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...

We make pizzas most weeks and have a dough hook for our kenwood so no hassle at all. And usually leave the dough for an hour or so.
Just depends on personal preference. I don't like shop bought pizzas, the bases are stodgy or dry, with no flavour, they are tight with the toppings plus they use really cheap horrible cheeses usually.
Making them at home, I add chilli flakes or olive oil into the bases sometimes, chuck the base into a heavy based (I use a la creuset one) frying pan. While it's cooking, put on the tomato sauce (made while dough is proving), add toppings, then it goes under a really hot grill for about 2 minutes.
It's undeniably more effort that taking one out of the freezer and sticking it in the oven, but I'm happy to make that effort.

Some days, usually Saturdays, I like spending a couple of hours making pizza. Other days (usually Friday nights when I'm knackered, on when ds2's fussy little mate is coming over for tea) shop bought is my friend.

There are so many levels of cooking that it's not black and white

1. Buy a ready made sandwich
2. Make a sandwich from ready made bread and cooked chicken and bagged salad
3. Make a sandwich from bread you have made yourself, chicken you have cooked yourself and salad you have put together yourself
4. Bread made from ingredients you have grown yourself, chicken you have raised, killed, plucked and roasted yourself, salad you have grown yourself

And that's just a simple sandwich!

1. Buy and heat a pasta and sauce ready meal
2. Buy pasta and sauce seperately then cook
3. Buy pasta and sauce, add meat or pre-chopped veg to the sauce
4. Buy pasta and sauce and add meat or freshly chopped veg to the sauce
5. Make your own pasta and sauce using tinned tomatoes etc
6. Make your own pasta and sauce using fresh tomatoes etc
7. Make your own pasta and sauce using ingredients grown in your garden / eggs from your own chickens etc

Even that could probably have some in-between stages, especially if you added in only making pasta or sauce before moving on to making both

My easy meals are chicken with a jar of curry sauce, pasta with pesto, bought pizza and yellow stuff with chips (kiev, fish fingers etc) I also buy swedish meatballs very occasionally when can't be bothered to make my own. I do two easy meals a week. I use a lot of frozen veg.

Dear god.
Do all you cooking from scratch every evening grow all your own salad,fruits,vegetables? Make all your own pasta?? Bake your own bread? Make your own mayo/ketchup? Make your own crisps? Cakes? Biscuits? Grow your own tea/coffee/sugar?

Butter??? Are you making that from scratch too?? Custard? Cream. I cook a lot but come on some people pretending they've never had a fish finger ... Don't believe you.

I can cook from scratch and do now and again, but tbh DS is very fussy and DH and I often don't want the same thing to eat so it is easier to throw things together using jars etc.

We have stir frys, pasta dishes, freezer teas just depending on how much time we have after work and what we fancy eating.

Sorry to have disappeared - I was out.

A huge apologies if I offended anyone by the "because I am not British" comment. I should have explained what I meant. What I meant is that before I came to the UK, I had never seen such a vast range of ready- made food. So as a young adult, even when I was single and working long hours, I still had to cook, and so for me it's a habit.

And of course, I don't make my own butter, etc. I guess for me cooking from scratch means that I will buy some mince, for example, and make it into a bolognaise sauce using passata, garlic, red wine, maybe some finely chopped veg, etc.

I actually wish I could find a way to spend less time in the kitchen but have not found it yet!!!

I cook lots of plain meals like grilled salmon, rice and veg. I don't really count that as cooking from scratch though?

I do lazy meals like stir fry with ready noodles, pre chopped veg and packet sauce. Don't really do full ready meals as such though.

When DH and I go to the UK (we're American) we like to stay in self-catering accommodations, and we always stock up on ready meals for the nights we don't eat out. They are much nicer than the ones available in the US. If we lived there, I think we (well he since I don't cook) would cook a lot less.

I cook from scratch most nights.
Make my own pizza bases
Bread chicken/turkey breast
Salads
Home made soups (I do also by tinned)
Chilli
Butternut squash and black bean tacos ( tacos aren't homemade)
Fajitas
I do a lot of stif frys

But we do have a treat with a take away 2 times a month.

The reason for me mainly cooking fresh is because I'm always on a bloody diet

I recently bought mug meals by Theo Michaels, its cooking from scratch (using only a microwave) but tastes bloody lovely

I'm British work full time and have two young kids. I cook from scratch....
If I'm in a rush and can't be bothered then kids get eggs in toast, beans in toast. Omelette.
I tend to cook whole chicken and use when needed in different meals. Just chop some veg and voila.

Ready meals more than I'd like to, sometimes I'm only capable (physically) of shoving something in the microwave. On a good day, like yesterday, I'll still manage veg with it.

