Hot Dogs and Horse Lasagne.
This week I spent more time than usual staring suspiciously at the contents of my freezer. I think I have a selection of fish fingers, turkey mince, beef mince, frozen chips, mixed frozen vegetables and a small chicken in there – but do I? Could I really be storing an unusually large rabbit, frozen lumps of squishy multicoloured flavoured playdoh, minced monkey fingers coated with breadcrumbs and mechanically minced and reformed potatoes. It’s anyone’s guess really. Do I know where the food originated from? No. Did I even check the packets for ingredients before I bought them? No. Should I be feeding them to my family? Maybe not.
This is a competition! Pls post a comment if you’d like the chance to win an afternoon defrosting this freezer. I shall keep you company and shout encouragement. I might even let you borrow my hairdryer if you promise not to electrocute yourself and sue me. Tell your friends! This is a once in a lifetime competition, don’t miss out or you’ll be left in the cold. Ba-boom-tish!
It’s shameful really. Here’s the sum total of my knowledge. A little red tractor on packaging is good, I think it means that the food came from British farmers. And then there’s a long pause while I think for a while and drink tea……….nope, that’s it. I know almost nothing else about food standards. I hang my head in shame and remember that I fed my kids cheap chicken nuggets the day before yesterday. Bad, bad me.
What the F are we eating?
Every now and then when I’m feeling very virtuous I’ll do a load of over complicated home cooking which is fun, but very time consuming and sometimes inedible. This drives me to freezer fodder. At least the kids eat it! But then that is probably because they’re laden with salt, sugar and additives. It’s lazy and bad for them. I’ve always thought I should make more of an effort and I have to say this week’s food labelling fraud news has been a kick in the backside for me. I really need to review what we buy, where it comes from and how it affects our health.
I copied this image from here: www.stuartwilde.com thought it summarised the situation nicely. Horse+Burgers=Careless Supermarkets. I hope Stuart doesn’t mind.
If we are what we eat, I don’t want any of us turning into processed lumps of pink reformed sausage meat. Dearest Horace, I love you dearly, but if you want hot dogs (which very well could be reconstituted dogs if these revelations are anything to go by), you’ll have to buy them and cook them yourself.
Eating healthily can’t be that hard can it? I have decided to make a few definite changes.
A) Find a practical easy to follow cook book with simple recipes in that don’t involve stupid exotic ingredients I can’t find – and use it! (instead of just reading it). This cookbook seems ideal, it works on the principle that anyone can learn to cook which is a good start as I’m no pro.
‘Oh Ministry of Food, save me from Processed Food Hell!’ Kay kneels in front of the oven in mock prayer.
B) Get registered with a veg box scheme so I know I’m supporting local farmers and that we’re eating seasonal veg that hasn’t been transported over from Timbuktoo. This scheme seems like a good option: Riverford Organic Farms
Seasonal, local and organic. Doesn’t get much better than that. My Mother In Law gets swamped with pumpkins every now and then with this scheme, but she has the best pumpkin cake recipe in the world which I plan to steal, so I reckon this is still a practical option for us.
C) Buy from a butcher rather than from a supermarket if at all possible. I’m considering one of these grass fed, free range, ‘I’m having a really happy life right until someone shoots me with a bolt gun’ animal, meat box delivery schemes. (I’m not sure about these because they all seem very expensive. This would mean we’d eat far less meat, because we simply couldn’t afford so much, but at least we’d know where it came from! This is one company I’ve considered: The Well Hung Meat Company
I’d feel so much happier knowing my meat was properly sourced. Is this too expensive and ‘posh’ for the likes of us though?
D) Processed meat is off the menu and in the bin. If we want meatballs we’ll make the things. They’re only balls of meat when all’s said and done aren’t they.
In summary! If we do all of these things we will probably be a bit skint, but I’ll feel a whole lot happier about what goes on our plates and in our tummies. I’ll also have to invest in more time spent cooking, but so be it. There’s no harm in trying.
I’ll be honest, this recent news story has really made me reassess our nation’s current eating habits and more importantly ours. Perhaps it’s time for a change.
If anyone out there has had similar thoughts, I’d appreciate the feedback. What do you do to ensure your family eats healthily? Where do you shop? What do you cook? What do you look for on food labels? How do you do this healthy eating thing? I want to know because I think my lazy days of eating whatever falls off the supermarket shelf at the cheapest price are over. I know I can’t be on my own here.
This is not a sponsored post and is nowt to do with with any of the companies mentioned on here.
