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

weezl74

great news frankie and allegra

frankie I hope the funny smell was the onions:eek:how is everyone feeling now?

Did you put mustard in the pie, I sometimes think the erussic acid (in the mustard) when with onions gives off a gaseous smell which is a bit weird. Kind of a cross between bitter, gamey and erm.... no other way to put this, farty! Was it a bit like that?

Summarising everyone's feeling so far: people seem very happy on a quantities level, even those with hearty appetites. What is feeling like more of a hardship is variety, and perhaps a bit of extra 'zing' or 'oomph' which is where herbs, chorizo and an extra flavour in the pie might come in.

generally the recipes are well received and amazingly your lovely families would be happy to (mostly) eat these things again.

To be honest, this is a good deal better than I expected and is very heartwarming as such a low cost planner, I'm glad there's this little felt hardship on the eating front

I reckon the biggest hardship is being borne by those who are doing all this extra cooking. So a massive well done to you all :T:T:T:T:T. It's a lot of extra work. I think we need to stress to shirley how much she is saving for her whole family by doing this. Assuming she is a basic rate taxpayer, in her job, she would need to earn an extra £6000 per year to be equivalent to these savings. I'm sure the bread baking doesn't feel as much work as that! (*weezl crosses her fingers*)

artybear

I think the cooking is quite alot of hard work Weezl and there is no hiding that fact.:( I have struggled quite a bit especially as I'm working nearly full time and writing essays at the mo.

However I do think after the culture shock of the first week (making sure you have enough freezer space) then Shirley AND Bob will get used to it and with a bit of planing it gets easier:).
Just my opinion as an inexperienced cook

(Howevre as Mr arty is back tonight im off planner tonight!!! So will make the pies tomorrow:D)XXXXXXXXXX

hornetgirl

We had the carrot cake this morning and my visitors loved it. I made it with garam masala, so we had a game of "guess the mystery ingredient." No-one got it right, the nearest suggestion was turmeric.

shanks77

Have got chicken pie cooking just now and got the veg on as well thinking of doing a bit of gravy for that more "meaty" taste but looks fine.
I dont find the cooking too bad but am used to it perhaps. Some of the things a bit faffy but on the whole easy enough. The bread came out lovely and ex said it was very tasty (that was faffy) so def not one to do in a rush.
So far no probs just need to look at recipe for meal tomorrow and all set.
Glad things are working out better than expected Weezl makes all your hard work and time seem worthwhile doesnt it?

Murrell

Hiah all,

Is there a link for making the wedges? I made wedges today for the first time, didn't see the recipe on your site, so just guessed what I should do and they worked ok. I guess I must of done it right. After chopping, I rinsed, dried, coated in oil and parika and baked.

Glad your all coping well.

Weezl, when I cook the mung beans, do I need to do half the cooked weight, the same as chickpeas's do you know? If you don't know, thats ok, I could just do that anyway. Thought i'd weigh them out today, even though I won't be soaking them until Tuesday morning, so I can cook them on Wednesday.

Sandra
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weezl74

artybear wrote: »

I think the cooking is quite alot of hard work Weezl and there is no hiding that fact.:( I have struggled quite a bit especially as I'm working nearly full time and writing essays at the mo.

However I do think after the culture shock of the first week (making sure you have enough freezer space) then Shirley AND Bob will get used to it and with a bit of planing it gets easier:).
Just my opinion as an inexperienced cook

(Howevre as Mr arty is back tonight im off planner tonight!!! So will make the pies tomorrow:D)XXXXXXXXXX

sorry arty, I mean shirley as shorthand for the whole family, who I believe all have a responsibility to help with the cooking

I acknowledge it's been a lot of cooking and with full time work and essays that's a very tall order. I feel like you're testing it to the max, because this is about as hard as it'll be for a mythical Bob, working, studying and trying to do all this cooking.

If at the end of the month you feel it's do able then it surely must be!

