To wonder who these wonder women are who 'cook from scratch' every day

[MGFM]

Following on from all the threads about supermarket shopping and how to make it cheaper etc, I just can't get me head around all of the families 'cooking from scratch' everyday.

Is it just me that thinks that cooking from scratch everyday is an absolute nightmare? Are people confused about what cooking from scratch actually means? Are all these people who do this SAHM/SAHDs? Are they getting up at 5 am to put the meal together to heat up in the evening. I just dont get it.

I am currently on Mat Leave but when I was working full time and getting home around 1645/1700 every night, the last thing I wanted to start doing was cooking from scratch.

And what does cooking from scratch even mean? I enjoy sausage, mash, peas and gravy. The mash is from scratch...does that count?

I tend to cook from scratch at the weekend....a big pan of chilli which can cook for a few hours, or spag bol and then will freeze the left overs but I dont start cooking this on a thursday night for example.

Anyway, If I am being unreasonable and it is actually pretty easy to be super mum/dad and cook from scratch, can I please have your recipes?

Thanks! -

Cooking from scratch means time alone in the kitchen. Bonus.

Some of us have to, it's a massive PITA some days in all honesty. But allergies and intolerances here so easier and safer to do it all from scratch.

Me. Not everyday as we eat left overs the next day or dh cooks. I hate cooking but I do it because dh won't eat anything else which is good otherwise our kids would eat crap everyday.

I've just made chicken and spinach curry. The spinach was from a can though.

I work from home, and I enjoy cooking -- so I don't mind using my evenings to cook. I'm usually finished with work by 3 so I can pick up DS from school, pick up anything else I may need from the shops, come home and cook dinner.

In the last week we've had:

• Tacos (kids like building their own)
• Spag bol (boring!)
• Roast chicken & roasted veg
• Pizza (kids like making their own, we get frozen dough)
• bourbon & bacon chicken (this is a one-pot meal, it's awesome!)
• chicken with lemon & cream sauce

Tonight we're probably doing chili, as it's snowing here and that's always nice.

All of these things are super easy and require minimal prep time, but I make very big use of things like pre-chopped veg to save time. i like cooking, I hate prepping!

Invest In a slow cooker. It's awesome marinate ur meat with spices and flour then brown your meat chuck it in slow cooker. Add water and veg. Soak rice before you leave when you come home main food cooked and pre soaked rice will take 10 - 15 minutes to cook in boiling water
Alternatively invest in a pressure cooker awesome for lentils, meat, chickpeas and this is my dad's tip you can cook rice in a pressure cooker in 3 minutes
If you make a stew with meat in a pressure cooker add in potatoes when meat cooked after 15-20 minutes and potatoes back on pressure for 3 minutes

I cook every meal from scratch but I do one day a week for the whole week and freeze into portions and just add freshly prepared veggies etc

To me, anything from scratch means not ready made in a pack. Example, I just made sausage plait from scratch wIth pack of puff pastry, pack of sausages, pack of stuffing and a beaten egg. Took me twenty minutes to throw it together

I'm a SAHM so do tend to cook a lots but even I don't do it all of the time. Tonight was for scratch but very simple. Peeled and chopped sweet potato, coated in oil and shoved in the oven while I topped and tailed greenebeans and sorted baby corn then flgrilled chicken in a George foreman grill. Served it with some yoghurt. Very simple and from scratch.

We cook from scratch most nights and both work long hours. It doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming. Tonight I'm throwing some mackerel fillets, cubed potato, onions, tomatoes and peppers in an oven tray with anchovies, garlic, lemon and olive oil. It will take 10mins to prep the veg and about 45 to cook. I will probably shake the tray a few times throughout so it cooks evenly but that is all the effort required. Easy!

Roast chicken in a tagine is awesome too or In a le crust dish. Just put onion garlic bulb and lemon up the chicken and spices and bay leafs leave in oven at 160 for hour and half when done add some couscous in the juice chicken has cooked in and job done

I think I cook from scratch every night. Veg is bought fresh and I prep it, same with meat. All sauces are made from individual ingredients, I don't use jars really. Mostly because I prefer the flavour of my own food. Tonight we had homemade burgers, mash, and carrots. Yesterday we had roast chicken. Tomorrow is a stew. Kids do have fish fingers when I cba. We have take away probably once a week because my husband likes it, kids often have a pasta based dish in that case as I feel like a bad mum giving them Chinese take away.

