Are people really making homemade meals every night for their family?

[Lilacbluewaters]

soon to be family of 6 and I don’t know if it’s just because I’m pregnant at the moment but I had this sudden overwhelming feeling that I have to cook homemade meals every night for like another 15 years 😂
I’ve been pretty bad recently with eating out too much, the extra layer of washing up after is exhausting. We don’t have a dishwasher and can’t get one because we rent.
anyway, do you cook from scratch every night nearly? I can never think of quick easy meals.

DH gets breakfast - a full English one day a week, boiled egg and fruit the other six days.

I cook dinner from scratch most days. I usually do 6 days a week, a choice from lean steak mince, steak, pork, lamb, chicken, sausages, fish; and a roast on Sunday. I don’t use cook in sauces, except in an emergency (like a dish has gone seriously wrong). I do different dinners every night by doing searches in BBC Good Food or my Hairy Bikers recipe books or Recipe Tin Eats on the main protein that night.

I make lentil soup once a week, which does several lunches; and I make cakes every week.

IMO, home cooked food tastes much better than shop bought (quiche is a case in point), and there’s likely to be less salt, sugar, additives, colourings or saturated fats. DH is supposed to be on a no salt, low fat and sugar diet. I don’t use salt in my cooking, except in cakes, where I assume it can be a catalyst.

Did that not destroy your health?

My late DH cooked home-made meals every night. Now I do. One child - now grown up and in her own place.

No? I still bought food. Imagine all the meals you can make just by assembling things on a plate or eating them out of a can/packet? Soup, tinned chickpeas on a bed of spinach, a slice of bread followed by half a tin of sardines, beans on toast, carrots with hummus, yogurt, stuff like that. I guess putting a baked potato in the oven and having it with butter and some frozen peas (out of the packet, I quite like them still frozen) is cooking of a sort but the actual input required is probably less than ten seconds.

Nope. Absolutely not. I maybe make a meal from scratch 3 times a week.

A slow cooker is your friend and whoever cooks the other one washes.

Cooked for many years as mum of 3, large age gap (eldest 32, youngest 17) so been cooking family meals for years. Not always home made though as I work full time (did some years 3 days a week) so sometimes it was something easy from the freezer. Only me and DD (17) at home now and she has cooked her own food for a couple of years now. DS (21) has moved in with his gf so only when they come for dinner I cook something home made. I make a week’s worth of work lunches on a Sunday (harissa chicken and spinach pasta) and have that with salad then have something quick / small when home from work.

It feels like such a luxury after years of cooking for a family. But sounds like you have a young family so you won’t be hanging your apron up for some time now.

Yes most nights. I have always kept to a basic meal plan, this is my winter list for DCs to have one homemade healthy main meal a day. Usually the other meal is school dinners or sandwiches, soup or egg/cheese on toast at home.

Sunday - roast dinner
Monday - something made with leftovers from the roast
Tuesday - homemade Macaroni cheese, carbonara or similar quick pasta meal, usually without meat.
Wednesday- Shepherd's pie or similar one pot meal with veg.
Thursday - Kedgeree, fish pie, fish fingers or fish in parsley sauce with mash and veg. Always some sort of fish dish.
Friday - Adult takeaway night (Indian or Chinese usually) so children get something basic like beans on toast or pizza
Saturday - Baked potatoes with healthy fillings like tuna or maybe with a winter stew/casserole.

We probably eat out as a family once a month. Obviously children often eat out when they get invites from friends, but likewise I would also feed other children if they were here - I do keep breaded chicken pieces and similar options available in the freezer for any kids that maybe particularly fussy about food.

You can get table top dishwashers, also try to make meals with only 2 pans or a tacky bake etc, some days we have simple pasta meal