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

HowlinWolf

weezl74 wrote: »

once again

If anyone today has any googling fingers that'd be very handy!

Thanks howlin for the spreadsheet:A does that database not have the rapeseed oil?

I will look when I get home tonight. To be honest I'd forgotten that the oil was rapeseed and it just says vegetable in the shopping list.

System

Weezl, had you looked at software called Shop'N'Cook Pro, which is available at: http://www.shopncook.com/pro.html? This software stores recipes and menu plans, does nutritional analysis and costs menus based on the prices that you enter for ingredients. It runs on Windows as well as Mac OS X. I downloaded the 45-day trial a couple of days ago for my own use, and have been quite impressed (although the interface is a bit quirky, and there is a bit of a learning curve). It uses the USDA database, but in such a way that you don't see a lot of it -- once everything is set up, the figures just appear by magic.

By the way, I entered your shopping list into it as a single recipe with 124 servings, to give the average daily figures. The results suggest an undersupply of Calcium, Sodium and Vitamin B12. I imagine that you'll be allowing salt in cooking, which will deal with the sodium issue, and your tap water calculation may take care of some/all of the calcium deficit -- certainly, the tap water where I live contains 194.4 mg calcium per litre, and I'm sure at least some of it must be absorbable. But is B12 a problem still, or have you a cunning plan? (Just did a "preview post", and I see you are currently discussing this with Murrell, since I started writing...)

Anyway, I thought you might like to look at the software tool to see if it could help with what you are doing. It can do all sorts of things, such as automatically adding in typical wastage % so that you buy the right amount to deliver the required recipe/nutrition-calculated quantities of edible proportion. Once the cost data has been entered, it is surprisingly easy and quick to use - after you've got the hang of it, anyway, which may not be immediate ;-) And although it can't be used for medical purposes, it is considerably cheaper than the software alternatives for dieticians (Comp-Eat costs £675 + VAT, for example!)

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

I will look when I get home tonight. To be honest I'd forgotten that the oil was rapeseed and it just says vegetable in the shopping list.

thank you lovely sorry to be a pain, I know your week has been stressful already!!!

Yeah it's weird that asdas search engine calls it that when it's 100% rapeseed?

aless02

our veg oil would be the same as canola oil in the usa.

Avocet, the calcium deficiency is likely b'c the software doesn't know about our fortified ready brek.

weezl74

Avocet wrote: »

Weezl, had you looked at software called Shop'N'Cook Pro, which is available at: http://www.shopncook.com/pro.html? This software stores recipes and menu plans, does nutritional analysis and costs menus based on the prices that you enter for ingredients. It runs on Windows as well as Mac OS X. I downloaded the 45-day trial a couple of days ago for my own use, and have been quite impressed (although the interface is a bit quirky, and there is a bit of a learning curve). It uses the USDA database, but in such a way that you don't see a lot of it -- once everything is set up, the figures just appear by magic.

By the way, I entered your shopping list into it as a single recipe with 124 servings, to give the average daily figures. The results suggest an undersupply of Calcium, Sodium and Vitamin B12. I imagine that you'll be allowing salt in cooking, which will deal with the sodium issue, and your tap water calculation may take care of some/all of the calcium deficit -- certainly, the tap water where I live contains 194.4 mg calcium per litre, and I'm sure at least some of it must be absorbable. But is B12 a problem still, or have you a cunning plan? (Just did a "preview post", and I see you are currently discussing this with Murrell, since I started writing...)

Anyway, I thought you might like to look at the software tool to see if it could help with what you are doing. It can do all sorts of things, such as automatically adding in typical wastage % so that you buy the right amount to deliver the required recipe/nutrition-calculated quantities of edible proportion. Once the cost data has been entered, it is surprisingly easy and quick to use - after you've got the hang of it, anyway, which may not be immediate ;-) And although it can't be used for medical purposes, it is considerably cheaper than the software alternatives for dieticians (Comp-Eat costs £675 + VAT, for example!)

thanks avocet:A, I think you've just done in seconds what I've spent about 20hrs doing-grrrr!

I do now think we've a b12 problem cos I think the peanut info is wrong so yep, I think we may need marmite what did you make the CA shortage as, I'll just check my figs are running similar to yours for peace of mind!

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

our veg oil would be the same as canola oil in the usa.

Avocet, the calcium deficiency is likely b'c the software doesn't know about our fortified ready brek.

oh! I thought avocet had run the hardcore month thru the doodah! Ah, if it's shirl's planner I'd be very surprised on sodium, as shirl has bacon which is pretty salty!

