What's cheaper to cook from scratch and what's cheaper to buy ready made?

[coodawoodashooda]

I guess i mean more economival overall in terms of the time needed as well? Im batch cooking for next term and really questioning the value of baking all of these goodies. Im sure i could fill the cupboards cheaper on a trip around a supermarket.

Pastry and Yorkies - cba to make pastry and my Yorkshire puddings are shit
Ice cream - super expensive and a pain to make

I disagree on the lasagna - I make it cheaper than the 2 premium supermarket lasagne I'd need to feed us all.
I make it with half quorn/half mince to make it lighter though and don't use that much cheese in the bechamel.

I freeze cooked Mac and Cheese often, mine reheats a bit "dry" so I pour milk on it before putting it in the oven. I use the big spirals though rather than the little maceroni.

[quote gogohm]@lannistunut

Premise lasagna is barely edible and doesn't have much meat in it, and no cheese [/quote]
Yes, that's what I'm saying, you can't compare

I picked up a pre cooked chicken the other day been sold off fir £1.

I had stir fry fior ea,chicken salad for tea lunch next day and made a vurry - jar sauce with rhe last and added veg to bulk it out.

There usually is a time/ effort balance.

I much prefer homemade lasagne but buy the white sauce, make the tomato sauce.

@Zorinindustries

How do you store all this batch cooking?

In tupperware in the freezer?

Then can you cook from frozen or have to take it out to defrost 24 hours before?

I'd love to cook some macaroni cheese, quorn lasagna and chilli, but no idea how to store it.
Also, if I make pizza dough, how, and for how long, can I store that? Thanks

Good bags take up the least room. Label and date them with a sharpie pen. IKEA ones are best they are really tough and reusable. I think home made stuff tends to last around 6 months in the freezer

I don't know about freezing Mac n cheese. I've frozen fish pie and lasagne, but I imagine Macaroni cheese might end up gluggy

I slightly undercook the pasta , its going to sit in the sauce then get reheated so cooks without going too soft .

My DS was very judgey when I bought a breadmaker , he was "You can buy a loaf for 50p" (you can tel he doesn't go shopping very often)

A fresh made loaf costs about 40p in ingredients ( plus add electricity and the overall cost of the machine) it is far far nicer than a doughy ,tasteless how-long-has-it-sat-there loaf .

.

Lasagne is cheap to buy premade because you wouldn't make it at home with the same quantities - Tesco 400g lasagne has about 70g of beef in it - if I was making a lasagne for 4 people at home I'd use 500g of beef.

I've costed out a homemade pizza and they are pennies.

But, as people have pointed out, I'm not buying the herbs and spices/oils etc every time because I have a good store cupboard.

HelgaDownUnder thanks, I'll definitely try those suggestions

My basic tomato sauce🙈It's really nothing special.
1litre of passata
1.8kg of chopped tomatoes (can use 2kg. I get 2.5kg tin and use other 700 for something else)
10ml Worcestershire sauce
15ml dried mixed herbs nalearly 2 tablespoons. I use meazuring spoons
1.5tsp cinnamon
3 garlic cloves
15ml kucharyk
3tbsp balsamic vinegar

• all of this goes into slowcooker, set it on high for 6 hours

1tbsp of oil and fry 400g of red onion. I fry half to really caramelise and half just a bit to soften.
Add to the slowcooker. Mix. Close, say bye for now.

It makes lovely and thick basic sauce and the long cooking get rid of the tin taste thing. Then i portion it and freeze and finish off, depending on a dish. So if you add more italian herbs and bits like olives if you like them, blueeeh, it makes nice pasta sauce. If you add chili, smoked paprika etc, you get spanish like flavours for meat and veg. Add cumin and chili, maybe bit more garlic and it's a shakshouka base. And so on. Really versatile. One of the most practical foods I have in a freezer.

Anx if you mix it with bit off fried mince, chopped chili, smoked paprika, bit more garlic and maybe chopped pepper, you can then put it on a toast, tope with cheese (melt) and it makes great beer accompaniment😂

@Saggybaggyaggy

It's criminal that ultra processed shitty lasagne that is full of crap and not good for you is cheaper to buy than stuff to make one.

But of course anything made at scale in a factory will be cheap.

The food system needs turning on its head.

It's cheaper exactly because it's ultra proccessed so lasts longer and the ingredients will not be in the amount and quality you would use at home cooking. Also if you bake 4 trays of lasagna at once, it will also cost you less due to bulk buy and energy savings. So that's another saving for them. On top of quantity discounts etc, they end up spending pennies basically. Hence the cheap price vs homemade price.

