Is frugal the new normal?

[Deleted User]

Islandmaid
<<<2 long red peppers>>>

My youngest DGS Mikey did "Food Tech" at senior school yesterday for the first time and on the list of things he had to take in was a red pepper.As my DD isn't keen on them I had a long sweet red pepper in my fridge as I do like them and they were on offer locally.

He came home yesterday afternoon with his 'cooking' the pepper was sent home with him as his teacher had said he needed a pepper not a chilli !!! Now I do know the difference between them and my pepper was a pepper as the other one I had partly used in an omelette
What sort of 'food tech ' are they teaching kids when the teacher doesn't know the difference .

By the way in the ingredients was a pot of yogurt a quarter of a cucumber and some chives.

This is what he came home with
one diced up cucumber
one quarter of a yellow pepper sliced into strips ('teacher had let him have some of someone elses)
I had given him some chopped chives from my freezer
In a small box he had tipped in the yogurt and chopped chives and mixed them together.
In a larger box he had the quartered up cucumber and the sliced pepper and that was his 'cooking .

It must have taken all of 10 minutes to do !!! if that.
No cooking at all.Which he was quite cross about as he loves to help me cook and he said it was a bit of a swizz as all he 'learned ' to do was chop up a cucumber and slice a half of a pepper Which he knew how to do anyway .

So much for teaching children to cook and there seems very little technology in doing what he did.

Next weeks lesson he has to take in
one spring onion (no chance of that as no one in the family likes,eats or buys spring onions)
one bagel
50gms cheddar cheese
one tablespoon of tomato ketchup (I have some sachets of tomato ketchup that he can take with him in his 'cookery box')
a half a table spoon of mixed herbs
on the 'menu' is a bagel pizza !!!:mad:

Thank goodness I have taught him how to make things.

Its a shame as he honestly thought there were going to be proper cookery lessons where he could learn to make different things.

I too treat my food stocks as a business and keep a list on the insides of each cupboard of whats available in store .At the moment I am running down my tinned stock and using up what I can this month to save me having to shop and make a bit of room.
My DGS Ben took a fair amount back to Uni in his 'Ben Box' which I top up with stuff for him to help eke his grant out;)

I managed to get five portions of veggie curry out of yesterdays slow cooked OAPs veggies from the fridge.I still have about half a dozen or so carrots in the fridge which will be transformed into carrot and coriander soup on Wednesday.
Every little helps :):)

moneyistooshorttomention

:rotfl:at the thought of those "Food Technology" lessons instead of cookery lessons Jackie:rotfl:

For those of us who don't have children/grandchildren at school and are still getting very confused in our heads about the thought of that as a subject - when we personally had proper cookery lessons

- could you tell us in more detail/give more examples of what they do in these Food Technology classes?

moneyistooshorttomention

NB; Re spring onions - I didn't think I liked them either (as I thought they were just something to use chopped up in salads).

However, I've found I can chop them up and substitute for ordinary onions in recipes. Also, I do like them as one of various ingredients in a stir-fry.

If you can find somewhere to pot up the root section of spring onions in the garden where birds cant get at them - then they will grow on into distinctly large onions. That is - large bulbs and long thick green stems and I've found both parts are distinctly tasty chopped up and sauted (maybe with a bit of tomatoes added for a quick cook at the end). You do have to protect them from the birds though - because they seem to like pulling them up.

fuddle

It must be school based then because in first year of middle school my DD baked both savory and sweet, made bread and assembled savory sides. She will be using geletin in her first lesson this term. I am very impressed with the diverse range of things my child has been making.

fuddle

Reminds me of when I said to eldest (11) to go find a recipe and make pizza for lunch as she had kiddie cookery books. I thought it would entertain her (and the youngest as an understudy). Off she starts and I just let her get on with it. When I popped my head in to check I found her with the flour on the bench working in the water. I said "you need a bowl kid" she said "no, Jamie Oliver doesn't use a bowl" :eek:

3 hours later we had lunch but by gosh it was lovely.

Kids don't need direction every step of the way if given the chance to just do it. They surprise

My two penneth.

elona

I had planned to spend today making a low fat lamb, spinach and potato curry (YS lean diced lamb) and to make a huge pot of chicken and veg soup with chicken thighs and getting on a bit veg.

I planned to freeze several portions for dd who has her own home but works very long hours and is studying as well.

I got a phone call from another DD last night who has just moved back up north with her DH about the job interview last week. I have been crossing fingers and toes for her as it is a good company and she deserves to be appreciated for all the extra unpaid work she does. She got the job!!!!!:j:j:j:j:j

She and SIL are coming here to celebrate tonight and he can't eat lamb so will either turn the cooked chicken into a small curry or offer YS sea bass and veg cooked in a foil parcel.

