"Eat Well For Less?" - thoughts?

Islandmaid

Now your all gonna think that i,m poaching your thoughts, but I wrote this this morning intending to post, but got distracted with stuff...

I watched lasts nights episopde with interest, for me, taking away from their personal circumstances, it showed that the new generation of parents are confused by the 'sell by' use by' blah blah blah used by food manufacturers and retails now.

My kids are teens, and always ask if, for example, this salad is okay, as it 'went out of date' yesterday - I explain that it just doesn,t spontaniously combust at midnight, and that if it looks and smells okay, generally its fine.

I would love to see a programme, giving sensible advice to people that havn,t had the luck or help in defining how to store food, make simple food and the basics we all employ when planning, cooking and storing food.

I think this programme has missed a trick by focussing on 'branded food' and not the fundimentals of running a good kitchen.

This particular family presented as loving and well rounded, if a little niave but with their life being overtaken by their daughters illness, needed a guiding hand back to normality within the home/kitchen.

Just realised that my spelling is really bad - so apologies to those of a pedant disposition

Knit_Minion

I have noticed that on fresh packaged food that it states the product can be frozen but should be used within a month of purchase. This only seems to be a fairly recent addition so I tend to ignore it but I can see if you are young you may accept it as gospel.

I have found the series interesting. My shopping habits are not perfect, though not half as extravagant as the families in this series, but I work with people whose expenditure on food amazes me.

datlex

I've watched all three episodes. It was quite scary watching the stupidity of the latest woman, who was throwing out perfectly safe frozen food. It did amuse me that they bought a small amount of broccoli and then never used it all.


Obviously on here they are preaching to the converted, but most people won't be using the forums of a site like this, so any tips that helps "hard working people" are worth listening to. Watching these sort of programs remind us not to be complacent.


I thought it was a shame they only got them to try one alternative to the various products, or at least that is how it seemed on the program. Now obviously they needed to have a blind test to not be influenced by packaging. However, I think it might have been better to get them to try a range over a month period so that they then choose the nicest from their own perspective. We all know that for different products sometimes we like value best (for example I personally prefer Tesco Value spaghetti hoops to Heinz spaghetti taste wise), for other products it will be the brand leader or premium brand we prefer and still others it is a brand in between price wise.


I did think the frozen strawberries looked interesting, but I am puzzled as to how they defrosted them with out them going soggy. I've tried frozen rapsberries and they don't defrost very well to use in fruit salad or just eat on their own.


I was amused at the earlier comments asking who Greg Wallace is, I presume that was tongue in cheek given the popularity of master chef.

safestored4

I too didn't have the faintest idea who Greg Wallace is until I read this thread. I don't think previous comments along these lines were tongue in cheek. The viewing figures for Masterchef are around 4 million which leaves 56 million or so of us in the country with no interest in the endless reality cookery shows on the BBC.

meritaten

I too sympathise with the family featured - but think the format of the show could be improved.
there isn't enough emphasis on 'fresh' foods and cutting down processed 'junk'. to me they just replace one processed meal with another 'cheaper' one. and Greg Wallace should be ashamed of himself! he KNOWS the difference between 'good' food and 'junk'! and he SHOULD know the importance of fresh fruit and veg! its not coming across in this series. (is that down to the editing I wonder? as the beeb seem to be dumbing down to appeal to the masses).

Sue14

Greenqueen wrote: »

The programme makers missed a glaring opportunity to educate this young mum and all the viewers about the difference between use by/ sell by dates.

I could have screamed when we saw her throwing away broccoli and carrots which looked perfect. :mad:

I couldn't believe that either, I've eaten veg that looked worse than that, lol!

I agree that there should be more education on what these dates really mean, although I must admit that I have in the past adhered to best before dates, and thrown away perfectly good food . I'm happy to say that I don't do that anymore, but I'm especially annoyed about the amount of food and money I've wasted, because I'm old enough to know that BB and use by dates didn't exist for previous generations. I now use my senses (most importantly common sense), to tell if the food is safe to eat, and have eaten things way beyond their BB dates. We've just finished the last of a loaf of bread, that OH bought for 34p on it's BB date a week ago (and he got 10% staff discount off that, lol), and there was nothing wrong with it.

ash28

meritaten wrote: »

I too sympathise with the family featured - but think the format of the show could be improved.
there isn't enough emphasis on 'fresh' foods and cutting down processed 'junk'. to me they just replace one processed meal with another 'cheaper' one. and Greg Wallace should be ashamed of himself! he KNOWS the difference between 'good' food and 'junk'! and he SHOULD know the importance of fresh fruit and veg! its not coming across in this series. (is that down to the editing I wonder? as the beeb seem to be dumbing down to appeal to the masses).

This weeks family had loads of fresh fruit and veg the presenters commented on the amount they had. However, they seemed to throw a lot of it out if it wasn't used by the sell by/use by date.

They were advised to stop buying ready prepared and buy whole fruits and salad veg.

And to be honest it doesn't matter if the fruit and veg is fresh or frozen the nutrional value is the same, in fact it's often better in frozen because it is frozen when it is very fresh and doesn't deteriorate. And they did get them to use frozen brocolli and frozen fruit to save on waste.

She didn't seem very happy about keeping stuff in the freezer for longer than about a month and that's down to ignorance, they did try to get her to change and keep things for about 6 months but she wasn't happy. They eventually agreed on 3 months, which is step in the right direction.

I have to say I was guilty of using sell by/use by dates too. If it was a day passed it's sell by date out it went and what makes it worse is that I was brought up in the days when there was no sell by date and in fact very little prepackaged meats or cheeses. And I still did it. And I'm another one who shudders when I think of all the perfectly good food I've thrown out over the years.

Linda32

Do we the customer ever actually see sell by dates? I thought they were for the staff. For example, red chocolate love hearts need to be sold by 14th February. Nothing to do with food safety.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Jumps up, checks butter for pan to do the four egg scrambled this morn. Oh no, butter is dated December, 2014. Fired up nicel. Hope the punters leave some choccies this day, as is BoP's 28th Wed Anni on 28th!

mumto2monkeys_2

lessonlearned wrote: »

At the time of filming they said that Sofia had 1 more year of treatment to go. They didn't specify what kind of treatment. .

She will still be on chemotherapy. My DD had leukaemia (finished treatment nearly 2 years ago). They have intensive chemo in the first year then maintenance chemo for girls for another 1 and a bit years - takes 2.4 years of chemo all in. Boys have an extra year because it hides in testicles.

They have steroids throughout treatment for a week and chemo tablets each day.

Steroids plays havoc with diet. Children seem to crave rich, salty foods. The kitchen in the children's cancer ward was always full of cheese strings, doritos and fromage frais! We had access to nutritionists throughout and obviously the doctors and were always told to give them whatever they would eat. Eating is better than not eating and results in a feeding tube.

The whole thing is horrendous and I was impressed how well their daughter appeared to be doing, as well as how they were as a family. Have a child with leukemia is a long, slow, traumatising process.

Still have no idea how they were managing to spend that much on food though!