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Telly addicts

Economy Gastronomy

117 replies

conniedescending · 12/08/2009 21:01

Anyone just watched that utter wankage?

Their budget came down to £210 a fricken week AFTER the economy drive

thought this would be useful to me but seems I'm doing ok on my £200 a month

OP posts:
Heated · 23/08/2009 10:16

Well, I made Paul Merret's Quick-spiced chicken thighs with 'emergency biryani' last night and it was, I'm sorry to say, distinctly average. I get suckered into thinking that dish looks lovely with Jamie Oliver too and I never like the results. That tosser Gordon Ramsey otoh does know how to put a recipe together.

HarrietTheSpy · 23/08/2009 11:53

Heated. We've had it to. I'm afraid I love it overall...however, we do add Madhu Jaffery's butter sauce with it, which I think makes a difference possible? Also don't follow his rice recipe...

Heated · 23/08/2009 21:53

HarriettheSpy, is it indeed the lack of sauce and ok rice that lets it down. The chicken, otoh, was very nice.

Hmm, Madhu Jaffery's butter sauce eh? If I steal your idea, maybe a rescueable dish!

HarrietTheSpy · 24/08/2009 20:14

would it be useful to post the recipe for Madhu and DH's braised rice?

Heated · 24/08/2009 22:01

Wow, yes please, that would be really useful

swineofthetimes · 24/08/2009 22:39

I've got to confess that I've bought the book from the series - not because I think it's going to save me any money but because I like the recipes . And it is rather good - largely because Allegra is faberooney.

conniedescending · 26/08/2009 20:09

here we go again

21K on food

that's more than our income last year

hmmm - what a challenge to reduce that budget

OP posts:
Meglet · 26/08/2009 20:16

How old are they??!!! 18??!! 1st year Uni students probably have a better grip on money and meal planning than they do!

whinegums · 26/08/2009 20:20

I wouldn't mind if there were some weeks where they were working on huge budgets (what is it, £410 a WEEK this week ffs!!??) and other weeks on smaller ones. At least it's moved on from mince slop for a week though...

Swineofthetimes, is the book worth buying? I'm not bothered about saving money (quite economical in this house anyway) but I do love a nice bit of food porn cook book.

IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes · 26/08/2009 20:29

I knew there would be a thread on this, only just tuned in.

I am thinking of buying the book as although a family of 3 we spend too much on food. Partly though because dp wont eat my cooking so I have to meal plan for dd and I and then dp does his own thing.

expatinscotland · 26/08/2009 20:38

There is no way my kids would eat a lot of that stuff.

Gimme Jamie any day.

TwoIfBySea · 26/08/2009 20:46

I do find that Jamie's recipes are very popular with my dts too expat. Especially if they know it is a "made by Jamie" recipe, means they'll try anything! They do think he cooks all the food in Sainsbo's though!

expatinscotland · 26/08/2009 21:01

The Dinner Lady goes over great with them, too.

They love the pictures and chose stuff based on the drawings and photos.

TwoIfBySea · 26/08/2009 21:05

I was always amused by the recipes showing amounts for family and also for 90 something people!

IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes · 26/08/2009 22:52

Whenever I cook dd says to me "Is this a Jamie recipe/" apparantly she is not a fan of nigella

prettybird · 27/08/2009 17:37

I can see the point that people are making about the budgets not being in most people's reach but the concepts of menu planning and using up left overs have sadly been forgotten by many people today.

I have found since I started menu planning and doing weekly shopping at Lidl, supplemented by fortnightly shopping at Sainsbury's, that my grocery bill has dropped by about a third.

For a family of three, we now eat well on £70/week (altohugh ds has school lunches 4 days a week over and above that) - and that still includes our freshly squeezed orange juice every day and a weekly bottle of Cava and the odd case of beer (other wine is supplied by dh "bought" from his wine business).

Yestrday's was the first episode I watched and I liked the idea of the salmon - but can see that you might want to freeze some fo the dishes to have in different weeks, just for variety. But it is a TV programme that they are making - and the principle still holds of getting suffieinct for a week from one major purchase.

I do often buy a leg of lamb and make that last all week: first night roast lamb with roast or new potatoes, 2nd night cold roast lamb with chips, 3rd night "suleman's pilaf" (fried onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, raisins and pine nuts, diced lamb, fried together and then mixed with plenty of rice), 4th night, shepherds pie with hidden veg (base made with minced lamb, onions, canned tomatoes, carrots/celery/leeks/anything else in the fridge/frozen chopped spinach, mash made with potatoes and/or parsnips and/or carrots and/or swede). 5th night, a spag bol made from spare shepherds pie base. As we don't eat meat every night, a couple of other nights would be, say, herb risotto or a frittata.

And there is usually still some Suleman's Pilaf and shepherd's pie base to go in the freezer for another week.

There is enough variety there that it doesn't feel like we are eating monotonous lamb every night All that from an £8.76 frozen leg of lamb from Lidl

Scootergrrrl · 27/08/2009 17:47

I am amazed no-one has mentioned Mr £21,000-on-food's dodgy jacket!

expatinscotland · 28/08/2009 00:37

pretty, i know you of old, and you know i haven't any problem with other peoples' wealth or what they do with it, hence, my posts on this thread.

but how do you GET you kids to eat something like salmon cowder?

there is NO way i can get mind to eat something like that!

prettybird · 28/08/2009 11:13

Actually - the person I have problem with eating salmon is dh, not ds!

He ate too much salmon at functions to do with his work, which put him off, almost for life (there are a couple of fancy salmon dishes that we have done fo dinner parties but that is about it)

SO while I liked the range of salmon dishes on the programme, I won't be rushing off to the fishmongers!

That said, of the lamb example I gave, I do struggle sometimes to get ds to eat things like the suleman's pilaf. He just gets told that that is all there is for supper and has to make at least a token effort to eat it (eg 4 decent forkfuls) - and then gets nothing else that night.

He does like the shepherds pie though - and has no idea that there are all those veg in it - supplemented still further by peas served with it.

He also loves my risotto (not always herb - sometimes pea) which is do in the microwave and is a really cheap dish.

Meglet · 02/09/2009 20:28

on now! Although I've missed the beginning so I'm not sure how much money they are trying to save, it's students this week.

smallorange · 02/09/2009 20:34

why don't they just make the tomato sauce with tinned tomatoes? Surely it's cheaper and nicer and quicker..

Meglet · 02/09/2009 20:37

The cookies look good, especially the toppings.

MuffinToptheMule · 02/09/2009 20:39

Did you see the boy sucking the mixture off Allegra's finger?!

smallorange · 02/09/2009 20:41

tuna pasta bake. hmmm

Megglevache · 02/09/2009 20:48

Am loving Allegra, how cool is she? Very eccentric and I think it is genuine :-)

She's like a very young Clarissa Bobbins-Wright isn't she?