To wonder how people find the time and money to cook from scratch

[Mummyof287]

We sometimes have a roast, cooked from scratch or Jacket potatoes with toppings and salad.Everything else tends to involve something from a box/packet/jar.
That's not to say every meal is total 'junk food' and the meals are always balanced (protein, carb, fibre) but usually include something processed.
Here are some examples of what we eat;

-Salmon/smoked basa, rice (microwave packet rice) veg
-Quiche (good quality boxed) new potatoes, veg
-Sausages (butchers or supermarket good quality butchers style)
-Old el Paso Fajita kit using quorn chicken

• Burgers (from butchers) in buns with salad

-Pizza with corn on cob/salad

• Breaded/battered fish portions, homemade chips/wedges and beans
• Lasagne (using jar sauces) & veg
• Tortellini (packet) and sauce (ready made in pot/packet)
• Stit fry using quorn chicken

I find cooking really stressful and am not very good at it 🙈 My DH likes cooking and used to do more recipies from scratch, but since having our two daughters time is stretched especially on the days we both work, and when he has done recipes they don't eat it as they are really picky eaters, so feels like a waste of effort, half of it goes in the bin.

I want to stop using so many processed foods as know its not ideal health wise, but time and especially money are fairly short, and most recipies seem to have so many ingredients, it all gets so expensive!

Any ideas of recipies that are very quick, cheap and easy please??

Just to add, never leave rice sitting about at room temp for long before eating ,you can get particularly nasty food poisoning from it .

If your kids are fussy have more picky tea/ picnic type meals

We have our own homegrown onions. Far far too many to store in the shed. SO I have a lot stored in the freezer in portions. Ditto carrots, beans, peas, onions, garlic, herbs and spices - it's easier to run a load through the food processor in one go and store in the freezer. Oh and if you slice onions but want chopped, when frozen you can snap the slices immediately you get them out of the freezer to make chopped which is very satisfying somehow,
If I make chilli or spag bol or shepherds pie, or pasta bake I make double and freeze. I use tupperware generally for bulk, but some things I freeze in portions in ziploc bags (which I do wash and reuse a fair few times).
I thaw stuff in the microwave, but I may tip into an ovenproof casserole and pop in the oven while I do some veg.
Chips I tend to chop my own potatoes up - takes all of 2 or 3 mins to peel and slice, pop on the combi microwave's jacket potato setting to make wedges or chips.
I do use the slow cooker a fair bit - grab various bits from the freezer eg diced meat, chopped veg, herbs and spices, glass or two of wine (yes I freeze leftovers in a bag) and lob in, set timer and it's thawed by the time it turns on, give it a good stir as I get in and serve an hour or two later.
Honestly I wouldn't know what jars or tins to buy!

I make a load of curry paste and freeze it in portions. So quick to make a curry, fry an onion, fry defrosted paste add whatever meat/fish/veg you want , add a tin of chopped tomatoes or coconut milk and some water. Cook. I make my curries the night before as I always think they taste better. Same with dahl.
Making the batch of curry paste takes about 20 minutes.

I seriously CBA to 'batch cook' in droves like a little cooking and baking slave, and then pop it all in little tubs in the freezer to thaw out and reheat days later.

Oddly, I don't know a single person in real life who 'batch cooks.' Only on mumsnet do I come across people who claim they do this.

It takes me a total of 1 hour to simultaneously cook 6 dinners. It is done in the precise time DH ferries the two kids to swimming and back.

I cook for 1 hour for the entire week. No other time on any other day is spent doing the mental work or labour of cooking.

For this to work though there is a yummy diverse and iron clad meal plan, a grocery order for a very regular and specific time on Sunday morning and no cooking for the week after 12 noon on Sunday.

so no - Sunday isn’t “spent” batch cooking :) The instant pot, 2 slow cookers, the oven and 1 job ring does it simultaneously :)

@LuckySantangelo35 · Today 14:32

No one really enjoys spending their Sundays batch cooking do they?
who wants to spend their precious weekend time stuck in the kitchen?! Especially in summer!

This. ^ When you say anything like this though, people come back with 'oh in 17 minutes, I can cook 33 meals. This includes the time to cook, cool off, cut up/divide, prepare, and freeze. 😆

Parallel universe and all that!

