Honestly..Who does cook from scratch their lunches and dinner everyday ?

[quiveutmabonnebaguette]

And I dont include friday and saturday evening...In my case, I never buy ready meals so if at evening I feel to tired and dont feel like cooking, I'll go for the simpliest dish..pasta and cheese or something else..I'll never get a take away.

What about you ?

I make paneer (very easy but sounds impressive) and houmous

Don't buy ready meals

I do buy deserts and cake and bread as I am rubbish at baking

But chicken stock is easy, whereas I've always viewed making pasta as something that takes a bit of skill?

I do and if I'm tired i would just have a sarnie or noodles.
Is making own bread cost effective and/or tastier? I'm not convinced.

Tell me about peynir making please Yadda.

I do

I'm not a fan of readymeals, but as noted will use jars of pesto, readymade pasta and some readymade sauce (eg hoisin sauce, tomato ketchup, though have made from scratch when desperate!) Takeaways - the boys regularly have fish and chips on a Saturday night after swimming (DH and I are usually out later). Also I can't beat my Indian restaurant so I tend to have curry as takeaway rather than bothering to cook it. It also helps me ignore the amount of fat - I did make ghee once and was horrified when I realised quite how many calories must have gone into the final dish. That said I am envious of my Indian friends who appear to be able to turn out the most amazing dishes at the drop of a hat (though they can't make a cheese sauce!).

So "to make from scratches" asked a lot of hard work...I dont do my pasta, my bread..I have once tried to do my houmous but it was not nice..I sometimes do my tomatoe sauce for the pasta otherwise I buy the bolognese ready to use. We tried to eat fresh food as much as we can...maybe one day I'll bake my own bread.

We were given a bread machine, so it can't really be described as making my own. But I use the bread machine all time because it smells so nice.

Ladymuck,I wouldn't consider tomato sauce to be a 'readymade' food.There are limits!

I do.

But if the urge is upon me, I will eat/serve:

fish-fingers

Heinz Tomato Soup (if I have a cold - it was'poorly' food when I was little and continues to work it's magic now, however hard I try to prefer cullen skink)

Frozen chips. (Can rarely be phased to make them from scratch as we live 30 miles from some of the best fish suppers in the world)

Bought a ready meal once, and spent so long agonising over the chill cabinet, picking them up, and muttering 'But I could make this in twenty minutes' that I really can't bear to do it again.

I do make my own bread but i am not convinced it is cheaper as it only lasts a day

I dont buy ready meals, but do buy pizza and garlic bread, sometimes make them myself sometimes dont. I dont use jars except for curry pastes. I also buy chicken kievs, because I like them and I buy frozen chips

On the whole though i dont think we are too bad........but the sun doesnt shine out of my arse either

Making own bread is not cost effective when compared to cheap bread. It is cost effective if you want lovely 'solid' fresh bread each day without going to a specialist bakery.

Gawd,if i had a bread machine would be size of a house.Am drooling at thought of warm bread slathered in butter...

I do

I do keep some convenience things in the freezer so if I am in a major rush, or I've not been to the shops I can always rustle something up....

but most of the time, yep, I cook everything from scratch - except biscuits, I haven't actually mastered the art of baking biscuits yet

i dont make pasta
or ketchup

It depends on definitions. Take a stir fry.

1)You can get a packet and stick it in the microwave.
2) You can get a packet which includes prechopped veg, and the right amount of sauce and noodles and then you "cook" these in a wok.
3) Or you can get a jar of sweet chilli sauce, cut up chicken and veg, cook , add sauce and add a packet of noodle.
4)Or you can go a step further and make your own sauce, make your own noodles etc. 5) Lentil weavers will of course have grown their own vegtables and killed their own chickens.

Depending on the meal I fall between 3 and 4. But some people will count 2 as "cooking from scratch", whilst others only count 4 or 5.

3 isn't time consuming really. And 4 isn't time consuming if you do it for more than one meal at a time.

oh moondog dont buy one. I started cooking cheese bread and melting loads of cheese on top and then having it warm with butter

I had to put my bread machine away for a few weeks so i could 'get over it'

Am the size of a house

I have grown two dress sizes since buying my breadmaker though

and tis very difficult to diet with the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house

Moondog - re ketchup I agree, but I'm fairly sure that I've seen plenty of Annabel Karmel type books that suggested wholesome recipes for it!

Who else has a pasta machine that emerges just often enough to have grown new life in it's innards between uses?

Am still waiting for recipe for Paneer. I like things that are simple but appear impressive

I don't do ready meals.
We do have to odd take away - maybe once a fortnight, sometimes slightly more.
We do eat out, esp at weekends. We ate out this evening too.
DH buys his lunch in town. I take homemade or tinned soup generally. DD has school dinner.

Rest of time I cook at night. If in lunch is something simple like eggs or sandwiches.

it depends on whqt you call cooking.
according to me, making a sandwich is cooking just as much as cooking a six course meal is.
according to dh and mil, its not cooking unless it's a curry, along with a dhaal, a side dish of veg curry all served up with rice. and no, naan doesnt count. has to be rice.

Mostly cook my own but am known to buy the very odd ready meal if it's been a long day and I've not been organised. I make a really good Lasagne (puffs up with immodest pride) but have also been known to heat up one from Lidl when time is short. I wouldn't buy reasy made stuff all the time but can't see the harm when time is short.