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??

For saving money changing things like microwave rice and pre made sauces to home made can be a massive saving. Sauces can be portioned and frozen easily too.

Look at Taming Twins on instagram.
She dies lots if easy slowcooker and one pot meals.
I think you could do a chilli or curry or chicken casserole etc in the slowcooker. Chuck it all in in the morning and it's ready when you come home. All you need is to make the rice, pasta, potatoes etc

Agree that fajita seasoning is easy and cheap to make from scratch - there are loads of recipes online. Simply make a jar full using the dry spices, then use when needed. It doesn't take any longer than using a packet, and is definitely cheaper.

I would also suggest using passata to make pasta sauce or pizza topping. Much cheaper than jars of prepared sauce and better consistency than using chopped tomatoes. All you need to do is add some herbs, pepper and garlic granules and allow to sit for a few minutes. You won’t use the whole carton for one meal so usually it can be used in other dishes to pep it up.

I totally get the temptation to use a packet/sauce and sometimes do too.

It feels cheaper but actually once you've spent some cash on some herbs and spices they won't need topping up that often or all at once so it will save you money.

Then, if you're making a chilli for example, just buy a larger pack of mince and freeze in portions.

Stuff that doesn't freeze as well, just make the base.

You can make up dry spice mixes yourself, it'll be cheaper and less packed with salt.

If you like curries, make a paste and freeze (although I do often use a pataks paste).

Buy frozen onion, garlic and ginger and just lob it in, it doesn't matter for stuff like that and is so quick and easy. No chopping or food waste.

I don't really get the packet rice thing, it takes 10 minutes while you're cooking everything else.
Again if you've got some spice mixes made up, you can use those for rice if you want flavoured.

It's fine to have an oven dinner now and again too!

Instead of frozen pizza that's often shit anyway, pitta bread, tomato sauce, cheese and veg and shove it in the oven or they can make their own.

😇

I used to eat in a similar way to you, OP, but it's very different now, partly because my husband is a big foodie and good quality, unprocessed food has become a focus for us.

It does take time to cook things from scratch, I think that's something you have to accept if you want to do it. In many cultures, spending time cooking and preparing food is just a part of daily life. For some reason we have less focus on it in the UK than say Italy or other European countries.

I would disagree that it's more expensive though. It's not. And if you plan in advance, depending what you're cooking, it can actually be cheaper.

Me and DH cook most things from scratch. It means that a chunk of our weekend is usually spent cooking and preparing food for the week ahead, e.g. making a soup or salad to stay in the fridge for weekday lunches, or batch cooking a chilli/ curry and we will freeze a few portions/ leave a few portions in the fridge.

We also cook on week nights, one of us will prepare a simple pasta sauce for example, which takes less time than you'd think and is easily doable on a work night.

The activity is just part of our lives and we prioritise it because good, unprocessed food is important. For us, it's worth the time and effort spent - it tastes better and it's 100% better for your body.

Sometimes it's not as time consuming as you think. I used to buy jars of pasta and chilli sauce or those packets of pre mixed spices and then I forgot one day to buy a jar, was halfway through browning the mince and had to google the spices in chilli. Having done that once, I now make a lovely version without the jar. It's cheaper and healthier.
I've also started making my own tzatziki dip, cheese sauces etc. takes minutes and doesn't have all the crap in that supermarket versions contain,
Saving leftovers for another day is also good.
I don't think many people want to do everything from scratch but if you chose your favourite/most often cooked meals and then looked at easy recipes to make them yourself, it won't take you more time than a jar would.
I guess the boring/time consuming bit is in chopping vegetables but there's not much you can do to get out of that bit!

In re the rice, if you get a cheap rice cooker, you can save a lot of money by not buying microwave rice and buying 1 or even 5 kg bags. Just chuck the rice in and it stays hot. Lots of things you can do with leftover rice too.

All that said, if you have young DC and both work, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself.

Looking at the things you cook, it seems like you are not actually working to a recipe - just assembling meals from things that are pre-bought or pre made and require minimal cooking or reheating only,

You need some basic healthy recipes that don't require many ingredients or much time. Stir fries are great for this - get some in ingredients for a basic sauce and then vary the protein and veg, Ditto with homemade pasta - learn to make a basic sauce then vary what you add. (I make mine in bulk and freeze).

And get yourself a rice cooker, they are cheap, convenient, and much healthier than eating microwave rice packets.

This. I could not afford to live the way you do. A scratch meal in this house takes 45 minutes tops and is generally meat and three veg. We are healthy as fuck.

We just cook very simply during the week. So mostly chicken thighs or pork chops cooked in the oven with rice/pasta/potatoes and a few vegetables, sometimes sliced chicken livers. Then I just have some yoghurt and mustard on the side for dipping.

If you want to flavour up the meat with spices then Chinese 5 spice is a good go to IMO - especially with fatty meat like belly pork strips! Yum! Or some paprika on chicken. You can also get all sorts of spice mixes designed for flavouring different types of meat in the spices section which can be really good.

How about swapping quiche for an omelette? Omelette are a quick staple in our house.

I use the slow cooker a lot as I prefer it to cooking in the evening when I'm tired. There are lots of simple caserole dishes that you can make. If you have a slow cooker!

Stir fries and bologneses or chillis don't take too long.

Rukmini Iyer has a series of cook books where you bung everything into a roasting tin. Her recipes are OK. I think there is one called The Quick Roasting Tin? - I don't have that one though.

I prefer to cook from scratch as much as possible for cost and health.

They are nutritionally useless, the calories don't add up, many of the recipes are waste tbh. It's been well discussed.
Plus she took money off people and just spent them without providing what was promised. Many controversies around her.

Well you can have cheap, you can have healthy and you can have quick. I struggle to think of much which would fufil all three except batch cooking and reheating.

My gotos are:
Soup ( made at the weekend)
Stir fry
Pasta with courgette and pesto
Steak with wedges and salad

Things that take longer:
Bolangaise
Various chillis
Curries
Home made pizza

Things that are in no way healthy:
Chessey bakey things ( lasange, macoroni cheese, potato gratin).
Freezer food
Take away.

Yes to batch cooking things like Bolognese sauce, roast pepper and tomato sauce, curry sauce.
Making batches of salad dressings and marinades.

Baking a whole salmon/lots of salmon fillets or chicken pieces and using them the next day in a different way, e.g. Asian stir-fry or a salad with lots of different vegetables and complex carbs (quinoa, lentils, chickpeas), or in a tomato or curry sauce (which you'll already have in the freezer - see above).

But also learn to enjoy cooking and treat it as relaxation when you have the time. Listen to the radio while taking the time to cook a special meal or trying out a new recipe.

Definitely. I know some people swear by microwave rice, but it has always seemed sooooooo expensive for what it is!

Have you got a slow cooker? It makes it pretty easy to cool stuff from scratch quickly. Like you though most of our meals involve an element of processed food and we both like cooking, it's just a time thing.

I listen to podcasts while I cook - it helps stave off the boredom. I'm trying to reframe it in my mind as a relaxing activity.

I have the time and money, but personally I just can't be arsed.

This. And it takes longer to cook than microwave rice but probably no longer than the fish you're having with it.

And it's the wrong portion! Too much for one, not enough for 2...

Me too

Quiche is easy. I do have a mixer now so pastry is quick but the shortcrust from the chilled section is good and can be frozen. Just line a quiche tin with it, soften some chopped onion in boiling water, maybe bacon, mix with grated cheese, pack in the pastry case, add eggs, bake for 15-20 mins at 180. And it’s much nicer than shop bought.