The great british menu - food poverty... AIBU?

[Bogeyface]

I hate myself for thinking this but, AIBU to think that Lady Whatsername who said in the 90's that the reason poor people couldnt manage on benefits was because they lacked the ability to cook good simple nutritious meals, may have had a point? The way she said it was totally U and she was very sneery, but I cant help thinking that there might be a grain of truth in it.

Of the three families I have just seen in this program I saw what 2 of them ate in a day. one was a mother and daughter who's only meal of the day was a microwave burger each costing £1 each, and the other was a family where the children had fish fingers or nuggets and oven chips, while the parents had tinned veg.

£14 per week that the first family spent is enough for a bag of baking potatoes, some basics pasta, baked beans, passatta, a pack of frozen sausages, a bag of porridge oats, some cheese, some sandwich meat such as Haslet from the deli counter (35p per 100g in my tesco) and milk. The DD would be getting free school meals if I heard correctly about her age and their income. Far healthier, more filling and more than one meal a day!

The second family, again, for the price of nuggets, fish fingers and oven chips they could make a spag bol using basics ingredients that would feed them all well.

RAther than focussing on the cost of food, which is only going to rise, surely it would be better to focus on educating people who eat badly because the food they choose is more expensive than cheaper, healthier alternatives that require a bit of cooking knowledge?

I, like others have buckets of ideas for economy cooking. Maybe some mega organised mumsnetter could pull them together in a coherent way? If that would help I mean. I have learnt a fair bit, not just on this thread but others too.

What about proposing the Basics Box idea to the Trussell Trust?

I don't have Worcester sauce in my cupboard. Am I missing out on something?

Possibly Bumbley

I use it in cottage pie, in a marinade for chicken or Chinese food, corned beef hash, soup and gravies. It's one of those things where you go "something's missing" and it adds good flavour I think.

Now this has got me thinking about my ideal store cupboard not just basics!

Must give it a try! :) would it be classed as an 'essential' for a store cupboard though? Genuinely curious! I've obviously coped for years without it.

Probably not, just something flavoursome that's not garlic or chilli I suppose. But then none of it is essential really - just desirable.

As Marie-Antoinette said:

"Let em ave Worcester sauce on their cheese toasties"

Promise

Well I would class things like cooking oil and stock cubes as essential for cooking quite a few meals but I guess I would put something like worcester sauce under desirable rather than essential, as you say.

Wow watched this show last night on iPlayer and read the thread today (have done other things too).

Agree it's all been said re:fuel costs, access to cheap shops etc.

A couple of thoughts I had were;

The celebrity chefs clearly do not live in the real world. How can you have lived as an adult and never been down to pennies at the end of the month ? Seriously how ?

Also being so out at the tills and being unable to work outthe ccheapest deal. We are relatively well off, but I have months were I know to the nearest 10p how much the shop is going to cost me (my mum was the same). Again how can you have got to adulthood and never had to do that ?

Like you say, it's because they don't live in the real world.

And Worcester sauce is fab! A little goes a long way so you don't need to replace it very often. But my main point was that telling people to make spag bol and be happy about it doesn't cut it if all they can afford is mince and tomatoes because that isn't spag bol - it's mince and tomatoes. In addition to Worcester Sauce, mace and garlic, I also use pancetta (or at least smoked bacon), chicken liver (admittedly cheap) celery, carrot , mushrooms, tomato puree and white wine. And I cook it for hours.

I make my bolognese sauce without those things and it still tastes good though so I dont think you need pancetta, chicken liver or celery to make a decent sauce. Even the most basic sauce would be nicer or better for you than microwave burgers!

If you think mince and tomatoes is nicer than a burger then that's your view. It isn't a Bolognese sauce though. And mince, tomatoes and lentils certainly isn't one either.

A bit of desirable would be nice though - after all it's about making often bland and boring food tasty without big expenditure. Otherwise why bother with anything? Just have your jacket spud on its own.

I didnt say just mince and tomatoes - just that you do not have to add pancetta and chicken livers (which tbh I have never had in bolognese and would not eat it if there were) to have a decent sauce to put over pasta. It may not be authentic bolognese but the majority of the population do not make authentic bolognese and it is still nicer and healthier than microwaveable burgers.

It's the whole point of the store cupboard though - to make very basic stuff taste good and allow versatility with cheap ingredients. That kids particularly will eat - no nutritional value in an uneaten meal

Luis, sorry but if my kids were hungry I would not be worrying about the lack of a dash of worcester sauce in my stew. I think I would spend the money on something else.

What would you buy instead Bumbley?

Bumbley- get over the Worcester sauce!

I'd love some meal planner ideas that involve using leftovers; the ones I've found online are rubbish!

What I mean is that these type of programmes and all the threads on mumsnet about "Oh I just chuck a handful of lentils in and it's delicious" miss the point that actually it isn't possible to cook proper recipes on £14 a week. You can rustle up something to eat, yes. You might even manage to have a full belly at the end of it, if you were very very careful and willing to walk circa 10 miles to shop around in various different places. But you can't cook proper meals according to a recipe that anyone would recognise as authentic. Hell, you can't even ensure your family eats their 5 a day on £14 a week.

And that's because £14 a week is not enough. Even if you actively enjoyed eating a plateful of mince, lentils and tomatoes and pretending it was an Italian meal, it's not enough. The answer to this isn't to tell people to eat lentils but to take to the frigging streets and demand that people in the sixth richest country in the world don't have to choose between heating and eating, don't have to 'fill up' on cups of tea, don't have to worry about the extra expense of the kids being home from school because they can't afford to give them a meal midday.

The Worcester sauce was discussed as a possible addition to herbs, stock cubes etc. in a Stocking up box, not a replacement for anything else. Could be ketchup, pickle, cinnamon or whatever.

At approx 2.20 a bottle I wouldn't buy it over fruit, but it would last a couple of months. But each to their own.

Oh dear I didn't mean to cause trouble....keep putting up ideas for the

MN - home cooking starter kit

concept is a tescos delivery for £20 than one MNer could donate to another to kick start them home cooking when they have order of 20 quid or less a week to spend on food.

Maybe there should also be a holy shit my kids will go hungry this week kit also....it is a different kind of thing but we could make one up.

MN - feed my kids kit

Arf at ICBINEG

And a lovely thoughtful concept it is indeed!

I remember someone talking about being involved in a summer holls/half term cooking thing for kids. A well known poster but can't think whom. I'm sure this was anticipating the problems that families may encounter without school meals. Any ideas anyone?

Oh for fucks sake. I think, I think the point is, really, that working people, in one of the richest countries on Earth, should not HAVE to be making the choice to not buy the bag of Basmati rice and stick to shit rice, because....They work hard! They pay their bills!
If I want Basmati rice (and I do) then the fact that I have a job -a knackering job-and pay my bastard rent and my buggering council tax, and my extortionate bus fares, and buy my kid shoes blah blah blah, should-SHOULD- mean that in one of the richest country on the world, one in which MPs are whinging about needing an 11% pay rise, that this is a choice I can reasonably make.
Never mind about what we should or shouldn't donate to food banks. What about doing something about rent control, so that half my income is not eaten up by housing costs?
What about doing something about the appalling way that privatised public transport is screwing the very people it should be serving?
What about ANY pay rise for me, on 18 k before MP's get theirs on 65 k??
The real problem is the way we just go "oh, shit, look. Lots of people in our country can't afford to feed their kids AND pay the rent AND pay the council tax AND get to work, all at the same time.
Something is very wrong with this picture.