Single hen

[buffie]

jamie's ministry of food 9pm c4

 

Buffie x

[deejmum]

OOh, but that is the same time as griff rhys jones losing it! OH is sky plussing the football so I have to decide!! What to do???

[redbug]

You can watch it at 10pm on channel 135.

[deejmum]

Good plan. Ooops now i am late! Off to the laptop and telly!

[freddie]

seen the first bit, and am not shocked, just saddened; I work in the School meals service and I see loads of kids who've never sat at a table or used cutlery..... and they are in yr 1 and 2 as well as reception..

[deejmum]

That is a real shame. We always sat round the table at 6.30 and had dinner until my youngest started school in September. Both kids now have school dinners, which are great at our school.

 

We sit down every sunday and have a family roast, and it is lovely!

[BeckyBoo]

That is a real shame. We always sat round the table at 6.30 and had dinner until my youngest started school in September. Both kids now have school dinners, which are great at our school.

 

We sit down every sunday and have a family roast, and it is lovely!

Ditto. Have to say, cynic though I am, I can't believe that the girl who allegedly lived off kebabs and chips had NEVER had a meal cooked for her And they showed one family who ad been taught the meatballs and they had square "japanese" style plates, can't tell me they're not interested in cooking and food?

I'm getting too cynical in my old age

 

Mrs B

[Guest]

We just watched this and were gobsmacked that people can be so ignorant about food!

 

I am sorry - but I just don't get all this "I can't afford to but fresh food because I am on benefits - so we live off of take aways" mentality.

 

How can you not be able to afford to buy fresh food for your children - and then light up a cigarette?

 

I have had tight times and have had to make meals out of next to nothing - it's not rocket science!

 

Louise

[Snowy]

That was interesting. The posh dishes and unable to cook doesn't surprise me - I know some families where money is tight, but appearances are everything, even down to having all the right kit in the kitchen that is never used

[Egluntyne]

Darn it.....I completely forgot.

[buffie]

It will no doubt be repeated this week.

 

Buffie x

[Lesley]

We just watched this and were gobsmacked that people can be so ignorant about food!

 

I am sorry - but I just don't get all this "I can't afford to but fresh food because I am on benefits - so we live off of take aways" mentality.

 

How can you not be able to afford to buy fresh food for your children - and then light up a cigarette?

 

I have had tight times and have had to make meals out of next to nothing - it's not rocket science!

 

Louise

 

I agree Louise - I knew I would spend the whole hour shouting! I lived on benefits for a few years when my two were little and it must be so much more expensive to live on take-aways.

 

Learning to cook is the only way to move forward now that it is not included in the curriculum - I hope it does work and start to spread across the country.

 

I also have the same problem I had with the school dinners programme - these are programmes which would be good for youngsters to watch but again, the programme starts with a disclaimer about "bad language throughout" - I hate to see him turning into a Ramsey clone

[Janty]

It is included in the curriculum. As part of Design Technology, cooking has always been a bit woolly. Some schools covered it, some didn't.

 

The government have just introduced a new scheme called Licence to cook in schools but here's the catch...

 

The Licence to Cook scheme entitles all 11-14 years olds 24 hours of food lessons (16 of which must be practical sessions) across three years. However, at the same time as this scheme became mandatory, the government also revised the National Curriculum orders for Design Technology which state that schools can drop teaching food if they want to.

Good organisation here...and we, as teachers pointed out the contradiction when the proposed orders came out.

 

The result of the mess up...the children can have their 24 hours anytime between 11 & 16. I can see lots of children slipping through the net. Personally I am going to ignore it and do what I have always done. We cover 24 hours of food technology every year at our school from when they come in at 9 years old through to 13. We also have two very over subscribed cookery clubs which run for two hours after school on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

 

I do think that it's sad that a lot of parents don't cook with their children but someone has to do it and if that falls on schools then like everything else, we will cope.

[Egluntyne]

When my children were at secondary school...each one of them applied to do the cookery option and each one of them had to do something else like graphics or resistant materials, what the heck that is I've no idea , because too many had asked to do the cooking. Doesn't that convey some sort of message?

 

It does to me.

[chickenanne]

What costs more, beans on toast or chips, cheese, and doner kebab? Sardines on toast? It's not like it's remotely difficult to "cook" toast and stick some beans on top. Eating that every second day is no more unpalatable than eating chips/cheese/doner every second day.

I think Jamie's had a "Ooops, word censored!"le/good idea, but I also dount that it's wholly about time and money and inability to cook.

[Guest]

What costs more, beans on toast or chips, cheese, and doner kebab? Sardines on toast? It's not like it's remotely difficult to "cook" toast and stick some beans on top. Eating that every second day is no more unpalatable than eating chips/cheese/doner every second day.

I think Jamie's had a "Ooops, word censored!"le/good idea, but I also dount that it's wholly about time and money and inability to cook.

 

Oh I do agree!!

 

SOmetimes as a mum - I have eaten the same thing for a few days running. I would save money on myself to feed my children better - but never resorted to chips!

 

I have always been an inventive cook - being veggie helps! - you have to be inventive sometimes to get children to try new foods. I have always loved gardening, but as I only have a small garden at home - I put my name down for an allotment. I have had it two years now and am sometimes so knee-deep in veg that I give a lot away!

