"meal treats" in short supply?

I think the suggested shortage of pigs in blankets (Wwhen did they start being called that? They just used to be sausages in bacon.) is down to lack of workers.

In this house, doing the PiB has always been the children's job on Christmas Eve! Free labour, even if the end results weren't that pretty.

On other convenience food, one of my daughters was entranced when she went on a sleepover and for breakfast they had pancakes made out of the contents of a plastic bottle. 'All you to do, mum, is add some milk and then you cook the mixture!'

The other thing which baffles me is crumble mix, to which you just add butter.

I make my own pigs in blankets as I get about 40 for the price of a ready made pack of 10 or 12. We love our pigs in this house!

Sarah, I think that’s what is implied. However I don’t care if they’re in short supply or not, but I would miss my Brussels sprouts
Anyway, as we’ve now got an extension or flextention, or whatever it’s called, I assume the shops will be stuffed full of pigs in blankets and all other festive foods. I wasn’t really convinced by the arguments of shortages anyway.
Or is there a shortage of pigs?

Ice cubes! My husband buys them because he thinks they're handier than popping a cube out of an ice cube tray.

Of course manufacturers should hire "us oldies" to do the job but then most employers seem to have a 'brick wall' mentality when faced with job applicants over 50.....and the youngsters, having been enthusiastically encouraged to aspire to university education no doubt consider wrapping bacon round bangers rather too lowly and demeaning.

??? * Urmstongran* twiddly bits going forward. Reminded me I need a new bra.

I’m with LullyDully the main thing is to have the sprouts, carrots , onions and spuds picked. We won’t starve without a few of the ‘twiddly bits’ going forward!

And as for the firms who make them, I imagine they will either drop the range (and the commensurate cost involved before any sales) or put the price up for what is available for buyers who ‘must have them’ pre prepped.

Maddyone
due to Brexit??

I forgot - what annoys me is when you go out for a Christmas meal or a carvery and get charged extra for 1 pig in blanket, where they used to be included with the meal - current going rate about £2 per sausage !!!!

My MiL was a cook who worked in a private school and I got roped in to help out when there was a social function at the school so I must have done several hundred pigs in blankets as well as angels on horseback (bacon wrapped prunes).
The prepared pigs in blankets were really only available over the last few years - it was only a few weeks ago that Iceland were selling packs of them for 50p!
If a supermarket sells it, it becomes a must have to some people and until every senior school provides students with cookery and budgeting classes, people will be sucked in to buying whatever the supermarkets sell!

Let’s be honest here, if it’s actually true that pigs in blankets were to be in short supply at Christmas, none of us will starve over the Christmas period.
It’s true that it’s easy to make your own pigs in blankets, however I assume that if they are in short supply, it would be because the necessary ingredients to make them were also in short supply. Or is because the workers to make them are in short supply?

I worked full time with 3 young children. I cooked from scratch and made all of our clothes. They have it too easy theses days

JackyB, they were certainly a thing even when I was a child back in the very olden days.
Only they weren't called pigs in blankets then - they were just bacon-wrapped sausages.
They are mentioned in a GH cookery book published in 1970 - I have a 'new' 2nd hand version of this, found online after the original was falling to bits from so much use.

Urmstongran, I agree about the phones.

I have recently seen cereal advertised, in a one-helping sized box, into which the milk can be poured for eating from the carton. Who is too 'busy' to use a bowl, or are they used on public transport or at the work desk? I bet they are not recyclable.

I've never had a pig in a blanket. Since when are they a (Christmas?) thing.

If some of them got off their iPhones they could make pigs in blankets! Or don’t bother with the bacon wrapping and just bake some cocktail sausages or warm up pre cooked.

First world problem.

One of my GS's had an appraisal from his boss at work for his pigs in blankets which he does for M&S---he's a dab-hand.

I understand mixed salad bags - all those lovely different leaves but I’ve also seen bags of iceberg lettuce - why?

Pigs in blankets is a great job for the kids. I would be more worried if the sprouts weren't picked or the potatoes dug up however.

I once saw scrambled egg mix. Just add milk and some butter. Put in a pan and stir. I couldn't see the convenience. In the time it took to open the box and pour out the powder I could have broken eggs into the pan - and the rest is common to both.

Well, yes, milk yes or no, do you add butter but basically the same.

And we're talking about Christmas time, when people are on holiday. Are they really going to be sitting in their kitchens looking at a pack of chiplolatas and a pile of streaky bacon, saying, "How on earth do we do this?"

I am quite prepared to believe that a shortage of EU workers may mean a reduction in the availability of certain prepared foods, but pigs in blankets are not a great example to give us. If we can't obtain either the pigs or the blankets, I would be more concerned.

I don't get it, everyone bangs on about how busy families are today and that's why they can't do this that or the other. It's crap, I went back to work full time when my eldest was 10 weeks old and still managed to cook all our meals from scratch on a daily basis. I'm not and never was super woman so if I could do it why can't everyone else?

sheer idleness, how long does it take to do that?

I don't think the issue is that people are unable to wrap a bit of bacon round a sausage. It's that many busy families where everyone works outside the home tend to buy pigs in blankets rather than make their own.
It's the lack of people prepared to do this as a job. I won't mention the B word of course.

Burgers already in a bun, think someone bought one on Eat Well For Less recently.