Author Topic: Eat Well for Less - British TV show  (Read 3952 times)

Hula Hoop

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Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« on: September 16, 2018, 11:55:22 AM »
I've been watching this British TV show called "Eat Well for Less" on YouTube.  https://youtu.be/AAtGuW5jO7E 


It's quite well done.  Nothing new here for us mustachians but it seems a lot of British people subsist on "ready meals" and jarred sauces.  I'm sure it's the same in a lot of places.  They do some fun stuff like show that the El Cheapo Spanish sparkling wine Cava is pretty much the same quality wise as the more expensive Italian prosecco.  And they teach the families how to cook simple meals which is also nice.

gatortator

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2018, 04:08:46 PM »
I love this show!!!

 I ,too , catch it mostly on YouTube.  the bbc website and the shows Twitter account have links for most of the recipes featured.  they are my latest source for kid friendly vegetarian recipes.

funny side note...
my son has watched enough episodes with me that I have caught him saying "tin of tomatoes" instead of our normal "can of tomatoes". (we are in the US).


kei te pai

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2018, 01:24:08 AM »
I have watched a few episodes of Eat Well for Less, and am a bit shocked at how few vegetables people eat, even with their new improved meal plans. The childrens meals are the worst!
What happened to eat your greens?
I would normally eat 3 -5 veg a day, often more. I dont spend much as I have a garden and a temperate climate which means growing the basics year round. But even without this,  surely frozen veg bulk out a meal and add nutrition?
What is normal in your households?

Hula Hoop

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2018, 01:40:54 AM »
Same here kei te pai.  When our kids want snacks we give them pieces of cheese, crackers, fruit and veg.  They all seem to reach for the heavily sweetened yoghurts, chips and cordial (ie something like tang in the US).  I can't imagine the amount of sugar these kids are ingesting.

What's weird is the people on these shows are normal sized - none of them are obese.  I wonder how healthy they are though with these terrible diets.

mm1970

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2018, 12:08:16 PM »
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check it out.

I think we eat a lot of produce compared to most.  My kids eat lunch at school, so I cannot speak for that.

But at home, for example
- breakfast always includes a fruit
- if they want a snack, it's fruit
- yesterday for lunch, I was home with big kid.  Lunch was: quesadillas, melon, and cucumbers
- dinner was frozen pizza (husband traveling this week, yay me!), salad, and grapes.

Now, sometimes I wonder if something happened to me, what they would eat.  Certainly not as many fruits and veg.  My husband has gotten better, as he has to cook dinner a few nights a week now.  So he will prep veg.

But honestly - if left to his own devices, he will not give the kids a fruit for breakfast.
If he feeds them lunch on the weekends, at least half the time it's a sandwich or quesadillas, and he won't bother to prep any veggies.
When he takes lunch to work every day, it's a sandwich.  He snacks on granola bars.  If I have prepped veggies and fruit, he'll take them.  If I make a salad, he'll take it.  But he won't make it for himself.  It frustrates me greatly because he's a 50 year old man.  I'd like him to live a long time, so I struggle with accepting that he's a fucking adult, or just making him a salad because I want him to live a long time.

I personally eat a lot of veggies and fruit. 
- Eggs with veggies for breakfast
- 1/2 banana snack
- salad for lunch with peppers, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes (and seeds and cheese and olives)
- melon and grapes and nuts for a snack
- rice and chickpeas with sauteed veggies for dinner. 

Prepping that amount of veggies for a family of 4 gets really old sometimes.

OtherJen

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2018, 02:29:04 PM »
Thanks for the tip on this show! I've watched a couple of episodes on Youtube and it's amazing to see how much of an effect a brand-name label has on the perceived quality of the product for many people.

When he takes lunch to work every day, it's a sandwich.  He snacks on granola bars.  If I have prepped veggies and fruit, he'll take them.  If I make a salad, he'll take it.  But he won't make it for himself.  It frustrates me greatly because he's a 50 year old man.  I'd like him to live a long time, so I struggle with accepting that he's a fucking adult, or just making him a salad because I want him to live a long time.

