuffing to go with a roast and have never before, used a recipe:) or fried it. Normally I would use one onion and about four slices of bread, dried sage and oil.

Lesley_Gaye

Lesley and I have not had chance to finalise what the breakfasts and lunches of planner 1 are ready for Frankie and family, Ariarnia, and co to run with for the first month. (lesley I am up for a bit of this tonight if you are free? Fergus goes to sleep at 7 and DH is happy to amuse Kester while I look after bob and shirley-*wonders if she should include bob and shirl in her sig as they are more blinkin demanding than her babies sometimes:rotfl:*

I am free Weezl, if you want to go through anything

Lesley x

queen_of_string

See? You shout jump and we all set to!

Just posting before I forget and will be back later with an update.

I have used 150g of bread, 2 1/2 onions some dried herbs, lemon from a bottle ( great minds pooh bear ). It looked a bit dry so I added about 1/2 cup of chicken stock from a bit broken off a cube.

I've never made stuffing before so I'm quite excited! I left the bread cubed as I am too lazy to grate it and I dont have a processor. It's traditional here to leave that way anyway so I might use that as my excuse :-).

Right, the results. It was tasty, almost fruity and filling. The proportion of onion was way too high in ours, but iirc, smart price onions are small and mine weren't :-). Something I would make again with more things in for us, and in B+S land as is.

FrankieM

Hi All,
I'm a bit 'real life family' busy this week but should be back on board by Monday. Sorry if that causes any problems.
I'm still managing to read but don't really have any time to think things through or do any testing.

Looking forward to doing the month though...as long as it doesn't start until at least Monday

shanks77

weezl74 wrote: »

Hiya shanks, thanks so much for doing the testing even though you have been having a rough day. I'm sorry to read about the row, conflicts can be very unsettling I think

great feedback I wonder if you can also please say whether you think a quarter of the recipe you did would streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch that half chicken a really long way? ie did it take up a nice amount of the plate and make things look more substantial?

thank you

Yes it filled out the plate especially as it didnt hold together the way i expected and with it being made with bread it was filling and soaked up the gravy making it a substantial side dish and would stretch quite well. If Shirl had some extra bread she could easily add it to the mixture and pad it out a bit

Murrell

weezl74 wrote: »

murrell hello! re the cornmeal, did we go for the 350mg CA or are we thinking that's for one which has been treated to avoid pellagra and is only sold in the states?

Aless, as you are from the deep south, can you shed any light here?

I think (unless we are paying more like someone mentioned) it will be 5mg of calcium per 100g. Neither company has replied to my emails regarding the calcium content of there cornmeal. So unfortunately if its not 350mg, because we are not paying the higher price/or its harder to find calcium fortified, then its not the ideal calcium ingredient to base meals round in plan 3. No reason why its can't be used, but not as the high calcium food that you wanted. I will try the spicy rissoles again and try adding some instant oats to thicken and increase the calcium, even if these don't end up on the final plan.
Belated birthday greetings!!

Sandra
x

Murrell

Info on this page regarding calcium might be useful for plan 3 or any other for that matter.

http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=45

2 tsps of dried basil is 63mg of calcium
2 tsps of dried thyme is 54mg of calcium
2 tsps of dried oregano is 47mg of calcium
all easy to use in main dishes, even if we used dried mixed herbs to save money

also 2 tsp of cinnamon is 55mg, easy to add to oats for brekkie and desserts

seseme seeds are 351mg for 1/4 of a cup. Don't know if these are frugal, but can be used in lots of things.

Anyway, no point typing it all out, see linkie above.

Sandra
x

ceridwen

SusanC wrote: »

I'm thinking the kind of Bob and Shirley who would go for plan 4 would be those who are already tending to eat in that kind of way and aren't willing to make the dietary changes necessary (such as using sugar, white flour and ready brek) to be able to use plan 1 but still want to save money.

I do think though that how it is labelled must be well thought through such that it doesn't have the effect you described and it is definitely a good point which you have brought up.

I would tend to agree - ie that the "kind of Bob and Shirley who would go for plan 4 would be those who are already tending to eat in that kind of way". Even those of us who are more health-aware can get into debt for a while (ceridwen puts hand up and then points finger back at herself:o). It would need "careful" labelling - in order not to point the finger in the other direction at those who arent so health-aware and therefore want an even cheaper plan (ie the £100 a month first 3 plans). Health-aware versions of Bob and Shirley won't go so far to economise - as they would negate some of the beneficial effects of a month/two months/few months of clearing through debt by worrying themselves in another direction (ie that they were damaging their health) if they had to live on the sorta food that a £100 a month plan would mean (well - thats certainly the way I felt in that position - I WOULD only compromise so much for the sake of clearing my debt and still worried about having a less than optimum diet - so I imagine a lot of others feel the same way). Those of us who are very conscious of how healthy or otherwise our diet is DO view things somewhat differently to "yer average Bob and Shirley" in the street and DO have different priorities - and I certainly find it's a weight off my mind now that I'm now in a position at last to move from a healthy-ish diet to an optimum one and can buy whatever I like at last.

