To think knowing about food and being able to cook are key life skills?

[Notcontent]

This is something I strongly believe in, but I think that notwithstanding various small-scale initiatives to teach young people and families about healthy cooking etc the lack of skills is getting worse not better.

I was listening to a Radio 4 programme the other day about child food poverty and they were talking to some young people - one of the teenage girls talked about the fact that until recently she couldn’t cook anything)no and I also had little idea of what a normal meal should be.

This seems such wide-spread problem. So many people think of food as being readymade, processed things that you unwrap and eat.

I think that there should be education about this at schools as obviously many people are not getting these skills at home. It’s so important - eating is what keeps are alive.

I absolutely think slowcooker should be in every household. As @XingMing said. You put in cheap ingredients. Run it cost pennies. Out comes tasty food. I absolutely adore mine. Eat what you eat, freeze the rest. I assume but is the cost and... People won't recognise the ingredients? Also, it's not a lesson at school. So. Yeah.

The barrier to eating decent food is not money check out Jack Monroe but time. So a plug in slow cooker is your best friend. Titivate your casserole just before you eat it. Most likely, all you need to add is a bit more salt to make the taste come alive. Anything else is a luxury.

I was never taught to cook but for as long as I can remember I helped my grand and mum in the kitchen. They were all good cooks so I absorbed it . My husband , although mainly a reasonable cook, never let the children help(he doesn't let me help either) . I was totally surprised that both my son's have turned out decent cooks, and my daughter just doesn't like cookin, so only does it if her DH is at work.

Italian food is based on the cheapest possible ingredients, plus knowledge of how to cook them. It's mostly a poor peasant country outside of Rome and Milan, but the food is revered all over the world.

We don't really eat slow cooker friendly food. DD is vegetarian and eats a lot of pasta. Tonight we had fajitas. Yesterday toad in the hole (Richmond veggie sausages are brilliant), Saturday was stroganoff, and Friday was curry night made with oven roasted cauliflower and squash.

@XingMing

The barrier to eating decent food is not money check out Jack Monroe but time. So a plug in slow cooker is your best friend. Titivate your casserole just before you eat it. Most likely, all you need to add is a bit more salt to make the taste come alive. Anything else is a luxury.

My parents used to do that they pre prepared in the evening before when we were watching the "nightnight" series. It was either cooked and chilled to be heated the next eve or it was to be finished next eve. There were meals prepped and frozen whenever there was time. Brits are not the only ones working full time with kids. In my original country we just get on with it...

Also. The lack of time when one has kids, or funds due to unforseen circumstances are not a reason to not know how to cook. People should know that before.

Although, most of Italy eats what they grow, in its season, when it's cheap. So the same rules can't be followed year round in the UK. Between March and late May, there's a gap when there isn't much cheap seasonal produce to add interest but for the rest of the year, there's a huge selection of vegetables and fruit from our temperate climate.

@40andginger

Graphista

I'm simply saying that people should not have children unless they are willing to look after them properly!
There are many disabled people more than capable of looking after children and guess what they don't moan about it they just play the cards they are dealt with!
People can be temporarily ill but there is help out there for everyone
Some people just don't accept it or ask and they are the ones who's kids suffer
The mum's feeding their baby coke from a bottle do you think that they tibk this is healthy?
Let me guess your going to tell me they have mental health issues?
To the mums who give their kids chicken nuggets and chips every day there is a reason for that?

Fruit and veg are not expensive! There are many healthy meals that do not cost alot of money!
How many people use the excuse eating healthy is more expensive? Actually no it's not its alot cheaper to eat healthy
You don't have to serve up 5 star meals you just need to make sure they get the right start
I get people with mental issues can slip through the net but this is not what I am talking about! I'm talking about the shit lazy excuses of alot of parents
So stop looking for arguments we may have different views but that's life I'm afraid not everyone sees everyone as victims

You sound like a mug

I know where you were going. Everyone can have the time when they simply cannot take really good care for their kids. It can happen to anyone. May it be physical or mental health issue.

However, when someone knows they can't, or more actually when it comes to basics they could do but won't learn it, yet still have kids simply because they want to, it's selfish and wrong. It's the children who suffer.

