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??

We have quite a lot of time between dh and I.
I wfh 4 days a week and he’s usually in and out most of the day so he can pick stuff up from the butchers on his way past and get it marinaded.
Also helps that he really enjoys cooking and thinks nothing of pottering about in the kitchen for 3 hours in the evening making dinner. I’d not want to spend my time doing that personally, I can get a dinner on the table in about half an hour if I need to, all freshly prepared, I just hate cooking so it’s a rush job!!

@Lentilweaver not that I’m advocating for my own lack of organisation ☺️ but it can be done without meal planning.
If you’re at the picky eater stage, then I also can’t be bothered to do it otherwise tbh.

@Godlovesall26 oh no my kids are young adults now, and they weren't too picky, either. They cook their own meals often. Everybody in the house cooks at least something, thank god. But I will have a look at your plan because sometimes I like to cook elaborate curries. I don't have a huge amount of freezer space though.

OP there's nothing wrong with what you're eating & if your kids are eating it then honestly you're winning.

Cooking varied meals from scratch can definitely be cheaper but relies on a well stocked dry cupboard - spices, herbs etc - which have an initial cost.

If you fancy (and money allows) you could try something like Gousto who have a really good deal for new customers. It's saved us money cos I'm a habitual shit-buyer if I go into a supermarket. Not sure on your girls ages but I've involved my son's in the meal choosing process so they can't bitch about dinner & they cook what they choose too.

All that's by the by cos your food is fine, your kids are eating (& there's absolutely nothing wrong with quorn 🙄, fantastic freezer food) so I really wouldn't worry.

One of the things we do is to buy meat then when unpacking the shopping split it into portion servings, into ziplock bags with seasoning/sauce and into the freezer.

The day before we want to eat it move a portion to the fridge to defrost, at dinner time just pour onto a backing tray, on another tray add tenderstem brocolli/corn on the cob/cauliflower/baby new potatoes/green beans...

Then oven cook for however long it needs. It's good home cooked tasty food but on a day to day basis it takes 5 minutes to get in the oven then just cooking time when we can be doing other things.

You can add a pouch of microwave rice/quinoa/cous cous for bulking it up if needs be.

I think a key thing is I do enjoy cooking - I enjoy the creativity and down time after a day at work. That definitely helps.

@Mummyof287 cooking from scratch is well worth it if you can find the time. Plenty of good cookbooks and websites out there to try different recipes from. And don't assume because the DCs don't eat one type of a certain dish that trying a different recipe of the same dish will have the same effect. It can be as simple as tweaking the amount of salt or chilli. Children will also often need to eat the same dish four or five times to start to like the new flavour combo or textures. Their diet also starts to widen significantly about the age of 8. So keep trying new things.

I find a really good podcast, audio book, some very loud music that I fancy or box set while cooking helps too. Less important during the week, but helps keep me going during a big batch cook.

We're the children of Sunny Delight, turkey twizzlers and cheesecake kits in a box.

I think our generation is managing UPF better than our parents did in the 90s....

Could you imagine giving your kids Sunny D today? I couldn't!

OP you're doing great!!

This is one of the main reasons why I don't cook meals from a cook book from scratch all the time. I only do occasionally, because to buy all the ingredients is just too expensive. This is where Gusto/Hello fresh comes in handy tho.

We don't eat anything extravagant but are probably at the next step away from you into getting away from packaged foods.

I make simple homemade meals - pasta (bolognese or veg based sauce for chicken), lasagne, chicken curry (oven baked), shepherd's pie, steak pie, homemade chips, garlic baby potatoes, fajitas and a lot of fresh meat and veg. Homemade pizzas for weekends.

I don't find it expensive in the long run. A bag of onions, garlic, stock cubes can last weeks. Herbs and spices last months. Chopped tomatoes are really cheap. So there is nothing expensive in any of the dishes I make.

With time, some meals take hours and others are 30-45 mins. If I have had a busy day in the office, dinner will be something quick that needs little attention.

The next step for me that would help save more would be to move onto batch cooking. Getting some good ideas here from PP

If it’s elaborate curries you like freezer space is fine, just portion the sauces into individual freezer bags however you wish. Would be a bit more of an issue for say pies, but even then you can just make and freeze the filling, then add the pastry on the day. I’m with you though, if I’m going to make an elaborate meal I’d like it to last☺️. And it does really come out cheaper to buy large packs of ingredients, I definitely need to plan budget/shopping wise. I’m on a limited budget so I buy a lot of the large yellow stickers options and freeze, but a roast for example would just be frozen, it would be cooked on the actual day we eat it, tastes better. Lasagna and pies freeze fine.

