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...

You know you can eat 'green stuff' without having to cook it? Eating ready meals (for all I don't really do it these days) doesn't mean you can't eat fruit and vegetables

Pizza with salad and chips
Cheese flan home made but with ready made pastry, with a salad or chips and beans
Sausages with homemade mash with frozen veg and bisto gravy.
Frozen fish and chips

I never cook if I can help it - on the odd occasion I do cook it tends to be slow cooker / one pot type meals. Pot roast lamb and mash, pearl barley stew - "chuck and cook" is my kitchen philosophy.

luckily my husband enjoys cooking and does so most nights, usually from scratch. It's often basic meals, meat, home made sauce and rice for example, but it does work out cheaper and healthier for us I think!

Also lol at dried pasta being a 'cheat'.
Best i make my own goats cheese and grow my own pineapples 🍍 to qualify aswell?

I love what people define as 'basic'

Me. From now on.....

fish fingers/veggie burgers with frozen veg and oven chips
Pasta with pesto and sweetcorn
Baked potato
Tinned soup
Shop bought falafel in pittas with bought hummus and salad
Omelette

There's loads if stuff! Not from scratch doesn't have to mean unhealthy either. It can just mean not enjoying spending time cooking.

Ah I have heard of pesto - never been brace enough to try it

Using dried pasta or tinned tomatoes is not the same as fish fingers or hot dogs. No way.

I 'scratch cook' using frozen peppers, frozen herbs, dried herbs (don't have a herb garden) tinned beans, pre chopped fresh veg etc. It's not a ready meal of I'm creating it and the seasoning is not pre prepared all in one (but perfectly OK to use an oxo or some Lea n perrins.

I sometimes cook from scratch, and sometimes don't. Things I cook that are not from scratch are Thai curry ( I use bought curry paste with canned coconut milk), and stir fry ( I use a bought stir fry sauce with my meat/veg and noodles).I also sometimes use bought sausages etc.

I don't cook during the week, though DH does for himself and DD - I get home at such erratic times that I don't eat with them. If there aren't any leftovers from their dinner I tend just to eat bread and cheese and tomatoes, or boil an egg or two.

So some shortcuts (dried pasta) "from scratch, others (dried mash) are not?

Many of us pay others to clean for us, to make our clothes, to prepare part of our meals. All this can be done healthily, ecologically and fairly or badly on all counts.

But what do you eat if you don't cook from scratch? Much the same stuff as people who do.

I don't know know why I included Omelette. I don't buy pre made omelette! So I suppose that is one thing I cook from scratch

Tonight I made chicken stir fry with rice, the stir fried veg came in a pack, for 2 I was not going to buy peppers, carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts etc. I did add extra onion, garlic and cashew nuts. I also used a stir fry sauce but added extra soy sauce and hoisin sauce. I problem spent more time on that than last night's made from scratch sea bass , sweet potato mash and peas (they were frozen). Just because it is not from scratch, does not necessary mean no prep.

I cook from "scratch" on the whole, however this is my from "scratch", for example when I make byreck I don't make the phillo pastry, I have not made the cheese from the cow I milked and the veg going in there isn't from my garden- like my MIL's. I would still class my dish as from "scratch", so would she.
At Christmas I had some time on my hands, I asked her how to make some cheese she makes- she told me if it was good enough from the supermarket to use that and save my time!
I enjoy cooking and am good at it, who cares if others don't- as long as all were fed a balanced meal.
I also have emergency bits in the freezer- emergency pizza, etc!

Pesto tastes like grass clippings. i wouldnt oither.Livia.

Stop wasting your money on shop bought pizza!

Dough (2mins):
500g strong white flour
1tsp salt
1tsp golden caster sugar
7g sachet yeast
315ml warm water
2tbs olive oil
Bread maker- dough setting = 1.5hrs
(Or mix/knead by hand)

Sauce (2 mins)
Garlic
Tomato pasata
Fresh basil
Pinch of salt
Heat and blitz

Roll your dough, spread your sauce, top your pizza, cook for 15 mins.

Best pizza!

Two minutes but then 1.5 hours in a bread maker? That's a fuckload of time and hassle

Or get Dominoes.

I think i would have lost the will to live about halfway through

It's not. You just go out and leave it til you get home. I promise you. Sooooo easy. Would never buy shop again.

But you have to buy a bread maker first? Who does that just for the occasional pizza?

I am joking, I know that the rest of the world has all these domestic gadgets apparently

Yeah. TBH mine lived in a cupboard for 12 years til I discovered how easy this is. Lives on the side and is used every week now.

I had a bread maker. Bread came out like a house brick. Another gadget in the cupboard of things never to be used again.

I only use it for dough now.

I also discovered how easy soda bread is... and make that to slather in butter and eat with soup. Soup is the easiest thing to make. Don't you find jars/tinned sauces so bland?