Weezl and friends Phase 2 -giving it a whirl for Shirl! Testing meal plan for a month

Murrell

Found it

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=30975637&postcount=3705

I updated the post above, but as you have already thanked me, thought i'd better do a new post.

Sandra
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jinky67

Murrell wrote: »

Found it

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=30975637&postcount=3705

I updated the post above, but as you have already thanked me, thought i'd better do a new post.

Sandra
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Lurker alert lurker alert

I thought that said Vulcanised :rotfl:

now you know why I lurk:p

Murrell

I entered a competition on eating healthy and frugally and I won a copy of Eat Well spend less. Not a vegan book, but still has lots of vegan recipes in it. Well it would have wouldn't it, its frugal afterall and written by a nutritionalist.

From what I remember, I just said to base your meals round home cooked foods, including grains, fruit and vegetables. I did go into more detail and give example meals to. I was thinking of this thread as I wrote it and gave some examples of dishes that I eat.

I would like to donate the book to you weezl, but before I do I shall test a few recipes and let you know how I get on. If you are willing to exept my gift, please let me have your address sometime.

Its not as cheap as your plan. Items are costed, but she doesn't include herbs, I can understand why on this one from her explanation, but she also doesn't include olive oil, because its hard to work out the cost of a 'dollop'. So you are more acurate, as you work out oil also and a every dollop of olive oil will soon add up. I also think some of the dishes could be further frugalised.

Sandra
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HowlinWolf

think my oven is !!!!!!e*d. DP is out at nice posh city bistro bar eating nice food. I have caved and ordered pizza

artybear

Oh no Howlin!!!!

Enjoy your pizzaxx

shanks77

Aw Howlin thats crap hope it is something easy and cheap to fix enjoy your pizza xx

shanks77

Morning how is everyone today?. I am just getting ready to go to work so will be leaving ex in charge of making the chicken for tonight so will report later on how that goes. He is a good cook but not so keen to weigh stuff but trying to persuade him to do it.
Speak to you all later xx

Allegra

Onion gravy method here. As Shirl will have no butter, using any fat you've got will do - lard would be fine, for instance. It's gonna look a bit anaemic without the soy sauce/ Worcestershire sauce, but if you let the onions (use about half of the 100g saving the other half for the stuffing) blacken at the edges this should go a long way towards improving the colour.

And if you find that 50-60g of chicken per person just doesn't look enough, ty shredding it and pouring some onion gravy over it as you serve - it immediately looks loads more !

ariarnia

Hello all.

Hope it's been going well. Here to report in on my 2 weeks as yet (didn't start until the 10th when I could be in for my order to arrive)

Some successes, and some difficulties. (typing from notes so not ness. very logical and when cooking noted problems rather than easy bits so don't take this as a list of negatives - i.e. I have had fun and it's been interesting was noting what would have discouraged me to continue if I wasn't set on this and depressed rather than motivated (as I expect B&S to be)

1. Had some trouble working out quarter/half amounts for the meal plan. Part of this problem was that at the weekends (so 6 meals a week) my parter is about to be fed so I was feeding one and a third-ish people. I don't think I can be particularly accurate when it comes to such small amounts for one person and so will over use or waste - links to point 2.

2. It was nice to be able to buy £30 of food and say that will feed me for a month, but I think it would be easier for me in the long run if I were to order the full £100 and extend the meal plan so I either had the same meal 2 nights in a row and had the same week for 2 weeks (4 servings in 2 weeks) or ran the same week for 4 (and so 4 servings in a month).

This is partly because I think I'm going to have wastage this month due to the packets not reducing properly in my original order (I can't get 1/4 of a pack of liver for example) unless I eat up which seems against the plan and secondly it's an awful lot of cooking for not very much if only for one person/portion. It takes the same amount of time and the time spent weighing and the almost same amount to pay for the electric (pre-pay metre) to cook the food makes it more sensible (to me at least) to cook all 4 portions but if I'm then storing the left overs for 'week one' next month there's no chance I'm going to have any freezer space left.

