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!

Everyday! I'll happily use things like frozen veg, pre-chopped, pickled garlic and tinned fish to make life easier. It doesn't lose any nutritional value for being frozen, tinned or pickled. Tonight, for example I made yellow rice (turmeric, frozen mixed veg, basmati rice) with chinese-style braised pork (from a tin) fried with garlic, served with nori seaweed.

Just thought of another idea - if you struggle for time or with cooking generally OP, bags of mixed frozen veg or steam veg packs are really handy and perfectly healthy as a side.

More or less every other night. We have hobbies on a Tuesday night so I do a quick beans on toast type tea then and I always do a freezer Thursday tea because I do a big shop on a Friday so we’re usually running short of fresh stuff by then. Then on a Saturday we like to have a pizza and a movie night although in the summer we’ll probably do a bbq instead with chicken or a tuna steak. I know 3 nights out of seven doesn’t look great but my conscience is clear tbh that I’m still getting enough nutrition into my kids.

During lockdown, when we were off work and school, I used to do shit lunch/good tea or vice versa.

Friday is an out the freezer meal and every other day is freshly cooked meals.

Most days but but there are some days when we have no choice due to time to gets fed, bathed and to bed. On those occasions it will be chicken nugget or fish fingers or some other ready prepared frozen meat or fresh pasta with pesto. To try and balance this out we always serve lots of veg and if it's an "quick dinner" the kids have Greek yogurt with fruit for pudding.

Life is too short to be fretting over whether or not a fish finger dinner a couple of times a month is too much. We do try to balance everything out though.

1-2 freezer food a week id say

Pretty much every day… sometimes fresh meat that I’ve frozen.

We have sausages (fresh from fridge) most weeks but dd3 has Linda McCartney sausages from the freezer because she doesn’t eat pork. Sometimes I’ll freeze meat and defrost it to cook a bit later in the week if I needed it beyond the use by date… but it’s still fresh food once defrosted surely?

We are 2 adults and one 11 year old and do the following.

Sunday - Roast beef dinner - all fresh/from scratch
Monday - Carbonara - all made from scratch except the linguine.
Tuesday - Chicken burgers with homemade chips or a side salad.
Wednesday- Homemade fish cakes with baby potatoes and a homemade sauce of some description.
Thursday - Something quick as we all have clubs/work late, usually scrambled egg and toast or pizza.
Friday - Lasagne with garlic bread and a side salad. Lasagne made from fresh with homemade bolognaise sauce and jar of white sauce.
Saturday - always a BBQ of some description, DH loves doing this. Fresh meat from the butchers and a packet of sourdough or brioche buns.

Generally I don’t buy frozen anything but that’s because we don’t have the space for a big freezer and because we’re quite fussy about what we eat. However a few years ago when there was more kids in the house and we both worked shifts it was a free for all. We made what was somewhat healthy and somewhat handy… as long as everyone is fed and happy sure that’s enough. We don’t need to put anymore pressure on ourselves as women/parents. God knows society does that for us.

Probably an average of 5 days per week. We have 'Pizza Friday ' (shop bought pizza) and might have some kind of breaded chicken/fish fingers and wedges type meal if in a rush/we want to eat something the kids won't like. I have zero guilt about this ratio and the odd freezer meal!

Every day, at least once, sometimes twice - it's a thing we're keen on and prioritise, and we've been lucky to arrange our time so that we can do this and eat together as a family. If having home cooked meals twice in a day, it's often e.g. a soup at lunchtime and the main meal later, or we'll have leftovers of a 'from fresh' meal for lunch, packed into a food flask if we're out for lunch.

We buy fish / meat fresh and home freezer what we're not using fresh. We buy frozen peas and corn, and some frozen berries / fruits, but otherwise have these fresh.

We eat out at a restaurant that cooks fresh food about once a month. We have fish fingers occasionally for a lunch, but that's pretty much it for ready prepared stuff. We have a takeaway maybe four times a year or fewer. We prepare food at home to take with us if we're out for the day so we know what's in it. We all have packed lunches for school / work.

