Freshly cooked meals for children? How often a week?

[Mum84762002]

How often are you cooking freshly cooked meals and how often are you cooking frozen food for your children?

By fresh I refrigerated meat/fish etc.

Thank you!

Every day.

Not saying this to sound smug, just our preference.

Might sometimes have some frozen veg with or in the meal but the main components are always fresh

Brace yourself for everyone cooking everything fresh, from scratch, organic, ethically sourced, non-processed, meals all purchased from the local farm shop that they walk to in order to reduce food miles 🙈

Im not sure if home-made meals that have been put in the freezer count for what you mean as fresh so I won't answer x

Every day. Isn’t this the norm? It’s my job as a parent to feed them properly.

Most days , might have shop bought pasta and sauce with garlic bread once a week or so but mainly home made most days .

Do you include stuff I’ve cooked from scratch then frozen? Because when mine were young we cooked the week’s meals at the weekend.

Every single meal. I'm prioritising that over many other things (free time, money available for other things) at the moment to give lo the best start in life.

6 days a week? To be honest we tend to have a day or so where it’s manic so we’ll get/make a pizza or pasta.

We both enjoy cooking, though, so that probably helps!

Are you asking whether things are home made, whether they are home made that day, or something else?

Eg if I make dhal and we eat one portion that day, fridge one portion and freeze one, which of these 3 would count in your list? Would you distinguish between fresh pizza and frozen pizza? Are you actually talking about "beige food" vs made from scratch?

Yes this, I don't understand the question. For example I use quite a lot of frozen veg but that clearly isn't an issue.

Every day except for an occasional pizza takeaway. As much for us as for DD as I like eating freshly cooked food. I have a few things batch cooked for her in the freezer for when she refuses the main meal.

Freshly cooked meals which can include frozen veg or freshly frozen meat - pretty much every day
I wouldn’t class a “fresh” shop pizza and different to a frozen one either

Not as much as I would like tbh. Working, after school clubs etc means most of the time I just can't do it. I really make an effort at the weekends with food and will try to batch cook and freeze portions for the week but dinners in the week range from French toast, beans on toast, freezer beige food. Anything that's quick and easy really that the kids will eat.

5 days a week probably.

Some days are sandwiches, or jacket potatoes, or fish fingers, or scrambled egg.

at least one of those will be the other half of something cooked on a previous day.

Sorry I should have been more clear. So I don't really mean frozen veg, or home made meals that are frozen. I'm talking more like frozen saussages, frozen chicken breast, frozen mince etc how often would you use frozen stuff like that?

Half the time maybe. Three quarters possibly. That’s about ten times what I had as a kid, and I feel no guilt whatsoever.

I'm wondering if the frozen chicken breast/mince/saussages etc are okay from food warehouse ?

That's what I'm worried about, like should I be making from scratch everyday? I'm not currently and I'm just wondering how often are people actually cooking from scratch a week?

I don't understand why you're differentiating between meat/fish that has been frozen and meat/fish that has only been refrigerated. Do you mean ready meals/ ultra- processed foods versus processed or homemade from scratch?

Does freezing chicken breast significantly rob it of its nutritional value? I genuinely was not aware of that.

I quite often buy yellow label meat (close to its use by date) to save money, freeze it, and then defrost it on the day I want to use it. Have I been doing something wrong?

5 days on average, one day usually pizza or fresh pasta and one day takeaway curry maybe, some weeks 7/7 if skint! Some days are freshly cooked but easy meals though. I’d say complicated meals 2 per week and I usually try and batch those if possible such as if I make a curry paste I make loads. Examples of quick meals would be pasta and pesto, with some veg in it and cheese, or noodles with cooked chicken, sweet corn chopped peppers and soy sauce etc - takes no time! If the kids have eaten school meal then Beans on toast, grated cheese with fruit and yogurt sometimes!!

Almost every day. She does Rainbows one day so tends to have something like wraps, salad and some fruit that day but we all eat cooked meals together every other day. Occasionally burgers or pizzas or something at the weekend.

Every day but I do batch cook.

Typical week for us:
Sunday roast dinner or selection of curries -everything cooked from scratch but sometimes frozen Yorkshire puddings. Curries would be homemade with rice
monday- leftovers from sunday
Tuesday-
wed - eggs and beans on toast or similar
thurs -pasta with homemade meatballs or bolognaise
fri- noodles with homemade chicken and veg sauce/eggs with it
sat - take away or fake away- might be Nando’s style chicken or homemade burgers/pizza

mostly cook from scratch but busy family so sometime frozen meals or something simple like jacket potatoes with filling. No guilt. Healthy balance of meals mostly and time is also prioritised on all family members being able to exercise/do hobbies and 2 parents with full on jobs. 1 teen and 1 pre teen. Both help with cooking.

Yes I would cook from scratch almost every day
it’s how I was brought up, I can do better food more cheaply and I know how to cut corners so I can do it quickly - pasta with frozen veg with a cheesy sauce : a simple risotto , fish with boiled unpeeled potaoes and frozen veg , jacket potaoes with grated cheese and a coleslaw ( grate md carrots and cabbage ) ; and then microwave / reheat soups and stews and the like if you make double and freeze half

This is me. I live in a country where it’s easy to do so and find proper food. Except I don’t walk all the time, I also drive. But yeah, I do take pride in watching what I eat.