Is it still good home cooked food if you use a jar?

[Hsundbfhdi]

We've had a pretty rubbish day here, I'm heavily pregnant and feeling rough and my husband is working crazy hours. Our childcare fell through so we've been trying to juggle a toddler too.

It's time to get dinner ready and I've popped open a jar of honey and mustard chicken tonight. Poured it over some chicken thighs. Will make pasta and peas to go with it.

Curious to know where people stand on how unhealthy it is to use jars? I've never really cared before, but now we've got a little one, I'm more conscious of the food I'm making. Growing up, my mum would use jars quite regularly e.g dolmio, curry, chicken tonight etc she'd also make amazing Mediterranean food from scratch too. It was a real mix.

Anyway, would you still consider this a healthy, home cooked meal? Do you think it's still better than a takeaway (I do)? I've started trying to make my own sauces when I've got time, but my husband and I both work full time, long hours, and trying to get something together after work and before baby bedtime is a real mission! So I'm still partial to a jar here and there.

Just curious for thoughts.

Such a mix of views, which actually makes me feel a lot better! Particular thanks to all the lovely, sympathetic comments, very kind.

I love to cook. Nothing I enjoy more than having the time to make a really tasty meal for the family to enjoy. Not always possible at the moment. Here's to hoping that things get easier when the babies are a bit older!

Also very grateful for any examples of quick 'from scratch' meals! Always on the lookout.

I'm sure that the occasional use of a jar isn't going to do you any harm, but no, I wouldn't call it home-cooked.

Not home cooked really, but better than take away- jar sauce usually has a fair amount of sugar and preservatives in them, not the same as making the sauce, but I also wouldn't judge or care if I was served that

This OP.
I do think it's hard to whip up a variety of delicious 'made from scratch' meals.
I mean even making from scratch presumably the mustard is ultra processed and for a lot of Chinese food for instance soy sauce, oyster sauce etc all similar.

I do curries, dried spices or use basic ingredients like ginger, garlic scallion etc to add flavohr

Of course it is.

many on here shudder at the thought.

they are the ones who don’t own a loo brush, and feed their kids houmous and crackers immediately after school.

Threads like this are always good for finding posters who love to look down their noses at other people, and this one is no exception.

Your jar of sauce is fine.
Don't even waste energy on whether it would count as home cooked, it's a small help on a tiring day.

It's probably a similar dish to what 50% of the country would be having tonight, with other families at the ends of a spectrum which stretches from microwaved left over Mcdonalds fries and a donut, to home raised, killed and cured, grass fed venison in a sauce of home grown veg & herbs.

I like an occasional jar, I often cook from scratch, I love a fish finger wrap.

Everyone fed, nobody dead - winner.

I had beans on TOAST last night, and sardines on toast tonight. That's about as much cooking I can be arsed with after a day at work. And I'm not pregnant

I would try to avoid that due to the xanthum gum, modified maize starch, and rapeseed oil. I would eat something like that a couple of times a year for example if camping / ill / no other choices available from my local shop. But I would tend to avoid.

Yep, from both sides.

There's little point trying to engage with these threads. Whatever you post, someone will leap in telling you how snobby/useless/unhealthy you are for either giving a shit about nutritious food, or feeding your kids the odd jar of pasta sauce.

These threads usually bring out the arsehole in people tbh.

If you didn't rear the chicken it's definitely not home made.

According to the laws of Mumsnet anyway

I am a big fan of jars for a quick dinner and we have them at least once a week. I also have a little one so have been looking a bit closer at the ingredients and Mr Organic pasta sauces don't seem to have anything I haven't heard of in them so have made the switch to those

Well it's cooked at home so it's home cooked. Cooked 'from scratch', no.

It's fine op just not every day as you know already. I use curry pastes, pasta sauces and couple of times a week. I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

Fuck me. I lived on crisps and tomatoes when I was heavily pregnant. You’re doing grand.

I would say that this is a perfectly acceptable all-but-home-cooked meal! The chicken, veg, and pasta is supplied by you. If everyone enjoys it, and eats it, they will be happy and well-nourished. Please don't beat yourself up!

People over think all this stuff. It's just food. Most people eat a mix of fresh, pre prepped and processed food.

I wouldn't consider it home-cooked, but there's no rule that says you have to cook home cooked food every day. Life's one big balancing act of time and energy and resources and you get to choose the compromises that work best in your own individual circumstances.

This made me laugh out loud 🤣🤣 you would avoid it unless you're ill. Surely by your standards of it not being good enough you should particularly avoid it when ill. It could be the end of you after all 🤣

People who like the idea of Gusto or Hello Fresh can I suggest Sorted Sidekick? It does the same thing with the recipes and the no waste and so on-but instead of sending you the ingredients they send you a shopping list so you can get the ingredients delivered. And the recipes are incredibly easy. We did it for a while, but dp and I love cooking so we found it a bit restricting. I'll find a link.

Sounds fine to me but I'm probably not the best judge as if cooking was left to me we'd be eating ready meals or fish fingers! Luckily DH can cook and enjoys it.

You sounded the UPF klaxon, OP, unfortunately! Another woman in a not dissimilar position to you started a thread the other day asking if it was OK to feed her family beans on toast once a week. One of the first replies said no, and suggested something else, taking far more effort and time to prepare, so she didn't have to 'resort to UPFs'. Others, in despair at the thought of such an awful meal, said she should put cucumber sticks on the side. I posted the ingredients of my baked beans and was told yes, they are indeed UPF. Ordinary sliced bread (the affordable, easily available kind most of us use) is of course not dissimilar to rat poison.

I despair. All common sense has gone out of the window.

I hope by now you are enjoying your chicken. Good luck with the new arrival!

Now and again it's absolutely fine. All about balance.

We all do it sometimes OP - jars are not equal though - the ingredients lists can be quite variable - worth shopping around for different makes to keep for emergencies . On the whole I tend to find ‘fresh’ chilled sauces less ultra processed

As a mum of teens I’d definitely say try to keep your children’s taste buds as innocent as possible , it’s quite hard to move children away from the taste of UPF when they’ve got used to it. I don’t mind admitting it’s an issue with my kids .

There is also nothing wrong with giving them chicken and pasta and peas with some oil and grated cheese if it’s been a bad day

I’d definitely class it as a home cooked meal! We grew up on sausage casserole and spaghetti Bol with sauce from a packet or jar. It’s still comforting and delicious, and much better than a takeaway. I don’t use these things that much any more, as often find cooking some frozen chopped onions with cream, tarragon etc is almost as quick as opening a jar of creamy chicken sauce. But once in a while, jars are totally fine!

That sounds great, will look it up!