I have been used to cooking for six people, then four etc with the numbers dwindling as they leave home. I have decided to embrace the fact that I cook large meals and make sure things are freezable to either use for me or usually a DD.

suki1964

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I love making meals from 'leftovers' be that previously cooked meat that I can metamorphose into a sauce or the last half of a carrot laying wrinkled in the fridge draw. I'm often surprised at how acceptable the resulting meal turns out too! Wonder if it's both being Rainham Gals?

Mrs LW, I'm the same. Can't abide an over stocked fridge and I can't abide waste

Mum on the other hand is so very different

Me and hubby had to be out the other night so I said mum you will have to get your own tea.. She went mad because there was "nothing in". Yes I admit the fridge was bare looking but there was salady bits, cold meats, eggs, cheeses, milk. The freezer was full of hm frozen cottage pies, moussaka, there was fish, the larder was full of everything needed to spice up, add to or accompany. The garden has pots, carrots, parsnips , lettuce, scallions onions and cabbage

But for mum, unless it's from marks and Spencer's and in wee bags and packets there's nothing in the house to eat and a meal isn't a meal unless it's meat/ fish/ spuds and veg

I think mum is from the generation who was brought up with nothing, then done well later is life and now feels that she doesn't need to cut back on excess. Her attitude is 'I can afford it so why not?" Yes I too can afford it but I choose not to spend like it's going out of fashion. I like the challenge of feeding the three of us as healthily as possible without spending willy nilly.

This weeks meat choice was a gammon. Served roasted on Sunday with garden veg and a scallion sauce, last night it was served cold with bubble, an egg and pickles, tonight it's a quiche served with salad and spuds from the garden, hubby and mum both have had sandwiches for work from it and I'm making the soup from the stock today.. That was £5 well spent. Mum thinks two packets of 150gr cooked meat for £5 is a bargain

Makes me mad when she comes home with a bag of shopping from m&s that has cost £30 and there's nothing there to make a meal out of, yet I can feed all three of us on less then that a week

[Deleted User]

I love a good joint to work with SUKI, gammon is amazing because you can even find a use for the 'squeak'! even the last little scraps can be blitzed with some spices and butter and made into potted ham and the stock for soup and any jelly popped into mashed potato is amazing! It's something I do in the colder months more than the summer and best of all is a brisket joint done in the slow cooker which is melting hot, slices so thinly cold for sandwiches and salads, reheats in its own gravy and I like it best that way, more flavour than freshly cooked, chunks make a pie, curry, stew and the scraps make rissoles or potted beef so no waste and all enjoyment!!!

suki1964

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I love a good joint to work with SUKI, gammon is amazing because you can even find a use for the 'squeak'! even the last little scraps can be blitzed with some spices and butter and made into potted ham and the stock for soup and any jelly popped into mashed potato is amazing! It's something I do in the colder months more than the summer and best of all is a brisket joint done in the slow cooker which is melting hot, slices so thinly cold for sandwiches and salads, reheats in its own gravy and I like it best that way, more flavour than freshly cooked, chunks make a pie, curry, stew and the scraps make rissoles or potted beef so no waste and all enjoyment!!!

The brisket is for next week

I so love beef cooked like that. It's fool proof. So many times I've had beef in the past and it's been tasteless. Can't go wrong with brisket

Not saying I don't waste anything, but mum had one single left over cooked lamb chop in the fridge that she was giving to the dog. I had some stale bread, so rissoles it became lol. One lamb chop between two of us for lunch, curry spicing, served with rice and a cucumber ratia - was delish and she was none the wiser lolololol

[Deleted User]

suki1964 wrote: »

Mrs LW,
Mum on the other hand is so very different

But for mum, unless it's from marks and Spencer's and in wee bags and packets there's nothing in the house to eat and a meal isn't a meal unless it's meat/ fish/ spuds and veg

I think mum is from the generation who was brought up with nothing, then done well later is life and now feels that she doesn't need to cut back on excess. Her attitude is 'I can afford it so why not?"

sounds as though your mother has served her time so why can`t you quietly let her enjoy the fruit of her life`s work? I do so hate it when people think that their way is the only way and they harp on about it

I too am enjoying my food shopping but I am lucky in that my children completely understand. If I want it, I buy it, my money, I earned it. If I had a marks nearby then I too would come home laden with twee bags.

Sorry but your post riled me and I had to comment