Showing you how to cut costs without sacrificing flavour
We all do it, plump for the shopbought baguette rather than the home-stuffed pitta, put the ‘on-offer’ big name choccie biscuits in the trolley, even though the own-brand ones taste identical and are still a quid less than the ones on sale.
But instead of sweeping an aisle’s worth of BOGOF deals and ready meals into your basket, there is another way.
Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin returned this week for a fourth instalment of Eat Well For Less?, the BBC One series in which the duo - both foodies and long-time greengrocers meet with families struggling to manage their food bills.
The plan is simple: To improve people’s nutritional knowledge and discover how shopping habits affect what we eat and how much it costs.
“Originally it was supposed to be looking at the difference in price between food stuffs. So we started with fish and chips, and why they should be £10 in a chippy and £30 in a restau- rant. That fascinated me,” says Wallace, 52, explaining why he first got involved with the show. “The biggest thing I’ve learnt is what a huge cookery skill shortage there is across the UK, and how many people rely on convenience foods. I find it troubling.”
The series’ accompanying book, Eat Well For Less – Family Feasts On A Budget, written by Jo Scarratt-Jones, sets out to combat that reliance.
Packed with practical meal planning ideas and tips, it features cutout-and-keep shopping lists and menu plans, as well as conversion charts and details on how long to store stuff in the fridge and freezer for before it goes mushy or mouldy.
Then there are the recipes, all designed to be wallet-friendly staples that, when it comes to the final scraps and leftovers, families will (lovingly) fight over. For MasterChef judge Wallace growing up, his favourite family meal was “always Sunday roast at my grandmother’s. My grandmother was by far the best cook in the family”, while Bavin’s top childhood meals have continued into adulthood. “When I was growing up, we had several meals on rotation and my favourite meals were sausage and mash and spaghetti Bolognese – still both firm favourites,” he shares.
Their main aim though is to extinguish the belief, understandably held by lots of people who have too little time and too many mouths to feed, that cooking is just another chore – “like ironing or hoovering,” notes Wallace, “and not in any way fun or something that could bring the whole family together. I want [people], more than anything, to realise that good, nutritious and tasty food doesn’t have to take time or cost a lot of money.”