Do you ever get fed up cooking from scratch?

Paulie'sGirl

Hi,

I get days like this too. We both work long hours, so rely heavily on the HM ready meals we make (usually a big cook up every 2 months will see us ok with stirfrys and salads chucked in for variety)

Sometimes though, I just crave cr*p. I don't really see there's much wrong with that given that we work so hard to be balanced in our other meals.

A little of what you fancy does you good. If its a fish finger sandwich or a breaded cod portion, its hardly going to break the bank!

I just have to wean my OH off thinking fillet steak is of the same category!!

PGxx

budgetboo

Not every meal has to be a gourmet classic, so aim to include a couple of "sling togethers" in your weekly plan.

One drawer of my freezer is devoted to frozen "extra" portions of home cooked stuff that can be "pinged" when I really can't be bothered. It's come in really handy at times cos I'm a lone parent so my "home made ready meal drawer" comes into it's own if I'm too unwell to cook properly for a few days.

Once every 4 weeks we have chips from the chip shop to go with bought in oven fish.

I also do one pasta/noodle meal a week cos I'm bone idle and these are v. quick to prep. Also Saturday night most weeks is home made pizza and popcorn night but I make the dough on Friday night before I hit the sack to save time.

I'm another one who eats seasonally as this helps force me to ring the changes through the year menu wise, which helps stave off fatigue with scratch cooking, as well as keeping the food budget under control. New ingredients for seasonal changes heps stop me getting bored.

No child has yet died when served beans on toast for the occasional lunch either.

Horace

I don't have kids but try and cook all my meals from scratch.

I occasionally eat processed food - usually when I am ill and can't be bothered to cook but for the most part I have some home made ready meals ready to be cooked by Ping. Roast beef dinner can easily be turned into a dinner to eat at first cooking and then portions frozen with roast spuds and gravy - I tend use frozen veg which I add when I use Ping.

I made up some bolognese sauce on Wednesday - so I had a portion with rice, then I added some veg the next day to a portion and dare I say it..I used some Aunt Bessies Mash and put that on the top with a smidgen of cheese and had cottage pie, today I had the final bit with some crusty bread and salad.

Tonight it is pizza night. I have to think what to do with pork belly - dunno why I bought it really because I am not really keen on eating pork..I have 6 strips of it which has been portioned and frozen.

lickylonglips

do it in a honey and soy glaze and roast it slowly in the oven. serve with pak choi or spring greens

Pitlanepiglet

I was on a course all day today and OH was working, I made a batch of chilli a couple of days ago and meant to just to rice to go with it tonight, in the end, I couldn't be bothered and chucked chicken goujons and oven chips in the oven and beans in the microwave! Actually rice was probably easier....but I was definitely craving something that I hadn't actually cooked!

bluebag

Yes, I do...that's what the phone and take away pizza's for, and the chippy and kebabs and fried chicken and curry and chinese and, and .......run out of money too quick if I do all that.

Ah well !!! back to choppin' and slicin'.

happy35

i do cook from scratch nearly every night, one night a week I cook a pan of soup for tomorrow so it is a just a case of reheating i use the time saved from cooking to catch up on ironing or cleaning

I have tried making HM pizzas but have decided to buy them as we have them on a Friday night and as I work full time it is nice to come in and sit down to somethign to eat with no effort. I also sometimes have a takeaway used to do this every week so am saving some money while still spending on frozen pizza. We like the frozen mozzarella ones form Lidl and at between £2 and £2.49 for 2 it is still quite cheap I usually put chilli on mine as I like spicy pizzas.

OH and DS sometimes ask for fishfingers so I buy them now and again and serve these with HM slimming world chips and HM mushy peas.

I dont feel guilty having a few quick meals as we eat reeally healthily most of the time so the times that we eat processed foods I dont think will have a massive effect on our health

butterfly72

Rikki wrote: »

If you were to batch cook you could have a home made meal ready in the freezer.

I like the idea of batch cooking but am not sure exactly what works! Is it only casserole/stew type meat dishes you can freeze and warm up? do any veggie dishes work? I'm not veggie but only like to eat meat once a week.

The other problem is that I've banished the microwave to the shed. I was hardly using it and OH got me a Kitchen Aid for christmas which sits proudly in the microwave space (only used it twice mind!) I do have a remoska, I suppose I could use that to warm things up.

thanks

Ilona

Most of my meals are from scratch. I don't meal plan because I prefer to surprise myself at the last minute. My meals are simple and take no longer than ten minutes to prepare and make, the kitchen is not my favourite room. The only batch cooking I do is a three day veggie stew, eaten on three consecutive days. But....I have a bung in the microwave pasta meal in the freezer for when I can't be bothered.
Ilona