Ask Lemmy

Depends on difficulty. I make most things. but a labor-intensive dish like lasagna I'm happy to buy frozen.

Your health says avoid pre-made mixes as much as possible. I'm no salt-phobe (insufficient salt is a greater concern for 99% of people than too much), but even I shy away from the insane amounts of salt/sodium in anything packaged. Some stuff has more sodium in it than anyone should have in a day.

Plus, pre-made mixes often aren't anywhere near as good as making something yourself, and usually more expensive, even allowing for your own time.

There are exceptions of course, but I have spreadsheets to calculate costs of mixes, meals, you name it, and it's rare when something is cheaper to buy pre-made.

Dishwasher detergent powder is the same cost as making myself. As is onion soup mix, gravy mix powder, etc. Most other mixes I make as I go along - making chili uses a mix of different spices which I keep on hand. And I have 3 different chili recipes that use different spice mixes, and the end result is very different. I have a few recipes like this (creole/Cajun for example), that technically use the same spices, but not the same mix, and are very different for it.

I don't understand people like your wife (or one of my siblings) that seem to view eating as just something necessary, (bless their hearts 😁, as my southern family would say)...good food is crucial to me, it's not just something I do to get by. I mean it's something we have to do a few times every day of our lives. I want that experience to be as good as I can as often as I can.

I'd call what you're doing "cooking".

I'd call what she's doing "not cooking".

Need more reasons to stop eating ultra-processed food? How about 32 of them? That's the number of health problems noted in the largest-ever review of studies about the dangers of diets high in ultra-processed foods. The findings, published online Feb. 28, 2024, by The BMJ, come from a review of 45 analyses published in the last three years, involving about 10 million people in total.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/nutrition/more-evidence-that-ultra-processed-foods-harm-health

It really depends. One specific shop near my home has good quality frozen meat pancakes and dumplings. Yeah I have made dumplings by hand some 20 years ago, but those frozen ones are simply better. Maybe I can do some exotic dumplings with a buckwheat flour and a lot of eggs, but that would not necessarily be better, just different.

On the other hand, pasta sauce prepared from scratch will always taste better than store-bought one, mainly because the stores here only sell ketchup and mayo, and pretty much all pasta sauce here is some variety of tomato concentrate with a bit of carrots.

I don't care either way, but too many premade meals I have bought in the past were gross and inedible to a point where I had to toss them and just make food from scratch. I just keep the supplies for a quick 1 pot Carbonara in my fridge at all times - it might not be super healthy, but it's always a predictable taste/texture and only costs about 1,50€ per Portion

My partner hates cooking, and I love it, so the deal in our house is I cook and they do all the cleaning in the kitchen, unless I made something specifically for me, since they have some medical issues that prevents them from eating certain things, then I will do the cleaning of the mess made during the preparation of cooking that specific meal.

As far as cooking from scratch or pre-made, I'm about half and half. I rarely make my own red sauce or pasta, but all baking is from scratch, breakfast foods like pancakes, yes I would make those from scratch as well. Soups, stews, chili, Asian, Mexican, Indian recipes, mostly from scratch, but many sauce elements I would buy.

As others say, premades are generally less healthy and carry more preservatives like sodium. I personally keep them on hand anyway in case I need something in a pinch, but even then I have a few easy meals if foods are stocked (like carbonara, which i make tonight!)

If you do go frozen for the wife, be sure to check what you're getting. My step father has been having heart issues lately and I don't think he realized his diet of mostly frozen dishes were putting him at like 300%+ daily intake of salt.

she would rather I just open the mix, add water, and make the food.

Wait, why does she care if you are the one making it?

I make almost all my meals from scratch.

Kinda depend on what thing i'm making. I'll make pancake/cupcake/cookie/brownie from scratch because premade has the exact same efford required, while stuff like meatballs/hashbrown/nugget/sausage i'd just buy frozen because the effort to get there is high. Though i won't get premade microwave meal, it's usually horrible.

Most of the time I make my meals from the scratch. Exceptions are usually takeaway food; I only buy stuff like frozen lasagne and the likes very rarely, it's expensive and it doesn't taste as good. (In fact even a few of my spices is homemade.)

As others said, in your case (provided that you're the one in charge of cooking) it might be sensible to buy the store-bought pancake mix for the sake of your wife, and then prepare the rest of the food as you typically do.

Whenever we order out, when I don't have the energy to cook my son orders the gross pasta that cost 15€ and complain afterwards I do it better.

Today I did not want to cook, so he wanted to order the carbonara.... if you would serve that to an Italian they would rather jump into the Vesuvius than eat it. I just skip the meal anyway because ordering out is not satisfying to me.

So damn it, made him a take away style tortellini with spinache and ricotta, shrimp (out of the freezer) and cream with fresh herbs, and on top mozzarella out of the oven, then salmon filet on skin out of a skillet, in compound butter on young salad leaves with a mildly sweet and sour garlic vinaigrette. This is cheaper than the 15€ take away. Took me half an hour, but I am a trained chef.

I do freeze prepared meals though, but I say fresh food over anything else. I certainly don't buy any prefab from the supermarket, mostly. I did cheat on the tortelinni.

Depends on how much I care about that particular meal and leftovers vs the effort. This includes stocking separate ingredients.

I definitely love prepared frozen vegetables like shredded potatoes for hash browns, frozen cut broccoli, etc. that just need heated up. I also buy pasta instead of making it myself, although there is a chicken and noodles recipe that I have made fresh noodles for. But not for spaghetti, or even lasagna even if the rest of the lasagna is assembled manually.

But I do tend to make my own diced and slow cooked peppers (mix of colorful bell peppers and jalepenos) that I will use to top scrambled eggs just because I find it fun.

I'm all over the map, just depends.

I would rather cook because I like the taste much, much more. Almost all frozen stuff is just flavorless to me so I end up having to doctor it up anyway. It’s easier for me to just start from scratch unless it’s something that’s a giant pain.

I also worked as a cook when I was young so the effort/time is probably a bit less for me since I can do the food prep stuff quickly and without much mental effort. When I chop vegetables, my brain basically does it on autopilot.

If the ingredients on the package are unreadable than I make it myself, but if its got like 2 preservatives but the rest is golden buy the premade