If you DIDN'T cook from scratch what did you have for dinner?

[listsandbudgets]

Feeling tired of seeing all the amazing meals cooked every day on mumsnet. I often cook from scratch but I've been so stressed and run down this week.

If you've been taking short cuts / been lazy cooking for whatever reason come and tell me what you did

Last night we had fish fingers, chips and beans and today Ikea meatballs, frozen mixed veg, mashed potatoes (made a batch a while ago and froze) and a jug of bisto

A bit short on greenery so I suppose I'd better just feed them broccoli and sprouts with a good splodge of cabbage tomorrow

I agree totally. I also don't understand what "cooking from scratch" even means. If I make a chicken stir fry with fresh raw chicken breast and fresh veg but use those nests of egg noodles and a dash of soy sauce, does that count or was i meant to make the noodles myself? If I make my own beef burgers from mince and chips from a potato, am I suddenly cheating by using store bought burger buns? Surely most people's meals are a mixture of shortcuts and fresh food. Like I make a roast...I'll cook the chicken and potatoes myself but might buy the packet stuffing mix.

Anyway...this thread is a breath of fresh air from some of the self righteous food threads I often read.

@itoldyouyouwouldntlikeit i presume she means the roll was crusty not the cheese

Lidl's finest when I buy them 😁

Last night I did a range of veg side dishes, onion bhajis and tandoori style chicken, all made from scratch, but served it with bought chapatis and a keema and pea curry made with a jar sauce. The jar sauce was lovely: Tesco own balti.

Only if you baked the bread yourself 😉

Last night we had chicken nuggets, chips and beans. One of the few meals DD2 is guaranteed to eat. Tonight we are going out for roast which means I will eat healthier (more veg anyway) and she will eat roast potatoes!

Garlic mussels and chips. Slightly disappointing as mussels were titchy.

Pizza from Asda! Saturday night treat why not?! I do cook from scratch most nights

Wimpy!

I had Turkish bread with smoked salmon, avocado, chargrilled capsicum strips and artichoke hearts. Delicious and took about 90 seconds to assemble, and most of that time was drying the oil off the stuff from jars.

Wraps (crosta e mollica fancy ones), then the following foraged from fridge to table to help yourself to: olives, houmous, cheese, salami, honey, peanut butter, red pepper, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

Tonight's isn't from scratch:

Falafels (bought from fridge)
Hummus (same)
Grilled Halloumi
Flatbreads
Salad
Olives
Oven chips.

Tonight I'm doing koftes... bought from butchers with oven chips and I'll make a Greek salad

I do wonder what people mean when cooking from scratch eg the noodle in stir fry example. I can't imagine many people make the noodles. So does the stir fry count? What if the sauce is bought? Personally I don't care if what I do counts or not but just interest in others interpretation of the phrase.

Tikka masala made with chicken thighs and 2 jars of sauce (with the seasoning pots) from aldi.

Bunged everything in slow cooker at 2pm, 4 hours on high, done!

I used a simply cook kit tonight. It was a pasta dish with chorizo but I used a packet of gnocchi I had in the fridge instead.

It tasted nice and was unbelievably easy to make. The ‘hardest’ bit was cutting some cherry tomatoes in half.

It took less than 10 mins to cook too.

I actually really like the simply cook kits for corner cutting.

Personally, I see it as largely hinging on the sauce. If I’m making the sauce from ingredients (that is ‘from scratch’). If it’s a jar or packet, I’m taking a shortcut.

I’m not making my own noodles either way. Nor will I be making my own cheese.

But mostly I do make my own stir fry sauce. I count soy sauce and oyster sauce etc as ingredients in that sauce. If it’s a single jar or packet that’s the whole sauce in one go, I see that as not making it myself.

But, equally, it doesn’t really matter!

Pasta, passatta and microwaved ikea meatballs.

A rotisserie chicken & a caesar salad 'kit'. I'll add tomatoes, cucumber & avocado to it as we have them in the fridge.

Very simple & quick & fairly healthy

We had homemade spiced Moroccan tomato & chickpea soup for lunch.

Last night we had fish & chips from the chippers!

Tomorrow night I'll use the leftover rotisserie chicken to make chicken & broccoli gratin.

Some days are cheat days & others I make more effort 👌

Tonight it is perogies and cabbage rolls, fried onions with bacon bits, and dollops of sour cream.

Perogies from the freezer (we have made them from scratch in the past, but a bit of a faff) and cabbage rolls from a jar. Never tried cabbage rolls from a jar before, but again, have made them from scratch in the past.

Just typing it out is making me hungry, not eaten yet.

I think shortcuts and certain convenience foods don't necessarily equal unhealthy. Yes if you're eating beige freezer food every night and poor quality ready meals, that is not good for you long term. But short cuts such as pre filled tortellini, gnocchi, pre prepped salad, the odd spice kit, shop bought wraps, cold cuts, cheeses, olives, dips etc are perfectly fine imo

My late DF also used to buy ready meals and add vegetables - there is nothing wrong with that. I do it myself sometimes, as it is easy way of cooking for one.

Cooking from scratch is a ridiculous term, and too many on MN use it as a stick to beat others with - and to try and show how superior they are.

Tonight we had dirty burgers, chips and onion rings.
Asda need quarter pounders topped with TGI Fridays BBQ pulled brisket, grated mature cheddar, Tesco Barbecue sauce, gherkins, black olives. In defrosted Iceland burger buns, with crinkle cut oven chips and breaded frozen onion rings.
We had grapes in Prosecco jelly for pudding; but they were leftover from Friday so don't count as home made 😀

Pie from the shop with leftover spuds, cauli cheese and roast carrots from a meal earlier in the week.

Last night was roast veggies (freezer, from a large batch a while ago when I made a roast dinner), roasted tomato sauce (tomatoes that needed using roasted with garlic and blitzed on Friday when I had the oven on anyway), a Toulouse sausage skinned and made into mini meatballs which I fried, all mixed together with pasta.

Tonight, I have a salmon fillet to fry or steam, with steamed potatoes and spinach (I throw it in a colander and pour over a full kettle of just-boiled water - perfectly cooked with almost no work). I might up the veg quota by putting frozen peas in the steamer as well.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I have work events in the evening, that I should get finger food at, so I have some eggs and some cheese on the fridge in case I need more than that.