Only 1 in 4 meals cooked from scratch....

cooking-mama

:rotfl:This posts reminds me of the furore caused when Queen Delia dared to produce a recipe book called "Delias how to cheat at cooking" recipes include Aunt Bessies frozen mash,Jus Rol frozen pastry,and various,tins,jars,n packets..even Jamie Oliver uses pataks pastes and ready made pastry cases in his 30min meals books..I think the ideal is having a happy balance,with plenty of fresh fruit n veg thrown in.

fuddle

A friend of mine from toddler group was telling me a story last year about her experience. She is a single mum of twins and found herself in council housing. Her 'friends' are her neighbours and sought to jibe her about how she's a snob and think she is better than them because she buys veg and salad items for her children. This upset her because she didn't understand that a person could be targeted in such a way.

I guess that it's lack of education for many or lack of vegetable experience that makes a person not be too aware of the balanced plate and 5 a day messages. These are women in their mid 20's-30's, my era. Vegetables and pulses are so alien to them. It's what posh people eat. Certainly food for thought and I feel it is down to lack of education. Was it the 80's when convenience foods came about? It would make sense. I was brought up on tatty hash as a kid and yearned for a McDonalds, never seemed to get though.(was that lack of money or good health?) But at least I got the message. I'm not a snob because I eat veg, I'm working class living in the same village as them, children at the same school etc but I have been educated that we should eat healthily. I think that is the difference and once again shows how our childhood effects how we live as adults.

Saying that - my favourite meal as a toddler I have been told was smash (that dried mashed potato) and hot dogs - so my mother was definately no super mum and I certainly wasn't a veg fiend

Yolina

That 1 to 4 ratio doesn't really surprise me TBH, many people just can't be bothered. I have to say that I can't stand ready meals, it's not so much about the cost but more what's in it and what it tastes like. Most of what I know about cooking comes from my grandparents and parents - nothing too fancy or fussy, just good food and I am *very* grateful for frozen veg - not having to do things such as shelling peas is great (and it's something I do remember having to do as a kid!)

And it's not just food though, I was on a couple of grabbit threads where people were after those pod espresso machines and for me that's the equivalent of chucking a ready meal in the microwave - you can't beat grinding beans and getting your espresso perfectly how you want it

Edit: in the US, pizza is now officially a vegetable :rotfl: which prompted some people to enquire whether pepper spray would be reclassified as condiment and agent orange as fruit...

Cat501

ah packets,that's another thing, if I can get packets of cheese sauce ultra cheap in poundland or somewhere, I'll always pick up a couple because quite frankly, I think they're nice, and even using extra mature cheddar I find I have to use a lot to get an equally cheesy taste making it from scratch!

tessie_bear

fuddle...my husband has rude comments made to him by workmates as he has fruit and salad with his packed lunch...they go and buy from the batch bar or takeaway....he tells them to go forth and notes with a smile on his face they are all the size of houses

cooking-mama

Cat501 wrote: »

ah packets,that's another thing, if I can get packets of cheese sauce ultra cheap in poundland or somewhere, I'll always pick up a couple because quite frankly, I think they're nice, and even using extra mature cheddar I find I have to use a lot to get an equally cheesy taste making it from scratch!

Someone else posted on the "£40 for a month thread" that adding mustard makes cheese sauce more cheesy,i had heard this before but never tried it because i didnt know what type of mustard to use,i agree with the price of cheese.HM.cheese sauce can work out very expensive(and lumpy in my case!)

k66yla

I've actually cooked from scratch today..........beef stew in the slow cooker followed by a slice of the gypsy tart I've just made for pudding tonight. Too be honest its very rare for me to cook a whole meal from scratch. By the time I get home from work the last thing I want to do is cook or do anything, too knackered! If it was'nt for microwaves & convienience foods I would've been toes up a long time ago.

Yolina

What I do is spend a whole weekend in the kitchen batch cooking a ton of stuff, then it all gets portioned off and in the freezer it goes so when I can't be bothered to cook I can just reheat that though I still haven't got a microwave - my kitchen isn't big and there's other stuff that I consider more important to have given the limited space

Owain_Moneysaver

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

but can you cook the same meal from scratch for that? If i do a chilli or a curry, I'm heading towards £50.. Granted there'll be enough to freeze but nowhere near the same amount as I'd get in 50 £1 ready meals.
When you cook from scratch you're more likely to use decent quality food rather than the cheap shite in the ready meals, which is why they're so cheap.

and they don't feed one at all. They're more like a starter!

The tinned ready meals are better value than the frozen or chilled.

You can get 3 tins of chilli con carne for £2 in the poundshop. Add your own rice (even I can cook rice - most of the time) and you have a large meal for 1 or a smaller meal for 2.

I know there's not a lot of meat in the tinned chilli but it tastes okay.

zcrat41

I don't mind the cooking so much - it's the washing up that kills me. The last thing I want to do with a full tum is stand by a sink for ages. OH also dries up so it's not as if I'm on my own.

yesterday, I cooked a starter, roast and 2 pudding meal for 6 people (admittedly there were also a lot of glasses used as it was a birthday celebration)...... ONE HOUR AND 15 MINS later, hubby and I finished washing up. And half of that (i.e. the posh dinner service) is still to go away tonight.

I probably cook 5 nights a week, out once and one meal of chicken, chips and beans as that is all OH is capable of cooking. But I do use a lot of tins and occasionally a few packets etc.

ZC