A mother-of-two admitted she's 'mortified' after realising she'd given her children pizza for dinner seven days in a row.
Laura and Adam Oatley appeared on the latest episode of Batch From Scratch on Channel 4 in a bid to achieve a more healthy lifestyle for their children Charlotte, six, and Arthur, four.
School clerk Laura emotionally admitted she'd been 'cycling between pizzas, fish fingers and chicken nuggets' for family mealtimes in their home in Port Talbot, Wales, and didn't have the confidence to cook properly.
Despite his love of cooking - and the family's vegetable patch in the back garden - her husband Adam, a factory worker, said he didn't have time for meal prep between his shifts.
Adam had recently faced a pay cut after changing jobs, meaning the family had fallen into a rut of eating convenience foods - which they called the 'beige buffet'.
Their overconsumption of ready meals and processed foods had become so dire that their six-year-old daughter Charlotte had been forced to whip up her own salads in an attempt to have some vegetables.
After hosts Joe Swash and Suzanne Mulholland filmed their cooking habits for a week, they revealed that Laura and Adam had cooked frozen pizzas every night for seven days in a row.
Faced with the footage, Laura admitted she was 'mortified' and felt 'really guilty'.
Laura and Adam were left 'mortified' after feeding their family a 'beige buffet' diet
Speaking in the show, she said: 'Seven pizzas in seven days is just mortifying and it's horrendous that you don't realise that you're doing it.'
She added: 'I hope I'm not the only mum cycling between pizzas, fish fingers and chicken nuggets. I'm pretty sure I'm not but you still worry about it.
'We've got in a rut with convenience food with money and time and laziness.
'I knew it was bad but I didn't realise it was that bad. I mean, how did we get to this place, really?'
Adam said if the kids were hungry, they would tend to give them a 'packet of biscuits'.
Meanwhile, the recorded footage also showed that Adam and Laura would tend to snack on chocolate ice creams first thing in the morning, while their children Charlotte and Arthur would pick out healthy snacks with cucumbers and peppers.
Adam said: 'This makes me feel awful. We're setting a really bad example.'
But far from saving them time and money, the unhealthy diet actually saw them spending a huge £188.14 on food each week - with only 15 per cent going on fruit and vegetables. In addition, they were spending 15 hours in the kitchen just to prepare their 'convenience' food.
Footage shown in the programme showed that school clerk Laura had given her children Charlotte, six, and Arthur, four, pizza for seven days in a row
Their overconsumption of ready meals and processed foods had become so dire that their six-year-old daughter Charlotte had been forced to whip up her own salads in an attempt to have some vegetables
Laura admitted she'd been cycling through pizzas, fish fingers and chicken nuggets (pictured: the inside of the Oatley's freezer)
After Adam had a pay cut and worked unsociable hours, the family resorted to feeding their children chicken nuggets. Pictured: Their son Arthur
Luckily, Joe and Suzanne were on help to help the couple transform their lives and came up with a healthy 28-day meal plan.
Joe took Laura shopping in Lidl, which sponsors the programme, while Suzanne and Adam sorted the fridge out back home.
Suzanne, who is known as the 'batch cook lady', whipped up homemade mince fajitas, Mediterranean fish parcels and a chicken shawarma kebab 'fakeaway' to prove how quick and easy it is to cook healthier meals.
She then recommended overnight oats for a tasty and nutritious breakfast and also made eight portions of frozen smashed avocado for ready-to-go meals.
Both Adam and Laura had been keen runners before having kids, regularly completing 10ks and half marathons.
But with their busy jobs, and after having kids, they'd let their healthy lifestyle slip, meaning the only member of the family regularly eating vegetables was six-year-old Charlotte.
Suzanne created a 28-day meal plan for the family, who cleaned out their freezer of all frozen food and replaced in with meal prep.
By the end of the show, the couple were beaming with their new lifestyle, which was saving them both time and money.
Laura and Adam said they felt 'guilty' about their current lifestyle and wanted to change their diet
Footage shown in the show showed the family preparing one of their pizzas and adding extra cheese
Luckily, Joe Swash and Suzanne Mulholland helped them by creating a healthier 28-day meal plan
The family had been spending a whopping £188 on food previously, but managed to cut it down to just £81 in their latest food shop, while batch cooking had saved them hours of time, meaning Laura could pick up running again.
Joe and Suzanne even told them they would be able to save £4,570 a year if they stick to the new plan, as well as 313 hours of cooking time.
Laura said: 'That's insane. We're always saying we can't afford to go on holiday, because we're eating chicken nuggets.'
She joked: 'Do you want to go to Italy and have a real pizza?'
Suzanne said: 'A lot of families can relate to this, with over 90 per cent turning to ready meals. It's easy to do.'
The show aims to help families fund a healthier lifestyle through the benefits of batch cooking.
However, after the first episode aired last week, it was branded the 'dumbest' ever cooking show for 'cutting corners' by using microwaveable rice and frozen foods in posts on X/Twitter.
Users said they were 'horrified' when EastEnders actor Joe Swash added frozen vegetables like white onions and mushrooms to mother-of-three Claire Powell's shopping cart during a visit to Lidl, as the duo set about trying to reduce the family's weekly grocery bill.
Viewers were left 'horrified' last week after the hosts encouraged families to use frozen vegetables
One X user wrote: 'Watching #batchfromscratch Horrified that you are showing meals using frozen chopped onions etc.
'Why not show people how to make from scratch - cheaper! Maybe rename the programme 'not quite from scratch.'
Another added: 'Just witnessed the dumbest TV cooking show #BatchFromScratch.'
Suzanne, who hails from Selkirk, Edinburgh, is known as 'The Batch Lady' to her 339,000 Instagram followers, and frequently shares videos of her batch cooking from her farmhouse.
The mother-of-two cooks meals including chilli, fajitas, spaghetti bolognese, meatballs and burgers from the frozen foods she buys from the supermarket, which she says is convenient and keeps the costs down.
She saves time by using similar ingredients and just one spoon to save on washing up.
The meals are then distributed into bags which are flattened to save space in the freezer.
The super mum cooks meals including chilli, fajitas, spaghetti bolognese, meatballs and burgers from the frozen foods she buys from the supermarket, which she says is convenient and keeps the costs down.
She saves time by using similar ingredients and just one spoon to save on washing up.
The meals are then distributed into bags which are flattened to save space in the freezer.
In a 2019 interview with FEMAIL, she said: 'Working mums and dads want a home-cooked meal but there's little time to cook during the week.'