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

phizzimum

thinking about the sausage burgers...could we add some flour and an egg? I know eggs are precious but yesterday I made the carrot cake using 3 eggs instead of 4 so there is perhaps some room for egg re-allocation!

weezl74

phizzimum wrote: »

are you off to the hospital today?

you're both right! It's twice daily blood thinning injections til ultrasound shows no clots

glad the bhajis went well, 13 portions as in 13 bhajis or 13 lunch sized amounts ie 2-3 bhajis?

xxx

phizzimum

oh no! twice daily! does the midwife come to you or do you have to trapse to the hospital twice a day?

we only got 13 bhajis, so I would call that 4 portions. I used a tablespoon of mixture for each so they weren't huge.

asked DH how many he would consider would be enough for lunch - he said 5! but then that is us, now, in comfortable circumstances - not Bob facing the repossession of his house or the bailiffs knocking on the door.

I wonder if my family is very greedy, as we don't seem to get as many portions out of things as the recipes state! however, i know you need realistic feedback so I will be honest

weezl74

phizzimum wrote: »

oh no! twice daily! does the midwife come to you or do you have to trapse to the hospital twice a day?

we only got 13 bhajis, so I would call that 4 portions. I used a tablespoon of mixture for each so they weren't huge.

asked DH how many he would consider would be enough for lunch - he said 5! but then that is us, now, in comfortable circumstances - not Bob facing the repossession of his house or the bailiffs knocking on the door.

I wonder if my family is very greedy, as we don't seem to get as many portions out of things as the recipes state! however, i know you need realistic feedback so I will be honest

definitely please be honest.

I think I do underestimate a bit. I was surprised that the whole meal of tart, wedges, green beans and chutney is only 750 cals for example. Bob and shirley will need lots of cake

'Fraid it's a hospital twice/3 times a day thing at the mo

Yuck, ouch!

But if ultrasound today is clear then no more visits :j

weezl74

Been thinking a bit more about our family not getting hungry and people's feedback generally about the lunches.

I've added in more bread, but now Shirley is baking bread every 3 days, 4 loaves at a time! :eek:seems a bit much?

that's so lunch can have 4 slices of toast. Hmmmmmn, any thoughts?

xxx

System

weezl74 wrote: »

I think we've decided to imagine that Bob and shirley have a freezer and pretty standard equipment. It opens up too many parameters of things I can't address if not. The general consensus was to keep it simple at first until we actually have something useful, and then add in extras. Of which equipment would be a very interesting and useful addition I feel

Example: most recipes I know of, use the phrase 'roll out the pastry'. And then proceed to the next step. I'm all for making it as helpfully worded as possible, but I don't think I can say, 'and if you've no rolling pin, try your local freecycle!' or somesuch. Not because it's not really helpful advice, just because the recipes would be really complex. OR we'd be writing a very specialist recipe book/resource which loses general appeal. Does that make sense?

I'm coming round to thinking that anything like this can only really have one 'unique selling point' or interesting feature or else it may lose people.

I'm aiming for: 'can a family of 4 live healthily on £100 a month?' the hot words in the title, are healthily, which gives us lots to contend with family of 4 which gives us our issues of who'll eat what and how to please 2 generations, and £100 a month, which gives us an 80p per person per day upper limit.

which might lose people if I were to add things like, 'with limited kitchen equipment' or other provisos.

I think you are absolutely right. Recipes where everything is explained always look so complicated and off-putting, giving the impression that there is only one way of doing things, or that the tiny details are somehow critical to the result -- in general, this is not the case, and most cooking is more accommodating and forgiving of personal interpretation. A detailed approach is fine when you start to actually follow a recipe, but most people won't get past the first glance with its intimidatingly long list of apparent complications.

Far better to have "normal" recipes, assuming "normal" terminology, equipment, skills and abilities. And then, when a plan is actually in place and finalised, it is easy enough to add notes or a glossary to talk about alternatives, methods and so on (which will probably apply to multiple recipes in every menu plan, and not just to isolated recipes, so ought to be grouped together anyway).

My personal interpretation of Weezl's "big idea" is that she wants to show that healthy eating for four for £100 per month can be done under normal circumstances, not necessarily that it can be done in the most restricted of circumstances with the most limited of skill sets. One plan can't do everything, and if it tries to do so, it will just be cumbersome and unwieldy. Not to mention the exponential increase in development time for individual recipes.

System

weezl74 wrote: »

baking bread every 3 days, 4 loaves at a time! :eek:seems a bit much?

Not too much. My skinny teenage son ate nearly a whole loaf (made from 400g mixed white and wholemeal flour) yesterday evening. Don't underestimate how much fuel teenagers need!

phizzimum

weezl74 wrote: »

Been thinking a bit more about our family not getting hungry and people's feedback generally about the lunches.

I've added in more bread, but now Shirley is baking bread every 3 days, 4 loaves at a time! :eek:seems a bit much?

that's so lunch can have 4 slices of toast. Hmmmmmn, any thoughts?

xxx

is it your no-knead bread recipe that they will be using? I tend to buy most of our bread now, but in the past when I was baking it was a full batch every few days for 4 of us, so your calculations would be correct.

boredofbeingathome

canidothis wrote: »

technical term dont you know?

My cooking ability or knowledge is fairly limited but I wanted to know could you just reduce the sugar with no ill effects on the production of a loaf? and what would adding oil do to it?

I always reduce the sugar- i try half the quantity in any recipe mentioned- then add spice. I wouldn't add oil to it at all- as the cake is moist if you have enough fruit in it. I soak the fruit in teabags sometimes as well and the mixed fruit makes it rather nice too:D

We all like the weetabix cake very much- the carrot cake is popular too- and they find it filling, so i am hopeful of it lasting longer than the weetabix cake.:D

Fire_Fox

weezl74 wrote: »

I think we've decided to imagine that Bob and shirley have a freezer and pretty standard equipment. It opens up too many parameters of things I can't address if not. The general consensus was to keep it simple at first until we actually have something useful, and then add in extras. Of which equipment would be a very interesting and useful addition I feel

£294.35 per year for everything a person eats and drinks would represent such a huge saving for most people, I think, that it may free up the ability to buy what is lacking?

When you put it that way it sounds even more impressive than £100 a month for a family of four! :T

Avocet wrote: »

I think you are absolutely right. Recipes where everything is explained always look so complicated and off-putting, giving the impression that there is only one way of doing things, or that the tiny details are somehow critical to the result -- in general, this is not the case, and most cooking is more accommodating and forgiving of personal interpretation. A detailed approach is fine when you start to actually follow a recipe, but most people won't get past the first glance with its intimidatingly long list of apparent complications.

Far better to have "normal" recipes, assuming "normal" terminology, equipment, skills and abilities. And then, when a plan is actually in place and finalised, it is easy enough to add notes or a glossary to talk about alternatives, methods and so on (which will probably apply to multiple recipes in every menu plan, and not just to isolated recipes, so ought to be grouped together anyway).

Once you have the plan up on a website somewhere, you could have a sort of FAQs/ links section
- Can't cook? Links to beginners sites, Ministry of Food courses, local colleges 'cooking with confidence'
- Don't have equipment? Suggest charity shops, Freecycle, pound shops, HomeBargains, supermarket value ranges.