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

@TealSapphire no one sane thinks people are making their own pasta fresh every night whe they say they are cooking from scratch. I also don't make my own butter or grind my own flour.

I enjoy cooking with fresh ingrdients, I'm not living in the 1900s house.

No we didn't and we still don't now we are retired

I try and batch cook on a Sunday so I have at least two meals done for the week. The rest of the time I do something quick such as chicken/fish or veg. We’ve also got quite into soups over the winter. I would struggle to cook from scratch every single night.

Yes we do but we (a) cook double portions and reheat another night, (b) batch cook when we have time (c) use one of those one pot type/roasting tin type books to keep things to a minimum or (d) use the slow cooker.

Minimal fuss. We have tried the delivery box options and tbh found the portions too big for us but the combination above works well for us.

We do Gousto 4 nights a week. Usually have a leftover night. Then a beans on toast/quick pasta night. Might grab something quick from M&S if no other leftovers left on day seven or whatever it is by then.

i hate cooking but weirdly I really like doing Gousto meals. No idea what’s going on there tbh.

Gosh I have no idea cooking from scratch means making my own bread and pasta. What I mean is I don't use satchet sauces. But I think even if you do that, because you are still cooking half from scratch as you know what meat and vegetables go into the dish. Hello Fresh and Guosto is also cooking from scratch. I don't do those either but it's just because I love cooking and actually known a lot of recipes and don't need someone sending me satches of soy sauce or miso.

Planning isn't a faff if you already have a plan. I have a 4 week menu all written up. I got the idea when the kids were in nursery and I noticed they have a set menu for a whole season. It really cuts down the need to think and plan.

We always make things that are nice the next day:

Diana Henry sausage and lentil thing from her Oven to Table one-pot book, or black bean tacos – both are quick and easy and good for two nights

Batch cook chilli, bolognese, etc, for the freezer periodically and that’s another night, usually when we’re eating with the kids

An oven food night or supermarket takeaway on DP’s commute night

Friday night I finish early to do school pick up so I’ll do something like roast chicken that then becomes pie, picnic sandwiches and roast redux over the weekend, which only leaves us with breakfasts and one meal to pull together. Or homemade tomato soup, which does for Saturday lunch, then shepherds pie on Saturday night which can also be Sunday lunch. Sunday night we all often have given up and have what the DC call “platter” but is actually the verboten phrase picky bits

If the DC are poorly all hell breaks loose and we eat whatever we can when we can.

I used to love cooking, and did elaborate things and beautiful table settings – and DP wooed me with from-scratch curries with his own spice mixes, or handmade pasta. Now I basically feel like a line cook; meal planning and batch cooking etc all work, but they feel like work. It’s just a relentless Sisyphean task of feeding bottomless pits who seem to love mince more than I thought possible.

Never... ive never made my own sauces or anything like that. i can probably count on two hands the amount of times I've truly made a meal from scratch (not including salads with meat)
I said to my mum the other day i'm almost 40 and still never peeled a carrot or potato 😂

Agreed but...you still need to plan the plan 😂

Also agree with pp that no bugger means making their own pasta/bread/tortillas when we talk about cooking from scratch, surely.

No. I fast two days a week, so on those days we each fend for ourselves and tend to have ready made soup, ready meals, etc. Fridays often get a takeaway. So that only leaves two week nights, and on average probably do one meal from scratch and the other some kind of half-prepared chill-cook thing or something originally from scratch out of the freezer.

I don’t work and DH works full time and even I don’t cook from scratch every night 😂.

Tonight we had fish cakes, salad and stuffed peppers. Fishcakes were shop boight and the other stuff is pretty quick. If I do a chilli I do do extra, enough for another meal. The slow cooker is great too, chicken stew is just chicken thighs, a fresh stew pack and chicken stock. Takes minutes.

No. Evidenced by the fact that last nights tea was from the Chinese takeaway and tonight's was Rice Krispies. No small people to feed here though! In my defence I do cook from scratch a lot of the time, and make loads of effort at weekends.