3. I know this is a work in progress: It was a bit of a nightmare to find all the recipes and I still haven't found them all.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=30668199&postcount=2854 - From the first post about the recipes for the first month doesn't have porridge and the bread recipe's been deleted so for the first week I had a loaf from gregs as I didn't have time to find a recipe. Them all opening in different places in different layouts also made it a bit of a run around to find things and there are mentions of things like egg free mayo as options, but no clear links to the recipes for these items and if they're part of the plan or not. Again I know these won't be problems later, but I would have given up if I'd come across this as it took me more than an hour to get all the recipes together with planner and so on, and I'm still not sure I've got everything - and as I said, don't actually have the porridge recipe.

4. The lunches were a bit of a hassle at work. Week one weekdays it's basically all something on toast. I don't seem to like cold toast. I tried just on bread, but it wasn't very satisfying and a bit messy for work. We have a microwave at work but aren't allowed a toaster for H&S reasons (fire risk even if working right and burnt toast sets of the alarms) so next week I might use the weekend lunches (soup and risotto) but obviously I don't know how this will effect the nutritional values so haven't done to late. links to point 5

5. I can't have nuts. Not a big issue I don't die but I feel icky (intolerant rather than allergic. I feel like I have the flu for 48 hours), but I know they're a major protein source. I've had more bean pate instead as I know they contain protein, but I'm not a huge fan of it (not 4 times a week and two of those for breakfast anyway). If I have the weekend meals during the week, i.e mon - pea and apple soup with bread. wed/fri - chicken pie. tues/thurs - risotto this will sub in protein I assume (I'll have to get more bits for it I think but not a problem) but will it be ok as far as healthy is concerned given I'm then having only 2 portions of 'with toast' at the weekend?

That being said, I've enjoyed several of the meals (the HM pizza is going to be a recipe I keep after this, and my OH really likes the breakfast pancakes). It's more work than I'd like to keep up with just for me- If I can get into the habit of it, and work out some patten of bulk cooking to make it worth the time and electric I might change my mind.

Interestingly, I'm actually eating quite a lot more more than normally (given I never normally have breakfast or normal lunch, I normally have an early dinner at 5.30 and toast at 8/9) which is [STRIKE]probably[/STRIKE] certainly better for me. I've not really noticed a difference in my energy levels, but I've just moved into the flat and started a new job, so maybe it's a question of too many variables.

That being said, given when I'm alone I normally cook a joint on the low rate tariff on sunday to eat during the week with pasta or rice, and get through a loaf in a week of toast, I'm not sure if it's saving me money and it's definitely taking more time.

I normally eat to live and don't bother with variety or making my food interesting/ particularly nice when it's just me. This is a bad habit, I know, but it's what I'm comparing the extra time to. When cooking for more than me I tend to use my SC a lot which isn't really used for anything here - I'd make a batch of the chilli and then have it for the next few days so only have to cook two or three times a week and even then I have a timer for the SC so it runs at night and turns itself off. All I have to do is put the stuff in it.

I think that probably sums up my musings over the last few weeks. Time and energy use.

I have a small cooker so can't really take advantage of several things in the oven at once and am very aware that after 5 if I run out of electric I can't top up until lunchtime of the next work day or Saturday so will loose my entire lunch break going into town if I don't budget my energy use to last till Saturday so am uncomfortable cooking every evening as I'm still not entirely happy with how much everything costs and don't want to wake up on Wednesday and not be able to have a hot shower.

I'm mostly only cooking for me and find the weighing and measuring for one time consuming and prob not worth it given I'm not very interested in food and I've also got to work full time.

The meals are very tasty and nice(they really are) and I'm going to keep going for the next 2 weeks, but after then, I'm not sure. There are too many things at the moment I'm not sure about and it's still very hard to follow.

poohbear59

Just a quick update of the last few days. On Friday we had butternu squash risotto. Remind me to read the method before starting to make something. I fried the onion and then the diced squash until nice a soft. Then I read the method.... It still workied out well, very tasty and filling for four adults.

Saturday we had DIY breakfasts so I don't know what everyone had. I had carrot cake because it was handy.
Pizza in the evening. We followed your recipe.
DS2 made it from start to finish, he made pizza and bread at school when I was his food tech teacher so I knew he would be quite capable.
There were 6 of us last night so we made loads of spicy wedges too and everyone enjoyed their meals and were quite full too.

I am having a flare up at present so will get my trusty helpers to make the dinner but will not be posting again today. Will let you know how we get on maybe tomorrow.