Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

calleyw

funkymonkey849 wrote: »

The concept of the programme is good, however I find it quite annoying that the end budget per person is still 3 or 4 times the amount I can afford to spend on food! I appriciate that they save the families a considerable amount of money, but with the amount they're already spending it's not exactly hard!

Therefor I propose that the programme should be renamed 'cooking for people who have more money than sense' and there should be a REAL economy gastronomy programme which would actually help people on a low budget to spend their money more wisely and eat better for it.

I think like a lot of people on this forum they have missed the point of who the programme was aimed at.

It was not aimed at people who are already OS and spending tuppence to make a 3 course meal for 5.

It was aimed at people who are now having to take a look at their spending and cut back. And who have never had a budget and meal plan. Remember the family in the second show who manged to get down to £60 a week for a family of 4. Which I though was very good. After what they where spending.

If you listen to Allegra at the start she said it is not about using cheap ingredients but it is about using good quality and making it go further :T

I have bought the book (with Amazon vouchers so no cost to me)and even though I am OS it has given me food for thought and different ideas.

Also not really sure who cares who is sleeping with whom. This has just lead to the thread becoming bloated with OT posts.

Any one else remember the Jamie feed your family for a fiver thread. Where people where going off about how they could do it for cheaper. And what they where failing to take in to account that the £5 costing was including the whole cost of all the ingredients not the amount they used. So of course it was cheaper. But it was just a concept to get people to think about things.

Yours

Calley

trying-very-trying

Well said, Calley:T.
I have enjoyed the programme and got a few fresh ideas, but I've been getting a bit sick of the bickering on this thread, and lately the discussion about food has been forgotten

gingababe

Well I tried the Macaroni Cheese recipe last nite & it went down a storm with my family last nite!!!!

The_Dragon

We did the shoulder of lamb on Wednesday and the Shepherd's Pie yesterday (well the base was what they suggested but we only had waxy potatoes so I did more of a Hot Pot topping!) - has anyone tried the Brownie Cookies yet? I thought I might give them a go this weekend but after the complaints about the freezer cookies I wasn't sure!

For whoever was asking (sorry I forgot!) a "Gayby" is the baby/child of a gay couple (why they have to put a tag like that on the child I have no idea! )

trying-very-trying

gingababe wrote: »

Well I tried the Macaroni Cheese recipe last nite & it went down a storm with my family last nite!!!!

Oh, we're back to the food part:T.
Where did you get the artichoke hearts? I've never seen them in the shops where I shop, but then I've never been looking for them.

hotcookie101

They sell artichoke hearts in most supermarkets. You can get them in oil, and these are usually found with the bottled olives/peppers/tapas type stuff. Or you can buy them tinned in water (I often do this if am going to use them in say risotto, so might work with the mac cheese) def from sainsbury, not sure the others, when they are just with the rest of the tinned veg

susank

I logged on to this topic as I have watched these programmes and am interested in them - I was horrified the way people are going on about the 2 dads and the lovely little girl being called strange names. This was a very loving family with a beautiful little girl and it really does not have anything to do with the thread title "Economy Gastronomy" - we should not judge anyone at all - please keep sight of the cookery aspects instead. The whole purpose of the programme was to show how things can be made much cheaper if ingredients are all used up and not thrown out and they really have done well for the families involved who have saved loads of money. I like the programme although we all do not have this amount to spend each week.

(please feel free to complain if I have spelt anything wrong! - it is my pet hate and nothing worse than reading badly worded/spelt posts!! - it appears to come from text messaging!)

jaytin

Paul Merret is married to a teacher and they have two children, Allegra is married to a jeweller called Susi and has an MBE for services to the food industry.
I personally find the term 'gayby' to be really unpleasant, the little girl in the last episode was clearly very happy, bright and well looked after by two very devoted parents, nothing more about their family life needs to be said.
There are more than enough badly behaved violent children in this country brought up in so-called 'normal/traditional' families, that most of us would be terrified to be within 50 yards of! What does it matter whether the parents are all male, all female or one of each if they can bring their children up to be decent and productive members of society?
Now back to the point of the show, food! Did anyone actually cook the 'Colonel Merret's bucket of chicken' recipe in the oven? I would like to try this but since I am dieting I don't want to deep fry it!

lucyhope

I've cooked the bucket of chicken recipe in the oven and it wasn't nice!. Tasted really spicy and the coating didn't seem cooked. Family decided it was one recipe that really did need deep frying( most things in our house are grilled or cooked in the oven without fat or oil)

trying-very-trying

lucyhope wrote: »

I've cooked the bucket of chicken recipe in the oven and it wasn't nice!. Tasted really spicy and the coating didn't seem cooked. Family decided it was one recipe that really did need deep frying( most things in our house are grilled or cooked in the oven without fat or oil)

I was thinking of doing this in the actifry, but do you think the coating would fall off? Do you think it might work in the remoska?