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.

Why are you the sole dishwasher? You both need to do it.

I only cook for me and DP, sometimes our lodger as well, and I get sick of it. Six people, I'd crumble! I massively admire you.
I think batch-cooking and freezing is the way I'd go in your situation. Curries and stews freeze well; sauces you can just add to pasta, cous cous etc; soups. Add in fresh veg, herbs, nuts and seeds, yoghurt, pickles etc to pimp it up.

I will say that in our home growing up with a household of 6 , a mother who worked part time and did 100% of the food planning shopping and cooking, the children had to help with the clearing up,washing up and putting away etc. We had no dishwashers then and I remember having to do this after every meal. My sisters and I had a job each which we took turns at. 1 Clearing the table and surfaces including the floor, 2 washing up or 3 drying and putting away.

My father and grandfather of course did not have to help ( it was the 70s and 80s in a traditional Italian household ). I loved the food my mother cooked as she was an excellent cook, but the resentment I felt at the women being responsible for all of the cooking is a major part if why I never developed a love for it despite learning a lot about it from my mother . I decided very early in life that food preparation and cooking was a chain for many women and luckily found a man who loved cooking .

@AnonymousBleep I do eat a fair few maybe a couple of times a week , the ramen ones are usually reasonably good as are the curry ones if you buy at the M&S, Cook, Waitrose level - but I decant into Pyrex and heat - and I then use the veeta steamed rice with it plus veg

Same - I don't consider cooking 'from scratch' to be only using fresh tomatoes or making your own sausages! Basics I couldn't do without are tinned tomatoes, passata, tomato paste, dried herbs/spices, honey, coconut milk - and soy sauce, which I know is generally pretty processed. But we get through tons of the stuff. I'm also currently addicted to srirachra sauce, which I will put on pretty much anything!

We do have some 'cheat' stuff in as well - jarred pesto (I love making my own but both my kids sadly prefer the jar stuff!), fresh tortelloni, and a couple of pizzas for my son after football. I just really like making sauces etc from scratch. I find it soothing!

No, of course not.

We get a takeaway twice a week and eat out every Sat or Sun.

Pasta and mexican is made from scratch but thats about it. We arent big on fish or veggies in this house!

From scratch means using ingredients from the store cupboard and fresh / frozen raw ingredients. This includes tinned tomatoes etc. But not ready made sauces etc

We make food 99% of the time, but cook double or more so we can freeze.

Relate to not ever knowing what to cook, it is a pain in the arse sometimes. Can recommend having a list on your phone of quick easy meals.

Sometimes we buy deli stuff and nice bread, but that's a rare treat.

Used to have more takeaways but have cut back to about once every six weeks.

Yes we always cook from scratch if we're at home.

When the DC were at home, we cooked from scratch.
But we had a lot of batch cooking to double up on meals and loads of one pot and tray bake meals.
Oddly enough, I found that doing a huge Sunday roast was actually quite easy, just prep and bunging everything in the oven. DH always peeled mountains of spuds to roast and we had leftovers for other meals or cold meat salads, veg for bubble and squeak. No one ever minded about having the same roast dinner on Monday, either.
I have to admit that after they left home, I didn't cook for about two years..

Yes.

Except for the odd birthday takeaway/meal out.

Also had 4DC. Always cooked - couldn't afford not to when they were small! Still can't afford to now they're big, because (despite way more income) they eat like adults.

3 children
1 child on the way
2 adults
renting their property
and eating out “far too much”

doesn’t seem the most sensible way to budget

I use the freezer and also just batch cook vegetables and keep them in the fridge ahead of time a lot (i.e. my fridge always has a couple of cooked veg in it I can plate up almost immediately). Some suggestions:

Frozen batch cooking (these are all one pot dinners you can do huge portions of -for six it may be easier to just do this once every 2 days and use 2 days in a row):

• Chicken/lentil curry (frozen onion/garlic, tomato passata, coconut milk, loads of vegetables, beans, lentil, chicken)
• Lamb neck/ox cheek stew (base of garlic/onions/sometimes whizzed up mushrooms, stock, tomato passata, then loads of vegetables and lamb neck or ox cheek, sometimes add beans/lentils/quinoa to bulk it out).
• Salmon fishcakes
• Turkey & courgette meatballs

Fresh:

• baked/pan fried fish, scrambled egg, prawns, etc plus loads of boiled/roasted veg
• pasta with green sauce (basically loads of green vegetables, cashews, parmesan and lemon whizzed up) or red sauce (tomato passata, cashews, parmesan)
• Avocado and cheese sandwiches
• Risotto

I never cook in the evening. We eat salads every night, so it's just a case of chopping up a few tomatoes, cucumber, onions etc, getting some ready-washed lettuce out of a bag, chucking in some olives, a few seeds, maybe some nuts and some cheese or canned/cooked fish. I usually dress it with a simple dressing made from extra virgin olive oil and a dash of vinegar.

See that’s what I take to work for lunch so want something cooked in the evening.

With the autumn evenings approaching, maybe you might consider a slow cooker? Chuck some stuff in there in the morning and you could have a nice casserole/stew ready for when you get home. You could augment it with a few frozen vegetables (takes a a few minutes in the microwave) and serve it with crusty bread, which would save a lot of faffing about cooking potatoes or rice.

Or do a big batch cook at the weekend and put portions in the freezer, which you can take out and put in the fridge in the morning, ready to heat up when you get home.

Yes I do cook most nights, although sometimes it’s shop bought pizza or fish fingers!
We do have a dishwasher though.
Can nobody else wash up if you cook?!

Can nobody else wash up if you cook?!
This is what I'm not getting.

From scratch is around 3-4 nights right now, some fish fingers and peas/pasta and jarred sauce/frozen pizza/frozen burgers/hotdogs and some ordering in.

No. I work full time most days in the office and simply don’t have time . Weekends are ferrying DD around and catching up with chores. I make the most of Cook ready frozen meals, basic things like soup and toast or jacket potatoes or omelette . DH sorts himself out , DD very fussy so might have a tuna melt , basic pasta with tuna or basic spag bol

Yes. Advice after having cancer a few years ago, so I worked hard to make it happen. I have a repertoire of about 40 dishes that are quick & easy. I seldom spend more than 20 minutes cooking.

Grilled meat or fish with steamed fresh veg, wholemeal couscous or jacket potatoes. Wholemeal pasta with various sauces. Easy stews such as cassoulet or N'duja cod with white beans garlic and tomatoes.

I also eat at least 30 different fruit & veg a week. It's actually quite easy once you get started and not that time consuming.

If you cook, your dh should be doing the washing up.

Yes here too. I prep at the weekend for the week ahead as so busy but also never feel good after a takeaway and my bank balance hates it even more. Prefer home cooked also to be fair, always nicer than takeaway but would go to a proper restaurant about once a month.

Family of six? Brutal. Yeah that’s pretty tough tbh we manage with kid slop for now but I’d actually love to cook adult-oriented food again

I'm retired now and we always cook from scratch for two but used to when it was four, five or six when our daughters were living at home and had friends ovet.Lots of meals are quite simple to prep and I've always had a dishwasher too.
I don't like convenience foods at all, we always think they taste funny and the fat and salt content is generally high too.