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

HowlinWolf

weezl74 wrote: »

sorry about this all. I just feel very downcast and that I can't produce this

Weezl, i think you need to go and get some sleep. Forgive me for being blunt but you've just had a baby, your hormones are all over the place. It's not really surprising that you are having a wobble.

There is no pressure on you to produce anything by tomorrow or next week or next month. Do not mistake peoples enthusiasm for helping you for them expecting you to produce a gold plated finished plan by 4pm tomorrow!

You (and the team) have accomplished a massive amount. Planner 1 is nearly finished and it is healthy and well researched and pretty well tested.

There are plenty ideas for further planners. In 8 weeks (or so) a massive amount has been accomplished by a group of people all over the country who don't know each other from Adam - now that, my friend, is an amazing achievement in itself and it's you that started all this.

Go and get rest. When you feel more like yourself either tomorrow or next week or whenever come and post and say what needs to be done and what needs to be researched and where you think the weaknesses are and then dish out the jobs to volunteers and let us help.

NOW GET YOURSELF TO BED!

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

NOW GET YOURSELF TO BED!

night night
:kisses3:

HowlinWolf

p.s you are giving bob and shirley a diet that is probably much healthier than you have ever had before. It is unlikely that you will ever be able to get absolutely everything spot on down to the last calorie and last gram of fibre. But then I sincerely doubt that there is anyone else in the world (nutrition people aside) who eat a diet that encompassed 100% of everything we are supposed to have 100% of the time. You should be incredibly proud that you are giving them a very very healthy, well thought out diet at a price point that won't lead Bob into an early grave.

shanks77

weezl74 wrote: »

hiya shanks the very latest thing is in a spreadsheet in the windows live thingie that lesley set up (although a newer version will be posted there by Lesley once she's had a chance to look at and sort out my dodgy maths!). You can ping her your email address if you'd like to take a look? Alternatively, this week I will be posting what the breakfasts and evening meals are and maybe I'll get somewhere on the lunches :rotfl:

Thats fine i will wait til later not that i dont want to give out my address just scared in case i cant follow the spreadsheet and have to ask dumb questions.
Dont be disheartened you have done a great job and as far as i can tell you have covered all the basis in nutrition, calories and not a ready meal to be seen. IMO unless you have unlimited money, time and knowledge i dont think you will ever have a perfect menu but we have a varied, healthy, easy and inexpensive meal plan that people can follow whilst saving themselves a heck of a lot of money and not resorting to feeding their family crap. Dont be so hard on yourself and look at what you have achieved in such a short space of time and having had a baby. Give yourself a break woman:kisses3:

In_Search_Of_Me

Weezl...as others have said youve just had a (very cute) baby, people icky, visitors to be looked after and catered for plus the normal things of everyday life with a toddler and oh...
Doing the plan is fab and I know youre passionate about it BUT as others have said give yourself a break ad roll out the start in a couple of weeks...
IMO 1st April not a good day anyhoo (dont want people to think its a joke)...it will be done..and it will be healthy and people will have the option to follow it to the letter and spend 100 or add some extras and still be healthier that they would normally and spend less than they would normally.
Heathy is good, but as indicated by me not realising I was getting pretty much no omega 3, most of us havent got a clue!

pammyj74

just saying hi so i can follow the thread and try some of the recipes. I am a useless cook so the less ingredients the better haha

a belated congrats on the new arrival weezl xx

nopot2pin

weezl74 wrote: »

I know we've got enough evening meals and breakfasts and that they are within budget. I'm stuck at the moment with lunches and the snacks.

It was a bit of a blow to think that the snacks not being savoury would be a stumbling block for people, as I had run pretty far with that because the carrot cake and cereal bars seemed so popular at this stage I don't think i can change that too much without adding a lot of extra time. I have added in 2 batches of mr Aless' savoury bites for eating over the month, but apart from those, the snacks are cereal bars, biscuits and the carrot cake.

Bizarrely, today, I seen an advert in a magazine, for Marmite cereal bars.
Now, I know Marmite is a love/hate thing... but could something like that, not be adapted into the existing cereal bars, to be a savoury snack
Maybe, even another savoury flavour cereal bar ??
Sorry, if its not very helpful, I just thought it might offer a slightly different take on it......