Packet rice is flavoured though eg I’d have lemon one with fish or Mexican with chicken. Less washing up - I do cook plain rice but need to wash pan and sieve. I’d need a sauce if having plain rice & fish whereas flavoured rice I don’t.
I use a lot of jdseasonings. They are mixed pots of seasonings with an easy recipe on back - bolognese, Cajun pasta, chilli etc. I find them fool proof, often do in slow cooker.

I live on my own and batch cook a lot because it's easier than cooking one portion of something. That means from half a kilo of mince, I'll get eight meals. Yes, it's spag bol, shepherd's pie and chili, so there is a lot of veg in with the mince and plenty of lentils or beans too. You cook the mince, divide it into three dishes and add beans, veg or tomatoes to it depending on what it's going to be. It's bliss to come home hungry and know you can be eating within ten minutes.

This re rice cooker! I can't believe people can actually be arsed to make rice without a rice cooker 😂They are so cheap (esp when they sell them in lidl/aldi) and literally require no effort.

I've heard they don't do brown rice well - have you tried it @telestrations and @Bobbielikespeas ?

cooking rice from scratch is one of the easiest things in the world.

Batch cooking helps but seriously why stress about using the odd convenience product?

I cook from scratch most nights. But I do use ingredients like curry paste if I'm making a curry, passata, ready made noodles, and will occasionally buy fresh pasta with fillings or ready-made gnocchi.

Tonight we are having veg chilli all from scratch except with a tin of beans and tinned tomatoes. A bit of chopping veg but otherwise very easy.

Like others here, I batch cook and freeze a lot. Generally I double recipes wherever I can (or even triple for pasta sauces).

• Lots of soup at this time of year (BBC good food has lots of good recipes)
• Pasta sauces: tomato sauce, amatriciana, pesto (I use cashews instead of pine nuts as they're cheaper) - freeze in jars
• when you make a rice/couscous dish, make lots extra, then put into peppers and freeze so you have stuffed peppers
• Chilli con carne
• Stews (again, lots of good recipes on BBC good food)
• Curries
• Jacket potatoes actually freeze really well, so I often do loads for the freezer and then they can be cooked from frozen/defrosted more quickly in the oven
• Tortillas - the paste in this freezes really well: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/may/24/recipe.foodanddrink (I don't usually bother griddling as I avoid washing up as much as possible!)

My kids eat pizza, pasta & nuggets and chips on rotation. That is all. With cucumber/sweetcorn/tomatoes as that’s all they’ll eat. Sounds like you’re doing ok to me!

This is actually genius!

I do, but I don't have a freezer so only about 4 portions at a time for the fridge.
I do it (occasionally!) because I hate cooking so much. It takes me almost the same time to do double a recipe so it's a time and energy saver.
I only do one dish at a time - haven't got the organisational skills to do more than one.

But cooking rice is literally just rice in a pan, add water, bring to the boil, cook for 8-10 mins with the lid on. How is that so hard?

• "Jacket potatoes actually freeze really well, so I often do loads for the freezer and then they can be cooked from frozen/defrosted more quickly in the oven"

What's the point of this when you can just cook them in the microwave. I know some people prefer the taste from the oven, but you're cooking them twice.

I've just made a cheese omelette for my boys with salad and baguette. Granted I really like making omelettes and as I use a crepe pan I find it quite easy but the longest bit of it was heating up the baguette which took about 12 minutes (less if i had pre-heated the oven).

And actually I do use jars of Dolmio pasta sauce sometimes alot . It's easy. But I might make up my own passata using tinned chopped tomatoes and onions, garlic and herbs (plus some sugar which people might at but it does balance out the acidity I find and only needs a little bit) and freeze it as suggested.

I am a convert to the microwave with jacket potatoes. I cook them for 5-8 minutes, then baste them in olive oil and put in a very hot oven for the same amount of time. Makes the skin crispy and the insides fluffy and soft. I used to bake them from raw and that was a very serious waste of time.

actually- no- thinking about it they go in the oven (very very hot) for about 10 minutes I think.

@DawnInAutumn I do similar but pop on airfryer for 8 minutes - they turn out great

@BooAutumniscoming - I use the glass Tupperware from ikea, with the plastic click lids. They glass dish is oven proof so if I batch make something like a cottage pie or lasagna it goes in the freezer unbaked and I can just put straight in the freezer in the same dish it was frozen in.

I defrost in fridge by taking out in morning if we remember, but they can be cooked from frozen also