Ask Lemmy

Its all a very complex equation of quality vs additives vs effort vs cost vs time vs storability vs fridge life vs convenience.

Some stuff is just too much or too little of some of them.

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.

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

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

If a lasagna is more effort than you want to put in, there are lots of recipes for “deconstructed” lasagna, so you can make it yourself much easier!

If you take the time to make food, especially smelling it as it cooks, it gives your body time to get excited about it and improves digestion.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I make as much as possible to avoid the flavor additives, texture modifiers, and preservatives found in much packaged food.

I make waffles from scratch and freeze them for quick breakfast. Prep large pots of soup, chili, stew, etc and freeze in deli tubs.

But as to who is right? No answer on that. I have built up plenty of cooking experience so things that seem tricky or time consuming to other people don’t faze me.

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

Quite frequently I have no energy. But me and my husband need to eat. So premade it is. When I do have energy? I'll cook, bake, from scratch! And if I have a lot off energy, maybe I'll premake something and freeze it, like ravioli or a lasagna.

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.

There is a big price for eating shite out of the box... if you don't accept it, just do what you do. but you can' expect others to "see it" that way.