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.

Out of interest, cottage pie, how do you make your gravy?

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cottage-pie

This is a great cottage pie recipe and it freezes perfectly too.

Also, I wasn't joking when I said we need more aggressive feminism.

A lot of the exhaustion that prevents us cooking quick-ish meals from scratch is because women are doing all the domestic shitwork in families.

If you only had to do it 3.5 times a week - and you only did 50% of the rest of the domestic load, including the thinking, planning, shopping, organising, worrying - you might feel quite different about it.

It's definitely a home cooked meal just not cooked from scratch. It's far better than a takeaway and fine in a pinch.
I wouldn't give it a second thought

Takes over 2 hours. Perfect when you finish work at 5, pick up a tired toddler at half past and get home just before 6.

Yes, I haven’t crushed a garlic clove for years!!

I don’t think many people cook totally from scratch every day - life is too short!

My fave cooking time savers:

• Frozen veg - doesn’t lose any nutritional value and saves so much time on chopping and prep! I buy mixed veg bags (carrot, broccoli, cauliflower) which go in the microwave for 3 mins and go with pretty much anything! I buy pre-chopped onions and and peppers that can be chucked straight into the frying pan for fajitas or adding to pasta sauce.
• Jars of “lazy garlic” and “lazy ginger” - you can just chuck in a spoon rather than faffing about chopping!
• Bags of rocket as a side salad with lemon and olive oil as a dressing - no cooking or chopping involved & still healthy!

For pasta I make quick, simple sauces, either:

• chopped tomatoes, garlic, whatever herbs you like and a bit of balsamic vinegar
• mix some pasta water with lemon, garlic, nutritional yeast, herbs, black pepper, vegetable stock (I used kalko low salt stock cubes so still not completely “home made”)

It really depends what’s in the jar. Sauces etc. are different than, for example, chickpeas or other single ingredients. If it’s a pre prepared sauce then technically it’s not entirely “home cooked” but really who cares? I check the ingredients and nutritional values on the jars and if there’s nothing in there I wouldn’t put in myself and the values are ok then I go for it. I’m sure some of the goodness is lost in the preservation but really life’s too short, not everything has to be perfect.

But then I sometimes eat McDonald’s and kfc so I’m probably disqualified from commenting on the healthfulness or otherwise of food.

but for everyone preaching about homemade pasta sauces - what about the pasta itself?

Do you make that from scratch every time?

Or buy good quality pasta? If the latter - what’s the difference between good quality organic (as bad as a ready meal) pasta sauce and good quality pasta?

In my kitchen

Curry paste = fine
Curry sauce in jar = not fine
Passata = fine
Ragu sauce in jar = not fine
Soy sauce = fine
Chow mein sauce in packet = not fine

But they are my rules, each to their own.

I make everything from scratch and I mean everything, except when I’m pregnant. First nausea then exhaustion! You’re doing great and it’s absolutely better than a takeaway.

What's wrong with batch cooking?!

If you do cook from scratch occasionally, you can literally make 4 or 6 times the amount in almost the same time space as making one and then bung it all in the freezer? You can do that for an awful lot of meals and it means you can do it on one day a week and spend the rest of the week defrosting and reheating different meals or eating simpler food, how is that not easier?

I think anyone who enjoys cooking will make their own things like shepherds pie, gravy, yorkshire puds etc, I've never heard of anyone making stuffing though so you got me there.

We do a mixture, we cook from scratch (always batch cook at least 2/4 times the amount when we do that), eat from jars (spag bol etc), eat pre-bought stuff, like kievs/sausages etc. People will tell you jars are full of sugar and they can be, but sometimes you just don't want to be arsed and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, do whatever works for your work/life balance! IMO getting fruit and vegetables into kids is more important then if you give them shop bought sauces or not.

I can't blame my use of jars on this sadly. DH definitely does the bulk of our housework and at least 50% of parenting duties.

In return, I do the cooking... Or at least I thought it was cooking, until I read this thread 😂😂

It's food. You're cooking it at home.

Question answered.

BTW if you raise the chickens yourself, it's impossible to cook them. Even when I have chickens in tne garden I always insist on a supermarket hen who was glad to meet her end.

This. Read the ingredients list on the jar, depends what's in it.

TBH you could open a tin of tomatoes, reduce it down a bit and add some herbs and spices to get the same thing, and not much more effort.

I made lasagne, using chilled sheets, dolmio jars, mince and I chopped onions...2 made one is in the freezer for another day, If I have time I'll make from scratch ( except pasta) but sod it, I'm not losing sleep!

Love a jar. I have at least 75 things I would rather do than stand in the kitchen stirring stuff. I see cooking as a very subtle form of oppression. Granted that's because OH idea of culinary delight is a pot noodle so he doesn't cook ever. The phrase batch cooking will be banned when I am queen of the world.

YES!
Long time cook here. I'm in the US. One of the networks devoted to food here in the US had a program called Semi Homemade. It focused on using quality pre-made products as an adjunct to made from scratch everything. The focus was on quality items with a shorter shelf life because they did not contain excessive preservatives.

I think it’s all good as long as there’s a balance. I don’t have the energy for hours of cooking but I don’t really like bought sauces etc, so I’ve just developed what we have to suit.

Tonight I covered chicken breasts in garam masala, garlic granules, crushed cardamom and chilli flakes then air fried it. While that was cooking I made a sauce using onions, red peppers, the same spices, a can of tomatoes and a dash of cream at the end. That took 30 mins all in.

Yesterday I made a chilli at lunchtime then bunged it in the slow cooker all afternoon. Ate half last night. Tomorrow we’ll have those leftovers with jacket potatoes.

Some nights when I’m really tired I’ll throw jumbo fish fingers and fries in the air fryer and have that with peas.

Don’t be hard on yourself. Better to be relaxed and enjoy your evenings than frazzled and worn out from fucking around with kimchi 😉

@Hsundbfhdi you sound wise, down to earth and sensible. and your food sounded quite tasty!

All hail queen @Barney16 🙌

Meh, it isn't a 'cooked from scratch' meal but you aren't alternating jars of sauce one night with chopped and shaped meat the next so please don't worry.
An occasional preprepped meal, even if it were all UPF (and it isn't)!wont hurt. It's all a matter of balance. Different people have different priorities on different days, for good reason.

This is correct I’m afraid but it sounds bloody good. I wish someone would make it for me. I’m prob going to get a vegan royale from BK at Waterloo en route home! If that makes you feel better 😂

How is a tin of tomatoes going to get a honey mustard sauce?

BTW a tin of tomatoes is not cooking from scratch!!!

😂😂. You’re pregnant! It’s the get out of sweating onions free card!

but seriously- I bet the majority here do not have equitable relationships (they might have been gaslit into thinking they do though).

I rarely do the cooking - that’s DH’s job but when I do it’s short cuts at every opportunity