Avocet was it shirl or hardcore?

System

weezl74 wrote: »

Avocet was it shirl or hardcore?

The hardcore plan, with the list in post 5467.

I make the Ca total to be 338 (so only 48.4% of the UK requirement of 800). Here is the data as calculated by the software, but note the provisos below:

Weezl's hardcore planner
Yield: 124 servings
Total food cost: £xx.xx
Food cost per portion: £x.xx
Price per serving: £x.xx

200 g grana padano
5000 ml UHT skimmed milk
2000 g pasta
1600g salted peanuts
2000 g Frozen spinach
5200 g tinned tomatoes
142 g tomato puree
1000 g carrots
40000 g potatoes
3000 g raisins
16 lemons
3000 g long-grain rice
12000 ml canola oil
125 g dried yeast
3000 g self-rising flour
16500 g wholemeal flour
2000 g chick peas
3500 g red lentils
500g green lentils
750 g lard
500 g sugar

Nutritional facts per serving (daily value):

Calories 2139kcal
Protein 49g (98%)
Total Fat 108g (167%)
Sat. 11g (54%)
Chol. 8mg (3%)
Carb. 257g (86%)
Fiber 42g (167%)
Sugars 30g
Calcium 339mg (34%)
Iron 15mg (82%)
Magnesium 383mg (96%)
Phosphorus 1224mg (122%)
Potassium 2922mg (83%)
Sodium 466mg (19%)
Zinc 8mg (57%)
Copper 2mg (81%)
Selenium 125µg
Vit. C 79mg (131%)
Vit. B1 2mg (111%)
Vit. B2 1mg (52%)
Vit. B3 18mg (92%)
Vit. B5 4mg (43%)
Vit. B6 2mg (84%)
Folate 551µg
Vit. B12 0µg (4%)
Vit. A 3455IU (69%)
Vit. E 19mg (95%)
Vit. K 185µg
Alcohol 0g
Vit. D 17IU (4%)

---

Exported from Shop'NCook Pro 3.4.3

(http://www.shopncook.com)

Provisos:
The % figures in brackets are not for the UK. We have lower requirements than US, Canada, EU so our percentages work out better. As far as I know (I'm using the highest adult requirement, but may not have the right RNI information), this makes our RNI figures:

Calcium 339/700 = 48.4%
Iron 15/14.8 = 101.4%
Magnesium 383/300 = 127.7%
Phosphorus 1224/550 = 222.5%
Potassium 2922/3500 = 83.5%
Sodium 466/1600 = 29.1%
Zinc 8/9.5 = 84.2%
Copper 2/1.2 = 166.7%
Vit C 79/40 = 197.5%
Vit B1 2/1.0 = 200.0%
Vit B2 1/1.3 = 76.9%
Vit B3 18/17 = 105.9%
Vit B6 2/1.4 = 142.9%
Vit B12 0/1.5 = 0.0%

The ones in red are below where they should be.

There may be rounding errors which are magnified by converting to a % of RNI. By the way, the software allows you to write a script to output your own view of the data, which would allow UK % figures to be displayed, but I haven't looked at that aspect yet.

I can't vouch for how the software links to the USDA data, or to the specific data it chooses. This is, broadly speaking, automatic. However, it is unlikely to be unrepresentative, and since the USDA data doesn't relate to SmartPrice goods anyway and there is considerable variation within foods of a particular type, I don't think this is a problem.

All data relates to raw food, with zero wastage (obviously unsound, since most of the food is cooked, and there is necessary wastage for some items such as the potatoes which appear to be unwashed).

On the plus side, I did a rough (repetitive) meal plan last night, and I think you certainly could live for a month on that shopping list, but I think by the end of it you would be heartily sick of potatoes, desperate for a bit of butter, and would kill for an onion!

System

weezl74 wrote: »

Yeah it's weird that asdas search engine calls it that when it's 100% rapeseed?

That's because they don't guarantee that it will actually be rapeseed all the time. Cheap blended rapeseed oil is unlikely to be ousted as the lowest priced option, but by calling it "vegetable oil" the supermarket reserves the right to change to a different oil or to chuck in whatever else they fancy at any point (although they would obviously have to change the ingredients list on the bottle as well).

aless02

Sorry Avocet, I misread! I bow to your superior knowledge.

artybear

hello all!!!!

Sorry not to read back-

mr arty got a first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Actually he even got a first in every module this year-clever man that he is!!!:j:j:j:j:j

Thought I would let you knowxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx