Weezl and friends Phase 3 - sitting pretty with Kitty

life_in_termoil

Well I see from the costing that you have 81p to play with for xmas week, so how about adding a carrot, parsnip and maybe some pearl barley or broth mix. Both pearl barley and broth mix are really cheap and come in at under 50p each for 500g

Allegra

How lovely to see so many people popping up and ready to help with the Chrimbo planner testing ! :j You guys are absolute stars, and I hope each and every one of you gets a lovely warm glow once the planner is done and dusted, knowing you helped to make it possible :T

I felt a bit rubbish today, so not been able to hang around and help, but better now, and made new-version brownies, cooling in the tin atm, and we're all looking forward to the eating part of the testing !

weezl74

MadDogWoman wrote: »

Weezl - I'm not sure if you spotted it, but I'm happy to test mince tarts

oh fab! sorry I must have had my skimming eyes on there!:rotfl:Thank you I will get a recipe sorted asap, when were you thinking you might like to try?

life_in_termoil

how about a variation of pea and ham soup....pea and hotdog broth dried peas 29p, tin of hotdogs 45p, 1 oxo cube 1litre of water, salt n pepper

Ok im rambling random things here now, think it may be time to do the washing up before I write my final verdict for todays cooking extravaganza

MadDogWoman_2

weezl74 wrote: »

oh fab! sorry I must have had my skimming eyes on there!:rotfl:Thank you I will get a recipe sorted asap, when were you thinking you might like to try?

If things go the way things are looking like they are going at work on Monday, I'll be a SAHM for a while so I'm available anytime.

For those that are missing Chinese I have been given a receipe book for my birthday with a recipe for Chicken Hoisin Wraps - a future idea for a lunch with leftover poached chicken??

Julimk

Hi Life in Turmoil & MadDogWoman.

Weezl is having a very well deserved evening off. There is a heck of a lot of work going on in the background & she has two darling little boys too. And some others were not feeling so well today, hence a little quiet here.

Within the planners themselves there is very little room for manoeuvre because they have been carefully designed so that everything fits together, using up all the items that are on the shopping list etc. (Like a capsule wardrobe!)

That said, there is already an article about alternative leftover suggestions:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/leftovers.html

There are also three pea soup recipes:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-greenpeasoup.html?opt=p1m1
http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-greenpeasoupvegan.html?opt=p3m1
http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-spicypeasoup.html?opt=p1m1

The leftover/ alternative article is not ‘set in stone’ & more ideas can be added. There is also a plan to publish some standalone recipes at the same price point. Both of these are so that the user is not stuck with just repeating the same old same old, round & round again & can add some variety.

This is one of the reasons for using pork for the Christmas dinner. The original planner used a lot of chicken & the thinking was that having a different main meat would add variety. So originally chicken & bacon, Christmas is pork & sausages.

All ideas are read & taken on board. So please don’t hesitate to keep posting. Weezl & the core team are very busy, so sometimes takes a while to respond. I’ve had ideas that others have said were great, gone quiet & sometime later it is Oh, remember what Julimk said, what are we going to do about that …

nopot2pin

I am a muppet :rotfl:

I made the mushroom soup last night, and thought it was a bit thin - that it needed some thickening agent (potato or cornflour)

I said this, as the bread didn't seem to thicken it as much as I had hoped

Well, I have just found the bread, that I thought I had added in my packed lunch bag :rotfl:
I had the 2 slices of bread on the side... I must have gone into auto pilot, or got distracted :whistle: - I wrapped the bread up and put it in my lunch bag without thinking :rotfl:
I wouldn't mind, but I wasn't working today, so I have no idea what was going through my brain :rotfl:

Allegra

:rotfl:Potty ! Sounds like a day in my kitchen, actually

The readjusted brownie recipe was a great success - held its shape well, cuts well, tastes good (slightly on the sweet side if anything, but that's not something that many would complain about in the Christmas week) - a definite thumbs up.

I'll pop a pic on tomorrow some time - today took it out of me to a great extent, currently suffering serious CBAs. Sorry...:cool:

nopot2pin

Allegra wrote: »

:rotfl:Potty ! Sounds like a day in my kitchen, actually

At least I know I am not the only one

life_in_termoil

Well the kitchen is now back to normal after todays marathon cookathon.

Mushroom soup
Great success and we all enjoyed it, please dont change it its fab as it is. 10/10

Onion Soup
This also went down well but I personally found it abit sweet so may reduce the sugar, but I also made abit of a booboo and it wasnt untill I was throwing away the cider bottle that I realised my mistake........I used pear cider!! Doh (which also was used for the gravy for the pork)
7/10 from me
kids loved it and gave it a 9/10

Stuffing
This was lovely and although I didnt shape into balls It wasnt a drama. Mixture was abit dry but thats because my breadcrumbs were on the slightly large size lol. Next time I may cook my onions in abit of water first to soften and also add the cooking water to the mixture which would make it easier to mould into balls 8/10

Yorkies
Im rubbish at making yorkies no matter what the recipe BUT these went down well with us all although not on the same par as Aunt B I will deffo make these again. Do these freeze well? 9/10

Gravy
Only had 1 person who didnt like it but unless its bisto gravy granules she wont eat it. Rest of us thought it was lovely and tasty even though I made it with pear cider. 10/10

Brownies
Way to sweet for me but I used the unmodified recipe. Abit crumbly to cut and very very gooeey on the inside. Saying that theres none left as the kids have demolished the lot 7/10 will try modified recipe next week

The roast was lovely and used under half the joint for the 5 of us. More than enough left for tomorrows tortilla wraps so maybe some of this could go into the veggi soup?

All in all a successful day with clean plates and full stomachs. What more could anyone ask for.

Thank you for all your hard work xxx

EDIT...the xmas day menu will probably be served on xmas day mainly because i wont be paying silly prices for a turkey and I dont want to eat turkey from xmas day to 1st week in january