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??

I have always cooked rice by boiling it in salted water.

I use a ratio of one part rice to two parts water, bring the whole thing to a boil uncovered, then cover, turn heat down to low, and set a timer for 15 minutes, then fluff the cooked rice with a fork.

It works every time, for every type of rice. I normally use basmati.

Ha, indeed.

I did batch cooking - just like everyone else does when applying this widely understood concept, by cooking a big pan of spag bol or whatever, & freezing multiple portions for later use. I think I probably had 5-6 go to batch recipes on rotation, which could be defrosted & served alongside the relevant carb & some veg/salad.

It was super boring, mostly for me. But it absolutely fed everyone cheaply. It worked at the time.

Do you ever wonder what tinned tomatoes and dried basil are used for?

@mathanxiety can I ask where you learnt to cook rice. I use the 1:2 (or just under 2) for basmati but less for sushi rice. The salt in the water thing is something I haven’t heard of before. I wash both first.

Tupperware or freezer-safe Pyrex with lids. Also freezer bags.

I take items out about ten minutes before I want to heat them and put them sitting in a dish of warm water to loosen them up for ease of decanting.

Jar sauces are full of shite. Fact. Nothing snobby about it. I'd rather eat something where I know what the ingredients are.

Putting FACT at the end of your post doesn't make it true @SleeplessinSeattle69

I use those glass rectangular dishes you get in ikea or freezer bags.

The food needs to be broken down more in those dishes. That is why, if you don't have a pressure cooker, long, slow simmering is necessary.

Quorn products are super processed. Plain veg or chicken would be better.

Packets of spices - such as Fajita mixes are a rip off and often have added chemical preservatives.
Just mix your own - it's cheaper and healthier.

SAHM here that's how I do it. I love being around at home and preparing meals for everyone.

Tonight I put 2 different meals on the table in about 45 minutes, pasta with an aubergine sauce (basically used up some onion, all the stray tomatoes in the fridge and some other stuff that needed cooking!) for me and the dds and steak with a garlic thyme butter, sliced potatoes baked in the oven and broccoli.
Very cheap and speedy dinner for us on a Saturday night, I hate cooking and almost never do it but Dh is incapacitated at the moment and also has no appetite so it was down to me. Think it cost me £14 (and £9 of that was on the steak so if it wasn’t for ds wanting meat it would have been cheap as chips). It really doesn’t take long, or much effort, to feed the family.

We eat similar to you tbh with the exception that we don't use jar sauces very often. It's quick, easy, healthier and cheaper to make basic sauces like tomato and veg pasta sauce, stir fry sauces, basic curry sauces, Bolognese etc. Someone recommended BBC Good Food and I second that, lots of good quick easy recipes there.

Dictionary definition :
Batch cooking - the practice of cooking large amounts of a type of food at one time, and keeping some to eat at later meals.

Obviously the meaning of 'large' here differs. 10 portions would feed a single person 10 days, a couple for half that, and a family of 5 for only two days. I was talking about feeding a family of 4, so 2 days = 8 portions. I'd consider that a lot of food. But only lasts 2 days because well there are lots of people.

Maybe you take meal = enough food to feed everyone but for the family of 4 that would be 40 portions. I highly doubt that most people even have the freezer space for that.

Just cooking also doesn't make sense because people who like freshly cooked food will make enough for the day. There may be leftovers but it's unplanned. Besides that, many foods don't keep well. The combination of making extra earmarked for future meals + choosing recipes to facilitate it, + storage space/equipment = batch cooking.

Not really a fact though
Nothing wrong with this
https://www.ocado.com/products/loyd-grossman-tomato-basil-pasta-sauce-12165011?dsrl=1291426&dsrl=1290929&gbraid=0AAAAADi6iHmyqyBBGYuTdJIV3ydAW9kA4&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlqCF0MLTgQMVQJ3Ch2DvwsEEAQYAiABEgJ2PPDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Or this
https://www.ocado.com/products/loyd-grossman-tikka-masala-sauce-20787011

It's another flash in the pan, just the latest food craze to make busy people feel even more shit about eating what they can manage.
Let the snobs spend all evening sieving their tomatoes, some of us have got more important stuff to get on with. Sad losers.

Nowt about this is the "latest craze". It's a return to normal cooking and MANY "sad losers" around the world still cook like this. I am an immigrant, grew up on like 90% non upf, still cook very similarly. Guestimate 80% non upf. So do my ft working family and friends. Are industrially prepped pickled veg upf? If not than I am on 80%+.
My mum took pics of ready meal isles to send back to her friends when she first visited me here...

Sad losers eating actual normal food eh.

I think mlst people outside of East Asia salt rice before cooking. EE and ME I know certainly do. DH (ME) just looked at me like I had two heads when I asked if it's unusual to salt rice.

@InYourHeadZombieeeaeaeaea I don’t think it’s as common as you think, certainly not in the ME/FE to put the salt in the water while cooking. I was imagining your experience came from the Caribbean/South America and might account for the less fragrance in their rice. I wonder if it affects the way the rice cooks? I know with pulses salt is supposed to make the skin tougher. Interesting. Thanks for sharing I will now start accosting everyone I know to see which camp they’re in.

@Ohthatsabitshit interesting. All my ME family and friends were adding salt to rice when we cooked if we did plain rice. Dh always moans if I didn't put enough according to him😂 I am aware of East Asia not salting usually, I assumed it's because what accompanies the rice, or rather what the rice accompanies.

That's not bad really and I used to buy the jars until one of my sons made spaghetti bolognaise at school and I realised how easy it was to make from scratch , 1 onion, 1-2 Tins tomatoes, 1-2 cloves garlic and sprinkle of herbs , salt and pepper. You can make it more complicated and add stuff like carrots and mushrooms . Pinterest and tiktok are great for simple recipes too

Cottage pie my way is brown the mince, add chopped onion and carrots and continue to fry gently until they are nice and coloured, add a few chopped mushrooms and then cover with stock/or even just hot water and simmer gently for around 45 minute-1hr. By this time the stock will have reduced and the juices from the meat formed a nice gravy. Season well with black pepper and a little salt and thicken with with a little cornflour or gravy thickening. Top with buttery mash and maybe a little cheese and back in oven until the top is golden.

Frying up the mince then adding some instant gravy on is not the same!

Making this for tea today after this thread! Will serve with some nice green veg!

I don't get the rice cooker thing either because rice doesn't take long to cook.

I use one a lot just because I like the way it comes out. And I'll add other things in with the rice - like quinoa, beans, chicken, grated carrot sometimes, different stock and flavourings, sometimes veg to steam on top so it comes out as a complete meal without me doing much at all.

Teaspoon of marmite is glorious in it. Tiny bit of Worcestershire sauce, garlic woth the onion and solid amount of thyme goes to mine as well.
So noce in winter and actually freezes well

I think there’s a difference between boiling rice (which is what my mum does) in the same way you would boil pasta and then draining before serving, and using the absorption method (2x water to rice, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10-12 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed, then remove from the heat and allow to continue steaming for another 10). I still occasionally use microwave rice when I’m in a hurry / can’t be bothered dirtying another pan / don’t have space on the hob.