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

holliegarson

ok - you're all going to wish I hadn't joined with my silly questions but here goes........

I want to try and embrace this philosphy but my pantry/freezer is full of odd things - shall I eat them up (I have no idea what to do with half of it!) asnd then start from scratch with you ladies or do you think it's best to jump right in a la fly lady (!) and ignore scary things in freezer.

I am asamed to say I spend about 150 pw on food/toiletries/general uneccesary things from supermarket so you can see I need a kick up the proverbial. I followerd the 50p a day thread with wonder - and I find posters on here so inspiring - too many too list - but people like Ceridwen et al - you all seem to be so super organised - I want to be like it too.

So - am ready to test/try/offer opinion/get under peoples feet or simply read iof I can't be coped with!!

I xx

boredofbeingathome

holliegarson wrote: »

ok - you're all going to wish I hadn't joined with my silly questions but here goes........

I want to try and embrace this philosphy but my pantry/freezer is full of odd things - shall I eat them up (I have no idea what to do with half of it!) asnd then start from scratch with you ladies or do you think it's best to jump right in a la fly lady (!) and ignore scary things in freezer.

I am asamed to say I spend about 150 pw on food/toiletries/general uneccesary things from supermarket so you can see I need a kick up the proverbial. I followerd the 50p a day thread with wonder - and I find posters on here so inspiring - too many too list - but people like Ceridwen et al - you all seem to be so super organised - I want to be like it too.

So - am ready to test/try/offer opinion/get under peoples feet or simply read iof I can't be coped with!!

I xx

Firstly make a list of what you have in your cupboards- freezer etc. Then have an idea of what you can make/use up by having a menu list for the next few weeks.

I would use them up as you go along and try out some new recipes- so you build up a stock of things you enjoy eating and cooking.

I would then just replace as you go along- so you don't have a massive one off expenditure- so for example you could buy fresh fruit/veg/ milk etc. Then one week buy spices, or dried goods- does that make sense?

Good luck as these things do take time and lots of us have been having a go on grocery challenges- tweaking as we go along. Rome wasn't built in a day and i learn something new all the time, so enjoy experimenting and having fun with food.:D

BOB X

phizzimum

Hi Hollie

don't worry - we're not actually living on £100 a month (well I know I'm not) - we're just testing recipes and giving general helpful (!) feedback to weezl's plans.

so don't worry about your odd freezer and pantry contents (although I am intrigued to know what they are ).

boredofbeingathome

Err just reporting back on carrot cake- it is all gone,teenagers *shuffling feet* and hanging heads in shame- off for half term- need i say more?...:( But declared a success and DD's friends did ask if i had some of that lovely weetabix cake. DD even wrote recipe down for them. Although some of them wondered who Weezl was? LOL They thought it was an extra ingredient until re read properly..

Lesley_Gaye

re disasterous burgers. The wetness maybe because it was all pulverised in the processor. Would prob be a lot less wet if the apple was chopped and the onion finely chopped. The increased texture might even help with the loss of flavour

Trying the sweetcorn fritters using the plans recipe and the savoury chutney this eve. Have a pan sitting with delicious frying juices from the steaks we had last night for Valentines. Would normally use these today to fry the fritters to impart fantastic flavour, but would hardly be a fair test. So shall put the juicey pan to one side for now and use it for something else

Lesley_Gaye

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Hey there, hope all is well with everyoen and Weezl’s bump isn’t too sore; having babies sounds a lot like hard work to me
I was thinking about the burgers, what about making a kind of meatball with the pork meat and egg and breadcrumbs then making an oniony appley sauce, meaning meatier ‘burgers’ and juicier side? Then I saw this recipe and thought Delia, as ever, had a better plan than me J

they look really good, and I am tempted to make them, but I don't think our family can afford to spend that much meat in one go can they?

Weezl, do you have a nominal sum that you assign to each meal? When looking at possible recipes, it would help if I knew how near it was in price. I know it is as little as possible! BTW I have a nice carrot pie recipe we have now and again, it's called Crecy Plate Pie and it is from a Friends of the Earth book I think, that might help stretch things a bit and it tastes surprisingly good. It doesn't have much protein in it, but we could up it by having it with some kind of pea mash or something (if you are interested)

Soups for lunches are pretty cheap, and filling with 100g red lentils (or chick peas) in a 4 servings pot. They could be taken to work/school in a flask, with some HM bread

Kaz2904

weezl74 wrote: »

muffins if we have enough egg. (to be sorted once we've worked out the carrot cake requirements.

