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 can, and usually do, cook from scratch but I often just can't be arsed. I get home from work and I'm tired and the last thing I can be bothered to do is start faffing in the kitchen. Yes, I know I should batch cook at the weekends, and I sometimes do and that makes the weekends easier. But it's just the fact of how unrelenting it is. The thought of having to cook every. single. day. for the rest of my life just fills me with horror not that I'm being dramatic or anything

I guess some people find it relaxing to cook and it helps them to unwind after work. I am not one of those people.

I don't buy Jars or ready meals.

I do sometime buy pastry (if i'm making a pie).
I can cook all kids stuff really quickly. A pasta sauce takes about 5-10 mins. Chicken marinade about 5 mins before shoving in the oven. Stir fry takes about 15 mins. Pie mix (fish or chicken) takes about 15 mins, then i just put the pastry on top and shove in oven. Macaroni cheese takes about 15 mins.
Tonight we are having pancakes for pud, which they will help me make about 5 mins for batter.

I never do stuff that takes ages as I haven't got time.

We have a mixture of 'from scratch' (I bloody hate that phrase but I don't know why!) and things like burger and chips.

The meals I cook tend to be less complicated than the burger and chips ones. No having to time which thing goes in when IYSWIM.
I am not a great cook and I am not very interested in food but I was bought up on basic family meals so its normal for me.

We have pasta with home made sauce every week. I don't like jar sauces. They taste gloopy and too sweet to me.
Roast dinner on Sundays.
Saturdays will usually be rice with meatballs or chops.
Shepards pie is dead easy and you can freeze half.
Macaroni cheese is popular and will last a couple of days if you do a big one. You can have it with veg one day and salad the next (although I love it with chips)
Baked potatoes

You can have a half an half dinner. Shop bought pie with homemade mash or chips.
Sausage and mash

I can't believe I am giving out cooking advice. I am flipping useless

I agree with others about planning. When I have got round to doing it, it makes the cooking so much easier and I am more likely to branch out a bit.
I have an old fashioned box of recipe cards and sometimes grab 7 and go for it.

duh, makes the weekdays easier.

I cook mostly from scratch mainly because I don't really like things from jars and packets - they tend to be overflavoured or too sweet. We're having a stir fry tonight, home made burgers and wedges tomorrow, polenta chicken with wraps and veggies on Wednesday, broccoli pasta bake Thursday, baked potatoes on Friday and steak and mash on Saturday. Most of those take max half an hour to make.

If you like cooking then you can cook daily in most cases.

If you dislike cooking then maybe not.

It takes no more than 20 minutes to prep most meals. Most people surely spend longer watching TV or on the internet?

OH and I take turns to cook from scratch every night. I admit sometimes we eat late but we always do it. We are vegetarian so there is a lot of chopping of vegetables involved. Still it beats the alternative.

I work in a job where I've talked to a lot of people about their food and diets, and what is clear is that although everyone loves to say they 'cook from scratch' and eat a 'balanced diet' everyone's interpretation of this differs. On this thread alone, there's a huge variation between someone cooking say an Indian curry from 'scratch' (using ghee, sourcing nice spices etc), using a curry paste and some coconut milk and using a ready sauce jar (which some still count as cooking from scratch). Pasta isn't usually hand-made, nor the tomatoes pulped by hand. Most people use pre-prepared ingredients and tins/jars. I have a friend who makes a lasagna 'from scratch' and told me about it, I said 'I can't be bothered to make the bechamel sauce' and she said 'oh no, of course I used a jar'!

What I don't get is why 'cooking from scratch' is so incredibly virtuous you would want to boast about it. I often wonder whether some of the meals with cheap mince and pasta are really all that healthy, compared with a nice chunk of homemade bread and some chicken and salad, but repeatedly on Mn I've been informed that children not only need 'cooking from scratch' but also a 'hot meal' at all times or they are likely to be undernourished. Food is only as good as the quality of the ingredients, even if you cook it from scratch, and in the UK, the meat and veg is of really quite poor quality.

