weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Apricot

artybear wrote: »

So what do you all do in situations where you just cant cook (i can barley stand at the mo). Do you just always always have a freezer stocked up?

This is my downfall tbh - on nights when I really can't be bothered to cook we often have a takeaway. Either that or I cook something that I can leave on a timer and just come back when it's done like rice. A lot of the time when Im ill I just have rice and don't let all the water boil away - I add a chicken stock cube, frozen peppers and a beaten egg (which takes minutes to cook) it's sort of like a rice soup and takes little or no preparation whilst being filling at the same time!

shanks77

Hobnobs were lovely even ex liked them (not sure if that is good or not lol) but easy to make and will do some variations on them next time. I did the whole mixture but only cooked a few at a time so i can have fresh ones on a dailyish basis and the less there are the less ex can eat at once.
Arty if i am feeling under the weather it is usually a pasta type dish for us as it is easy to cook and simple to add whatever is in fridge at the time and eat either hot or cold.

nopot2pin

Lesley, I would go for the treats too

domesticgoddess789

Treat yourself Lesley! I love MandS food, it's lush.

Shanks, our challenge seems to have fallen by the wayside and the freezer looks as full as it did on day one :eek: Must try harder though next week. The hobnobs sound great too, I love them.

Hope everyone who is feeling poorly feels better soon

shanks77

Shanks, our challenge seems to have fallen by the wayside and the freezer looks as full as it did on day one :eek:

Mine does as well even though i havent bought anything and we have been eating well how strange!!!

Julimk

(Thanks stressed mum & apricot for your support & reassurance. Very much along those lines; new school and a particular friend. But it seems to be resolving itself slowly & she has been eating normally the last few days, albeit that she wants to know the calorie content of everything).

I need to be back on board with using the store cupboard. Pay day on Friday, so did a ‘main’ shop, but it was quite small. Got the MrT 7.5kg sack of pots while still on the £1.95 offer, some onions & a few bits that we will use while they were still on the ‘less than half price offer’.

Pack lunches are a particular challenge, especially with DD being a bit funny at the mo, so I am definitely interested in the development of the packed lunch plan.

Weezl, you mentioned elsewhere that there are 56 recipes ready to go subject to person power. I am on annual leave 08/02/11 – 17/02/11 inclusive (had time to use up). 15/02/11 is out, as I have a hospital appt & it is DD’s birthday & my Mum’s birthday too! But otherwise, I will be around if you need my detailed eye for proof reading, spreadsheet work etc.

Sami_Bee

shanks77 wrote: »

Well still working from the cupboard challenge i now have a some of Twinks hobnobs in the oven (am i the only person not to have tried them?) so will let you know the verdict later. Having pork chops tonight with broccoli and ex is having mustard mash and im having sweet pot wedges. Hope everyone is also doing well with their challenges xx

I haven't tried them, I'd be far too tempted to eat them but oats set off my hay-fever weirdly and its really not worth it

artybear wrote: »

Treattreattreat lesley. Buy some yummy things that maybe you can freeze then if you are ever feeling like a week has been too frugal you will have something to treat yourself with :-)

I'm ill with either flu or a very bad cold, luckily Mr arty did a huge batch cook on saturday (not that im up to eating them) and we have some tins of soup as they were on offer in Tesco. However I can imagine times like these would be when Shirls and Kittys would spend more on convenience food. So what do you all do in situations where you just cant cook (i can barley stand at the mo). Do you just always always have a freezer stocked up?

XXXX

we always have chips, scampi, fish fingers, chicken dippers in the freezer plus usually some kind of fish and/or chicken so I can usually manage to oven them or do pasta n pesto with the fish/chicken if DH isn't here, otherwise he would cook those or he is also a decent recipe follower so I would probably hand him the BNS risotto recipe and tell him to plonk what ever veg we have in in place of BNS (assuming we didn't have it).
I have also get DH to put the raw stew/casserole ingredients in the dish and in the fridge in the evening and if necessary put it in the oven in the morning so I just need to switch it on at some point after lunch.

Lesley_Gaye

artybear wrote: »

Treattreattreat lesley. Buy some yummy things that maybe you can freeze then if you are ever feeling like a week has been too frugal you will have something to treat yourself with :-)

I'm ill with either flu or a very bad cold, luckily Mr arty did a huge batch cook on saturday (not that im up to eating them) and we have some tins of soup as they were on offer in Tesco. However I can imagine times like these would be when Shirls and Kittys would spend more on convenience food. So what do you all do in situations where you just cant cook (i can barley stand at the mo). Do you just always always have a freezer stocked up?

XXXX

we might have something from the freezer, but don't keep many made up meals in there, more ingredients, fruit/veg from the garden etc

OH can cook reasonably, but usually needs to start with something like 2 chicken breasts, he's not good at the padding out or the frugaltastic type stuff

we usually have some kind of soup around, so may well have that with some toast, or maybe just beans/egg/cheese on toast

OH would always opt for takeaway given the choice, I'm trying to get him used to having one once a month, he always gets enough for 2 meals anyway!

sorry you're feeling ill, I had flu late last year and it was vile. I didn't eat for nearly a week, so it must have been bad! Mine took 12 days from beg to end, and flu usually lasts up to 2 weeks, so if you think along that timescale, you prob won't be far out, not like I did and expect to feel better each morning when I woke up and then disgruntled when I didn't, made it seem longer than it was too

Seeing as I have 'permission' from all you lovely people, I think I'll opt for treats with my M&S vouchers. Will save them for nice Feb food, and something extra nice for Valentines. Might get a couple of things to freeze, but even tho I have been using stuff up like mad from the freezer, it doesn't seem to have very much more space in there

Lesley_Gaye

couple of things to report using frozen veg

had half a pk of frozen mushrooms left, so seeing as I'm trying to use as much as possible out of the freezer, thought I'd make a half batch of cfr mushroom soup. Didn't have any kind of cream, so used a big knob of butter and a splash of milk. Just used a tiny pinch of mixed spice. Delicious, so now have lunch for tomorrow made, including croutons

tried the SP frozen broccoli steamed, worked well, so thanks for that tip. The cooked broccoli seemed much less than the amount I'd weighed out, and realised that the frozen veg is covered in ice. So weighed it before and after cooking. While frozen I weighed out 110g, but it was only 70g once cooked.

soo, that means the frozen stuff is 64% of actual usable veg, and 84p/kg becomes £1.31/kg, which is still less than £1.67/kg of the fresh stuff currently listed on mySupermarket/Asda, but not quite as much less as I had thought

poohbear59

I have finished my cupboard and freezer challenge. We got to the stage where the cupboards and freezer were almost bare. I had to buy something to eat so we went shopping and spent £25 which will last us a fair while again. A very good friend rang me whilst standing next to the woman who was marking down meat prices in Mr T. She brought me enough to give us meat twice a week for the next month.

Is there anything that needs to be done, any testing, proof reading?

After months of business planning and a few set backs I am just waiting to here if we have our business loan so it is a quiet time here. Thumb twiddling etc. So if there is anything I can do please shout.