Your tips on homemade food

Make large amount and then portion up. So once a month i make soup then freeze portions. Bolognaise sauce, taco mince filling, macaroni cheese etc then can just defrost. Makes life as a working single mum so much easier.

I buy things like frozen chips, frozen battered fish, nuggets etc so do have quick and simple things to pull out and air fry. Eggs always good to have too quick easy and filling.

When you try a recipe for the first time it will feel harder because you don’t know it, yet. But the ones you like gradually become second nature and you can shop for and cook from memory. That lessens the load. But - it takes time to build the mental repertoire.

I had an early rising baby who was pretty happy as long as he had company. In the grey face- sagging hours between 5am and 8am I used to prep dinner because what else was I going to do? Even putting off going to the playground til 8, there was never anyone else there (no idea what the other early babies do).

However rushed I was, giving the onions a full ten minutes to soften is always worth it. There’s usually other prep tasks you can do in the time.

Fish in the microwave works brilliantly - salmon fillet is about 2.5 minutes IIRC.

There’s a lot of ‘real’ recipes that are genuinely quick. Pasta carbonara is the classic. Takes as long as the pasta cooking, tbh cooking the green veg is the slowest part. I like pasta puttanesca too.

I work a 45-50 hour week and cook from scratch every day. I don’t batch cook because I don’t much enjoy reheated food but I do peel/chop veg for the next day and store them in the fridge so I only have to do that work three times a week.

For me, it’s just about being organized. I do my grocery shop on a Friday (my WFH day) and have a whiteboard on the fridge with the week’s meals for us, both lunch and dinner. Then I put the right number of chicken breasts/steaks/chops etc in boxes in the freezer when I put the shopping away and take meat out to defrost in the fridge the night before.

During the week, I don’t get in till about 6:30/7, so I make easy things that take 30 minutes at the most to make, like pasta, risotto, stir fry, fajitas etc. At the weekend we have things that take more time like stew, curry, lasagne, bolognese, short ribs or any baking when I have the time to do it.

It’s mostly just prioritization, being organized and, if you’re not the most confident cook yet, having 10 or so dishes you can do with minimal thought.

I make sourdough a few times a week - honestly, mixing takes 5 mins, a few stretching sessions and it gets left on the counter for 7+ hours before going in the fridge over night and being baked the next day. Doesn’t take half as long as people make out!

I’m a big believer in prep - I like to prep everything to make my life easier. When I’ve got a few hours at the weekend I’ll make soup / bread / chopped veg / things that can freeze and then use those throughout the week.

I think a lot of it is prioritising too, i have friends that say they can’t cook from scratch due to time but will spend time watching tv / reading / on social media. That time at the weekend prepping could help them with home cooking during the week!

In addition to the suggestions above:

• Buy good equipment. We have a Thermomix, it definitely saved time on cooking. It makes it easier to cook large portions and freeze part of them
• When we don't have time to cook, we pour some frozen mixed vegetables in a pan with some spices and cook some proteins alongside (lentils, meat) and ready that. Easy, no efforts and still homemade.

Lots of batch cooking as others have said. But also, if time is short just have something such as a grilled chicken breast with bacon and lettuce in a decent bread roll. It will be delicious and far better than any ready meal of takeaway. Likewise experiment with omelettes and frittatas, they take minutes to make.

Get a big freezer. Buy frozen chopped onions, garlic, ginger, vegetables etc. So easy and quick to just throw stuff in.

Also good for freezing leftovers for another day obviously.

Lots of excellent ideas here and only one thing to add - no pudding. That's for the weekend for me, if then.

I'm a huge fan of the cook once, eat twice philosophy.

So make a big batch of Bolognese sauce. First night it's pasta bake (parboil pasta, add half the sauce, put in a baking dish, add white sauce, sprinkle grated cheese on, 45 mins in oven).

Then the rest of the sauce is served with spaghetti another night.

Makes a huge difference to your time.

I cook for about an hour a day three times a week, in addition to dinner (which usually takes anything from ten mins to an hour)

So I'll do a batch of hard boiled eggs, some muffins, and a soup for example. This keeps us ticking along and stops us resorting to crappy freezer food

Definitely batch cooking. Don’t just do what you need for the next meal, ever. Even cutting bread, slice the whole loaf. Make soup twice a week, cook rice or pasta for two meals and chill or freeze half, peel half a dozen potatoes and carrots and keep half in cold water in the fridge. Use lots of frozen veg: peas, beans, corn. Plan ahead.

