eat well for less?

dronid

-taff wrote: »

Oops, I'm on the wrong programme

You are indeed - though that one was better than this one. I tuned in hoping for some interesting ideas and instead had Gregg Wallace essentially saying NO - You can't eat well for less!

Greg did a fish and chips that most of us wouldn't get in a chip shop with line caught cod with beer batter and triple fried chips in duck fat. Chris Bavin did us frozen cod in packet mix batter with oven chips. Oddly the expensive fish and chips won but is anyone suprised? There was no inteligent input into the show.

Chris Bavin didn't try to create anything like the expensive one but cheaper. It felt very like well off people telling poorer people that they shouldn't compromise and if they couldn't afford the expensive stuff just have gruel.

It really lacked any kind of creativity. Given Greg's extravagance I would prefer him to come up with cheaper solutions that were good rather than cry "Impossible".

And the various taste tests were random and not terribly helpful. It just feels like someone in the Beeb threw some money at the presenters and asked if they could keep the plebs in their place.:mad:

fairtrade

Could this be merged with the eat well for less? thread as they both cover the same subject.

maman

Why is it that no TV channel seems to want to tackle the ordinary issues for ordinary people?

This programme was nothing short of rubbish. Two grown men acting up to each other and the camera. Sort of like Top Gear with Food!

It just occurred to me though that considering that in gastropubs you tend to get about half a dozen chips, in a napkin lined little bucket these days, maybe I could afford to eat for less by having weenie portions! Like this:

peachyprice

What is it with this trend of setting chips up like Jenga blocks.

Florenceem

Dinner was HM Egg/Bacon Pie + HM wedges + Salad - tomato/celery/lettuce/onion/pepper tossed in Balsamic Vinegar.
I used 1 stick celery - 7p + 1 tomato - 9p + 1/2 pepper - 9p + red onion - 6p + lettuce - 7p. Balsamic Vinegar was bought when on offer at Lid. for 49p bottle. I made the Shortcrust Pastry for the pie. I used 2 medium potatoes for the wedges.
Total dinner cost for 2 - £1.36. This is a filling meal.
There is enough salad left for one portion for Mr F at lunch time tomorrow.
While cooking dinner - made a Rhubarb Crumble. Was given the Rhubarb which I MW for a couple of minutes. I had a small bag of Crumble mix in the freezer - not enough so quickly forked some soft marge into flour and there was enough for the dish.
We don't eat puddings but this is a good filling afters for a family.
We will have crumble + custard for breakfast - my way of having calcium. So cost of breakfast for 2 - 44p.
So breakfast + dinner costs - £1.80 for 2 of us. In the TV programme the other evening - I think they had £1.66 each a day to live on. A HM Muffin/slice of cake for mid morning break - 30p for 2 so we are up to £2.10. Then a Banana each for afternoon snack - 30p so now up to £2.40.
Lunch can be HM Soup + HM Bread or beans on HM Bread - cost 40p so total goes up to £2.80.
I can tell you - you are not hungry eating HM food.

fairtrade

Florenceem wrote: »

Dinner was HM Egg/Bacon Pie + HM wedges + Salad - tomato/celery/lettuce/onion/pepper tossed in Balsamic Vinegar.
I used 1 stick celery - 7p + 1 tomato - 9p + 1/2 pepper - 9p + red onion - 6p + lettuce - 7p. Balsamic Vinegar was bought when on offer at Lid. for 49p bottle. I made the Shortcrust Pastry for the pie. I used 2 medium potatoes for the wedges.
Total dinner cost for 2 - £1.36. This is a filling meal.
There is enough salad left for one portion for Mr F at lunch time tomorrow.

This is exactly the type of thing you would expect from the programme title - sadly it is not what was shown.

Florenceem

fairtrade wrote: »

This is exactly the type of thing you would expect from the programme title - sadly it is not what was shown.

They wanted a competition type show between the celeb cooks not how to actually help folk in these hard times.
Then they gave the people on the show - some store cupboard stuff and left them to it.
Shame on you - BBC.

salgoud

This was by far the dumbest show I've seen in a while. Not only was the chap who wasn't Gregg Wallace immensely annoying, but the whole show was such a waste of time.

What's the point of comparing ready-made oven chips with triple-fried duck fat ones? Are we supposed to be surprised that the former tastes better? Surely they should at least use the same cooking method? Otherwise the other chap may as well have boiled his cod, served it with oven chips, and thrown curry sauce all over it. It's a different dish!

Far more interesting would have been if the other chap had used the cheapest spuds he could get to make his own chips, and made his own basic batter.

This show wasn't about eating well for less in the end - instead, all it did was show you that putting more thought and effort into your cooking makes for a better meal. Big surprise there.

I also agree with everyone who was disappointed about the fact that they focused 100% on taste and not at all on nutritional value. Then again, fish & chips isn't exactly the most balanced meal in the world to start with.