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! -

My chilli corn carne is planned for leftovers. Next day it will turn into a spicy pasta bake or a hearty soup or a mexican pie with a quick homemade rough pastry. When we're really busy we'll have a soup/stew week and so all the meals come out of the pressure cooker - still cook from scratch.

'From scratch' as an addendum to 'made dinner' is just showing off, isn't it? Last night we had wraps with quorn, pesto, salad and cheese. There was no 'scratch'.

Between the two of us DP and I cook from scratch most nights. He does more than me as I do bedtime most nights and he cooks then. In return I cook for DC and usually do the meal planning and online shop. We usually have a takeaway once a week (as we hardly ever go out since we had DC) and try to do at least one meal which will make leftovers, so in practice we probably cook from scratch 5 times a week.

I think it's easier as DC's get older and are able to eat later. I would certainly struggle to have a cooked from scratch meal ready for 5pm, but 7 pm is doable.
I think there's often a tendency for people to have different versions of "from scratch." So the one person considers shop bought fish cakes in shop bought rolls and pre-packaged salad as cooked from scratch, whereas the next person would make the fish cakes, bake the rolls and prepare their own salad. I would make my own fish cakes and salad but would definitely buy the rolls so can I be said to cook from scratch?
Anyway for me the key is planning. We have a weeks menu and shop for everything we will need in one go. The weekend will see me grating a large tub of cheese or some salad, which will speed things up in the kitchen during the week. DH and DS will also pop in and help with bits as and when needed and I normally save new recipes or particularly fiddly stuff for weekends.
It works for us but I really enjoy cooking. If you don't (DM never did) then fill your boots with jars of sauce or ready meals

Lots of things don't take very long eg stir fries, omelettes, fajitas, grilled chicken breasts or steak etc

I use a slow cooker regularly and always make a double portion and freeze it - this means that I always have chilli, curry, bolognaise, pasta sauce, beef stew and lasagna in the freezer.

As well as being healthier (because you can control salt, sugar etc) it's also much cheaper.

There are things you can do to speed prep up even further eg using frozen chopped onions, mushrooms and peppers.

It takes a bit of planning and organisation but you by no means need to be "super-mum".

Playmobilepeacock im going to get DH to give that a try, all his favourite meals seem to involve marinating meat in soy sauce :)

I do but I work part time from home. I imagine if I was out of the house all day then I wouldn't be as keen!

*Next day it will turn into a spicy pasta bake or a hearty soup or a mexican pie with a Next day it will turn into a spicy pasta bake or a hearty soup or a mexican pie with a quick homemade rough pastry.'

All on its own? Have you contacted Britain's Got Talent?

I don't do big complicated meals during the week. I stick to things like pea and ham soup (slow cooker) it took me about 5 minutes to get it going this morning and will just need blitzing when I get home tonight. Tomorrow I have some salmon which with everything will be ready in less than 30 minutes. Yes things like lasagne take time and effort so I save them for weekend and just simplify things during the week.

Chilli in 15minutes? I let mine bubble away for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I make homemade tomato sauce in batches as well. But that takes over an hour to cook on the hob. I do have a few recipe books but i find it just takes a long time to make dinner. The recipes in my recipe books are not 20 min cooks and I find getting the ingredients in for cooking from scratch sometime pushes my bill up

I cook from scratch all the time, for five of us. I'm usually a meal ahead, so I get in from work and start my prep for the following evening. I also bulk cook and freeze. I'm a real tight wad, so I cannot bear the thought of spending money on prepared foods.

I buy in bulk from a butchers. Everything is reduced in price if you buy in bulk. I've just cooked a load of shin beef and made three curries, two stews, and two steak pies.

On a Sunday I usually cook a big joint, again bought from the butchers. Yesterday I did a massive piece of shoulder of pork. Buy it with the bone in. Shove it in the oven on about 250 degrees for about 20 minutes until the crackling starts to crisp. Then turn it down to 125 degrees, add stock then cover with tin foil and leave for about five hours. It will be delicious. This will do dinner tonight, pulled pork with noodles, peppers, mushrooms and spring onions. Ready in 15 minutes.

Tomorrow, pulled pork stuffed into peppers, and served with tomato sauce and rice.

I like Jamie's books, Save with Jamie and Jamie's 30 minute meals are fab.

I'm a sahm at the moment and cook everyday. I love cooking. I meal plan every week. It really doesn't take as long as people think, even make my own bread a few times a week.

