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ashaw1
26-Sep-07, 13:28
A question i have found myself asking over the past few months with regard to feeding the family. Do i buy convenience foods that i can guarantee the family will eat and is lighter on the pocket or do i make everything from scratch and have them leave most of it?

I have tried for a while now to make the family meals from scratch, i know this is nutritionally better but is it if they leave most of it? I made a trifle today which i could have bought at the local supermarket for half the price. I know a lot of people will say it is cheaper to eat fresh food but i have never found this. Making a pizza or shepherds pie from scratch does cost more than the supermarket version. I am sick of putting good food in the bin so i am beginning to wonder if i should go back to fish fingers and potato waffles. I have shelves full of recipe books but by the time you buy all the herbs, spices etc the shopping budget is through the roof.

Whitewater
26-Sep-07, 13:55
Making your own is cheaper and much healthier, when you buy all your herbs and spices in the one go I guess it is expensive but they last for a long time.
Precooked foods which you just have to heat up are all full of salt and sugar plus all sorts of colouring and flavour enhancers, if it says on the label that these levels are reduced it just means that something equally harmfull has been substituted.

Can't understand how you come to the conclusion that convenience food is cheaper.

Anne x
26-Sep-07, 14:01
I prefer Homemade I enjoy cooking but can understand where you are coming from as people get used to a certain taste and prefer shop bought meals I made my own Thai Fishcakes for a starter but every one preffered the shop bought ones same applied to my homemade Broccoli soup the list is endless

NickInTheNorth
26-Sep-07, 14:07
A question i have found myself asking over the past few months with regard to feeding the family. Do i buy convenience foods that i can guarantee the family will eat and is lighter on the pocket or do i make everything from scratch and have them leave most of it?

I have tried for a while now to make the family meals from scratch, i know this is nutritionally better but is it if they leave most of it? I made a trifle today which i could have bought at the local supermarket for half the price. I know a lot of people will say it is cheaper to eat fresh food but i have never found this. Making a pizza or shepherds pie from scratch does cost more than the supermarket version. I am sick of putting good food in the bin so i am beginning to wonder if i should go back to fish fingers and potato waffles. I have shelves full of recipe books but by the time you buy all the herbs, spices etc the shopping budget is through the roof.

Make from fresh everytime! Far cheaper. Far better!

You say that making a pizza from scratch is more expensive than buying a supermarket pizza?

Last time I costed them it was costing me just over £4 to make 6 16 inch cheese and tomato pizzas. I guarantee that they get eaten (even by at least 4 children that I know that HATE pizza!). Additional toppings cost very little.

Basic ingredients (to make 6).

Dough

1.5kg bag bread flour (about 75p)
yeast 20p
3 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil (or sunflower)

Basic tomato sauce

i tin tomatoes 15p
200 gramme tube tomato puree 25p
herbs to taste 20p

cheese (ready grated cheddar or mozzarella from lidl) £3

NickInTheNorth
26-Sep-07, 14:12
In many cases the preference for the shop bought item is due to it containing sugar (in an awful lot of savoury shop bought convenience foods) in alarming quantities.

If you want to add a little sweetness to your own savoury dishes without using refined sugar it is amazing what a little honey can do for taste (especially in dishes containing tomato).

karia
26-Sep-07, 14:13
[quote=NickInTheNorth;276120
cheese (ready grated cheddar or mozzarella from lidl) £3[/quote]

I can't help thinking you might save even more if you were to grate your own cheese!;)

Karia

NickInTheNorth
26-Sep-07, 14:18
I can't help thinking you might save even more if you were to grate your own cheese!;)

Karia

Amazingly enough the ready grated mature cheddar is cheaper than the block cheddar they sell, the mozzarella is within pennies the same cost. Due to the nature of mozzarella the ready grated stuff goes further as it is better grated :D

I count every penny of every shopping trip, and check every price for best value. But yes in general the grated variety is more costly.

karia
26-Sep-07, 14:21
Hi Nick,

Very strange..they usually use such 'added value' tactics to hike up the price considerably!:roll:

Karia

Bobinovich
26-Sep-07, 14:27
We have found that a mix suits our requirements. With running the kids to this and that afterschool activity, a balance has to be struck between the quick and the nutritious.

Mrs Bob tends to cook between 3 and 5 nights a week, and the remainder tend to be convenience or takeaway nights. Sometimes if the kids have had a decent-sized hot lunch at school, we'll even let them off with a big bowl of cereal for tea - especially when time is a factor!

TBH we've struggled for years to come up with a menu variety which keeps all happy without being repeated too often - we've tried planning meals up to 2 weeks ahead (to ensure we have everthing when required) but invariably we'll stray off. This can be due to 'just not feeling like it', or visitors who stay longer than expected - there are many valid reasons!

Favourite homemade dishes such as mince & tatties, sausage casserole, roasts, spag. bol., curry, etc. will always be gobbled and are easy fallbacks with all (apart from roasts) not taking too long to rustle up.

NickInTheNorth
26-Sep-07, 14:28
Hi Nick,

Very strange..they usually use such 'added value' tactics to hike up the price considerably!:roll:

Karia

Absolutely, it is only Lidl's where I have found it to be cheaper.

