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

mangojoesno1fan

Hi Allegra.
You're on, I will post as soon as I have finished, and we can compare results.

Allegra

mangojoesno1fan wrote: »

Hi Allegra.
You're on, I will post as soon as I have finished, and we can compare results.

:j:T:j :T:j:T:j:T:j:T

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

I have inserted a new line right at the top of onion tart recipe. Could people look and see if that's better and I'll then add degrees celsius and do it to other recipes

Yep, I think that says it all Love the breakfast/lunch/dinner column, too - meant to say that before but got distracted (I have actually been posting from work today, in between customers, and it's been bloomin' busy)....

Did I ever say that hyperlinks on the top of the batch guide would be a great idea ? Well, they would

Helen105

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi Helen, that would be fab!

What other types of helping are you up for?

*pushing my luck*

I would enjoy costing recipes.

Now I'm planning to try the batch cooking on Sunday and I have printed off all the recipes I need to make:

Houmous
Carrot Cake
Bread
Cheese Scones
Raisin Scones
Apple Curd
Nut Butter
Onion Tart
Savoury Bites
Mayo
Liver Pate

and some questions have come up.
1. If I followed the batch planner why would I be cooking marrowfat peas ? Is this for something later in the week?

2. In the carrot cake recipe it says 80g orange, it would be more useful to have this as 1 or 2 oranges.

3.In the savoury bites and raisin scones it uses ready brek (without capitals) but in the savoury scones it uses oaty cereal, I'm taking it that this is the same stuff and I'm also presuming that you don't want to be endorsing Ready Brek. Incidentally are you using Ready Brek for nutritional reasons, to get more vitamins into the recipes for example? If so it might help to mention it on the nutritional page as people might wonder why you don't just use porridge oats.

4. In the nut butter recipe it specifies rape seed oil but elsewhere it just says oil. Is this for taste reasons? I was planning on just using whatever oil I have in the cupboard which is either vegetable or sunflower I'm not sure which.

5. Coming to the website as an outsider and cherry picking recipes out of the planner it would be really useful if you could add a line about whether they will freeze & for how long but I do agree that I like the simple layout of the recipes and understand if you don't want to complicate it further.
On the same lines however I agree with the person who said it would be useful to have an idea what size tin to grease for the carrot cake.

This sounds very nit picky but I do still think the website is great and the photos are beautiful.

keggie

Quick question,

I've been making the carrot cake very successfully since the early days and having just looked at the web recipe I see that the GM/spices have gone:eek:

Was this a conscious decision or is it an ommission? I loved it the way it was and it was a real hit at work.

Helen105

mangojoesno1fan wrote: »

, few probs with the bread, but it will make great doorstops (my fault)

I'm looking forward to seeing how I do with the bread, my house is pretty cold & I'm expecting it to take longer than 40 minutes to rise but we will see.
This might be relevant to Shirley & Bob as if they are cutting back on food costs they are likely to be cutting back on heating as well.

shanks77

Helen105 wrote: »

I'm looking forward to seeing how I do with the bread, my house is pretty cold & I'm expecting it to take longer than 40 minutes to rise but we will see.
This might be relevant to Shirley & Bob as if they are cutting back on food costs they are likely to be cutting back on heating as well.

Helen my house is baltic and the bread rose fine.I left it for the specified time with no probs. When it was a sunny day outside i put bread on window sill so the sun shone on it and was warmer. I found the Paul Merret recipe had better results (sorry Weezl:o) but is quite faffy so if short of time Weezls one is great..

weezl74

Helen105 wrote: »

I would enjoy costing recipes.

Now I'm planning to try the batch cooking on Sunday and I have printed off all the recipes I need to make:

Houmous
Carrot Cake
Bread
Cheese Scones
Raisin Scones
Apple Curd
Nut Butter
Onion Tart
Savoury Bites
Mayo
Liver Pate

and some questions have come up.
1. If I followed the batch planner why would I be cooking marrowfat peas ? Is this for something later in the week?

