How Often Do You Cook from Scratch/home-cooked Meals?

Except for breakfast on the weekends we always do cereal or the like for breakfast, no time, ya know? Lunches for Troy and I are always leftovers from dinner, the kids prefer the school lunches and I pick my battles.

Dinner at home is always home cooked, down to the veggies being fresh from the garden when the seasons permit. After I learned about how you body reacts to prepackaged foods I just can't do that to my family plus you pay for the convenience. I also hardly see my family it seems, so the kids helping me cook is family time.

When we have the kids (I'm a step parent) for long visitations:

Breakfast - hot, eggs, pancakes, waffles (frozen), bacon on the weekends. Weekdays: cereal with fruit and maybe a frozen waffle if time will permit.

Lunch: I packed their lunches with sandwiches, veggies, applesauce and a few chips - unless the daycare told me they were making/providing food that day.

Dinner: Love the crockpot. But there were some nights we picked up fast food or pizza. They also love hotdogs, but I bought organic ones.

I make almost everything in our house.

My husband and I lived in Europe for a long time and while we were over there, I got very used to eating healthy foods with no preservatives, coloring, etc. etc. We are out in CA now, so I make all our bread myself and any other pastries we may eat (cinnamon rolls, sweet rolls, biscuits, etc). Even if we want something not healthy, I tend to make it from scratch anyways because then I know exactly what is going in it. Example, when we have lasagna, I sometimes make the noodles myself and I always make the sauces and mixes myself. For pastas, I usually buy the noodles and sometimes make them. Sauces, though, I always make myself.

It is a LOT easier than you think and way healthier to make homemade meals!!

There is so much out there in our food that is disgusting!

breakfast usually pancakes, crepes, or waffles (homemade). cereal-1-2 a week
lunch-sandwiches, pasta
dinner: home cooked every night except friday and saturday.

We cook all of our meals and snacks from absolute scratch w/very rare exceptions, due to food allergies and choosing to cook along the Weston A Price guidelines because of my daughter's cavities, which we healed through diet changes.
(My food blog- www.chickiepea.wordpress.com)

The best thing you can do is to meal plan and then set a schedule for how to prep foods for all of your meals (i.e.- one day do all of the chopping, make muffins/quiche one for breakfasts ahead of time and even freeze some, make double batches of food to freeze, make a priority to make things while they are in season- such as freezing/canning/drying/saucing those foods right after you pick them)

My kids actually make better breakfasts than I. They all cook and will make eggs and bacon, oatmeal, french toast. I also homeschool so they have time to do it. My High schooler is in the public school and she eats lunch at 10:30 so usually skips breakfast.
For lunch the two at home with me eat leftovers or make sandwiches, soup, bagel or English muffin pizza. THey do it themselves. I eat whatever they fix for me. My HS daughter eats yogurts, packaged fruits, granola bars maybe a pb&j, she packs her own.
For dinner I make everything from scratch, even mac and cheese. I make good use of my crockpot.
I make my own spag sauce, I do use package noodles. My daughter likes to make garlic bread from French baguettes. She makes her own garlic spread.
I use herbs and spices instead of prepackaged mixes, like taco mixes or gravy mixes, you never know what is really in them
I have one with several allergies so I try to stay away from the packaged stuff. I have to watch the amount of soy, preservatives, dyes, nitrates, etc.

I'm a litttle weird.

1) I spent several years working in a kitchen (upscale restaurants) in highschool... it's where I learned to cook... and it's my "I need a job" fall back job. I can cook anything.
2) I started college when my son was 2mo old (in my mid twenties), and my husband started shortly thereafter (this means that after tuition was paid we lived off of about 10k per year for several years)

I don't cook from scratch for moral reasons... I cook from scratch because I'm able to AND it's cheap, and I'm a super taster. I know what food costs are in restaurants, and am ALMOST constitutionally incapable of paying for something I can make at home for less...

