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

Sian_the_Green

weezl74 wrote: »

here is a message to sian the green from acetate monkey (aka Mr weezl):

'Hello! I really like your biscuits. I think they may be too nice.:o How on earth do you find the discipline to freeze a batch?! '

edit: this is because sian sent us a parcel of lovely things including a recipe and ingredients for cranberry and white choc cookies

Yey! I am glad you liked them! They are some of my favourite cookies and I think, whilst some of the ingredients are a little more indulgent, they are really easy to make. They make great gifts too. I have to admit I have never frozen a batch, though I am sure it is possible to, the caramelisation of the cranberries means I can never only eat one. Just another reason I am not a size 8

Keep up the good work all! x

artybear

weezl74 wrote: »

Panzanella- from planners 2 and 3 (and also to use up arty's crusty bread )

Ingredients:

• 2 tins plum tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces (juice drained off and warmed up seperately with 2 tspns sugar, salt, pepper, 1 tspn vinegar to make a little home made ketchup)
  
• 1/2 a jar of olives stuffed with garlic, sliced very finely
  
• 2 small onions, very thinly sliced
• 2 tspns dried herbs (I used dried oregano, very nice:D)
  
• 75ml oil
  
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1.5 loaves HM bread, cut into cubes
  

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs. Drizzle with the oil and the 3 tbsp vinegar, season with salt and pepper and toss well.
2. Place half of the bread in a wide, shallow bowl. If the bread is quite stale and dry, you should first spoon a few tbsp of water over the bread and let it soak some of the water up, then with your hands squeeze all of the water out and place bread in a different bowl before proceeding. If it isn’t too stale then you can skip this step.
3. Spoon half of the tomato mixture over the bread. Layer the remaining bread on top and then the remaining tomato mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or until serving time. Just before serving, toss the salad and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. At this point the bread should have assorbed the water from the tomatoes and be all moist. If the bread seems dry for some reason, add a little bit more oil and toss well. Serve immediately.

That looks so yummy...will try it at some point this weekxxxxxxxx

weezl74

slm6002 wrote: »

Hi everyone, i have been lurking since you started this thread and i am very impressed at the effort you are all putting into this.

I need to reduce my food bill so have been looking with great interest at the recipes. My OH is very much a meat and 2 veg kind of person but when i mentioned this plan and the amount of money we could potentially save he almost sounded like he would give it a go. I am currently pregnant so thinking the pate may not work for me but guess we could substitue it for something else maybe.

I will keep popping by to see how you are all doing

hi, thanks for popping in, we'll be very interested to hear your feedback if you decide to test anything

yep, I think it's just the pate and HM mayo you'd have to be wary of in pregnancy.

Although (and this is in no way medical advice!) the issue with liver in pregnancy is to do with vitamin A in excess of 1500iu daily in trimester 1 causing cranial neural crest deformities, so not something you'll need to worry about from just a few weeks time (and you'd have to eat all of a double batch of Shirley and bob's pate all in one day to hit that amount of vitamin A!)

I know a lot of people are quite careful about eggs though in pregnancy, even though I'm not, so I agree perhaps best to avoid HM mayo.

Congratulations on your pregnancy :T:T:T

weezl74

hello all, a recipe from planner 3, pasta con funghi now available at the usual place

weezl74

nut roast recipe- planner 3 (possibly planner 2 too if folk like it )

• • 
    
  • Oil for frying
  • 2 onions, chopped 160g
  • 2 teaspoons garlic
  • 1 tbsp. SR flour
  • 300 ml vegetable stock (or water)
  • 100 g finely chopped peanuts
  • 90g roughly chopped cashews
  • 175 g breadcrumbs
  • 2 tbsp. liquid from the jar of sweet red peppers
  • ½ tsp. dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Flour for coating
  • Oil for roasting

Oven: Pre-heat to gas mark 5

Stew the onion in the oil for about five minutes or until soft. Add the garlic. Cook for a few more minutes.
Sprinkle the flour on top. Stir well. Add the stock or water, stirring all the time. Bring the mixture to the boil, and simmer slowly for two or three minutes. Stir in the nuts, breadcrumbs, herbs and seasoning.
Turn the mixture on to a floured board, and form a loaf shape with your hands. Coat evenly with flour on all sides.
Heat the oil in a roasting tin. Place the loaf in the tin. Bake for 30 - 40 mins

weezl74

the above recipe served with 200g potato and 80g each carrots is a shirley pleasing 35p per head :money:

I know these figures are starting to feel very normal, but just as a benchmark of how well we're doing the lastest copy of asdas magazine costs a lot of it's recipes to help people who are 'needing to make cut backs' the lowest priced meal they offer is 1.20 per head and lots are above £2:(

Allegra

I'm stuffed

A quick recap of my foodie weekend: had pizza as per recipe, no illicit chorizo added, and it was luvvery. Cheesier than I would normally have it, though - next time I'll adjust that down. Spot-on for Bobs and Shirleys whose brood is clamouring to be allowed to speed-dial Domino's though.

I'm afraid that I finally happened across a recipe I really did not like though - not the fault of the recipe though, just a weird thing I have about "cream of" type of soups - I do not like milk in my soup. So I'm afraid that green pea soup is not a goer for me - but as I said, that's just me ! I made a two-person portion yesterday, as I was on a dividing autopilot, which meant that I had a portion of something I struggled to finish yesterday left over for my lunch today - so with the thought that the least frugal option is the one that gets wasted, I added an onion, a carrot, and few titchy cubes of bacon to the leftover green pea soup, and this took away from the milky taste sufficiently for me to enjoy it :T

And a chicken and onion pie from those stashed in the freezer last week, with potato wedges and carrots. Double portion thereof. And peas. Double portion thereof too. I don't know what happened there - I think I had bit of a comfort-eating funny because I was feeling overwhelmed with people fussing - they all mean well, I understand that - whether !!!!!! will be able to fly home as expected on Thursday. So I kinda lost the plot there for a while

And another cheat for me, I'm afraid- as DD didn't really take to the planner's sweet treats, I made a coconut loaf for her today instead, and rather than make something from the planner for myself only, I had a square of that to round the meal off. As it were. So I felt stuffed. Which is why I went and had another square. And a glass of rose. And will no doubt have more, perhaps of both.

Oh well. All you really needed to know here is that the meal as it should have been would have been quit sufficient on any normal night, and utterly delicious

aless02

i guess i'm the only person who absolutely loves capers?! In fact, they're our must have on HM pizza.

Also, made stuffing today. 150g cubed bread, 2 small onions, dried herbs, lemon juice from bottle and a bit of gravy water for moisture. Gorrrgeous. Put the mix into mini yorkshires tray i have and made 12 good size balls. Cooked for last 20 minutes of my roast, flipped upside down and then 5 more mins just to add crispiness on all sides.

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

I know these figures are starting to feel very normal, but just as a benchmark of how well we're doing the lastest copy of asdas magazine costs a lot of it's recipes to help people who are 'needing to make cut backs' the lowest priced meal they offer is 1.20 per head and lots are above £2:(

And to approach it from another angle, how many people do you know who regularly pick up a bag of crisps from a newsagents or the like to munch on in their breaks ? DD tells me that a single bag of Walkers from such a place costs about 60p.

Daylight robbery or what ? :eek:

weezl74

Allegra wrote: »

Oh well. All you really needed to know here is that the meal as it should have been would have been quit sufficient on any normal night, and utterly delicious

we liked the extra detail

hope the fussers get the message and cease to fuss. But also do hope !!!!!!'s journey's are smooth. (without wanting to become one of the fussers!)