Id say large enough main equipment that you use for your curries is more helpful than tons of freezing space, you want space in it to cook lots.

I've been using a few recipes from Jamie Oliver one pan cook book.

They are very easy and lots don't use many ingredients or hrs to source stuff.

@newlystyle

grew up with only fresh, cooked from scratch meals and I struggle with this. I don't know but I just can't eat jar sauces or packet rice and things like that”

“I can’t” lol of course you can. If you had no choice you would

My current obsession is chickpea curry. Dead simple.

Fry onions with curry spice of your choice (a tablespoon of Patak's spice paste from a jar, or curry powder, or your home-made masala - whichever is easiest or you feel like)
Chuck in some diced sweet potato, or butternut squash, or potato, with any other veg you fancy
Add a tin of chickpeas and half a tin of coconut milk

Cook some rice

Serves 3 generous portions - I freeze a third, put a third in the fridge for a couple of days' time, and eat a third. You could easily stretch it to 4 portions by adding more veg, so that a couple of people have a meal ready in the freezer for another day.

Because there is no meat, I'm casual about defrosting - it can sit at room temp for a good few hours to defrost, or defrost in the fridge all day, or be defrosted in the microwave.

Takes v little time to cook, the only irritating thing is chopping the veg (you could even buy pre-prepared chopped veg that they sell for making soup, it would still be a v cheap meal).

The bootstrap cook has a recipe somewhere involving peaches (ooo, found it - https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/02/13/jardaloo-ma-murghi-curry-with-apricots-22p/) This is obviously totally different from the recipe above but has all the same plus points! Cheap peaches in Tesco or discounter stores are about 35p.

Thanks so much for the wealth of helpful replies!

I think maybe the recipies we have tried may be too complicated and have too many ingredients, which is why it was always more expensive.But agree what we are doing now is not particularly cheap.So I think the key is using some more basic recipies or just meal ideas, but ones that can be cooked from scratch, and definitely think I need to invest in a slow cooker too!

I do have abit of time on a wed/thur/fri afternoon when I'm not working to prepare (maybe need to start doing it whilst toddler DD naps) or sometimes at weekends so could batch cook then ready for the 'pinch' nights which are Mondays and Tuesdays.Like the idea of a chopper too/food processor...we don't have any of those sort of things.

Re; the microwave rice, the two reasons for using that are

1. the flavour- eg: Tilda mushroom/lemon ones etc, although could maybe try recreate that
2. the MAIN reason is we can never seem to get the normal cooked rice to not turn into a stodgy, wet, tasteless lump! 😅

I think having kids makes a big difference. I used to cook from scratch and make very exciting meals all the time. Now i have a kid I do rely more on preprepared stuff and do simpler meals. Lots of oventray meals! Its hard as you have less time and fussier eaters. Its also frustrating when you spend a long time cooking and they dont eat it. My main 'hack' is to batch cook everything. That way on days when i would otherwise chuck some freezer stuff in the oven i have home cooked things that just need to be microwaved. If portions are a bit small ill just add some more veg like peas or brocoli. I also think its ok to rely on preprepared foods that help you serve homecooked foods more easily like packet rice, squeezy garlic and ginger, stir fry veg bags etc and also frozen food that doesnt have much preservatives/is only minimally processed. I like the strong roots stuff in particular. Also realistically an occasioanl sausage or pizza isnt going to do you any harm!

An example of my menu for the week:
Mon - make a big batch of dal. Eat with rice. Make enough of everything for at least 2 dinners.
Tues - roast a spatchcock chicken over carrots, onions and potatoes in the oven. Steam brocoli. I usually flavour with lemon, garlic, a little chilli flakes. This will do us for 2 dinners.
Weds - leftover dal and rice
Thurs - leftover chicken
Fri - takeaway for us, fishfingers, frozen sweet potato chips and peas for kids.
Sat - make a tuna pasta bake (enough for 2 dinners). This is a homecooked tomato sauce (i use the marcella hazan one thats just halved onions, butter and canned toms simmered for an hour and i add basil at the end), some cans of tuna, sweetcorn and grated cheese on top. I'll probably do a massive pan of the sauce so we have enough for a different pasta dinner the following week too.
Sun - leftover pasta bake (or if we had a roast I'll save this for monday dinner)

Sorry that maybe wasn’t clear, I meant a certain portion of my freezer space is taken up by the yellow stickers ‘that I’ll figure out later’ : I choose them carefully though, it’s more whenever I see something I know will work well. So space you wouldn’t need.

