to try and settle the 'which is cheaper, junk or cooked from scratch' debate once and for all

[IceBeing]

I have seen both sides of this recently on MN and on the box.

So. submit your meal plans here.

1. Choose junk or home cooked

1. Give a shopping list plus price for a weeks worth of food for a family of 4, assuming no reliance on a 'store cupboard' and no meal sharing.

1. Give an estimated weekly cooking time plus shopping time.

1. indicate if your plan relies on a local aldi/lidl etc.

Lets sort this the JEFF out please.....

Oh yes ouryve. Use all the animal.

There is nothing wrong with a vegetarian or vegan diet Big of you to say so....confused

There's nothing big about my saying that littlemog.

A vegetarian or vegan diet is completely valid. But it's more difficult than an omnivore diet in terms of nutrition and ease of eating outside your own home. Don't you agree?

The more you progress towards a non-animal product diet, the more difficult it becomes, but it's not impossible and in certain places some people won't even notice it, if you don't want to tell them.

I don't think you shouldn't but I realise that some people might be silly and think you were being militant. I wouldn't, but that's some people for you.

Just be honest and proud about it. Then people might want to copy you. If not, if they're decent, at least they'll respect you.

Use all the animal? So we have a thread of people that eat sweetbread and offel?

littlemog Tue 27-Aug-13 20:49:49

Here we go again with the bulk buying. Few poor people live in homes with larders, pantries, or even enough storage space for their belongings

What a massive generalisation!

_

Not really - we own our house. It's quite big for a 2 bed, with an 8' by 12' kitchen. The kitchen is a tip because we try to bulk buy and take advantage of twofers (because we can afford that, of course) and we have to store a lot of stuff on top of our cupboards. I have nowhere to keep a sack of potatoes, where they wouldn't rot (I rarely finish a 2.5kg bag without them turning to liquid) or more than standard sized bags of flour where the psocids won't get into them. By the time I've taken advantage of multibuys on tinned tomatoes or half price pasta or rice, my tall food cupboard is in danger of bursting all over the floor.

In your average rented kitchen with half as many cupboards as mine, where do you put those things?

I don't care what anyone else's principles are on animal welfare, if you're interested then educate yourself and make the decision that's right for you.

Just because I'd rather go vegetarian than buy ethically sub standard meat doesn't mean I care if loopy or anyone else does too. Plenty of protein to be found in plant based diets but yes you have to learn about it and know how to cook.

FWIW the chicken was roughly 1.75kg again I don't care if you don't believe me, I have nothing to gain by lying about it. It is doable. And without too mug effort as well.

Also I think I did calculations wrong - it would have come out as about £22 for the shop, so £16 for the chicken that fed the masses

loopyloo I eat offal, including sweetbreads. with relish.

I balk at chitterlings (fried intestines), fried spinal column and tripe because the texture is horrible.

Though I do like milk-fed calves' intestines with pasta and tomato.

And lightly-fried lamb and calf brains in butter with capers.

Agree on space issue, we can only bulk buy now because we have garage to store the excess in. Our old flat in London barely had room for the crockery and cooking utensils

With you limited

Our family choffs down the liver and kidneys including in the infamous ruddy chicken (which explains some of the reason it goes a lot further than other peoples) and the gizzards make the stock sublime

Yum offal.

My fav is chicken livers, V cheap too! 50p for a frozen tub x2 feeds us all.

So even you limitedperiod, who I would consider a fearless eater and cook, doesn't eat all the animal?

I don't understand how you made 5 meals out of the liver of one medium chicken though! was it an alcoholic chicken with an enlarged liver?

I try to cook from scratch but find it expensive. I could feed us all (2 adults,3 DC age 10 & 8) easily from Farmfoods for 30 quid a week buying ready meals frozen burgers sausages pizzas etc. I shop in aldi spending around 45-50 then topping up costs about a tenner so a lot compared to buying junk.
I never manage to stretch out a chicken to more than 2 meals & 500g mince makes enough lasagne/cottage pie for all of us, no leftovers in this house. What am I doing wrong

Cajun Rice:

One chicken liver fried til broken down and like mince in consistency, added to prefried celery, onions, carrots, capers, garlic and peppers. Add seasoning and a shit ton of rice.

The chicken livers are fairly strong flavoured so go much further than a bland breast.

Fed me, DH (twice, he took leftovers into work for lunch), 4yo DS and 2yo DD

Should add its a Jamie Oliver meal....

Sounds like the sort of thing Id enjoy, but tbh, its the same as the stock making another meal isn't it?

It isn't really a meal in itself, it is a very small part of the ingredients/flavouring!

I always have my chicken livers with rice

That sounds lovely.

The only thing I do with chicken livers is home made pâté which is much cheaper than shop bought, easy to make and tastes better too - but that's one I am going to try.

The only thing I do with chicken liver is make paté or chuck them in a ragu. I'm a bit squeamish of hunks of liver.

ouryve you are very lucky to own your own house (we still have many years left on our mortgage) and this must make your outgoings much smaller than most people's? I do however appreciate what you are saying about having a small kitchen and struggling with storage.

However I still think that it's a bit of a generalisation to say that poor people don't have much storage and I am always wary of generalisations when it comes to discussing people as groups such as 'the poor'.

Its nice to see that animal welfare is included in this , not all meat is the same .
when shopping I do get bloody cross when people have trollys filled with luxury goods and eggs from caged hens ..... makes me very judgy and up to now have managed not to comment but for the love of god why oh why don, t they give a shit !

No, loopyloo but I have tried it all. Which I think you should, in respect to the animal.

Until someone upthread reminded me, I forgot how much I liked lightly fried or grilled chicken hearts with chips.

And lamb hearts stewed in red wine, sliced on creamy mashed potatoes on a chilly old Valentine's day. Mmmm.

I am not trying to be inflammatory or militant or whatever else you may think...but how on earth is eating all of an animal any more respectful of the animal that eating only a bit of it?

True respect would be...well you know where I am going with that one don't you?

I don't have time to read the whole thread but the point a lot of people miss is that the £3 lasagne or whatever from Iceland is so cheap because it is made from crap ingredients and only tastes ok because it is full of salt and other nasties.

You can make really simple, tasty, cheap meals if you want to - you just need to know how and want to. I would rather have a simple omelette or some pasta with a basic tomato sauce then a ready meal. I can't even imagine serving a ready meal to my child.

True respect would be...well you know where I am going with that one don't you?

Yep, so when you are a vegan, maybe you can come back and preach with a bit more of an argument?

Whether your organic free range chicken was sung to daily, it was still killed so you could eat it. Which does negate your argument a tad.

For once I agree with you Littlemog and that was my point earlier.

I think all this 'respecting the animal' is just to make people feel better about eating meat.

I'm sure the animal wishes you respected it enough to let it live.

Its quite hypocritical. An animal has died for your dinner, I don't think you can bring 'respect' into it.

If you cared that much about animals, you would be a vegan.

Why oh why don't you give a shit?