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.

Yes and in a later post I explain about the “prepped in 5” meals that really help.

Another thing I can really recommend is Taming Twins, she’s a lady who has loads of healthy, quick and easy recipes.

I'm not fond of jarred sauces that have a lot of cornflour and thickeners. I do use Lloyd Grossman tomato sauces sometimes. I've discovered napolina tinned bean salad which is really good with some lemon and olive oil added.
If you like the taste then it's good. But I wouldn't exactly call it from scratch.

It’s not that bad. I buy jars of sauce where I recognise all the ingredients. Some of the Sainsbury’s sauces are so basic and absolutely fine. Life is stressful enough without adding this to the mix!

Oh also - yes to the poster who mentioned organic pasta sauces. They're so much less full of shite.

Also, Mr Organic tinned bean mixes are really good for a ready meal. It feels really odd to cook out of a tin these days but for eg their Greek Beans are amazing. I bulk them out with a tin of plain butter beans, half a pack of M&S chargrilled veg, and some extra Urfa chilli flajes and honestly, it's pretty good. Same with their Mexican Beans - I add more 'posh' seasoning paste (Gran Luchito chipotle) and the M&S chargrilled veg and serve with avocado and salsa and cheese with rice and wraps and it feels like a fancy-ish family meal in maybe 25 mins.

Both things come to about £5 for 4 adults for the actual beans bit, bumped up by how fancy you get with the sides/wraps.

It’s totally fine! Mostly I cool from scratch (pasta, pasta sauce) but sometimes I use dried pasta and a jar. It’s about balance I think. I do think that some peoples “easy meal” is different from ours. Eg we always make a bolognese sauce from scratch (DH gets a kick out a decent sofrito) and therefore the pasta is usually homemade. And yeah it takes a fair bit of time but both sauce and pasta can be frozen (and frozen fresh pasta is quicker to cook than dried). I’ve tried to make my own bread every week but I’m lax and don’t have the time to make enough to feed the family.

We have fish fingers fairly frequently!

It's somewhere in between. I would consider it a home cooked meal but not cooked from scratch. It's much healthier than freezer food though or a takeaway. I always have a jar of pasta sauce in though so I can quickly throw something together if we need something quick and easy. I also do freezer food occasionally too. Sometimes won't do anyone any harm it's when it's every single meal that it becomes a problem.

Sugar is the 4th ingredient after the [ bracketed] ingredients for the mustard. I just don’t see how it is quicker to use a jar over a tin of tomatoes and some mixed dried herbs tbh so it has never occurred to me to buy them.

I don’t eat UPF free by any means, I eat plenty of crap, but I wouldn’t consider a jar sauce as cooking from scratch. I have two lasagne in the oven as I type. When it’s chilled I will portion it and freeze for the days I can’t be bothered to cook, no I don’t may my own pasta

Once a week is fine. They tend to be heavy on salt and other preservatives.

Yes to this. I hate the preachy attitude to home cooking on here. Cooking from scratch is all well and good, but also takes way more time than options like the odd jar of sauce etc, and we are also supposed to be spending quality time with our kids which I’m sorry you can’t do properly in the kitchen cooking from scratch every bloody night, so you can’t win really.

I don't use jarred sauces, they don't taste nice to me and I was raised on them. I wouldn't really call it a home cooked meal in the same way breaded chicken, oven chips and beans isn't really either. Fine on occasion if you like them a bit like emergency food.

Honestly OP, it's absolutely fine. Everyone was fed and you managed the day without losing the will to live. It's a win in my books. (Whispers- it would have also been fine to get a take away. They don't revoke your parent card for it). Fwiw, I cook from scratch almost every night. I have yet to receive an award for it. There is freezer stuff for the odd day when I can't be bothered and a drawer full of the finest take away menus in the area for the days I really, really can't be bothered. Whatever gets you through the day with your sanity preserved is a win.

Absolutely!

