Who else cooks like this?

[Anythingyoulike]

I think we eat well as a family and I would say I cook “home made” rather than “from scratch”, as in we don’t do very much freezer food and no ready meals or anything like that, but I do like convenience.

For example, tonight we had meatballs from M&S in their “family hidden veg sauce” with spaghetti and salad. I just use a jar of sauce for things like that and obviously haven’t made my own meatballs. When I make bolognese I used tinned chopped tomatoes and tomato purée and build the flavour with garlic and herbs etc and never use a jar of sauce. If we have a roast chicken I will roast the veg and potatoes or peel and mash potatoes, but I don’t roast a chicken myself I buy one from the rotisserie section in the supermarket ready to go and just add our trimmings.

I’ll use the leftover chicken for making a chicken risotto with onion, garlic, and lemon. Or we’ll have it with a creamy tomato sauce I make myself with sun dried tomato paste, garlic, shallots, herbs, cream and lemon. I use the slow cooker to make curries and chillies where everything is just flung in and left to it.

We also eat a lot of simple tuna pasta dishes, baked potatoes, omelettes, baked salmon, and so on.

Are most people cooking like this? I think it’s a decent balance of kind of home made with convenience. I’m definitely not a natural cook but our family eat fairly healthily I think and we have a good rotation of curries, chilli, pasta dishes, tacos, risotto, fish, as well as the odd night of fish finger sandwiches or pizza!

I don't know a single person IRL who cooks the way people on MN claim to cook, lol.

Girl you got me thinking lol. I suppose it really depends on how lazy I'm being. I'd say we're a from scratch family mostly because we eat like the Black Death is still spreading through Europe.

I don't use jar sauces or packet mixes, but my kids do eat cereal for breakfast and enjoy a packet of crisps and occasional pot noodle so I'm not purist and can appreciate balance, however you achieve that.

because we eat like the Black Death is still spreading through Europe.

I genuinely don't know what this means.

Very sadly I struggle with tomatoes these days due to the acid but when I used to use tinned toms for a huge variety of dishes, I always added some sugar. Same with a curry, either honey, sugar or jaggery when I can afford it. The balance of savoury and sweet is important to me. I like a lot of salt as well.

I’m howling at it 😂 Meat, bread and ale I guess 😂😂😂

We eat a lot of things people would consider 'peasant food' pottage, bone broth, stews if we do eat meat it's offal or something we can use across several meals. We stodge it up legumes and grains. It's healthy and keeps the grocery costs down.

I agree, it’s important to balance out the acid in tomatoes - I always add a touch of sweetness to sauces. They do say the difference between home cooking and restaurant food is that chefs will use far more salt, sugar and butter than the average cook. Savoury food needs a balance, and sometimes that means adding sweetness to a savoury dish.