Ban high-sugar cereals to tackle child obesity, says Andy Burnham

[MaryPlain]

A stir fry takes only a 5-10 minutes to cook, doesn't have to have meat in it and if you practised your knife skills doesn't take long to prepare. You can batch peel garlic and ginger and freeze or slice and freeze. Soy sauce and some noodles a few veg (like sugar snap peas, beans etc) and you have a tasty meal inside 30 minutes.

Please don't tell me to practise! 😛

The meal you describe would not contain protein so I would need to prepare something else to go with it - and I still can't see how I could possibly do it in half an hour! The other thing about a ready meal that takes 30 minutes to cook is that you can be doing something else (eg getting changed, making a cuppa, checking emails, opening the post) while it's cooking.

The idea of pre-peeling and chopping and freezing could work, but wouldn't that extend the cooking time?

 

[Vicsetter]

Please don't tell me to practise! 😛

The meal you describe would not contain protein so I would need to prepare something else to go with it - and I still can't see how I could possibly do it in half an hour! The other thing about a ready meal that takes 30 minutes to cook is that you can be doing something else (eg getting changed, making a cuppa, checking emails, opening the post) while it's cooking.

The idea of pre-peeling and chopping and freezing could work, but wouldn't that extend the cooking time?

soya beans, tofu, quorn all sorts of vege protein, just chuck it in, or cook some vege sausages. Personally wouldn't be seen dead eating any of it, maybe some peanuts.
I'm afraid it's a lot easier if you eat meat.
But a stir fry only takes about 10 minutes cooking time, if you can't prepare the ingredients in 20 minutes I give up. Tried risotto, takes 20 minutes.

A sample list of ingredients in Quorn cottage pie from Tesco:
Mashed Potato (52%) (Potato (With Preservative: Sodium Metabisulphite), Milk, Butter, Salt, Flavouring, White Pepper), Water, Quorn Mince (8%) (Mycoprotein*, Rehydrated Free Range Egg White, Roasted Barley Malt Extract), Onions, Peas (3%), Carrot (2%), Modified Maize Starch, Tomato Puree, Vegetable Bouillon (Salt, Yeast Extract, Flavourings (With Celery) Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Onion Powder), Maize Starch, Salt, Sugar, Yeast Extract, Roasted Barley Malt Extract.
*7% of Product.
Contains Celery, Egg, Gluten, Milk, Suphite & Wheat.

mmmm tasty Sodium Metabisulphite. Ooooh Yeast Extract, oh look Palm Oil, modified Maize Starch. All the reasons I try and avoid ready meals.

 

[MaryPlain]

But a stir fry only takes about 10 minutes cooking time, if you can't prepare the ingredients in 20 minutes I give up. Tried risotto, takes 20 minutes.

I give up as well! And I have over 30 years of trying!

A sample list of ingredients in Quorn cottage pie from Tesco:
Mashed Potato (52%) (Potato (With Preservative: Sodium Metabisulphite), Milk, Butter, Salt, Flavouring, White Pepper), Water, Quorn Mince (8%) (Mycoprotein*, Rehydrated Free Range Egg White, Roasted Barley Malt Extract), Onions, Peas (3%), Carrot (2%), Modified Maize Starch, Tomato Puree, Vegetable Bouillon (Salt, Yeast Extract, Flavourings (With Celery) Wheat Flour, Palm Oil, Onion Powder), Maize Starch, Salt, Sugar, Yeast Extract, Roasted Barley Malt Extract.
*7% of Product.
Contains Celery, Egg, Gluten, Milk, Suphite & Wheat.

mmmm tasty Sodium Metabisulphite. Ooooh Yeast Extract, oh look Palm Oil, modified Maize Starch. All the reasons I try and avoid ready meals.

What harm do those ingredients do, do you think? Especially yeast extract - that's marmite - staple vegetarian ingredient!

