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

shanks77

Ok well thats chickpeas out defrosting to make more hummous tomorrow and there is a chicken lasagne waiting to go into oven. Its frugal i promise the chicken was a 35p whoopsie, the wine was part of my going away pressie, the lard i had left over from planner:D lasagne sheets always got in same with milk and flour so a cheap meal. We had the risi last night (exs meal of choice so obviously a winner) and will portion up the rest of the chicken to use for other nights. Will prob make the chicken pie as that was also well received and need to pull my finger out and make pizza as i cringe when i see the price of them in shops.

aless02

rainbow, on weezl's blog i did post nutritional info on a lot of the recipes, including the snacks.

weezl.wordpress.com - sorry cannpt do linkies am on my phone

shanks77

Rainbow forgot to say in earlier post if you find the pate too strong the next time, if budget allows buy chicken liver. It is dearer but gives a much milder pate that i found more palatable and more likely to be eaten. The pigs liver is prob very good if you like liver but i dont. Ex thinks the pigs one is the best but will happily eat the chicken one so, it might be worth a try.
HTH xx

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

lesley, I know you're a complete convert to the vegan pastry, could you please have a go at rewording the method for making it, so I can change the recipe to make it easier?

Thanks, I'd really appreciate that!

OK, will do

domesticgoddess789

weezl74 wrote: »

Hello can you remind me where your fab leftovers list is? I'd like to publish it after anyone's added any other bits

PS THANK YOU!

You're welcome. The leftovers list is on here, post #4280 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2256959

Lesley_Gaye

artybear wrote: »

I didnt even attempt the mayo:o

Bread is now my personal nemesis and I will win one day:rotfl::rotfl:

Congrats on the DGSxxxxxxxxx

keep going with the bread arty, it was my nemesis too for AGES. I could do lovely rolls, pizza bases, focaccia and almost any other type of bready thing you can name, but could I do loaves - NO! But it did eventually click, and now I don't buy bread at all, AND it's even more satisfying because it was such a struggle getting edible loaves

knead on me lovely, you will get there

queen_of_string

I'm another bread nemesis person. I would say keep trying recipes and dont get discouraged, you will eventually find the way, then, like lesley says, it's even more satisfying. :-)

weezl74

wow! An active day on here! I have been plodding away trying to improve the Bob and Shirley planner, but I feel really that we now need to see if people on MSE like it and believe in it enough to mention it to the real life shirleys who post on old-style and DFW.


This is the acid test really. It's all very well our merry little band beavering away on a little visited part of the forums, but I think the proof of the pudding (steamed!) is yet to come. If it does, this will encourage me, and you all I'm sure, to keep plodding on :T:T:T:T

rainbow, wow! you are going to read the other thread too? See you next year! about the calories, I do have all the info in a spreadsheet, but it's the one that controls all the stock levels too, so I think it would make your head fry! If you said which of the meals or snacks you'd like a cal count for, I shall look it up for you?

allegra, mangojoe and helen, thanks sooooo much for your diligent testing of shirl's batch day, and even more thanks to allegra for putting it together, what a great resource for shirley :j:j:j:j:j

lesley, thanks re the pastry, that's a great help

Does everyone prefer the site without the little squares?

weezl74

would anyone like a sneak preview of (I think!) an exciting new feature we've been working on for shirl's site?

Lesley_Gaye

have come up with the following. It seems a little long, but the target audience is someone who hasn't made pastry that often.

have added on the end what I invariably do with pastry scraps

Please feel free to amend as much as you want / chuck out

Put the flour, oil and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix in 75g cold water. Mix it all together, just enough to bind the ingredients, then leave it to stand for a minute or two.

When making pastry with butter, or other hard fats, you need to add just enough water to create a dough. Adding more would result in a tough pastry. But with this pastry made with oil, you really do need much more water than usual. It looks a very wet mixture to begin with, but after standing for a minute or two, the flour will absorb the oil and water and it magically becomes a soft and pliable dough that can be rolled out in the same way as a butter pastry.

Adding too little water to an oil pastry gives a dough that is less pliable and much harder to handle. All flours are different in their absorption of water, so if after letting it stand for a minute or two, it is still too sticky, add a tblsp or two of extra flour. It’s better to add all the water in one go, then a little more flour if necessary, as trying to judge the correct amount of water with this type of pastry is much more difficult than with a butter pastry.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out two thirds of the pastry to a rough circle. Slide a long knife underneath to release it from the worktop if you need to, lift with your hands and place in the middle of your pyrex flat bottomed dish allowing the pastry to fall over the dish base. Push the pastry into the sides and base of the dish trying not too stretch it too much or it will tend to shrink back in the cooking. Cut off the overhanging pastry.

Place your chicken and onion mix inside the pie dish. Press the pastry leftover from the top into the remaining third and roll out the pastry and place loosely over the pie filling, cut off any surplus pastry and seal the lid to the edges with a wet finger. If you have too much filling, great, keep it to make a gravy to serve with the pie.

To use up any pastry scraps, press them together, roll out and place a few raisins on one side, sprinkle with sugar.Moisten the sides and fold in half, sealing the edges closed. Sprinkle with a little more sugar. Bake with the pie, taking out of the oven after about 15 minutes