Mumsnet Talk

As the title says
TIA

fishcakes
I do cook dinner every night, most times from scratch but use short cuts too. very rarely, maybe every other week a ready meal or takeaway.

Tonight I'm having Balsamic Chicken (recipe from waitrose Jan magazine). Basically baked chicken with root veg. On days that I'm home I do cook from scratch, yes.

Chilli and no.

Usually batch cook (eg the chilli tonight was made about 2/3 weeks ago and frozen.)

Usually cook fresh 3-4 times a week and then have frozen things the other nights. Or stirfrys/pasta bakes etc - which are more throwing things together rather than cooking IYSWIM.

Omelette and beans for the DDs. Leftover pizza for DH

I have horrendous morning sickness, and can't cook because of it. Otherwise I cook from scratch around 5/7 nights.

Little Tuna Steaks soaked in light soy suace and black pepper (grilled) with boiled new potatoes and veg will be a mix of red pepper/tomato/onion and chillis fried in a drop of peppered olive oil.

I cook from scratch every day, but not every meal
e.g. for lunch today I had Baxters Mediterranean Tomato Soup with a boght Granary roll and a pear

Depends what you mean by 'from scratch'. I don't buy ready meals or jars because a, I don't like them and b, they're expensive but I don't bake my own bread or make pasta and I'll buy sausages and fish in batter

I forgot to get any meat out before I went to work, so we'll cheat and have 'pasta salad' (pasta mixed with vegetables, whatever meat is in the fridge, mayonnaise and cheese)

Mr Tesco is about to swing by so my fridge will be replenished I will be cooking chickpea and chorizo stew - enough for 2 nights - tonight with crusty bread, tomorrow with brown rice.

About 2/3 of the time we'll have a pasta dish with homemade sauce like cheese, carbonara or tomatoey tuna, or pizza, or a posh ready meal from supermarket like marinated chicken breasts with ready mash and some boiled veg. The other third of the time I cook casseroley things, lasagne or pies, nearly always enough to do 2 meals. Maybe once a fortnight we order in a pizza.

It's just me and DH eating though until babe gets bigger.

Thanks for your replies so far,
MrsDmitri I don't mean make bread or pasta, I buy them ready made.
Just curious what people usually have for meals.

We cook from scratch about 90% of the time, but I only do long and complicated meals (like casseroles or lasagne or roasts) at the weekend.

Tonight we'll be having baked potatoes and something. Not sure what yet.

Pea soup with bread, and no . The soup is home-made, but out of the freezer as I batch cook. The bread's from the supermarket.

We have mostly from scratch meals, but convenience up to a couple of times a week, usually because it was on offer. One of my dds is vegetarian, so she has a Cauldron sausage or Quorn burger now and then when I don't feel up to scratch-cooking two separate meals. But I try to keep some single-serving home-made veggie meals in the freezer for those nights.

We are having a take away. We used to do 'friday night take away' but DH has a 'night with the lads' on Xbox on a friday, so I moved take aways to thurs so we have 'our night' <<sad loser emoticon>>

I cook every night except thurs, ranging from homemade lasagne (inc. own sauces) to pasta pake (jar sauce) to pizzas (open box, cook, serve). Not religious about it, and neither of us are fussed whatever amount of work gos in.

I would love to have the inclination and enthusiasm to try new recipes and cook from scratch but we have little to no space in our kitchen and we are on a very tight budget.

It's sausage & bean casserole tonight, yesterday was jacket spuds with tuna and sweetcorn, tomorrow will be meatballs and spaghetti. I cook fresh most days, save any extra portions in the freezer and, days when I'm busy, I defrost something.

Only talking about dinners, there. Lunches (dh and I both at home) are mostly convenience - sardines on toast, tinned soups, Marmite sandwich sort of things. Same for the dds.

Yep I thought that, but this is Mumsnet and we do have a habit of getting competitively lentil-weavery on occasion...

I'm having an M&S Fuller Longer pasta meal and DS is having an M&S macaroni cheese which I will add crispy bacon to and bake in oven with some grated cheese.

I cook from scratch most of the time (or DH does) but (1) he is away, (2) I am doing WW and find the ease of the ready meals good to help know exactly what I have had and (3) nice ready meals are still a novelty after years of living overseas.

Sausages and...probably pasta. Not enough oven chips and no pots to make mash (we had mash last night anyway). I am cheating a bit, because last night was frozen stuff). We usually have one frozen (fish fingers, chips, beans) once a week and the rest from scratch. McD's at weekend sometimes. Very rarely takeaway .

Not sure about tonight. I have lost my mojo where meals are concerned after excelling my self the other night with mince, veg and tatties in yorkshire puds, and a scrummy steamed treacle sponge. I tend to batch freeze but DD ended up with beans on toast last night as the minceypasta thing was still frozen in the middle.

I cook from scratch but do buy pasta sauces sometimes. We might have veggie burgers and salad tonight.

<boring>

Tonight sausage casserole with mash, carrots and cauliflower - the sauce is a jar.
Yesterday cottage pie made from scratch.
Tomorrow maybe spag bol? I'll make the bolognaise sauce but freeze some of it for a meal next week.

Tonight fish cakes with left over mash/spinash and a quiche (enough left over for tomorrow lunch). The quiche crust was ready made though.
No ready made dishes, but sometime pizza from the restaurant or frozen paella.
Mainly prices are too expensive and it is not the culture of the country where I live.
Eggs and a tin of french beans for when times are lazy. or sardines and corn DD1 favourite... not mine!

We're having sweet and sour chicken done in the slow cooker tonight. DS2 is having chicken dippers and chips 'cause he doesn't like sweet and sour!

Most nights I cook from scratch and we rarely have take aways because they are too far away and would be cold by the time we got home.

A couple of days ago, I made a lovely chicken in white wine, with mash and green beans. Ds1 wouldn't eat the (free range) chicken, dd wouldn't eat the mash and ds2 wouldn't eat the beans <sigh>. I don't get so offended if I haven't scratch cooked!

Sausages, baked potatoes, gravy and carrot soup. I made the carrot soup from scratch last night. Gravy will be bisto.

Last night we had sauage casserole which I cooked from scratch, with some pak choi and homemade bread.

Spaghetti bolognese (made from scratch, though it's scarcely arduous) with garlic muffins (garlic butter made fromm scratch, muffins bought) and marinated Italian antipasti stuff (bought).

Sausage casserole tonight, with Yorkshire Puddings.

I do a mix.
Sometimes I cook from scratch.
Sometimes I use short cuts.
Sometimes I use premade - have just picked up some Tapas on special offer earlier, will use at weekend, for example.