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

Murrell

Hiah,
Thoughts on veganising recipes as asked. I have looked at your site and the list of this months meals and some of the other recipes. Here are my thoughts.

Chicken & onion pie with suet crust - as the pastry is vegan this could be used and a different filling, such as lentil and veg.

Onion tart - you have a vegan version of this for plan 3 already

Risi e bisi - Use vegan stock and perhaps the bacon could be replaced with another veg, and perhaps the cheese replaced with chopped nuts on top. Otherwise I don't think this would be filling enough or interesting enough. I think someone tried this without the bacon and thought it needed something else like more garlic, not sure. I shall have to try this myself sometime, but it might not be for a few weeks.

Cottage pie - could use lentils

Spanish omelette - no direct subs, but there was a vegan recipe on the link I gave you for the mayo on the vegan thread, don't know if its frugal enough.

Pizza - perhaps lose the cheese and replace with tinned pineapple or perhaps another vegetable thats cheap.

chili - probably could use lentils, not sure. I have made your plan recipe with frozen vegemince for dinner tonight, but as mentioned, this is a third more expensive than sp mince. I must say, I halved the recipe and still got 4 portions, so don't know if vegemince goes further. I didn't need the extra bread to thicken either.

Bacon and onion - pastry vegan, so perhaps use for another pie

3 pasta dishes - too many changes, but there is no reason not to do a basic pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce with optional sprinkle of ground almonds on top. Didn't you have a basic one on your 50p plan.

Baked bean curry - already vegan

Pate - no alternative for this, but we could definately use your lovely lentil pate recipe from the 50p challenge

Pumpkin seed butter - already vegan. We did talk about making a peanut and brazil nut butter for the selenium needs. I will try to test that this week.

Tangy bean pate - already vegan

Chutney - already vegan (I am assuming the cabbage is vegan, don't know what the liquid mentioned is) I may be looking at the wrong recipe though, as I don't see red cabbage on the shopping list

Apple curd, orange flim flam, pea and apple soup, porridge and houmous - already vegan

Bread all recipe on your site vegan.

Risotto - without cheese, may want to add something else instead like ground almonds or peanuts.

Carrot cake - we may be able to replace the eggs, but I think we may as well find a vegan carrot cake recipe, rather than risk the ingredients in a experiment.

Onion and pototo soup - just do without bacon

Scones - use trex in place of lard in all scone recipes
savoury - don't know if they would work without cheese
tomato - don't know if water would work instead of milk to make them vegan
sweet - use trex and then vegan

biscuits - use trex to make vegan

savoury bites - we have a vegan (original) version and I will try mung bean version too

sweetcorn fritters - could perhaps be made with water instead of milk

breakfast pancake - already vegan, would still like to know how much lemon though!

shortbread and vegan rissoles already vegan

On your earlier 50p entries, there is also saag aloo and gnocci that is vegan.

Hope these thoughts might help and I will test as I can.

Sandra
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Allegra

Murrell wrote: »

Hiah,
breakfast pancake - already vegan, would still like to know how much lemon though!
x

I didn't realise there was supposed to be lemon in it I had one this morning as I didn't do breakfasts at the weekend, and I had it lemon free. Was nice enough - surprisingly nice for something that's largely just flour and water ! Mind you, you could say the same about bread, I guess....

Murrell

I quite like a lot of the info provided on this page and the recipe looks good too! All these suggestions may of already been given.

Eg, the symbols for vegetarain, (not that they put vegan when it is!), dairy free, freezable

Also this bit:

Complexity: Easy

Number of servings: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Option to print as already mentioned. Numbered steps.

http://www.tesco.com/health/recipes/detail.page?R=773

Hope this helps with your webpage, if there is anything here not already mentioned.

