Gregg Wallace programme on TV

Goldiegirl

Quite an interesting show last night.


The couple did meal planning..... but had the same weekly meal plan for 7 years!


There were three points that stood out for me.


From my perspective as a person who has to follow a low salt diet, it didn't seem very healthy with all the salt that was around. They were seasoning the fish with salt before cooking and putting salt in the pasta water. They did a sausage and pasta dish as a replacement to the chicken and pasta dish that the family normally have - sausages are higher in salt than chicken. The worse thing was that they ate three pizzas between the four of them - that's potentially a very large amount of salt, especially for the kids. Even back in the days when we bought a pizza from the supermarket we'd only have one between the two of us.


This time, the brand swops made me think about the branded goods that I still have.


There's three categories of branded goods that we have - the ones that are lower in salt, the ones we prefer, and the ones that we have a prejudice about.


The lower salt ones will stay, as that's my personal priority.


There are ones we prefer - like Kenco Decaf coffee. We've tried several alternatives, but we just prefer the Kenco, so that can stay.


But there's the other category that I will re-look at.


For example, Diet Coke. We think we only like Diet Coke. This goes back to the early 1980's when we had a soda stream, and the coke drink tasted really odd, and that led us to believe that Coca cola is the only brand we like. We don't drink much, just half a can each with lunch at the weekend, and always buy when we see a good offer. But I might try an own brand next time as an experiment.


Tea is another example. I have Sainsbury's decaf tea, but my husband still has PG Tips. I said to him would he try an own brand.... he looked a bit nervous, but he's going to have a go!


The other thing was the cod, cous cous and tomato salsa dish that Gregg cooked with the wife. I thought it looked rather nice, and might try a version of that myself.


Gregg was looking very pleased with himself and said it cost £3 a head.


Some might think this is a huge amount..... but it confirms what Fuddle has been saying, that, to eat for health and /or pleasure, costs money, rather than filling up with bulked out stuff, just for fuel.


As ever, the individual has to find their own preferred balance between cost and health.

Horizon81

It's a ground breaking programme. Spend less money on brands and you will save money. Revolutionary!

Stop buying bottled water and use the tap instead. Who knew?!

Buy veg as it comes instead of pre-cut and the extra cost of a knife will pay for itself in weeks. Cheers Gregg and the whatshisface geezer.

Cornucopia

Is it me, or has every "big shop" scene been filmed in either Tesco or Sainsbury's so far? Do none of the contestants shop in Waitrose, Morrissons, Asda, Lidl or Aldi? That seems odd.

The chap who isn't Greg Wallace is called Chris Bavin, BTW. Here he is with a really fake smile...

catkins

I really liked last night's family. They were keen to try all the different items and open to ideas.


The bit that surprised me was that they couldn't taste the difference between cod fish fingers and pollock fish fingers. They definitely do NOT taste the same. Me and OH have tried lots of fishfingers and you can definitely tell the cod ones from any others. Pollock has a definite taste (one which we don't like)

greent

catkins wrote: »

I really liked last night's family. They were keen to try all the different items and open to ideas.


The bit that surprised me was that they couldn't taste the difference between cod fish fingers and pollock fish fingers. They definitely do NOT taste the same. Me and OH have tried lots of fishfingers and you can definitely tell the cod ones from any others. Pollock has a definite taste (one which we don't like)

I agree with you about cod and Pollack. Also, Gregg said to her that if she liked cod then she'd like haddock..... not so in my case!!

VfM4meplse

catkins wrote: »

I really liked last night's family. They were keen to try all the different items and open to ideas.

I disliked the parents, I thought they were irresponsible, esp the mum. I thought the 6 yo was great though, he had more sense in his head than his 2 parents put together.

Although the kids didn't like the fishcakes, they liked the salmon so the experiment wasn't a complete disaster. I note that Greg isn't so preciously Masterchef-y on this show

missyrichards

catkins wrote: »

I really liked last night's family. They were keen to try all the different items and open to ideas.

I thought they were nice too and just stuck in a rut.

The part of the show that really makes me laugh is when they are sure that their usual foods have been changed and they are the same.:D

I think I must buy brands sometimes because of the packaging and maybe I should try some of the value brands more often. My husband is sure he likes branded spaghetti hoops and branded butter and I've tried to get cheaper versions and he says he can taste the difference but I'm not so fussy.:)

Butterfly_Brain

I couldn't believe she fed her family the same seven meals for seven years!
Their weekly shopping bill is my monthly budget:eek:

I loved their little boy though, and both children were willing to try different things. I did laugh when the husband was caught out on the museli, we love Aldi own brand one , it has much more fruit and nuts and not so sawdusty as Alpen

june89

That Alpen really did look horrible out of its box. :eek:

I enjoy the show. I record and watch later so can skip over the obvious marketing bits (like the blatantly paid for qu*rn factory tour!) but it's amusing to see the family reactions.

The only branded thing I will always buy is eating chocolate, because I haven't found a supermarket brand yet that I like. It's perfectly fine for baking though! And a few "free from" items that don't have a cheaper alternative. But aside from that, I've always been happy to give store and basic brands a try.

Oh, remembered we do use a branded non-bio laundry gel for clothes because of allergies. Just noticed online that our local supermarket does their own version now (they previously only had tablets, I like more control over the dose) so I will have to keep an eye out for that when we're running low.

dragonette

june89 wrote: »

Oh, remembered we do use a branded non-bio laundry gel for clothes because of allergies. Just noticed online that our local supermarket does their own version now (they previously only had tablets, I like more control over the dose) so I will have to keep an eye out for that when we're running low.

I find ecover works for allergic and sensitive scheme. Going to supermarket own brand wasn't something I've considered - thank you for the reminder