If both adults work full time, do you cook your evening meal from scratch every day?

[lowlevelanxious]

DH usually makes a pasta with homemade sauce once a week, and I usually do a curry.
Then we try and switch it up for the remaining nights taking turns and make risotto, lasagne, chilli, fajitas, things like that. I am finding it incredibly time consuming to be honest, less the cooking and more the washing up and cleaning the kitchen after. It takes time that I don’t feel I have! Do you cook fresh every night?

We’ve only got a small freezer with 3 drawers so can’t do loads of batch cooking. Trying to avoid UPFs and mainly a veggie household anyway.

YABU - we cook even when we’ve both been out the house working a long day

YANBU - those days we have quicker meals from the freezer, jacket potatoes etc and don’t feel bad about it

Oh, fuck no.
The 2-3 days I'm in the office (I live alone), it's heating up a portion of something I've batch cooked, or a baked potato, or soup, or something. In the Summer, it's a lot of salads.
I was in the office today, then straight to training at my netball club. So, I've just had a cheese & tomato toastie, and a freezer portion of butternut squash soup (which I made last week.) I think I'd be driven to a takeaway, if I didn't rely on my stocks of freezer/cupboard meals a couple of nights a week.

I'd also recommend the Tray Cooking book a few folks have recommended. It's really great, and easy. A lot of them are quick, so even if you're in the office, you can do some of them in less than 30 mins. I usually prepare, chuck in the oven, and whizz around doing some other chores whilst it's cooking away.

I work 30hrs and DH works 37. I usually do the cooking in our household as DH is pretty rubbish at it.

I cook for 2 days at a time so on a Monday I usually make a pasta dish and make a curry on the side for Tuesday as this is easier to reheat the next day. On Tuesday I put some rice on to serve with the curry, which doesn't take long. I'll then cook again on Wednesday and make a curry/soup on the side for Thursday. Then on Friday we have a leftover day where we finish off all the leftover food from the week. If I'm in the mood I also like to bake/make a dessert on Fridays.

This works very well for us. Also if you don't have a dishwasher do think about getting one - it's a game changer.

Yes always.

@TealSapphire I never use ready made sauces but I'm not making my own pasta or bread on a week night - although I do make my own dumplings and flat bread.

There is nothing wrong with dried pasta and good bakery made bread anyway.

I work less than dh so weekday cooking falls to me. We do vegetarian in the week so I chop a load of veg on Monday to last the week. I like to do one pot stuff-

Roast veg, lentils in tomato sauce

Rissoto/pasta/rice

Stew

Soup

To be honest most of my quick curries are veg only - I'm a big fan of tinned chickpeas! I also use a lot of veg that doesn't take much cooking during the week, so spinach, thinly sliced carrot, courgette, mange tout etc for Thai curries, but yes I'd use a paste to save time.

We did a very quick ramen soup thing tonight that I saw on Instagram, where you mix the seasoning from cheap packet ramen with an egg yolk and a bit of mayo, then add the noodle cooking water and whisk, then add your cooked noodles and raw veg (I used watercress and courgette) - it was delicious!

We've a bit of a bank of recipes that either are quick/low prep, or sit in the slow cooker all day etc. This combined with some things batch cooked. We both work hybrid & have a couple of days each at home & use lunch to turn on oven etc.

Dh does a thing with seared tuna with lime& chili etc, we have it with rice & steamed veg, using rice cooker its v quick, no mess etc.

We might stick a chicken or pork joint in with a tray of veg (chopped at lunch). We avoid peeling potatoes/carrots/parsnips, saves time & mess. Again with steamed greens.

Bolognese or curry would be batch cooked & defrosted.

Omelette with red pepper, cheese, mushroom, spring onions etc & potato slices (with steamed greens... predictable).

Pasta with prawns/squid/scallops, white wine/garlic etc.. steamed greens.

Beef bourgignon (slower cooker all day) with mash & steamed greens.

I do a slow cooker tagine thing we have with lamb or chicken, we do couscous with it which cooks fast.

We throw slow cooker stuff in first thing or at lunch. We chop veg at lunch.

I work full time and then have to do my horse after work so am not usually home til around 6-6.30. DH works from home but isn't a great cook 😂.
I cook from scratch every night, I enjoy it, and always make leftovers for the next day. It's nothing groundbreaking, for eg spaghetti bolognese, home made curry, chilli, ratatouille, other pasta dishes, fish with roast baby potatoes and veg...I don't enjoy the taste of pre made sauces or beige food. Also was brought up with a French mother who cooked every night! I get its a faff for some people though if you don't enjoy cooking...

Probably cook fresh five nights a week with one night takeaway and one night not from scratch eg supermarket pie or pizza. Sunday is a roast and Monday something using the leftover meat. Another day will often be salmon fillets with rice or potatoes and a sauce (15mins start to finish).

