AIBU and very stupid to say this isn't junk /convenience food?

[dottytablecloth]

Right am really exposing myself for a potential flaming here but anyway...

Am making a sausage casserole today with the following ingredients:

Butcher sausages
2 peppers
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Tin chopped tomatoes
Fusilli pasta

And now for the bit a JAR of Lloyd Grossman tomato sauce

It's a made up recipe a la dotty so please forgive me if that's not what a sausage casserole is supposed to be like!

Anyway SIL was her earlier and says she wouldn't feed that to her 3 year old as it's junk food.

I'm mortified

I thought it was quite nutritious.

I've a very fussy 20 month old who loves sausages.

AIBU and deluded to serve this up and think it's not junk food?

I would avoid the jar because of the high salt content more then anything, jars usually have a shocking amount in them, so I wouldn't use them too often. Apart from that it sounds lovely OP

ALL tomatoes -in WHATEVER FORM - contain sugar.
Raw fresh tomatoes contain 2.6 g sugar per 100g; cooked (water-evaporated and therefore more concentrated tomatoes) contain rather more; tomato puree contains proportionately even more, but the flavour is so strong that one does not eat much.
Lycopene - a very powerful and beneficial antioxidant in tomatoes - is much, much more easily (400%) absorbed after cooking and in the presence of (shock horror) fat, which your sausages will provide.

You don't actually need sauces in jars, but they won't really hurt you if you like them. But for the same taste, just add herbs, garlic and MOST IMPORTANT - a tablespoon or two of vinegar. That last, when gently cooked, really does make all the difference.

Quiet I don't use jarred sauces very often as I'm not a huge fan, but if a busy mum chooses to use one I'm not going to demonise it as either junk food or processed crap. There's nothing in that sauce that you wouldn't put in it, if you made it at home.

I wouldn't even call sausages 'junk food', they might not be organic hand reared lamb, but they're not in the same league as kfc, macD's, chippy tea etc

I don't eat any of the above, including sausages as I'm vegetarian - but I do still think there's a huge difference between butchers sausages and all that other stuff.

FGS!

Not the healthiest but not junk food. Yes, you would be better no using the LG sauce but who cares? Looks yummy!

I haven't read the replies but will. I'd consider sausages to be junk food, the white pasta as having no nutritional value and the jar far too high in sugar/salt. Call me a kill joy

Yum: homemade pasta with sausage and tomato sauce. Where your SIL got the idea this is junk, I dont know!

No chipping, veering towards junk because - read carefully - it has salt and sugar added to make it taste acceptable after the processing.

Are you disputing that there are six teaspoons of sugar in a jar? Because that isn't my opinion that is indeed a fact from the nutritional information on th manufacturers website. Goodness me.

My worry is your continual assertion that this is "wholesome" and the people who might read it and be guided by you. There are definitely worse foods out there but it does have unnecessary added sugar and added salt and from looking at the nutritional content of other similar sauces online today, many of them are far worse.

And repeated over several days a week, for weeks and weeks, that ups the salt and sugar content of your diet considerably. It's not about one meal. It's about saying ok, this isn't great because of x y and z, these are the good bits, it's fine as it is but this is how it could be better, and this would be the eventual outcomes of eating that way a lot.

No it definitely isn't snobbery, it's actually cheaper to make your own sauce than buy loyds, for some reason it's regarded as a "premium" brand.

but it still tastes bogging

Some people seem determined to make their lives harder for themselves.

Wholewheat pasta is revolting. I love brown rice, but if I want pasta, I want it smooth, without a gritty texture.

What ridiculous criticism! op, your meal sounds lovely, with or without the sauce - not a fuck should be given on some posters nonsensical sauce snobbery

I like people acting as if they wouldnt season homemade sauce with salt, and tweak it with sugar if it was too acidic for their taste preference.

Unless someone in your family actually has salt or sugar processing issues, or a family history says they could develop later, the occaisional priduct like LG sauce, is nothing to stress about.

6 tsp of sugar in a single serving is horrible. 6 tsp in an entire dish is not.

this is the problem with sugar being seen as the enemy - there are people out there who think we should be aiming for zero sugar content in meals

we shouldn't be eating sausages or ready made sauces every day but otherwise OPs meal is great. lots of fresh veg, varied textures, protein and fat, carbs.

an ideal family dinner!

Nearly all home cooking involves stock cubes or bouillon. Has anyone found one that is not "laden" with salt ?

There are low salt versions.

Reduced salt stock cubes are only 25% less salt.

Oh for heavens sake, no one is saying meals should be sugar free, but that using processed foods with unecessarily added sugar and salt to extend shelf life is not a good thing.

My mother apparently uses a sodium free bouliion, I am aware that isn't Thr same as salt free, she uses it due to high blood pressure.

RJ - you dont to be getting it

a fresh tomato has sugar in it - most of the calorific value in that tomato IS sugar - simple carbs like fructose and glucose. A medium size, fresh tomato has about 4.8 g sugar in it - measure that out in teaspoons to visualise

bash up some tomatoes and make a sauce - whether at home, in a restaurant or in a factory - and it will contain these sugars, concentrated due to the cooking process and removal of water

now the jarred sauce you quoted may contain added sugar - thats something different, by all means avoid ADDED sugar if you fancy it eg sucrose added to the tomatoes for flavouring purposes (though its well established practice to add a pinch of sugar or something sweet eg basalmic vinegar for flavouring in home made sauce)

but the only way you could make a sugar free tomato sauce is to take out the tomatoes and then it wouldnt really be tomato sauce

The jar is convenience processed crap. Sorry but a child should have max 3 teaspoons of sugar (of any kind including fruit) per day. Added sugar is the 4th ingredient in the list. It's easy enough to make your own tasty tomato and basil pasta sauce without resorting to the added salt and sugar versions.

Sausages are also processed but OP says butcher's sausages as opposed to full of salt/rusk/filler value ones so I imagine they're fairly similar to homemade.

I also cook with no added salt / homemade salt free stock / no added sugar but I have to as dh needs it.

I think it is a good wholesome meal and your SIL is rude to say that to you in your own home- I'd have shown her the door at that point. Can I just de-rail a bit and ask- if a LG sauce is considered a convenience food- why isn't tinned tomatoes, or tomato puree? They are also processed foods. Even sausages- my Granddad used to make his own, although even that could not be considered a 'from scratch' ingredient as he used to buy the skins. Where do you draw the line at what is convenience and what is not?

Kallo's Very Low Salt stock cubes are genuinely low in salt. They have palm oil and in some cases sugar though.

Peoplw become way too obsessed with this shit

I agree Havana.