Rant warning! Are we becoming a nation of bone idle wastrels.

I am also a retired Food Tech teacher and we had to dream up all sorts of short cuts to enable the students to complete a practical lesson in one hour.

This would include setting up the equipment for them so they could get stuck in as soon as they had washed their hands. I used to joke that I'd have their mums and dads on my case if they thought they could get away with that at home.

We also used to get them to chop onions and dice carrots etc., at home as their set homework which could also save time. Not all parents approved of this but we were up against the clock all the time.

In year 9 the food module covered one pot meals which could be prepared and cooked in 45 mins., to allow time for clearing up. Would you believe it, we had complaints from some parents about the ingredients required for dishes like Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chilli-con-Carne, Pork Stroganoff etc.
I'd like a pound for every time I heard, 'We don't eat that stuff so we're not buying it!'

They don't make it easy for food teachers these days.

Crozziefan23, how true and how sad as well. DH who s a retired secondary school head has just been saying the same thing about the demise of practical subjects. Eldest son was once required to bring a tin of mince as part of a lasagne recipe. We made that part of the dish from scratch and measured it into an empty tin! DD told me of a friend whose idea of home cooked chilli con carne was minced beef with two jars of expensive chilli con carne sauce stirred in. Sweet and nasty was the verdict ! Ironic that there are more cooking programmes on TV than ever before and yet so many people in their 20s and 30s cannot manage basic meals, unless they were taught at home.

Hands up everyone who doesn't use frozen peas!

I am a retired teacher of Home Economics, which then became Food Technology. I taught in the seventies and eighties and it was the only subject taught in schools which included details of most of the other subjects taught, i.e. Maths, English, Geography, History, Science, I.T., etc. I was able to teach pupils how to cook from basic ingredients, not from frozen pastry and such and they learned skills to be used and adapted when preparing meals. After having my children I returned part time and the emphasis for staff in practical lessons, was on keeping an eye on the clock and for a typical lesson of an hour and ten minutes time was needed to be allowed for preparation, cooking, washing up and clearing away, leaving very little time for the appreciation of method, skills and presentation of the finished dish. Food in the fast lane. So sad.

I`d never even think of buying crustless bread, to me the crusts are the best part. I don`t buy the bags of prepared salads, etc., but did buy the bags of salad when youngest son was still at home, he loved it on his sandwiches for work. I buy frozen roasties, they`re nicer than mine! And I buy frozen oven chips, as hubby hasn`t to eat fatty foods, we have normal chips.

I'm glad to see more people saying they've bought prepared fruit and veg.

Plenty of good reasons have been given for these products being available in every supermarket. It's all down to individual choice and how we choose to spend our time and money. I use mainly frozen or prepared fruit and vegetables because it suits me. I make no excuse for doing so and object to being called bone idle. Some of you need to be careful getting off those high horses.

PS Thank goodness for diced onions.

Maybe ready chopped fruit and veg are useful for people who work and pop into a supermarket or large railway station which has a food store ? Getting home at 6 or 7 and preparing veg would be hard work when you're tired after a day at work. Given that they're on display they must be used by enough people to warrant selling them. Crusts off bread does sound a bit extreme though.

Who took the picture of me and put it at the top of this thread?!!

Not all their vitamin content rozina and certainly very little of their mineral value will be lost. And it's not jus cut up either, most vegetables and fruit lose a portion of their vitamins if they are not eaten quickly.

Their fibre value is largely unaffected.

Yes, people should realise that any vegetables or fruit cut up, in liquid or exposed too long to light will lose all of their vitamin content.

Why shouldn't people take a few shortcuts if it suits them? The programme TriciaF referred to made me cross. Supercilious no-it-all celeb chefs, with all the wastage that no doubt goes on in their posh restaurant kitchens. Grrr!

I did buy ice once when we having a party and I couldn't make it quick enough (should have thought ahead a bit!)
I've bought the crustless bread once too - when I was catering a baby shower afternoon tea party, but I was appalled at the price.
I draw the line at pre chopped fruit and veg though!

Facing at ?

Facing at a pile of muddy veg from the garden today, I thought it would be nice to have a bag of ready prepared veg .....

There was a series on BBC1 recently about families with strange food habits.
One was a family where the mother bought a lot of pre-cooked or pre-packed stuff and binned it as soon as it was overdate.
She had a freezer full of it.
She was working quite long hours, I think that was the one where the Dad was home more, so they taught him to cook tasty meals for their 2 children.
Then they compared prices and showed how much they would save if they stopped buying packaged stuff. Quite an eyeopener.

Although I don't buy ready prepared food, my daughter, does. She is a paramedic and getting home at the earliest 6.30 pm after a hard 12 hour shift, if she is lucky enough to finish on time, she just about has the energy to put ready made mash and steam ve mixed fruit into her lunch box. I can assure you she isn't bone idle just knackered from work and wants to make her life as easy as possible.

A pot stirrer!

It brings to mind the advertising leaflets that fall out of the Sunday papers, and that the postman brings. As my OH says - "Full of stuff no-one could possibly want or need."

My OH and I and DD had a real laugh going through one of these the other day - anyone fancy a "dog gazebo" so that your dog can "experience the good life" wherever you are!?

What bugs me apart from all of the above!!,,, is that young mums especially then say they can't afford fresh/ healthy food, they have to rely on fast food/ chips etc., which are actually more expensive!! Bring back cookery classes in schools, and home economics, teach our children basic cooking skills, avoiding waste, and budgeting!!!! There,, my rant over too!! ;-)

Oh No!!! Enough stirring around here already!

Bone idle......What about the latest device?....... A pot stirrer, no less lol ??????

Ready prepared veg are a lifesaver for my arthritic hands. Saves chopped fingers and swearing.

Like trish, I am also in favour of 'bone idle wastrel-ness'. I am, in fact, in favour of any kind of bone idleness when you can get away with it.

I certainly was, trisher

DD2 just said 'I don't want curly hair!'

rosequartz i tried that with my DGS when he wouldn't eat crusts. I am sure I believed it when I was told it and ate my crusts (although my hair stayed straight). DGS at a very young age fixed me with a hard stare and said "Don't be silly, Granny." Were we just more gullible?

Guilty as charged. I always used frozen mashed potato. OH has very tiny appetite and I am not exactly a great eater - so I can prepare just the needed amount. Bone idle and proud!