But frozen veg/ fruit is fresh.
Phil Vickery says its very nutritional still.

Same here. Beige free household. We like eating so it’s preferable to actually have some flavour!

6 times a week. Though I do bulk cook my basic tomato pasta sauce monthly and freeze it.

Nursery cooks from scratch during the week. I hope :)
I cook from scratch during the weekend but I also batch cook and freeze.

Once a week we have have a freezer tea, every other day it's home cooked but I work from home and don't have to do a school run so it's easy. Every now and then we will also have shop bought pizzas or takeaway as a treat or if we can't be arsed to cook

It varies. Some weeks it’ll be chicken nuggets, oven chips & beans twice, shop bought sushi 1 day, home cooked from scratched another day, frozen homemade bolognaise / stir fry / curry, roast dinner with all the trimmings. Some weeks will be all home cooked, some there’ll be microwave lasagne,and / or steak pie with fresh veg.

Frozen raw chicken / beef / pork from Iceland or whatever supermarket etc is no worse than the fresh kind, unless you’re only wanting to eat free range organic etc.

honestly, if they’re eating a good variety of flavours and textures, and happy to try new things when you present them, you’re doing a great job. And if they’re not, but they’re eating and thriving, you’re also doing a great job.

I cook the evening meal from scratch at least six days a week, with a fajita kit or pasta with homemade sauce but frozen garlic bread on the other day. During the school hols I cook the odd frozen pizza or fish fingers. We never really have takeaways as we can’t get anything delivered to our village and food is generally cold by the time we get it home. Might occasionally have fish and chips.

It’s no great sacrifice, I just tend to meal plan and prep at weekends.

Being frozen doesn’t make something else health frozen chicken breast or fish fillets are healthier than fresh breaded chicken or sausages.

Maybe 4/5 from scratch dinners, some leftovers. I usually do beige food 2-3 times a week but more so at lunch. So 2 takeout, 2-3 beige food and 9 fresh or leftovers

Usually have one night that's pasta pesto, and one night that's frozen fish and chips. The rest of the time it's more curries, chilli, roast chicken.

Probably 5 days? This week they’re having

lentil bolognaise (homemade but batch cooked and frozen)
baked potatoes
chicken, potatoes and veg
pesto pasta with cherry tomatoes
thai green curry
Oven pizza
Easter roast at my mums

These threads never reflect what I see in real life. Both in my own household and those of peers/friends/neighbours.

I enjoy cooking, and I'm pretty good at cooking. When I can, I cook fresh - but I definitely don't manage it every night. At the moment I'm particularly struggling so a fully home-cooked meal from scratch without any sauces from the cupboard, dried pasta, or other store-bought elements, I'm probably only managing 3-4 nights per week.

To the PP who said that cooking fresh every night is "basic" or "essential" parenting, give over. As long as you're giving your child a meal every night, preferably a hot meal, and they're getting fruit/veg/nutrients, you're doing just fine. Of course cooking from scratch every night is preferable but it's not always achievable for a multitude of reasons.

You're not failing at basic parenting because you don't cook completely from scratch every night FFS.

If some nights my DC have (good quality) fishfingers or sausages with a ton of veg, I think that's absolutely bloody fine.

Some of these threads come up with great quick ideas for inspiration, but honestly OP don't beat yourself up if you don't manage fresh every night. Very few parents I know in real life do - and I'm including friends/relatives who are professionals (teachers/medics) so it's not a lack of knowledge or education. Aim for freshly cooked as often as you can, and using the best quality ingredients that you can afford. Avoid processed and definitely avoid UPF as much as you can. But don't give yourself a hard time if it's not always possible. Kids with full bellies and not going to be hungry is what matters the most.

Most days and I freeze extra portions for the days where we're short on time or I can't be bothered.

We cook fresh everyday. Sometimes we batch cook and freeze for when we need back up but as we both cook, we share it depending on who is home first and what plans we or the kids have.