How Often Do You Rustle Up A Meal From Scratch?

JupiterKid wrote: »

Well, I’ve been flat out incredibly busy with work the past week, and when I get home in the evenings I’ve been just too wrecked to start cooking a dinner for myself and my OH from scratch, so I might boil some spuds, open a tin of peas and stick a frozen Chicken Kiev in the oven.

Some days I’m so tired I’d just order something in. I know, it’s a bad habit...

But how often do you have the time - please be honest - to do a big cook with many ingredients bought fresh, prep the food and cook the meal? Is it worth the effort?

Do share...

Once a day apart from Saturday when we get a takeaway. I am a stay at home dad so it’s kind of expected of me to have a main meal ready for everyone in the evenings.
The slow cooker is my god send, stick all ingredients in at 9am and it’s ready at 5..

Breakfast is a big pot of sweet porridge for the whole family,

If I'm being totally honest, around 6 times a year I go all out ferral... I go out and catch a bass early in the morning, take it home and prepare it.
Dig some spuds from the garden and get some peas from said garden.

Cut the spuds into chips deepfat fry them, bake the bass in the oven and boil the peas and I have a totally fresh dinner.

I'm very reliant on my freezer, I make all my bulk meals from scratch every 4/5 days and survive on them . Best job !

We have cleared the land, dried the marshes, pierced the forests, made roads; we have been building, inventing, observing, reasoning; we have created complex machinery, wrested her secrets from Nature, we have made a servant of steam, electricity and the split the atom.

The result is, that now the child of the civilised man finds ready, at its birth, to his hand an immense capital accumulated by those who have gone before him. And this capital enables him to acquire, merely by his own labour, combined with the labour of others, riches surpassing the dreams of the Orient, expressed in the fairy tales of the Thousand and One Nights...

...and you have the barefaced arrogance to say 'from scratch'?

Tacklebox wrote: »

If I'm being totally honest, around 6 times a year, I go out and catch a bass early in the morning, take it home and prepare it.
Dig some spuds from the garden and get some peas from said garden.

Cut the spuds into chips deepfat fry them, bake the bass in the oven and boil the peas and I have a totally fresh dinner.

Caught a beautiful bass in Wexford about 10 years ago from the beach. They're a gorgeous looking fish.

nearly every day. I left out pork chops this morning, and made a potato & veg tray bake when I got home. I put the chops on over the vegetables for the last 20 minutes. Very nice it was too
I’ll probably do a stir fry with the remaining chops tomorrow & bung in some frozen peas, etc. To me, it’s just habit to cook from scratch. We never phone takeaways, as it is a pain in the butt to give directions to our apartment and get the driver through the security gates.

If I came in late from work, I would not bother cooking a full meal, but I might have some Ryvita with mashed egg or cheese to take the edge off. Or hopefully my OH will have made something and I will have some of that. If you know you are facing a heavy week, I would recommend cooking in advance and freeze up the portions: Curries, lasagne, stews, chunky soups. The stir fry mixes in the butchers can be a handy freezer go-to, just add noodles or rice and you are ready to eat in about 15 minutes.

I cook something more or less everyday but try be efficient with effort. Whatever I decide to make I make enough for a number of portions, so I can eat some that day or over the next 3 days, and freeze a bit as well.
Diced onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots can be gotten to put in the freezer. Knowing very little about herbs and spices can go a long way - (basically every food can be paired with a variety of herbs and/or spices, just buy a few dried ones and go).
Having tins/packets of rice, pasta, noodles, fish, beans (not only baked), pickles, stock can cover you for so many dishes (and have an extremely long shelf life just like dried herbs and spices).
Some salady things to keep in the fridge with some fresh meat /fish and you're sorted.

With the internet, it is really easy to make tasty, easy, nutritious food for not too an expensive price.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

if i dont the missus will have, or else itll be reheated/reworked from night before

love cooking, its a great way to unwind once we get home and i dont view it as a chore at all. podcast or spotify on and we'd be sitting down to one of hundreds of recipes by the time half six rolls around every evening.

Yep definitely. I actually enjoy getting home from work and roaming around the kitchen preparing a meal, and if im lucky having a beer or glass of wine while i do that.

My mother on the other hand is the complete opposite and would rather just bung a chicken goujon tray in the oven with frozen chips.

Batch cooking is the way to go. With so many houses having two people out working who has time to cook from scratch every evening? Just cook up two or three healthy meals on a Sunday night that will see you through to Thursday. Curry's, stews, chillis etc... which all taste better when left to mature for a day or two. For anyone interested BBC Good Food is a great site for receipes.

Most Sundays I take a bit of time to do a big batch of something e.g. bolognese, chili, curry, pasta bake etc. That'll do dinner that day and then cover me or lunches until maybe Wednesday - being honest I'm probably sick of it by Wednesday so hit Tesco for a meal deal.

Everyday dinners are easy, I mean spuds, rice, pasta with chicken, steak, salmon etc. and a bunch of veg doesn't take much time really - sure the meat and veg cooks while the spuds are boiling so all in about 15 minutes. When we have chips it takes a bit longer because of the prep, par boil and then airfryer is a bit slow but apparently we're allowed now have these slimming world chips straight from the freezer - how convenient!

I enjoy the process of cooking, after a day of dealing with issues/people it's good for helping the brain relax.

Practically never anymore! My go to quick and moderately healthy meal is salmon in the oven for 20 mins, microwaveable rice and veg. I don't enjoy cooking. I would prefer to have a sandwich most evenings myself but have to make something for my son and my OH is often not there for dinner time so it's not worth the hassle.

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I'm alright at cooking from scratch meals/cakes/etc from I was a teenager. Nothing really would bother me. We'd cook a good enough dinner every day. My meals probably wouldn't good looking enough for Instagram tough.

Just add avocado for Instagram.