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

nopot2pin

weezl74 wrote: »

Potty, thanks for all your hard work so far :A I feel you're probably in the best position to make that call, having tried to collate the info, is it a bit of a monster tricky task filtering out all the[STRIKE] idle banter[/STRIKE] essential exchange of ideas? Would you value a seperate place?

The tricky thing is if we do blog and list the recipes they aren't ours to reproduce now in that way I think- MSE owns them, so they need to live here. In that way it's hard to seperate out the feedback from that.... IYSWIM?

Ok....
I having been having a bit of a thinking faff, as to how it could possibly work.
I think a seperate place, for answers to specific questions really is a must, otherwise as you say, filter through lots of thought provoking banter can side track a persons mind (and I really dont need any help on that score :rotfl:)

I dont know if this is the answer, but, it may give others ideas, to move forward :A
Recently, one of the flyladies conducted an ironing survey, using a free survey type site.
If the recipe is posted here - if this is where it belongs - and on completion testers follow a survey link, to post their findings.

The survey results will filter out the the banter, just asking specific questions set by the survey setter up person.
A separate survey could be set up for each recipe.
I am not entirely sure how these free survey sites work....yet
But they must effectively collate info on behalf of the person wishing the survey :think:

Would this work do you think ?
Or is it too much of a faff ?
Or am I just waffling now ?

Potty

weezl74

potty I do agree it's tricky!

I'm a bit torn!

option one : post feedback on here and someone trawls through: easier for all the recipe testers, major faff for the collater.
option two : post feedback on seperate surveys and someone recieves report: easier for the collater, major faff for the recipe testers.

Shruggy yellow man where are you!?

Lesley_Gaye

Results for Chickpea Crumble

I've now had a portion of the Chickpea Crumble for dinner tonight. Had it with leeks, carrots, broccoli and sprouts.

Very pleased, a successful experiment. The adjusted recipe is below

Chick Pea Crumble
Serves 4 - ample portions

1tbslp oil
100g onion, chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped left out
225g potatoes, scrubbed and sliced
400g tin tomatoes
½ tsp ground cumin left out
¼ tsp dried basil or marjoram left out
425g tin chickpeas
black pepper
Added – 1 tsp garam masala
Added - half a tsp Colmans mustard

Crumble
75g plain wholemeal flour – changed to plain white flour
25g rolled oats
50g spread/butter (I used Vitalight)
1tbsp sunflower seeds left out
2tbsp sesame seeds left out
added – 25g grated cheese
added - 25g salted peanuts

Saute the onion, and potatoes for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes. Add the garam masala and mustard. Simmer gently with lid on for 20 minutes until potatoes are soft.

Crumble – rub spread into flour and oats and stir in the grated cheese and peanuts.
Stir the chickpeas into the tomato sauce, season with black pepper and salt to taste. Put into a greased ovenproof dish and top with the crumble.

Bake at 190C/375F/Gas 5 for about 30 minutes - increased time by 10 minutes

Notes: potatoes were not peeled, so using every scrap.
I used dried chickpeas cooked for 45 minutes from dry in a pressure cooker and estimated what the amount from a tin would be by putting some cooked beans in the empty tomato tin to about ¾ of the way up the tin.
In the normal run of things, if a recipe said 100g chopped onion, I would use a whole med to large onion, but as this was a testing exercise, I weighed the chopped onion and had a lot left (used in something else)

Conclusion. Recipe worked out just fine, it was a delicious crumble. Only caveat would be that it was a tiny bit dry, so next time I would put a little of the chickpea cooking liquor into the base mix so it was heading towards a sloppy mix.

I now have 3 portions sitting waiting to cool and to be put in the freezer.

ceridwen

[QUOTE=weezl74;29756151



Yes, I think that's how I picture it too, like you could click whether you'd do without meat, or fresh stuff or whatever and then the menu plan would change accordingly...
Sounds good to me:)





Your second point is interesting too. I'm not sure if you read my long and controversial post about subsistence living and why I feel there needs to be investment into researching it and teaching it as was done prior to the late 1950s, and probably this isn't quite the place for a rehash:o, but in a nutshell that's why I've set the budget I have to this challenge, because I'm persuing a moral/political personal imperative.
I did - and I agree.



I see myself as a bit of a cassandra figure, but she was lonely. And I'm too extravert for that! I think I'm going on a 1000 mile journey here and I don't expect anyone else to be motivated about doing the same. I think what we have here are friends who will walk the first 10 miles (recipe testing) and that's brilliant.
Well - I've sometimes wondered if my middle name ought to be Cassandra actually - so you wouldnt be lonely our Weezl - I'm sitting the other side of that particular "table".:)

Do I expect that if I want to take my funny little journey further and lobby government about subsistence or write a book, or somesuch other mammoth undertaking that you would all come with me?
You better believe it. I think you musta realized by now that I'm right up there with you there...and I expect there would be others as well:)

Heavens no! I'd have to find a much wackier forum to recruit those friends :rotfl:
Errrrr.....well I'm here arent I? Then obviously MSE does attract a few then;):rotfl:[/QUOTE]

..................:)

ceridwen

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Hi Weezl, my that was a heavy post for such an early hour of the morning.

