My food parcel has arrived and it's 'better'.
Variations on the typical parcel I receive include;
I got wholemeal bread.
I got tinned fruit (unfortunately in syrup but it can be rinsed)
I got tinned peas (unfortunately one large tin, so really convenient for veg for a main meal for 7 days)
I got ratatouille which I've never had before, but is seemingly some form of veg stew.
Instead of any fresh veg.
I got no carrots, no onion.
I got baked beans with sausages, and 3 tins of carrot and coriander soup.
I got a tinned fray bentos pie, which normally I would moan about but I'm experimenting to see if it's possible to cook one satisfactorily in my oven (so far out of 3 pies I have not managed it, although I have got better, by switching it around to a different shelve mid cook - I suspect that they simply don't work in small fan ovens but I'll kep trying while they keep giving me pies - everyone needs a hobby, useful food would be nice but a hobby will have to do), so all sacrificial pies are currently of use.
I've been promoted on the biscuit front and am now back up to mcvities digestives, having mostly been on custard creams or some weird 'digestives' - over twice the thickness of every other digestive I've ever seen, not actually bad, just not good, odd and not digestives.
I am still hoping to be deemed worthy enough to be granted hobnob status before they stop supplying food parcels.
My fresh fruit is the ubiquitous south african apples and 5 small clementines.
My potatoes are the same ones as I've been getting for weeks, very internally damaged and lots of wastage cutting it out. It's taken 5 medium sized potatoes to make enough small cubes to add to a broth, it would normal take one or 2. These potatoes cannot be used washed and steamed, they cannot be used for chips, they can, with a large amount of wastage be used for a bad mash (as due to the damage they cannot be cut into standard sized lumps so cook unevenly), and as mentioned they can be diced (with heavy wastage) and used as thickener. At least it's removed the pressure to eat potatoes with virtually every meal to try and use them up, 2kg minus 70% wastage leaves me with a more manageable 500-600g of potatoes a week to get through.
Further evidence that absolutely no nutritionist input was involved in the planning of these food parcels was provided in the form of the clementines.
People are supposed to eat at lest 5 a day of fruit and veg.
According to this;
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-portion-sizes/
a portion of fruit is normally considered to be about 80g, which in terms of small clementines (or small apples) is 2-3.
Yet they supply 5 a week (the government's insistence that the week only has 5 days is very long standing, but may now be a little outdated) when what they should really supply is at least 14 of each of the 2 fruits they often supply, offset by the vegetable content supplied (1 tin of peas and 1 tin of ratatouille, obviously this is officially enough fresh veg for a week).
A back of the envelope calculation would suggest that they 'may' have supplied under half of the portions of fruit and veg they themselves recommend, with most of these being from significantly processed sources, which they advise avoiding.
Tinned tomatoes are of course a theme, but given what else they supply even I, who routinely use a lot of tomatoes in my cooking, am more than a little bemused as to what I am supposed to do with them, other than eat them straight from the tin, or blitz them and make tomato juice.
Protein is of course supplied mainly by baked beans, with one tin of tuna (in brine so great for following their recommendations on avoiding salt) and one processed into oblivion pie (containing 4% protein according it's own labeling) which I would imagine would probably not be recommended by my doctor, or virtually anyone this century, as a suitable thing to eat.
Nutrition aside, one pie (which cannot be reheated once cooked, to make more than one meal, I know this as I've tried - but that aside, the whole pie is 570 kcal, 20g of protein, so maybe 2 portions, if it could be reheated), one tin of tuna, pasta, rice, potatoes, no fresh veg - where is the 7 main meals to go with the baked beans on toast and soup that the diet mainly consists of? They surely can't intend for 5 main evening meals to be pasta cooked with a tin of tomatoes, possibly with baked beans added - I'm not 3.
These things weren't a one off rush job just to make sure people didn't starve, they've been knocking them out, in this form, for months now.
Yes - I should be doing something else, several things actually, but instead I'm pointlessly ranting.