I’m a big fan of a traybake dinner. Choose one meat or fish, add whatever veg you have in, plus cooking oil and some sort of flavouring, put them all in a baking tray and stick in the oven for half an hour while you sit down with a glass of wine.

Don’t worry about all this, well salmon only needs 20 minutes but the potatoes need 45, bung them all in together - they’ll be fine.

Re food waste totally agree. It's much more efficient. With veg , green soup for that which is about to leave this mortal life but hasn't yet, is easily done and tasty with the right herbs and spices.

Like pp have said, figure out your favourite meals and how you can make them simply. I work FT too, so I get how busy life can be!

The DC and I love all sorts of different things, so we have a selection of meals that I’ve frozen into single portions. Soups, pasta in sauces/bolognese, chilli con carne, Thai food, meals from around the world, curries, home made “fakeaway” meals etc. They’re all labelled and we use them for lunches or suppers. My DC have food flasks that will keep food hot for hours (they use these for school/work/days out). They pick what they like and defrost/reheat. I will also get portions of meat/poultry, cook them, portion out and freeze (good for salads, wraps or if we want to make a super quick roast style meal). Porridge or Bircher: I’ll make 6-8 portions worth and put in fridge - just heat up in microwave (and add whatever toppings). I’ll precook jacket potatoes and then freeze them too (they come out really well). I’ve even made a giant sheet pancake and sliced that up/frozen it. Great for morning pancakes 🥞

I can make bread but will often buy yellow sticker bread, slice it up and freeze. I make Greek yogurt in the instant pot. Preserves/chutney is made on days off and when I have fruit/veg that needs using up. I make vegetable stock paste once every 6months (or thereabouts).

Meal prep is done on my days off. I can cook but will use gadgets to make my life easier (Thermomix, slow cooker/instant pot, air fryer).

Maybe start by cooking a large one pot recipe: have some for meal that night, and freeze the rest. Build up some bits that way.

It sounds like a huge faff, but - for us anyway - it means that we always have healthy home cooked meals in the house on hand. Also means a very low food bill, and very low/minimal food waste.

Steaming veg in the microwave is great.

Having a blackboard or whiteboard or magnetic paper list and pen on or near the fridge is really helpful for when you run out of things too. As long as someone actually then acts on the list of course 🙂

I make very quick homemade meals when necessary ie after work

like pan fried fish or chicken breast or pork chop and have a baked potato 5 mins in microwave then 15 mins in air fryer. veg approx 4 mins in microwave or fried in pan meat was in

Weekend is for roasts, lasagna etc

Chat gpt is really useful for what you already have in .

If you're a totally unconfident cook, something like a gousto box might help. We've had a few to try different cuisines, and I keep the recipe cards and reuse.

It's about prioritising to find time for things which are important to you. It takes a few hours to make bread but it's only about 20 minutes or less of actual work, you aren't standing over it the whole time. So it's a bit like doing the washing, except more fun, if you find kneading dough therapeutic.

With cooking for a young family, I used to spend probably an hour or more meal planning a week, to find quick, cheap and healthy meals to make before shopping for the ingredients. I have a folder with reams of sheets of paper with meals planned for the week on. After a while I found I could just rotate them. And now I am a more confident cook I do it in my head and buy things in a more random way and make it up. If I get stuck for ideas I put what I have in the cupboard and fridge into ChatGPT or similar and see what it comes up with.

Basic 'recipe' and a good understanding of how to use different herbs and spices. Same basic stew but different carbs and herbs and spices doesn't seem repetitive.
You can easily knock up a meal in minutes, if you want to.

Keep some store cupboard items that you can use to make a meal from the bottom of the fridge/veg rack. Things like omelettes or pasta and pesto are great for this.

For bread we use a breadmaker it takes 3 mins to set it up and its ready next day. I take 3 mins less sleep.

For cooking. I calculate iti to my days planning. 30 mins for cooking. 1 gour if complicated dish. 30 mins for eating. I do t not allow many things to override this and nor did i when I had teens that needed to be driven everywhere and I held down a full time job..

Its priorities imo. Its acceptable to have them differently to this but its always about prioritising that time and wanting to.

Traybakes are very low effort, if a bit of a long time in the oven.

True. We have a rule that the cook doesn't wash up. I wash as I go a lot more than he does...