to think this is a ^ridiculous^ list of meals

[Takver]

Suggested guardian healthy week's menu.
I mean, evidently some of the suggestions are perfectly sensible (porridge with banana), and individually, there's nothing daft about any given recipe. But taken as a whole, could anyone design a more cliched guardian-reader-menu . . . Where do you even buy tilapia . . . ?

It looks like a nice weekly menu to me.

Don't know if I can be bothered with all the cooking though...

Smoked salmon isn't too bad depending where you buy it from and how many you're feeding
I use 50g for my breakfast, and scramble eggs in a frying pan so it's quicker, takes 3 mins from start to on plate and eating

It actually looks very high in protein reading it again compared to what we eat. So - a 6 egg frittata feeding one person twice - I'd make a 2 egg omlette for DH, and a 3 egg one halved between me and (teenage) dd.

Similarly - Wagamama Cha Han (made with 2 small chicken thighs, 4 large prawns, an egg, rice. I'd have either chicken (allowing 2 thighs per person for a meal) or prawns if I ate them or egg, but not all three.

So I guess that's how they're filling up. We'd eat a lot less animal protein, but a lot more vegetables and usually either potatoes/rice/pasta with a main meal.

I think it is an embarrassingly misleading article. Also painfully middle class. Infact I would agree with you OP.

I've just put the 1st day through mfp and (assuming reasonable quantities, where they're not specified, and assuming there's some oil in the dahl, but nothing else calorific) it comes out at 1189 calories .

The breakfast is

Other than the preposterously small quantities and absence of red meat and treats, this isn't miles from how we eat. Except I have the same breakfast every day (100g full fat greek yogurt, 50g muesli, lots of tea).

I work from home though, so leftover lunches are easy. And we are cliched middle class guardian readers.

I eat like that all the time - seems perfectly normal food and balances meat and some vegetarian, some cheap and expensive - the lentil and sweet potato curry will be pence to make.

I buy a pack of smoked salmon from Aldi and it does me smoked salmon and scrambled eggs breakfast nearly all week for about a fiver all in (pack smoked salmon, dozen eggs, small wholemeal loaf). People are moaning about the fancy bread in the Guardian comments - but Asda sell a large Burgen loaf for £1.

I also like the leftovers for lunch - this is also what I do for most meals. I assume the 2 chicken thighs and prawns rice dish is feeding 2 people.

Sometimes it just seems that a lot of people would rather eat easy cheap processed rubbish and blame someone else for their health problems.

Agree that isnt 2000 calories.

Also very surprised at them putting in low fat versions of foods considering they don't fill you up and are full of crap that leaves you hungry quickly.

Iv been trying to eat healthy the past three weeks and have been generally having for breakfast a mixed berry smoothie with natural yogurt in. Or poached egg on Warburton thins and a piece of fruit. Salad for lunch with lean protein and a healthy dinner. I like some of those meal suggestions. I love dahl but have neved made if myself.

Women don't generally need 2000 calories either.

I think the problem is I'm too much of a guardian reader in one way (wouldn't buy sweet potatoes except as a treat as heavy/imported, wouldn't buy farmed salmon unless certified, wouldn't buy non-UK asparagus) but not enough of one in other ways.

I do eat (lentil and perpetual spinach) dahl all the time, though.

Iv never looked into Salmon and where it comes from before? I'm a bit ignorant in that sense I suppose.

The Guardian is just insane when it comes to food and recipes. It is so far up its own arse at times - the Saturday food supplement can be gobsmacking. Recipe after recipe packed full of baffling ingredients that you'd be bloody unlikely to find at your local Tescos - it makes me livid on a regular basis. Of course now I can't think of a single example - but if you yearn for some pretentious food poncery, the Guardian's your mate.

There's a Guardian article (!) here on the issue - in fact pointing out that even organic farmed isnt' that great, and salmon really needs to go back to being an expensive treat food. (And another article from Greenpeace)

For your work packed lunch, the Guardian helpfully tells you how to make a speedy, yeast-free version of gözleme, a satisfying Turkish pancake. That's just the sort of packed-lunch making I love to do once the kids are in bed or before I leave the house for work. I have bags of time for this sort of palaver.

I completely agree Hassled.

I'm a dedicated Guardian reader and quite a foodie but they really are a bit out of touch with their core readership aren't they? I think most of us aren't quite as achingly middle class as they like to think.

Their fashion pages are similar - single items of clothing in the few hundred quid bracket, with shoes, coats and dresses being even more. Most of my friends read the Guardian but we still buy our clothes on the High Street. £400 skirts are not really our market.

Did anyone see the Guardian article about keeping a load of sauces at your desk for making a quick lunch? This was it: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/sep/23/office-lunch-hacks-say-goodbye-to-limp-salads

I can safely say that if I started using the office scissors to cut up chives I would definitely have no friends left at work...

I'd love it, the kids and dh? Not so much.

If I started boiling eggs in the office kettle there would be hell to pay :o

You're really in the shit when your boss gets a feather in their mouthful of tea.

Looks like a delicious menu to me. Very much how I ate before I had DD2 and got lazy about meal planning and cooking and started mainlining cake (yes, c-A-ke!) and pizza to comfort myself after yet another non-existent night's sleep. I think I'll borrow some of the recipe ideas.

Tilapia is a pretty cheap fish by the way, mostly farmed not caught.

Another middle class Guardian reading vegetarian here for who this isn't dissimilar to a normal week's food. The cha han is nice but I'd shove a load of tofu and nuts in instead of chicken and prawns. Also I like baked beans with eggy things, not a flimsy rocket salad

Agree on the ridiculous Guardian fashion from pp too.

What struck me is its low in calcium, soluble fibre, vitamin c and very low on iron!

Completely agree with the opening post, and so many of the last page of posts - who has the time or money for that kind of palaver??

Smoked salmon & fancy bread costs a fortune.

I much prefer the sample meals on net doctor. Breakfast is either toast & egg or beans, portudge & fruit or low sugar cereal, yoghurt & fruit.

Lunch is something like a tuna & salad or chicken & salad wrap or pitta & fruit/yoghurt & dinner is chicken or fish, marinated potatoes or rice & veg or home made chilli/curry /stir fry plus a pudding of yoghurt & fruit or scotch pancakes.

Plus two snacks per day (fruit/dried fruit/cereal bar even the odd scone or 2 finger kit Kat)

Meant to say lunch is also pasta salad using leftover chivken/tuna from the previous day.

Why do they suggest serving dhal without a huge pile of roti?