Are you watching Jamie Oliver's school dinners?

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

Jamie's being given a run for his money. Loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is very difficult for parents to know where to start if they have no cooking skills whatsoever. I'm not sure cost is what matters, it is about priorities. If that woman spent £200 a week on her family's food shop, she spent more per head than I do on my family's food shop and I don't buy any frozen ready to heat meals.

I expect if those people didn't buy the multi bags of crisps, the chocolate bars, sweets and fizzy drinks, they'd easily be able to afford to eat nutritious food. But, it is about priorities.

I'm sure someone has said this before but it is an absolutel fallacy that fresh food is more expensive than frozen processed crap. £200 per week on food is astronomical imo.

I wish Custardo would see this thread. She did a fab job of changing her family's diets a little while ago. I don't think she found it cheaper though - jsut that they ate much better stuff. It was a great thread to read though as lots of mums posted ideas for her to try

Bundle - I do agree to a certain extent but these children were just two years old. If anything, I thought it was an inappropriate party for a two year old and got a bit much when we had to go to four or five of them consecutively because they were early in the day and we'd end up with a hyperactive two year old for the rest of the Saturday.

Oops, didn't know she spend that much...fair point about cost , then.

the hydrogenated fat thing worries me - but the only bread I've found that doesn't have HF or palm oil in it costs £1.89 from Waitrose. Which is poncey by anyone's standards, though I still buy it.

MIL - I do leave the skins on the potatoes when I make wedges. If they're just for DH and me, I add a bit of salt.

Caligula - the recipe I saw for chicken nuggets said the kids made their own breadcrumbs. They lightly toasted some bread then put it into a bag and smashed it about with a rolling pin Sounds like a satisfying thing to make after a stressful day.

Not being a confident cook, I'm quite slow, and it's so irritating when dd refuses something I've slaved over (so I haven't done fishcakes in ages...). That's the attraction of convenience food. I think nutrition and cookery should be compulsory in primary schools - I love the idea of teaching kids about how food is grown, getting them to cook it and then eat it for lunch. I think school should be about that.

In the US, I think they have had a few lawsuits about partically hydrogenated vegetable oil and now food items are adequately labelled trans fats free if they do not contain them.

No such thing has happened in this country as yet. In fact, the labelling is misleading because the manufacturer can choose to leave the word partially out and imply it is fully hydrogenated vegetable oil is not the harmful type.

So, wherever you see hydrogenated vegetable oil on the label, you can not trust that the product doesn't contain trans fats.

will try that Beatie, you have inspired me - I must admit to giving oven chips, although ingredients are only potatoes and sunflower oil.

Beatie - I do my own oven chips as well - easy as pie, cheap as chips.

How do you make chicken nuggets without deep frying? There was a recipe in the waitrose mag but it involved deep frying which I don't do (scared I may set kitchen on fire).

OK after having raised the "fish finger - are they really healthy".. what about mince ?
Mince is BY DEFINITION partly OK pieces of the animal + left overs... sausages are a notorious example of that,..... do you know what is REALLY in your mince?

Muminlondon - I think that is an important point. Easy 'instants' are an answer - I give DS an omlette quite often - any other suggestions?

Wordsmith - Panfry in a dash of olive oil.....

Velcro - you know what's in your mince if you watch the butcher mince it!

I didn't realise there was a distinction between partially and full hydrogenated. Proper labelling is the government's responsibility isn't it? It's shocking how ineffective the government and Food Standards Agency seem to be at countering the food industry.

Thanks for the tip, will try it!

Beatie you are ABSOLUTELY right and it is very frightening that most poeple know nothing about this.... Mumsnetter are usually more astute than the average mum too !

oh no, velcrobott, do I have to worry about Waitrose extra-lean mince now?

I buy my mince at the organic farm and it's minced in front of me I also see him MAKE the sausages.... but I am quite fanatic about food !

I wish I had the chicken nuggett rceipe to hand.

Here's what I remember.

Chop up chicken breast. roll in flour. Beat and egg and roll the chicken breat in the egg. roll in the breadcrumbs. Place in a baking dish and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

That was it. It seemd so simple. I will try it in future.

I don't want people to think I am saintly. We too ate oven chips but after a few months of not touching them and having a 'let's eat more vegetables' few months, the chips just tasted so bland and I then had to use a mountain of mayonnaise to enjoy them

I am pregnant at present and eating loopy foods so I have super noodles in my cupboard. I am to say that.

I have no idea what's in it but I doubt it's sirloin minced not at THAT price... why do you think it is cheaper to buy mince than a proper piece of meat?

Wordsmith - sounds like a silly question but how do you do own overn chips? We never have chips but if I could do a healthy cheap version.....

Blu our quickies include:

'picky tea' - hard boiled eggs, choppied up carrots, veg , grapes, apples, breadsticks and pitta, cubed cheese etc

Scrambled eggs with pepper and peas

fishy rice - smoked mackeral with rice, sweetcorn, carrots and green beans.

Salad nicoise - without the leaves (neither of mine will eat) but with cucumber, beans, egg, tuna, olives, new potatoes.

Macaroni cheese with sliced tomatoes on top

Veg and lentil Soup - not quick but painless once you've chopped the veg - sit down for half an hour while it cooks.

chop potato, sprinkle with olive oil (I add herbes de provence) and in the over for uite a while like 30 mins- depends on size of chips.

but there aren't any butchers near where I live or work! probably because the supermarkets have put them out of business.