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

sistercas

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

oh crunchy every time

me too i love crunchy peanut butter. do you think we would use less if it was smooth?? ( thinking frugaly of course )

Lesley_Gaye

sistercas wrote: »

me too i love crunchy peanut butter. do you think we would use less if it was smooth?? ( thinking frugaly of course )

I think I probably would use less if it was smooth, but I can't say I like the smooth anywhere near as much as the crunchy

Sian_the_Green

This might make me sound like a total moron but with the recipes we are using, is it the ones on the first page, following the links? Or is there a more frugal version for each of them that I cannot locate?

FrankieM

weezl What about your chocolate concrete recipe? That's a firm favourite with my children.

System

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

I had some peanut butter this morning on my slice of bread, it was 13g (I love my super accurate scales) and would be good for a 2 slice sandwich

I read the peanut butter question before work this morning, so when I came home I made a peanut butter open sandwich by way of research. My daughter is the regular peanut butter eater in our house, so I guess that she knows how much to use. I deliberately spread the peanut butter to the same sort of thickness that she eats hers -- it came to 40g.

Now that I have washed my hands and settled down to catch up with the thread, I find that this is three times the weight of Sian's peanut butter, so I must be a real greedy-guts!

I don't know whether it is of interest to anyone, but there is a document about portion sizes for the catering industry on Ealing's council website at http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/community/health/food_matters/food_businesses/ You need to scroll down to the link called "Food portion size guidelines for caterers (word)", or you can go straight to the document download page at:
http://www.ealing.gov.uk/ealing3/export/sites/ealingweb/services/community/health/food_matters/food_businesses/docs/portionsizesdocumentfinal.doc

I can't remember how I first came across this document (having nothing to do with the food industry or Ealing), but it makes for interesting reading -- although, needless to say, peanut butter isn't mentioned!

Sian_the_Green

Avocet wrote: »

Now that I have washed my hands and settled down to catch up with the thread, I find that this is three times the weight of Sian's peanut butter, so I must be a real greedy-guts!

Or I am stingy
I am sure that tastes vary and I think smooth peanut butter will go a LOT further than crunchy. I do prefer crunchy to be fair but needs must and that was all we had in our cupboard. Peanut butter is pretty calorific which would make it great for hungry people who do a lot of exercise. One of the products that get used to deal with malnutrition and starvation in developing countries is called Plumpynut and is based on peanut butter because it is so high energy!
It also goes a lot further on toast as the heat of the bread melts it, making it easier to spread...

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

So the thing is, perhaps as you read my bonkers sounding meal ideas and menu plans, maybe don't think 'how does this compare to what I like to eat?' but / and couple it with 'blimey this is a whole lot better than 4 peanut butter sarnies and powdered milk to drink daily for life!'.

Subsistence - which is something my family have had to do when I was in my teens - to me means boiled potatoes, baked potatoes, potato stew, potatoes and rice, bean and pearl barley stew, potato and pearly barley stew, potato pie, sauerkraut, and polenta with yogurt. See a theme developing ?;) Fruit and veg was whatever we could grow or swap with neighbours - and in winter, sauerkraut, turnips and prunes was pretty much as far as it went. (And there I will stop before this turns into a four Yorkshiremen sketch).

Oh, and let's not forget tripe - but I wisely went vegetarian before things got really tough So, Weezl, for what it's worth I look at your plan and think

how much better and nicer it is than most other proffered subsistence diets .

Well, actually, I look at it and think "that's not subsistence, that's well posh - in fact, it's pretty much what we eat when I am feeling affluent " - but I do recognise that my perspective might be somewhat skewed. And it's a perspective that my other half probably wouldn't quite share either

phizzimum

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

This might make me sound like a total moron but with the recipes we are using, is it the ones on the first page, following the links? Or is there a more frugal version for each of them that I cannot locate?

yes I was wondering that too, glad it's not just me

wyrdsister

sistercas The recipe for the chickpea curry serves 4, but I suspect it would need some rice or something along with it. Going back to read through the rest of the posts i've missed now!

weezl74

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

This might make me sound like a total moron but with the recipes we are using, is it the ones on the first page, following the links? Or is there a more frugal version for each of them that I cannot locate?

no moronicness detected! A good question. With the tart and the carrot cake, most people seem to have made versions incorporating their own tweaks, and using the ingredients off the asda list (ie delia uses some wholemeal flour, but we've used plain white) But you have prompted me to post a more recent version as the link from each of those titles in the earlier post, I shall try to do that asap!