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.

Can someone explain to me the point of frozen broccoli?

Marianne its cheaper and lasts longer. Sheesh and I'm supposed to be the stupid one!

"Worshipful Idolatry of Cooking From Scratch"

Blimey! You mean just cooking and eating normal food? Since when did cooking become some kind of exclusive leisure activity and eating ready meals or McDonald's the norm? And I do think giving your children chicken nuggets three times a week is pretty weird. These things have very little meat in them and are full of salt, fat, sugar and flour.

And I really don't get this "my children only eat white foods"! They only do that because you allow it!

Today my three year old had fish fingers, mash and salad, yesterday chips beans and gammon, the day before chicken nuggets Scooby doo spaghetti and smiley faces. Fucking shoot me.

You can fish frozen broccoli out of the freezer on an evening when you think 'cor, I could really do with that broccoli/anchovy pasta thing, I haven't eaten it in months' and, within the 10 minutes it takes to do the pasta, you have produced said anchovy/broccoli thing. (Depending, obviously, on whether you also have garlic and anchovies, but in the Inferiority Complex this is usually the case.)

Life is short. Food is nice. Many of us like to cook sometimes and not other times. Frozen veg is nutritionally a lot better than veg that has been loitering palely in the fridge for a week.

But is it really cheaper? How much is frozen broccoli? Fresh broccoli is maybe 70p - you are telling me that you really can't afford that? And how long does it need to last? I eat broccoli most days, and it lasts several days in the fridge.

Tinned salmon - the sustainable stuff - is fabulous when mixed with (bottled) mayo and (bought) yoghurt and (frozen/tinned) sweetcorn eaten with baked potatoes.

I don't eat broccoli most days. I quite like having some around should a broccoli urge overtake me.

Frozen spinach is another marvellous ingredient. You can make the chopped stuff into a sag paneer (using bought paneer) extremely quickly.

Oh, and Marianne, I pound my spices in the granite mortar and pestle my Indian mother gave me. Even though I usually buy my chappatis. And my yogurt. Most of us accommodate the straightforwardly easy options into a life of Nice Food.

Marianne. Please PM me your address. I would be absolutely delighted if you could succeed in getting DS to extend his limited diet beyond what me and countless childcare professionals have managed.

Have you considered becoming a therapist dealing with sensory food aversion? Because I'm sure your 'no truck with any of this' method would work wonders

Ok consider yourself shot for the smiley faces

I have a two year old and one year old twins and because of DS2's intolerance to egg, wheat, gluten, soya and dairy, everything is cooked from scratch, by me. It's a royal frigging pain in the arse and I LONG to be able to feed 'em Findus crispy pancakes/poptarts/shite.

And half the time I cook this delicious nutritious stuff they rub it in their hair/throw it on the floor. At least they can have caramel snack a jacks. They keep me sane.

Those that are genuinely concerned about the woman in the OP, cook her some nice stuff and drop it off. She's knackered.

Freezer food - I haven't said anything about it except that maybe I don't understand the point of frozen veg for example. I doubt that it is actually cheaper and is it really any easier - you still have to cook it. What is so difficult about chopping florets of broccoli and boiling them in a pan?

I think people just believe in anything that is packaged and says "convenience" even if it isn't any more convenient.

My DS will only eat petit filous despite the lovingly made , home cooked food i prepare

Call SS.................I also gave my DH a Greggs sauage roll for his Sunday dinner :o

Yes I can't afford that and I want it to last as long as possible to try and maximise variety. The frozen broccoli is about the same price but because of the pack size covers more meals.

"Those that are genuinely concerned about the woman in the OP, cook her some nice stuff and drop it off. She's knackered."

Would be very happy to do that if I knew the woman and she lived near enough.

I would also like it on record that I made, today, chicken liver pate. Out of organic chicken livers. And organic butter. DP made fishcakes (using frozen salmon and frozen spinach). And he made a cake.

Like I say, most of us work out a way of producing nice food quickly and straightforwardly. But that includes covering the days when you've got in from work and you need to produce a meal and you're tired and you have a wodge of more writing to do in the evening and quite frankly you cannot be arsed. The Not Being Arsed wars with the wish for a Nice Meal. A compromise is reached.

I always use frozen veg, I must be a terrible mother. Im also a big fan of takeaways, frozen food etc.

I will certainley hand myself in to SS in the morning, oh hold on its actually no ones business but just in case op wants me to justify myself I have 3 children, a full time job and find it much easier to open a bag of (shock horror) frozen broccoli than cutting up fresh

I also do not bake my own breads, make my own pasta, milk my own cow etc but have a great admiration for people that do.

My dd lived on ham, boiled eggs and baked beans for the first year after weaning, what a failure I am :(

Frozen veg is often more nutritionally valuable

As soon as the veg is picked the nutrients start to decay. When they are deep frozen they held as they are at that point. So better to have peas frozen an hour after picking than after 3 days on the fresh shelves

Same goes for fish

Frozen chicken nuggets are no worse than fresh shop bought chicken nuggets

It's not the frozen vs fresh that is the issue t is the procssed food vs home made when it comes to salt etc

You can do a bit of both surely? I don't think it is more convenient it just seems like it is. Although if you do cook everything from scratch you will get picky teenagers! Who eat rubbish when they're out with mates but expect 4* at home .

OP yabu to judge a woman you don't know.
However if she does just feed her children fish fingers and chicken nuggets then it's laziness on her part. Healthy food doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming to prepare. So what if she can't cook - she should learn- it's not rocket science to cook veggies, pasta, baked potatoes etc.
It's not in the list of everyones priorities unfortunately.

Noddy - I had a friend who had a Mum that grew her own veg, knew the farmer she got the meat from and made everything from scratch. But she was a bloody awful cook and my friend would gorge on fast food when she had the chance!!

Agree that a bit of both is fine - DC had fishfingers and chips today but had a full homemade roast for lunch ysterday

The other thing with frozen is that it is less wasteful - the amount of fresh food that people bin because it is out of date is astounding (don't have figure to hand)

frozen broccilo has more beta carotene but less vitamins than fresh and has double the sodium. It tastes awful too

Why get hot and bothered about someone elses perfectly happy healthy children?