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

weezl74

nopot2pin wrote: »

Weezl...
I have to agree with ISOM and arty...
In that a definitive first plan should be achieved before progressing to other plans.
I do believe Lesley, did provide, building blocks for the first plan and all other subsequent plans in their respective order......

For ME, my first and foremost task, at this time, needs to be completing the surveys for plan one.....
I will not be conducting anything else until I have completed this....
Having said that, I will be doing that later today... and possibly completion on Friday

I have not seen any meal planners for plan 2, 3 or 4 yet... so when plan one is finished, I will be researching the task in hand for the survey for THOSE INTERESTED IN PLAN 4......

Potty

Hi Potty,

I'm glad you are going to prioritise the planner 1 surveys.

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear that the other survey I mentioned would be a while down the line. I feel we need to tackle the meal planners in the order we intend to offer then to all of our Bob and shirleys.

We will complete planner 1 in time for Frankie et al to run with it.

We will then look for the best way to get that out there.

And then we will look at planner 2 because not wanting to eat battery farmed eggs was the next non-negotiable we decided to tackle.

And then number 3 to allow everyone a piece of fresh fruit daily.

And then we'll review and see what's next. So potty, there is ABSOLUTELY NO URGENCY on that there hefty survey:). And even then, please feel under no pressure to be the one who would look at it. You are contributing so much to the life of this team, and I'm very, very grateful to you. And how you manage it when you have to get up at stupid o'clock and go to work, well that's just amazing :A

Sian, thank you your thoughts- as always are very wise. I'm sorry for the ways in which I have contributed to the sometimes heated and political strands on this thread. (I know you weren't saying anything specifically to me, but I've searched my own conscience and think this is true of some of the things I've written) and I'm going to take a leaf out of others' books and step away from pronouncing my views in the middle of what is after all a recipe testing thread .

I think though I will leave 'my what I personally believe' post and still link to it from post 1. This is because I think we have a very large readership (over 100,000 in 6 weeks) and I think there may be people who wonder what I'm about at a fundamental level and who feel a bit threatened by the project if I don't spell it out.

I hope that's allright with everyone. If anyone would like to look over that post and give me feedback on anything which may be too controversial, I'd be well up for hearing that.

weezl74

a big and very warmest of welcomes to lorietta and floxxie

thank you for your thoughts, you are saying things which supports our decision to prioritise bob and shirley and planner 1 at this point! How timely. I will coment more on the things you've suggested.

Good news for all who have been wondering just where the hecky-thump we're getting to/have got to with planner 1:

Lesley and I had a great 'online meeting' last night with spreadsheets and evvvvrifing:cool:;)

I'm happy with stock levels, minimum healthy requirements and so on. We may need to drop one of the recipes from month 1 bob and shirl, the baked bean curry (apologies if anyone was hugely looking forward to that (and it's ensuing gaseous explosions-bob will now not be able to run the central heating with his methane emissions ) but I know you're all going to love its replacements

So we have a little lunchtime finalisation to do, and then I think ariarnia, frankie and other lovely guinea pigs yet to be recruited can give it a whirl.


(ooooooh ooooh, let's call the new thread- 'Giving it a whirl with Shirl!')

To that end, please can anyone who has tried the lunchtime pate (the one with the liver) the tangy bean pate and the pumpkin seed butter (arty could you please promote these recipes into your month 1 part of your excellent list? cheers chick )

Please let me know what portion size spread over 2 pieces of toast you had/feel is adequate.

artybear

Sorry that was completely my fault. I was just being nosey really however we can have all the off topic conversations when we meet up! (i Hope that happens still)

Im off to work in a min so will do the index later if thats ok?

artybearxxx

ariarnia

lorietta wrote: »

3- Access to shops. Not all branches of the same shop will stock every product. Not everyone has every shop within walking distance. I know this has probably been done to death but it bears repeating. Also, some people may be able to negotiate cheep food- eg fruit of a market stall. Also, carrying shopping is an issue if you don't have a car.

