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

If we’re both working we often have air fryer jacket potato’s, chilli or bolognaise (I always make at least a double portion and freeze some when I cook from scratch so just have to cook the rice or spaghetti and reheat) a stir fry, or something like a slow cooker curry.

13 nights out of 14 yes. But only because I batch cook with the slow cooker and taming twins. If you have a small freezer then freeze flat in bags - I promise its a game changer. And things like cottage pie or quorn equivalent freeze without the potato, take it out with the meal the day before but put in the fridge and put the potato on that night when everything is cold. Chuck in oven as leave for nursery (wfh day). I can at a push get 40 meals for 3 in our freezer but is quite big so standard must be 25 ish

Against the grain, but goodness no. I loath cooking as does my DH. I work 30 hours and husband full time. We have two young children. In the last week or so (fairly typical) we’ve had;
Pizza and salad
Quorn nuggets, jackets and fresh veg
Jacket potato, salad, cottage cheese, tuna
Risotto from scratch
Fajitas
Pasta with bought sauce (seafood, onion and peppers added)
Salmon, rice and veg
2 x bits and pieces (pitta, hummous, veggie sticks, boiled egg, olives etc etc)

It’s a bit depressing as we like nice food, but I’ve just had to let this standard slip to stay sane!

Only one adult here and three children (aged 7-14). I loved cooking when I wasn't working full time, I made everything from scratch but now I'm full time I just don't have the time. I get home with the children at 5.30 but then there are various activities to get them to during the week so we often have a few quick dinners like jacket potato, beans/egg of toast, a couple of proper home cooked meals on quieter nights and then one or two using leftovers from the Sunday roast, something like a pasta dish or stir fry with the leftover meat. I wish I had the time to cook everything from scratch as I have put on weight because of it but I just can't seem to get organised with it at the moment

We cook from scratch every night and both work full time. Gousto every weeknight so a max of 30 minutes. Dh and I agree who is cooking and who is doing lifts etc. we flex the time we eat as well depending on what’s going on.

When we both worked I'd cook a meal we could have 2 nights in a row eh lasagne. I'd often make on a Sunday evening and we'd eat it Monday and Tuesday. We'd have a quick frozen pizza Wednesday. Thursday DH would make a large macaroni cheese we'd eat Thursday and Friday. Over the weekend we'd have different meals for more variety. A quick midweek meal was also salmon in lemon juice wrapped in foil cooked in 20 mins with a jacket potato cooked in microwave and finished in air fryer and baked beans or peas. The whole meal only takes 25 minutes. We often had a yoghurt for dessert or a banana or shop bought apple pie and ice cream.

Not every night. I'll prep 3 general meals for the week, stuff that can be cooked fast and reheated for leftovers when we have evening activities etc like bolognese, risotto, curries.

One night is always a pizza night for the kids, another a BK dinner.

Weekends we mostly eat out.

Good heavens. I don't cook from scratch every day and I'm a childfree part time worker.

Yes, most nights, but easy meals. Generally, we cook a big meal with leftovers on a sunday, and 2-3 days during the week we cook after work. Easy meals being chicken in sauce with side of veggies, sheet pan with veggies, something of that nature. For the Sunday, a roast dinner, pie, bolognese etc and using that for leftovers. The rest of the time is leftover bits and bobs. Occasionally a take away like pizza, though that is generally saved for Friday night. It is really hard, and we've definitely had "how to manage " conversations. We have a board on the fridge detailing out who is doing what cooking that week. We almost always deviate from it, but it does help to have something planned which he is responsible for, and makes me feel less resentful as otherwise it does tend to fall to me as my commute is shorter.

This is me, too.
Lone full time working parent to a 14 yo.
Meals are either really simple (meatballs in the air fryer, rice and veg) or just one main pan (thai curry, chicken curry).
I do use a paste pot.

Like OP, it's not so much the cooking, but the clear up which I find so tedious.
I put an audio book on which helps.

I'm happy that DS likes to eat a bit later these days (he doesn't eat much at school and has a large snack when he gets home after the gym).

The common use of the term "cooking from scratch" doesn't tend to refer to the pasta/tortillas etc, it instead refers to the rest of the meal and making your own sauces etc

If you use the term 'cooking from scratch' then people generally don't expect people to be making their own pasta.

We work from home so have time to cook from scratch for most meals. I do tend to make enough for two meals though, so there's a lunch or an easy dinner in the fridge.

The slow cooker was a god send

I absolutely hate cooking. I use a simply cook box about twice a week, 20-30 minutes. I use frozen or easy prepared vegetables (baby corn, sugar snap peas, mange tout). I don’t make my own pastry for pies or quiches - ready rolled is fine. I do meal plan and take away is only for birthdays.

Nope. I do a lot what I call 'jambalayas.' They're not really a true jambalaya though, just a mixture of different I things I have in on the same plate.

Ex - tomatoes/avocado/cheese/bread/ham/pickles - easy to make and tasty. I hate the mess of cooking so this works for me.

Nope! Ain't nobody got time for that.

We sometimes have egg on toast,

TBH We are in our 40s but there are nights we eat like kids (think tuna and pasta with peas, breaded fish with peas etc, quite heavy on our pea intake now I think of it)

I think that's funny. I bet more people do that than admit to it.

I would say I cook from scratch (don't make my own pasta) 5 out of 7 days a week. Part time now but did when full time too. Really simple meals though. I dont batch cook but if it's something like bolognese I do enough for the next day. I sometimes use a slow cooker. I have a core set of meals that I rotate.

I too eat a lot of peas! I think they are an easy option.

A jacket potato is fine.

I would say I'm better with cooking than I am with cleaning and I prioritise cooking over housework. Im not that great at it but I quite enjoy cooking and watch something on the Ipad as I do it. I wash up as I go along.

Yes every night 95% of the time. Sometimes Sunday roast lasts us long enough for an extra day or so.

Yes. Usually pasta when kid was younger- mini tubs of tomato sauce w hidden veg in the freezer. Nothing that takes over 45 mins. But we're in a city with shops 2 mins away and school, clubs etc mostly in easy reach.

Well it’s just me, no second adult in the house work full time and have children and yes cook every evening, sometimes I leave the dishes to the next day (my mum would be mortified) often use a meal prep box like gousto, but home cooked meal daily yes, even if a simple stir fry or whatever

God no! Life's too short. Sometimes we have toast and we like it!

A mix..we cook from scratch Sat -Tues.
Wednesday -Thursday are ultra processed nights from the freezer.
Friday our son cooks for us.

I cook a set menu and keep it as simple as possible to reduce time; Monday protein and salad, Tue pasta dish, weds slow cooker with 1/2 extra portions to freeze, thurs eggs/chips/beans or cheese toasty type meal and then Friday I defrost something previously slow cooked or protein and frozen veg.

partner cooks at weekends.

my 5am dog walking fantasy is a household chef.

I hate working full time.

We do a mixture of cooking, not entirely from scratch but making a spice mix for fish or doing fajitas or something a bit more effort and stuff to just put in the oven or pasta meal deals when we've both been in the office all day.