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

Hadn't considered the cost of running the oven. Perhaps slow cooker/air fryer type cooker would be a cheaper option. Mine cost pennies to run compared to the oven.

@BoreiPuriHagafen

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

Me either. I’d be making serious cutbacks in other areas of my life and/or going veggie before I ate such cheap meat.

@Noogar

*homemade stuffing 25p onion, fresh herbs, my own breadcrumbs homemade gravy 10p spoon of flour and some gravy browning*

And there's the time cost of doing all this. And if you don't know how to do it the time cost of finding out how.

It takes minutes to make stuffing and my gran taught me to make gravy when I was a girl. Cooking is a great life skill and one that can save you a fortune, skills I am now passing on to my dc.

I should have posted this next week as we will be having roast lamb, I bought a whole leg a few weeks ago when it was 8 kg and cut it into smaller joints,

I agree it might cost more in fuel than a pizza but the beauty of a roast is that you have most of it in the oven at the same time and our smaller chicken today was just an hour and 20 mins in the oven. Roasties and yorkies in at the same time, just have to shuffle the shelves about.

She probably doesn't cook. Lots of people don't because it is a faff. Even if you know how to cook it is still sometimes a faff. And pizzas are nice, especially the fresh ones - I like the ham, mushroom and mozzarella sourdough ones from Sainsburys for £4.50 for one large enough for two as long as they are not very hungry.

But your roast chicken would have worked out cheaper than her pizzas and wouldn't be too much of a faff to make. It would be equally tasty and more nutritious.

Tonight is a chicken casserole which is even easier than your roast made with a leg each (thighs and drumsticks), leeks, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, broad beans and chicken stock, herbs and tomato puree. The chicken is not free range and I think was £4.50 for four leg portions.

I eat free range meat and often choose to make vegetarian or vegan food but I really can't be arsed with people saying: "Wow! Just wow!"

As long as you aren't opening the door really often, once the oven is heated it's maintaining the temperature rather than just blasting out more and more heat so it wouldn't cost significantly more to run it for an hour rather than 15 minutes cooking a pizza. Once you are finished then leave the oven door open so at least you get the benefit of the heat in the house.

It takes minutes to make stuffing and my gran taught me to make gravy when I was a girl. Cooking is a great life skill and one that can save you a fortune, skills I am now passing on to my dc.

Not if you make homemade bread it doesn't. But yes I get your point. You've kind of made my point with telling us about your gran. My mum told me how to make a roast but if she hadn't I'd have to look it up and it would take me ages as I wouldn't be sure of each step and I'd probably just buy gravy granules.

Do they even teach home economics anymore?

I can cook, sometimes I enjoy it and am prepared to invest an amount of time and energy doing it but I agree sometimes you can't be bothered and so might have supermarket ready made something. But I wouldn't be saying I was having that because cooking a meal was necessarily more expensive

I always buy cheap cuts, like brisket, shoulder of lamb, shoulder of pork, or chicken. I get several meals out of the meat not mumsnet meals and use some of the meat for sandwiches. With roasties and Yorkshire pudding, you do end up with quite a cheap meal.

It takes minutes to make stuffing

And how are you making your breadcrumbs? In a processor? Do you grow your fresh herbs in your garden?

I understand your approach. I do something similar - I blitz up stale bread crusts and freeze them, make stock from chicken carcasses, etc etc, but I also appreciate that these little frugalities are made a lot easier by my Magimix, decently sized freezer, and well-stocked pantry.

@Loveshelly

Do they even teach home economics anymore?

No its design and technology still i think.

@FourteenSixteenTwentyTwo

BoreiPuriHagafen

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

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

Gosh, when did they bring in that law saying it was compulsory to buy a whole chicken every week?

@CarrotSticks23

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?

More likely she can’t be bothered to cook

DH is cooking our roast now. Toad in the hole with veggie sausages, roast potatoes, roast parnips, mashed parsnips, carrots, cauliflower and peas.

I don't mind pizza although I almost always make my own. Wouldn't really want it for my Sunday dinner though. My neighbour is worse than that, they have McDonalds for their Sunday dinner. Nice and healthy for their 3 children!

We get it OP. Your very prepared with your cut up lamb leg, your herb garden, your homemade bread, your 7.5kg of potatoes

It is possible to eat cheaply and you are better than your friend because you know how to cook

Honestly your friend probably just fancied pizzas from the pizza counter and made a throw away comment.

@Loveshelly

Do they even teach home economics anymore?

When DSs (now 21 and 20) were at school, there was a national shortage of Home Ec teachers (Scotland) so they only got a couple of weeks and I think they made sandwiches and can't remember what else in the 2 or 3 weeks teaching they got.

Hadn't considered the cost of running the oven

2 quid at realistic worst for all the power required, likely quite a bit less. Obviously assuming you have a kitchen, appliances and skill of course.

Cheap battery farmed chicken? Eww

Not only is it unethical, it's also very unhealthy.

It's possible to make a lovely veggie or vegan roast which is both healthy and cheap.

@FourTeaFallOut
Oh come on. Why do we think we have a right to cheap food. It’s not just the animal welfare. It’s all of the bits inbetween. Farmers? People working in chicken processing plants? Corners get cut because people expect cheap meat.

Some lack the ability to see that if we contribute to the vicious cycle to get cheap meat then we are part of the problem.

@Hdhdjejdj

This doesn’t surprise me at all. People have some funny ideas about the cost of food. I am always amazed when people complain about how expensive food is, so eat pizza instead. Pizza is a complete rip off and nutritionally a load of shit too. It’s incredible adults with dc think like this.

Indeed. I was once told by a chef friend that pizza has by far the highest profit margin of any type of food. Dirt cheap ingredients but people will still pay £10 or more for a pizza.

Well, it's good to see that it's still perfectly fine to be judgemental about some things, such as how much someone can afford to pay for a chicken. I wonder what is a fair price for the life of an animal... I guess some would prefer that most people couldn't afford to eat meat regularly.

"Wow, just wow" at the lack of understanding and empathy for the real-life struggles of so many.

@Noogar

It was breadcrumbs made from homemade bread! I made the breadcrumbs from dry crusts last week and they were in the freezer.

@Granllanog yes but it took time to make the homemade bread was my point. So not quick if you include that time. But I get your point, stuffing can be quick.

Also lots of people don't cook because they can't afford the utensils, storage space and fuel - that includes gas or electricity to cook the food and electricity for a fridge or a freezer.

That's the reason why I have no time for Jamie Oliver or people who go "wow Just wow" or "I'd go veggie before I ate a cheap chicken."

I'm not vegetarian or vegan but I often cook things without animal ingredients because I happen to like them and know how to do it.