How much of your food is home-made? (health, pizza, tomato)

[hkgal]

What of the food you consume do you make at home? Is it mainly a taste/health/cost thing or all?

I'm referring to things that many people buy pre-prepared from the store but instead you make it from scratch or source it from your own home i.e. vegetable/herb gardens, fruit trees.

I make all our bread (mainly because store bread in asia is full of sugar and sold in bags of 6 slices), yoghurt, pizza bases, pizza sauce, pasta sauces, béchamel and cheese sauces, cakes, muffins, chicken stock/broth and baby food. I try to home-make as much of our meals as possible.

We don't grow our own herbs, however we have a communal herb garden. I do grow baby tomatoes on the balcony (and they taste 10x better than store-bought!)

I try to home-make what I can to avoid consuming too many processed foods and to save on excess packaging.

[arsbadmojo]

It really depends. I love making home made pasta, and try to do it at least once a month, but last night's spaghetti was from a box.

I made a ton of tomato sauce over the summer and froze it, and we're down to our last containers. We didn't want to waste it on dry pasta, so the sauce last night came from a jar.

I hate buying commercial chicken, because I usually get my chicken from a farm, but for the Superbowl I did buy a huge pack of Tyson wings. At least I saved the tips and they went into the stock pot.

I made bagels on Sunday, but they don't keep.

I do it because I enjoy the challenge and having the skills. And nothing tastes like home made.

[Jaxson]

There is a thread with a lot of sharing on your topic here Cook from Scratch? you might like.

[MidwesternBookWorm]

We do a lot of cooking from scratch, but I'll freely admit that we buy bread from the store, yogurt, pasta, and often pasta sauces. And while the spouse does enjoy gardening, he usually limits himself to a half-dozen tomato plants and maybe some peppers.

The biggest challenge for us in doing all that at home from scratch is the time factor. Yes, we can make all those things at home, but when I'm working 60+ hours a week and the spouse isn't far behind, it's hard to squeeze in the time needed for bread-baking, for example, or the time and effort needed for a huge garden.

The compromise we make is that we buy as much of our food as we can from local or regional producers, and if at all possible, directly from the farmer who grew or raised it. Then we cook the results from scratch at home. It works well for us that way.

[thatswanlady]

I am of the opinion that homemade always tastes better, but I just don't always have the time to cook from scratch as much as I'd like.

I cleaned/re-organized my pantry, fridge and freezer today, and after I got over the horror and vowed never to be so lazy again, I realized that I have certain items that I always make from scratch, as well as items that I always seem to just buy pre-made at the store.

I'm curious to see what other people do -- what do you make from scratch versus buy in the store?

For me, here it is -- this isn't an exhaustive list by any means, just things that really jumped out at me:

Homemade

- salsa
- guacamole
- rotisserie-style chicken
- chicken broth
- chicken noodle soup
- salad dressings
- shredded cheese (I know, this isn't a "thing" -- I just mean that I always grate my cheese myself, as opposed to buying it pre-grated)
- pizza dough
- taco seasoning

Store-bought

- bread
- pasta
- pasta sauce (I KNOW this is easy! I just...I have no excuse for this.)
- soup that isn't chicken noodle
- wontons/spring rolls/egg rolls
- frozen potato products (I do make roasted potato wedges a lot, we just really love the tater-tot-esque frozen products)

[rural chick]

I hardly ever use pre-packed food. But I will use jar Pasta sauce occasionly but only certain brands and I don't make our own pasta either. I use fresh vegetables almost always. I hate mashed potatoes from a box but I do use mashed potato flakes with flour to roll my chicken in when I make oven baked chicken.

I won't eat canned soup due to the high sodium content. It try to make most of my own salad dressings but I will use jar mayo. I make a lot of cookies, cakes, homemade breads, biscuits and rolls and freeze them so I have them on hand.

I like to make my own food.....it's time consuming and in the summer it creates heat in the house....but it's worth it.

[gentlearts]

Guilty of using premade pasta and pasta sauce, too.
Once in awhile, I will buy premade mashed potatoes, but not often. Not that they aren't acceptable tasting, but expensive.
Bread
Bisquick
Angelfood cake mix
I have a few recipes which use canned soup
I buy more frozen vegetables than fresh.
I am picturing the aisles of the grocery store, and there is really not much I buy from the inner aisles.

[nmnita]

It is hard to say, depending on exactly what we are talking about: I do not make my own bread or pasta. I keep some canned goods in the pantry to use when in a hurry or too tired to cook form scratch, but I do make my own sauces (most of the time) I buy ready made Hollandaise sauce if someone is going to Trader Joes, I always keep a bottle of Ranch dressing in the fridge. Our grandson in law doesn't like any other kind and I don't make my own Ceasar dressing, but I do make all the other dressing from scratch.

We grow as many herbs as we can. I only use canned fruit if I canned it myself and we have a summer garden or I go to the farmers market. We have fresh veggies for dinner at least 5 nights a week, but I do keep a few frozen ones just in case. I do not make my own pizza very often, but I add to what kind I buy.

I never buy prepared stock, it is so easy to make and so cheap. I do not buy things like processed dinners but I do buy some lunch meat.

Basically, I am guessing I cook 80% from scratch.

[jlawrence01]

I rarely buy frozen dinners or anything like that. They are too expensive and generally, they are not very good.

I buy certain things as they are generally cheaper than making it homemade:

Salad dressings (0.99-$1.49 per bottle)
Pastas (0.59-1.00/ lb)
Bread ($1.50-2.00/ loaf store baked)
Pasta sauce (always throw in a lot of extra ingredients)


In a few weeks, after I have retired, I am going to start baking bread although I doubt that I will get it down right for a while).

I plan to also start brewing my own root beer and ginger ale.

As long as I am in the Midwest, I have no plans to make my own sausages or charcuterie as there are too many good butchers in the area.

[Ol' Wanderer]

I would say 99% of our food is homemade. I don't bake bread, and I don't make pasta or yogurt, but everything else is from scratch. I don't use jarred, tinned, or packaged food of any kind, but I have a bag of frozen corn or peas in the freezer now and then. That's it.