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

Apricot

Ooh Weezl the Cheap Family Recipes website comes up first now when I Google it!:j

morag1202

weezl74 wrote: »

morag,:A I was thinking of uploading your FAQ's once we'd added the extra bit we talked about, is that realistic, or shall I just publish what we have?

Sorry weezl. I only ever get online in the evenings.

So who is the average family you’ve designed this for?

We chose a family of four (2 adults and two teenage children), and assumed they were average heights and the right weight for their height, we assumed they did a moderate amount of exercise each day. Since we have based the planner on averages, you may find that you need to add more calories into the planner if you are very tall, heavier than average or if you do a great deal of sport, or subtract them by eating smaller portions or less snacks if your family are smaller or more sedentary than average or wish to loose weight.


Does the planner contain enough calcium?

We have assumed an average daily need of 1,000 mg, which our research showed had general consensus amongst health care professionals as being sufficient for 97% of individuals.


Really? I can only see a block of cheese and a drop of milk, but it’s a whole month!

We couldn’t afford to meet your whole family’s calcium need using these more expensive foods, but the calcium is there. The instant oat cereal used in several of our recipes contains 1330 mg of calcium per 100g, whereas cheese contains just 739mg per 100g.


Does it contain my 5 a day?

Our monthly meal planner contains 680 fruit and vegetable portions, and thus exceeds the government recommended 5 a day.


Where? I can only see a few fresh carrots!

Although this plan provides no fresh fruit to eat, your 5 a day are contained within the meals and snacks. 32% of the fruit and vegetable portions in our meal planner are fresh the rest comes from the dried, tinned and frozen ingredients. In dried fruit and vegetables the goodness is condensed, so much so that we need even fewer of these to count as a portion! Frozen and canned foods have the advantage of being picked and packed the same day. There is some evidence too that the way vegetables are canned can even increase their health giving benefits, with canned tomatoes being richer in antioxidants than their fresh counterparts, for example.


There is no oily fish in the plan, it can't be healthy!

Oily fish is expensive and is not the only good source of Omega 3. The plans provide the full Recommended Daily Amount from the rapeseed oil, (vegetable oil) used in most of our recipes and from the pumpkin seeds used in the nut butter. The plans also provide the right amount of Omega 6 and Omega 9.


Is there enough fat / energy? Growing children need fat!

We have provided 32% of the calorie intake through fat, in keeping with current guidelines that fat should account for 20-35% of our daily intake. The plan is low on the harmful transfats and high on the good fats. We’ve also ensured that there’s enough energy to keep each member of your family going all day (between 2,000 and 3,000 calories per day each depending on gender and age).


Your recipes aren't very low in fat or calories, so I'm wondering if they're healthy?

This is a good point if you are trying to lose weight, and we acknowledge that the planners are built assuming people are not dieting. Following feedback from our readers, we realise that some of you would like to follow our planners and also eat fewer calories and less fat, so here is an article on how to do that. (click through to an article explaining that by reducing the amount of oil to 1/3rd of that stated, shirley average would still lose 5lb in the month. Article would say which recipes will cope well with being made without the oil- tangy bean pate, the curries, etc...)


So are we filling up on cheap white bread?

The bread is cheap, because it is homemade, we do not however feel this is an unhealthy choice, because white flour contains more calcium than brown/wholemeal flour and we were happy to choose it since there is sufficient fibre in the meal planner. By having homemade bread, we are also ensuring the bread doesn’t contain harmful additives.


So are you nutrition experts?

No, but we take a great deal of care to ensure our recipes and meal planners meet all government recommended standards for nutrition. We have extensively researched the month’s shopping list. None of our team are dietitians and we do not make any claims that we are giving you medical or dietary advice, but what we can say is that we have followed the government guidelines on nutrition, which we know have taken account of health care professionals advice and the latest research.

Of course no recipe website will have analysed each micro nutrient eaten at every meal, but we are currently happy that the plans as a whole which we are offering to families who want to greatly reduce their food costs, is a healthy one. Our team are always looking at research evidence though, and you are very welcome to send us links to professional journals if you are aware of new research which we have not yet had a chance to look at.



I've added the question you wanted in but I don't think it reads right????

weezl74

good morning all:)

Morag, thank you for your hard work there, that looks fabulous :beer::beer::beer::beer:

Juliette, you bravely offered some more time?:A

how would you feel about devising some alt (ernative) text for some/all/just a few of the photos on the site?

This is what the user will see if they have images switched off, or what they'll hear if partially sighted and have the website read out to them by screen reader technology.

example: 'A browned cheese topped onion tart' that would be the maximum words we'd be allowed. Or you can go for a more straightforward 'picture of onion tart'.

the best way to present it would be something like:

homepage:

image 1: examples of our tasty budget meals!

image 2: rich, tasty bean pate

and so on...

erm how does that sound?

don't worry if you run out of descriptive words, just plonk 'onion tart' down, and the likes of creative allegra will be along to plonk in the word 'mouthwatering'

Julimk

Good morning.

No problem, I will see what I can do!

weezl74

allegra

When next stuck with lappy while !!!!!! watches the footie, any chance of some words for an 'about us' page?

The brief:

Ideally include that we are a not-for profit collaboration of normal people who met on a money saving forum who over a few months have been writing tasting and researching to bring the site together.

If you feel it adds character and interest, you are welcome to say that I lived off 50p a day for a year and a half, have a keen interest in subsistence, but feel it's very important that health shouldn't suffer as a result. If also it's of interest for shirl to know that I'm a mum, that fergie eats this food and that DH likes it etc... then that's absolutely fine.

It would be also very fabulous if you could say that all the information provided on the site is freely available for their redistribution, but that we would ask that they reference us as the original source.

Our photography is coyright to the photographer, and we reserve rights on any redistribution.

domesticgoddess789

weezl74 wrote: »

example: 'A browned cheese topped onion tart' that would be the maximum words we'd be allowed. Or you can go for a more straightforward 'picture of onion tart'.

don't worry if you run out of descriptive words, just plonk 'onion tart' down, and the likes of creative allegra will be along to plonk in the word 'mouthwatering'

When I read this post I had the voice of the M&S lady from the adverts in my head, "This is not just food...." hehe

weezl74

arty, are you around? coupla things I wanted to ask if you might be able to help with

weezl74

pinkhayley789 wrote: »

When I read this post I had the voice of the M&S lady from the adverts in my head, "This is not just food...." hehe

oooh have I told you all about dh's running joke?

he calls us B and S (bob and shirl) and when we're eating things, he goes, in a breathy marks and spencers voice: 'this isn't just onion tart... this is a hand-made, super-frugalised, B and S onion tart'


it was amusing the first 8 or so times:)

weezl74

ps pinkhayley, no rush or urgency but just for me planning roll outs, when would you be likely done with the alternatives pages? :A:beer:

jwil

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

anybody know how much gooseberries are? I can't find them on mySupermarket or Google

I am keeping track of the produce from the garden and we have had over half a kilo now and I don't know how much to price them at. I have guessed at £7 a kilo

At that rate, we have had just over £45 worth of produce so far this year, not counting the leeks we still had in Jan/Feb

we have gooseberry fool with lunch today made with Lidl yogort, just cooking the gooseberries now

My local PYO is selling them for £3.55 kg (Somerset).