Can't believe the "food" you can buy now

jordylass

Eliza252 wrote:

Also, Has anyone seen those Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 'Willy Wonka Chocolate Bars' ? A merchandising spin-off from the film.
Anyway, there is one called 'Nutty Surprise' well guess what the surprise is.......(cross my heart this is the truth!) - ........it contains NO NUTS! woo hoo! Surprise! your chocolate bar contains a freakish selection of artificial flavourings and other nasty chemicals - what a gift! I had hysterics for about half an hour after I read that one!
:rotfl:

This made me wet myself cos it's something I say quite a lot to the kids but I hadn't seen the bars.
I'll offer them a sandwich for lunch and middle daughter will say can I have a prawn sandwich, yeh, say I, it's prawn surprise.

billieboy_2

I used to make my own bread for years but when my OH and I started a business from home I stopped. Yesterday I acquired my first breadmaker and made my first loaf (a granary). It's soooo good! My student daughter who goes back to uni tomorrow left me a note saying "can I take a loaf of hm bread back with me". When I asked her if she wanted to take any of the shop bought stuff that was in the freezer she didn't want it. I can't see me buying any more now especially when you look at the ingredients compared to what you put in the hm. My kids thank me now for bringing them up on good food. It wasn't difficult - I always mashed up whatever we were eating and there was hardly anything they wouldn't eat.

PS Well done for Jamie Oliver for his campaigning which has finally paid off! :T :T :T

calleyw

bargainqueen wrote:

However Ready Steady Cook is a con as having been in the audience myself it actually takes hours. What you don't see on telly is how one thing gets stuck in the oven but a ready one is already in there, some things are ready chopped beforehand, etc etc. So although they are fairly speedy meals, even the chefs can't make them in 20 minutes!

Even if the 20 mins is a con (which is not a surprise to me if it was)for how many things they are making in one go. If you choose one of the items that they have cooked it should take you no more than about 20-30 mins.

I mentioned RSC as a concept to get quick and tasty ideas from. Meals don't need to take hours to make. Which is the argument that people who use ready meals use. I don't own a microwave never have and never will. So I would have to use an oven to cook the ready meal. And they take 20-30 mins. So to me there is no time saving in ready meals.

Yours

Calley

Austin_Allegro

My main reason for disliking convenience foods can be summed up in the line from the film 'Fight Club': 'we work jobs we hate to buy crap we don't need'. It's all part of the vicious cycle of modern society - work more to buy more things to save time to enable you to work more to buy more...etc.

I agree that convenience food MIGHT be a blessing for elderly/disabled people, but I'll bet most of them could use natural alternatives if they tried. There are so many additives in convenience foods (esp salt) that are probably not good for people, especially the elderly.

skintchick

I have to back up about getting in late though. The reply mentioned a husband getting in at 5.30/6! Lucky him!

When I worked in London, I left the house at 7.15am, and got home at 8.30pm at the very earliest, and often more like 9.30pm.

There was NO WAY I was then going to cook - I was knackered, I needed to be asleep half an hour ago, I could barely stand up.

Now, I work nearer home, and still don't get home till 7pm.

Who on earth does a full-time job and gets home at 5.30?!?!?!?!?

Sometimes, ready-meals are very useful. But we should try not to rely on them.

Oh, and to those who say cook at weekends and freeze it - when you work those kinds of hours, you spend all weekend doing cleaning, washing, ironing, food shopping, DIY and have no time to cook!

Which is why I had to give it up.

Cheapskate

I have to confess to buying ready-made Yorks puds & puff pastry, cos I've never been able to make them, but hardly anything else, unless you count fish or veggie fingers. I always make my own pizza - even son's fussy friends have had 2nds! 9 times out of 10 I make my own soup. Like most folks, I keep a couple of cans of good soup/tinned pasta for emergencies, but they can often be there for months.
13 yr old son sometimes asks for lunchables etc, knows I won't buy them, I think it's just so he can say 'you never buy', but he knows why & he has admitted that they taste rubbish. When he has a packed lunch, sometimes it's sandwiches, or things leftover from tea that he can have cold - pizza, cornish pasties, cheese & onion tart etc - carton of fruit juice, etc. He likes tinned fruit, but rather than buying those Del Monte things (about 90p to £1) I put 1/2 tin of fruit in tupperware tub, rest for next day - 1 tin fruit cocktail about 45p, so works out 1/4 of cost of prepacked.
I bake a lot, especially in autumn/winter, so there's usually buns, flapjack, etc, to add to packups & for suppers/snacks - with a lot less sugar/fat, no complicated ingredients.
I do have a microwave, but use it mostly for reheating meals if one of us has missed tea, or for cooking veg for 1 person. Also find it handy for zapping stale scones or buns - 5 to 10 seconds renders them almost warm & a lot fresher!
I'm 37 & grew up with a stay-at-home mum who cooked all sorts of things & we learned to bake, cook meat & exotic dishes quite young. There was little money & she often coked proper vegetarian stuff cos it was a lot cheaper.
I've been married since I was 18, & have always fed OH & kids well, even when we'd little money or time - it can be done it you have the inclination, although I have given in from time to time, not perfect after all. I'm trying to change my job, which will mean more time at home, but less money, so I'll be going back to being more creative with food/money - good job this website & forum are here for help!!
Have a good weekend, old stylers.

beachbeth

My sister-in-law always buys a tin of ready made chilli to make. But by the time you've fried the onions, mince etc I keep telling her its just as easy to then add stock, tin of tomatoes and all the herbs rather than the tin and it tastes so much better. You can also make it as hot or mild as you like too!

The packets of dried sauces such as bolognese and shepherds pie always make me laugh too. The instructions always say to fry the onions, mince, add stock etc and then the contents of the packet. So whats in the packet then, a few herbs!!!

I always make sauces from scratch because it really doesn't take that much doing and it always tastes so superior. I always make my own Yorkshires (according to Delia's recipe) and gravy using powder rather than instant granules. However, one concession I have is to use ready made Yorkshires during the week when I want to do a quick dinner or only one or two of us want a yorkshire on our dinners.

toozie_2

Very proud of my 16 year old daughter tonight, she made us all HM Chicken Tikka Masala and pilau rice. Using fresh onions, garlic, natural yogurt, ginger, tomatoes, chicken and all the spices.
Tasted fab, and there was some left to freeze :j

Trow

skintchick wrote:

Who on earth does a full-time job and gets home at 5.30?!?!?!?!?

Plenty of people who do the sensible (but not always practical/financially possible) thing of living close to where they work.

Many jobs are 9-5 or 8-5, and I would usually get home at 5.30 if I left work at 5. What a peculiar question!

Ticklemouse

beachbeth wrote:

The packets of dried sauces such as bolognese and shepherds pie always make me laugh too. The instructions always say to fry the onions, mince, add stock etc and then the contents of the packet. So whats in the packet then, a few herbs!!!

Don't forget the MSg, artificial flavourings, e numbers, salt etc etc.

LOL - my MIL uses these (yuk) I once made a spag bol for everyone when we were staying at her house. I knew she used these things so decided to show her just what a proper bol sauce tasted like. Simmered it for hours so it was lovely and thick and rich. Just before we were ready to eat she opened one of these packets and bunged it in, telling me they made it taste lovely!! Funnily enough, my DS1 who was about 2, refused to eat it, telling nana it tasted horrid:D As an adult, I was forced to endure this MSG ruined meal and smile as I swallowed it