Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

blueberrypie

freakyogre wrote: »

What surprised me was that they (initially) really thought that ready meals were cheaper and quicker than making a proper meal. A ready meal takes 4? minutes in the microwave, times that by 5 people and they've spent 20 minutes heating food up. In that time they could have quite easily prepared and made a meal from scratch.

Well, yes, but...it's not just about the time it takes from starting cooking to having food ready - it's more about the time it actually takes the person to do it. Making things from scratch often means you're actually *cooking* during that time: stirring, or grating etc, or maybe prepping beforehand. I made a delicious meal with chicken and pesto and potatoes in foil packets tonight, served with crunchy cauliflower - and it wasn't difficult, but it did mean that I had to actually be there for the time it took to prep everything - cutting the cauliflower, peeling and cutting up potatoes, mixing the sauce, etc.

Whereas if you throw a ready-meal in the microwave for four minutes, you can then run off and do something else for four minutes - strip and remake a bed, or start a load of laundry, or get tomorrow's clothes for the kids out, or cuddle a cranky, teething baby, or whip round the bathroom with a cloth, or chase the two-year-old out of whatever muck he's found down the garden...

So I can see how it can be argued that ready-meals are less *time-consuming* than cooking from scratch. I don't use ready-meals - but I *do* get a lot of dinner-prep out of the way earlier in the day, whenever I can - because I know that I won't have the time to do it at 5pm, when the baby wants to be in my arms and the older kids are hungry and getting tired and cranky. But I'm at home, and able to get it all done earlier - and to be honest, although I know that if I was out at work all day I *could* do the prep the evening before, most evenings I just don't have the energy, so I probably wouldn't.

rosieben

cw18 wrote: »

... But there are a fair number of people on there who buy organic / free-range and/or have veg boxes - and no-one gets shouted down for this. ...

I've never seen anyone criticised for buying organice etc either; in fact on some of the threads its been a positive thing to aim for

and I've never seen a thread asking for diabetic recipes - closed or otherwise? I'm off to have a look

mumto1_2

I never said I used to post on the grocery thread.

And yes, on various old threads I was told that what food I buy was too extravagant, and others as well.

rosieben

rosieben wrote: »

I've never seen anyone criticised for buying organice etc either; in fact on some of the threads its been a positive thing to aim for

and I've never seen a thread asking for diabetic recipes - closed or otherwise? I'm off to have a look

I found the diabetic thread, which is 4 or 5 merged threads dating from 2007 to 2009; there are no disparaging or judgemental remarks at all - it was closed because it strayed into the 'giving medical advice' issue which isnt allowed on MSE;

Gigervamp

Has everyone seen Martin's post about filming old style tips for a tv show he's doing?

rosieben

Can I direct you all to this thread - Martin is asking for help :money:
gigervamp beat me to it!

cw18

mumto1 wrote: »

I never said I used to post on the grocery thread.

And yes, on various old threads I was told that what food I buy was too extravagant, and others as well.

only reason I can think you'd have comments like that about your food bill would be if you're doing an SOA in an attempt to clear major debts/avoid going bankrupt - or asking how much would be allowed as you file to go bankrupt

geordie_joe

Gigervamp wrote: »

Has everyone seen Martin's post about filming old style tips for a tv show he's doing?

Yes but I'm a bit confused. He said he was doing it at 8.00pm on ITV1 tonight, but the ITV web site says Airline is on at that time. He also gave less than 2.5 hours notice, a bit short to knock up a TV programme when you don't even know if or who you will get to come along.

helyg

geordie_joe wrote: »

Yes but I'm a bit confused. He said he was doing it at 8.00pm on ITV1 tonight, but the ITV web site says Airline is on at that time. He also gave less than 2.5 hours notice, a bit short to knock up a TV programme when you don't even know if or who you will get to come along.

I took it to mean the Tonight programme, rather than it actually being on tonight. I would imagine they film it in advance.

geordie_joe

helyg wrote: »

I took it to mean the Tonight programme, rather than it actually being on tonight. I would imagine they film it in advance.

I think you are right, It was the next bit that threw me "(8pm between the coronation streets)" made it sound as that was when it was on, not when they would be filming it.

Maybe popping out between coronation streets to make a TV programme is normal for Martin.