Great British Budget Menu-BBC

ALIBOBSY

I know there is a thread about the programme itself and I think most oldstylers aren't that impressed TBH :rotfl:.

BUT there is a list of low cost recipes that actually look pretty good here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b036x3pv


So wondered what people thought about these and if any are useful for a change to the usual standby recipes (we all have them lol).

The sausage and butter bean casserole with a herby crumb topping by TK sounds pretty good and easy to make.

Nice to see some top chefs actually doing some meals with more basic ingredients that are based on a low budget.

The basic storecupboard items are a good idea for someone just starting out and look like pretty much what we have in all the time-I'll bet most OS peeps have the same.

Ali x

RAS

I struggled to find the store cupboard file working from the recipe link http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/budgetmenu/gbbmstorecupboard.pdf

Although there is one menu that indicates that these are recipes for 4 people, there is nothing stating that anywhere else (I was hunting).

I would like to see calories per portion listed; I suspect that some of these recipes are relatively light on calories.

On the other hand the idea of using a whole small chicken for one meal only seems less than money saving to me (see rubber chicken)

I like the links to techniques. Just mindful of the comments from one MSEer who was never talk to cook, that when you have no knowledge you need showing a lot of very basic things.

honeythewitch

floss2 wrote: »

You can do this in Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and almost any market in the UK. And buying loose is almost always cheaper than pre-pack.

It depends where you live of course. Neither my local Asda or Tesco sell loose tomatoes and onions are usually cheaper in packs. (Sainsburys do. At the moment tomatoes are cheaper pre-packed, and onions cheaper loose)
All of the items could have been bought much cheaper in bulk, which illustrates how difficult it is without a freezer, storage space and enough money to budget in advance.

I thought the other Chef (Angela Hartnett?) cheated a bit when she asked for three different things to be put in the bowl at the market.

floss2 wrote: »

Maybe that's why he was only having half a tin of soup, so he could buy his baccy

The odd thing is that half a can is the recommended serving size on many soup cans.

RAS

I have not yet seen the programme but know from trying to do meal plans for singles that it is much harder for them to eat well on a low budget.

On a low income the storecupboad wipes out most of the budget particularly if this is combined the weekly or fortnightly income, limited storage and cooking facilities (the fuel bills for a fridge, freezer and running an oven for one meal at a time would be horrendous for a one or two person household but the same expenditure shared across a 5-6 person household is easier to find).

Small family units need to plan purchasing, storage and cooker use and accept less variety in their menus. Kale for example is relatively cheap but if you have to buy a whole bag and have a small household, you could struggle to eat it before it goes off unless you have recipes that use it frozen.

fairtrade

alfiesmum wrote: »

I have a Marguerite Patten cook book reprint somewehre, that would be interesting to work out!
QUOTE]

The Patten book is called Feeding the Nation.

The BBC did have a show in the 80s that gave lots of money saving advice and a couple of books were produced that may be of some use, authoured by Shirley Goode,
The Goode Kitchen - deals with family meal planning et.al.
Goode for One - is for the singleton on a budget.
Although the costings are now out of date the ethos behind these books still holds true today.

cod3

RAS wrote: »

I have not yet seen the programme but know from trying to do meal plans for singles that it is much harder for them to eat well on a low budget.

On a low income the storecupboad wipes out most of the budget particularly if this is combined the weekly or fortnightly income, limited storage and cooking facilities (the fuel bills for a fridge, freezer and running an oven for one meal at a time would be horrendous for a one or two person household but the same expenditure shared across a 5-6 person household is easier to find).

Small family units need to plan purchasing, storage and cooker use and accept less variety in their menus. Kale for example is relatively cheap but if you have to buy a whole bag and have a small household, you could struggle to eat it before it goes off unless you have recipes that use it frozen.

A fridge-freezer will be eating electricity regardless the family size. If I am making soups or stews, I always cook extra and freeze in single portions for microwaving later. No fancy tupperware here - just freezer bags, old margarine tubs and a felt pen.

As for last night's programme: when times are hard we wouldn't go within a mile of Waitrose. Luckily we have a nearby Aldi (veg, pulses and cheese) and Farmfoods (bread, milk and quorn).

Toonie

I think people are being rather unfair to what was a programme that wasn't designed for people who come on this board. We know where to come for advice, the very fact that we are on here shows we know how to use computers and know how to look for resources to help whether that be in our own home (online) or in a local library. The single mum and the pensioner in the film clearly didn't. Despite the fact that I know about food poverty (I live on the same as the pensioner per week but I know how to cook) I felt really moved by the programme. It was clear that the single mum had other issues and needed more help then she was getting. The pensioner clearly had no one to help him. He lived in a tiny sheltered housing unit and was on his own with no discernible cooking skills or long term storage space. What they needed was someone to come in and say "have you thought about doing this?" and that is what they did. The flaw in the programme for me was daily shopping as we all know it is generally cheaper to buy in bulk as you can stretch food over several days. I feel extremely lucky to live in a town in east London with a large market, various supermarkets and ethnic supermarkets which makes shopping around easy. If I want to buy one tomato I can pop to my local shop and spend 10p for a large beef tomato. In fact if it wasn't for the fact that I live where I do I wouldn't be able to afford to eat properly at all (and I have three jobs and still get paid a pittance).

Where people are being failed is in schools where food and home economics has only just come back to the curriculum and yet they still don't teach the right skills. Where is food and budget management? Where are the basic skills such as preparing vegetables/meat/pulses? The older generation also are being failed as quite often they don't know how to cook just for themselves. Widowers especially have it difficult if all their lives their wife has taken care of them. Where do they go from that?

ska_lover

Hi all

Did anyone else see this T.V programme?

It really opened my eyes to how poorly educated some people are - there were people trying to budget for a very low weekly shop (as are we ourselves on this board) but with little idea of how to do it at all, no idea of the value of nutrients in food

There is a single mother and her daughter living on a food budget of £28 per week who eat microwave burgers and other microwave crap all the time - both of them look very ill.

Not so long back our weekly food budget was between £7 and £10 per week for food and we ate far better than that, ..things like HM soups, poached eggs on toast, baked potatoes, stews that last for three days etc, lots of use of lentils and making things streeeetch out but basic stuff.

Tigsteroonie

One of the main problems seemed to be that they didn't 'meal plan' so each day was a new batch of food and an individual expense to buy it, instead of pooling the money across the week to buy appropriate ingredients that could do multiple days.

I wasn't impressed by the experts though - all three overspent the budget, and one decided to forego all the rules and splash out on salmon! The only time they stayed in budget was when they were catering for larger numbers. It would have been more impressive if they'd stayed within budget when cooking for just one household.

thriftwizard

Seems that what we need are less celebrity chefs and a few celebrity cooks instead!