I would say that I cook "from scratch" almost every day, but others might disagree, as I am not making casserole or curry every single day, and I would count baked potatoes, and using a curry paste.

So the kids are having this week: Monday - tuna pasta bake, very quick, just boil pasta, in a separate pan fry onions, garlic, maybe some carrot, add tinned tomato and tuna. Mix it all together, shove it in the oven with grated cheese on top, maybe do some broccoli to go with. Tuesday - jacket potatoes with cheese and beans, cucumber and tomatoes. Wednesday - Cottage pie -fry the onion, carrots and celery, add the mince, then some stock and tomato puree, while that's cooking cook potatoes and mash 'em, shove in oven. Thursday they are having wraps which they put together themselves which they love. Friday, chicken nuggets - cut up chicken, dip in beaten egg and crushed cornflakes, drizzle with melted butter, cook in oven, serve with potato wedges (cut up potato in jacket into wedges drizzle with olive oil cook in oven) and broccoli or carrot.

None of that takes very long. Another favourite is special fried rice - basically stir fry whatever veg I have, add some prawns and/or chicken and/or ham, add cooked rice, break an egg over the top, maybe add a bit of soy sauce. That takes 15 minutes.

We don't have a microwave which I suppose is part of the reason why I tend to cook from scratch, or what I call cooking from scratch anyway.

Neither of us likes cooking but still...

Are there many people who work full time hours (45 hours per week or above) who manage this?
Are there people who are out of the house for 12 hours plus per day, and still manage? I don't get home until gone 7pm each night, and my husband often an hour or so after

I cook at home most evenings however I do get a lot of help from Uncle Ben and Aunty Dolmio. I use Old El Paso Meal kits and other time saving stuff, eat a lot of pasta. Even so some nights making a piece of toast is beyond me. I always try and have at least one meal in for my most tired nights, such as a frozen pizza or stuffed pasta and ready made sauce.

We can all do only our best

here's one!
Yes, I'm a SAHM. No I don't spend all day in the kitchen
Yes I do cook every night, I did when I worked too. Yes I get fed up but it's tough - we need to eat and can't afford convenience so I just do it.

I cook most meals from scratch but I'm certainly not opposed to using the occasional Dolmio bolognese sauce jar or making a chicken nuggets and waffles dinner.
I'm a SAHM so have more time but my biggest problem is knowing WHAT to cook. I hate weekly/monthly meal planning because I would never know if we would even be in the mood for lasagne on Friday or Fajitas on Tuesday.

I have found a simple way to make it all easier is to buy loads of extra veg on my monthly shop and spend an hour chopping and bagging portions of it for freezing. I even have an extra freezer just for my pre-chopped stuff. It's so easy to pull out the appropriate bags (lay flat to freeze and you can store far more) and throw them in a pan for a delicious soup or add to a pasta dish to get some more veg in the kid's diet.

I do use lots of ready made puff pastry (and shortcrust quite often) and I have a cupboard almost full of tins of chopped tomatoes which can be the base of a thousand different meals. But I still consider myself a from scratch cooker. --Ain't nobody got time for boiling, peeling chopping and reducing plum tomatoes!

Slow cookers are great for cooking in advance. Throw everything in before work (or overnight) and come back to a delicious fresh cooked meal.

Cross posted with Foureyes.

Food is only as good as the quality of the ingredients, even if you cook it from scratch,

This is true. For me the difference is between heating up something that is already made, like a supermarket pie or a ready meal, which will probably have a lot of salt/ sugar in, and making it yourself so you have some idea of what is going in it, even if using tinned tuna, mince etc.

sat i made home made tomato sauce - marco pierre white recipe - very good. had it with pasta and halloumi.

last night frozen left over mince from mince beef pie last week - with peas , croquettes and gravy and I cooked some ready made pastry for a pie topping.

tonight - bought stuffed pasta with the same tomato sauce and some bought garlic bread.

other meals for this week : Sausage and Mash with peas and maybe carrots with gravy. I have some left over jus rol in the fridge so I might make another mince meat pie. This takes me about 1 1/2 hours as the meat really needs t cook on the hob for a while.

