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! -

I mostly cook from scratch. We freeze a lot of left overs so there's something healthy for the nights we can't really be bothered or don't have time. The kids will have fish fingers maybe once a week with some sweet or white potato mash or chips and some sort of veg or beans. Tonight I'm doing IKEA meatballs, mash, carrots and peas with home made onion gravy. I would still consider this a home made meal but the meatballs do provide an aspect of convenience. I don't but ready meals and the only time we get a jar is if we want a specific type of curry which tastes better from a jar than anything I could make.

I meal plan and shop, so I never have to think 'what are we eating' and I often double up, so huge pot of spaghetti sauce and then use half for lasagne later in the week. Beef casserole, and have half monday and half thursday etc.

I cook from scratch. I work from home and stop at about 4.30. We try and eat about 5.30. Prep and start off casseroles and stews at lunchtime, double up and freeze extras, save the fancier stuff for the weekends.

We generally cook from scratch six days of the week - the other day it's either a frozen pizza or leftovers from the freezer.

I can't stand sauces out of a packet, so I would gladly spend time cooking from scratch rather than eating something like that.

I'm a SAHM now, but have pretty much always had to cook from scratch as I have a few food allergies/intolerences so when at 18 I left home for Uni, I discovered adding a jar of sauce rather than making the sauce myself would leave me with puffy, red skin, often sore for a few days . When the alternative is feeling sick a lot, you get good at cooking!

There were some changes in the last 15 years to which additives could be added to foods and I've found there's more 'instant' foods I can eat, but the habit of making myself has been ingrained.

We have a range of recipes that are good for "on the table in under 45 minutes from scratch", and I do a lot of slow cooking even though I am a SAHM because I've often got shit to do so would rather get dinner on as soon as I get home from the school run in the morning then enjoy the rest of my day.

If you would like some quick ideas, try Jamie Oliver's 30 minute dinners. Most take longer than 30 minutes unless you are as fast/skilled as a professional chef, but also in most meals that 30 minutes includes cooking/preping a pudding as well as a main, which we rarely bother with mid-week, most can be done in 45 minutes.

I mostly cook from scratch. I would say cooking from scratch is not using a jar or packet. I am pretty much a sahm though so I do have more time. A lot of the stuff I do doesn't take long though, salmon in soy sauce and honey marinate in 15 minutes and fry. Sausages and mash is from scratch. Spaghetti Bolognese I just use herbs and a tin of tomato's, takes less than 30 minutes. Chicken breasts with paprika and lime takes less than 30 minutes.

I maybe use a jar or packet once a week for things like stir fry or curry but not every week. And I buy pies ready made. And sometimes we have fish fingers or breaded fish and oven chips.

I love cooking, and cook from scratch most nights out of enjoyment.
I am currently 6 months pregnant with our first and working on average 45-50 hours a week, so this may change over the coming months.

I dont cook complex things though, but have quite a large selection of italian recepies in my head that are very simple and easy to cook, not to mention cheap too.

We could eat italian food 5 nights a week and it would be a totally different thing each time.

DP also likes cooking and he specialises in cooking Thai or Indian food from scratch so we tend to have a mixture.

I am not a meat a 2 veg type of person, and would rather have beans on toast if I really dont have the time or energy to cook properly.

Fast to prepare "slow food" such as stews, soups and roasts can be prepped ahead ready to pop in the oven as soon as you are home from work, or slow cooked while you are out.

Batch cook and freeze. Never make one of anything if there's room in the oven for 2 or 3 (i.e. Make 2 lasagne or whatever and freeze one. Use glass dishes (with silicon or plastic lids) that can go from freezer to microwave to oven.

Fast, fresh food dishes like stir fry, or steak and salad can be prepped and cooked in only a few mins.

It's easy enough to cook "from scratch" every day once you are in the habit (I realise not always easy to get into the habit tho 😊). Organising a bit, and planning ahead make it easier.

Does cooking from scratch include serving meals that you've cooked from scratch then frozen? 0r is it starting from raw ingredients every day.

I cook 90% of our meals 'from scratch', but I'm a SAHM with 1 child at school and the other at nursery. If it's something that takes a long time to cook, I'll do it in the morning, if it's something that takes 40 minutes or less I cook it before the kids dinner time. I do end up spending a lot of time cooking but I don't mind because I enjoy it.

Saying that, if I was working I would like to think I'd do as much as I could myself too. Cooking at weekends, choosing meals that don't take as long to cook.

We're having leftover roast pork in pork fried rice for dinner tonight, which I'll flavour with soy sauce, five spice, shaoxing rice wine and sesame oil. I'll add loads of stir fried veg too. It will take about 15 minutes to make as I have some leftover rice in the fridge, it could be done with a packet of rice too.