***********************

On a different tack - I'm trying not to think JUST how likely Amazon are to make me favourite customer of the year at the moment - <cough> with the amount I am spending for books from them....

I'm specialising in food books of one description or another at the moment. I have bought one that I would recommend to anyone else to add to their cookbook collection (after having had a good look through it) - courtesy of browsing shelves in a bookshop and thinking "Ooh.....another cookbook by my favourite cookbook writer - Silvana Franco". Its a general cookbook (rather than being vegetarian) - but it has quite enough veggie/or adaptable to veggie recipes in it to keep me happy.

"The really useful ultimate student cookbook" - at £4.99 cover price.

Loadsa cheap/easy recipes I will be working my way through...:D

and my bursting out laughing episode for the day was when I took a quick look at the foreword in a Constance Mellor book thats come through from Amazon (that 1970s naturopath)......where she told the interviewer her opinion of supermarkets "Killers, murderers, poisoners, enemies of the human race":rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: ...and she looks such a sweet white-haired old lady in the photograph above to use such strong language about them....:rotfl:. BOy - if thats what she thought of 1970s supermarkets - she should see the early 21st century variety.....:cool::rotfl:

I've got one by a 21st century naturopath too - "Health Defence" by Dr Paul Clayton was recommended.

Well - I should be well-informed by the time I read my way through that lot and in need of a diet by the time I cook my way through that Silvana Franco book and the Cranks Recipe Book I've also had through this week from Amazon (which also looks very promising).:D

artybear

Could I ask another off topic question? ( I do so like them lol)

Ceridwen you are obviously passionate about healthy food and seem quite anti-food shops. What do you think would be a 'perfect' or near to perfect world (in food terms) for you? Would you want absolutely no processed food and no supermarkets?

Feel free to ignore this as it is quite a personal issue-I just cannot understand your reasoning at the mo and think I would quite like to.

Please dont think im criticizing just trying to follow your train of thought.

artybearxxxxx

ceridwen

artybear wrote: »

Could I ask another off topic question? ( I do so like them lol)

Ceridwen you are obviously passionate about healthy food and seem quite anti-food shops. What do you think would be a 'perfect' or near to perfect world (in food terms) for you? Would you want absolutely no processed food and no supermarkets?

Feel free to ignore this as it is quite a personal issue-I just cannot understand your reasoning at the mo and think I would quite like to.

Please dont think im criticizing just trying to follow your train of thought.

artybearxxxxx

Totally honest personal answer? For me personally - "perfect" would indeed be no highly processed food at all I guess (errr...unless you count things like my coffee beans coming readyground - as per right now). I'm not exactly pro supermarkets - I'm steadily getting less and less inclined towards them. They kill independent shops nearby for one. Given the choice between a mega-supermarket nearby (with the level of "choice" the largest ones have) on the one hand OR the standard independent baker, butcher, fishmonger, health food shop (non-chain) in my case - then ...no contest for me personally. The supermarket would be closing its doors tomorrow if those were the two options on the table as far as I personally am concerned.

My ideal community situation for food - well I guess that would be a variety of small organic farms in the surrounding area - selling their produce direct to nearby residents through a suitable shop/farmers market/etc. A local miller - selling his flour direct to a local baker. Forget the canned/frozen/etc food - certainly no ready meals - and have people re-learn all the various different ways of preserving food. Everyone growing what food they can themselves - and finding it was possible to access tens of different varieties of apples/tomatoes/etc - rather than the very limited selection that is all that supermarkets have available (I get so frustrated at being expected to consider myself lucky to have half a dozen varieties of apple or potato to choose from for instance - when I know just how many there are and finding that many different types of fruit and vegetables simply arent available at all in supermarkets - when I know they are grown locally - because I've got them from somewhere else.)

So - yep - I guess thats my personal Ideal Food World:)

....oh....and I would actually like to be able to eat fish. I'd stick to not eating meat - but I do miss my fish. I rather gave that up when I read to what extent our oceans are used as open sewers. I dont want to eat any fish that have been swimming around in a sea contaminated with goodness-only-knows-what OR from a fish farm. So - it looks like the only fish I consider suitable for human consumption now would be from those sorta small fishgrowing type tanks that come as part of a "grow your own" food endeavour to a few households. Cant think what the darn things are called - but Rhonda Jean (of the famous O.S. style blog) has one in her home. I believe that sort of fish may be available for sale in a few years time to people generally - but until it is....vegetarianism it is then for me personally.