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

lostinrates

I mainly cook from scratch. But I do have bouht pesto in the fridge....and sometimes bought things like peto augment other things I cook. I use stuff bought that I could make too, and sometimes do.....bread/puff pastry/cheeses/dried pasta.

I have often seen the ping meals (we call them pr1ck pr1ck ping meals ) and see that ''doing it properly'' at home will cost more....but the results will usually be better I'm certain. So, often we make the consious decision to spend MORE on food cooking from scratch.

I agree much of this depends on what is classed as from scratch, cheese, salami, sausages etc are probably more commonly bought than made. Ham....I bake or boil hams a few times a year, but bought ham doesn't make me horrified, (depending on source and preparation).

I also have tins in, baked beans (even though home made are yummy, bought are cheap, quick, easy) fruit, consomme (the only tinned soup I can stand are consomme and tomato!) for times of need. Bought (dry) pasta is the basis for many an other wise hoeade supper for dh.....so that's not from scratch I guess.

becs

We cook about 95% from scratch with the 5% being the odd loaf of bread if I haven't made any and usually buy dried pasta but do make my own as well. We cook a lot but 90% of my work colleagues will be doing less than half cooking from scratch and some 100% ready made. They really need to be doing more cookeryat school, not just learning to bake a cake but make soup, cook a roast, family meals on a budget.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

FarmersWife wrote: »

... OH and I call 'ping meals'...

lostinrates wrote: »

...we call them pr1ck pr1ck ping meals ...

My DD calls then Ding Dinners

And at 69p for a microwave lasagne that she likes and can heat herself when I'm out, compared to a few pounds for mince, lasagne sheets, onion, tomato, garlic, milk, four, butter, cheese and cooking that I hate (I prefer veggie lasagne) and cannot be stored due to lack of £200 for a freezer that would have to sit in front of the bathroom door next to the radiator, the cheap lasagne wins everytime.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

becs wrote: »

We cook about 95% from scratch with the 5% being the odd loaf of bread if I haven't made any and usually buy dried pasta but do make my own as well. We cook a lot but 90% of my work colleagues will be doing less than half cooking from scratch and some 100% ready made. They really need to be doing more cookeryat school, not just learning to bake a cake but make soup, cook a roast, family meals on a budget.

There is NO way ON EARTH I would buy a lump of meat just for it to be destroyed at school. As it is, a lump of meat is a rare enough occasion in any meal.

PolkaDotsAndLace

I actuallly thought it would have been lower. And like you've all said, it depends on the definition of cooking from scratch. We'll often have pasta for tea, but will make a homemade sauce for it, either a plain tomato one or a tomatoey tuna one - does that count because the pasta is dried, tomatoes are out of a tin etc?

Today I'll be making soup and cottage pie to freeze, so we do cook a lot but there are always going to be nights I don't want to have to pay attention to what I'm cooking and would rather just have chicken kiev, chips and some frozen veg.

Ready meal prices are ridiculous though, £2 odd and it only feeds one...you can definitely cook from scratch for cheaper than that.

pinkteapot

kippers wrote: »

It's just said on the BBC news that only 1 in 4 meals are cooked from scratch.:shocked: How do people afford this?....All the salt and preservatives etc that are in ready meals.......and they don't taste very nice.

I'm amazed

How are they defining this?

For example, on nights when we're both working we'll often have a curry consisting of fresh chicken breast and veg but using a jar of curry sauce (Patak's or Sharwoods - something like that) instead of HM sauce.

This isn't a meal cooked from scratch but equally it's not as bad as a proper "ready meal"...

scheming_gypsy

PolkaDotsAndLace wrote: »

Ready meal prices are ridiculous though, £2 odd and it only feeds one...you can definitely cook from scratch for cheaper than that.

but can you cook the same meal from scratch for that? If i do a chilli or a curry, I'm heading towards £50.. Granted there'll be enough to freeze but nowhere near the same amount as I'd get in 50 £1 ready meals.
When you cook from scratch you're more likely to use decent quality food rather than the cheap shite in the ready meals, which is why they're so cheap.

and they don't feed one at all. They're more like a starter!

Badger_Lady

I live alone and work away from home most of the time, so yeah I'm probably pulling the average down! I don't even have access to a full kitchen from Monday to Thursday. I generally pop into the supermarkets on my way home from work and pick something up from the reduced section... for example my last meal was mushroom and ricotta tortellini reduced from £3-ish to 50p. I put a couple of teaspoons of jarred pesto with it and job's a good 'un.

My lunch is usually a jacket potato cooked in the office microwave, with canned beans or humous or cream cheese on top. Not exactly a home-cooked meal but it's relatively healthy and cheap just the same

jjblondie

I was brought up on microwave ready meals, picnic style bits of food (if dinner wasn't microwaved, it was ham, frozen broccoli and bread), and a roast once a week made by my dad. So that made one in 21 meals cooked from scratch in our house...

Just the thought of microwave ready meals makes me want to retch now I have my own kitchen.

scheming_gypsy

pinkteapot wrote: »

How are they defining this?

For example, on nights when we're both working we'll often have a curry consisting of fresh chicken breast and veg but using a jar of curry sauce (Patak's or Sharwoods - something like that) instead of HM sauce.

This isn't a meal cooked from scratch but equally it's not as bad as a proper "ready meal"...

To be honest I'd say it is cooked from scratch. You're making a full meal and not just reheating a pre bought meal; i think people might be reading too much into the 'cooked from scratch'.