Bacon, jacket, cheese and beans will be another night. curry (from a packet - the new spice tailor packets....got one free with delivery a few months ago...very tasty.....make with paneer and then rice and bought naan bread)

And the tesco shop usually comes on Thursday or friday. Sometime we have a take away. Sometimes, beans on toast.

We also have salmon with cous cous and roasted veg, oven chips, egg, bacon and beans, omelette, roast chicken dinner on occasion.

I do get a lot of help from Uncle Ben and Aunty Dolmio

This really made me laugh. So must most people, given the size of those aisles.

I am certainly not a stay at home person, just to be clearer.

But roseshippy watching TV or sitting online can be done whilst falling asleep on the sofa .

I find it's not the time that I lack, just the will/inclination/energy.

Honestly? It's as easy as putting a easy meal in the oven for 20mins.
It's not taking more time than that. Have a look at Janmie Oliver and his meal (as in an entire re meal) in 30 mins.

For the rest, I have some trusted recipes that I do during the week. I am never imaginative. I follow the recipes to the letters so they are nice (see your comments about the slow cooker - I bought a book. The recipes are very nice so is the food).
I have a menu for the week. A lot of it is what we are every week, like most people TBH.

And ... I feel much better if I eat proper food cooked from scratch than shop bought stuff. Just like I feel better if I eat plenty of vegs.

And .... it's cheaper!

Never use ready prepared sauces. Nor do we have a microwave - hate the very idea.

I cook from scratch 99% of the time, and feel a bit lazy if I use a shop bought white sauce in my home made lasagna which is rare. Yesterday I made two curries from scratch, a chicken one and a lentil one. It took approx 30 mins prep and 1h cooking which I don't really mind doing on the weekend but not standing over the stove type. I don't like the taste of jars/ready made food. And my DC are great eaters so I am lucky.

If you pick your recipes carefully and aim for 30 mins or something a day it is perfectly doable. It also depends how important cooking from scratch is to you, if it is important, you will find the time. Even oven baked jacket potatoes and tuna and sweetcorn is more or less cooking from scratch!

One pot wonders are brilliant for time saving. I also have a pressure cooker that cooks risotto in a few minutes (planning a mushroom one tonight). I work from home and use my lunch break to quickly prep some ingredients. And always batch cook so I have some for another night, and some for the freezer.

The thing with meals that require mince - I really like to cook it for a long time. 20 mins wouldnt be long enough.

My husband lived off stirfrys before we got married and I got very very bored of them. Packet sauce though so not very from scratch.

I like the pulled pork stuffed in peppers idea from a PP.

Also, when I cook fajitas, which we do as well, and tacos...It is packets and i like to have all the extras -sour cream, salsa, guacamole.

I cook from scratch about 90% of the time. I'm a SAHM. Before I was a SAHM myself and my husband both worked long hours and we would still cook from scratch. Doesn't make me a brilliant parent or a show off, it just makes me someone who really likes to cook.

I mostly cook from scratch, which I interpret as using mainly fresh or frozen, meat, fish & vegetables. However I don't sweat it. If I'm busy I'm quite happy to use ready chopped veg or a pre-made flavouring such as curry paste.

I don't think you need to be a martyr about it. I happen to enjoy cooking and most of our mid week meals are quick to prepare. Tonight's dinner is Jacket potatoes with sweet potatoes, salad and leftovers.

Me. I do. On top of working full-time and having a 90 min commute and dropping off/picking up kids. I leave the house at 7am and get back at 7pm.

Good nutrition is so important. I was reading an article about cancer rates in children recently - diet has to play a part.

No matter how knackered I am I won't let them down with unhealthy food.

My tips would be to have a Food Plan on a blackboard in the kitchen, do all shopping in one go at the weekend and get a slow cooker.