Eat Well For Less Series 3

catkins

I liked this week's family and could understand, to an extent, that they felt restricted by the husband's intolerance.

I do agree with other posters though that surely in 6 years they could have looked into it and googled recipes, foods etc. I couldn't eat just salad for 6 weeks let alone 6 years.

I also was amazed that she said she had never cooked a roast dinner from scratch - always using ready cooker chicken, frozen roast potatoes, yorkshires etc. Home made is just so so much tastier. I couldn't quite understand the logic of frozen jacket potatoes either

wort

I watched this week as I'm coeliac, and found it ridiculous what the wife was doing. She obviously could cook so why had she not looked up recipes that are naturally gluten free. As someone else posted it's easy at home it's eating out that's more of a problem. I was quite concerned that they bought a cooked chicken in asda which is definitely Not gluten free! But it wasn't mentioned that they could ask for dietary advice sheets in supermarket. Also the husband should have had a dietician appointment when he was diagnosed. This programme could be so much better if the families and viewers were given more advice on how to use the fresh items they buy rather than buying convenience foods.

candygirl

catkins wrote: »

I liked this week's family and could understand, to an extent, that they felt restricted by the husband's intolerance.

I do agree with other posters though that surely in 6 years they could have looked into it and googled recipes, foods etc. I couldn't eat just salad for 6 weeks let alone 6 years.

I also was amazed that she said she had never cooked a roast dinner from scratch - always using ready cooker chicken, frozen roast potatoes, yorkshires etc. Home made is just so so much tastier. I couldn't quite understand the logic of frozen jacket potatoes either

Frozen jackets is sheer laziness.Nothing better than an oven baked spud

VfM4meplse

candygirl wrote: »

Frozen jackets is sheer laziness.

In that sense I agree, frozen jackets are a tax on the lazy and rightly so.

june89

I've bought frozen jackets a couple of times, only ever when on offer for around the same price as loose potatoes - I wasn't using enough of them to get them cheaper in bulk. For me it wasn't laziness but more that I rarely have the oven on for that long (only do a roast dinner maybe once or twice a year - not worth the effort for two of us) so it seemed more wasteful to do that just for a jacket potato. Now that I have a convection microwave though, I use that and they're done in 15 minutes and lovely.

I liked this episode, although it annoyed me that they kept switching between gluten and wheat when talking about what to avoid. They could have taken an extra minute to explain it better, especially with the presenter's wife being coeliac as well so he'd be well aware they're not the same thing.

maman

wort wrote: »

I watched this week as I'm coeliac, and found it ridiculous what the wife was doing. She obviously could cook so why had she not looked up recipes that are naturally gluten free. As someone else posted it's easy at home it's eating out that's more of a problem. I was quite concerned that they bought a cooked chicken in asda which is definitely Not gluten free! But it wasn't mentioned that they could ask for dietary advice sheets in supermarket. Also the husband should have had a dietician appointment when he was diagnosed. This programme could be so much better if the families and viewers were given more advice on how to use the fresh items they buy rather than buying convenience foods.

Thanks. It's good to have the opinion of someone who is coeliac.:) I thought it was me being harsh.


It seemed quite unbelievable that he'd eaten salads for 6 years when he could have easily eaten almost all the meals I cook. He could eat here and all I'd need to change would be pasta. I always make my gravy with cornflour because I like the smooth, shiny finish. I choose not to have stuffing and yorkshires because I don't want the extra calories. If he thinks that the gluten free bread is like cardboard then why bother?


What irritated me though was the way some of the presenters talked about glu*en rather than gluten. There's an advert on with Fern Britton (or should I say Bri**on) about frozen ready meals and she does it all the time.:mad: I'm easily annoyed.:D

Spendless

I've had this series on link record and hadn't got round to watching. I watched the first episode yesterday so I am very much behind the chatter on here.

I liked the first episode, it was possibly the closest to my own circs, though I don't buy already chopped stuff. My 13yo DD became vegetarian earlier this year. This coincided with me returning to full time work after 6 months job hunting, DS taking his GCSE's and the oven breaking. As such, plus DD has always been more 'picky' I hadn't given her new diet a huge level of thought or effort.

Sometimes I picked up cartons of soup for me. Yes, I know it can be made for pennies from scratch, but sometimes when I'm shopping and fancy some later all I want to do is take the lid off, heat and eat. DS sometimes has shared it with me. I had fallen into the trap of believing fresh soup was well 'fresher'. Both kids watched the programme with me, when it got to the soup DS said he thought fresh had 'better' (he means more variety) flavours. I've realised they don't. I just buy 'fancier' flavours in cartons and stick to the basics of tomato and chicken in cans. This is something I'm going to change, so there's always an appealing tin of soup in for whenever anyone fancies one.

Me and DH were going out last night and leaving the kids in. DD had mentioned fancying vegetable spring rolls and also told me how much she liked a veg that she'd had from a Chinese take-away. This turned out to be bean-sprouts! A trip to the nearby Tesco and I found YS spinach, spring rolls and noodles. Back home stir frying a chicken breast for DD and a Quorn fillet for DD with the onion, pepper and tomato I already had in. Yes, I used a jar of sauce I already had one in and we were going out. Kids loved it. DD said it was the 2nd best veggie meal she'd had (the 1st was in a hotel on hol) and she felt like she'd actually eaten a Chinese meal.

Today we've gone to Ikea to buy some much needed bedroom furniture. On our return DD tells us she's made 'macaroni cheese' from scratch! It's not quite macaroni as she used the penne pasta we had in and she did inform us that 'it hasn't got any cheese in it because we didn't have any in' :rotfl: but when we asked how she made it she said with flour and milk and butter. I googled it. Considering she's never done anything like this before and only last week she was trying to open a can of macaroni cheese with the corkscrew instead of the tin opener (yes, truthfully!) I think she has been inspired a long way. We sent her to the shops with some money to buy the cheese to add.

I know people think they show people who have extravagant budgets and when they're cut they're still high, but they're making a program to appeal to the masses not a program about how thrifty can you be. Plenty will be staged and edited.

Looking forward to catching up on the rest. :beer:

[Deleted User]

Last episode in the series is on at 9pm tonight. Heaven knows why the good old beeb has messed this series around as much as it has.

suki1964

drinkupretty wrote: »

Last episode in the series is on at 9pm tonight. Heaven knows why the good old beeb has messed this series around as much as it has.

Blame brexit

Seriously I think it was the Olympic coverage that messed their schedules up. I had to do without doctors for near on 3 months :eek:

VfM4meplse

Seems I'm just in time!

Erline is a young grandmother...it would surprise me if she's 40! But she does seem to have common sense,