Weezl.. I do hope you have a good rest tonight.
Things always look different with a good nights sleep.
And like others have said... no rush for anything....
It will happen, when its ready to happen

Bedtime for me now... work was mental again tonight... tis nice to have a quiet half hour to read the thread :)

weezl74

good morning

Sorry I posted about my downer last night

Just so no-one feels bad, I really didn't mean anyone on this thread had either put time pressure on me or made me feel the way I did last night. I know it's me vs me :rotfl:

Frankie's thoughts about tea have made me think more about non-negotiables (thanks frankie, I appreciated your honest feedback) because if tea in frankie's house is a non-negotiable then there will be many shirleys who have a similar non-negotiable. It really helps when people tell it as it is

So: do we endlessly tweak the planner until it encompasses every non-negotiable?

Impossible! (not that I think anyone was asking me to!;))

So a tea loving shirley will have a couple of choices: we know that by shopping around she can save herself up to £5 in the month, we know that if shirley didn't mind getting calcium from the eggshells she could save herself a further £3.75 (on planner 1) that's a lot of tea bags and milk!
or she may decide she's a £105 a month person because of the tea. And that's ok too

So I think I'd like to ask that the testers run with the planner as published, but then do what they would do if they were shirley, and realised the family were about to mutiny (spend more/take other measures to allow headroom) and diary about that on the new thread. Because that's what I feel is the most useful data we can collect.

similarly, if like arty bear shirley is very happy (and bob, j and j) with water to drink, they can add in one more box of hot oaty doo-dah for the calcium and use the £6.50 saved to have some fresh fruit, chocolate, even a bottle of wine or probably mr arty's posh coffee (tho he'd have to have it black! )

weezl74

pammyj74 wrote: »

just saying hi so i can follow the thread and try some of the recipes. I am a useless cook so the less ingredients the better haha

a belated congrats on the new arrival weezl xx

hello and welcome I know you from the MFW board

Yep, we have quite a limited ingredients list, carrots seem to feature quite heavily :D

ceridwen

HowlinWolf wrote: »

If i was being really frugal I'd make stock for soup but I'm knackered and I just can't be Ar*ed. I am just going to have a cup of tea and one of those museli bars that Ceridwen posted a link to before I go to bed.

Was that muesli bar as nice as it sounded then?:D Have got a couple of missing ingredients for that to pick up this week - ie the dates and mixed nuts and I'll be good to go for trying it myself.:)

Working through establishing a range of suitable snacks for myself at the moment - made cheese flapjacks for the first time at the weekend from a recipe I got from MSE (and discovered she had got in the first place from the Cranks cookbook I've just acquired) - they were nice. Tried out a nice fruit and walnut cake (minus sugar:)) and will be doing that again (with twice as much fruit and walnuts...). I've not really thought of specific snack things I could make before - but am working on it now - and have been looking out a couple of older cookbooks of mine that I'd rather forgotten I have (which feature things for a sweet tooth - minus sugar). So - if anyone is specifically looking for some - they are:

"Sugar-Free Cakes and Biscuits - recipes for diabetics and dieters" by Elbie Lebrecht

and

"Sweets without sinning" by Gwyneth Dover

The first one is the basic level one - more everyday type recipes. She has been doing a bit of research in advance on the health front - as I note her mention of the Hunzas in front of her sugar-free recipe for apricot slices.

The "Sweets without sinning" is the more luxury-type one - and she gives both the conventional version and the healthy (ie sugar-free, etc) version of some of the recipes.

QUERY: there is the odd recipe in the first one that features soya flour or tofu as ingredients. Its a 1985 cookbook - so I think that was probably before people became very wary of buying anything soya (as soya beans are usually now genetically-modified OR contaminated by ones that are on the one hand - darn M**santo). So I need a substitute for soya flour to be able to do those particular recipes - does anyone know of one please? Its very few of the recipes that are affected by this G.M. Factor - but I'd like to be able to work my way through the lot....