Not sure I’m convinced by this. Fresh vegetables etc are actually relatively cheap still despite inflation. Just yesterday I made a huge batch of Tuscan bean stew, 8 generous adult portions for under £5 total.
In a few days I will be batch cooking around 15+ generous portions of (vegetarian) beef ragu for around £8 this can go into lasagne/bolognese etc using pennies worth of pasta and 4 part baked ciabatta from heron foods for 60p to help bulk out the meal.
There are many many health and cheap meals that can be made it’s just people are drawn to the convenience of chucking a load of beige into an air fryer or ordering takeaway.
This is such a false savings. Processed food is toxic, expensive crap.
The price of gas to cook is really the problem. Processed crap is never cheaper than home made.
7 meals of a £1 pizza? You could make a lasagne for £7 easily if youre happy to swap to something like turkey thigh mince for eg. Plus you only cook it once instead of 7 cooks of said pizzas.
500g of turkey thigh mince is £2.65 on asda.
Tinned tomatoes – 30p
Red onion – 30p
Chicken stock – can be free if you make it yourself by swapping from chicken breasts to bone in thighs which are £5perkg cheaper.
Whats that? £4.25? Call it £5 if you include a stock cube.
Then we’ve got £2 left for some garlic bread and peas alongside.
Or make a bean chili, 3 tins of beans a tin of tomatoes stock and tomato puree for a massive batch of protein rich food for £3 total.
Or make your own pizzas… flour, water, salt, tinned tomatoes, cheese. Pennies per pizza.
And this is for real raw ingredients without ingredients lists as long as your arm.
Plus with all the trimminga like celery ends, potato peels etc you make stock or soup…the value goes on and on from buying fresh veg as with no effort it contributes to another meal.
In one day you could make a lasagne, a bean chili, tomato sauce for pastas and pizzas, a soup to freeze fot less than £20.
Or make a curry instead and cook a load of rice to make an egg fried rice for lunch the next day with just cold rice, 2 eggs and a spring onion.
Its literally never been easier to find how to cook with things like youtube. Entire channels designed for cheap meals. I went from literally not being able to cook, to being a damn good home cook 100% via youtube.
Whats wrong with beans on toast? Jacket potato in the microwave with beans and butter? Porridge in the morning with some jam? Its perfectly possible to eat real and cheap. Scrambled or fried or poached eggs, mushrooms etc…
The problem is brits as a whole are awful cooks.
Reddit:
Everyone is spending an enormous amount of time effort and energy trying to balance work/communting/life we’re physically exhausted and often have little energy or motivation to undertake social or strenuous activities. We have little money and also live in tiny living space with with little/no freezer space and can’t afford a car/don’t have one for environmental purposes.
Also Reddit whenever the link between poverty and unhealthy food comes up:
You’re just lazy bro! Make a detailed plan, go out regularly, find and buy a load of fresh food that spoils quickly, take time to research recipies and prepare large batches of meals and freeze them…
If anything inflation should cut down on all the shit we buy drink and smoke.
>Meanwhile, salted or smoked meat such as bacon and crisps
Im depressed, i cant be bothered to cook a big batch, also from having batch cooked meals, they taste like shit being frozen. Anyone who says they are eating batch cooked food weeks or months later and notices no taste difference, they are lying.
My diet consists of eating branston pickle and pilgrims choice mature chedder cheese sandwiches, with a pack of mccoys flame grilled steak crisps and either a blue ribbon or penguin bar.
Healthy is super expensive and it doesn’t last long at all, at this point i don’t care if it gives me cancer or a heart attack in 30 years, i just want to live and not waste shitloads of fresh produce which i dont have the time or effort to utilise like a passionate chef.
7 comments
Not sure I’m convinced by this. Fresh vegetables etc are actually relatively cheap still despite inflation. Just yesterday I made a huge batch of Tuscan bean stew, 8 generous adult portions for under £5 total.
In a few days I will be batch cooking around 15+ generous portions of (vegetarian) beef ragu for around £8 this can go into lasagne/bolognese etc using pennies worth of pasta and 4 part baked ciabatta from heron foods for 60p to help bulk out the meal.
There are many many health and cheap meals that can be made it’s just people are drawn to the convenience of chucking a load of beige into an air fryer or ordering takeaway.
This is such a false savings. Processed food is toxic, expensive crap.
The price of gas to cook is really the problem. Processed crap is never cheaper than home made.
7 meals of a £1 pizza? You could make a lasagne for £7 easily if youre happy to swap to something like turkey thigh mince for eg. Plus you only cook it once instead of 7 cooks of said pizzas.
500g of turkey thigh mince is £2.65 on asda.
Tinned tomatoes – 30p
Red onion – 30p
Chicken stock – can be free if you make it yourself by swapping from chicken breasts to bone in thighs which are £5perkg cheaper.
Bechamel – £1 max, 50g butter, 50g flour and 500ml milk
Lasagne sheets – 80p
Whats that? £4.25? Call it £5 if you include a stock cube.
Then we’ve got £2 left for some garlic bread and peas alongside.
Or make a bean chili, 3 tins of beans a tin of tomatoes stock and tomato puree for a massive batch of protein rich food for £3 total.
Or make your own pizzas… flour, water, salt, tinned tomatoes, cheese. Pennies per pizza.
And this is for real raw ingredients without ingredients lists as long as your arm.
Plus with all the trimminga like celery ends, potato peels etc you make stock or soup…the value goes on and on from buying fresh veg as with no effort it contributes to another meal.
In one day you could make a lasagne, a bean chili, tomato sauce for pastas and pizzas, a soup to freeze fot less than £20.
Or make a curry instead and cook a load of rice to make an egg fried rice for lunch the next day with just cold rice, 2 eggs and a spring onion.
Its literally never been easier to find how to cook with things like youtube. Entire channels designed for cheap meals. I went from literally not being able to cook, to being a damn good home cook 100% via youtube.
Whats wrong with beans on toast? Jacket potato in the microwave with beans and butter? Porridge in the morning with some jam? Its perfectly possible to eat real and cheap. Scrambled or fried or poached eggs, mushrooms etc…
The problem is brits as a whole are awful cooks.
Reddit:
Everyone is spending an enormous amount of time effort and energy trying to balance work/communting/life we’re physically exhausted and often have little energy or motivation to undertake social or strenuous activities. We have little money and also live in tiny living space with with little/no freezer space and can’t afford a car/don’t have one for environmental purposes.
Also Reddit whenever the link between poverty and unhealthy food comes up:
You’re just lazy bro! Make a detailed plan, go out regularly, find and buy a load of fresh food that spoils quickly, take time to research recipies and prepare large batches of meals and freeze them…
If anything inflation should cut down on all the shit we buy drink and smoke.
>Meanwhile, salted or smoked meat such as bacon and crisps
Thought it was potatoes
For those who are always keen to jump on the notion that “you can make a delicious stew for 2p, or live on porridge oats for 1p”, [here’s Jack Monroe’s blog post](https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2020/07/30/the-price-of-potatoes-and-the-value-of-compassion/) about that.
Im depressed, i cant be bothered to cook a big batch, also from having batch cooked meals, they taste like shit being frozen. Anyone who says they are eating batch cooked food weeks or months later and notices no taste difference, they are lying.
My diet consists of eating branston pickle and pilgrims choice mature chedder cheese sandwiches, with a pack of mccoys flame grilled steak crisps and either a blue ribbon or penguin bar.
Healthy is super expensive and it doesn’t last long at all, at this point i don’t care if it gives me cancer or a heart attack in 30 years, i just want to live and not waste shitloads of fresh produce which i dont have the time or effort to utilise like a passionate chef.