Here are the things that I buy premade:

- bread (my dad bakes... yes: flour, yeast, oil, salt are cheaper than bread... I out and out refuse to bake my own bread. It's faaaar too many added hours of prefermenting, proofing, punching, kneading, baking or boiling. I'm including bagels and muffins in this group)
- Stovetop stuffing (addicted. I can make posh stuffing, I prefer theirs!)
- Noodles (I don't own a pasta machine, and am NOT rolling that stuff out by hand more than once a blue moon)
- Cereal
- Cake Mix
- Crackers
((Notice the "I'm not messing with grains" & baking business. Proteins and veg I'll mess with... I CAN make crackers, bread, stuffing, all that jazz. But I just out and out refuse.))
- Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
- Campbells Soup ((I have about 2 dozen soups I make from scratch, but campbells is inimitable))
- Stewed Tomatoes, Mayonaise, Mustard, Catsup, Pickles, etc. I CAN make these. I prefer not to make anything I need to jar. :P HATE canning things. I'll make things to freeze, but I really hate canning/jarring. I'll make jam once a year. No more.
- Trader Joes Orange Chicken, Chimichurri Rice, fried rice, roasted red pepper and tomato soup.
- Butter (not churning it, thank you... it's less expensive to buy it than to buy cream), nor do I make Cheese, & other dairy products. I'll make whipped cream. That's it.

That's about it. Everything else I make from scratch. I spend between 2-4 hours a day cooking, nearly every day. On average I cook from scratch for every meal (excluding the things above like bread for sammies) 300 days a year. We eat cereal or throw something premade in to heat up ABOUT once a week or every other week (aka between 30-52 days), and I usually go on "strike" a couple weeks a year where I refuse to cook for a bit.

I DO NOT THINK that there is "too much" or "too little". It's whatever works for your family!!! I happen to be trained in cooking, so I can do it reeeeally fast (I've always had good knife skills). I'm willing/able to schlep out to 5 different stores for the best prices on things. So I cook almost everything from scratch all the time. Working, staying at home, whatever.

We cook dinner from scratch 5 nights a week. My husband and I both work full time, buy hubby is a teacher so he gets home by 4:30 and can start cooking. We used to buy a lot of premade stuff, but then realized it tasted much better if it is homemade. So we started getting the magazine Cooking Light, and everything changed. They have so many good, easy recipes. We also picked up a couple of their cookbooks, and we usually try out one new recipe a week.

Breakfast during the work week is usually cold - cereal, frozen waffles, toast, etc. My husband loves a warm breakfast so he always cooks on both Saturday and Sunday morning.

Finally, lunches are either cold sandwiches or leftovers.

We also only go grocery shopping once per week.

Good luck - if you plan carefully and do a bit of prep work in advance (I try to do some on Sunday - wash and cut veggies, fruit, prepare one meal in advance if I can, etc.) it is easier than you think!

Breakfast is cereal and toast. Lunch is sandwiches from home plus fruit. Dinner is from scratch every night, things like quiche (with homemade pastry base), pasta with homemade sauce (pasta is NOT home made but store bought fresh), chops with homemade roasted potatoes, frozen peas and fresh green beans, from scratch chilli or curry with rice, etc. I work at my kids school 2 1/2 hours a day so I have time to cook and I enjoy it and I know they are not being filled with too much salt, fat or sugar. We never have ready meals but I sometimes buy pizza bases and make up my own pizzas with the kids or have sausages with boxed mashed potatoes and baked beans if I am in a hurry on scout/ brownie/ ski club night!!
Do whatever works for you - some people hate cooking and some love it but making your own stuff is usually cheaper than getting the store bought stuff!

Breakfast - probably home made 2- 4 days, cereal 3-5 days (but we do always have freshly cut up fruit along with it and sometimes it is hot cereal - cooked, not microwaved)

Lunch - home made 6-7 days a week (we might go out for lunch once every week or two).

Dinner - home made 5-7 days a week. The days we do not cook are days we go out.

I do make spaghetti sauce in large batches at the end of the summer from our home grown or farmer's market tomatoes. I also make and freeze pesto and I am counting these as homemade. I also freeze pancakes and french toast when we make on weekends and then will pop them in the toaster on weekdays.

I just don't buy prepared foods with the exception of cereal (do buy whole grain and generally organic), whole grain pasta and bread (bread, bagels, English muffins).

I make my meals from scratch about 6 days a week (except breakfast). I had to do this as part of a weight loss challenge, and I lost 32 pounds in three months. The biggest push for improving our health was to get rid of as much processed foods as possible. I can't tell you how great I feel. My energy is up, my hunger is at bay, and I have more stamina. On the days where I do splurge, I feel like I have a hangover the next day.

