How many hours do you spend cooking each day on average?

[meandmycoffeecup]

Both me and DP work full time. We seem to be spending between 1 and 1.5 hours cooking on average. Less during weekdays and more during weekends. I feel that is a lot of time, maybe i should look at ways to do it more efficiently. We don’t cook everyday but cooking big portions for 2days can take a lot of prep time.

When I add up breakfast, lunch and dinner, probably around an hour a day. Sometimes more sometimes less.

I try not to choose recipes that are too complicated and time consuming!

I reckon we spend at least 2 hours per day cooking, sometimes more. At least 3 if you count cleanup and dishes. We bake a lot as well as meals.

I spend 0. DH is the cook. Seems to take him 45 min. from start to finish, and some of that time he spends on his phone. We are 6 people (5 adult size) who eat huge amounts. Do you make fancy stuff, OP?

It's going to depend on your starting point as well as how much food you are making- podding an armload of peas vs chucking a bag from freezer to pan for instance.
@ragged that 45 mins is for just one meal, right? Not counting breakfast or lunch (packed or otherwise).

I don't really cook anything that needs more than 20 mins prep. I'm fast in the kitchen though.

@ragged nothing fancy, we usually just eat porridge, cereals for breakfast so no cooking. For dinner the usual pasta/stir fry/stew/rice. DC sometimes would have something different if our food is spicy but DC eats same food as us usually. At the end of the day i feel exhausted so need to find i can spend less time on.

*find things i can spend less time on

About an hour. I love one pot meals.

During the week, an hour, max.

At weekend it's definitely more. I batch cook at the weekend, this probably takes 3 hours. We then eat that food during the week, just quickly heat it up, etc.

Breakfast is usually eggs and toast, porridge or French toast (sometimes bacon done in the oven) so 10mins

Lunch daily is packed lunch for dc and leftovers for me/dh

Dinner- anything from 20mins to 1 hour depending on the meal.

You need to cook once, eat twice.

So : a double batch of bolognaise could be Spag bol, freeze one half, then make it into a lasagne later in the week.

Same with chilli : chilli and rice one night, chiili wraps baked with cheese on a couple of nights later.

Hardly any. I meal prep mainly so 10 minutes to warm up a curry, chop salad and boil rice for tea.

Breakfast is toast so 2 minutes?

Work dinners I take a soup or pasta out of the freezer the night before, blast it in the microwave and pop it in my food flask in the morning while the kettle is boiling. 3 minutes

15 mins total per day during the week.

I batch cook Saturday or Sunday (usually have 4 pots on the go including that day's food but most start with garlic, onions etc do easy to start them.all off the same.

I spend quite a bit of time cooking upto 2 hours some days, though its usually 1.5 hours. I used to hate cooking, it felt like a chore, but I changed my mindset completely when i realised I had no choice but too cook, unless I wanted to be overweight and unhealthy. So I booked DH and I onto some cooking courses, and we went together, learned new recipes, flavours cuisines etc. Now I see it as quite therapeutic, and it's something DH and I do together as much as we can. We put something nice on the TV, pour ourselves a glass of wine, and use the time to cook together. Has completely changed the experience for me, and on the days I know we're cooking together I actually really look forward to it.

There are quite a few recipe books based on quick but nutritional meals. Maybe have a look at them. We have a Jamie Oliver one and a Gordon Ramsey one.

It varies, but I enjoy cooking. Husband cooks when I work and hates it. Have you tried a meal plan? Definitely cook more of a stew and have leftovers with a baked potato or something next day.

i am happy to make a quiche and salads from scratch if I have time, but quick and easy usually means pasta or rice based. Home made soup is a meal for us if we have home made bread (breadmaker) or a stodgy pudding like apple crumble afterwards. Slicing apples and making crumble takes minutes but it's filling and a treat.

When I grate cheese, I do a whole block in the food processor and store some in the fridge. If I make lasagne, I double up the cheese sauce and tip some over cooked pasta or cauliflower for next day.

It completely depends. If I've been at work and out of the house since 6, as little time as possible!

If I have a more relaxed day, I'll cool something more elaborate.

The quickest meal I make is stuffed pasta. While it's cooking I shred a bag of pre washed spinach and chop up some avocado and fruit for afterwards. Stir through pesto and spinach and serve. 15 mins max.

An elaborate curry night, cottage pie, lasagne or quiche it can easily be an hour plus without the mammoth clear up!

Have you tried bulk cooking? So I make a big batch of bolognese and freeze the leftovers in freezer bags. Takes the same time as cooking one meal pretty much but I end up with enough bolognese to have once a week for 4 weeks. Bolognese is just an example but you can batch cook most things, it sigificantly reduces how long I spend cooking.

For me it depends, I cook alot of pasta dishes which don't take too long and I am a fan of simple quick but healthy meals like Salmon (just pop it in the oven) rice and broccoli. All in all takes about 20 minutes of cook time and probably 3 minutes of prep. Also once a week I might do something very simple like eggs on toast/mushrooms on toast etc

Zero when possible (most days as DH cooks) but no more than 30 mins when I have to - I usually make curries or stir fry or stews, sometimes pasta or rice dishes, all fresh veg/meat/fish & using curry pastes etc so don’t tend to grind spices etc. Salads with marinated meat or fish in summer & batch cook bolognaise or chilli. Definitely not hours a day, possibly a couple of hours a month tops!

I hate cooking though so keep it to a minimum. I can imagine spending hours - are you cooking fancy stuff every day!?

45 mins to an hour

This is the reason I don't cook every day. (by don't cook I mean things like beans on toast, tinned soupb etc). Far too time consuming. We're often out as well and don't drive so can't get back quickly . I do cook but I just find it too hard to it half as often as everyone else seem to

I don’t cook anything during the week which takes more than 30 mins. For example fish, potatoes and steamed veg, which I can chuck on in minutes. Or a tomato pasta sauce, which takes me about ten minutes to prepare. If I have time at the weekend I cook something taking longer.

At weekends I'd say 1hr 30mins each day as I'll normally do a roast or lasagne type meal which takes time.

Even sandwiches for 6 people is time consuming once you've buttered the bread, made the filling (eg egg mayo) and laid the table.

If I won the lottery then I'd employ a personal chef so I'd never have to cook again.

Probably 1-1.5 hrs a day.
I prefer one pot meals too.
Even my roasts or fish dishes are often one dish in the oven with all the veg either added in stages or at the same time depending what I’m doing.
Then you’re free to get in with something else for a bit and it doesn’t feel
Like you’re spending hours cooking.

Preparation and cooking from 30 min to 60 minutes depends on what I do. No ready meals, no microwave.