As a non-driver this is a point I agree with when it comes to not shopping around. If I can order this list from one place, online, at the start of the month and then just top up when needed, otherwise the nearest supermarket is a Tesco 2 miles walk away or a butcher and baker 1 mile away but no green grocer or place to buy odd things (like mung beans) other than an expensive and nasty Spar.

aless02

agreed on all the recent points. The political debate is interesting, but I think it's getting wayyyy beyond what this project was originally about. I do honestly suspect that planner 3 and the proposed planner 4 are rather pointless and a lot of work that will get used by a very tiny portion of those overall using any of the planners. In a way, the project has run away from us and I think it would better with a narrower focus on JUST the bare-bones your-average-Briton Bob & Shirley, with a secondary nod to vegetarians in planner 2 (sorry that sounds patronising, but I mean that vegetarianism is quite popular whereas veganism and things like eating agave nectar as opposed to sugar aren't as much). I just think we're getting too caught up in the finer points of the diets of a very few, rather than the diet and needs/wants of your average Joe (or in this case, Bob)!

weezl74

g'morning aless

I have a couple more questions for ya!

The paul merrett bread, have you baked it without loaf pans before? a 3 loaf batch I mean, just hand shaped into a rounded loaf shape, slashed and then baked?

And if so can you say what the results were in terms of amounts of usable slices?

My guess is that it leaves quite a lot of pieces that are quite teeny at each end which might lead to wastage for shirl...

I'm tempted to suggest it as a method if not for shirl.

Thanks

weezl74

and susan, when on next can you say something about the research you've done on saturated fats? I'm at the moment keeping Bob and shirl's intake as a max of 10% of their daily intake expressed in calorie terms. How does that square up with what you've read?

Thanks in advance! If it helps, oats are consumed every day on planner 1 which I think ups the amount of sat fat that is acceptable and still healthy.

TIA

ariarnia

aless02 wrote: »

agreed on all the recent points. The political debate is interesting, but I think it's getting wayyyy beyond what this project was originally about. I do honestly suspect that planner 3 and the proposed planner 4 are rather pointless and a lot of work that will get used by a very tiny portion of those overall using any of the planners. In a way, the project has run away from us and I think it would better with a narrower focus on JUST the bare-bones your-average-Briton Bob & Shirley, with a secondary nod to vegetarians in planner 2 (sorry that sounds patronising, but I mean that vegetarianism is quite popular whereas veganism and things like eating agave nectar as opposed to sugar aren't as much). I just think we're getting too caught up in the finer points of the diets of a very few, rather than the diet and needs/wants of your average Joe (or in this case, Bob)!

I think that's why originally planner 2 and 3 weren't/aren't veg/vegan so much as no battery eggs and +1 fresh fruit (sounds like a d&d item) as they came out high as non-negotiable in the polls.

ariarnia

weezl74 wrote: »

The paul merrett bread, have you baked it without loaf pans before? a 3 loaf batch I mean, just hand shaped into a rounded loaf shape, slashed and then baked?

And if so can you say what the results were in terms of amounts of usable slices?

My guess is that it leaves quite a lot of pieces that are quite teeny at each end which might lead to wastage for shirl...

I'm tempted to suggest it as a method if not for shirl.

Thanks

I know I don't know a lot about bread, but rather than round, wouldn't bloomer style be automatically less wastage?

weezl74

ariarnia wrote: »

I know I don't know a lot about bread, but rather than round, wouldn't bloomer style be automatically less wastage?

yes sorry, that is what I was picturing I just couldn't get my fingers and brain to work out the word! Bloomers that's it, do we get too much wastage if they're bloomers.

Thanks ariarnia

our spar shops here are pretty ropey aren't they sometimes if owned by a forward thinking asian family like our nice local one, they do have the advantage of having really good bargain big bags of spices, chick peas, lentils etc...