My thoughts, for what they are worth.

You are creating a great resource that people can use if they want to, in a paint by numbers way, to keep their expenditure to the absolute minimum. What you won't ever be able to do is create something that everyone will be happy with, it just isn't possible, people vary too much.

Once we have the full plan for month one, we will have a step by step plan to spend £100 and keep body and soul together for 4 people for a month. If people want to have FR eggs, more F&V, or whatever it may be, there won't be anybody standing over them.

I think the strengths of this resource are that it can be done on a budget that is a lot lower than the majority of people would think it can be done on; it can be done healthily; it can be done without spending the entire time trying to find bashed box bargains and skip diving; it is a gift not a diktat for those who need it, esp those who may not have the experience of regular OSers

I admire your generosity of spirit in creating it, and I for one, am enjoying it immensely

:T:T:A Quite agree.

Dont think you arent thoroughly appreciated for all your hard work and commitment - because you are:A

Errr.....My orange was sorta "skip dived" actually - I found it lying there on the pavement:) (I aint planning on breaking my habits on that front:)).

weezl74

FrankieM wrote: »

I hope you don't mind me joining in.
I've been reading this thread with great interest...

I would love more info on how you came up with the £100 figure.

thanks Frankie and welcome

A few people have asked about the £100 figure. It came from a variety of places. Here are the things about it that I like:

• It's a really easy summary statement that someone can easily think if they currently match. '£100 for a family of 4 for a month' to me that doesn't take a great deal of extra maths to work out how that compares with what people currently live on and therefore if it is of interest to them. So I think it has an attention grabbing quality. If we said '£1.22 per person per day-try it!' (this isn't our daily figure, just an example). I don't think most people would easily be able to see if that bore any resemblance to their situation.

• It's more than 50p a day, which although do-able I realise represents too much adjustment for most people. Although everyone wished me well and I hope got a lot out of it:o:), AFAIK not one person did likewise :rotfl:which has got to tell us something eh? It just wasn't normal enough or realistic enough or something... It's 80p per person per day to allow more normalness IYSWIM.

• It's still pretty subsistenceish which I believe in.

• It taps into a very popular budget figure. Sammi Kaye posted her £100 per month food budgetting shopping list a few years ago for her, DH and son aged 3. The thread has been astoundingly successful. She was hounded to do it . Black saturn too gave her £55 a month (I think) food planner for her and two DDs and again this was popular with all on MSE. These kinds of numbers seem attractive to people.

• Final good thing. If it's £100 less than where someone is now, and our resource is successful, and Bob and Shirley have debts then I have done their health a massive benefit by shifting that bit of the debt.

So all of that motivates me and made me try for £100.

I hope that helps.

Look forward to any thoughts

In_Search_Of_Me

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1979513&page=81

weezl...ot but here are the final cols for blankie...shaz I cant crochet but am learning (insert winky man smiley!) still not caught up yet...keep up good work pepys...would a simple marks out of 10 for each recipe work with small comments box?

ceridwen

taka wrote: »

What about a google document/spreadsheet for all the recipe feedback? A food version of what they have on the 2010 MFW thread for updates? That way we'd have to fill in certain bits (if you want feedback on certain things) but still be able to add comments on how we got on and what we changed?

Ummm......aaaah!...as Miss Computer Illiterate of the Year (aka ceridwen) promptly panics at that thought....as I simply wouldnt have the first idea personally how to get into that.

I DO know all about adding comments to blogs though:):)

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

The tricky thing is if we do blog and list the recipes they aren't ours to reproduce now in that way I think- MSE owns them, so they need to live here. In that way it's hard to seperate out the feedback from that.... IYSWIM?

Hmmm....I took Nykmedia's comment the other day (cant recall if twas her thread or yours) as meaning that MSE "shares" anything we put on here - but it doesnt in the process deprive us of our own "property" IYSWIM.

I took Nyk's interpretation as meaning that I, for instance, can put up anything I like on MSE AND put it anywhere else I like too. The only thing is that MSE will "share it" and can use it too if they want - but they havent been able to stop me using my own idea (in other words exactly what I do right now anyway;):)). So - I'm taking the MSE rationale for their "copyright statement" as being "Dont expect MSE to pay you (ie the poster) if we decide to also use what you posted on our website" - and NOT "dont you dare post your own stuff anywhere else - if you've put it on here".

sistercas

weezl74 wrote: »

sistercas that's fantastic! well done you, you must be so pleased:D

Can I ask a few more questions? Hope so :

• Did your family feel as full as they usually do after dinner? they all said they felt full which is no mean feat ( and so far they havent wandered back into the kitchen )
• Was it everyone's main meal of the day, or had some had a big dinner at luch time? they all have a sandwich and a piece of fruit and sometimes a biscuit or this week it has been a piece of carrot cake lol- so yes main meal
• How often do the family eat meat and did anyone mind it not being there? we tend to have meat 4- 5 x a week , I think if I lowered it to a couple of times a week DH would grumble. but he really enjoyed the fritters ( he did have a slice of bread and butter with his) the girls probably wouldnt mind if we had more veggie meals though

Thanks loads xxx

hope this helps xx