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! -

Geordie he has a book with only meals (as in it often includes a dessert too) to prepare in 30 mins. This includes all the chopping etc...

If you look at magazines, 80% of the recipes can be done in 30mins and less. And it's easy to prepare some vegs or rice on the side whilst something is cooking.

It really doesn't take that long.

Even lunches are cooked from scratch in this house. Cooked on the day at weekends. From left overs that have been frozen in most cases during the week. But we have been known to put something together in the am too.

Note the WE too. It is likely to me or DH doing that and we both find the time to do it.

Honestly, they take longer than 30 minutes. He is a chef used to chopping and peeling far more quickly than I can.

Batch cooking and slow cooker.
We cook from scratch 5/6 days a week but 2-3 days of that is defrosting and heating plus boiling - rice/ pasta to go with.

Well tonight we're having carbonara(ish). Lightly fry bacon pieces, add wine, grated cheese garlic, parsley, creme fraiche, drain and stir in linguini and serve with a side salad. Tomorrow

Turkey nreast steaks. Soften a,soft shallot, add turkey, add button mushrooms, saute for 10 mins, add tbs of cranberry, and a pot of poultry gravy, serve with new pots and brocolli.

Easy peasy.

I would say I cook 'from scratch' but I cut corners all the time.

Eg if I am making a curry, it takes seconds because I use Patak's curry paste. I aways have tins of lentils and chickpeas in store cupboard. And frozen veg in freezer. Made a curry on Friday night - fried up onion (frozen), added paste, coconut milk, chopped toms, lentils, chickpeas and frozen spinach.

I make a lot of 'bolognaise' (use Jamie Oliver's recipe from Ministry of Food) and use it as a base for sphag bol, shepherd's pie or chilli.

I use bags of pre-cut veg (e.g. pumpkin, onion, celery, pepper - nothing else added) - chuck in pan with stock, add seasoning and anything else you want e.g. spices/coconut milk/cream whatever. Blend if required. Voilà a tasty and healthy soup. Cooks in 5 mins. I sometimes add lentils which extends cooking by 15 mins.

Lentil salad - buy tinned Puy lentils. Rinse thoroughly and drain. Mix with olive oil, cider vinegar, lemon juice, seasoning and serve on a salad made up of whichever salad veg you fancy. Takes seconds.

Mary Berry Tomato soup - is divine. Basically chopped toms, tom puree, onions and stock. Blended. My kids' fave soup.

So, lots of meals cooked from scratch but using 'processed' ingredients (e.g. tinned chick peas, lentils etc) but I choose how much seasoning to add so has to be better and more healthy than the ready meal version.

I make a lot of curry paste and then freeze it on a baking sheet in tablespoon piles. It quick and easy to prepare, throw everything into a food processor, and whizz, divide up and freeze. Take out desired amount, I usually do one tablespoon per person as we have a wuss in our house! Then I put that, chopped meat and/or versatile veg (frozen in pre made batches) into the slow cooker with either passata, coconut milk or yoghurt and stock and put it on auto (it cooks for 4 hours and then keeps at a certain temperate until you need it.) In the evening I add fresh vegetables and serve. We currently have Massaman, tikka, Thai green and Laksa for soup.

We also do a lot of one pot meals, stir fry, pasta and sauce (sauce made in batches and frozen and got out in the morning to defost(mostly!)) We have pizza bases in the freezer as well with tomato paste.

I do meal plan for a month ahead! Same meals generally just rejigged a bit.

Something easy to make, and cheap, is bread. This can be a family activity. Kids love making it. but it does take 30-60 minutes to rise. However that with some blitzed cooked broccoli and stilton, aka soup, is bloody lovely and filling.

I never spend hours. Spag Bol takes me about half hour. Also I'm not in the kitchen the whole time. I'm getting on with other stuff.
If I have a lot of chopping to do I do it in the sitting room on my lap in front of the tv.

Cooking from scratch doesn't have to be complicated. It's just using unprocessed stuff.

Exactly! So last week my DM (who is a very good cook, loves cooking and has never worked FT) nearly had heart failure when my DC said they were having chicken nuggets and chips for dinner.

The chicken nuggets were strips of chicken breast that had been dipped in egg, flour and homemade breadcrumbs (we have a breadmaker and crumb stale bread)
The chips were a potato cut into chips and roasted
The carrots were chopped by me and mixed with frozen peas.

That's pretty "from scratch" as far as I'm concerned but hardly cordon bleu and took half an hour from me getting the knife out and switching on the oven to it being on the table.

We also had Delia's Normandy Pork last week. It involves a jar of apple sauce. I still consider that "from scratch."

It's like anything, the more you do it the quicker you get. I have around a dozen or so meals that I cook on rotation. I add new recipes in as and when I get bored. I know them well so I don't need to waste time looking at cookbooks. I can be really rapid, usually 20mins prep time max for a weekday. I also sometimes batch cook and freeze at weekends.

I make a meal plan and shopping list every week, so i always have the right ingredients in.

To be honest, I consider bangers and mash to be quite a faff, partly because of the time it takes to peel, chop, cook and mash the potatoes. For carbs, I usually go for things like coucous, quinoa, rice etc as they're so much quicker/easier.

I also make banana bread for kids' breakfast. It's a vegan recipe so very simple. I add heathy things like chia seeds and ground almonds, and vary the flours I use. Takes no time at all to prepare as such a simple recipe - then an hour to cook in oven. Breakfast sorted for a few days!

