WTF! Anyone else horrified at this Guardian article about "student" food?

[MrsTittleMouse]

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/21/student-cooking-recipes

It all costs an absolute fortune! My DH has a good job, but we don't have enough grocery budget to cook half this stuff. What are they all on?

£9.50 for macaroni cheese! When I was a poverty stricken student I didn't have £9.50 to spend on food in a week!

That is unbelievable!! They think that students should be spending a fiver a head for dinner? I think not!

White wine? Parmesan? Chesnut mushrooms? Creme Fraiche? What are they on?!

Mind you further down the page they are a bit better. I suppose it's still cheaper than alot of takeaways so ok for once a week!

OMG! One of those dishes was £22 com'on, £22!

You can make a perfectly decent macaroni cheese with macaroni, cheese, flour, milk and butter. Not sure what the cost per head is but suspect it's a lot less than £9.50!

When I was a student, I lived on Beanfeast. 85p a packet and that would do me two meals.

I was feeling sorry for today's students when I noticed how much Super Noodles cost these days. I didn't realise they spent money on nutrition now.

Unbelievable. I could cook those dishes for a fraction of the price and it would still taste great.

I lived on stotties and fish finger sandwiches. I didn't die.

Shatners, it's ok - they can buy Sainsburys basics INstant Noodles (I currently live off these - I blame the pregnancy) for 10p instead.

It did make me laugh looking through it. And what student wants to spend 2 hours making a pavlova!

Blimey! Mind you - did you see the "student cookbook" supplement at the weekend? Sprout coleslaw with lemon dressing

Who are these students? Spawn of the Sultan of Brunei?

Value pasta, 69p. Block of cheapo cheddar, about a quid. Dinner for 3 nights. BOSH.

Them were my student days.

I would have told Ramsay to shove his Parmiagianno Regianno up his Arso!

rofl@ that macaroni cheese recipe.
The thing that struck me about that was the 4 egg yolks - that's 4 protein portions entirely wasted (and it was the protein that cost money when doing budget cookery IME).

OMG actuALLY looked at the article.

Ridiculous (though the curry looks nice).

Chicken fajitas for 2 for £11?!! You could buy the expensive in my book kit and some nice chicken for about a fiver.

i lived on tuna pasta with sweetcorn!

I thought it was just me! I was spluttering over my toast reading them this morning!

If I do DP & me a "posh dinner" I don't spend nearly that much on ingredients. The only thing I can think of is that they're counting the cost of (for example) a whole bottle of oil, a whole packet of pasta, as students will be buying from scratch?

BTW, I tried the Crispy Fish Pie from the Student Cookbook that came with Saturday's paper last night - it was fab! I used courgette instead of mushrooms.

did you see the recipe book for students on saturday? there was a pork stew which required 1kg of pork fillet steak and half a bottle of red wine. I made it last night, and it was bloody delicious, but did half the amount and we'd been given a bottle of red - still cost nearer £6 for 2 of us, so would be at least £10 for a student! DH and I were at the recipes!

My student days were a value pack of pasta, value chopped tomatoes and value cheese - kept me going all week, with a cheap loaf and some butter and marmite thrown in for good measure!

Lol at Tom Aitkin's 'herbs de provence'.

at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's £22 curry.

droves student menu for a week !
breakfast
toast .smart pice loaf £0.45
own brand marg £ 1.

lunch . smart price noodles £0.10
x7 = £0.70

dinner . smart price fish fingers £0. 60 (aprox)
good for 3 sandwiches
bag of potatoes £1
eggs £ £2
frozen veg £ 2
beans £ 0.50 (aprox)
pot noodle £1
If hungry, pop round to visit granny/aunty/parent/big sister for face stuffing!.

see less than £10 a week !

God I lived on about £10 a week when I was a student. And I didn't eat unhealthily - I just made sure I bought value stuff in asda and froze stuff in individual portions. Value salmon for example is great. THe fillets might not be massive but they do the job .

Ooh, Beanfeast! That gave me a flashback to student days, what about Sosmix and Sizzles?

£22 for a curry! I'm disappointed in you Hugh.

my local mexican restaurant 's chicken fajitas are not that much money. You could actually eat out for cheaper!

I lived on toast for brekkie, porridge for lunch and lentil bake for dinner. With occasional scrambled eggs for variety. I used to throw in whatever veg I could afford into the lentils.
Sometimes I'd make a huge vat of leek and potato soup and eat it all week.

A gram of whizz = a fiver and no appetite for a couple of days