What has happened to people cooking!

morganb

I know this is a little bit off-topic but ... I was quite shocked today at a party to hear a number of Mums saying that they didn't eat with their children during the week, just at the weekend, because it is too difficult to do. These are Mums of 5 year olds! How are we going to get our kids eating sensibly and cooking in the kitchen if we don't model good eating habits ... and one of the best ways of doing that is by eating together! It's relatively straightforward to prep a meal the night before; for example, tomorrow we are having pork and pasta soup, so during Corrie tonight I will chop it all up, cook it through and then stick it in the oven on timer cook tomorrow so that it's ready for when DS1 and 2 get back from Tea-time club. I'll also set aside a portion or two for DS1 to have at school in his Stanley flask on Wednesday, so that at least he's had something substantial before his swimming lesson. Maybe I'm lucky in that I only work 3 days a week, but when I was working longer hours I was still doing this. I think it's really important to eat with your children.

Life has just been made infinitely easier in this house, though, as DS1 (who went through a very fussy 2 years) will happily now eat omelette. I did imply it came out of his party bag, though ...

Kelinik

I'm a Mum of a 5 yr old and we don't eat with the kids during the week, they eat at 5, go in the bath around 6 and are in bed by 7 (eldest gets to read for half an hour) which is roughly when hubby gets home so one meal time for all of us just isn't practical! They eat the same food as us just a day behind and we eat together at weekends, both have good table manners and eat just about anything - don't see the problem myself?

maryb

anyone looking at my trolley would think I never eat any fresh food because i get meat from the butcher, fruit and veg from market/stalls and eggs from a local smallholding. So in the foodline it tends to be stuff like dairy that I get from supermarket (we're right at the end of our milkman's round and even in winter the milk was often sour by the time it got to us). I must look like a heart attack waiting to happen (I have low blood pressure and low cholesterol in fact)

However, speaking as one whose middle age is spreading I think (well I like to think) you can tell the difference between someone who is getting a bit plump but who eats well and pasty faced women and children who show that they live on junk food. And if I see someone like that whose children just don't look healthy and they've got a trolley full of expensive rubbish (so they're obviously not short of money) then yes, I do get (privately) judgemental. Then again I can see how mums living on benefit don't dare to experiment with home cooking if they don't know how because they just can't afford to waste food - it was bad news when schools stopped teachng proper cooking

lady_fuschia

My point being when you are on your own or maybe working long hours etc, it can look like a good option, especially as there always seem to be loads in the reduced section.

It can true. My OH works odd hours so I often eat on my own during the week - I still try to avoid ready meals (bar the odd frozen pizza). I actually like cooking, but hate the washing up that comes with it so I've developed loads of one-pot cook from scratch meals for my eat alone nights - soups are my favourite. Homemade tomato soup if you use tinned toms is so quick and easy it's probably quicker than a ready meal.

I think maybe a lot of people whose only experience of cooking is from TV, or Sunday roast at grandma's don't realise that cooking from scratch isn't necessarily a complicated long winded process. I showed one of my friends recently how to make my favourite pasta bake and she was astonished by how simple it was.
We just need to spread the word, that's all!

yellowmonkey

Hi

I have used so many of her products in the past i was going to change my name by deed poll to Uncle Bessie :rotfl: :rotfl:

No more. Due to the inspiration i have found on this site i now have a HM chicken casserole in the oven:T

No More ready meals for me.

ym

Sweet_Pea_2

My mum is 75 and all of her food is ready made, mash and veg included, when she is not eating out, that is!
When I was growing up all of our meals were cooked from scratch and we never had ready meals, (apart from fish n chips)
I think this was a combination of things really, ready meals were not as available as they are now, (and Im 37, so Im not going that far back) as microwaves were not around then, so if you had a ready meal it was of the yucky boil in the bag variety.
Also, it was for reasons of economy, my parents divorced when I was 12, so mum was on a tight budget.
Now she only has to cook for herself, and has more money to spend (and a microwave) she freely admits, she hates cooking, (plus to be honest she's not very good, her meals are of the very plain traditional variety) and she cant be bothered.
Im forever trying to encourage her to cook more, as its fairly simple just for one, and she does have health problems which mean she should be careful with what she eats, but I can see its no use.
99.9% of my own family meals are from scratch though.

I also think that if the government are commited to improving our nations diets they need to bring back the good old fashioned home ec class and start from scratch for the generation growing up now.
Also in my job I see a lot of families living on benefit who claim that they cant afford to eat "proper" meals as with stores such as Farmfoods etc and their "deals" this works out cheaper. I know from experience that the reverse is true, but a lot of these families simply have no idea of the way to start eating from scratch, perhaps Martin could get an "Old Style" cookery TV programme in the pipeline to demonstrate everything on the Old Style thread. (Perhaps it could replace Jeremy Kyle!)

debtworrier

mto wrote: »

We have a microwave at work and a Tesco Metro next door and probably 80% of the people i work with have either a microwave ready meal for lunch or buy a sandwich from Tesco. I mean how hard is it to make your own sandwiches or cook a bit extra the evening before and have left-overs . The worst offenders always seem to be those that complain they never have enough money as well - no wonder :rolleyes:

For me the change has been that I no longer live so far away from work that I have to leave at some sparrow-forsaken hour in the morning but can now wake up enough to be safe using a knife. By the time I've fed myself in the evening I'm too bushed to make sandwiches.

debtworrier

Mrs_Flittersnoop wrote: »

Oh and I have two sisters, we were all brought up together, but one lives on champagne and frozen vegetables and the other will only cook pasta :rolleyes: - they love coming to Chez Flittersnoop though for a good feed :rotfl:

Sounds fabulous! (Visions of a suave tuxedoed Sean Connery with frozen sprouts bobbing in his martini.)

GreenNinja

Cracking idea Sweet Pea, lets hope somebody sees your comment that can take this idea further.

Having no kids I didn't even realise they didn't teach home econ at school anymore. I did it and I can honestly say it was a really good starting point in that whole learning to cook and be interested in cooking scenario.

They should definitely bring it back.

lady_fuschia

Like many others I buy certain things from certain shops, my trolley must look very odd at times!

When I was at college one of my friends had a Saturday job in Tesco and she said one day a man came through the check-out with a packet of condoms, a tube of bonjela and an avocado.

I'm still trying to figure that one out...