Only 1 in 4 meals cooked from scratch....

VJsmum

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I enjoy reading the OS board, but an awful lot of the meal tips here are completely irrelevant to my own lifestyle. I am single, vegetarian and live in a flat with a small kitchen with limited storage space. I don't drive so can only buy groceries that I can physically carry. Many people live in flat/houseshares where they may get half a shelf of freezer space and certainly won't have room for a well stocked store cupboard, spice rack, bread maker, slow cooker, food processor etc. Newbuild properties are notoriously tiny compared to older houses, and with the trend of open plan kitchen-diners the amount of work surfaces and storage space is greatly reduced. People who work full time and commute may simply not wish to spend their limited free time shopping, cooking and washing up (cookery shows never show how much washing up is generated by cake baking for example!).

Most of my meals are based around fresh veg (curries, chillis, stir frys, pastas etc) but I invariably use sauce out of a jar or packet. I'm fairly confident I won't be on my deathbed sighing and wishing I'd spent more of my youth making curry sauce.

I agree - when i was a student sharing a house with 2 others, we did cook our own food but not "from scratch". We had sausage casseroles and beef bourguigonnes etc but always with packet mixes. The only herbs / spices we had were chilli powder and oregano for the obligatory chilli / spag bol. Store cupboards were pretty non existent except for the odd bit of pasta, cereal and tea / coffee. Still we did cook (on a rota 1 week in 3 we each meal planned shopped and cooked) we spent about £15 a week for the 3 of us. I think that is pretty good going.

When i got my own home i started to realise that you didn't have to buy packet sauces but could make them yourself and so the store cupboard started to build up. HOwever, there are some random herbs / spices i could just chuck as i've only used them once in about 10 years - e.g. dill, mace, marjoram.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

@VJsmum Each to his own. Provided you are eating healthily that's the best thing. I used to live in a bedsit so I know, but thankfully years ago (is that thankfully? in one sense my own space yes but the other factor?) I am now in a flat. I hope you eventually get into your own flat then you can do more.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Being a chef even with limited repetoire and ingredients is IMHO always a worthy goal. A few good qaulity ingredients and recipes.

cazj80

rinabean wrote: »

Ready meal portions are tiny! I think it's because they are often so salty and fatty that if they were any bigger the nutritional information would make most people not want to eat it. They always brag about how "healthy" they are - well, yeah, I wouldn't expect more than 50% of my daily sat fat in a lasagne portion the size of my finger!!

I've thought of another ready meal that's not that bad - those innocent veg pots. They're still more than making it yourself and the packaging is something I prefer to avoid, but you can't really frown on them otherwise. M&S meals tend to contain about 3 litres of cream and while it may well be British and without additives, you know, it's still 3l of cream in your dinner, ha!

Comparing the cost of HM and ready meals is tough because you're so rarely comparing like-for-like, and, well, who'd want to? The best thing about HM food is that, assuming you can cook, it's precisely how you like it. I can't fully enjoy restaurants for this reason - I'm sitting there thinking, well, this is alright, but it would be so much nicer if they'd done x and y, and how much am I paying for this?

A bit off topic maybe, but I got a few of those innocent veg pots when they were doing their twitter promotion and I have found that the pots are the perfect size for freezing/refridgerating soup in, when full they hold just the right amount to give me a lovely big bowl of soup, and also helps the soup last longer, rather than keeping a big bowl of it in the fridge, or in the saucepan on the cooker.

Justamum

cazj80 wrote: »

A bit off topic maybe, but I got a few of those innocent veg pots when they were doing their twitter promotion and I have found that the pots are the perfect size for freezing/refridgerating soup in, when full they hold just the right amount to give me a lovely big bowl of soup, and also helps the soup last longer, rather than keeping a big bowl of it in the fridge, or in the saucepan on the cooker.

I use margarine tubs to freeze soup and put 400g in each one when I've got leftovers. The reason I put 400g in them is because that is the same size as a tin!