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

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

well kinda, yes

except it's not you that isn't cool :cool:

When I said "us" I meant "us" as in the planner/website i.e. what people see.

Also I put "cool" in inverted commas deliberately because I meant it in the way wider society defines it.

Sian_the_Green

Who does their 'big shop' at Waitrose anyway?


I think Jamie is pretty cool, but because he wanted to revolutionise the diets of people in Rotherham, because he encouraged people to grow their own, because he opened people's eyes to the truth about chickens and eggs... He is cool because he cares.

Now Nigella, well, she is a whole other story, it's not just food she is selling in those programmes is it? I like her because she shows that real women eat, and enjoy their food, and she shows that the 'shove it in and stir' approach is a valid one, not like Heston with his crazy science.

Weezl, well I like her recipes because she really cares about the people she is writing recipes from, gives of her time and money and heart to make it right and inspires others to think about how they can change for the better.

weezl74

SusanC wrote: »

even if I was rich I wouldn't feel comfortable spending the large amounts some people do on food

this is true for me too (without wishing to sound like any of the people who were annoying arty earlier!)

A slightly amusing story to illustrate. My dad had his 60th birthday meal at a very posh 5 star hotel.

It was all very lovely.

after the pudding, a trolley came out of the kitchens, with sparklers ablaze (for everyone to sing 'happy birthday'), and on the trolley was a life size woman's leg made out of belgian chocolate (SOLID chocolate!) It must've cost £100s of pounds in raw materials alone.

Anyhow, everyone was amused but perplexed. Since my dad is a fairly small quiet but intesnse software developer, who never relates flirtatiously with anyone, and all of a sudden he's being presented with this woman's leg. Me and my brother, mum and Uncle are all throwing each other perplexed, 'was it you?' looks. My dad is a little embarrassed but plays along and we all slightly embarrassedly tuck into pieces of the lovely chocolate.

Anyway, 25 mins later, the maitre d comes over, very embarrassed and wheels the trolley away, as there had been a mistake, and we all spot the birthday party on the other side of the restaurant with the young man in his late 20s and all his extravert pals.

Anyway. Reason for me saying, is that we all reflected later, that even if we did have £350 (I rang the hotel afterwards to ask!) to spend on an extravagance, it wouldn't have been the chocolate leg. There's something uncomfortable about spending in that quantity on something so transient.

I don't mean this as a judgement, I know I am odd, and others think me strange for not having an engagement ring for similar reasons. And I do acknowledge that is a much more normal way to be!

Lesley_Gaye

Hi Weezl

the planner from the earlier posts didn't have risi i bisi, although I think that col may be being used for pea risotto, which isn't otherwise there

pasta salad x 2
red lentil pate x 5
bns tart x 1
are all in the sheet, buut not the planner

there are also numerous hummous, bread and diff flavoured breads that I assume are the variations

weezl74

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Hi Weezl

the planner from the earlier posts didn't have risi i bisi, although I think that col may be being used for pea risotto, which isn't otherwise there

pasta salad x 2
red lentil pate x 5
bns tart x 1
are all in the sheet, buut not the planner

there are also numerous hummous, bread and diff flavoured breads that I assume are the variations

Thanks lesley that's very helpful
I shall swap some of the hummus lunches for those red lentil pates cos that feels more varietyish, and we'll have hummus on toast as more snacks I need to find some lunch space for the pasta salad then, and we'll find a space for the BNS tart too.

It's 2 puddings, so do people think we just offer it in the snack choices bit and they just make it whenever?

In_Search_Of_Me

Popping in as havent been on a while (life getting in the way)...no idea therefore what asparagus discussions are...am post migraine so wont catch up now but just wanted to say hello
Re nigella recipes and them not working I have tried 3 times to make her chocolate brownies and they do not work!! Ive tried usual way of cooking (ie rough measurements; in between way and the exact way and none of them worked. Kept meaning to write to her and ask about it...must be an error somehwhere in the recipe me thinks!

shanks77

I dont think that you are odd at all there is no way i would spend £350 on some chocolate no matter how good it looked or tasted. I can think of many ways to spend that kind of money and if i did decide to spend it on food it would last a damn sight longer than that leg did.
I am also in the camp of even if i had the money i wouldnt feel right "throwing it away" by shopping in Harrods rather than Asda cause at the end of the day the ingreds are pretty much the same its just the packaging that makes it looks so much more appealing.
BTW you were saying yesterday who shops monthly erm well i do. I have 2 freezers so not short of space and i doesnt take that much longer to shop for a month as a week and i really cant be *rsed going to supermarket every week, searching for place to park, queueing to pay for food then coming home and unpacking. I would much rather get it out of the way than to have it hanging over my head each week. I dont mind the shopping part its the above mentioned that do my head in. And i hate shopping for clothes, shoes etc its my idea of hell and i wouldnt enjoy it even if it was someone elses money (who could afford it). People at work hearing that think i am strange but hey who cares.:)

SusanC_2

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

We are all influenced by advertising, much as we think we aren't

Edit - just read your post SusanC - the above sentence was written before you posted, and is def not a pop at you

No worries - I'm just weird. My mum tells me that when I was little and people asked what I wanted for Christmas, all the other children would reel off huge lists based on all the adverts and I would say I didn't know. I remember one year wanting a Christmas tree and another time wanting writing paper for writing my thank you letters.

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

I don't mean this as a judgement, I know I am odd, and others think me strange for not having an engagement ring for similar reasons. And I do acknowledge that is a much more normal way to be!

An engagement ring retains value though so you could change your mind and sell it in the future unlike the chocolate leg (which cost a lot more than my engagement ring :eek:).

Sian_the_Green

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Re nigella recipes and them not working I have tried 3 times to make her chocolate brownies and they do not work!! Ive tried usual way of cooking (ie rough measurements; in between way and the exact way and none of them worked. Kept meaning to write to her and ask about it...must be an error somehwhere in the recipe me thinks!

If you want a great Brownie recipe try these if you have a cup measure, a stick of butter is half a 250g over here, 125g.

She is another one selling a lifestyle but I think the recipes are great, the cupcakes on that site are a work of art! I have to say baking is probably my forte so things like pastry and bread I had never really done before finding you Weezl

I have also found some success with these though I always break the chocolate into a bowl with chopped up butter and then heat in the microwave on medium and take it out and keep stirring until it melts, none of this bain marie faff for me!

though what I usually do when I am looking for a recipe is to look on the good food website and take something with a large number of ratings, I normally only have things which are 5 stars too, I am very exacting! (I also try to only watch films which IMDB rates as over 7.5, I am a bit of a snob aren't I?!). Ratings are important to me as I know real people have given them, that is why having this forum is really good, we know the recipes have been tested by real people.

Hope that isn't too much of a tangent but brownies are important things!