The veggie lasagnes at COOK have no artificial anything's or preservatives

The serves 4 (absolutely massive 1.4kg) is £14.90

I think that's a bargain in time saving - I don't have hours to cook a lasagne - and I think the ingredients are about a tenner ? For me to buy (not in bulk like a COOK kitchen)

@SchrodingersImmigrant

My basic tomato sauce🙈It's really nothing special. 1litre of passata 1.8kg of chopped tomatoes (can use 2kg. I get 2.5kg tin and use other 700 for something else) 10ml Worcestershire sauce 15ml dried mixed herbs nalearly 2 tablespoons. I use meazuring spoons 1.5tsp cinnamon 3 garlic cloves 15ml kucharyk 3tbsp balsamic vinegar

• all of this goes into slowcooker, set it on high for 6 hours

1tbsp of oil and fry 400g of red onion. I fry half to really caramelise and half just a bit to soften.
Add to the slowcooker. Mix. Close, say bye for now.

It makes lovely and thick basic sauce and the long cooking get rid of the tin taste thing. Then i portion it and freeze and finish off, depending on a dish. So if you add more italian herbs and bits like olives if you like them, blueeeh, it makes nice pasta sauce. If you add chili, smoked paprika etc, you get spanish like flavours for meat and veg. Add cumin and chili, maybe bit more garlic and it's a shakshouka base. And so on. Really versatile. One of the most practical foods I have in a freezer.

Anx if you mix it with bit off fried mince, chopped chili, smoked paprika, bit more garlic and maybe chopped pepper, you can then put it on a toast, tope with cheese (melt) and it makes great beer accompaniment😂

Thank you!

The lasting longer thing is quite appealing supermarkets & consumers both like this. One thing I disliked about my breadmaker was it could only work if I made a very small loaf daily the bread didn't taste good after ~24 hours. Daily baking demanded a lot of time , and keeping track of which ingredients were in my cupboard, too. I don't even like bread that much.

Wildly more convenient to just buy shop loaves when required, it was cheaper, more versatile and it kept well.

No MNer but me seems to think that keeping track of stuff in the freezer is a total pain. In past my housemates were often pulling out stuff from the freezer they said they had forgotten about, maybe even needed to be binned they said it was too old.

No problem @HouseIsOnFire
If you like atuff more vegetably, finely chopped or even grated veg should kind of dissolve in it. If it's hard bveg, I would add hour or 2 to cooking time so it melts nicely. I like just simplest form like this but it's very basic so can be easily pimped up and personalised😁

Thank you @SchrodingersImmigrant

It's very quick and easy to make pastry in a food processor

I buy puff pastry, everyday meringues (for a party I would make my own), have ready made pesto on standby, oatcakes and bread, cold meats for quick sandwich fillings for DC, sausages, quiches (sometimes make at home but usually it's a quick lunch option).

But we cook all our main meals from scratch. I would never buy a ready-made lasagne, the texture is all gloopy and wrong.

Even Gordon Ramsey says not to bother with puff pastry😁 I listen to professionals sometimes

Shortcrust pastry is very quick & easy to make.

I also buy ice-cream, but only premium brands (less additives) and only when they are on sale, which they often are.

I love a homemade tomato sauce but if you haven’t got time, I swear by the fresh tomato pasta sauces you find in the fridge bit of a supermarket, next to the fresh pasta/raveoli.

I just pour them onto cooked pasta and roasted veg, add grated cheese and bake for 10 mins.
I also make a cod dish, roasted veg (courgette, onion, red pepper) in a dish, add cod which you’ve cut into smaller pieces, pour over the tomato sauce, put a lid on it, and bake in the oven for 15/20 mins.

Fry prawns with garlic, add the tomato sauce which you’ve already heated, serve with rice.

I use the M&S or Waitrose fresh sauces and there are no nasties in there.

Things like lasagne and macaroni cheese take so long to make. I dont have the patience all that standing up! Is it my age (57) or do others agree lol.

I couldn't live without my lazy garlic, definitely a time safer.

I think homemade pizza is a good skint meal if you already have frozen peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms etc in the freezer.
Tastes better than bought.

Crisps. You can't really make your own crisps and i love a ham and crisp butty.

I don't understand why frozen celery doesn't exist, I'm always trying to make cottage pie or soups and they need a bit of celery, but I don't like it on its own so then the rest of the bunch gets ignored in the fridge until it needs throwing away.

I can't be bothered with lasagne it takes an age and so much washing up, i agree, but 'mac' cheese is just a cheese roux sauce with frozen veg in it and the pasta put in oven. I think of it as get well soon food if someone is ill

I think most things can be obtained quite cheaply ready made. However, some ready made items are barely recognisable when compared to ones you make yourself.

I wouldn’t usually make my own puff pastry. Other than that I usually make from scratch. Even scotch eggs are incomparable compared to the gritty, yellow crumbed affairs sold in supermarkets. Much nicer to make home baked ones.

I’d consider macaroni cheese as a very quick supper dish.