But I think you should definitely feel the permission (not that you need it!) to call time out if it's too hard IYSWIM? I hope in amongst all this you're getting space for you

Sandra I think that hlf the fresh weight is the dried weight rule applies to all pulses...

But I guess the acid test would be for me to compare the water content of the different pulses, or to compare the calorie value of 100g fresh with 100g dried, which would give a more exact ratio, IYSWIM? If I or you or anyone else doesn't get round to looking into that by tuesday, I'd say lets be pragmatic and assume it's half, how does that sound?

While you're here, are there any recipes we've talked about including in the vegetarian or meaty meal planner that you can see easy ways to 'veganise' like the chickpea crumble, risi e bisi, anything you'd do to a pizza if you couldn't afford the cheese substitutes, that kind of thing...

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

I reckon the biggest hardship is being borne by those who are doing all this extra cooking. So a massive well done to you all :T:T:T:T:T. It's a lot of extra work. I think we need to stress to shirley how much she is saving for her whole family by doing this. Assuming she is a basic rate taxpayer, in her job, she would need to earn an extra £6000 per year to be equivalent to these savings. I'm sure the bread baking doesn't feel as much work as that! (*weezl crosses her fingers*)

It's when you see these figures that it suddenly hits you just how much something like this planner could change someone's life. If I had room to shave off £6000 p/a off our spending, I could stop working :eek:

But when it comes to the workload and variety, I'd say it's very much the case of what you are used to. A Shirley who fed her family on ready meals could not complain about lack of variety and deficiencies of taste - even the most frugally basic of these meals is still a world of wonder compared to a supermarket frozen lasagne or macaroni cheese. This Shirley, however, will find the cooking a struggle at first. There is no escaping this fact, though - cooking good food from scratch does take time and effort. How much more time and effort does it take to work and earn the extra money, though ? These things need spelling out.

On the other hand, a Shirley who had all the Nigella books and religiously went out of her way to track down the best deli to buy Ligurian extra virgin and best Belgian chocolate will probably cope with the workload far better, but might struggle with the lack of fresh and more complex flavours - herbs, fruit, vegetables. Hopefully that might be an incentive to her to grow her own though.

Frankie, now you've mentioned it, I did find that the onion pie filling stank the house out somewhat ! Weezl's explanation makes a lot of sense though.

Sandra, yep, that's about it for the wedges

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

While you're here, are there any recipes we've talked about including in the vegetarian or meaty meal planner that you can see easy ways to 'veganise' like the chickpea crumble, risi e bisi, anything you'd do to a pizza if you couldn't afford the cheese substitutes, that kind of thing...

As an aside, my ex husband was vegan so I used to cook vegan a lot. Risi e bisi was a favourite with frozen peas and parsley (no cheese substitutes, we were too poor to be able to afford them). Pizza was a cheese-free zone - tomato sauce and veg on top. Chickpea curry - onions, garlic, chickpeas, garam masala, squeeze of lemon juice and fresh coriander. Spicy pea and potato samosas and pasties; and something that ex for reasons known to himself alone called a "Friday" - thinly sliced potatoes, onions, and a vegetable such as mushroom, courgette or squash, all kinda sauted together with a glug of soy sauce.

Any help ?

ashia_2

Can I just say....as a humble observer.....(aka lurker).....thats you're all :j:T:jamazing:j:T:j (imagine cheerleaders with pompoms)


Allegra, your why I'm I'm doing it post was inspiring. I know other have already said it but I have to agree with them!

*relurks to watch how the rest goes*

artybear

Weezlie-No way am I stopping at all!!!! I'm really enjoying it (even if I sometimes swear at bread mix lol):rotfl:

I agree that if i can do it anyone can and I think it would be easier if i had a conventional set up, i.e not sharing a freezer etc....

However I also think some recipes we have done are uber uber easy e.g carbonara and the Spanish omelette. So I think the family would just change these to the days when they were particularly busy.

Like I said I wanted to learn lots of new cooking skills and I am!!!!

Also if I'm too busy mr artybear will just have to feed us from the planner

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