I've just eaten a ready meal - Thai curry. It was delicious and took 5 minutes in the microwave. These are the ingredients:

Carrot, water, rice, vegetable oil, split peas, onion, water chestnut, edamame beans, spring greens, savoy cabbage, coconut cream, red thai curry paste*, red pepper, spinach, coconut, ginger, cornflour, demerara sugar, garlic, coriander, soy sauce, sea salt, vegetable oil, lemon grass, lemon juice, basil, cumin powder, lime leaves, mint, turmeric powder, black pepper.

*vegetable oil, red chilli, salt, ginger, garlic, galangal, sugar, lemongrass, shallot, spices, kaffir lime peel.

It means I was sitting down to eat my dinner at 7.00 instead of at 8.00. That's one reason I like (some) ready meals!

 

[Vicsetter]

If you had the time to make your own vegetable stock (boullion) would you put marmite in it? I'm just too mean to pay for that kind of meal, I would rather spend the time making it myself where I can control what goes into it. There are some that are wary of the MSG content of yeast extract as well.

I also live too far away from a decent supermarket to shop regularly enough, and my freezer is too full of home made curries, pasta dishes and at the moment turkey and ham pies.
P.S. wheres the protein?

Found this for you: not much knife skills needed and takes less than 20 minutes:http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/thai-red-curry-tofu-vegetables.aspx#reviews
It's american, hence the Kosher salt, Maldon salt will do nicely.

 

[MaryPlain]

If you had the time to make your own vegetable stock (boullion) would you put marmite in it?

Yes, why not?

I'm just too mean to pay for that kind of meal, I would rather spend the time making it myself where I can control what goes into it. There are some that are wary of the MSG content of yeast extract as well.

MSG? It's certainly not listed on the ingredients of Marmite - is it harmful in some way?

I'm more mean about my time than I am about cash - I am fortunate, I know, that I don't have to worry too much about the price of food. I appreciate that for some that is an issue.

P.S. wheres the protein?

Was that to me? Do you mean in my Thai curry? Well edamames are soya beans, so packed with protein, and there is a combination of other secondary vegetable proteins (eg rice and split peas) in the curry which make it pretty balanced.

Found this for you: not much knife skills needed and takes less than 20 minutes:http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/thai-red-curry-tofu-vegetables.aspx#reviews
It's american, hence the Kosher salt, Maldon salt will do nicely.

Thank you, that's very kind of you! I would substitute quorn for the tofu though. But neither quorn nor tofu are exactly raw materials - both have been processed - so where do we draw the line when we describe something as "cooking from scratch"?

I've just cooked dinner, which would probably count as a ready meal for some but for me is cooking! The pre-prepared bit was quorn escalopes out of the freezer which take 18 minutes in the oven. However I also cooked fresh veg with them and sauteed some mushrooms and garlic. It needed sauce so I opened a tin of creamed mushrooms.

Before putting the escalopes in the oven I prepped the veg. The entire meal took about 50 minutes from start to finish, and that was making use of a fair bit of ready-made materials. The kitchen is now an absolute bombsite due to using three saucepans, chopping board etc, but thankfully I cooked so it's not my job to sort out!

I think the key to this debate is the value we put on our time as well as whether we actually enjoy cooking. I don't. I resent every minute!

 

[Northerner]

...Before putting the escalopes in the oven I prepped the veg. The entire meal took about 50 minutes from start to finish, and that was making use of a fair bit of ready-made materials. The kitchen is now an absolute bombsite due to using three saucepans, chopping board etc, but thankfully I cooked so it's not my job to sort out!

I think the key to this debate is the value we put on our time as well as whether we actually enjoy cooking. I don't. I resent every minute!

Cooking is a strange activity I have found. Some things that I am very familiar with making I can make in a jiffy, but some things I have tried have, as you say above, proved rather an ordeal. I used to go to a friend's house on Bonfire night and for my contribution I would take along some homemade samosas. Whilst being fairly straightforward in terms of ingredients they would still take me a good hour or so to prepare, cook and contsruct and there would be mess everywhere however organised I tried to be!