Ugh, yes. My husband is 43 and much the same. He's far less picky than he was 15 years ago when we were newlyweds and will now eat most veggies and fruit in some form if I prepare them (e.g., he hates eggplant except in baba ganoush, so that's how we eat it), but when he cooks dinner it's usually meat and starch. Hence, I do most of the cooking.

Hula Hoop

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2018, 08:50:45 AM »
My husband isn't into cooking veggies either and doesn't eat much fruit.  However, he discovered the joys of bagged pre-washed salad a while ago so we always have that on hand.  He just chucks some bagged salad into a bowl with whatever veg is in the fridge plus feta or olives or boiled egg etc and we eat that as a side dish whenever he cooks.

CrustyBadger

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2018, 02:06:06 PM »
What a delightful, respectful and kind TV show!

I was expecting the hosts to berate or at least chide the families for their food choices.  Instead they are treated very sympathetically, and are just shown some very practical suggestions and are challenged with some food swaps.  I love the idea of putting all their food in glass bottles or plain packaging so no one can tell what brand it is!  I also love that they are advising families with lots of different food challenges.  The first two episodes included twin boys with some kind of disorder making it hard for them to chew and swallow; and a dad with celiac disease.  Also, there were more run of the mill challenges -- a mom trying to lose weight, and your general "picky eater" kids.   

Great show, thanks for sharing it.

Nudel

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2018, 06:20:16 PM »
Thanks for posting this! It was great to see the families treated so well and the hosts genuinely looked to be helping the family get a hold on the spending.

mm1970

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2018, 11:15:57 AM »
Glad I'm not the only one!  We get two produce boxes delivered - and this week, when we got the 2nd, I counted 35 servings of fruit in the house.  For 4 people, and 3 days till the next box.  The boys get school lunch.  Then I packed spouse fruit and he didn't eat it on day one - but ate it on day 2.  That's not how it works!!

He has gotten better.

anyway, thanks for the tip on the show. I am really enjoying it!!

Hula Hoop

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2018, 02:26:34 PM »
The plain packaging thing and food swaps have be wondering about the no name brand stuff from the cheap supermarket that we get (similar to Aldi).  Today I was drinking the cheap supermarket Earl Gray and wondering how it stacks up to my usual expensive brand tea.  I'd love to run some blind taste tests for my family.

ixtap

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2018, 07:29:35 PM »
The plain packaging thing and food swaps have be wondering about the no name brand stuff from the cheap supermarket that we get (similar to Aldi).  Today I was drinking the cheap supermarket Earl Gray and wondering how it stacks up to my usual expensive brand tea.  I'd love to run some blind taste tests for my family.

The tea is easy, just do the style they do with the public (and OMG, the inclusion on those segments is hands down the best I have ever seen! It may not be perfect, but I would love to be pointed to anything better!) In your own home, put stickers on the bottom of cups to create the groupings, with postits to cover the markings during testing. If you did a complete free for all (all the cups are in one group and everyone just grabs three cups) I bet it wouldn't take too large a group for at least one person to rate the same tea as best and worst :)

The draw back here is if you are like me and only have three matching cups, thereby resorting to disposable...

We find that we can be pretty honest with ourselves, but we seem to be naturally, or at least nurtured as, frugal. And we don't have kids. But we will buy whichever we prefer, cheap if we can't tell the difference.

One thing I did notice on the show is that the family might end up preferring store brands, but from several different stores. What a pain at best, what a temptation at worst.

TrMama

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Re: Eat Well for Less - British TV show
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2018, 10:51:23 AM »
PTF so I'll remember to watch an episode of this when I have time.

Sounds like a similar cable tv show I used to watch when we lived in Quebec. They did a demo of how to cook a simple meal using seasonal ingredients, a blind taste test and the last few minutes was a run down of all the loss leaders at each chain for that week.