Have we fallen out of love with food?

[TennisGal]

I was talking to a friend about this, and came to the conclusion that the UK is falling out of love with food.

Compared to our Mediterranean neighbours, we eat way more processed and ready meals. In most Spanish, French, Italian supermarkets ready meals don't even exist.

We will even bung a pasta meal in a microwave...taking more time than it does to boil some fresh pasta and stir through some pesto or sauce.

The additives, preservatives etc etc are prolific in so much processed food...so why do we do it to ourselves? Are we going to pay the price in later life? Are we paying the price now?

It seems such a shame, the Uk has an abundance of amazing seasonal food...and there are so many ways to make quick, easy and cheap meals. Why do we just not want to anymore?

I feel quite passionately about this. Don't get me wrong, there is and ALWAYS will be a place for the 'cba' meal and for junk food. Always. But in general, how do we get food back on the menu, so to speak?

 

[Eternal]

Yes, when we were in Scotland it was different, we live fairly rural, sourced food from direct fresh sources, (from the farmer, butcher etc). When we ate out the quality was good.

Here (swansea, wales) its hard to source things from direct sources, the butchers here dont source from the farmer, they go though suppliers, the farm shops I have been to source things from suppliers, including abroad. Eating out seems to be based on quantity rather than quality.

So many people dont seem to have an idea of what is healthy and not, people dont know how to cook.

We love food, ,I dont enjoy cooking as much here as my kitchen is tiny and now I have three children under 26 months so I must admit to having at least one shove in the oven dish a week (my mum shops in M&S and gets us something once a week, and quite often it is pasta lol). I think the advantage over actually cooking is the amount of dishes you need to wash! lol! Terrible I know.

But I am capable of cooking and the rest of the week I do tend to cook, i tend to make everything, rather than use sauces, although I do have sauces here, which I tend to use more and more these days as i have less and less time.

i think it boils down to that, we have a mixture of people who are very busy and then even the idea of saving on a saucepan sounds appealing or people are very lazy, my half sister for example is a SAHM (on benefits) her youngest is 12, so she has time, but is too lazy too. i actually dont think she knows how to cook from scratch.

 

[smelly07]

I agree, when i was younger at every local shops, there was a butchers, and greengrocers, a bakery, and a little shop for basics. my mum would buy food fresh daily.
Now its all supermarkets/weekly shops or bulk buys and less time/education in regards to food and the super amounts of fast food cheap and available everywhere.

i hate cooking but when i do i always try to do meals from scratch or do as much fresh food as possible and my husband is great with food so we dont eat alot of processed food and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The thing is food is so expensive and tbh our weekly shop would be reduced if we didnt buy as much fresh food/meals and had less variety in meals, if time and money wasnt an issue i would buy all organic fresh food daily.

 

[lesleyann]

I agree and I think part of the problem is that you can go into Iceland for example and buy a pizza for £1 and a huge bag of chips for £1 which the chips will do more than 1 meal, so dinner for 4 for £2... Go and buy freash we pay £6 for 4 chicken breasts £1.25 for a ok bag of potatoes, then Veg most things tend to be £1 a bag so by the time you have maybe 3 veg thats then £10.25 for one dinner (with some veg left over).

We have a few things in the frezzer for quick CNBA meals but we have also frozen alot of freash meat and freash vegs that we have brought in the reduced sections so keep costs down.

 

[Lightworker]

Yeah it is a big issue. I come from a culture where everything is cooked, in fact most households had 3 cooked meals a day (which is too much for me lol)..but we cooked everything from scratch. Even the stock we made ourselves.

Currently, in my house 5 out 7 evening meals are cooked from scratch. The children have porridge or toast for breakfast, and lunch is usually last night's supper. There are some days when I am behind with things, or I am just beyond shattered where we will; have something easy like a jacket potato or something. But both my hubby and I are passioante about food, and we love experimenting with different types of cuisine, whether Indian, Mexican, Chinese, European etc.

I am not a fan of ready meals. In fact, I don't like that Iceland equate their food with good mothering. No offence intended to anyone who shops there, and I do know we have days where some convenience foods are a godsend, but more focus on cooking would be handy.