We cook from scratch every evening.

This week we'll have:

Aubergine Parmigiana with spaghetti

Red Thai curry with baby aubergines & green beans (shop bought sauce) and hom mali rice

Falafel, taboulleh with hummus & pittas (falafel from a shop bought mix)

Fried fennel with home made tomato sauce & spaghetti

Roast butternut squash with sage, ricotta & parmesan and pasta kind of like this - it's INCREDIBLE

Maybe an asparagus risotto, or if I don't put it on early enough, the asparagus fried with red peppers & spinach, served with pesto (shop bought, fresh tub - can't be arsed making it any more) and pasta

Vegetable balti with cabbage, green beans and red pepper, with basmati rice and parathas (shop bought), maybe with dahl if I think of it. No big deal if I forget.

Nothing takes more than about 20 mins to make, except the aubergine parmigiana, which needs to simmer (the tomatoes) and fry (aubergines) on low for ages, and then goes in the oven for 45 mins. So low impact, but not a "I need to eat in 10 minutes" meal. The butternut squash (I buy it sliced in a packet from Ocado) needs to roast for about an hour too.

I cook from scratch every night but we rarely eat before 7.30pm. Both work full time. Have a one year old and 15 year old. Baby usually in bed by 6.30pm then I cook whilst DH washes up, tidies, puts a wash on etc. The three of us eat together at 7.30pm, all tidied away by 8pm so have the rest of the evening together. I meal plan religiously and take leftovers to work for lunch/freeze portions for the baby. To be honest I don't find cooking a pasta dish/stir fry and more time consuming than something pre prepared.

3 days a week I work until 3pm, so I have time to cook after school run and we eat about 6pm.

Other 2 days I work until 5ish. One day DC go to after school club and I tend to plan something slow cooker or get batch cooked stuff out of the freezer, as we're generally not through the door until nearly 6pm. Although it's possible to do something quick like stir fry and noodles and eat a little later and in summer it's easier with salad-based meals.

On Fridays DH has early finish so does the school run and cooks. He tends to do lovely home-cooked curry for us (which we eat around 8-9pm) and DC usually have fish fingers and chips or something of that ilk.

If we were both not getting home until 6pm (like DH does 4 days a week) it would be a lot harder to find the time to cook.

I cook every night. I use my slow cooker a lot but also get in about 4/4.15pm and cook then. I sometimes prep stuff the night before or if I am off in the morning. A lot of my recipes take less than 30 minutes.

I cook from scratch everyday.

I've just made a filling to go into a pie, pastry made in the fridge.

tomorrow home made burgers
Wednesday a curry
and on....

Tagines.... easy peasy and not too expensive.

What do you eat for dinner OP?

Bertrand I would say that food you have prepared and frozen counts as from scratch. Grabbing something delicious and homemade from the freezer gives me a lot of joy.

So OP, what do you eat when you're not cooking from scratch? I use a few short-cuts - bought pesto, fishfingers for the kids once every couple of weeks etc and surely almost nobody makes their own sausages or pasta, but other than that I cook from scratch. Buy like everyone says, from scratch doesn't necessarily mean complex or long. Omelette takes 5 mins.

If I'm honest, cooking is a bit of a chore at times, but I'd rather that than eat ready meals etc, not only out of guilt over health and feeding my dc well, but because I like fresh home-made food.

Most people who say they "cook from scratch" actually do use some prepared food e.g. pasta or bread. If cooking "from scratch" just involves not using jars or ready made meals it isn't really that time-consuming.

I thought cooking from scratch means not opening a packet.

i was working full time and getting home around 1645/1700 every night

Lol, try getting home at half 7. I still cook from scratch st least 4 nights a week.

icanteven - that sounds like a tasty menu but not sure it is from scratch everyday!

difficultyear - this is also my problem. it would never occur to me to do meat and 2 veg type dishes. not the biggest meat eater and it reminds me of my mothers cooking - just add a white sauce and transport me back 20 years! although pretty sure she still does it now

It helps if you make a precise list of your meals before you do a food shop and stick to ingredients that can be cooked fast, or left alone when you do something else. After a while, you don't even think about it. I wouldn't buy a full chicken for a week day even if you could make a week of meals out of one because I am not keeping the kids up until diner is ready and it can take 1h30mn to cook.

I cook from scratch every evening. If you've been cooking a long time, you get used to having a repertoire of dishes you know how to make, and you simply make sure that you buy the ingredients in your weekly shop. In my case, it tends to be things like spaghetti with tomato sauce, vegetable chilli, vegetable curry, Tuscan bean stew - they generally take about 45 minutes to make. I work from home, though, so have a bit more time on my hands.