"Just add beans, pulses and lentils"

[Hagrod]

I am sick of hearing this advice given when food poverty is being discussed!

"Just add beans, pulses and lentils to all your meals, they will give you the protein you need to spread expensive meat and fish further [ad infinitum]."

Like many other people, I do not have packets of beans, pulses and lentils nestled at the back of my cupboards just waiting for the day I am so starving I need to add them to a bowl of soup. I would have to go out and buy them, I assume they are not given away for free.

I just think it's such a cliched piece of advice that has been meted out to 'the peasants' for decades now and I wish they'd stop it.

You are probably right. @MrsLargeEmbodied. I just tend to follow the advice of what is required at the time. I like that Morrisions put food bank donations in bags by the till because I don't always have time to go looking for extra shopping.

I get what OP is saying. She has cited an example of the kind of advice that is often trotted out to struggling families. I suspect that all she wants to do is to go shopping pick up a chicken, fresh vegetables and fruit, a box of ice cream and a cake or pudding knowing she can afford it without stressing.
But she probably can’t. The last thing she wants to hear is add pulses/cook from scratch/buy basa not cod - she simply wants to shop and make meals. She is sick of trite advice from people who are not struggling.

It’s having a basic such as food choice taken away. I’ve lived through both and watching why you are buying stuff is so draining. You look at foods from a place of fear of it being cheap enough and going far. Instead of pleasure and enjoyment.

Cactusmad, you are so right. And your comment ‘looking at food from a place of fear’ is true and heartbreaking.

Food , sleep , heating all basic needs . Some people can’t get enough food or heating so it has knock on affect of sleep. The worry is all consuming when you are faced with this.

After reading this thread, I tried adding lentils to our already vegetarian bolognese. I only added a small amount to avoid putting of DCs so it didn't help to bulk out the meal at all. The positive is that they didn't notice the lentils so I'll add them again next time for the nutritional value. It didn't save me any money though.

Well no, the whole point of using them to save money and bulk out a meal is that they're an alternative to meat, which is expensive.

What do you usually have in your veggie bol? Mine is all lentils!

one of my family favourites is black eye bean shepherds pie,
i am making that tonight

this was from Rose Elliott's book back in the 1980s, so fairly simple ingrediants.

I think that generation of vegetarian cookery books was quite good, I had and still have Linda McCartney and Sarah Brown.

I absolutely loathe those 'Vegan Cook' columns in the Guardian newspaper, which contain the most obscure ingredients costing an absolute fortune!

I use vegetarian or vegan mince - which is a bit pricey but not as expensive as meat. Adding a small amount of lentils was a good idea actually but as I said it made no difference to the 'bulk' of the meal and it didn't save us money. Benefit is the added nutrients which is important because lets face it, shop bought vegan mince isn't that healthy.

In the eighties you could not get those obscure pricey ingredients anywhere. So recipes were more sensible.

Tbf the advice is usually to either substitute part of the meat, hence savings, or add it to make extra portion or 2, so saving on another meal.