AuntyDaren.com Cooks

What’s the skinny?

I was sitting on the bus a couple of years ago and over heard a mother and son talking

“Mum what’s for tea?”

“Listen Albert I’ve not got a lot of money in fact I’ve only got £5 left, have £1.99 to get a happy meal”

Now this got me to thinking and looking at figures and it is true there are more and more people in this country that are not only food poor but on the poverty line as the country has grown. More and more families are making the use of food banks and charities to feed their families. This can’t be good.

This is not only families on benefits but in some research I have done its people who work full time and still only have the money to pay mortgage or rent with the utility bills and council tax. At the start of the month things seem to be ok but coming to the end of the month there is no food left in the cupboard.

The Trussell Trust has figures on their website that 1.4 million 3 day Emergency Food packs have been given out this year to date. This figure can’t be good and it leads me to look at what else was going on in the country. What I found made my blood boil.

Every day children are missing meals. In this time of cutbacks there are not always school meals available and in the case of some families they earn too much money in theory to get free school meals.

It’s also the case that parents are missing meals to make sure their children are fed. This can only affect the standard and quality of their work. Meaning that in some cases they are at risk of losing their jobs. Well I say no more let’s fix the problem and put a stopper on this down wood spiral.

When I went to school in the 1970’s and 80’s we had domestic science and home economics. This changed to food science. The important thing is that people are not being taught to produce a meal and all think that takeaways and ready meals are good. In some cases I can see the point of takeaways and ready meals however it the salt sugar and fat content that make me concerned. We should be cooking a lot more.

There is not always time to do this. I understand that we are not only money poor but time poor as well. It’s all well and good to lust over the celebrity a chef with meals in 15 mins but it’s all down to the cost of the ingredients. Time to go back to ww2 thinking.

£1.99 is the key.

At auntydaren.com I have been thinking of how to help so it is my intention to do the first fully online cooking school that takes things back to old school meals and dare I say some vintage cooking and to give it a more up to date parlance.

The time of the cooking lessons is important and it will be in time to feed our family. A couple of days before I will newsletter the products and will cook along with you so you can feed your family. Its not about having a store cupboard with oil herbs flour and butter etc. this is food that will cost no more than the price in the letter now I know that not all meals will be £1.99 some will go up to £10 for a proper Sunday roast with desserts. What desserts! Yes I know you may be skint but you should still have a treat

In not talking about the yellow label hunt I mean we all love a reduction but in my opinion short date things like bread milk and cream are a false economy.