This. Definitely cheaper to cook from scratch. Tin of tomatoes = 60p, jar sauce = about £2.

I WFH so use the slow cooker a lot - get it going in the morning and then it's done.

We cook from scratch and both have full time roles and far too many animals (small ones, dogs and horses) so spend a lot of time rushing around.

i find it quicker now than to get a take away, it’s takes time and practice but once you’re in the routine it’s great and definitely not more expensive.

a few things I do to make it easier-

i chop all veg on a Sunday and store in Tupperware boxes. This takes about 45 mins but then no more chopping for the week.

I put together the spices for a couple of meals (curry, spag bol etc) so I don’t need to measure them

meal plan

cook double so there’s one for a lunch or freezer for next week

i cook a home made crustless quiche which makes 4 portions so if in a huge hurry we zap it and serve with salad for a light meal

i use slimming world or bbc food for recipes.

Quick tomato sauce (can be soup, pizza topping or pasta sauce)
Sweat one large onion, finely diced, with a few sliced cloves of garlic
Add 6 tomatoes, quartered
1 jar of peppers in oil
1 tin tomatoes
Hot stock

Simmer for 20/30 mins then add fresh basil, torn up a little.

Blitz with stick blender.

You can freeze batches and Google 'quick pizza dough', cheap and easy and no faff waiting for it to rise. Then you just add any toppings you like. We have this when we have odds and ends to use up in fridge as a couple of mushrooms or half a courgette etc goes quite far on pizza.

What about Hello Fresh , you could get the 2 or 3 person and stretch it to 4 that's what I do.

You would definitely save money if you cooked from scratch more, it’s so much cheaper to make your own sauces and much healthier. Same for cooking your own rice rather than microwave packets. I’d never use those quorn chicken pieces, look at the ingredients list it’s awful. Batch cooking and freezing is the way to go, you get the cooking over with and you only have to reheat. I do this with ragu (either venison or beef mince with a tin of lentils added, beef mince chilli’s with tin of mixed beans and kidney beans, chicken curry with veg).

I think you’re probably right with the too many ingredients.
Also it’s a nice part of cooking it yourself to be able to choose exactly how you like it.
You can also look at restaurant menus for the things you/your kids like for inspiration (I do this for more fancy burgers, I wouldn’t be able to afford them via takeaway, also very helpful for bbqs) as they’d usually just give you just the basic run down of ingredients.

I cook from scratch five/six out of seven evenings a week and would rather stick pins in myself than spend my weekends batch cooking.

I just cook things that take less than half an hour mostly, or if it takes longer it's a shove in the oven and sit down affair. BBC Good Food is definitely your friend and The Happy Pear have some really good quick dahl recipes. I use a lot of sachets of lentils - there are cheaper ways to buy them but they are so convenient and it saves on energy cost as they are basically already cooked.

Regular meals:

• Tuna pasta bake/veggie pasta bake
• Veggie chilli and baked potatoes/rice
• Chicken/veg stir fry
• Baked potatoes with cheese and beans
• Omelette, chips, veg
• Veggie burgers, chips, veg
• Various dahls/veggie curry with rice/naan/chapati
• Black bean tacos/fahitas
• Lentil shepherd's pie (this takes about an hour)
• Roasted veg/nuts/pulses in the oven with bread
• Minestrone soup with bread
• Tortilla pizzas
• Fish with jacket potato or boiled new potatoes and veg/on a bed of puy lentils/veg

Lots of common tinned/store cupboard ingredients and a few fresh ones.

@Mummyof287 Let your husband explore the more complex ones for now if he enjoys it, lucky you☺️
For you, I’d focus for now on getting good at the staple meals you know your kids will like. I detailed what I did in my post above, but honestly half of my batch cooking is those meals, or it gets very frustrating anyway if it goes to waste. It just costs me less and I can afford healthier meals. Looking at your menu in the OP, you could definitely get those ingrained (if it becomes second nature, it’s more enjoyable, and quicker! ; the rest as in more elaborate stuff is just a bonus for a free weekend afternoon, mostly you want them to be fed healthy and no waste!). The advantage with picky eaters is they won’t mind the same 10 staple meals say one day out of two, or whatever works for you.
If you make savings on batch cooking, and enjoy your microwave rice, go for keeping it! That’s one of the advantages