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.

This is still going huh?

I would like to say that I just yesterday made a crumble with frozen blueberries (2 large packes for £4 from Ocado) and it was lovely.

I also use the brocoli stalks. I waste nothing.

That is all.

Bamboo my taxes pay for those stalks you know!

We had cauliflower cheese last night made with frozen cauliflower. Does it make it a fraction better that I didn't use pre-grated cheese. Cheese was on special.

What about people who feed their DC takeaways sometimes, is that worse or better thsn the heinous crime of feeding them frozen veg. Just musing, I can't afford take away before I'm flamed again.

We grow our own veggies and freeze them. I should give the kids away to SS now, shouldnt I?

So I can defrost the frozen fruit and eat it without cooking, but some types go a bit mushy?

All fruit that we freeze goes into tarts, crumbles or compots. The only fruit I've found that is ok defrosted are figs.

CheesyWellingtons (from yesterday - sorry, haven't caught up yet) the most expensive iPad over three years costs about 6 pence per day in return for hours of use, so I don't think it is that ironic that some people have a food budget and are posting from one.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Apple products. I have also been guilty of using frozen broccoli and / or not using the stalk of fresh to flavour consommé.

I'm doing Chicken Katsu curry one night this week. It's rather like chicken nugget curry :)

Now i like fresh broccoli but i also like frozen broccoli which is best? There's only one way to find out fight

There is nothing wrong with fucking fish fingers.

I am a very good cook. I am the sort of cook who learned how to Do Cooking back in the wholefoody 1980s when you could only get proper tamari in proper 1980s wholefood shops. I feed my children - who have outgrown toddler fussiness and now eat proper human food - a wide variety of foodstuffs including home-made chickpea curry (with chickpeas I boiled myself) and pasta with lentil/mushroom sauce. I make - see above - chicken liver pate . I pound spices. I grill hallumi and produce couscous. I cook puy lentils in red wine and I follow my Indian mother's recipes.

And I, and their father, also feed them frozen peas and frozen green beans and ready-made chappatis and ready-made hummus and ready-made pesto and ready-made felafels.

"There is nothing wrong with fucking fish fingers." sounds like the sort of thing sgb would say. Although she'd probably get a reference to mundanes in there as well...

Flatbread - what frustrated me the most is prior to the illness he ate, quite literally, anything put in front of him. Watching him ear gyoza dumplings, katsu curry & Udon noodles in an asian restaurant was standard. And then just like that; it all went away.

He is slowly coming out the other side; some 2 years later. We've had a couple of minor triumphs in the past week or so & he is taking more of interest in helping me cook. I'm really hoping we might be getting somewhere & I can save my tears and self-flagellation (sp?) for something more worthwhile.

Eat gyoza dumplings obviously. Ear-ing them would be something quite different ;)

Bokkleofsterra loving your work!

Flossi, hmm, gyzo dumplings. Now I want them for breakfast

Sorry, I quoted you, I didn't really mean you, as I understand that when one is ill/ allergic it can put you off some foods.

It was more generally a comment on the culture here. Why do restaurants have kid's menus with pizza and nuggests and crap, instead of smaller portions of adult food? There just seems to be a belief that children cannot eat spicy or flavoursome food or other grown up food, while children elsewhere in the world clearly do eat those foods without a fuss.

I think it is partly because there is a big industry in marketing food for different segments, and these cheap, overprocessed food for children must be a very profitable one.

Altinkum it is but apparently if you use it you are lazy, stupid, silly, a permissive parent, bad mother etc.

I disagree. Frozen vegetables are usually cheaper than fresh. Some of us have to look carefully at what money we have. I'm not buying one broccoli head and spreading it over several days so I buy a pack of frozen broccoli and can take whenever I like.

It's not me who thinks that altin I was the one being called a bad mother because I said I had to use frozen veg because my budget meant not feeding my family properly. I also said that I found it hard to chop one handed while holding dd2. Spent most of the night crying tbh.

She also said I was silly thinking it was cheaper even though jessie and I posted prices and calculations.

Hecub I second what altinkum has said.

Unfortunately there are some people on the internet who set out to upset/wind people up. They also think it's ok to be rude.

Just ignore their posts and focus on the people who are kind and supportive.

By the way, I'd just like to take this opportunity to publicise Healthy Start vouchers. They're vouchers for fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, for financially struggling parents of young children.

If you're struggling, check to see if you could be entitled.