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

FrankieM

I have now got my Bacon & Onion pudding in the slow cooker and my bread dough is rising. I'm hoping it works this time cause I have an awful lot of bread flour!

Just having a cuppa and then its the carrot cake and biscuits to make.

frugalmumof4

Re making the recipes vegetarian. I choose the asda own bags of frozen meat free mince because you it is often on offer for 2 bags for £3, but if its isnt on offer comes in at £1.97 for 600g. I only used 200g of mince per recipe so you would get 3 full recipes out of one bag. Im not a fan of quorn mince, strange texture. We do use the dried textured soya protein which is cheaper, but needs lots of flavouring. Eating meat substitutes is definately not for everyone, Im happy leaving them out all together, the children and my dh enjoy them, so I add them in. We would only have them max twice a week, gets too expensive otherwise.
For the risi e bisi recipe, we did love the added flavour from the quorn bacon, a packet of that is £1.99 for 150g, so this again if would do 3 recipes, if using 50g as original recipe.
As we dont eat meat, I dont know how these prices compare to the real thing.
For recipes like cottage pies, I prefer to make the recipe that was on your original thread 50p a day, cant remember what its called, but it used loads of lentils, leeks, carrots and onion, and the entire recipe made enough for 2 cottage pies, that made the 6 of us, one to eat when cooked and one for the freezer.
Hope this helps!

found the vege cottage pie I was talking about
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11430267&postcount=861
Best recipe ever!

hornetgirl

Bacon and onion pudding is in the slow cooker and fingers are crossed.
I'm not sure what time we'll be eating tonight, so knowing that Allegra cooked hers for longer than the stated time was very reassuring. Verdict later.
I'm thinking that if we like it, a possible variation would be bacon and leek, since I'm growing lots of leeks. Mind you, I'm growing lots of onions too lol!

nopot2pin

I too, am not a big fan of meat substitutes.
Quorn has never really done anything for me. And it is very expensive :eek:

I buy dried soya mince - the unflavoured kind - from the health food shop.
I tend to only use this if I am making a sheperdess pie or veggie mince and potatoes. Marmite is a great flavouring for these things

If I am having a curry, chilli or pasta sauce, I just use a variety of veggies, I dont bother adding tvp to it, as I dont think it is required.

I was a vegetarian, for about 16/17 years, but I am no longer, as I started eating fish about 10 years ago.... and that was because I was craving it I think it was Ceridwen that said, the body starts to crave things that it requires for its nutrients, or words to that effect
I haven't actually worked out how often I eat fish... some weeks not at all, others it could be 3 or 4 times. It just depends how I am feeling.

Frugalmumof4...that link for the sheperdess cottage pie looks lovely. I will have to try that. Thanks

weezl74

hello

well done all, some things are going down well still which is ace good idea about giving Bob an idea of cooking times :T

Shanks what are your thoughts on where in the month to put the bacon pudding? I was hoping the weekend would provide steaming opportunities, but I don't think I said that very clearly

bread on youtube-will do

Frankie, just as a matter of interest, say you kept with this planner but added in the usual sandwich fillers that your family have, what would the budget be then? It's the kind of info that might be useful to others contemplating a 'halfway plan' which meets more of their family's normal diet.

Dare I ask too, was the bread ok? You were doing a paul merrett this time IIRC?

weezl74

ps complete long shot, but does anyone who's knowledgeable about websites got a sense of how our site/resource should navigate?

The prototype I've built is getting very negative feedback from my collaborator

FrankieM

weezl The bread turned out better than the other recipe, though it still stuck and the tops of the loaves split...I don't know what causes that?

I was wondering if I added an extra £50, that would easily cover the normal sandwich fillers/toast toppers and would also enable me to exchange the meals that my family would struggle to eat. Eg. the pea soups and the risi e bisi.

FrankieM

weezl I've just been on mysupermarket and our normal sandwich fillers and toast toppers comes to £12.90 for the 6 of us....so any extra £50 would work miracles!

queen_of_string

Frankie, you would make some savings on not buying the things you dont like/arent eating so it might be much much less than £50 extra you'd need. I know some of the people involved in this project will be worried about your nutrients, but I think that's a decision for you.

weezl74

FrankieM wrote: »

weezl I've just been on mysupermarket and our normal sandwich fillers and toast toppers comes to £12.90 for the 6 of us....so any extra £50 would work miracles!

:j:j:jwoweeeee

...and I'd just scurried off to gaze at the spreadsheet and was going to say that actually the risi e bisi is the third most expensive dinner on the meal planner, so you could sub it for something else without upping the evening meals budget, double yay!:beer::beer::beer: