To think it’s really difficult to keep healthy ? ITS NOT OUR FAULT !!

[Jumell]

Ok so … up until recently I worked 9am - 6pm an office job - no flexi time etc .

we had 15 mins break in the morning, 15 mins in the afternoon and half a hour for lunch

I used to arrive home every evening at 7pm it was Monday to Fri. I left home at 8am.

Where I worked was a bit off from the town centre so the latter was not that easily accessible lunchtimes.

The only options for food was small sandwich shops and kiosks selling beige calorific food - crisps /choc bars and shortbreads - filled rolls etc. next to no fresh produce

In an ideal world I’d like to do clean eating and eat eg fresh fish and veg in the evening - but who on earth gets home from a long shift at 7pm and starts peeling carrots and potatoes ?!

You don’t even need the food at that time as you’re winding down !

I think there was a lot to be said about the post war rationing etc - at least people ate more genuinely nutritious natural food then and not UPF - which I admit I eat a lot of and admit I desperately need to cut down on.

AIBU in thinking that our current lifestyles make natural, clean eating and home cooking of fresh foods more difficult - we have to buy calorific processed convenience foods as there’s practically no other option !

Saying I refuse to pay for something is not a regional phrase...?

Where are you from? Are you from the UK?

It’s a common phrase I’ve heard used. I’ve lived mainly in Glasgow/London but also in other places too.

Not Scottish and don't see how it fits about something I have no intention of doing, like in this context if I'd never comtemplate buying a Pret sandwich I wouldn't say I refuse to do it

Not a biggie obviously just not an expression that I'm familiar with

Not sure why you mentioned you’re not Scottish?

I’ve heard this expression all over the UK. I’ve lived in Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, London, Brighton and other places.

Yeah sure, no biggie - just stating it’s a very common phrase people in the UK use to express that you don’t want to do something as you’d asked if it was a regional expression.

I can’t be arsed either op! So I batch cook - Shepards Pie, Chicken Casserole, Beef Bourg etc and freeze it in portions. I have 2 big slow cookers I bought from Aldi and every 3 months I crack on.
Then I can get whatever I fancy out in the morning and just heat it up when I get in, serve with micro veg. Easy. I also batch cook soup to take for lunch and things like gyoza. I buy the wrappers, but make all the filling and freeze them. They literally cook in 3 minutes from frozen, serve with stir fry veg and micro rice.
Or keep it really simple - pork loin chops in the oven with micro veg. Or spicy chicken - in the morning, mix plain yogurt, curry powder and tomato purée together then bung in some chicken mini fillets. When you get home, stick it in the oven then serve with a bag of salad and/or some micro rice.
We are a lot more adventurous at the weekend but easy and quick without being totally processed shite is definitely the way in the week!

Those are really long hours and short breaks. Were they at all flexible? Glad you're out of it now. What's the new job like? Any wfh or flex?

I never spend more than 30-40 minutes cooking a typical evening meal. I like cooking and I usually do it together with DH, we use it as an opportunity to talk about the day. We have a tradition that we do our own sushi on Fridays - this is an opportunity for us to involve children and do something together as a family. This takes usually longer than 40 minutes but it’s a social occasion for us and we also try to model for our children that preparing food at home is the default way and can be a social thing.

We make a lot of stir-fries, meals based on tofu and pulses. I buy seasonal vegetables so our absolute staple all year round is cabbage - cooked, stir-fried, fermented, raw. It’s such a versatile vegetable and cheap!
If I don’t have leftovers for lunch, I always have some frozen broad beans, soybeans and sprout beans. They take 5 minutes to cook. I add a handful (usually 6-7) of IKEA vegetable balls, which can be cooked in 5 minutes in the microwave. That’s my basic lunch.

We don’t eat chicken, mostly beef and lamb/hogget/mutton and we try to eat as close to the whole animal as possible for environmental reasons, so during weekends I like to spend some time in the kitchen and try new recipes. But things like kidneys take little time to make and things like roast beef take only several minutes of prep and then just sit in the oven and require very little effort and overseeing.

I used to have very little time for cooking and eating, but I still ate pretty healthy food most of the time, although it was pretty repetitive.

Breakfast was always Greek yoghurt and honey with tinned prunes, or porridge made in the microwave.

I always took packed lunch from home, which was always a cheese or peanut butter sandwich, a few pieces of fruit (usually banana, grapes, apple or blueberries), a vegetable (carrot/cucumber/pepper/tomatoes) and a cake or biscuit. I'd choose sourdough bread to avoid upf if I was doing this today. Or other non upf bread.

Dinner was always rice or pasta with A Thing. The Thing was basically stir fry veg with meat, plus a sauce. The veg could be from the freezer. The sauce and meat choice would turn the meal in to curry (chicken plus curry paste and coconut milk), Chinese (soy sauce and thinly cut pork fillet), bolognase (mince plus tinned tomatoes), pasta (tinned tuna, pesto and cream). Etc. They were really all the same meal so I could cook virtually on autopilot.