I say this as a mother of 2. If I was a mother of 6 - who knows lol
x

 

[Nibblenic]

I agree, but I personally havent.

I cook everything from scratch or as scratch as possible. So lets take today for a example. I had cereal this morning with yogurt, yes I could make my own of each but youve got to pick you battles. However lunch Ive had some savoury rice, not out of a packet, plain rice cooked in chicken stock with sweetcorn/peas/saffron. Taste a million times better than anything you get out of a pack.
Tonight is meatballs and pasta. For this I have 500g of mince defrosting, and I will make the meatballs and sauce from scratch, ie not using a jar or pre-made sauce.

Now If I worked FT would I have the time to do this and look after a toddler? Its not just about how much you do in prep time as i think its similar to how long these things to to cook. But cooking from scratch is expensive if you are buying from a super market, which i dont I buy all my meat/fish/veg locally if possible (sometimes my fruit shop doesnt get imports/thing out of season) But places like that are mainly open mon-sat 9-4 even half day round here still on a wedesday

I also think its lack of education. Like a few weeks back my butchers ran out of pies, not too much of a problem, I bought steak and made the same pie. However that means you need to know in your head how to do that. So I knew id need XYZ immediately to be able to do it and I have Xand Y in the house so only needed steak.

Out of all my friends I think im the only one who cooks totally from scratch everyday. I think, that they think im mental for having homemade, rices colslaws etc in my fridge, dips and everything.

Just takes a bit of planning and a bit of time. But at least I know what im putting into my body because ive made it.

 

[vaniilla]

I don't get it over here, My parents are from Italy so I've never had anything but food from scratch unless we were eating out when we were kids, I don't buy ready meals at home although we do rarely get take away once lo is in bed simply because I like to know what goes in food.

For example, take something like Victoria sponge cake which takes 30 mins top to make

home made ingredients :
Butter
Caster Sugar
eggs
vanilla extract
self raising flour
a little milk
jam
cream

shop bought: * (I just copied the ingredients of the first one I found, this is Sainsburys taste the difference victori sponge)
Vanilla Flavoured Cake (75%); Buttercream (12%); Strawberry Conserve (12%); Sugar Dusting.Vanilla Flavoured Cake contains: Sugar, Wheat Flour, Pasteurised Free Range Egg, Butter* (23%), Cows' Milk, Humectant: Vegetable Glycerine; Cornflour, Raising Agents: Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate; Flavouring.Buttercream contains: Sugar, Butter* (44%).Strawberry Conserve contains: Sugar, Strawberries (46%), Acidity Regulators: Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate; Gelling Agent: Pectin.Sugar Dusting contains: Sugar, Cornflour, Palm Oil.*From Cows' milk

I agree on the Iceland thing, I'm not afraid to admit that I hate the place with a passion. Good, healthy & preferably Organic food doesn't need to cost a bomb or take ages to cook. I've recently gotten into making my own pasta sauces and bread on a regular basis.

I think the main killers though to home made food are convenience, bad food decisions and lack of confidence. Food tech in schools should be made a bigger deal out of to try and get people in love with cooking, or at least confident.

 

[Nibblenic]

We (as part of Alevels) did 'survival cookery' which was how to make, spagbol, Shepard's pie, eggs, chicken.

However thats not where I learned to cook, nor do i think anyone learns to cookin in a classroom. You learn to cook at home. My daughters almost 3 now and shes been helping me pre-pare food for about 6 months now. Peeling pots, cutting up food, stiring, just standing there having fun and learning.

There hasnt been a ready meal enter my house for at least a decade and itll be staying that way. People should look at what they are eating.

 

[Yammas]

My mother always cooked for us although like most have said there were the occasional take aways as treats but we never had ready meals. Now I've moved out I miss home cooking soo much OH only cooked ready meals until I put my foot down and said that we wouldnt have them any more as I missed fruit and veg.

We do shop at iceland but that was a choice I made as all their food is GMO free and we are on a tight budget so do the best we can with what we have. Like pp said if I had more money I would buy organic and free range but its soo expensive and we just cant afford it even though organic food isnt always due to cross polination. Where I llive it is hard to find local produce as there arent many farms although there is one market stall in town and some small shoips I wanna try that claim to source locally.

