How often do you cook?

[Patf]

We have one main meal a day, and there are only two of us. So for the last few years I have become lazy and only cook from scratch 2 or 3 times a week. So on Friday I cook a large meat or chicken dish and this lasts 3 or so meals eg hot with roast veg, cold with salad, made into a pie , made into a stew etc. On Tuesday I bake a large amount of fish - today fillets of perch -  and make a different side dish each day with fishcakes on the last day. How often do others cook? Pat.

[Coco]

I don't call that lazy, I call that organised.  I wish I could work like that.  There's only  two of us and we only have one main meal a day but I usually cook every day.  I must admit, just recently I've become a bit lazy because it's just dawned on me that the B&B season is beginning to pick up, then I'll be compelled to cook most nights whether I want to or not, so we've been having more and more one-course "sloppy TV dinners" (all-in-one stuff, like curries or chilli) because I know we won't get an opportunity to have them for months once we've got guests here.

[Alexis]

I do much the same as you Pat.  I cook every day but do vast amounts and maybe divide into two or three and pop it into the freezer.  Bolognaise sauce for example will be eaten one day, then two containers put in the freezer - for lasagna or sauce.

Stew, I must admit, can be eaten here for two or three days on the trot and then bunged in the freezer.  Must say though, OH doesn't eat a lot at a time.

Then I might make a load of pies.  Chicken, beef . . . depends what I see on promo or "buy me today as tomorrow I will poison you"!

Made langue de boeuf yesterday.  One for tonight, one in freezer.

[Catalpa]

One of us cooks from scratch for a main meal every day - though might also make soup or a pasta dish for the other 'lighter' meal. We're not usually organised (disciplined!) enough to make double or triple quantities and then freeze the extra because the labels come off (or never go on) so we don't retrieve the plastic bag with indeterminate contents... but as there are two of us, if we do a casserole or a roast, we're likely to eat the same meal (as it were) on consecutive days but with different vegetables. If we've had a stew and there's goo left (read 'gravy') we use that as a soup base which is then jazzed up with lentils, rice, vegetables and lardons or chopped chorizo or meguez...whatever. Hmmmm. I think we eat too much!

Yes, Alexis - we buy "eat today or die tomorrow" offers too.

Does anyone else still make their own stock?

[Val_2]

I cook a main meal every evening except for Sunday when we eat midday. I owe it to my family to feed them well and where else but to buy good fresh food,why France of course. We have no takeaways or fast food for at least 12 miles and resto visits are a special treat for birthdays etc. As for stock, yes when we have a chicken or turkey, the bones and odd veggies that have seen better days make a good soup and gravy base and you can freeze it - waste not,want not is our motto these days and our dustbin often goes hungry.

[Tresco]

MOH cooks every evening, pretty much the same as he did in England, when working, except here he sometimes starts at 3pm, just because he can. All fresh ingredients, and he makes fantastic stocks and sauces too.

I can't remember the last time we had a take away, because he is such a great cook, enjoys cooking, and take aways have never been as good as even the simplest meal he makes.

If he goes away things change a bit. I live on Alpen, Oranges, bread, and Cheese/Salads, despite the huge range of pre cooked food available here in France (are Knorr trying to take over the country or something?), including traiteur type stuff.

tresco

[opas]

We ..(well he) cooks a main meal from scratch every day, we have bought ready meals in the past(usualy 100% rembourse offers! and thrown them away after heating:sick

I honestly didn`t know what cooking from`scratch` meant when our canteen(uk) at work said they were reverting to this, and when told ,commented that I didn`t realise there was any other way

We do not do the `double quantities` any more...we all like our food and just go back for seconds

[Alexis]

I make stock.  Make lots of soups.

I don't find that there is an enormous range of ready meals here.  Where are you living?  Mind you, I don't look!  If I go back to the UK I buy those for the microwave - finally bought one - for Gilles.  I used to buy him meat, veal, chicken breasts etc and come back to find them still in the fridge.  He will also eat, or likes should I say, those tins of cassoulet, lentils and choucroute.  We eat at lunchtime depending on his shifts, and he will have that or a pizza or a croque monsieur for dinner.

This is what I am up against!  Pleb!

They said he would die of starvation married to une Anglaise!

[Patf]

I've picked up some good ideas here - maybe I'll be more adventurous. But with a husband whose favourite meal is eggs beans and chips it's hardly worth making the effort. Coco - I don't envy you planning and cooking meals for paying guests. Also I think that if you still have children at home you need to cook every day as they tend to clear up any leftovers. Pat.

[Iceni]

I cook twice a day - lunchtime is a huge hearty soup and something like a frittata (well I have to use the eggs up ). This is for the workers. John has to eat, we are in the middle of nowhere and this way we can cut the lunch time to half an hour and they finish early or start later (up to them).

In the evening I cook, always from fresh, or veggies I have frozen. I do cook things like NZ legs of lamb and slice and freeze what is left over. I make bulk chicken casseroles and freeze what we don't eat plus beef casserole dishes. We have never been great fans of ready meals and a trip to a resturant is something special. I also like making stocks and things like the lamb bones end up in the soup pot. I cook the soup/casseroles on the log-burner in the winter.

We also eat non meat meals at least twice a week. It is so easy to overdose on the meat in France that we try to maintain some balance. I lurve French food - and I have the figure to prove it