It costs £1.68 for I think 375g of grated mature cheddar. Which equates to £4.48 a kg. The cheapest mature cheddar I have found in Lidl is over £5 per kg.

crashbandicoot1979
26-Sep-07, 14:37
It depends on your eating habits really. We eat home made vegetarian meals which are far cheaper, and a lot tastier, than shop bought stuff. Can't beat homemade pizzas, curry, chilli, bolognese, soup etc.

highlander
26-Sep-07, 14:58
I feel fresh is always best, but why not try cooking less and put smaller amounts on thier plates, i remember reading years ago when you put a child at the table usually they are eye level or boosted up on the chair, they see thier plates with this mound of food and quickly puts them off. Are they sneaking sweets or biscuits before dinner? Less is best let them ask for more. lol

wifie
26-Sep-07, 22:27
Ashaw1 please persevere as it is healthier and cheaper. Go for simple mince and tatties, spag bol, sausage and mash, etc. Get your meat from a reputable butcher. It is just the salt and additives that your family are getting used to the taste of. Re-educate them! Go for it!

gem1982
10-Oct-07, 02:28
why not try making it fun for them, make the food into faces on the kids plates or get them to decorate their own pizzas the way they want to. If you get them involved in making the meals they might be more inclined to eat them perhaps. Dont get me wrong I am no Delia Smith and do resort to convienence foods at times but I am a firm believer in fresh being best. You could go into a fishmongers and buy monktail chop it up, bread it and make scampi, or buy some cod again chop it up bread it and make fish fingers (because you dont want to know how they make fish fingers, pretty much along the same lines as King Ribs!) or even fishcakes they are good value for money. Go into a butchers and get some mince add a wee bit of chopped onion, maybe a wee bit of herbs and a dollop of tomoato ketchup and you have ready made hamburgers and you can make them to any size you want or I bet your local bitcher whoever they are will make a variety of different sausages pork and leek or whatever so there is always a whole range of what you could cook but most importantly you know what is the food! Convienence food tends to be full of sugar and salt and e numbers and colourings etc etc and if you batch cook your food then it will work out cheaper in the long run.

rockchick
10-Oct-07, 07:48
I have to agree that fresh, home made is far far better than ready-made meals. The cost can be more, or less, depending on how you shop and how thrifty your habits are.

EDDIE
10-Oct-07, 18:29
I think without a doubt homemade cooking is better and healthier by miles and i think all the convenence foods is a major contributer to young kids bieng unhealthy and over weight.
What i find very annoying about the nanny state we live in is why they dont tax the fatty foods and make the healthy foods cheaper and encourage people to do homemade cooking.
Home made macoroni and cheese and mince and tatties is my favourite

karia
10-Oct-07, 18:38
I think without a doubt homemade cooking is better and healthier by miles and i think all the convenence foods is a major contributer to young kids bieng unhealthy and over weight.
What i find very annoying about the nanny state we live in is why they dont tax the fatty foods and make the healthy foods cheaper and encourage people to do homemade cooking.
Home made macoroni and cheese and mince and tatties is my favourite

Blimey EDDIE,

Have you seen the fat content of your two favourites.....I think you may find that the taxman knocketh!:eek:

Of course it could be that you use wholewheat macaroni and low fat cheese and mince..oh,. and no butter on yer mash!;)

I totally agree with cooking from scratch with good ingredients however, just because it is 'homemade' doesn't mean it's low fat.....Sadly!

Karia

rockchick
10-Oct-07, 19:50
Foods that are high in fat aren't necessarily unhealthy. Some foods that are very high in fat (peanuts and avocados for instance) are chock-full of nutrients and are very good for you. Much better than ping-food with same number of calories, but no nutritional value to speak of.

karia
10-Oct-07, 20:02
Foods that are high in fat aren't necessarily unhealthy. Some foods that are very high in fat (peanuts and avocados for instance) are chock-full of nutrients and are very good for you. Much better than ping-food with same number of calories, but no nutritional value to speak of.

Absolutely!

Fish oils are full of omega 3 and good cholesterol busting properties and polyunsaturated fats are fine...olive oil is amazingly good for you!

Saturated fats from full fat cheese and meat products are generally not so fine and are the culprits implicated in heart disease and many cancers.

Trans- fats from fried foods are even more terrifying!:eek:

At least cooking from scratch we can weigh up our choices and look for some sort of healthy balance

karia

rockchick
10-Oct-07, 21:27
Absolutely!

Fish oils are full of omega 3 and good cholesterol busting properties and polyunsaturated fats are fine...olive oil is amazingly good for you!

Saturated fats from full fat cheese and meat products are generally not so fine and are the culprits implicated in heart disease and many cancers.

Trans- fats from fried foods are even more terrifying!:eek:

At least cooking from scratch we can weigh up our choices and look for some sort of healthy balance

karia

Definitely! If you cook your own food and limit your fats to natural products such as butter and olive oil, you're much better off than using some manufactured glop that was probably never meant to be ingested by animals, never mind humans!