Frozen pizza, fish fingers kind of stuff. Sometimes a pasta sauce but often I'll either make something myself or just do it plain/with cream cheese.

We don't only use convenience food but on many days it's that or not eat. I hate it.

I used to cook properly from scratch a lot more before I got ill, but nowadays I cut corners for ease! I love pre chopped veg as saves me standing chopping for ages, and, although I make my own tomato based sauces (picky ds who doesn't like lumpy bits!), I do buy bechamel sauce in a jar if making lasagne for instance.

If doing a roast, it's from scratch, apart from pre chopped veg and maybe some gravy granules. Pizza is sometimes shop bought, sometimes made with pitta breads, sometimes completely home made if I have the energy.

If I'm having a bad few days, we'll have pre marinated meat with oven chips and veg, or shop bought pizza

Like most we do a mixture of ' Proper cooking' and ready made stuff. We don't buy ready meals as they are expensive for small portions, hardly any meat and kids wouldn't like them anyway as they all like things slightly different. But I do buy oven pizzas, jars of pasta and curry sauce, sausage rolls, a chicken pie, stuff like spring rolls, onion bhaji etc, breaded chicken steaks and fish fingers, burgers and meatballs. Mostly it depends on cost and time. Some of the things I could make but I don't have time and often the ingredients would cost more than buying it. On the other hand I would never buy ready cooked rice as rice is so easy,chuck in steamer, leave for 20 mins. I can cook pasta sauce for example from scratch but I'm not convinced it would taste better or be healthier than a jar, given it's about 90% tomato.

Why do most people who have a pop at the British, always avoid stating which country they come from?

If we're 'lucky' we get something vague like 'Europe'.

Why not just say, 'Oh I come from X country, that's why I think such and such'?

To the person who said making pizza is so easy and quick why would you buy it. I love making pizza BUT it is definitely a lot more work than a readymade one.

Although chucking the dough ingredients into a breadmaker (assuming you happen to have one) doesn't take long, you have also had to get the scales out and use a spoon. You will have to wash the breadmaker up afterwards (and wipe up the flour you spilled on the worktop if you're me)

Making the sauce also according to you takes 2 minutes. But you have to use a pan and a spoon, which you will have to wash up afterwards. You have to have all the ingredients in the cupboard.

You have to have planned in advance to make pizza and remembered to set the dough going earlier in the day, which involves actually being at home to do so, not at work.

When your dough is done you have to roll it out, making a rolling pin and your worktop covered in flour, which you will then have to clear up.

You have to grate or slice the cheese to go on top of the pizza (and wash up the knife or grater).

How can you say the above is no less work than: arrive home from work, open freezer, take out pizza, remove wrapper, place in oven, wait 8 minutes, remove from oven, serve?

There is a place for homemade pizza, but there's also a place for ready made ones. For you reference, Iceland thin crust pizzas are the best. Oh and they cost £1, which is a hell of lot less than the cost of your ingredients. Another reason to use them from time to time.

I 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

Seriously? Have a sodding medal.

guess for me cooking from scratch means that I will buy some mince, for example, and make it into a bolognaise sauce using passata, garlic, red wine, maybe some finely chopped veg, etc

Exactly the same as almost everyone else in the country then?

Why is everyone so up in arms about the 'British' comment? We do have A LOT more ready meals than any other country I have been to (quite a lot). (I am British btw). We also as a nation cook 'from scratch' or from 'semi scratch' (eg. using dried pasta) far less than most of Europe from what I have seen from European friends and family. (Not sure about America). It's the way we are as a country and doesn't do our obesity levels any good. So, I think it was fine for the OP to include that as a background comment. Why all the pops?

Because its a sweeping generalisation of a statement

I'm pretty sure that people who don't cook from scratch eat almost exactly the same as the rest of us 99% of the time. It's how they get to the end result that differs.
So some people make the dough, sauce, grate cheese etc some put a frozen pizza in the oven but they both still eat pizza at the end of the day.
Ditto spaghetti Bol, some will pierce the film on a ready meal, some make every thing from scratch, some use a jar. They all still eat spaghetti Bol.

When the kids have activities I want something that is quick to make, so yesterday for instance I bought ready made puff pastry and cheese sauce from a packet (powder stuff) and made chicken pies with leftover chicken.

Other quick meals in our household include sausage/fish fingers/chicken nuggets and mash/chips/pasta

I agree, we have a lot more ready meals than many European countries but in my experience, many European supermarkets have a lot more pre-prepped concenience foods like ready-peeled potatoes

Depends what you mean by 'cook from scratch' I or DH cook most days but it will often be things like a pasta bake of spaghetti bolognese made with a shop bought sauce that we add extra veg too. Other days it's sausages and chips with beans or the odd bought pizza. So I wouldn't say I don't cook but I don't make absolutely everything either