Re the expensive fruit and veg. Seasonal, canned and frozen🤷🏻

I don't really know how I learned
I grew up in pubs and remember doing things like dragging a fork over mash on cottage pie to make pretty lines, my mum always cooked too. Food tech at school was useless
I could cook at uni, had a few cookbooks. Mum used to get good food magazine so I read that... stuff like I don't remember being taught how to make scrambled eggs but I know how to do them
If I'm not sure I google or YouTube stuff. Jamie Oliver ministry of food is good and also a meat thermometer really helped when I wasn't sure stuff was done

I think if you have money but not time or knowledge you can still eat pretty well with all the prepped stuff about
Chicken and bits off the hot counter, trays of roasted veg, prepped sweet potato wedges or mash.. fresh pasta and sauces, salads, there's a lot of not quite ready meal stuff but pre prepped
I couldn't be bothered this weekend so I got a chicken crown in a bag (comes with instructions, some reduced trays of roasting veg and some sweet potato to make it mash
I vary between a lot depending on time and money available!

If you have time and knowledge but not much money then that's usually ok, it's when you're lacking all three because you don't have time or money or knowledge to experiment, learn or rely on prepped stuff

I’m a fan of slow cookers too, very easy to use and ime produce lovely tasty food - and I’m veggie! But that’s of course where the cook has the space for one and is in a place where it’s allowed to be used and can afford the initial outlay for the pricier ingredients like herbs and spices, which as I said before might be cheap per recipe but expensive to buy initially especially if you have none to begin with.

@40andginger don’t bother backtracking now those posts were DISGUSTING!

Do you have ANY IDEA how hard it is to even access healthcare and support at the moment?

Services have been DECIMATED under austerity, I’m basically existing in my bedroom at the moment and it’s taken over a year and the intervention of my gp and Mp to get ANY access to mh support and what I am getting is VERY minimal. I’ve currently been waiting almost 3 years so far for additional support re the physical disability!

I am NOT a mug!

I am a disabled and seriously mentally ill woman who has despite that (though neither condition was dx prior to having dd. The mental illness was managed well albeit undx it was much lower level then and the physical disability didn’t happen until several years after dd was born due to a car accident - I was hit by a twat on his phone - and the resulting disability wasn’t even acknowledged for several years after that even now the various specialists can’t completely agree on dx) managed to raise mostly as a single parent (ex cheated and knocked up ow) an amazing young woman (who is ALSO disabled - genetic condition previously didn’t know was in the family as very mild cases) with precious little meaningful support from anyone - friends/family OR professionals!

I hold 2 degrees - one medical and one in English and I’ve worked within the civil service I know the “system” probably a damn sight better than most and yet I have repeatedly and regularly had to deal with:

Dwp and councils who LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH to avoid providing support they are legally obliged to

Healthcare workers who believe mental illness is a personal failing and show little compassion or empathy - inc mental health hcps!

Social workers who think it’s as simple as phoning my gp and have little to no real experience of life outside a VERY middle class and protected bubble.

Pharmacists who’ve refused to dispense certain medications AGAINST the directions of specialists.

BELIEVE ME I know how the system DOESN’T work! And I’m an educated, streetwise, assertive and pro-active person! If I’M struggling to get support how the FUCK are people with learning or cognitive disabilities supposed to manage?!

Nobody is saying there aren’t ways around the various barriers mentioned BUT those of us with certain life experiences know it’s not as simple as “stiff upper lip and crack on”, that people who face certain barriers and have had certain knocks need NOT judgment and sneering but understanding, compassion and support!

Berating someone as “lazy” merely puts them off listening to you! It achieves nothing!

Graphista
I stand by my posts I'm not back tracking I'm also going to bed now

Inc the really disgusting deleted one??

And my apologies for not reading your last post but I'm already tired I gave up half way through

I'm already tired I gave up half way through
That’s what the people at dwp and various support agencies say as they read someone’s desperate cry for help, based on the responses they produce.

I’ve never mastered the slow cooker to be honest. I can make food in it but I’ve never made anything amazing, it’s just ok versions of Thai curry, veggie curry, dp does bolognese.

This popped up in the university Facebook page.

I think it's more of a problem of not knowing what food is than not being able to cook. You could theoretically teach yourself to cook if you knew what you needed and wanted to eat.