Give yourself a break.

@InWithPeaceOutWithStress has made a sensible approach which mirrors my thoughts exactly.

Buy the best jars you can afford with the most wholesome ingredients the names of which you recognise. Used occasionally, in my opinion, it’s a great supper option.

By this logic, people making a roast, by using bisto gravy it no longer counts as home cooked! wtf? Chicken, veg and pasta is home cooked, adding a jar sauce isn’t deleting that fact. Mn is mad.

I haven't bought jars for a long time now, whereas they were usually a staple, whether they be a tomato or a curry sauce.

Tonight :
1 chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
3 sun-dried tomatoes snipped into small pieces with scissors (from a jar haha!)
I chilli pepper chopped - not birdseye, milder one
Fry with a touch of oil from the JAR (D'oh!) of tomatoes
Tin of tomatoes - from a tin not a jar!
Tuna steak from a tin.
Dried Spaghetti pasta - from a packet...

Cook the sauce down for 30 mjnutes. Bung the spaghetti on after 15 of those minutes.
Jobs a good un. No added sugars etc and very tasty.

Curry sauces - always onions, mix of spices, tinned tomatoes if going Indian. Different spices and coconut milk if going Caribbean.

I'll occasionally treat self to Loyd Grossman Tomato and Chilli jar if on offer.

I also love a Bombay Bad Boy, but that's for secret late night troughing!

Well even Mary Berry and Delia Smith 'cheat' from time to time, so no one should beat themselves up about it! Especially if it is in an 'emergency' such as got to get Annie to the guides/ballet in 30 minutes or fuck this - too tired to do a sauce from scratch.

I think jars are fine if you've run out of time - they may not be superfoods, but they are fine when you need something quick. At least you know the quality and provenance of the chicken and all the other ingredients. I actually wouldn't sweat it at all, life is busy and stressful, if a jar will make life easier for you, just use it, and put your feet up. Congratulations on your pregnancy :)

I'm mid-fifties and have spent so many years virtuously cooking from scratch that it now bores me rigid. I love ready meals 😁

This post is a good example of how the disproportionate panic over ‘processed’ foods has made people - let’s face it, almost always women - think they need to work themselves to death in the kitchen cooking everything from scratch and feel guilty/like a shit mum if they don’t. It’s such bollocks and it’s just another way to make (mostly) women feel awful about themselves.

Use a fucking jar of sauce if you want, ffs. Nobody’s going to die.

One of my home comes from scratch recipes has loads of Demerara sugar in it. Home cooked doesn’t necessarily mean healthy.

Totally agree. Unless you solely live off frozen ready meals, the average person who buys a jar of pesto or a loaf of bread really should stop worrying about this.

Absolutely agree. My generation was raised on processed crap, like almost exclusively because it was new and exciting and our mothers had to work. Was it ideal? Probably not. Are we alive? Yes. I can't get worked up about it. A jar is fine, and not just in an emergency.

By the looks of it OP it's 80% water! It's certainly a bit better than some that have water as the first ingredient and sugar as the second. I wouldn't have it every single day as it is processed, but I wouldn't worry once a week if I wanted an easy day. It's definitely far better than a take away which will be absolutely loaded with sugar and salt.

Its a shop bought dinner ,not a bag of coke
Don’t sweat it
Congratulations on pg

I flippin love CT honey and mustard. I often make a slow cooker casserole with chicken thighs or thick pork shoulder steaks with added veg. Served with (homemade) roasties and green veg it makes a lovely meal. Is it home cooked meal, of course it is, a bit of cheating yes but it’s hardly a 99p Basics ready meal.

I wouldn’t say it is home cooked but obviously it’s not a terrible meal and not anything like a greasy takeaway(obviously there are some areas with great takeaway options that are healthy but not here!).

Sometimes I use jars, sometimes I make from scratch, the same as some days I make pizza from scratch and other times I will buy some ready made.