Just while I think of this, (I'm still catching up) 1/2 banana can be used to replace an egg.
I made batches of banana muffins yesterday and after the first batch I adapted the recipe. Initially I used Tesco banana muffin recipe
2 large bananas, mashed
75 g soft brown sugar
4 tbsp sunflower oil
1 size 3 egg
125 ml milk
200 g self-raising flour
½ tsp nutmeg, grated
blitzed in the food processor and cooked @ 190 deg C for 20 minutes.
It ended up as
6 large bananas, 140 g granulated sugar, 150ml vegetable oil, 250ml water 1/2 tsp spice.
One batch ended up without sugar because I forgot to add it . It's doughy so will be eaten after a light meal (maybe soup) with custard or one of my h/m jams watered down to a coulis type sauce.

I used cheapo ingredients for all of this. My thinking is that if the bananas aren't too expensive, then it could be a cheap snack. I happened upon a carrier from the grocers for 50p. Hence I had 34 bananas to use.

I understand that you can substitute apple sauce for oil. Does anyone know if this would work with banana instead of egg AND apple sauce instead of oil?

If nobody knows, perhaps you could all let me know a cheap way to make/buy apple sauce (is it the same as apple purree?) and I will give it a bash. I have 3 bananas in the freezer.

Another thing I always notice is that if you have truly manky bananas, they are much sweeter. Hence usually cheaper to buy and less sugar needed .

I shall continue to read. I would like to say thanks so much for doing this weezl and I have run this past DH and kidlets (6 & 8). They are willing to try some of the recipes and I said that we may try a month of it when it is finished.
The beetroot, could it be used to make chutney to go with the fritters?
Probably no good for cake (if it's vinegared?) but could it be turned into coleslaw or cubed and added to the curry and the chickpea crumble etc? This would mean there would be a meal down though.

Hmm, weezl you are starting the revolution!!!!!!!!!

Sian_the_Green

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

they look really good, but I don't think our family can afford to spend that much meat in one go can they?

I wasn't suggesting making the whole meal as Delia does, just that by separating the pork and apple and onion into 2 chunks the texture could be eased up. You could do balls of sausagemeat in the sauce, like the rissoles

phizzimum

I've made pork and apple sausage-balls/rissoles for tonight and I'm cooking them in the oven a la Delia/Sian. It's a long time to have them in the oven (1 1/4 hours by Delia's reckoning) but I'm doing baked potatoes with them so the oven would be on anyway. the advantage of cooking them this way is that I can leave them and get on with other things.

I've used 375g sausage meat, 75 g chopped onion, 100g grated apple, 80g breadcrumbs and one egg. I added a little flour to some of them to see how they compare. the mixture was sticky but held in a rissole shape. It's made 11 tablespoon size balls (should have made an even number shouldn't I?)

will report back later as to how they cooked and importantly how they tasted!

Lesley_Gaye

phizzimum wrote: »

I've made pork and apple sausage-balls/rissoles for tonight and I'm cooking them in the oven a la Delia/Sian. It's a long time to have them in the oven (1 1/4 hours by Delia's reckoning) but I'm doing baked potatoes with them so the oven would be on anyway. the advantage of cooking them this way is that I can leave them and get on with other things.

I've used 375g sausage meat, 75 g chopped onion, 100g grated apple, 80g breadcrumbs and one egg. I added a little flour to some of them to see how they compare. the mixture was sticky but held in a rissole shape. It's made 11 tablespoon size balls (should have made an even number shouldn't I?)

will report back later as to how they cooked and importantly how they tasted!

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

I wasn't suggesting making the whole meal as Delia does, just that by separating the pork and apple and onion into 2 chunks the texture could be eased up. You could do balls of sausagemeat in the sauce, like the rissoles

Oh right, yes, of course

Will wait impatiently for the result of Phizzimums experiment!