Our only batch cooking is sometimes making a tomato sauce at the weekend and then using it as a base for a couple of things eg bolognese, bean stew, curry, prawn saganaki.

I do think veggie is a bit harder as chops, chicken breast etc are all fast and nutritious. But pan fried halloumi is a decent alternative to those things when putting in a wrap or with cous cous or alongside roasted veg etc.

It's not a case of choosing home cooked versus freezer ready made. You'd cut your effort in half if you eat on a Wednesday same thing you made on a Monday and eat on Thursday same thing you cook on Tuesday. Curries and Bolognese will be perfect in fridge for 2 days.

Not every day. We almost always have a takeaway on Saturday and one day a week I'll do something easy like a pasta bake with a shop sauce or a jar sauce curry but I try and keep it home cooked as much as possible. Plenty of great cook books to plan meals in advance and cheaply. I also quite like the odd weekend of batch cooking to make it easy for when I just can't be bothered!

Yes, but we work different hours. DH works 7-4 and I do 10-7 so we split tasks and I tackle washing/housework in the mornings and he cooks from scratch in the evening.

Cook from scratch every day here. Out of house 7-5. Most meals take about 30-40 minutes. I don’t find it a chore. Husband works 7-6. Adult (just!) son helps out sporadically even though at chef school 😂

i hate ready meals and hate batch cooking even more

the ninja has been a game changer. Chicken veg potatoes salmon all sorts done in there in fraction of the time. Roast on a Sunday all done in an hour.

We don't cook at all. We have a hot meal at work at lunchtime, then get a sandwich or open a tin of soup when we get home.

Oh and meal planning is the key. All food bought on a Saturday for the week including lunch stuff.

I know you say you haven't much freezer space but is there scope to increase this? If you can manage a second small freezer or replace what you have with bigger it'd make it much easier.

We do but we cook simple quick stuff- nothing takes longer than 45 mins and we both find cooking relaxing.

Also whoever doesn’t cook, clears up after we’ve eaten.

We do things like-

veg curry
Tortilla
chicken fajitas
risotto
cod/prawn baked in (homemade, bulk made and frozen) tomato sauce

I usually cook double portions so we don’t need to cook every day. We then just keep it in the fridge rather than freezer so it wouldn’t take up your freezer space (mine is 4 drawers but a narrow model). On Sunday sometimes I’ll do bigger batches (eg soup for the week’s lunches) or prep
other things but again don’t usually freeze it.

There are a couple of things I do make to freeze like batches of bean burgers but I don’t do that every week, usually at a weekend when the freezer needs topping up.

My tip for quicker fajitas is frozen peppers and instant pot for pulses!

I work 4 days rather than full time, and cook from scratch probably 5 days out of 7 on average.

Yes but often we cook a double portion so we have leftovers for another day.

We also use our pressure cooker a lot to make daal or risotto (quick and it does a lot of it itself). Also tray bakes (green roasting tin book good for this) and stir fries. We don’t do fancy involved meals mid week.

Yeah most of the time

I'd do a lot of batch cooking and cook ahead meals.i.e. double batch of mash, then quick shepherds pie later in the week.

I know it's hard work op

Yes we do. Sometimes it's a joint effort, sometimes one person cooks, one cleans up, it depends who is home from work first. Every other week we might have a frozen pizza and fries, which once upon a time, when things were affordable, would have been a takeaway.
This has always been the same since DS was 2 and I returned to full time work. He's nearly 16 now so a bit easier as we eat later. I batch cooked more when he was younger.

I cook from scratch each night - I enjoy it and our Dd is in her 20s and a body builder so has meals prepped in the fridge so its just DH and I. I try to meal plan for the week and have a long list of 'go to meals' so I know they're manageable. That said, I don't mind eating late - c 8.30. Yesterday I made tlayudas (oaxacan pizzas) and tonight I made chinese braised chicken and chestnuts, tomorrow I'll use the left over chicken thighs to make another chinese dish, the next night I have some red chicory so will probably do a chicory, blue cheese, pear, pancetta salad. Some nights the dishes are super easy and quick, other nights they're easy and slow - like a tray bake. I leave more involved cooking to the weekends!

We do, but we like it. Wouldn't bother if I didn't enjoy cooking.

We mostly cook from scratch, probably 5 days out of 7 and I do use leftovers and during the week, keep it simple

As an example, Sunday I did a roast chicken, last night was chicken and mushroom risotto with the leftover chicken, tonight bolognese, tomorrow fish and vegetables, then a chilli with the leftover bolognese.

Fridays are usually frozen pizza. Saturdays are a bit more exciting and I cook something nice and probably have a takeaway once a fortnight. Day to day cooking is pretty basic but quick and easy.