Lots of good meal ideas on here - must go back and note some down!

I think it depends on your definition of 'from scratch'.

I like cooking a lot but I work full time, and I'm not prepared to spend hours in the kitchen everynight, so I make some compromises.

I never buy frozen chips but I don't peel my potatoes for chips. I do buy frozen stir fry veg (mainly because it is there and you don't have to worry about it going off) and frozen butternut squash because those things take a lifetime to peel! I buy jars of thai curry paste but usually do my own Indian style curry sauces or katsu curry sauce. Pastry is almost always frozen (it is actually cheaper than buying the butter) and I rarely make my own pasta.

I have a lot of spices - they last ages but you have to start using more as they start losing their flavour.

If I am making chili or bolognaise it goes in the slow cooker the night before to be turned on in the morning and always lots of extra to be frozen and microwaved at a later date. Lasagne and other casseroles also made in giant quantaties.

Chips, currys and hashes go in the Tefl actifry and then you can leave it stiring itself whilst you do something else.

I always cook rice in the microwave so that you can walk away from it - a rice cooker would be even better and I'm saving up for one.

Sausages get cooked in the oven for minimal hands-on time.

Hi Geordie!

I get home around 7pm, take the dogs for a quick walk, come home, straight into the kitchen and pour a glass of wine. Then I prepare the veg and get everything happening. During the week it takes about half an hour but more at the weekend as I do things like roasts.

I cook from scratch every day: my definition of it is: I'll use a tin if it has one or two ingredients (chopped tomatoes for example), and I'll make anything which doesn't require specialist machinery (so I'm not making my own sausages or pasta but do make my own pesto). I did when I worked full time too. I enjoy cooking and I think it's important, with a baby it also means I can see how much salt and sugar she's taking in (not that I care much but you'd be surprised how much salt is in freezer food). It doesn't have to take hours.

We do. My sons cook for themselves. Just about everythign we eat is just normal basic food from scratch. Nothing I eat takes long to cook whatsoever.
Eg one day was salmon with olive oil and veg - takes about 10 mins. Most of my meals take about 15 mins to cook, often in a pan on the job. I had steak another day. I always have worked full time.

I don't like stew so would never do that. My son roasts a chicken once a week but that's not long in the sense you stick it in and 2 hours later take it out.
I agree with this -" Cooking from scratch doesn't have to be complicated. It's just using unprocessed stuff"

I'm sorry but 5pm is hardly late?? I get home at 6 if I'm lucky, more often 6.30.

We almost always cook from scratch, as in, use fresh ingredients. DP and I take it in turns to cook every other night so neither of us gets too sick of it. Meals typically take 40 minutes to pull together.

I've always cooked all our meals, when working full time 50 hour ish weeks, while on maternity and now working part time with a toddler and pregnant. But I do like cooking.

I always have a weekly meal plan and I always have everything I need delivered at the beginning of the week.

If I cook a curry, stew, bolognaise, chili, fish pie, cottage pie, lasagna or similar then I always double or triple the ingredients and put a couple of portions in the freezer.

I use my food processor a lot to prep veg quickly.

At least two nights a week we will have something home cooked out of the freezer heated up.

Other week days we have simple meals like stir fry or sausage and mash, carbonara or potato, steamed veg and grilled meat.

I only get extravagant at the weekends as I like to cook and I have a bit more time to enjoy it.

Its all fresh and healthy and I wouldn't say I spend more than half an hour in the kitchen a day.

I find I need 45 mins to cook a decent dinner. Not standing over it the whole time but that seems to be about average for me. On a Sunday I cook two dinners and we reheat one on Monday (so tonight it's lasagna I made last night).

I do cut corners where I can - so I use pre chopped chillies and I quite often buy mashed potato (do feel guilty about this one). I buy fish pie mix as well - that makes fish pie a doddle. Just make a white sauce. I buy loads of pre-chopped veg. In fact most veg I buy like that.

Curry is always something I have wanted to
Make. Tried once and it was like wall paper paste. Has put me off a little. Is it really as simple as a paste, coconut milk and a tin of tomatoes?

I had a friend who cooked from scratch everyday, but his idea of a meal didn't match mine, lump of meat and pasta in tom sauce, not a meal in my book.

MGFM - curry - yes. Buy a jar of Patak's curry paste and read the instructions on the side. I like a lot of fresh coriander in mine...

Hairy Bikers have some good recipes if you want to try your own spices - as does Madhur Jaffrey.

I have been using the spice tailor I think it is called - according to the package - made in India. It has a small pack of spices, a base Sauce and then the specific curry sauce. They are really very good and rival the very good Indian restaurant down the street. Cost £2.50 approx and take 15 mins

Ooh that sounds nice.

Curry-

Pataks paste is what you need.

Fry onion and ginger,add paste and water and reduce. Add tomato- tinned or I prefer paste, add chicken and simmer until done. Add some corn flour to stabilise it so it doesn't split when you add the coconut milk. You might want to add a bit of sugar with the tomatoes. Instructions are on the back of the jar anyway.

I use Pataks tikka masala paste.

Once you have the hang of that you can branch out and follow a 'proper' recipe.

Slow cookers seem to be one of the most common answers here but they are a mystery to me.... How does a slow cooker work? You put it on at 6am and when you get home at 7pm its ready? And its okay to leave these on in an empty house, yes?