cooking from scratch or buying ready made?

freyasmum

I would hate to live on ready meals.

My ex's parents used to have them every night, without fail, for dinner. It cost them an absolute fortune (£100+/week for 3 people). And we can't forget the time it took to individually heat up all these meals - I could've had a HM dinner on the table well before they were ready to eat!

I know exactly what goes into my meals, I know they are far tastier than any shop-bought meals will be, and I enjoy doing it.

For me, it's simple, I like to feed my family good, healthy, nutritious meals - not to mention it's much cheaper, too!

Woodyrocks wrote: »

I had a really mad dream last night that I was on a mission to make home-made ice cream and started talking to someone that suggested putting things like carrot and grapes in the mix when all I wanted was rum & raisin! I did buy one of those i/cream makers off amazon so might get it down off the shelf and read the instructions and give it a go. It can't be that hard, surely?

I don't know what kind of ice cream machine you have, but it can be very easy.

I made apple crumble ice cream the other day :drool: I made the basic mix (cream, milk and sugar) and added some value apple sauce (bought ready made ) and I baked some crumble mix and put it in the machine. It was absolutely delicious and to buy the equivalent would've cost me a fortune (though the machine wasn't exactly cheap )

freyasmum

jo1972 wrote: »

Possibly a little off topic, but whilst on the subject...I want to encourage my younger two kids (5 and 3) to cook, my 5yr old DS is really keen and keeps asking if he can do anything for me whilst I'm cooking dinner, he says he wants to be like Gordon Ramsey (I hope his language isn't :eek:). Can any of you recommend any good kids recipe books I can get that have a good variation of things, not just all cakes and sweet stuff. I want them to learn to cook their meals as it might encourage them to eat more too. The books I've looked at have nice pictures but the methods are far too complicated...

There's loads on Amazon, but I really want word of mouth as I don't have the money to waste on books that are no good.

Any suggestions?

TBH, I just have my DD (she's two) up beside me when I'm cooking. I had her up - much to the horror of my mother :rotfl: - peeling carrots the other day, then she was helping me to grate them, and she opened the (shame on me ) stock cubes and helped me get the lentils out of the pack when I was making soup.

She watches me make bread, and I always give her a bit of the dough and she copies me - same when we make biscuits, she gets her own little bit of dough and her little rolling pin and cutters.

I think the river cottage family cookbook explains things really well - and it explains why things happen, which I think is great. But they may be ever-so-slightly too young for it? I just include DD in whatever I'm doing - within reason, lol!

lynzpower

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooking-Up-Storm-Survival-Cookbook/dp/1844287742

we bought this for our nephew and it is a lovely book, great pictures, and the writer is a teenager himself and makes it fun.

Some of the writing might be a bit old "me and my mate eat these before going to play football" type stuff, but the writing is really straightforward.

bertiebots

The thought of standardised meals churned out at minimul cost for maximum profit horrifies me. God only knows what we would end up eating . I love cooking and know that not everyone does ,but ready made mush is not the answer to the worlds food problems. I think education is key to encouraging our children into how to cook, eat, shop ,budget etc for their future. Unfortunatley home economics became too un-p.c for modern schools so it has been left to hard pushed familys. With people working long hours and cheap processed food available many traditional skills have been lost along the way. Its no ones fault ..just modern life taking over.
O/s has to be better in every way and its definaitley cheaper. I chose last year to be a sahm after years of juggling hours/shift etc and now money is tight but I have never been happier. I feed our family for £10 per head per week or even less and love every minute of it!

NAT.B_2

6 years ago I wouldnt cook that healthy meal for me or my son,(waffles, breaded planes i'ld make my own frying chips) but years down the line I have learnt that my son is much calmer now i have cut all the crap out, my son Eats so well now he loves veg, fruit, and eats 5+ more a day with real meat!

Im glad about this as I have two step kids one whom is over weight and they hate Veg they will eat some fruit but not a wide range.

So this year to try and encourge all the children we(I) grew potatos, tomatos, butternut squash(died), garlic onions carrots, parsnips,spring onions aspargus, herbs and strawberries some didnt turn out that great most was started from seed and the children couldnt believe what they was seeing growing in front on them.

I love cooking but am not that great, trial and error! lol
I do not buy any pre microwave meals the only things I buy now and again are pizzas, curry/pasta sauce in jars.
I like the kids watching me cook and helping out with meals.

exlibris

Ready made meals do have their place. When I was learning to use my freezer I would check the ready-made fridges to see what they froze. I then made it at home and knew I stood the chance of freezing it successfully!

LameWolf

I definitely prefer to cook from scratch. I want to know exactly what I'm eating, not have to scrutinise the tiny writing on the ingredients panel in case there's something I don't want to eat in there (eg gelatin).

If I put my mind to it, I can rustle up a OS meal in the same or less time than it takes to get two ready meals out of the freezer and microwave them.

I can "tweak" the recipe to suit our taste buds, and I can experiment with new ideas.

We do keep a couple of packet soups in the cupboard for when I'm having a bad lupus day and Mr LW is on late shift, but that's about it.

mummyof2girls

Hi I'm new but just wanted to add my thoughts to this thread.

I've been cooking most of our meals from scratch since January last year and I can honestly say I've found it cheaper, and the taste is so much better!! I do use the odd jar of cook-in sauce, and some frozen items like pizza or fishfingers for those manic nights.....but that's just what works for us.

I make a lot of pasta dishes (pasta bakes, spag bol, lasagne etc), stirfries,pies etc and most of the time we have leftovers for another meal or to pop in the freezer. I also bake cakes & cookies for my daughters' packed lunches & after school snacks, which all taste 10x better than anything shop bought!!

Cooking from scratch also fits in with my weekly meal planning, as I only buy what ingredients I need for each meal, so I always know what we are having each night.

Mellika

jo1972 wrote: »

Possibly a little off topic, but whilst on the subject...I want to encourage my younger two kids (5 and 3) to cook, my 5yr old DS is really keen and keeps asking if he can do anything for me whilst I'm cooking dinner, he says he wants to be like Gordon Ramsey (I hope his language isn't :eek:). Can any of you recommend any good kids recipe books I can get that have a good variation of things, not just all cakes and sweet stuff. I want them to learn to cook their meals as it might encourage them to eat more too. The books I've looked at have nice pictures but the methods are far too complicated...

There's loads on Amazon, but I really want word of mouth as I don't have the money to waste on books that are no good.

Any suggestions?

What about The River Cottage Family Cookbook? Love that book!

mummysaver

jo1972 - have a look in your local library, you can then try out several books, and either choose the recipes you like best and copy them, or buy your fave book. The Book People have quite a few kids cook books usually, and they're quite cheap, also charity shops often have kids and normal cook books, always worth a look.

To stay OT - I prefer cooking from scratch, ds and dd3 both have problems with various additives, and I think you get better quality and more food for your money. Got a bolognese bake cooking at the mo, will be more than enough to feed 6 of us with plenty left over to freeze, and can't have cost more than £2, don't think I'd find many ready meals like that, unless I was very luck with reduced price ones!