If you don't "cook from scratch", what do you eat?

[Notcontent]

Sorry, this is prompted by another thread, but I am really curious.

I am not a super-woman but I do (mostly) "Cook from scratch" despite being a lone parent who works long hours four days a week. I guess I do this because I am not British (but live in the UK now) and have always cooked. I don't really have time to cook when I get home from work so I batch cook on the weekend or sometimes in the evening. Or I make things that are very quick, like egg dishes, etc.

If you don't really cook, then what do you eat? I guess if you are single you can get away with eating out but that's not an option if you have kids...

I know someone who says neither she or her husband cooks
I have a friend who doesn't know if the oven in his house works, he hasn't even tried it once.
he eats LOTS of takeaways, and is huge.

Does frozen prechopped onions & herbs or a tin of chopped tomatoes mean I'm not "scratch" cooking?

Define "cook from scratch". Do you buy only fresh (not frozen peas), only whole chicken and fish? Yes? Do you shell peas, pluck chickens and gut fish? Yes? Do you grow peas, kill chickens and catch fish?

Do you make your own bread, salami and ice cream? Almost nobody cooks truly from scratch and equally almost nobody eats only ready made.

We've not unpacked in our rental as we're waiting to buy.

So usually a higgidy pie, microwaveable veg, microwaveable potato or oven croquettes.

Loads of tasty take seats.

Sat- chilli from scratch
Sun- roast from scratch
Today- frozen mini potatoes, frozen pie and frozen veg
Tomorrow- shepherds pie from scratch
Wednesday- frozen pizza, wedges
And garlic bread.

I cook from scratch on days I have time but on busy days I feel no shame eating out of the freezer. Some weeks it's all frozen and jars and others it's all from scratch.

I am British.

Icy, does it matter?

Sometimes I'll cook say, pork medallions saltimbocca with a mushroom cream sauce, oven roasted veg and mini roasted new potatoes. Or a roast chicken with all the usual trimmings. Other days I'll do a cheese omelette. Other days we'll have pesto pasta with chorizo. And sometimes we'll have pizza, or bacon butties. We might have, say, M&S chicken kievs. Or use a ready made carbonara sauce, since mine always ends up as scrambled eggs! But we wouldn't have, say, a ready meal lasagna, or spag bol.

We used to make a lot more from scratch, but with both of us working and with a toddler who wakes by 5.30 most mornings, we're too knackered a lot of the time.

fish fingers and chips/ frozen battered fish and baked beans
pizza
bought cooked chicken (hot) just serve with salad (from a bag) and bread
pesto and pasta (pesto from jar)
hot dogs

There's plenty people can eat and just because it's not "from scratch" doesn't mean it's rubbish food.

For example if I make a curry I do it with shop bought paste, then add meat and coconut milk. So I've cooked it but not from scratch. If I have mash I buy it ready made (I hate lumps and have neither the patience nor upper body strength to mash until it's smooth), same with fish cakes/goujons etc. I've tried to make them several times and they're always a disaster so I buy them (cheaper too).

To be honest I'm not a great cook and if there's a decent shortcut or cheat I can use I do. I think for some people cooking and is a passion and they enjoy it - for me it's just another chore.

I guess I do this because I am not British (but live in the UK now) and have always cooked.

Huh??

I am a sahm so do have time but not much motivation at the moment, so usually I would make a meal that only takes 20 mins like chilli/spag bol/curry/pork shoulder steaks/lamb steaks or prepare a casserole first thing that only takes 10 mins and 4 hours in oven. When I feel more with it, I still don't spend more than 30 mins on the prep - ie lasagne (cheese sauce from scratch), shepherds pie, chicken a la mush (chicken breast cut up with diced onions, tin of mushroom soup and mayo and covered in crisps and a little cheese and cooked in oven for 40 mins), turkey mince meatloaf, mince and onion pie (shop bought pastry because I don't have the pastry knack - great at cakes, but pastry not so much). For my fussy 13 year old I make scrambled eggs and bacon or sausages or southern fried chicken because he won't eat what we eat unless I make a roast of some description and leave out the veggies - although he does love the meatloaf

There is always a bit of pedantry about "cooking from scratch", like"Oh, do you make salami from scratch then?!" or "Ohh, do you make your own mustard/pasta/pluck your own chickens?!"