Sounds like you are doing well. I was wondering the same thing not that long ago.
Personally I make a full on hot breakfast once or twice a week. Other than that it is cereal, greek yogurt, or toast type foods.
Lunch we always make, so I would say about 5-6 times a week, it's not always me though, my husband will make it if it is a weekend, and sometimes we go out on the weekends too.
Dinners I would say about the same as lunch. Sometimes we do grab a roasted chicken from a deli and then I will make sides, so I don't know how you would count that. I don't actually make the chicken, and I don't know if I would count heating up veggies.

Six nights of the week, I make dinner for the next night by filling my crockpot as time doesn't allow us to make dinner that is reasonable healthy and ready at various points in the evening if I cook that night. I do everything from Lasanga, pot roast, chicken, stew, soups, chinese sorta stir fry and it is all mostly all me. I freeze red sauce in 1 gal zip lock bags, stock in 1 lb bags and veggies from the garden in small bags and it is usually just a dump process with whatever seasoning smells good. So no you are still making meals at home, not relying on fast food or restaurants. As long as your sodium/fat counts aren't too high and the stuff doesn't have all preservatives and no actual food you should be good. Lunches are either cut up cheese, cut up chicken/turkey, yogurt, cut up carrots,celery, apples, pears, clementines, or sometimes a thermos of something hot. Breakfast is usually eggs either hard boiled or sometimes scrambled, yogurts, fruits, sometimes sausage gravy and biscuts. We don't do alot of high processed stuff due to celiac disease and issues with what things are made with for no apparent reason.

I really LIKE cooking and with the amount of time I spend away from home working, it makes me feel good to be taking care of my son and SO in that way.

Breakfast: Cold cereal or a bagel on school days (I'm gone before they wake up so I leave it out for them). Breakfast/brunch from scratch on weekends (DS eats cereal when he get's up, I cook later when SO gets up).

Lunch: DS eats school lunch about once a week. The rest I pack. SO and I eat dinner leftovers, sandwich or the occasional frozen entree.

Dinner: About 5 nights a week I cook. About twice a week we eat frozen pizza (but I do make a fancy salad and garlic bread to go with it) or heat jarred soup and make grilled cheese.

We do cereal many morning at our house, but normally have a cooked breakfast 2-3 times per week. With the price of cereal these days, I'm thinking it's cheaper to have eggs anyway! Most of the other cooking we do from scratch. We've hit a rough spot with our finances, so we cut out all the convenience food and eating out. We'll have maybe a treat weekly or bi-weekly of something easy, but mostly nope - it's all me and the hubs. Spaghetti is one that we have often though and it's just a jar; my garden didn't produce enough this year to hold us over all winter.

Generally speaking I make dinner every night. I make the kid's lunches for school of course and on the weekends I do make breakfast. However, I have one kid who would preferably live off of waffles(frozen or homemade) and cereal if I let him. I don't make pasta from scratch literally but I do tend to use my own sauces. I take the help of certain prepackaged goods.

Breakfast is often the processed food ... not a morning person - Frozen waffles, breakfast hot pockets, pankcakes ... I do pre make quiches on the weekends but they do not last very long! Plus my man goes to work before the sun thinks about coming up so he just wants hot coffee (timer) and something heated up. My son likes making his own breakfast ie toasting waffle, heating up hot pocket or pancake dog. Lunch is typically left overs from the night before for me, my son eats at school and if he did not like the option and did not eat he gets a corn dog or a sandwich (depends on the day) but dinner, that is home made nightly, very little items from a box. If I am making stuffing it's from scratch, mashed potatoes from the real thing, fresh veggies, salad etc. I cook about 6 nights out of the week one of those nights often is a "fend for yourself night" that may be a salad and tuna sandwiches.

i only do breakfast on saturday mornings. to me that is pushing it too lol- that is my first time "off" on my weekend so i'm not always thrilled to rush right into the kitchen and get to work! school days, my son's preschool feeds him breakfast (which we provide, so yes, it's cereal, unless we have leftovers from the weekend) sundays, i get up and go to church at the buttcrack of dawn so NO i am not cooking.

lunches, again, the school provides as part of the tuition so no. my husband is on his own because he's a big boy, and i usually have some healthy choice soup, 100 calorie microwave popcorn, or some fruit. i couldn't "make" a healthier lunch anyway so i am super happy with that.

