in thinking that cooking from scratch isn't that unusual and doesn't make you a pretentious?

[ScentedLovePuff]

I keep encountering more and more people who think its weird that I cook almost everything from scratch. I'm not some earth-mother or housewife with time on my hands, I'm a working single mum on a very tight budget. I get the impression that people think it makes me some kind of snob! Personally I find it cheaper!

I really enjoy cooking, I do it when my daughter is in bed and cook in batches so I can reheat it for her later (she is only 1 so I'm a bit careful about what she eats still) like a homemade ready meal. She does sometimes have fish fingers or fish cakes, I'm not a total food nazi!

Is it so strange? I've encountered people who are shocked and appauled that I do, and I dont just use frozen whatevers or tins.

Just putting this to the mumsnet panel, am I a freak?

So what other basic healthy from scratch meals are easily cooked?
I'm vegetarian but dh isn't (thought he says he is)
But I'd love to hear some good basic meals that can be cooked from scratch without meat... oh, and without onions. I don't care if it's just for the flavour, it's the texture I can't deal with

TCNY I shall cut and paste that and use it on many, many threads!

its not pretentious to cook from scratch but is pretentious to show off about it or act as if it makes you all that, or if its soo rare to cook anything yourself (many people do it without showing off)

I make a vat of pasta sauce every month and freeze it in pots ready to chuck over pasta or add to mince to make spag bol/lasagne.

onions, courgettes, peppers, mushrooms, celery, tomatoes (canned, fresh, whatever), garlic - sweated in a stockpot for 20 mins or so. Then blitz in food processor. Add a tin of chopped toms for authentic texture. Chill and freeze. Adjust veg proportions to taste. It sits and cooks while we have our meal and takes about 10mins to peel and chop. Simples

I also freeze homemade white sauce in pots so I can pour it over cooked pasta, tinned salmon and cooked broccoli, whack in the oven for a fast bake. Or add it to leftover roast chicken in a dish and put a piece of ready-roll puff pastry over the top. Yum!

lol@ 'dicking about with rocket'.

The only people who would get snotty about cooking from scratch are the types who see any deviation from their own practices as implicit criticism. (Or what TCNY said).

I remember having my NCT class over when DS was about four months. I'd made a lemon drizzle cake and few bits and pieces, 'cause I like cooking and find it relaxing.

One woman looked at my home-cooking in horror and said "God, I could never be arsed to do all that". Not "thank you" or "that looks nice".

We are no longer in touch.

I cook most things from scratch, because:

a) I love to cook
b) We are skint
c) I make things just the way I like them
d) My husband loves my cooking

i admire you all, but i really dont see whats wrong with pasta sauce from a jar, easy, simple, delicious.
and i feel almost bad for saying it, but no, i cant be bothered to make it from scratch, i tried a couple of times [lasagne] and it just tasted so bland!
its all very well saying 'ooh it takes 10 minutes' but personally, as someone who isnt interested in cooking as a general rule, thats 10 minutes i could be doing something else. good on everyone who has freezer space to keep all this yummy stuff, anyone like to pass on a lasgane recipe that doesnt taste bland?

additives rule

No it isn't and no it doesn't. Is there really any argument there?

I don't think anyone should feel bad for not cooking from scratch.

This thread is about someone being criticised for wanting to.

Bizarre.

Lets just settle this once and for all; anything I do is right and proper. Anything you do that is not exactly what I do is either pretentious or chavvy depending on whether or not I would secretly like to do it.

there is an item on the radio this morning that Nice aretrying to get transfats banned as they pose a significant health risk.
They are in processed bloody everything.

I use to be the Queen of Cook Chill.
But actually once you are forced to read up on what this shit these additives and ingredients do to people, especially children, you kind of can't do it anymore.

And I am a crap cook so not the slightest bit smug and actually a bit bloody weary.

It's a mixture in our house - stuff from raw ingredients sometimes, oven chips and fishfingers other times. Oven chips, BTW are perfectly healthy food - nothing but spuds and a little oil, and less fat than if you cut up spuds and deep-fried them yourself.

Oh but here's an easy quick recipe for whoever was asking for one:
Ham& mushroom sauce for pasta
Chop up some mushrooms and a small onion, cook in a little bit of oil till soft, add a few herbs if you like them (thyme, oregano, basil, pinch of mixed/provencal herbs will do), stir in a bit of creme fraiche or single cream, let it bubble, then chuck pasta into boiling water, chop up some Nice Ham and bung it in with the mushrooms, add a bit more cream if needed, then when the pasta is done, drain it, put it back in the pan, tip the mushroom mix in and stir it through, then eat it.

I made lasagne this weekend. It took about an hour and a half so yes, cooking from sratch does hoover up a lot of time if you want something like that.
I reckon to make things taste more like packet food, you just have to add quite a lot of salt and sugar.
In fact, if you are making pasta sauce from scratch then add ketchup and it will taste more like the packet.

sbg that all sounds great without the ham or onions

sgb not sbg.

oh, OP do you make your own pasta? Following LeQueen's post? Does it count as making a meal from scratch if you use pasta from a bag?

There are advantages to not cooking from scratch though.

My neighbour and I moved into our newbuild houses within a few weeks of each other. We both had almost identical lovely new hobs.

Four years later and my hob looks rather lived in, with marks on it from bolied over saucepans and splats of tomato based sauces. Whereas my neighbour (who shops in Iceland and eats ready meals or food which can be emptied onto oven trays from the freezer) has a beautiful clean hob.

So I'd like my homecooked food, but with her nice clean hob!

Ok, so are there steps to this, then?
There's ...
step 1 - eating ready meals from boxes just chuck in the oven, cook and eat. or frozen ready meals...whatever, all the same.

step 2 - cooking dinner using some sauces from jars, buying bread but making your own garlic bread and stuff like that iyswim, spending time cooking a meal, but using frozen veg, tins and jars as necessary

Step 3 - Baking your own bread, cooking using fresh or frozen veg/fruit, using pasta from a bag, making your own sauces but using tins if necessary, probably get meat from the butcher, or nice meat from the supermarket (I don't know much about meat).

Step 4 - using only veg/fruit that you've grown/picked or from a nearby farm/market, making your own pasta and bread, never using anything from a tin. Only freezing your own grown veg or that bought at the farm/market, possibly having your own chickens.

Step 5 - you have your own farm and live off of the animals and the land completely - never setting foot inside of a shop.

I'm sure I may have missed a step or muddled some up, but it's what I could come up with in 2 minutes.

I do lasagne in 30 mins as long as I dont grate the veg... although that tastes better it does take time so I chop on a week night.