AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered.

Maybe they don't have access to a cooker but only have a microwave?

I agree with you - I'm constantly amazed at the 'rubbish' that I see in other people's trolleys. I do occasionally buy ready mashed veg but wouldn't if I was strapped for cash. Even though prices are rising, things like potatoes, carrots, swede, rice and pasta are cheap and filling - if you prepare and cook them yourself! Of course, some people have limited cooking facilities or have to be careful about their gas and electricity usage, which can make a difference.

Not my three, they all cook from scratch. Even make their own pizza, complete with own base. And they all have busy, demanding jobs.

I do agree in principle but she could be mother of 2 who also works full time and juggles her time.

This is just a thought, and probably way off the mark, but ...

Maybe she was approaching it from the angle of the very poorest, who might not even have all the equipment to mash, grate, peel etc?

Or who are working such long hours on their two or more jobs that they don't have the time ot energy left to slave over a cooker that they can barely afford to use anyway?

I have to say I agree. There may well be a time factor, when two parents are both working full time or nearly so, as many parents do now, but although I haven’t needed to be very frugal for years, old habits die hard and I still wouldn’t buy any of these.

In particular I do often wonder about all the fuss over cooking rice - often raised on MN. People ‘can’t’ cook it, so ‘have’ to buy the pouches.
I just don’t get it. I sling any rice, bog standard or other, into boiling salted water, stir, simmer until done, drain.

tanith

I do agree in principle but she could be mother of 2 who also works full time and juggles her time.

I workedfull-time and also had four to look after, excluding DH who worked away.

Ready meals would have been far too expensive.

I’ve bought all of those things at various points. Sometimes for ease/speed, sometimes for cost reasons and sometimes because of illness or depression. And did I miss something? Aren’t all generations worried about climate change?

I would have thought that slow-cookers are a boon to those who work ?
The cookers are cheap enough to buy as are ingredients if you look around.

Maybe they can’t cook as well. We don’t know their personal circumstances but at least she is buying vegetables!

I couldn’t even boil an egg at aged 18 so we had some disastrous meals but at the time there were few ready meals so I had to learn. The first book was Italian cookery as pasta was cheap and filling. I taught myself to cook as there was no alternative. We live in different times now.

Having said all that I too see trolleys full of over-processed foods with few fresh products. I’m not surprised that so many people are in ill health and spending huge amounts on rubbish.

It’s all been said before but practical skills such as cooking should be taught in schools instead of Food Technology.

That’s fairly good, compared to some.
It may not be down to laziness , it’s easy to be judgmental , we don’t always know the circumstances of others.

Anyone who enjoys decent food will be bothered to cook their own from scratch. It's rare for me to have a ready-meal, and besides there's never been enough and I've had to do extra mash or veg, or both, so they're a dear do.
It's surprising what you can rustle up in a hurry.

Macaroni cheese, mince, pasta meals,---all kinds of nourishing, filling and quick dinners which don't cost the earth and only a short time to prepare and cook.

I would say that the majority of time people can't be bothered. Different if you're ill of course.

I had a colleague who wouldn’t let her children in to the kitchen and boasted about the fact. Quite daunting for them when they had to start feeding themselves and then a family. She then told me I was lucky that my children cooked the evening meal when I worked the late shift.

One of DD2’s friends came on holiday with us and asked if we always cooked proper meals as her family never did. Her mother was a senior teacher and her father an accountant.

The ready made mash potatoes always looks a bit sloppy and unappetizing to me but people seem happy enough with it.

Yes you are being unreasonable.

I do buy the odd ready meal when I am sick of cooking. I am no cook but I have never bought mashed potatoes or veg in my life. I may not have the equipment but I can do it easily with this gadget called a fork.

I also have no problems cooking rice- so simple.

As this lady who did the shop didn’t normally shop on a £60 budget and was doing it for the local paper as a one off, I think YABU. She was obviously buying what she normally does, which isn’t affordable within a £60 budget, but people who have to manage on £60 every week wouldn’t be able to do the same. When I was working I bought ready mashed potato and pre prepared vegetables etc. (not ready meals though) because when I got home at 6.30pm that was all I had the energy to cook. It’s out of touch to say that people who want to eat well won’t use these products, because they are still healthy products - if she had bought ready meals with much less nutritional content there would be some grounds for criticism.

I am a WI member and a few years ago they ran a campaign on teaching people how to cook. They were overwhelmed with responses from all sorts of people from all walks of life wanting to learn this skill. It ballooned into a national project. I was fortunate to have been a child in the late 40's/early 50's with a Mum who loved cooking and in those days it was everything from scratch. There are lots of people out there with far worse starts in life than a lot of us had. Don't let's judge.

Up at 6, out the house by 7, kids dropped off, work by 7.45, home by 5.30. Kids fed, out again to football practice 2 weekday evenings, plus Brownies. Get one doing homework, the other reading to me every day.
I started planning tomorrow's work when kids were in bed
And people telling me how easy it was being a teacher and only working 9 to 3pm
And obviously I should have been cooking from scratch too

Schools used to teach kids to actually cook - I remember rushing down to the playground to hand over ingredients to my son who'd forgotten to mention it the night before...

Now they study Food Technology. Parents, pupils and teachers have expressed concern over the value of this part of the Curriculum, namely that too little time is devoted to learning how to cook nutritious meals and too much time given to 'investigations' and written work, and complex 'product development'.

So we shouldn't be surprised at what they put in their trolleys, and I'm not going to judge them anyway - no-one knows the lifestyle or commitments of a mother with a trolley containing instant mash or pouches of pre-cooked rice.

I cook, too but I do use those Aldi rices in stir fry dishes, especially the mixed ones with different colours and the coconut rice. Just right for the 2 of us. We don’t have that many convenience foods like Marks and Spencer’s ready meals here yet but no doubt it will come. The convenience meals we do have available are inedible so I don’t actually know anyone who uses them.

Not sure that it's they can't be bothered, it's often just a lack of knowledge and these days many adults have no idea how to cook a meal from scratch!
Buying ready prepped veg is a false economy - I don't think I have ever had any (bought as an emergency when no whole carrots etc available - yes it does happen!) where the veg , even if in date , hasn't been dry and when cooked tasteless. Dread to think about the nutritional value!
My son (now 35) was taught at school how to make beans on toast and pizza using a ready made base, and scrambled egg. That was the sum total of his "Food technology" class for a whole term ! No idea what he did for the rest of the year!
Have to add, this was after the school had spent thousands on re kitting out a classroom with new cookers, fridges etc!
Should be compulsory for every teenager to have lessons for at least a term on how to cook basic meals using basic ingredients.

Agree Sago.

nanna8

I cook, too but I do use those Aldi rices in stir fry dishes, especially the mixed ones with different colours and the coconut rice. Just right for the 2 of us. We don’t have that many convenience foods like Marks and Spencer’s ready meals here yet but no doubt it will come. The convenience meals we do have available are inedible so I don’t actually know anyone who uses them.

nanna8 I remember trying to explain M&S ready meals to SIL's grandmother and she'd never heard the like! Coles just haven't got to grips with the concept.

This was only one woman shopping on one day. Also she was sent to the shops by a paper who obviously wanted to spin some sort of story.

A headline saying "Lady goes to shops, buys ecologically sound products to make healthy, balanced meals and comes in under budget" isn't going to sell many papers.

I normally buy healthy food and cook from scratch, but sometimes, when I'm busy and tired I buy a basket of food that consists of a ready meal, a bagged salad, two pre-made puddings, a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate. On that day the headline would be "Pensioner's don't need triple lock pension as they binge on booze and junk food".