I do work every day and am definitely not a 'super mum'. It's just the food I was brought up on. My house is a tip and there are never ending piles of washing as I can't do everything. I love food though so prioritise that.

I think it's all about multi purpose bases. I make a tomato sauce and it is huge - base for pizza, sauce for lasagne, add an onion fried with smoked paprika and beans and blitz for soup, add it to gravy for oomph, it goes in bean mix for enchiladas or forms the base of a sauce for fish stew or for a curry. I grow and bulk buy herbs and whizz them up with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan, use as a sauce on roasted veg, gorgeous on whole grilled aubergine, great on pasta, great on garlic bread (the bread maker makes a dough in 45 mins but I set it off in the morning and use it later). Tonight we have had herby pasta with tuna steaks and still have some sweet buns made from yesterday for pudding. I never spend long in the kitchen but have a meal plan and know what needs doing so sort out bread maker over breakfast or cook bread buns etc
Can't go back to premade - just not as nice:)

Pizza is a good food to get into the habit of cooking from scratch, for a variety of reasons.

• the kids love to get their fingers messy helping prepare the dough
• whilst the dough's left to raise you can get on with prepping the margherita sauce and chopping all the ingredients. Again, kids can help with this.
• ordering take-out is crazily expensive compared to homemade - and can take just as long if you factor in an hour wait at peak time.
• Eating pizza as its fresh out of the oven is the best - getting it delivered or reheating from frozen is just not the same
• pizza has such variety depending on the ingredients you have lying around.

Should I add that its full time working Dad who does practically all the cooking in our household? :)

I always cook from scratch even when I am working. OH will do days I am working a 13hr shift and pre-night shifts. I probably cook 70% of the meals. We eat out one day at the weekend. My OH is a fan of pesto/stir-in pasta sauce. We dont bake our bread though and on the rare occasion we make pizza, I buy a base freshly made from the store. Lunchtimes when I am not working, I either have sandwiches, baked potato or oven chips with sausages.

Notquitewhatiexpected
Ha yes exactly!

I cook from scratch everyday, I'm a single (in a relationship but don't live together) mum who works full time.
I don't like jars of stuff or ready meals really. The very occasional pizza is the most pre made thing I buy.
Dinner tonight was grilled halloumi, guacamole I made last night and salad.

I eat low carb high fat so ready meals would be thin on the ground anyway!

I do most nights (if from scratch includes tinned tomatoes, and frozen peas). Tonight we're having dominos though

I work from full timr and cook from scratch pretty much all the time. But sometimes cooking from scratch is really simple and quick - doesn't mean fancy! Omelette, salad and potato wedges for example. I often just spend 10 or 15 mins chucling something together.

Oh guns has just highlighted that I would buy guacamole etc too...

If you get one of those hand held choppers or have a blender then just rough chop ur onions tomatoes don't even bother chopping garlic and ginger when sauce is cooked just blend it all with some water and then you can use that sauce in all your cooking saves time and you know what's in it

And that is sadly why you will keep your baby fat and probably have obese children to go with it, cooking from scratch is perfectly easy as above says it's not making your own sausages etc. It takes no time at all to whip a nice meal together and sounds like you are just lazy

I also cook from scratch everyday. My cooker would not deal with ready meal trays I think it would melt them. It's always on so I find things fairly quick and easy now I've got the hang of it.

It does however do a shop bought pizza amazingly well and crisps the base so on occasion we have that.

Once I'd got the hang of it I found it was cheaper and easier to just cook and nothing got wasted.

Being honest, I think being able to make good food quickly and cheaply from scratch is about having really good cooking skills and understanding food.

Arrive home 4.45pm, you should be so lucky! Cooking from scratch is not a new invention only that now we have been bombarded with QUICK and EASY everything.Are you cooking for a hoarde of people everyday or say two adults and a couple of kids. If the hoarde then I can understand how you can become a bit fed up doing that but for the small number, well, no way. There are cookbooks out there for easy meals, meals with 3/4 ingredients to make life very easy. Also as stated, slow cookers, digital pressure cookers too. How on earth can cooking from scratch be a bother. Get organised and get cooking.

I used to work full time but I'm currently on maternity leave. Most of our meals are cooked from scratch. Curry, chilli, Bolognese, lasagne. Meat/fish with potatoes and vegetables. I'm very careful with my food and don't want my family and I to eat rubbish. I also have a gluten intolerance so that's also a factor.