Sandra
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queen_of_string

Frankie

just wondering if this:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5171/swede-and-bacon-pies



would make a possible substitute for the rice meal? It uses many ingredients you already have. We have had it a couple of times and it's delicious, much more than the simple ingredients might suggest! You could almost certainly frugalise the amount of bacon and I dont think they mean a big turnip, but I used a chunk off a big one, and it was nom! ( iirc theyre cheap too!)

edit: tried a frugal version tonight, for anyone who is interested. I used 70g of tiny slivers of cooking bacon, 2-3 carrots, half a turnip ( the purple skin, orangey flesh ones) and a big potato per person. I kept the skin on the spuds for fibre and fullness. I didnt add any extra oil to the frying process as cooking bacon is fatty. I also meant to save the water from the spuds to make up the stock cube, but I forgot. I put it all in one dish. I think there is enough there for a family of four. I would have preferred a green side veg, I dont like marrowfats but you might. HTH

Murrell

Allegra wrote: »

I didn't realise there was supposed to be lemon in it I had one this morning as I didn't do breakfasts at the weekend, and I had it lemon free. Was nice enough - surprisingly nice for something that's largely just flour and water ! Mind you, you could say the same about bread, I guess....

I see the recipe title has changed! I think they was called lemon and raisin originally and aless asked about the lemon in the comments. So I guess the lemon is no longer. Shall have to try these.

Sandra
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Allegra

Murrell wrote: »

I see the recipe title has changed! I think they was called lemon and raisin originally and aless asked about the lemon in the comments. So I guess the lemon is no longer. Shall have to try these.

Sandra
x

Ah, I get you Mind you, we do have some lemons knocking about now that are surplus to requirements, I will have to have my next pancake with a squirt of lemon, would probably be nice.

I have just made a batch of savoury bites - using some of my illicit stash of butter (bought when Country Life was on offer in Asda for 50p some weeks back) instead of lard as I was hoping that DD might go for them. They are delicious - and DD thought so too :T

hornetgirl

The bacon and onion pudding was a success here too. I snuck a little bit of mixed herbs into the pastry, which gave it a nice flavour. This is definitely one I'll continue to use post-planner, now I know it's not difficult to make. The filling coulld be varied with all kinds of meat and veg combinations.

Arty, lovely pics, your pies look yummy. I have lots of extra chicken too. I think I might change the risi e bisi a bit and put some in there at some point. For now it's in little bags in the freezer.

Still on plan for dinner tomorrow and looking forward to the chilli. It's pretty much how I make it anyway, so should be an easy evening's cooking for me

FrankieM

spotdogkez wrote: »

Hi - I'm still lurking and following avidly.

Frankie - really interested to know what extras you would buy for lunches if you don't mind sharing the info - that was one of the reasons I felt unable to follow the plan as I wouldn't get the lunches past the kids. So any info on cheap and healthy ideas gratefully received.

Hi,
My children generally have a sandwich and a piece of cake for lunch. Sometimes a couple of them will have a piece of fruit.
They all have ham and cucumber and lettuce with a bit of mayo, so they are the ingredients I added.
For toast they like peanut butter, jam or choc spread.

HTH

FrankieM

weezl I'm not sure my children will go for the flim flam so in future I think I'll just buy an orange for each carrot cake I'm going to do.
In the mean time, I'll put my spare oranges in the fruit bowl.
I would mind trying a lemon cordial either.

Allegra Thanks for the info about the splitting bread. I'll have to keep an eye on it next time. I haven't been greasing my tins. When DH has done bread in the past he hasn't needed to so I didn't bother.
I have some Frylight from my Slimming World days that I use so I'll give that a go.

Arty Your pies look great!

queen of string Thanks for that recipe. I have some swede in the freezer so it may be a workable alternative, though I was going to try to do something with rice as I'll have some leftover...maybe I cook mix it with rice instead of putting potato on the top?

In_Search_Of_Me

weezl if it would it help for me to have a chat with friend who builds websites and see if he can assist? Can possibly arrange sommat and sure he would be happy to assist...Am also happy to come and give an honest view of webste if that would help?!! Let me know. Kiss for both the munchkins!!
Arty feel so proud of you! I know others are doing fabulously but its been a real pleasure to see you blossom and develop in confidence..am troubled by the bread though as there is nothing like hm bread...if weezles vid doesent do it am happy t post my recipe to see if its any better although I find the one with readybrekish stuff in is lighter than the normal no knead if that helps...You are a true weezilite btw...way back when we "met" weezl had 16p (or thereabout...she will confirm!!) left at the end of challege and would she go ad blow it on cola bottles or sommat equally frivellous? No...into the next challenge it goes...!!
Re the milk and children they do drink/need alot of calcium due to growing more bones if I remember correctly...waiting with interest for the research reults.