The economy of cooking from scratch.

[Arch]

NT and I had a couple of special meals this weekend - well, by special, I mean not pasta and tomato based sauce, which is my easy default meal.

I was thinking we'd been pretty extravagant, but totting it all up this morning, we reckon the two meals came to £15 for two of us, for two meals. Main ingredients were a £3 pack of chicken thighs, and a Haggis (about £2.50), with the addition of a pepper (80p), a bunch of spring onions (can't remember price), a punnet of plums (£2.75) (of which I only used half), a carrot (pence), a chilli, 2 cloves garlic and a piece of ginger (all only penceworth), a small bag of sugar snap peas (£1.50) and one sachet of hoisin sauce (2 for £1 at Sainsburys). We also splashed out £2 on a lemon tart, which was pudding for both days.

And to be quite honest, each meal could have stretched to three people if we'd needed to.

I can't imagine we could have been so full, and happy (and in control of the ingredients), on £3.75 worth of ready meal each, each evening.

 

[Sandra Piddock]

You're right there Arch. I cooked a chicken, mushroom and sweetcorn casserole for supper last night, and because there was so much gravy left, I added some extra vegetables and seasoning, chopped tomatoes and a jar of cooked chickpeas to make a soup which has fed us tonight and will go again tomorrow. Like you, we pigged out, and could have easily stretched it even more. I reckon the whole lot cost me no more than £10, including the ice cream for dessert.

That's just over £1.50 per person per meal, and I still have vegetables left to go towards another meal. And at least I know there wasn't a trace of horsemeat in it!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Given the current scandal, which looks like it's going to be Europe-wide when all the details come out, I wonder if there will be a resurgance of home cooking?

 

[Sandra Piddock]

Given the current scandal, which looks like it's going to be Europe-wide when all the details come out, I wonder if there will be a resurgance of home cooking?

I think that's one of the good things to come out of all this, Phil. It's going to make people think before they buy ready meals, and hopefully it will also lead to more stringent labelling.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I think that's one of the good things to come out of all this, Phil. It's going to make people think before they buy ready meals, and hopefully it will also lead to more stringent labelling.

Not just ready meals (I'm glad I rarely have them) but any food made with mince.

I don't think that the labelling is part of the issue as this appears to be a simple (if massive) case of fraud - substituting a cheaper product and not telling anyone.