Jamie Oliver; Ministry of Food

longforthesun

I watched this programme too and really enjoyed it. It was sad to see how some family's live and while i would never condem someone for the way they bring their kids up it does make me mad when you see them smoking and having huge expensive tvs and an 8 hob burner (thats never used) yet complaining they have no money to feed their kids correctly. The excuse that they can't afford the taxi/bus fare is just that an excuse if these people really wanted to do something they could.

I had Home Economis lessons at school and we did learn to cook lots of meals but I think that Home Economics now should be a cross between teaching kids how to cook healthy and how to manage a household budget. It is a shame that even basic home ecenomics is no longer taught in many schools now.

betterlife

even after reading these comments and newspaper reports i still think what jamie is doing is a good thing, yes these people might be in debt and have little money each week but so are most of us. surely by not living on takeaways, junk food and fags, but instead cooking homemade food even frozen food they`d be saving money each week. if we as parents dont teach our children who will. i really dont think there is any excuse for how these`s people feed there children other than they cant be bothered, which is very sad for those poor children, ok so some have limited reading skills, they have massive tv`s so why not watch the cookery channels. this town is too busy putting jamie down for making them look silly, if they only realise that he is trying to help them health wise and financially, i did not think that they where dumb numpties just because they lack in certain skills, but i do think they are making themselves look that way by the way they are acting and not wanting to recieve this free help. there need to swallow there pride, this is just one town, there are probably parts of most towns around the country like this, and jamie will probably move on to another once he has helped this one if they will let him.

MrsE_2

betterlife wrote: »

well ive just watched the programme on catch up, and thought it was very good but quite sad that some of the people , mums infact that did`nt know how to turn a cooker on! now each to there own and all but never too of cooked a meal for your 2 children! and feeding them on cheesy chips and kebabs i personnally think thats disguisting. i was brought up on home cooked food but never taught to cook, surely it would be better and cheaper to buy things that could be bunged in the oven and served with a bag of mixed salad or tinned veg, surely its not rocket science to read instructions that says how long and what temperature. i know i may sound harsh to some but its there own and there childrens well being that is suffering purely because these people are too lazy to cook. they seem to have excuses for everything, " im a full time mum of 2 and there always around my feet i get stressed" well im a full time mum of 4 between 10wks and 7yrs and i still manage to cook a decent healthy meal every night most of the time from scratch. they say they can`t afford it on benefits, i spend £60 pw which has to include food, nappies, wipes and toiletres thats for 6 and 2 cats.i certainly couldnt afford takeaways everyday. if they really wanted to learn to cook like some of them say why not teach yourself, borrow cook books from librarys, start with basics, i agree that some are just doing this to be on tv. x

It is brain blowing that some of those children were school age & had NEVER had a proper dinner at home :eek:
Just crazy.
I can't take that in, really

MrsE_2

parsonswife8 wrote: »

There is an article in this morning's Daily Express saying that the people of Rotherham are not too happy about the way people are bing potayed in the program and have warned Jamie to stay away!

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/64463/Jamie-given-roasting-by-tv-dumbos-

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Were they dubbed:rolleyes:

Did she not have a garden full of beer cans & fag butts:rolleyes:

mouseymousey99

I see some of the local children walking to school, breakfast seems to be a packet of crips (yuck). I hope that in the shows still to come Jamie does a shopping trip - now that I would like to see. All we seemed to learn in 'domestic science' (wonderful description) was beef olives - we would be serving these at our Abigail's party type dinner parties no doubt! Have I made them since??

betterlife

the woman in this programme that previously bouycoted the healthy school dinners, i should imagine with most of the people on the show being on benefits and the school age children being entitled to free school meals at least they can get one healthy balanced meal a day. my son has started having school dinners a few days a week and the meals sound great, all homemade and health, homely meals. and as for above crisps for breakfast whilst walking to school, there really is no excuse, most schools do a breakfast club , my house is manic in the mornings dont get up til about 7.30 as up doing night feeds, but i still manage breakfast for 4 children and am out the door by 8.30 even do pancakes once a week although i do make them the night before and reheat to save time. its funny how peoples priorities vary so much.

