I was idly flipping channels a couple of Sundays ago and ran across Sandra Lee’s new show on the Food Network. It’s called “Sandra’s Money Saving Meals”, and I paused to watch it. It’s indicative of the current financial environment that this kind of show has a place on the Food Network, and given her upbringing Sandra Lee brings a certain amount of authority to the show that I suspect other Food Network Chefs would lack, so I was curious about what it was like.
In the end I was torn between deeply amused and somewhat disturbed by the show. On the one hand, it’s entertaining because Sandra Lee has branded herself on the Food Network with the prescription of 70% store bought/30% homemade. But of course that costs money, so on the budget show she cooks everything from scratch. There isn’t a single instance of store bought sauces or mixes, because it is cheaper to use real ingredients (it also tastes better, but that’s a separate issue). On the other hand, I was concerned by the sheer lack of vegetables being presented. In the five shows, and 33 recipes that have aired so far only three recipes have involved vegetables (five if you decide to count spaghetti sauce as a vegetable, which granted I do all the time but acknowledge isn’t really a vegetable). Read the rest of this entry ?
Monday Night Dinner 