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

shanks77

weezl74 wrote: »

ah! ok guys I think I get it, you're not saying 'make it more normal for shirley' you're saying 'since I do not HAVE to live like shirley- I will keep these bits but not these other ones'

And quite right too.

If I had to have value tea bags and no nice coffee I would definitely be saying, 'I can't wait til the months over so I can have a decent cup of coffee!'

Is it like that?

Yes i think you captured eloquently what i waffled that is exactly what i meant. And if i had to i could carry on for another month without any problems.
And dont worry about the pastry i saw your post and reduced oil and still made a pigs ear of it so its me not you but no worries happy to make my own and the bacon pudding went down well in chez shanks both found it good we had pots and sweetcorn and i made some gravy as well.

artybear

Allegra you are so much more articulate than I am-

I second what she said weezliexxxxxxxxx

weezl74

.... this is why I am so in awe of the testers, you are all going without favourites for mythical bob:T:T:T

you have very generous hearts :A

we tried a vegan tomato steamed pud tonight, piccie in the usual place but my method is a bit sketchy!

murrell do you think it's a goer? the whole meal with wedges and carrots is 36p :money:

artybear

Picture time!!!!!:T:T

This is soooooooooo yummy, easy to make and satisfies my craving for cheese. We both love it-however mr arty made a double portion of it as I am working tomorrow night and I think he will probs need a bit more than the portion size recommended. Other than that nomnomnomnomnom :beer::beer::j:j

taka

DO NOT CHANGE THE PLANNER WEEZL!

Sorry for shouting! No one is going to 100% love everything on a planner made by someone else. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the planner.

I think any big changes to the range of foods available to eat will be a bit of a shock to anyones system! Like anything else it'll take a bit of time to get used to... That and the fact that everyone doesn't like the same things makes it even more difficult!

... Also thats where the learning to fish thing comes in doesn't it Weezl? You are showing that it is possible to have such a low cost (and yummy and healthy) diet and giving S&B and family a comprehensive planner ready to use.

Longer term Shirley et al may end up adapting it to their family tastes. You are giving them a very well thought out framework on which to build something that suits them... ie they are learning to fish!

Personally, I'd never voluntarily have an omlette (the smell of egg makes me feel sick _pale_) so I would swap that for something else that used those or similar ingredients! Doesn't mean that its wrong to have it in a meal plan... just that I'd tweek it to suit me.

Breakfasts - I have one of the following...
a) muesli+basics yoghurt
b) porridge+dried mixed fruit
c) bread+jam or fruit spread (mainly whenever I've had my breadmaker on overnight and it is ready at breakfast time :drool: :rotfl:)

In a tight spot I'd do without the muesli+yog so the other options are already more or less the planner breakfast anyway! For lunch I usually have bread with cheese and pickle, houmous or bean pate so the veggie lunch sandwiches sound good to me. :rotfl:

I'm looking forwards to the veggie planner though I'm really worried I'll really miss having fresh fruit! I eat loads of it - at least 3 portions throughout the day - usually for lunch or afternoon snack! It does add up costwise though... I do love aldi super6 though - I get to have grapes this fortnight! :j

Weezl - what is the portion size of tinned fruit (in juice?). Things like basics MrS tinned pineapple in juice are 13p for a drained (I think????) weight of 140g. I know that they are not fresh but things like a portion of fruit salad made with tinned pineapple + a few frozen MrS basics berries (defrosted!) + lots of fresh apple for example would hit the fruit loving spot for me along with a dribble of the pineapple juice from the tin to keep it moist! (I presume this is for the vegan plan?)

weezl74

taka wrote: »

DO NOT CHANGE THE PLANNER WEEZL!

OK boss

yes, you're all absolutely right. Shirley average is doing better if she says, I'll do it again next month, but I'll tweak it in these ways......

I think I'll probably always be scared she might say 'but next month I'll add in £300 worth of luxuries' and then I'll have failed. But I think this is me overreacting

she might even say, I don't want 6 F and V portions, 5 is fine for me, or 'Omega, schmomega, I never had any before!' and live on 60p a day :rotfl:

Sorry I do get what you're all saying now, I just thought people meant to adjust the planner (which is partly what I'm up for this month revealing) when you weren't meaning that.

I think we need a code for what's 'planner change necessitating' type feedback.

FrankieM

weezl My comments were in no way meant to make you feel you'd got it wrong or you needed to change anything. I'm sorry if I gave that impression.
If we had to really cut back then I know that with the smallest of tweaks we could survive and thrive on your planner.

weezl74

taka wrote: »

Weezl - what is the portion size of tinned fruit (in juice?). Things like basics MrS tinned pineapple in juice are 13p for a drained (I think????) weight of 140g. I know that they are not fresh but things like a portion of fruit salad made with tinned pineapple + a few frozen MrS basics berries (defrosted!) + lots of fresh apple for example would hit the fruit loving spot for me along with a dribble of the pineapple juice from the tin to keep it moist! (I presume this is for the vegan plan?)

good idea

80g is a portion of canned fruit, and 150ml is the portion size for a glass of juice, 2 cans of pineapple in juice from asda yields 8 portions of pineapple and 1.5 juice portions, which makes it slightly more frugal than the apples, because we can also count the juice

The only thing that slightly puts me off is that I don't know if it will satisfy those who ticked that FRESH fruit was their non-negotiable. I think I'd need to run another poll to find out why. Don't worry I'm not going to, I'm just thinking aloud here....:)

ie If it's to do with a belief that only fresh is nutritious, then our tinned pineapple will not satisfy, just as our dried raisins will not satisfy, and therefore it's the apple a day planner. But if it's about, say the mouth feel of fresh fruit rather than a handful of raisins, then I can completely see the pineapple would tick that box for them.

The only person who posted at length about it said it was to do with the health of her children, so I'm guessing it was to do with a nutrition belief...


ponder, ponder, ponder

I think I shall offer kitty the choice

hornetgirl

What the others have said - don't change the planner. It's probably difficult for any of us to stick to it, as we're not in B&S's dire financial straits, or at least I don't think any of us are.
What I like is the knowledge that if I should find myself in that situation, I would now be even better equipped to deal with it. But it's a hard situation to pretend to be in for a whole month, especially when you know there's a bar of galaxy in the kitchen cupboard!

Tonight the pasta amatriciana was fine. It didn't look quite like the picture as I forgot to halve the tomatoes and tipped the whole lot in. Oops. As with the rice yesterday, the suggested amount of pasta was way too much for us, so I did 150g which was very filling. This is pretty much like a dinner we normally have - only diffierence would be less pasta and something like some salad leaves on the side.

HowlinWolf

I have made a weetabix loaf, stewed some sad apples and made some very very past it bananas into muffins. I did contemplate letting them get so bad they would have to go in the bin (about another 12 hours would have seen them completely past edible) but I thought that was criminal and you lot would never forgive me. :eek:

The planner seems to be working out great so far, well done weezl and all the testers.

P.S Office Bob didn't like his pumpkin spread.

I think the things that my family will continue to have from this planner are:

pasta amatriciana
Pasta alfredo but we had that already
onion tart
houmous
apple spread
the chicken and onion pie
paul merrit bread but we had that already too
carbonara - already a regular
hm pizza - likewise but have changed my sauce slightly so it's more weezl influenced
suspect that we will also add the bacon and onion pudding and a (possibly tweaked) version of the scones once I get around to testing those

I am looking forward to the veggie planned - dp not so much.