Cazzdevil

calleyw wrote: »

I cook sunday roasts but never make meat balls as they use up far to much mince. When I make spag bog I use frozen free flow mince and I pour about a ramkin to ramkin and half of mince in for two people. That is another reason why I don't make cottage/shepherds pies because of the amount of meat used for one meal.

Yeah I know I am tight :rotfl:

I get what you're saying and I too am a bit tight like that but that's only because I know how to cook and know which corners can be cut etc. The method Jamie Oliver is using is a good one in my opinion, it's at least showing that "everyday" cooking can be (and most of the time is) cheaper than buying takeaways for feeding a family.

Teach folks the basics of cooking and once they've got the hang of it and begin to understand how things are put together then they can begin to tweak the recipes to suit their own tastes or budget. There's no point jumping in at the deep end, start at the very beginning... It's a very good place to start

MrsE_2

calleyw wrote: »

As has been said before Jamie is being to simplistic to think teaching them to cook meatballs will solve all their problem. I cook sunday roasts but never make meat balls as they use up far to much mince. When I make spag bog I use frozen free flow mince and I pour about a ramkin to ramkin and half of mince in for two people. That is another reason why I don't make cottage/shepherds pies because of the amount of meat used for one meal.

Yeah I know I am tight :rotfl:

Yours

Calley

I rarely do meat balls & spag because you have to use olive oil & when I cook spag bol I can dry fry it without oil.

carriebradshaw

Having watched the first show I’ve been feeling very sad.That young girl is depressed and believe me when you feel that way it’s very difficult to come out of it,you go through periods of extreme highs and lows & you just seem to shut down and dig yourself in deeper and then push people away that are trying to help you.It’s not a good place to be and it's very easy to judge when you're not in that position,but it's better if you can try and be a helpful influence instead surely?

Anyway onto the programme.I would agree that Jamie’s heart is in the right place, but he is pushing them to fast too soon and with too high a budget.I suspect that will probably be down to having a contract to promote healthy eating in those Sainsbury’s ads and also selling the book/dvd. Another thing is there’s no way he’d say 'yeah get some value sausages or battery eggs' etc… because that would be against his own principles which is fair enough.

I think that with some jiggling about and a lot more thought there could have been a better way, like some one already said here Delia had the right idea with her back to basics how to boil and egg etc,but also you could implement her cheat regime in a small way at the beginning but prob not the recipes because again,they’re too pricey.I mean quails eggs come on … lol. Anyway, add to that the Jamie slogan 'try something new today' and you have the makings of a plan....

For instance teach some basics à la Delia and what the terminology means, how to boil an egg make omlettes etc

Get a few recipes together for things like curry, chilli, lasagne,soup basic sponge cakes etc but start off perhaps with sauce in a jar and micro rice or other convenience foods, then next time they make it get them to boil their own rice and add some extra veg into the sauce, the next time get them to make the curry or chilli sauce etc from scratch just one step at a time,building confidence in their abilities as they go and then onto the next challenge. It doesn’t have to be fancy cuisine every time,I mean fish pie they could have made that with a tin of tuna and salmon to start with couldn’t they?

betterlife

i do agree with the start with basics, meatballs dont have to be expensive if you use cheaper mince and add grated carrots, chopped toms, mushrooms and onion. but fish pie is rather pricey if you are using real fish. why not teach them how to cook a chicken for a roast dinner, then how to make a stock with the bones and make a chicken and veg soup with left over meat and veg from roast, that way they will see cooking from scratch does`nt have to be expensive and that you can make it stretch for a couple of meals, this would help them to meal plan and budget, i bought a reduced chicken for £2 in the week, day 1 i disected it and we had lemon and ginger chicken with rice, i then made a chic and veg pie for day 2, day 3 was chic and lentil mix soup made with carcess, maybe jamie is not the right person to present the show maybe it should be the mse old stylers lol.