So many people shove array of nuggets and chips in the oven for children as they think that's what children eat. Rather thanthinking, children need lots of veg so tonight I will learn to make a Ragu or a bean chilli or a tray of roasted veg. There is the myth that children don't like those things so they don't try.

Also if you think lasagne comes in a plastic tray for the microwave and you think that's how lasagne tastes then it doesn't occur to you to try and make a fresh one that takes an hour.

I think it's a huge cause of the need for food banks and the reason we have low income people struggling. Not exclusively but if you fed your children freshly made porridge for breakfast instead of packet cereal that would save a few pounds were week alone, water instead of squash (which is appalling stuff) abother few pounds, made casserole instead of buying several individual microwave meals,another few pounds.

You also then don't need to buy the junk food snacks if the family are full up from wholesome home cooking. Lots of children are hungry between meals because they are eating empty calorie crap. Cheerios,white bread ham sandwiches and fish fingers and waffles are not wholesome foods so you are hungry again an hour later.

We should teach cooking in schools and have adult cooking classes that are mandatory if your child is overweight or you are struggling to pay for food.

Yanbu.

I know how to cook well and cheaply out of neccesity and my ds is a fab cook too. He made a lovely concoction yesterday with odds and ends from the fridge, (( creeme fraiche, carrots, leeks, garlic and cheese)) a bit of leftover gammon and some green lentils we had knocking about.

We used to have ready steady cook nights when the kids were younger when Id put what we had on the table and we'd come up with a meal..... Sad fact is the kids didn't know it was all we had. But it's paid off.

Graphista
Yes I stand by my posts! If it's deleted it's because you put in a complaint about it I thought the snowflake generation was younger
I dotn understand what you found so offensive and disgusting but I don't want you to enlighten me anyway as I belive that's your issue

Timeisnotaline
Maybe they do but they are clearly not doing their job properly

Some people unfortunately have too much power and are in positions where it can be problematic

But it doesn't change the fact that no matter who you are you should give your kids the best start you can! Or seek help to do so! If not they should not have them. I think everyone can agree on that
Well at least I hope so but again I will probably get more excuses and what ifs

It's not hard to buy a recipe book or follow online instructions. People who can't cook, just can't be bothered.

I enjoy it but I didn't do any cooking at home really apart from the odd cake. I taught myself at Uni and Delia was a great help.

That’s what the people at dwp and various support agencies say as they read someone’s desperate cry for help, based on the responses they produce isn’t it just?!

@40andginger - I reported yes but mnhq wholeheartedly agreed what you wrote was against mn talk guidelines - that’s the explanation.

You wrote disablist and bigoted comments that’s not allowed on mn.

I’m not a “snowflake” which is a ridiculous term anyway usually used by bullies to dismiss and minimise the criticism of their offensive comments. I am a mentally ill woman who is UTTERLY SICK of seeing the mentally ill STILL repeatedly discriminated against online and in all areas of real life, and this is STILL largely not taken seriously, we are still a disabled group that aren’t robustly defended.

I don't want you to enlighten me anyway as I belive that's your issue then that shows that you are happy to continue in your bigotry and prejudice. It’s NOT ‘my issue’ it’s an issue that will affect 1 in 4 Uk adults at some point in their life, and I dont just mean experiencing mental illness but the prejudice and bigotry that is still perpetuated against the mentally ill - especially mothers - by people like you who don’t even want their prejudice pointed out to them.

Until we address and challenge every incident of prejudice we have no hope of reducing it.

@MalbecBlooms I think SOME of what you say is true certainly I know people that genuinely don’t know/believe that it’s possible even easy to make things that they’d normally buy ready made from scratch and that it’s cheaper, tastier and healthier - that’s actually a discussion my mum had with those sneering mums about soup! Indeed her response was that Tinned soup was full of salt, little in the way of nutrition usually and aside from the salt was actually quite bland! With a few of them, the ones that made the effort to get to know her and accepted invitations to lunch/dinner were served her home made soup and agreed it was much tastier and more filling. Even showed them how to make soup which they were under the impression it would be a long, difficult and laborious task.

However, for some families they do not have the facilities or finances to cook from scratch, particularly those relying on food banks who may well be living in one room with no cooker, no fridge and perhaps only a microwave at most to cook with and no way of storing leftovers.

Where I live there were adult cookery classes for families where there were various health difficulties relating to food and nutrition but the funding was cut several years ago now.