I do but I do a lot in the slow cooker in the morning, when I get in it's ready. Usually a stew or casserole or something. I find the Colemans mixes really good.

Generally, yes. Not every night, some nights are, say, pizza and chips in the air fryer or something really easy like jackets (though I guess technically cooked from scratch still). But yes, I'd say 5-6 nights out of 7 are cooked from scratch. I don't actually work FT, but I don't get home to start dinner until 6-6:30pm generally, and we eat 730-8 ish. I'm a bit of a food snob though and I don't think ready meals or convenience food are as good as my own cooking. So I don't mind them on occasion, but not regularly. I'd rather eat later than eat a ready meal, but that's just my fussiness! 😂

I would like to change my answer, I've realised there's loads of things we don't cook from scratch! We never cook bread/pasta/tortillas from scratch - I still count it as cooking from scratch if I use a bag of dried pasta though!
I make pasta sauce from scratch but I never make pesto from scratch. I make curry from scratch but I buy microwave rice. I'll make burgers from scratch but use shop bought coleslaw and a bag of ready chopped salad.
We do cook a proper meal most nights though. When we worked in offices, we were terrible for eating junk food/takeaways far too often.

Yes I do and cooking actually relaxes me.

But - I have a teen and we always had meals together quite late so it's not that DD had to be in bed by 7pm.

I don't do things like Lasagna which takes longer. I do quck curries, stir frys, quick pasta or meat and two veg.

I often have pasta sauces or fresh meatballs in the freezer so it's a matter of defrosting, cooking and it doesn't take long.

I use my slow cooker a lot
and do a lot of one pot dishes, which are great and saves having loads of washing up and tbh sometimes a convenient meal can take just as long as a one pot meal

I use pre chopped or frozen veg which also saves time, easy garlic & ginger again which saves time

Not scratch but fresh and double portions. Jacket potatoes, salads, mushroom curry is easy. Any curry is easy, especially for batch cooking. Most want you to heat some onion and spices and blend them before watering down so perhaps freezing the paste is an option?

I work part time and DH works full time with an hour’s commute. We don’t like the same food but I hate cooking. I also can’t eat late. I usually have a cold or easy dinner (shop-bought quiche & salad or frozen jacket potato). When DH gets home, he cooks himself something from scratch, although he does have shop-bought meatballs and jarred sauces.

Most nights, often quick stuff like stir fry’s, or shawarma and flatbreads/ salad. Or stuff I can Chuck in the oven like jackets and salmon.
I do weekly meal plan and we need a couple of quick meals a week to revolve around DC sports training, so might eat toasties and salad or a super quick pesto and pasta.
pulled pork on low all day and just put it on rolls is always a winner here too.
We always have at least one night we eat a meal out at the weekend.

Yes from scratch. Healthy meals are non negotiable for me. (Not great on the vacuuming front though!)
slow cooker and pressure cooker have been extremely helpful.

Reading this thread with interest as I eat toast at 10.15pm for my evening meal 🤣

Yes.

A lot of people's descriptions of their "quick and easy" meals are nothing like my idea of "quick and easy" meals!!! 😂"Chicken with Mediterranean veg tray bake", "Pan fried Sea bass with roasted veg", risotto, curries, stir fries...
I work full time, 2 kids, single mum, get home 6:15 and the kids are tired so I can't spend hours cooking a meal. Some things are more important than proper cooking from scratch and ensuring they get enough sleep is one of them! They get cranky if they don't get enough sleep!!!
I try to cook "proper meals" a couple of times a week (things that require time/prep/chopping things up like curry, roast, fajitas etc) and the rest is "quick and easy" meals like breaded chicken/fish & oven chips & frozen veg, sausages & potatoes & carrots, pasta with a jar of sauce & maybe added tuna/bacon, jacket potatoes with various toppings, omelettes, eggs on toast, pizza.