VeganMania

[Bellenda Carlisle]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

@Bellenda Carlisle posted a pic of a frozen vegan Christmas meal kit from Sainsbury's - it looked really nice, too.

It was Iceland.

Did Ricky Gervais really kill frogs? (Please don't post a link) That's the worst thing I've heard in a while.

 

[Keith Houchen]

12 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

Did Ricky Gervais really kill frogs?

No, it was toads.  He didn't kill them, it was a woman in a Chinese village who did in an episode of An Idiot Abroad.  Pilkington was squirming and horrified by it.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Was she already doing at and they happened to be passing or did famed animal lover Ricky Gervais organise the killing of said toads?

[PunkStep]

It's been a while since I watched it, but I'm sure she was preparing and eating them anyway.

[Keith Houchen]

3 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

Was she already doing at and they happened to be passing or did famed animal lover Ricky Gervais organise the killing of said toads?

He went there for dinner, the whole segment and indeed the whole show was to laugh at a man squirming.  The executive producer was fine with using footage of a man being made to be uncomfortable as a woman took toads out of a plastic bag and smashed against a doorstep for comedy.

[Carbomb]

I imagine the scene was something like this.

 

[UK Kat Von D]

17 hours ago, BomberPat said:

The ease of processed food will always be a struggle, and you're right about the Jamie Olivers of the world missing it. 

The low income family is an important issue. While it definitely is cheaper for them to switch to a Vegan diet it will most likely mean changing a lot of the types of meals they eat. Essentially learning a mostly new meal routine. End of the day it is cheaper and healthier.

So yeah, it is absolutely more work initially. However if they are saving money and giving their children healthier food is there really any argument against it other than it being a hassle to learn? Doesn’t have to be done over night, transition one meal a month and they wouldn’t notice a difference other than spending less money. 

[MungoChutney]

I'm yet to be convinced that it's cheaper to make a vegetable curry from scratch for 4 people than it is to buy frozen pizza and frozen chips that will feed them same 4.

You guys obviously have much more idea of cooking on a Vegan diet than me though, are there any article or reports that compares the cost?

[Keith Houchen]

4 hours ago, UK Kat Von D said:

However if they are saving money and giving their children healthier food is there really any argument against it other than it being a hassle to learn?

Yes, loads.  For a lot of people it's also a matter of having the time and energy to cook for a family after working a low paid job.  Sure we can all pontificate like Oliver's Army about how the poor can do better for their kids but it's incredibly difficult to live on a tight budget when you don't have the time or energy.  I posted something earlier on about how public transport plays a big part in diets and this is a great example of that.

[BomberPat]

10 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

 I posted something earlier on about how public transport plays a big part in diets and this is a great example of that.

This, along with catchment areas for supermarkets and so on. 

This article in the Guardian a few years back goes into it - https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/feb/11/how-supermarkets-choose-where-open-close-tesco 

Basically, more affluent areas are more likely to have multiple supermarkets within a stone's throw of one another, whereas supermarkets are less likely to open, and existing branches more likely to be closed, in deprived areas.

Those same areas are also less likely to be supported by good public transport links. So if you're reliant on public transport to get to the shops, and those shops are half an hour or an hour away on the bus, and the bus only comes once an hour, you're looking at narrow windows to even get the shopping done in the first place, particularly if you've got to fit it all around multiple jobs as well.

Under those circumstances, it's going to be much easier to stock up on a ton of cheap frozen food once a week than to be buying fresh veg often enough to be making every meal from scratch.

[Keith Houchen]

And even easier and convenient to do an online supermarket shop

[Chris B]

2 hours ago, MungoChutney said:

I'm yet to be convinced that it's cheaper to make a vegetable curry from scratch for 4 people than it is to buy frozen pizza and frozen chips that will feed them same 4.

It might not be. However, a bunch of the ingredients will be enough to make multiple currys or use for other meals. So if you make curry for 8 and freeze it, you've just halved the per-meal cost. The bulk-buying of a bunch of the ingredients is where the bigger savings come in (and often where a little of the dishonesty about the 'per meal' costs turn up in articles, which sometimes present it as if you can buy 3p worth of rice).

[UK Kat Von D]

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Yes, loads.  For a lot of people it's also a matter of having the time and energy to cook for a family after working a low paid job.  Sure we can all pontificate like Oliver's Army about how the poor can do better for their kids but it's incredibly difficult to live on a tight budget when you don't have the time or energy.  I posted something earlier on about how public transport plays a big part in diets and this is a great example of that.

Well the only way of cooking that is genuinely going to be faster is just sticking frozen shit in the oven, and I’m sure there are Vegan ways of doing that on a budget. I’ll have a go next week and report back.

[David]

2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Yes, loads.  For a lot of people it's also a matter of having the time and energy to cook for a family after working a low paid job.  Sure we can all pontificate like Oliver's Army about how the poor can do better for their kids but it's incredibly difficult to live on a tight budget when you don't have the time or energy.  I posted something earlier on about how public transport plays a big part in diets and this is a great example of that.

That's a very good point. I used to nip round and visit my mate after he finished work on occasion, and he's a lad who's married and has three kids. The early evenings in his house were sheer madness. You had him coming in from doing a shift, his wife coming in from her job, and three kids dodging about, two of which were home from school and alternating between being forced to do homework and sneak a peek at the telly or the tablet while telling both their parents about what happened at school, and the other was younger and simply sat at the dinner table scribbling in her colouring book and throwing crayons at anyone who was within arms reach while shouting and pointing at the dog, who was asleep on the couch.

On any given evening you had the above all going on while my mate was trying to fix a broken toy that had been handed him by a crying child or on the phone to the bank/Sky/gas or electric company over some issue or other, while also trying to get changed out of his work gear and get cleaned up, while his wife was overseeing homework and trying to find something to cook.

The TV adverts where you see everyone smiling as the kids sit nicely at the table waiting on their dinner delights it most certainly was not. 

[Merzbow]

3 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said:

Well the only way of cooking that is genuinely going to be faster is just sticking frozen shit in the oven, and I’m sure there are Vegan ways of doing that on a budget. I’ll have a go next week and report back.

Good luck, it's something I've been looking for for years. The closest I've found requires doing shops at multiple supermarkets and getting their individual offers, something a busy parent really can't afford to do.