I think most people agree, roughly, on what it is and isn't.

I am a sucker who cooks from scratch, it's a pain in the but and takes up masses of time, and fuck knows why I feel I have to do this!

When I hadn't had time to cook due to overrunning meetings, and we had hot dogs in a bun, the kids were DELIGHTED. Or when DH cooks (once a month) it's frozen pizza, again, kids LOVE it.

So fuck knows why I bother...Some kind of weird compulsion...

Come on, let's not be silly. We all know what cooking from scratch is as opposed to a ready-made meal. Spaghetti bolognaise cooked from scratch (ie. not a jar of Dolmio) with dried pasta and even bought grated parmesan - would be a scratch meal. Fresh stuffed pasta which you just boil and serve with a bit of passata - definitely not a scratch meal.

Stuff on toast is the easiest way to eat I know.
Beans, cheese, scrambled/fried/poached or boiled eggs, bacon, Marmite, tomatoes, avocado, cold meats. All good.
Followed by an apple.

Icy I think it means you are making excellent use of the resources at your disposal. I do the same. And grated cheese. The younger me would be appalled.

I've no idea how a hoes made chilli can cost "a fortune" if the alternative is still fresh mince and a jar. The jar is minimum a pound, and tinned toms are 20p each (x2), a tin of kidney beans is 50p, a teaspoon of chilli powder and some salt and pepper. Chop an onion. 30p. Total roughly 1.40.

Yes, you can add extras on top, peppers or red wine. But neither of these would be in the jar either.

I disagree, MerryMarigold. Dried pasta (which I use a lot) is not from scratch for me any more than fish fingers or tinned tomatoes. Those are shortcuts and I am grateful for them. Perhaps salami or cheese are different.

A lot of "I cook from scratch" is a bit holier than though, but if you scratch the surface many take just one shortcut fewer than others.

I generally do. At least, I always have the ingredients for a meal in the fridge but some nights I can't be arsed and will have toast for dinner

My colleague doesn't cook at all and neither she nor her husband have made a meal in the 30 years they've been married. She eats nothing but M&S ready meals.

I work mainly in the evenings (3pm-10pm) whilst DH gets home about 5.30pm. He spends most evenings ferrying the dc to various clubs etc. However, we still mainly cook from scratch because both dc have multiple allergies and it would be difficult to manage if we didn't. We use the slow-cooker an awful lot though so that I can put a meal on in the afternoon when I have time and DH can serve it up when they are ready.

Typical meals include:
spag bol
vegetable curry
chilli
sweet and sour pork
chicken casserole
Moroccan tagine
slow-cooked whole chicken with veg
fresh soup
sausage casserole
beef and ale stew
etc, etc

It's possible to make quite a variety of stuff and generally takes a maximum of half an hour to prepare everything and get it in the slow-cooker, then just leave it to do its thing.

Pre-coeliac diagnosis:
Frozen pizza
Fresh pasta ravioli thingies with a pre-made sauce
Fish finger sandwiches with a bit of salad if I can be arsed
Eggs on toast
Beans on toast
Toasted bagels with tomato and mozarella grilled on top
Normal cheese on toast
(You get the idea. Basically, carbs with stuff on top).

Post-coeliac diagnosis:
Jacket potato with cheese
Plate of random stuff from the fridge (someone on here recently referred to this as 'modern tapas' which made me lol)
... that's about it. I'm struggling!

I guess I do this because I am not British (but live in the UK now) and have always cooked

Well I'm French and I never cook. Literally have never used our hob. So that is another cliche out the window

Also, me and DH used to sometimes enjoy having what we called a 'kid's tea' which is basically frozen potato smilies, fish fingers and spaghetti hoops or a similar variant on this theme.

typical meals in our house include an element of ready meals and home prepared stuff

Me too. I cook complete from scratch 2/3 times per week, but the rest of the time it's as above.

We do mostly eat 'from scratch' but when we don't we have Asda CYO pizzas and a. Ah if ranch salad, oven chips, fish and Peas, pasta and sauce from a jar and frozen garlic bread - that sort of thing.