 

[Natsku]

It does seem that way, I don't think its quite as bad over here but ready meals are becoming more popular.
My mum nearly always cooked foods from scratch and I do the same (it helps that I can't eat gluten as that puts a lot of ready meals/takeaways out of the running!). Food tastes so much better when you make it yourself and if I am feeling lazy and need a 'bung it in the oven' meal then I just make a casserole as that cooks itself with very little prep work.

 

[Eternal]

I dont shop in iceland and I agree i dont like their advertising. But I can understand how tight money is right now too.

i tend to buy organic where i can, but personally i must prefer fresh produce from the farm then organic from spain or wherever.

 

[TennisGal]

So true, casserole is the ultimate easy...but tasty...hm meal. It can also be very cheap, as the less 'fasionable' cuts of meat slow cook well...and, tbh, are often way tastier (lamb neck, chicken thighs etc)

Handfuls of fresh herbs can transform almost any dish, too.

Food and cooking is almost a hobby to me, but a number of my friends say they just feel put off by not having the basics for getting some meals done.

Perhaps some form of 'life skills' should make it onto education agendas?

 

[TennisGal]

Agree, Eternal. Eating seasonally is not only tastier...but more ethical. Asparagus in winter from 100000 miles away?!

We grow quite a lot of veggies and fruit, so I tend to do a freezathon!

 

[Eternal]

Agree, Eternal. Eating seasonally is not only tastier...but more ethical. Asparagus in winter from 100000 miles away?!

We grow quite a lot of veggies and fruit, so I tend to do a freezathon!

thats how I feel, i beleive in eating fruits and veg in season, whcich when you get all your produce from the farm is simple. one day I will own a lovely big garden and we will grow all our own veg and have chickens! Just need to finsih rennovating this house first :S

 

[Yammas]

Id love to grow my own veg but think il start off with a windowsill herb garden first I was gutted when my school stopped food tech lucky I learnt to cook off my mum not that I'm a master chef or anything I still have yet to attempt a sunday roast

 

[Quackquack99]

I guess I'm lucky that my oh is a greengrocers for a market so we get fresh fruit and veg from local farms. One of his best friend is a butcher so we get a 50% discount.

But I can understand why people turn to ready meal. When I was living on my own, I worked 22 hours a week, had 16 hours of college lessons plus college work. I just didn't have time to cook from fresh, my sleep was more important than food. But since living with my oh we always cooked from fresh and it was amazing. I loved how energised I felt, yet ready meals left me feeling lethargic and stodgy.

My dad is indian and is a chef, but it is very common in his culture to cook from scratch. We never had any pre-made food. I still miss home cooking.

 

[TennisGal]

I think another problem is that people have different expectations of food. Many people expect to eat meat everyday...a couple of decades ago, meat was eaten a lot less, and people got creative with leftovers. Surely less meat, but better quality is the better option? I also think it is a lot healthier to have some fish and veggie based meals. I think a lot of the problem is changing how people think about food. I remember a colleague blanching at the thought of a vegetarian meal, but she was a bit food clueless, and had such preconceived ideas. She literally lived off ready meals and processed food...

I spend quite a while constructing menus for the week, so I know I can do things in advance, or do speedy but tasty meals...and things that I know Lizzie, and soon Ally, can help out with and learn as they go.

 

[lesleyann]

I must admit 99.9% of our meals do have meat so far this year there was one meal I did without with was a pastabake

 

[Nibblenic]

WE do try and have fish as a family at least once a week. Personally sometimes I manage 3-4 including lunches.
It does help that I now have a fish man come to my door to deliver. There arent many fish mongers around here these days.

We've had fresh tuna tonight as although it was lovely, it was almost £4 a steak which makes a very expensive meal, possibly still cheaper than some of those 'extra special' ready meals though

 

[Missy86]

I am getting more into my cooking, I try to cook properly most of the week at dinner time and we never have ready meals for lunch but we do love our fish fingers and chips lol

It doesnt help that I live with a really picky man but he is getting better

I do wish I could buy more local produce but I dont really know where to start with it all