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.

I don’t consider it homemade, but I do use jars and have stuff like fish fingers and oven chips in the freezer.

Hi OP, this sounds silly but midweek cooking has been made so much easier for me by the discovery of frozen chopped onions!! I cannot tell the difference between them and fresh onions and it just speeds everything up. E.g one of my kids’ fav meals is literally pasta and a tomato and garlic sauce. Put the pasta on. Put some oil in a pan, chuck the onions and garlic in, fry for 2/3 mins, add a tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper, any herbs you want, and a knob of butter and simmer until your pasta is ready. If I’m feeling fancy (!!) I mix the pasta and sauce together in an ovenproof dish, cover it in grated cheese and whack it under the grill until the cheese melts. (I also cook using jars every now and then!)

www.sortedfood.com/sidekick Have a look!

I wouldn't class it as home cooked and it is upf so not that healthy. You can get jars that are not upf. However the recommendation if to aim for 80% of food you eat to be upf free so if that jar is part of your 20% it wouldn't be an issue.

There are lots of quick meals though that can be made from scratch and lots of items you can buy that are upf free to give short cuts too.

I don't use those kinds of jars no, but that's personal preference - I'vetried some and am not keen on the taste of most. I do use plenty of short cuts though, eg jarred curry paste and pesto and garlic etc, so it's not that I'm not lazy!

I would say your dinner was just as homecooked as my Thai green curry yesterday tbh. That was curry paste from a pot, tinned coconut milk and a bit of extra chilli sauce and bottled lime juice with chopped veg and cooked frozen prawns. Took me about 10 mins to prep, if that. I didn't even cook my rice - it was one of those microwave packs. I still see that as homemade!

It's highly processed, so no, not good home cooked food. But cheaper than a takeaway and fine every now and again - I mean, you bought the jar so you obviously thought it would be fine (which it is).

It’s more home cooked than a ready meal, but could be a bit healthier but hardly the end of the world if not every day. I cook 60/70% of the time, and like to use leftovers for lunches. I do enjoy cooking though.

It's not home cooked as Mr Dolmio/ uncle bens etc factory made the sauce, but they're fine for an easy meal in my opinion and I use them with a clear conscience

LOL. nail on the head.

Anyhoo, back to OP, a jar of sauce isn't going to kill you and you've got all the food groups in there so don't sweat it. Put your feet up, enjoy your dinner and let the food nazis worry about the ins and outs of 'homecooked'

I wouldn't consider it a home cooked meal, but obviously absolutely fine once in a while and you can't compare it to a takeaway!

Add more veg to make it more balanced and include more nutrients - just chuck some grated carrot, sliced tomatoes or steamed broccoli on the side.

It’s not home cooked, it’s out of a jar but it also won’t kill you. Absolutely fine on occasion. The same as slinging a pizza in the oven. You’d have it on occasion but not all the time. FWIW I batch cook a sauce from scratch and keep it for nights when I can’t be bothered

I think it’s home cooked as you literally cooked it at home, but maybe not cooked from scratch.

That said, we’re having bolognaise tonight. I did use a jar of dolmio, to bulk out fresh tomatoes, celery, carrots, pasta is obviously store bought dry and cooked, with chard from our garden. I’d consider that pretty much cooked from scratch. I don’t think a jar of dolmio with added fresh veg is different really than a jar of passata, and I’m definitely not sieving the damn tomatoes myself.

That's a good idea. I can sympathise with people who feel ground down by the endless grind of deciding what to cook and keeping the fridge, freezer and cupboards stocked. Most of the supermarkets and a lot of the popular recipe sites have a feature where you can add the ingredients for a recipe to an online supermarket shopping basket with one click. I worry a lot more about the unrecyclable packaging from Gousto etc than I do about a tiny amount of modified starch in a glass jar of curry sauce.

It’s not cooking from scratch but ok as a time saver for those nights you just can’t be bothered. You can always make them better but adding veg.

If its cooked at home, then it's home cooked to me!

@DAZZlanch frozen onions are a staple here! As are jars/tubes of garlic and ginger. Why make things harder than necessary!

I don't think it's any better than a takeaway but the takeaways I get are typically home cooked style Indian or Japanese.

It's better than something like fish and chips though.

I did an Italian cooking class recently and the chef made us all promise to avoid jar sauces in future.

While I don’t think using jars is always terrible, i read something a while back about Dolmio. Whatever they use, it is recommended that you only use one jar a month. I have never touched it since.

I batch cook a tomato based sauce with tinned tomatoes, chopped onions, herbs, couple cloves of garlic, chopped peppers and grated carrot (hidden veggies are sometimes the answer with kiddies!) then freeze into portions. It can be used when added to quorn for bolognaise, used straight with pasta, used as a tomato base for home pizzas or quesadillas (just add cheese). It’s basically dolmio but home made and cheaper. Quorn is technically UPF, so I will also add tinned lentils to bolognaise or add kidney beans and a bit of spice for chilli.

I would suggest batch cooking sauces you like which you can then freeze would allow you to avoid the jars

I am a complete slow cooker evangelist myself.

At about 11, I chucked a bag of frozen casserole beef, and frozen casserole vegetables. Added some herbs and flavourings.

At 4pm, I took out a small portion for my baby, added dumplings and more salt, and am eating it now. Bloody delicious.

So many handy sliced frozen veg options these days, I have dozens of bags in the freezer.

SO many posters on Mumsnet claim to always cook from scratch. And they claim they do it for EVERYTHING. They make their own stuffing, yorkshire puds, gravy, pasta sauce, shepherds and cottage pies, etc etc etc. I am sure the odd person here and there does that (who has plenty of spare time on their hands!) But I reckon most people don't. Cook from scratch now and again yeah, but all the time? Nah, fuck that!

I cook from scratch most of the time. I work full time with 3 kids. I think it’s just skills and habit. I wouldn’t dream of opening a jar/packet for cottage pie or pasta sauce because for me it’s simple to knock something up. I just don’t think of buying ready made stuffing or whatever. If you aren’t used to packets and stuff they don’t taste great either. At times I take other short cuts to help me get dinner on the table.

Having said that. Using a jar is fine - you are serving it with whole foods as well so it’s a step up from a ready meal and definitely far better than many takeaways.

Using a tin of chopped tomatoes to make a sauce would still be ‘home cooked for me’ but not using a sauce from a jar. I wouldn’t say what you describe is unhealthy though, and definitely less than a takeway or most ready meals.

I'd rather make simple sauces myself because all the jar adds is sugar and sodium and it isn't that much quicker than just bunging the ingredients in myself, but stuff I can't be bothered faffing with after a long day I'll use a jarred sauce and just jazz it up a bit because I tend to find they just taste... Well, jarry.

As far as I'm concerned though if you cooked it in your home it's home cooked, and I doubt anyone's every died from eating the occasional jarred sauce 🤷‍♀️

Most jars are fine, just check the ingredients list for any additives. I think that's a good meal for an adult and children. You need to be careful with salt content for babies though so it would be best making your own sauces when weaning.

Don't ask for diet advice of here. 90% of mumsnet have ed or are compulsive liars. Your a grown up you don't need permission on what to cook for tea. If a significant amount of people weren't using jars to cook these companies wouldn't be worth billions.