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Original poster

OMG - Ive just watched new Jamie Oliver Prog and cant believe a 5 year old's fave meal is a Kebab!!!!

274 replies

mumma2cjh · 30/09/2008 22:21

I felt soooooooooo guilty the other day as in a md rush I gave my 3 year old fresh pasta nad pesto followed by strawberries, grapes and apple slices....After watching JO's new programme I feel totally relieved.

Im not a great cook but would never, never, never feed my 3 year old kebab meat or chips and cheese from a take a way!!!!

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Buda · 01/10/2008 09:43

There are loads of people who just do not know how to cook. Their mothers prob didn't know how to cook.

My grandmothers cooked everything from scratch but then in the 60s convience foods were more widely available and lots of people took advantage of the convenience. My mum being one. And my MIL. They did some stuff from scratch but more and more was convenience foods. We lived on chips, findus pancakes, fishfingers etc. When I moved in with DH I could cook a few basic meals. But I relied a lot on convenience foods too as that was what I was brought up on. Then I moved overseas where such things were not available and I had to learn to cook.

I agree that education is the way to go.

ledodgy · 01/10/2008 09:44

I think it's only middle class if you toast and crush your own pine nuts and use fresh basil and parmesan. I buy the la scala version in a jar. Make of that what you will.

belgo · 01/10/2008 09:50

Education is important Buda but there is just so much temptation regarding food in England.

I was brought up on boiled potatoes, boiled vegetables and whatever meat or fish there happened to be - sausages, fishfingers, faggots, sometimes real meat such as boiled ham. None of that takes any culinary skill, and is reasonably healthy, but people are tempted by more interesting and unhealthy foods.

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bundle · 01/10/2008 09:53

None of that takes any culinary skill

Belgo - i think the people JO met would think it does!

Buda · 01/10/2008 09:56

I agree that there is too much temptation but some people really do not know how to peel or cook potatoes. Or how to cook meat or fish. Or veg. So education in the basics is important.

zookeeper · 01/10/2008 09:58

nauseating op post.

greenbeanie · 01/10/2008 09:59

I agree with Buda, like Ebberley I work with young parents and have set up a lunch group teaching cooking on a budget and just as importantly sitting together and sharing a meal. Many of these parents have never been cooked for themselves and just have no idea - it's not that they don't want to do things differently it's that they don't know how to. Cooking is just a skill to be learned like learning to drive.

nailpolish · 01/10/2008 10:02

good post Ebberley

OonaghBhuna · 01/10/2008 10:02

I agree with education theory. It is so much cheaper to cook things from scratch. I have been broke many times and lived off lentils and baked potatoes, you can still eat healthily on a crap budget.

nailpolish · 01/10/2008 10:04

thats fine oonagh if you KNOW how to cook

you are not born with the knowledge how to cook lentils

nailpolish · 01/10/2008 10:04

or even a flippin baked potato

dashboardconfessionals · 01/10/2008 10:07

This reply has been deleted

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whoopsididitagain · 01/10/2008 10:08

i just want to say me and my lo are living on benefits it costs me around 20-25 a week to make all our meals from scratch we dont eat a lot of meat but we get by and eat a full and varied diet.

but i dont feel guilty if we have the odd mcdonalds or chipshop tea with my parents

i cant afford to buy anything ready made other than bread and yoghurt so how she cays she cant afford to buy fruit veg is so much cheaper

cory · 01/10/2008 10:08

Can't believe that I'm siding with the kebabs on this; can't bear the stuff.

But there was an unpleasant tone to the OP. Guilty of Fresh Pasta and Pesto- we really didn't need to know that, Mumma2!

Yes sure, all for Jamie Oliver and home-cooked food and all the rest of it. Great stuff and I'm as greedy as they come. But most of us go through periods of life when other pressures mean that the apron-wearing, Yorkshire-pudding-whisking side of us has to take a back seat.

TrinityRhino · 01/10/2008 10:11

roffle

really icky op
only fresh pasta and fresh fruit

oh god forbid

you sooo did that on purpose to feel good

roffle

bamboostalks · 01/10/2008 10:13

I think that there is a huge underestimation of how poorly some children, a huge number in fact, are eating. We did some food diaries in school and it was distressing to see how the best meal of the day was their school dinner. These are loved children of lovely mums but they just do not know how to cope with feeding their children a balanced diet on a tight budget. I know that it is tough call for anyone but these are often the least equipped people of whom we are asking the most. They have no independent transport to get them to supermarkets, lack equipment and lack knowledge.

nothot · 01/10/2008 10:13

I think the point the OP was making is that cooking pasta and pesto (from a 'delia' jar) is not hard. Boil water, throw in psta, leave for 10 mins. It even has the instructions on the packet. This mother bought kebab becasue she could not be bothered to do even that.

GreenEggsAndSpam · 01/10/2008 10:15

Ebberley and greenbeanie - just wanted to say thank you for doing the job you are doing. I know it can be hard and depressing and thankless at times, but as you said, it is helping people make what others might see as small changes, but for them are huge steps.

So many parents haven't been parented themselves, and so make poor choices for their own children.

We can all sit and judge, but it is guys like you that are out there doing the gritty stuff who should be talked about.
As for JO, I think he's ok. He is trying, and most don't.

TrinityRhino · 01/10/2008 10:16

notbot
that is NOT what the op was saying IMO

and anyway
there were some women on the prog. last night that didn't know what boiling water looked like

so that stuffs the pasta and pesto at the first hurdle

also fresh pasta and pesto costs a fortune, these women are on benifits so wouldn't be able to sustain a diet with things like that in it
however it is just an excuse when she says she hads no money as A kebab probably costs £4 or something

BabyBaby123 · 01/10/2008 10:16

I don't think that was the point of the op at all. The emphasis on the sooooo guilty, the FRESH pasta, the PESTO, the FRESH fruit - it was just so she could pat herself on the back and feel smug and superior really gets me mad tbh

Mercy · 01/10/2008 10:16

I might have to parp

Thank god for Ebberly and greenbeanie.

Have you seen the other read about this? There's a great link to a Guardian review of the programme.

nothot · 01/10/2008 10:18

Well anyway - pasta from a packet costs about 50p. Jar of pesto -what, £1? Thats about 3 meals.

Megglevache · 01/10/2008 10:23

I think Surestart should get invoved and teach young mums how to cook. I think it's awful that some kids eat like that every day/meal

TrinityRhino · 01/10/2008 10:23

well, we have a family of five

FRESH pasta is so much more expensive than the other that we dont buy it

pesto that would cost £1 for a jar is tesco value and that barely manages the two adults in the family

so no your not right nothot

TrinityRhino · 01/10/2008 10:24

3 meals!

roffle

sorry cannpt beleive how much you dont see about the cost of food