to be shocked by the way this family eats?

[lotney]

A friend told me about a woman she knows who has 3 year old twins and a 2 year old. Her husband works away for long periods of time. She doesn't cook while he's away - the children eat freezer food like fish fingers, chicken nuggets etc and she has ready meals. When he's home he cooks, but when he's away they just eat things from the oven for convenience.

I can't begin to imagine what life is like with 3 under 3 but surely preparing fresh food at least occasionally is important for nutrition and learning about food? I find it really odd and a bit sad.

I am on my own three nights a week with a 2 1/2 year old who has clearly been taking lessons from the 'cutted up pear' thead and an 8 week old.

Every night I open the freezer door, get down on my knees and say 'all hail to thee, great freezer of bountifulness from whence comes forth the sacred ready meals and the fish fingers of ease.'

I am starting a campaign to have the inventor of potato waffles sanctified.

And DS2 practically lives in the sling but I still don't feel the urge to start coming cordone bleu meals from scratch just because my hands are free.

Oh, it'd definitely not Hecuba's fault. it might be mine though

If only I'd used petit pois as an example... I just thought broccoli was accepted as a definitively healthy food!

And in all this kerfuffle, nobody noticed my "frozen spatula with extra breadcrumb" coinage. I was proud of that. I thought it was very nearly witty.

Do you know what really fucks me off, fucks me off even more than Hec probably is right now, so pretty darned fucked off

How, and why is grated cheese cheaper than a block? Even if it is exactly the same cheese?

This is the kind of crap that causes me to tch in supermarkets and lose oooh whole minutes of sleep

I mean surely grating takes more costly machinary stuff and people things than lumping?

quality of cheese?

Is it the same price?

I always thought it more expensive and it has that really horrid coating on it.

Grated cheese is evil.

Only those who believe in The Great Freezer wil be saved from the machinations of the Evil Cheese.

grated cheese freezes better than a block

No if you go to Waitrose or Marks and Spencers because you are a superiour parent like myself * you can take advantage of their obsessive labelling. It is the same cheese from the same place .....but grated is 22p pence per kilo cheaper. And it's the same with Cathedral City.

this is a lie. Waitrose is nearer to walk too and often cheaper than my local big Tesco. But when I was last in M&S I checked their cheese too.*

**I am aware I am a slight loser over this

Honey - I love waitrose food :) their basic range tinned fruit in juice is so yummy and is Definitely cheaper than tescos not so yummy equiv mmmm

I find the grated cheese goes mouldy really quickly. I tend to freeze some grated cheese for the "emergency just back from holiday and no time to go to the supermarket" meal!

don't you find shop bought grated cheese is a bit floury on the surface and more rubbery?

Waitrose Essentials Rocks, except the tinned Pineapple, ?I intend to have words about that

TThe absolute best Basic range though is Sainsburys.

I just assumed the coating was the salt sweating out as it dries?

Witchofthenorth 'I have roughly around £100 budget a month to feed my family, it's processed cheap food al the way for me' ... 'Aaaaaaarrrrghhhhh typos! Bloody iPad!' Is this not a slightly ironic situation? Remind me how much i-pads are!

The frozen/fresh Broccoli brouhaha made me laugh and despair in equal measure. Food is not a way of asserting moral superiority and cultural one upmanship - 'oh you're still using sun dried, we only use organic sunblush' .

For a significant portion of the population, cheap processed food is all they can afford. It provides plentiful calories for not a lot of money. Sure the nutritional value is negligible, but chicken nuggets will keep the hunger pangs at bay for a darn sight longer and for a hell of a lot less money, than a bag of rocket.

You can eat broccoli stalks, I just chop the edges off and cut it in half so it takes the same amount of time. Just tastes like the rest of the broccoli.

I have a freezer full of different types of veg, can't see the problem myself, it is fast tasty and there is no waste.

On Sundays we eat some seriously weird meals to use up all the bits and hobs kicking around the fridge from the week. Usually padded out with freezer goodies.

I buy grated cheese and keep it in the freezer thus committing the ultimate in slatternly sins.

For this pancake day I couldn't even be arsed with the shaker bottle things. I just bought ready made pancakes AND we had them with bacon that I did not cure and smoke myself.

I'm crap at cooking. I'm worrying over what I'll feed my baby on when it's at weaning stage because I won't be able to afford jars of baby food (are they good or bad anyway?)

All I can think of is pureeing the same things I eat, but with no seasonings added.

That leads me on to what it is that I eat... and that's where I trip up. I live on tuna or cheese sandwiches, noodles and now and then I mix up a huge batch of mashed potato and freeze it, and eat portions with baked beans or half a can of chicken curry.

I'm going to have to get my thinking cap on, aren't I?

boomerwang, you'll be fine - if you wait until your baby is closer to 6 months, then they won't need purees. You can offer a variation on what you eat, as finger foods so he/she can feed himself.

I did a mix of that, and gave porridge, mashed potato/sweet potato, toast, pasta...

my babies both loved frozen veg (defrosted of course) - those mixes of peas, carrot and corn were GREAT for encouraging hand-eye coordination

iPad owners can't be skint comment.... Shocker.v

Because its right to assume the Witches casually throws IPads and other fripperies into her shopping trolly instead of Ochra and Aubergine?

It may have been a gift?
It may have been the cheapest option for the family to get connected to the Internet?

I love this whole .... If you own a product by Apple instead of any other pc/tablet/phone than you must have tons of cash

You haven't speculated on what anyone else is using to post on this thread on.

FFS, where should the medium being used to post come into it?
I buy frozen veg cos it lasts longer than fresh and I don't like to waste food or indeed money which possibly why I had enough to buy my iPad as a treat for the whole family.

I've even seen adverts where people are apparently being given them so you have no idea on this!

That's a cracking phone deal you have Honeydragon!

I cook from scratch and then freeze portions to use as ready meals. Do I win both prizes?

Only if you own Apple products as well.....