Jamie Oliver questions food poverty

[ADK]

To be honest I'm not too keen on pasta. It's horribly bland and I hate the texture. Never really seen the attraction. In fact most Italian food I'm not too keen on, seems like carbs, carbs, carbs and more carbs.

[Webbo]

To be honest I'm not too keen on pasta. It's horribly bland and I hate the texture. Never really seen the attraction. In fact most Italian food I'm not too keen on, seems like carbs, carbs, carbs and more carbs.

Me neither, with the exception of lasagne. I usually have some sort of green, cabbage, broccoli etc when we have bolognaise sauce.

[21st Century Fox]

Most Italian food outside of Italy is usually rubbish (unless it's cooked by an Italian   )

 

There are so many amazing non-pasta dishes that don't get a look-in outside of Italy.

[MooseBreath]

I'm sure you have other qualities doesn't he Moose?

.

How am I supposed to know? Why are you asking me?

[FoxesAreBlue]

To be honest I'm not too keen on pasta. It's horribly bland and I hate the texture. Never really seen the attraction. In fact most Italian food I'm not too keen on, seems like carbs, carbs, carbs and more carbs.

Make y'sen a lasagne but instead of pasta sheets, use thin slices of aubergine (sp?). It's beaut.

[Zingari]

I like italian food but instead of pasta i use chips and instead of aubergines and tomatoes i use steak pie 

[Guest MattP]

I hardly eat any Italian, think its massively overated.

[Webbo]

I like italian food but instead of pasta i use chips and instead of aubergines and tomatoes i use steak pie 

[Captain...]

Make y'sen a lasagne but instead of pasta sheets, use thin slices of aubergine (sp?). It's beaut.

 

Like an aubergine parmigiana:

 

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/aubergine-parmigiana-melanzane-alla-parmigiana

 

Well nice.

 

Pasta is bland and all carbs, it is all about the sauce.

[FoxesAreBlue]

That looks beaut

[Rincewind]

Mine was quite nice tonight. Spaghetti with mince and pasta sauce. Just remembered I have some left. Will put it in the fridge. Tomorrows dinner sorted.

[Captain...]

That looks beaut

 

It's actually quite simple to make, a bit long winded but hard to go wrong as you smother the whole lot in cheese. Apart from the cheese it is pretty cheap as well. 3 aubergines for a quid down the market, 34p for some basics tinned toms (x2), a couple of quid on cheese, depending if you go uber budget and get a slab of basics cheddar £5.50 a kilo, probably use 100g-150g or stick with the fancy Italian stuff parmesan £1.25 for 50g, basics mozarella 45p 125g,  collective cost of herbs and shit less than £1.

 

6 servings for around £3.50

[Smudge]

I like italian food but instead of pasta i use chips and instead of aubergines and tomatoes i use steak pie 

You are one funny mofo Zingers, I told this to my missus tonight and she loved it

[Zingari]

You are one funny mofo Zingers, I told this to my missus tonight and she loved it

I realised from an early age that the only way I was gonna impress the ladies was with humour.

[James.]

I hardly eat any Italian, think its massively overated.

Italian food is all about fresh, quality ingredients and we rarely bother with those so the outcome will often underwhelm. Done properly it's great but even then there are other cuisines I much prefer.

[Guest ttfn]

It's actually quite simple to make, a bit long winded but hard to go wrong as you smother the whole lot in cheese. Apart from the cheese it is pretty cheap as well. 3 aubergines for a quid down the market, 34p for some basics tinned toms (x2), a couple of quid on cheese, depending if you go uber budget and get a slab of basics cheddar £5.50 a kilo, probably use 100g-150g or stick with the fancy Italian stuff parmesan £1.25 for 50g, basics mozarella 45p 125g, collective cost of herbs and shit less than £1.

6 servings for around £3.50

Shhhh. People can't afford to eat remember?

[Dr The Singh]

Home made chicken curry and rice for a family of six cost £7, far healithier then take away or supermarket

 

Any veg curry, including AUbergine, your looking at £4 tops

[Rincewind]

We sometimes have a cookery slot on raDNO. One young lad who is in an hostel and started volunteering was training as a chef before he suffered a relationship break up which led to him losing the place where he lived. But staying on food he has givien out a few tips on air. Phone in tips would also be welcome.

[Orkneyfox]

Seems Jamie Oliver is suggesting some who are claiming they can't afford to eat well are eating expensive ready meals.

 

Come on MattP and Moosebreath, let us know what you think.

 

 

 

The Huffington Post:

 

Oliver, whose new Channel 4 show, Jamie's Money Saving Meals, is designed to help people save on their food bill, added: "The fascinating thing for me is that seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods."

 

The Naked Chef said: "I meet people who say, 'You don't understand what it's like.' I just want to hug them and teleport them to the Sicilian street cleaner who has 25 mussels, 10 cherry tomatoes, and a packet of spaghetti for 60 pence, and knocks out the most amazing pasta. You go to Italy or Spain and they eat well on not much money. We've missed out on that in Britain, somehow."

 

Oliver, who had a partnership with Sainsbury's for 11 years and campaigned to improve school dinners, said: "One of the other things we look at in the (TV) series is going to your local market, which is cheaper, anyway, but also they don't dictate size. From a supermarket you're going to buy a 200g bag of this or a 400g pack of that. If you're going past a market, you can just grab 10 mangetout for dinner that night, and you don't waste anything."

 

However the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) insisted that low income can be a barrier to healthy eating.

 

Imran Hussain, the group's head of policy, said: "Jamie Oliver has made a huge contribution to improving school meals and we're grateful for the support his foundation has given us in our work on free school meals.

 

"He is right to say that healthy food doesn't always have to be expensive - one of CPAG's ambassadors, the food blogger Jack Monroe, is an excellent example of this - but for many families it's low income which gets in the way of healthy eating.

 

"As official statistics show, parents of poor children are much less likely to be able to afford fresh fruit for their children. We also know from the evidence that as the incomes of poor families rise, they spend more on things like healthy food and children's clothes.

 

"The huge hits many working and non-working families are taking in their incomes as a result of cuts in tax credits and benefits are very real, as is the resulting huge growth in demand for food banks. The Government's child poverty strategy is seriously adrift and urgently needs rethinking

Nothing to do with him having a new book out about "eating on a budget" then?

[Rincewind]

He makes some good points and so does the spokesman from CPAG. Healthy eating is important and is encouraged by service providers  but so is quality of life