To think that while cooking from scratch is better for you, it can be a massive PITA

[TwentyOneGuns]

I've just spent the afternoon making lunches and batch cooking for the week ahead. I'm sure the results will be lovely but it's all so bloody fiddly, messy and time-consuming.

While I was wrestling with a butternut squash (to make soup which incidentally will be nice but neither buttery or nutty so it's badly named as well as a bastard to cut up and de-seed) I couldn't help thinking how much quicker it would be to open a bloody tin. I know homemade is better but honestly I lost the will to live with that thing.

Anyone got any tips or gadget suggestions for making it all a bit quicker?

'Dh and I split the cooking'

This is the key really. Knowing that it falls to you to put dinner on the table every single evening would drive most people to distraction at times..

Butternut squash has never really appealed, have tried but not something I'm missing out on cooking.

I double cook a few times so I can have time of from cooking later in the week or another week use homemade ready meal

Stick butternut squash or turnip or swede into microwave. Unpeeled . Cook for a while.. keep checking. Peel will work much easier

I always halve and quarter the squash, remove the seeds and bake it with olive oil, sage and garlic. Then I just chop it roughly, cook it with stock, blend, add cream and seasoning if needed. No fucking around with peeling etc.

Put the whole butternut squash in the oven to roast. It won't burst like a potato, as it is from the same family as a courgette.

Both swede and butternut squash can be roasted whole in the oven and then chopped/blended/ whatever

It's a pain in the arse, given the scenario in this house 20 minutes ago. Tears, complaints, don't like it, it's disgusting, etc etc. What revolting meal did I lovingly make from scratch for the little darlings? Shepherds pie

I've bought it frozen in the past but I don't bother too much now , it adds nothing to the food I prepare.

Tasteless, orange and a bit of a waste of time.

yep - you don't need to peel butternut squash...

Sweet potato can sling its hook too.

I agree that it's a massive pain, but it's with the effort. I am a lone parent, so for me, the key things are batch cooking, and having some things in reserve for those times when it all just seems too much of an effort - eg. Pesto to go with pasta, some pizza in the freezer, etc.

Send all your sweet potatoes over here to the Binary Household squoosh!

Just looked at the back of my Tomato & three bean soup from Sainsbury's and can't see anything bad in the ingredients except salt (0.85g). the rest is veg, oil and herbs. Is tinned food so bad?

Consider it done! A sack containing sweet potato, Lotus spread, and a spiralizer, will thud on your doorstep shortly!

Another vote for Goodgrips veg peeler - amazing and lasts forever.

Don't peel butternut squash if you are going to put it in the oven.

And I find batchcooking soul-destroying. Making a double quantity and freezing that is OK but a whole day of batch-cooking is too much.

I do a lot of "double cooking" with things like chilli, spag bol, curries etc and stick one lot in the freezer. Far less of a faff than spending a whole Sunday at it. There's only me and DP so one lot of chilli does four days of meals - we'd have chilli/rice/tortilla chips/dips one night, then with jacket potatoes and cheese and salad the following night, then the same again from the freezer at another time. We also do a meal plan on a Sunday for the week ahead and split the cooking so when one of us is going to have a busy day at work the other does it - I teach 9-5 on a Tuesday and Wednesday so DP always does those days. (Otherwise it would be poached eggs on toast). We generally have one cheat-y day with something like shop-bought quiche, and one day at the weekends we usually eat out or get a takeaway. I am definitely not adverse to pre-cut or frozen veg either.

I recall mums pressure cooker, it terrifies me I was scared it would blow. What's the benefit now? Are they much safer than they were?

I've been using what I call "un-ready meals" lately from a delivery company, for three meals a week. I used Hello Fresh at first & now use Gousto, which is slightly cheaper & has a better choice.

It's not the cheapest way to provide food, but there is very little waste and all the thinking, planning & shopping is taken out of the equation, apart from choosing from a pick list of meals on the website the week before. It's a godsend on the nights I work as all the brain-work is removed from the process.

The other nights I cook my own stuff. DH does no cooking/planning/food shopping at all.

Frozen veg is a life saver - I can't remember the last time I chopped an onion or pepper for Bolognese or soup. Always frozen. Makes the whole process so much quicker.

Always have frozen spinach, peppers, onion (red and white), butternut squash and cauliflower to hand. And broccoli. They are perfect for soups etc.

And I usually try to make double or triple if appropriate, so I can bung some in the freezer.

And if I'm making cheese sauce I always make about two litres of it and freeze in portions.

And baked potatoes at least one night a week! Toppings of either baked beans or tuna and sweetcorn. Easy and cheap! My two love baked potatoes.

Any 'hard' veg go in the microwave. Slimming world have a thing called the singing swede it's because when you chuck a whole swede in the microwave, it whistles. 15 mins, jobs a goodun. Ditto BNS, pumpkin, turnip.

Don't bother to peel the butternut just chunk it, roast it and then the skin peels off and gives the flesh more flavour.

I make double or triple quantities during the week, of things like soup, curry, stew etc, then freeze individual portions. I then have all my lunches for the following week!

Every one who makes two portions and freezes one (or the cheese sauce previously mentioned) can I ask how you defrost? Over night in the fridge (my stuff seems to still have a lot of ice crystals still in it if I do that) or on the counter over night then back in the fridge next morning?

My DM does the latter - not sure if it's safe but no ice crystals!