to think that a roast dinner isn't necessarily an expensive meal to cook?

[Granllanog]

Just been chatting to a newish friend, she asked what we were eating today and I said I had cooked a roast chicken dinner........she said she loves a roast but considers it an expensive meal. I asked her what she was having today and she said they were having fresh pizzas from Morrisons (£10).
I told her my roast dinner cost less than that to make!!!

Obviously, if you buy a very expensive cut of meat then the cost will be higher but a roast doesn't have to break the bank surely? Today we had a simple chicken dinner, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, swede, peas, carrots, stuffing and gravy.

Breakdown of today's simple roast
Chicken .........1.4 kg £3.33 (part of a multibuy offer)
Potatoes .......... 30p (taken from a large 7.5 kg bag)
Carrots 25p
Peas (frozen) 30p
swede 45p
parsnips 30p
homemade stuffing 25p onion, fresh herbs, my own breadcrumbs
homemade gravy 10p spoon of flour and some gravy browning

Large shoulder of pork here today - £5 bargain!

I agree it depends what you put on your roast and where you get it from !

[quote Loveshelly]@Eminybob
Wow that an animal lived, died, processed by people and it still only costs 3.33
There is something so fucked up about that.

Yet on my thread where I said food is too cheap everyone disagreed and said it’s too expensive and I’m some rich bitch.

3.33 for a living creature is too cheap IMPO[/quote]
This. not envy.

A free range organic chicken from Morrisons is £13
It depends how much you want to compromise on animal welfare for your roast really. Maybe she's not prepared to buy a £3 chicken?

People who don't cook often claim that home cooked meals are expensive. They may also believe it if they don't compare the prices etc.

We get our meat from the butchers, he does 3 joints for a tenner, so not dear

Well I'll admit I go shopping and pick up a big standard chicken for about £3. I have a family to feed and am on a budget. Considering how many people I see around me in the supermarket picking up the same meat, I'm certainly not alone!

*bog standard

Suppose it depends on how you feel about factory farmed meat. I wont eat it so a roasting joint (or bird) is quite expensive.

I think a lot of people don't buy/cook/eat fresh vegetables like carrots, potatoes, onions etc, or frozen ones like peas, broccoli, green beans etc, and so have no idea how much they actually cost.

One of my family members lives on expensive ready meals because meals like spaghetti bolognese etc are "too expensive to make from scratch". I asked them once how much they thought a bag of carrots cost and they said "at least £5"

Cheap as chips depending on what you buy - we either go for chicken thighs or pork shoulder or slow braised stewing meat.

Pizza for Sunday dinner just seems wrong

Loving the idea of a toast with thrills

@BoreiPuriHagafen

I wouldn't buy or eat a chicken that cost 3 quid.

Good for you! Some people don’t have a choice, unfortunately.

I think it really comes down to whether you can cook or not. I know plenty of people who buy pre-prepped potatoes, yorkshires, gravy at a huge mark up. And if you are cooking from scratch but don’t have ‘basic’ ingredients in like butter/oil, herbs, flour then that adds up. But I agree that if you do know how to cook you can easily prepare a roast for 4-6 people for no more than £6 all in.

Tbf all the trimmings on a roast are extremely cheap.
And those Morrison’s pizzas from the fresh counter are pretty good.

I just feel sad that the majority of people happily expect an animal to cost £3 -£4

We are having a free-range, corn-fed chicken for tea and it costs about £6.50. Add a pack of stuffing and some vegetables and it works out at excellent value.

A veggie roast can also be delicious. Ive made nut roast...also quorn roast, veghie sausages and burhers are good on a roast. Must be accompanied by mustard, mint sauce and cranberry sauce.

@FourteenSixteenTwentyTwo
Everybody has a choice.

We as a country are simply happy to ignore all the problems that eating cheap meat produces.

Joints/whole chickens can be the most economical way to buy meat.

(Also at another MN conundrum... spending more than £70 a week on food is being a soendrift while simultaneously buying cheaper options is bad...)

[quote Loveshelly]@FourteenSixteenTwentyTwo
Everybody has a choice.

We as a country are simply happy to ignore all the problems that eating cheap meat produces.[/quote]
Well yes we all have a choice. Theoretically we could live off veg and carbs. However, my family want to eat meat and I can't afford to buy organic. I can't say I massively care to be honest

If I make a roast, it's either mutton (free and zero food miles) or chicken (not expensive). I grow the veg myself, and freeze enough to last the whole year, but even buying it in doesn't seem expensive.

Healthy food like veg isn't expensive, frozen or even fresh veg can be bought cheaply and does many more meals, the mainly expensive part is the meat.

Depends what you do I think

We’ve just had one and it would breakdown as

Chicken £3.50
Lemon 30p
Some herbs 10p
Oil and butter maybe 20p
Frozen roast maybe 80p
Sausages and streaky bacon probably £4
Half a bag of frozen cauli cheese £1
Cheddar cheese maybe 80p
Bit of truffle oil maybe 50p
Pinch of nutmeg - a penny or two
Stuffing maybe 30p
Roast garlic 60p
Sugar snap peas £1.25
Baby corn £1
Bit of flour - couple of pence
2 stock cubes - 40p
Eggs, milk and flour for the Yorkshire’s maybe a £1 tops

If I dropped the pigs in blankets and didn’t jazz up the cauli cheese it would knock quite a bit off

We have had a small boneless pork shoulder roast dinner tonight. Also cheap.

Parsnips roasted in cheap sunflower oil, carrots, broccoli, peas. It was yum.

All these people with the luxury of buying organic free range chickens need to remember that it is a luxury and for a lot of us the cost of your chicken needs to cover 2 or 3 meals.

I tend to buy chickens got roasting from a butcher so they are a lot more than £3 but I have the self awareness to know that I'm very privileged to be able to do so. Not everyone can and I don't think you can criticise people who are trying to feed a family on a budget for buying cheap chickens to roast.