dinner, i cook probably 5 nights per week. sometimes i will cook 3, eat hotdogs, frozen pizza, or leftovers, maybe 2, and eat out 1 or 2. but mostly i try to cook "most" of the time. even if it's just hamburger helper. my husband has only been back to work for a week, doesn't get paid until the 20th, so we are still on lockdown. no eating out. i don't really do from "scratch" on a whole lot of things, i do canned spaghetti sauce for example.

but really girl, there are moms who don't cook at all, so don't wonder if you're relying on prepared foods "too much". too much compared to what? i work full time so i feel pretty good about not doing fast food all the time or hot pockets, you know? just do your best and don't compare yourself to other moms. for the record it sounds like we about do the same lol. NOT that it matters! ;)

Breakfast-We make pancakes, eggs, etc probably 3-4 times per week and the other mornings have yogurt, cereal, toast, etc.

Lunch-Almost always leftovers for me and my husband and my son gets a combination of leftovers and sandwiches. Never prepackaged, occasionally (maybe 2-3 times per month) I got out with coworkers.

Dinner-We eat out or get take out once every week or two. I never really buy prepackaged food. If we have pasta I make my sauce from canned tomatoes, cook some greens or cut up stuff for salad, etc. I make my own pizza. The only things we buy pre-made are perogies, baked beans, and occasionally since we are vegetarian I will buy "chicken"-less nuggets or veggie burgers to pop in the toaster oven if I'm running late.

I don't think there is anything wrong with relying on more pre-packaged stuff, for me it's a combination of cost and quality-I'm not willing/able to pay the extra money for high quality prepackaged stuff and I'm not willing to feed my family the cheep stuff.

I think it sounds pretty normal.

When I am working it is a lot harder to actually prepare everything.. because of time, but I do tend to cook a lot and then by Thursday that is leftover night. It is like a week in review of all of our meals.

Right now I have been working 12 to 14 hours a day, so we have been going out more than normal, but I need to be able to sit down after all of the climbing of stairs and ladders all day.

My answer will probably not be a typical American's response, but I will let you know that it is totally possible to provide home cooked from scratch meals for your family every day. I currently live in Japan. As much as I enjoy eating Japanese food, I don't want to eat it for every meal every day. That means getting creative in the kitchen. Anything that is your traditional American food (and also any non-Japanese food) gets made from scratch. Hamburgers, mac and cheese, chili, vegetable soup, chicken and noodle soup, the list goes on and on... Even pizza... You can buy frozen pizza here, but it is so tiny and usually only has a small amount of cheese and sauce on it that it simply is not satisfying as far as pizza goes. You can order Pizza from delivery places, but that gets pricey. So almost every day, gobs of fresh veggies get chopped up. Almost every recipe I make contains a minimum of three different veggies and many of my recipes contain up to 7 different veggies. I've also learned to make the max of my prep work. I cook large. My family has three members, but I usually cook for 6 to 9 servings, and can sometimes even get up to 12 servings out of some meals. The 12 servings usually come from soups and stews. Things get frozen for quick meals when I am in a rush. I sometimes use pre-packaged tomato/meat spaghetti sauce, but I often make my own pasta sauces. I use pre-packaged curry rue and cream stew rue. I use canned beans, canned tuna, and boxed tomatoes. Other than those items everything is bought fresh and made from scratch. I cook at least five dishes a week. So lunches are usually left-overs from dinners. As for breakfast, we usually have cheese/yogurt, tofu with fruit sauce, two veggies (cucumbers, tomatoes, a steamed veggie such as carrot or broccoli, shredded cabbage with a little salad dressing), oatmeal or bread (toast, or one of my homemade breads, or from the local bakery), and one fruit or fruit salad.

I make my own sauce and meatballs about once a month. In the cold weather i make a lot of homemade soups. They freeze very well :) If i am in a hurry i will use already made stock. I try to buy all fresh veggies with the exception of a few frozen. I make my own mac and cheese, garlic pasta, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, tomato/basil pasta....all kinds of sides. If we drink iced tea it is a big homemade decaf pitcher full. I would say most of what we eat is from scratch. I really take pride in doing it that way. My husband brings the leftovers to lunch at work. He has many ooohs and aaahhhs from the other hubbys. I was also called a dying breed by an older co worker lady of his :)

Dont get me wrong, there are 2 nights a week that are cheat nights. We do breakfast for dinner, sandwiches, take out.... anything to give me a little break!