2. In the carrot cake recipe it says 80g orange, it would be more useful to have this as 1 or 2 oranges.

3.In the savoury bites and raisin scones it uses ready brek (without capitals) but in the savoury scones it uses oaty cereal, I'm taking it that this is the same stuff and I'm also presuming that you don't want to be endorsing Ready Brek. Incidentally are you using Ready Brek for nutritional reasons, to get more vitamins into the recipes for example? If so it might help to mention it on the nutritional page as people might wonder why you don't just use porridge oats.

4. In the nut butter recipe it specifies rape seed oil but elsewhere it just says oil. Is this for taste reasons? I was planning on just using whatever oil I have in the cupboard which is either vegetable or sunflower I'm not sure which.

5. Coming to the website as an outsider and cherry picking recipes out of the planner it would be really useful if you could add a line about whether they will freeze & for how long but I do agree that I like the simple layout of the recipes and understand if you don't want to complicate it further.
On the same lines however I agree with the person who said it would be useful to have an idea what size tin to grease for the carrot cake.

This sounds very nit picky but I do still think the website is great and the photos are beautiful.

1. yes, for risi e bisi

2.ok, will change that (it's one orange BTW )

3.Ready Brek / Hot oaty cereal are inter changeable. When I call it Hot oaty cereal people get confused and think I mean to heat it up first, but using the phrase Ready brek might sound like an endorsement... so I'm still not sure on that one! Yes, there's a few big nutritional reasons for using it, which I won't bore you with, but the planner isn't healthy without it

4. I've written the recipes assuming people are using the planner and it's shopping list so yes, it's veg oil, which is rapeseed oil. Again for nutritional reasons. If someone is cherry picking recipes, there's not much we can do about healthy eating, but the whole month stipulates the right kinda oil if you see what I mean?

5. I will add a line about freezing to the top of the recipe page at some point, thanks. Cake tin-wise I think the testers are going to help me out by letting me know what works for them

hope all that helps

Murrell

weezl74 wrote: »

thanks Aless and sandra:)

oh dear chaps, Kitty's fresh fruit may be on the line here:(

our own brand ready brek gives us half of the month's requirements with the jar of marmite providing 4 more days worth. So we are 12 days worth short

watch this space!

sandra, cheapest bang for your buck products containing B12 would be the next ace bit of research please

Thanks Aless also, I see the asda yeast extract has the same B12, just differs on the other vitamins, which i'm not looking at, at the moment.

B12 bang for your buck - thats a tall order!!!
There isn't that much that is fortified and they are not all cheap. For example there is a yeast extract that has 70ug, rather than the 15ug, but its £3.99 a jar and not available in supermarkets.
So the only readily available products apart from the instant oats and yeast extract are:
Soya milk is 60p/63p (unsweetened/sweetened)and has 5.2ug B12 for 1 litre
Vitalite margarine has 0.6ug per 100g so not high.

Sorry its not good news. You can see why I thought a vegan plan would be difficult for £100 a month. If people are just following it for a few months and are normally meat eaters, they should have sufficient B12 stores in there bodies (I think from memory its about 6 years we can store it for). But of course I know you are trying to cover all nutrients for the £100 a month.

Sandra
x

weezl74

I can definitely understand Sandra, and of course you know how hard it is to be vegan this cheaply because you have been looking at it lots longer than me! Thanks for being so nice about it too

It looks like I/we have a couple of options:

• return to the main reason for planner 3, the fresh fruit, and see if there's any other way we can get 1 piece daily into the diet without being vegan (tall order)
• do as you said and imagine this is being done in the short term and rely on bob and shirley's internal stores, 6 years is a long time! (plan will then be slated as unhealthy)
• remain vegan, have fresh fruit say every other day, but say, 'if you're doing this for the short term but desperately want the fresh fruit everyday, you'll be ok dropping the extra yeast extract and having 4 more nets of oranges. That way, as it stands it'll still be 'healthy' but they can get more fruit in if they need to

Any thoughts everyone?