Be honest...how many meals cooked from scratch?

moggins

It depends really, sometimes family life can be a bit manic so I do make sure there is something in the freezer that I can just shove in an oven quickly if I have't had chance to make something. Mainly fish in breadcrumbs or something like that.

I still haven't mastered making great chips from scratch so I still prefer to use oven chips but find them a bit dry (I love soggy chips) but will always mess around with them too by drizzling them with olive oil and putting a spice mix over the top.

I used to buy loads of bolognese sauces but now I've found Asda smartprice Passata it's just as easy to fry some onions and garlic and throw in a couple of teaspoons of mixed herbs.

Milky_Mocha

I'm a bit strange when it comes to breakfast as I don't like tea or coffee and usually forget the existence of cornflakes or other 'processed' cereal...

... I love Scottish porridge oats!

and tapioca! ( I know most people have tapioca as a sweet or pudding but if you simmer it in fresh milk then add sugar to taste you've got yourself breakfast!)

I have to add though that DH and I have no kids and so the cooking doesn't make me (or us, as the case may be) into a kitchen slave. I'd like to think Id maintain the little or zero processed stuff when we have kids.

MrSmartprice

What I find amazing is the type of people you see on these TV programmes where they are struggling to make ends meet. Invariably they are families with several kids, all overweight and living on ready made convenience food. They are too idle to do anything beyond operate a microwave, the kids are stuffing chocolate, crisps and fizzy pop all day long, and they wonder why they have no money.

I suppose part of the reason is that cooking skills are not taught in schools now. And many people just can't be bothered. Sadly, these people will also never find the MoneySavers site either!

culpepper

about 9/10 for us.We have oats and raisins and HM yog for brek or toast (HM) and HM jam.I buy oven chips about once in 3 months maybe.We make all biccys and cakes as its cheaper and you know whats in them.Ive done it this way since we first had kids as we live on one income and it was cheaper than me going back to work,paying childcare and travel costs etc but I have got a lot better The first few times I did bread we had to eat bricks.

Rebob

I have many friends that cannot cook and refuse to eat veg anyway. It is a novelty being one of the few left that cook. The problem is that it is often more expensive to cook some things from scratch than to buy ready prepared stuff.

In our house it is 80% from scratch. even the chinese we have from the takeaway is from scratch. You can watch them cook your order which for us is chicken and mushroom with rice. I know that it is basic but I enjoy it more as I don't have to cook.

The things that I buy ready prepared are tins of spaghetti, beans and tomatoes usually. I do buy bread, yoghurt and biscuits though. If I bake it is eaten too quickly!!!

apple_mint

We probably produce 95-98% of our meals from scratch. We started for health reasons - I have high cholesterol and OH has high blood pressure. Cooking from scratch we know exactly what is going into our food. We make our own bread and yoghurt, buy fruit and veg from the farmers market and use the supermarket to get our base ingredients e.g. flour. We also make our own biscuits, cakes etc. Cholesterol levels have gone down and we are now taking more exercise to help with the blood pressure.

We've just been away for 3 days, and spent most of it trying to get good healthy food in cafes and restaurants. It's almost impossible.

We prefer the taste of our scratch made meals. OH wants to take the breadmaker next time we go away!

Ted_Hutchinson

apple_mint wrote:

We probably produce 95-98% of our meals from scratch. We started for health reasons - I have high cholesterol and OH has high blood pressure.

You sound like you probably know what you are doing but may find the following interesting.
Lowering Cholesterol with a Healthier Way of Eating : answer
Eating More Frequently Lowers Cholesterol: article
Omega-3 Fats Lower Cholesterol and Insulin-Key Risk
Hypertension (high blood pressure): summary Markers for Cardiovascular Disease: headline
Olive Oil Lowers Blood Pressure : headline

Jet

If cooking from scratch means not using tinned kidney beans and tinned toms for chilli for example, then no I don't very often cook from scratch.

I am guilty of buying things like jarred pesto, bread, biscuits and the occassional jar of sauce. I try to keep my meals as healthy as possible and don't eat a lot of meat.

However, I never buy ready meals and rarely buy things like frozen pizza or oven chips - they just never get eaten.

my local asda has just had a re-fit and one of the things that has changed is that they now have huge aisles of ready meals. I've taken a peek at the type of things that are there and there are things like a single portion of spag bol for kids, which I find incredulous! No wonder our kids are growing up to be fussy eaters!

competitionscafe

Jet wrote:

If cooking from scratch means not using tinned kidney beans and tinned toms for chilli for example

I wouldn't say that stuff like beans and tinned toms counts- eg:toms you use fresh and tinned for different things (you wouldn't use tinned in a salad and I always use tinned for a sauce, beans take 24 hours if you soak dried ones overnight and then cook - I always just use tinned ones, much less hassle)

Cooking from scratch shouldn't mean that you can't use a few good shortcuts.

What I can't understand is people who buy things like pre-chopped carrots or pre-grated cheese (and pay 4 times as much for the privilege!) I mean how long does it take to chop a few carrots or grate a chunk of cheese for $%^& sake!

VickyA_2

We probably cook about 80% of our food from scratch. The other 20% is things like curry sauces, stir fry sauces, bread, yoghurt, jam etc. Tins of tomatoes and beans are used as shortcuts. We also have the very occasional chinese takeaway (no chippy in our village )

We've just got one of those burger makers from Lakeland, which OH is very keen on using. Well, it is his (got it for his birthday!) so I can't tread on his toes, can I?