I'd always cook enough for two or three nights at once.

It really doesn’t

I would kindly suggest that those struggling with cooking fresh food in the evenings without an over-reliance on UPF would benefit from some cooking lessons which focus on basics. Many mumsnetters seem to make cooking out as a huge chore involving lots of related chores when, actually, it is not.

Few foods take hours of actual cooking in the kitchen. Prepping ingredients takes, what, 15mins and then it's just a case of the occasional check-in while things are frying, boiling or baking away. I often wash dishes or do laundry alongside, or catch up on mumsnet while I wait for food to be finished.

I only vaguely meal-plan, as in, there may be the odd dish I definitely want to make and buy specific ingredients for, but the rest is routine meat, fruit, grains and veg and I'll figure it out on the day. It's a skill that develops with experience, and over time. Yes, I have a fully-stocked basics and herb and spice cupboard, which I have built up over many years. No, I do not have a lot of spare money, so a lot of leftover meat and veg is reused in other dishes.

So this week we've had:

1. cauliflower, bacon and egg fry
2. herbed beef burgers with salad
3. pasta with tomato sauce
4. chicken and noodle sweet and sour stir fry
5. pork with mash and mixed veg
6. potato and vegetable gratin
7. leftover pasta, meat and veg stir fry

None of these took more than 15min prep, or more than 20min active cooking. Lunches are usually sandwiches, homemade pasta salads prepared one morning alongside breakfast and eaten over a few days or a leaf-based salad with a protein source, such as leftover chicken or bacon.

The one condition of being able to prepare fresh dishes with minimal effort is being able to cook, especially with regard to timings and basic sauces. The time invested in learning how to cook saves hours of time later.

"True. Needs careful planning though."

No. It doesn't. It's just part of daily life. Putting a load of washing on, so you have clean underwear. Is no different to going food shopping and buying meals to eat. And enough for a breakfast and a lunch. People claim batch cooking, which I do, but on a smaller scale, it's just sensible to cook enough spag Bol for 2 portions, is not hard. You make it sound like hard work, but it's what most people do naturally.

You’re telling yourself it’s harder than it is. I’m out 6.30am to 6pm so a long day too, yes it’s tiring but it takes 20 mins to grill some fish, boil some new potatoes (no peeling!) and frozen veg. I don’t like batch cooking as it don’t like how freezing food affects the texture but when I make soups or stews and curries I always make enough for a few nights and just have the same again the next day. Find yourself a few recipes and you’ll soon get into the habit. And you’ll feel better!

How old are you op? How many dc do you have? You sound very young, and completely inexperienced at lifestyle basics. How on earth don't you know all these basics?

When I worked those hours. I made a big batch of brown rice and cooked Mediterranean veg (a frozen bag) didn't take long to leave it bubbling in a saucepan once a week. 5 mins in morning I chucked a portion in tupperware added in feta, sundried tomatoes ect then had that for lunch.
They make all sorts of lunch boxes now, so breakfast at work I had that split tub so granola in one section yoghurt in the other.
Dinner wise I'd either defrost a meal portion I batched cooked. (I'd cook a big portion once a week to freeze some, the weekly cooked meal soon added to a variety of options in my freezer over time) or a stirfry from those veg section prepped packs.
I found salads easy literally bung leaves in lunch box, add tinned chickpeas and beans ect probably frowned upon not being cooked from the dried pack but good enough for me 😅 I use to get that sliced cooked chicken breast for a few days of the week to have chicken salad at work.

I find it's not hard work or time consuming. It's more being creative with ideas of meal and lunches and what to chuck in and getting into a routine/habit

It's not exactly hard either.

Instagram is full of ideas for making a weeks worth of healthy lunches all in one go. Just pop them all in the fridge and they are ready to go each morning.

Even if you just did three per week that's better than nothing. It wouldn't take any more time than fannying around on Mumsnet.

If you are just feeding one or two people, peeling an onion and a couple of carrots and chopping some cabbage takes literally 2 minutes. Like many things, cooking from scratch gets much easier and quicker the more you do.

I leave the house at 4.30am and get home at 7.30pm most days.

Agree with everyone else that batch cooking is your friend.

I have a soup maker, air fryer and slow cooker and use slow cooker liners and air fryer silicone trays.

I have a variety of thermos flasks in a variety of sizes.

Breakfast is porridge made with water (in a thermos)

Lunch is soup or casserole in a thermos.

Dinner can be rice cakes, crackers, wraps etc.

Fruit for snack ( I keep a load on my cupboard at work!)

It can be done but does require a will and plenty of freezer storage pots for individual portions!