General Chat

We always watch 'Eat Well For Less', mostly so we can look smug!

There was a recipe on there last week that looked a bit tasty and saved the people a load of dosh so I gave it a go.

Yes,it was delicious but it wasn't half expensive.

Do the words 'cheap' and 'skate' come readily together in your mind?

Not in mine, cheap = economy and skate is something you do on an ice rink or with roller skates. :-D

It makes you wonder just how much the meal people were eating before cost :-S

I don't usually watch cookery programs but years ago when I was laid up and off work with a snapped achilles' tendon, I took to watching Delia on an afternoon. It was comforting even though she seemed a bit schoolmarmish.

Now I watch Nigella as I enjoy her glitzy lights and jazz music.

Yes, I know she operates out of a wherever that is not her own kitchen and that she has others around helping out and preparing no doubt but I have become a sucker for that feel-good factor. :-D <3

I actually like Masterchef.

I like Masterchef too as it has given me ideas for a few recipes over the years.


Florence in the hebrides

Masterchef and the like, don’t cook proper food in my opinion, it’s definitely not cheap and is more like a pattern on the plate.

But 'Eat Well For Less' is not really just a cooking programme. It shows families with huge shopping bills and trains then to save money.

Because most of them eat pre-prepared and processed food, it shows them fairly simple ways to cook fresh and cheaper food and introduces them to cheaper brands.

But 'Eat Well For Less' is not really just a cooking programme. It shows families with huge shopping bills and trains then to save money.

Because most of them eat pre-prepared and processed food, it shows them fairly simple ways to cook fresh and cheaper food and introduces them to cheaper brands.

Some families are fixed on buying well known brands, but the programme often shows that they can't always tell their usual brands from swops.

There are often a lot of snacks in their shopping too, but more thoughtful healthier meals would sometimes eliminate the need for many of them.

And don't they chuck a lot away too?

The throwing away is often extreme.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with most of the binned food.

We have waste food bins here, collected weekly by the bin men.
Sometimes we go weeks without putting our bin out.
Admittedly we have a compost bin in the garden, so eg. outside cabbage leaves would go in there, but if any veg. is not salad fresh in the fridge, it gets put in a casserole or soup, not in the bin.
We waste very little.

And yet, we still survive!

Since I haven't been working, I find myself buying a whole, small chicken (cheaper than chicken pieces) removing the legs,, and freezing them. These are eaten later - one per meal.
Then I roast the rest of the chicken, have one breast hot, the other cold the next day, and save any meat left over.
I then cook the chicken carcass in a slow cooker, pulling off any loose meat from the bones when it's cold and adding it to the stock, with the 'left over' chicken meat, adding vegetables, and barley and making a stew. I usually eat half and freeze the rest.
I can get at least 6 meals from a small chicken - which is why I don't buy one every week :-S

I "saw" Delia do a meal with lamb ribs......dunno what kind of lamb, but they looked absolutely enormous.....

But what I really struggle with in the eat well for less programme is that the people taking part have no idea what they are spending on food. I work on a very tight budget and know exactly what i spend.
So either they have so much money they dont notice or care or they are hmmm shall we say not "savvy".

How can you afford to live on takeaway foods all the time. They are not cheap. One family awhile back, the mother i think had never cooked a meal for the family!!!! Unbelievable.
Like you maggie, if i have a chicken, i get several meals too and nothing goes to waste.
The food in some of these trolleys is mostly biscuits etc. The poor children must really feel deprived when they take them all away..lolI i make my own soup always. Only takes an hour and a few veg go an awful long way. It costs pennies to make and you can freeze it too.

Florence in the hebrides

I am the one in the house who eats leftovers. OH hates the idea.

Even when the children were at home, it was 'my job' to eat the leftovers. :-D

Now, I find that our Dtr is the leftover queen in her home too. Never let it be said that I didn't teach her well! ;-)

When I lived in Shetland, for about a year, I was on my own (with someone else's dog) for most of the time. Ex would get a long weekend once a month.
The shops were 14 miles away, with a mile walk to the bus stop.
Once a week, I'd go to Lerwick shopping, go to the pub afterwards, and my shopping and I were poured into a taxi after a 'session' and taken home :-D
I had bacon & eggs for breakfast, and what I called a 'perpetual' lamb stew for dinner.
The stew would be started at the beginning of the week, in a huge saucepan, heated every day and any left at the end of the week was a treat for the dog. :-D

I enjoy that programme too, but find the swaps tiresome, in that they are all from different shops. So unless you visit all the supermarkets you still end up buying the brands you know you like. After all, buying food that you don't like is wasteful too.

'Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow is another day'.