We cook from scratch most days

Stir fry
Fresh pasta with some chilli, chorizo, tomartoes
Steak, home made chips
Salmon, cous cous & roasted veg
Pesto cod, baby potatoes and greens
Chicken salad
Jacket potatoe
All of which are very quick

Other days I might do
Veg chilli
Toad in the hole
Spag Bol
Curry
Roast

I am a stay at home Mum so they maybe helps with the time I have available (I can do prep while babies nap for example) I have 2 dc ( 5 months & 16 months) and I own a business so always something that needs doing for that so I don't get bundles of time.
dh cooks 3 nights a week once he gets in from work, I sort the other 4 days

What's the alternative? I've never bought a ready meal in 18 years of having kids and working. But I have something better than a microwave - a dh who's home by 6 and can cook. We cook from scratch 100 percent but we share the cooking.

MGFM seriously look into getting a slow cooker.

It's wonderful walking through the door at 6pm and smelling a lovely chilli or stew waiting for you.

I cook from scratch most nights but during the week this means fast meals that do not take hours of simmering etc:

Fajitas
Pasta bake
Stir fry
Cottage pie topped with sweet potato mash
Chilli (slimming world recipe v. easy)
Sweet and sour chicken
Seasoned chicken or fish with sweet potato wedges and salad/veg.

The slow cooker is great especially in winter, I make stews, curries, goulash and so on.

i do prefer home cooking and find it easier to eat things that are fresh/ healthier (I have health issues) so I only buy anything readymade when just need a break.
It works ok for me as we have a big freezer so freezing half saves me cooking another day, and I like cookbooks with quick cooking ideas - Nigel Slater is excellent for that.

but don't you get fed up using your evenings to cook?

We just see cooking as a recreational activity in itself, one of us cooks, the other sits at the breakfast bar and we chat with a glass of wine.

Its a good way to reconnect at the end of the day...

I cook from scratch and I don't get in from work until 7. Weekdays I make my own pasta sauces, curries, chilli etc etc. Doesn't take long.

Eggs and oven chips - cut potatoes into chip shapes, toss in oil and chuck in the oven for 20 minutes. Fry eggs. Add baked beans if you want (obvs that bit isn't cooked from scratch). That is a dinner.
Meals at home don't have to be fancy or elaborate or have hundreds of ingredients or take hours to cook. It's just food. It all ends up as mush in your stomach.
Personally I don't see anything wrong with using some 'convenience' foods as long as there's plenty of 'real food' ie vegetables, grains, cheese, eggs, meat and fish if you eat them.
And things like prepared or frozen veg cut down on time as well. No one really wants to peel and dice hundreds of carrots at the end of the day.

Once you get the hang of it it really doesn't take much time, especially once you have a lot of pantry supplies. I have go to meals that I usually have the ingredients on hand for. Some of my favourites are skillet meals where you just chuck everything in and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Or I will make things in bulk. I have a great pizza sauce recipe so I make a big batch, freeze it in muffin pins, then pop out the rounds and put them in a freezer bag. When I want to make a pizza I just pull one out and let it thaw.

I'm moving this week so have been trying to use up what I have on hand rather than buying more. It's forced to be creative. Last night I made dijon parmesan chicken (coat chicken in mixture of melted butter and dijon mustard, then bread crumbs and parmesan), stuck some rice in the rice cooker and cooked some frozen broccoli. Minimal active cooking time but was delicious.

stuffed - that sounds pretty tasty, i might try that this weekend!

yy to things like stir fry, fajitas, pasta sauces, risotto...

'Cooking from scratch' =/= 'hours and hours of simmering'

Another who cooks from scratch, even when we both work 12+ hours in aday, one of us will cook.

OK, if we make a spag, chilli, anything stewy, etc, we make it extra big and freeze some back, that reduces cooking time. But many of our weekday meals take no more than 30 minutes from start to finish.

You only need 4 or 5 recipes to start of with, it grows as you gain in confidence! And yes, cooking form scratch an include some jars, pesto and stuff is just too pfaffy otherwise. We even have some Patak's jars for weekday meals as I can't always keep on top of the frozen back curry sauces we make when we are time flush!

Never buy a spag sauce though. It is nicer to have a tin of tomatoes or passata and to herb it up. But that took DH a few years to get his head round. So, until very recently we would have had a few of those too!

The benefits are odd... price, satisfaction are really obvious ones. Calories, usually lower, salt too. But it is only when you go back to a pre-prepared dish that you wonder where all the taste went? There is a HUGE difference in taste that you could be totally unaware of