Now this is a matter of great importance, so I hope you'll all take it seriously.

I want to send a message to food manufactures to for god sake, get your act together.

I had a couple of grand kids & their friends here yesterday. It was not planned, so I did not have anything special for them for lunch, but after some time running around the bottom paddock, & the river bank with the dogs, they were starving.

I did have a range of those "home cook" bung in the oven, fast foods in the freezer. There was crumbed fish fillets, meat pies, chicken nuggets, chicken breasts, potato chips & a couple of other things. They were leftovers, with just a couple of each in each packet.

No problem, I'll mix & match & do the lot for them.

Yep, a problem, no 2 of the damn things required the same oven temperature or cooking time. OK I can handle the time thing, [I'm actually smarter than Poirot thinks], but the fish wanted 180C, & the chips to go with them 230C. That is ridiculous.

The kids finally ate, but rather messily, you damn near needed an axe to break the crust on the "gourmet" meat pies that required 50 minutes at 170C, but didn't get quite that.

Thank god our car makers standardised many things, otherwise you'd need different spark plugs, or light bulbs for different cars.

Come to think of it.....

Lol!...Hasbeen,

Don't stress man : )

If we cook those things - say pies and chips, I just kinda bung em in at a temperature somewhere in between the two. A frozen pie takes longer so I slap them in first, then turf the chips in sometime later.

It usually works out.

Sometimes if something is cooking a bit too fast and gets away from you while the other stuff is still going, just wrap it in some alfoil and put it aside.

All that kind of thing is manufactured dross anyway, I don't think the kids care less, unless it's burned to a crisp.

Good old OLO...just the kind of hard-hitting subject I like to get my teeth into....back out to the garden methinks : )

Dear Hasbeen,

<<but the fish wanted 180C>>

No, I'm pretty sure they preferred to stay in ocean-temperature.

<<Thank god our car makers standardised many things, otherwise you'd need different spark plugs, or light bulbs for different cars.>>

But that meant that all those parts are mass-produced overseas.
Now when Ebola spreads world-wide and Australia is being locked down for our protection, nobody here will be producing those spark plugs and light bulbs.

There was crumbed fish fillets, meat pies, chicken nuggets, chicken breasts, potato chips & a couple of other things! I'd hate to think what those "couple of other 'unidentifiable' things were" Salt! sugar! saturated fat! LOL What happened to eggs, cheese, tomatoes etc, sandwiches? Hassy, sounds like you've got a farm there << but after some time running around the bottom paddock, & the river bank with the dogs, they were starving.>> But you fed em' tucker from the concrete jungle! Here is my partner in the inner city, when the grand kids are here they get what I said and "T" is a great believer in "Milo", but I do think she exaggerates it "wonderful" properties, as she does the health benefits for children of.. porridge.

Lol!...Paul,

One wonders if a chook nugget can be "al dente"?

Farm! You've got to be kidding Paul.

Hell I discovered years ago that trying to do anything useful in Oz, like growing food, is a recipe for bankruptcy.

I have grown advanced shrubs for the landscaping trade, & day lilies for the nursery trade, but mostly the place was to graze & train the kids show jumpers & eventers. Only the old stallion left now, & at 27 he won't be around much longer.

I still stock heaps of kangaroos, wood ducks, cockatoos, lorikeets, & neighbours cattle occasionally, when they break the fences, however if I were to shoot any of them, & start cutting them up, the kids or the neighbour would probably complain.

Hell I even let the fruit trees die this drought. It cost more in sprays, fertilisers & water pumping than the fruit were worth, that is if you could get to them before the crows, lorikeets, cockatoos or the fruit fly.

I'm surprised at you Paul, I thought you would know that modern kids are allergic to any good real food. They only eat stuff from a supermarket in a packet. A couple of mine did try an apricot, & a mulberry I think, & I know a couple tried a Brazilian cherry or two, but only because they grow "funny" off the main trunk.

So food is not found in my paddocks.

Hasbeen,

"I'm surprised at you Paul, I thought you would know that modern kids are allergic to any good real food. They only eat stuff from a supermarket in a packet....."

Well, that's a load of BS.

If that's what they're provided with, then that's what they'll eat.

Provide them with a more wholesome diet, and that's what they'll eat.

I have my grand kids so well trained that they don't even mind eating the stuff still frozen so long as it is crumbed.

Spot on Poirot, kids are conditioned by their parents as to what they like to eat. Too many are willing to feed children too much take-away, as its easy and kids adapt quickly to fats and sugar, just ask Ronald McDonald. Condition children correctly, and there is no problem with their diet. I'm not adverse to the kids having a treat at you know where, a burger and fries etc, but it should be a 'special' thing not a regular substitute for a proper balanced diet.