 

I think it is so sad that people have lost touch with the basic instinct of being able to feed your family well without spending a fortune.

 

I love Jamie -- I am a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school and can see the changes that he instigated......and they work!!! Children will eat "proper" food !!!! We had no problems weaning them off the junk that they used to be served up. I think it has also improved the life of the cooks as well, as they have got back in touch with real cooking - not just reheating something out of a freezer!

 

But I fear that as the older lady in this programme said..........some of the participants are only in it for their 15 minutes of fame - appearing on TV with a celeb!

 

sad!

 

Louise

x

[Blackrocksrock]

I admit to being very shocked at how people live in this day and age - a fish and chip supper for us is a real treat as its very expensive to eat this way and for these littlies never to have eaten a home cooked meal!!!!! well its just awful. One of the people had an 8 burner cooker and did not cook and they seemed to have the dishes and pots but no gumption to buy/go to library and get a cookbook and cook real food. How difficult is it to bung a casserole in the oven to cook - takes about 10 minutes prep and left to cook - and its lovely. It is very sad for the new generation as far as their health goes.

Did she think Jamie would pay all her debts when she turned on the water works and lit that cigarette?

[TheGirlsMum]

OH and me were hopping mad when we saw this last night. As said it costs loads more to buy take aways than to cook. Baked potatoes in a microwave are quick, easy, cheap and you can put any sort of filling you can think of. No excuse.

 

But sitting on the floor to eat when they have a table, what's that all about? And them crying saying you can't afford to buy food but you can smoke.

Sorry, must stop now and calm down.

 

My girls are 6 and 9 they cook at school most weeks, the school has signed up to Lets Get Cooking and lots of people join in and the initiative is to encourage parents to cook with the children too.

 

We recently had a Swiss student staying with us and she had been told that in England she would only eat take aways and microwave meals. I told her that she had obviously been sent to the wrong family then. She had a great time and is sending her sister to us next year.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I got so cross I had to turn the programme off.

 

 

Ok I use convienience food occasionally,but takeaways are so expensive they are a real treat. It's over £10 for fish and chips or pizza for the three of us and I can cook two dinners for that!

[Aga n Chickens]

I also felt it a shame that even the basic grasp of food preparation seems to have been lost to another generation.

 

My mum was not a great cook….at school, when we had a lesson about convenience foods, I was able to stick plenty of labels from cans of baked beans, processed peas and even tinned potatoes into my exercise book.

 

Up until I started cooking myself, I thought that all vegetables came out of a tin !

 

Back in the 1970s I thoroughly enjoyed my cookery lessons at school.

 

From the age of 14 I was cooking for our family of 5.

 

I had to sort out my portion control when I started cooking for just the two of us when we were married….too many potatoes and not wanting to waste anything soon piled on the pounds.

 

During last nights programme I was thinking about the stew I made on Sunday when the weather turned chilly. I used shin of beef, 4 parsnips, 4 carrots, half a suede, onions from the garden, a couple of stock cubes and a splash of tomato puree. It made a huge pan full and lasted several days. Served with new potatoes one day, mash the next and over a jacket potato to use up the last drops.

 

Cheap cuts of meat, seasonal vegetables and store cupboard ingredients, where’s the expense in that, and it can all go in the oven and be left for hours without spoiling while you go off an do other things.

 

Cooking doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming.

 

Christine

[Mel (& Paul)]

I had recorded the programme to watch later in the week -but not sure I can now as I might find my self yelling at the screen (something I seem to be doing more and more )

Maybe some families who watch the programme and who dont cook or think it is too expensive or complicated may find some inspiration from the programme - I do hope so.

Perhaps its the fault of too many tv chefs showing us more and more exotic dishes (wild crayfish / pigs cheeks) that actually turns a lot of people off - they dont think that they can compete

[abwsco]

I didn't watch it as it clashed with CSI but had the feeling it would have people on claiming poverty but smoking, drinking and having take aways.

 

Mind you the cooking lessons I had at school in the 70's were not very good. The first one was how to do a slice of toast. My daughters now aged 16 & 17 have only ever had one term of cooking at secondary school and they weren't very good lessons either I can remember them doing rock cakes and a crumble. Youngest DD's crumble was also stolen by a classmate as hers was better than his

[Janty]

Our head teacher was showing a new pupil around the school today. His Mum asked about what we covered in food technology so I started to explain. She then said that they live on ready meals a lot in their house as she works and doesn't have time to cook. I said that we teach the children about batch cooking and preparing food to freeze so that they can cope with a busy lifestyle when they are older. She then said that she didn't have time to do this as she works. I wonder what she thinks that I do.

[Seagazer]

We do have takeaways occasionally but I would feel terrible if I didn't cook my family a proper meal. I remember cooking a stew (with dumplings) not long ago and was dishing it up as my son and his friends came in. The looks on their faces, they were virtually licking their lips

 

My ES's old school didn't do Food Technology. I was quite shocked when I heard that. He can cook a few things, we've taught him at home, so he won't starve. I'm pleased to say that they now have a classroom all set up for the boys to cook.

 

YS loves cooking and baking.

 

In times when we've not had much money, the kids have eaten well and hubby and I survived very well on baked beans on toast etc.

[Janty]

Let's face it, we all have take aways occasionally but we see them as a special treat. The problem comes when they are more regular than a proper home cooked meal.