Friday 6 February 2015

Eat Well for Therapy?

It has been another busy week. I've been working hard. OH has been poorly, but getting better, fingers crossed.

I decided to have a glass of wine yesterday, and it may or not be related but I woke up at 4am feeling awful. This morning my eye-bags have bags and I have dandruff between my eyebrows, my skin is so dry. And I didn't really enjoy the wine. I left some in the glass.

Am I cured of booze? Should I just have had a cider?

With a busy weekend ahead, I'm not going to risk anything more daring than a rose lemonade.

***

A few of us have been commenting on the new BBC programme: Eat Well For Less

Aha. The sneaky question mark says it all.
This is a light infotainment programme in which two green grocers - one a famous eater of puddings, and another one -  plus a dietician help wayward families slash their grocery bills, primarily through the magic of brand-downsizing.

Actually, the programme isn't called Eat Well for Less, it's called Eat Well for Less? I think a lot of us failed to notice the punctuation there. It's a silent question mark - much like the one employed by Irish alternative metallers Therapy?





So far, I've seen one episode, where the Eat Well for Less? team helped a family of two Snorkas and their two little chipolatas who were spending £260 a week, mainly on sausages, which has annoyed a lot of people.  After making some brand substitutions for things they had tried and liked, but without giving them any further clues about available foodstuffs they could buy (salami, haggis, white pudding... vegetables), stock-taking, meal-planning, stock-rotation, stock photo man... etc etc, they were able to reduce their weekly bill by £70.




Well... good. But we frugalistas didn't think that went far enough. Those kids were lovely, but if they kept eating humongous quantities of sausages, things could only go from Brat to Wurst!

A number of blogs have re-named the programme Eat Slightly Cheaper But Just As Badly, thus making me wonder.... what would Therapy? have done?
?

???





Over to worrisome lyricist Andy Cairns to guide us through how to Eat Well for Therapy?

Meat Abstract - mince is fantastic. You can make lots of things and it goes a long way. Cottage pie. Shepherds pie. Rural worker of non-specific type pie...

Animal Bones - great for making stock or soup. Don't just put them in the bin after the roast is carved. You can pay top whack in some restaurants for marrow, you know.

Potato Junkie - they're not bad for you, you know, and they're full of Vitamin C and cheap. Don't worry about getting addicted, now! Use leftover spuds to make bubble and squeak, potato cakes or gnocchi, or of course some lovely Colcannon.

Neck Freak - I often see lamb necks going cheap in the YS selection at Waitrose. Freaky, but yummy.

Teethgrinder - there's no discernible difference between Ryvita and Supermarket own brand rye crackers. Don't be a brand snob.

Knives - you can have my life, but you can't hide the knives. However mine are rubbish. I've managed to stab my hand with a Kitchen Devil without even drawing blood, so they are probably safe with the subject of this song! I'm after some Japanese blades as soon as I can afford them - which will be in about ten years. It's about the only thing for the kitchen it's worth spending money on. And they will be hidden, blog-reading psychos.

Diane - learning how to make basic sauces can make a standard meat and veg meal into something rather special. I'm not sure the Diane of this song was a sauce, but I bet she was saucy, eh? Eh?

Jam Jar Jail - don't bother paying £2.99 on a fancy new Kilner. Re-use your old jam jars when making jam and decorate nicely. Then give to comedian Josh Widdecombe. He loves jam.

Stalk & Slash - don't throw away broccoli and cauliflower stalks - just get rid of the hard skin and they go lovely in soups.

Living in the Shadow of the Terrible Thing - I'm not wasting a load of eggs on making a souffle again. It's just a poncey Yorkshire pudding. Just make Yorkshire pudding with a lovely cheese sauce!


So, there, you go. Thanks, Andy Cairns!

Next week, Greg Wallace and Chris Bavin pollute their programme title with a load of green grocers' apostophe's.


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