What's the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to cooking at home?
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I do 14 meals a week cooked even in summertime. Making sure I have the food to do that is the hardest part for me. I do fresh veg and meat, fish. Make bread too. I'm ok with feeding people and myself.0
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I love to cook! I've gotten used to preparing my own meal separate from the rest of the family usually but not always. I've actually incorporated better foods for the rest of the family too.0
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A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.0
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I hate the cleaning up and the prep work. I try to find things to cook that don't involve a lot of work but it seems there are always a ton of dishes and even with a dishwasher, its a pain.0
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I cook everyday too, and I love it! Its my creative outlet. When I have anxious times, I would bake - thus, my attendance at MFP!! So I dont bake anymore, and have found other outlets for stress - like cleaning things! Cooking at home does take time and organization, and if you are not keen on doing those things, you wont enjoy it. I think also that people just dont know how to cook - back in the age of dinosaurs when I was in high school, there was home economics and the girls were taught to cook, (the boys got shop or auto mechanics). I look at my daughter who has an empty fridge, as she either eats at work or goes out - I tell her if you can read, you can cook!1
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The things that have helped me not see cooking as a burden and to really enjoy it:
(1) This is the biggest -- not worrying about recipes and feeling comfortable being creative with what I have on hand, and also getting so I will have on hand what I need. This is really just experience.
(2) Good knife -- key to making chopping fun. Also, doing a kind of mise en place where I chop at the beginning (or immediately after dealing with something that requires more time, as discussed in (4)) and don't get into a mess where something isn't ready to go when I need it. I like chopping now (I also tend to listen to music or a podcast when doing it).
(3) Learning to clean as I go and avoid unnecessary mess.
(4) Learning to plan in advance what steps I will take and how long it will take -- if I have a meat that requires more time I don't start it after getting home late on a weekday, but make sure I have quicker cooking lean proteins on hand. I usually think about what I will make on the way home from work and if I am going to have something that takes a bit more like like roasted chicken breasts (on the bone) or roasted sweet potato/potato or rice in the rice cooker (rare), I start that immediately upon walking in. I then have time to do the things that require less cooking time, like chopping veg and cooking them. If I am short on time I have go-tos that I know are fast (like a big omelet or a pasta with a fast sauce of lean meat and veg) and usually have something available I can use to throw one of those together. I'll think through "oh, too late to mess with potatoes, lentils cook much faster."
I realize some avoid (4) by preplanning way ahead, but my schedule tends to be unpredictable and I for some reason hate feeling tied to a plan anyway, so learning to work on the fly has been a salvation for me.1 -
MynameisChester wrote: »A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.
I use my dishwasher for every single thing that can go in there, but things like knives, nonstick pots/pans, cast iron skillets, large mixing bowls, etc. still have to be cleaned by hand, and that's the bulk of what I'm dirtying up when cooking. The dishwasher is great for daily use things like mugs, plates, and tupperware, but it doesn't help much when I make a complicated dish. At the end of that, a it looks like a bomb's gone off in my kitchen...0 -
I do sometimes. They all three want something different and it'd probably be chicken fingers, pizza, or wings.kommodevaran wrote: »kimdawnhayden wrote: »Just thinking of what to cook that everyone will like or eat. I'm trying to eat healthy and honestly I'll eat whatever is put in front of me. But hubby and kids are picky.
You could try to ask them what they want
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For me, I'm disabled and single, so standing at the stove or even standing to prep things gets tiring. I try to use my crockpot as much as I can, microwave, and oven. I try to stay away from things that require you to sautee or cook in a pan on the stove. Clean up is also harder for me, so I try not to dirty too many dishes. I've found that if I can mass cook chicken or pork, beef, or whatever, in the crockpot, then have a veg or two in the microwave, it makes things much easier for me.
I don't mind cooking, but it's physically demanding for me, and time consuming.0 -
I cook all our meals from scratch. I enjoy cooking and really resent paying money now on crappy takeout or in restaurants when I know I could cook it for much less! I find that having a wide range of ingredients and spices on hand makes meal prep much easier. I also freeze many meals so we always have a selection to choose from in short notice.
The biggest pain for me is that one of my kids loves noodles and rice and my other hates it but loves potatoes! One loves chicken and one hates it. So trying to make versatile dishes that we can all enjoy can get tricky.
Also I find it hard to limit portion control when making meals. I wish I could keep my meals more conservative but often I make too much and then we end up eating way too large portions!! I figure if I'm messing up pots or pans or countertops then I might as well make enough... then the problem becomes eating the extra lol!0 -
Oh, so many things.
1. The time. I have two teens, and when they are starving, they are starving NOW, and will get crankier and more unpleasant the longer they have to wait for food, so knowing that you have to take time to MAKE that food, and can't just have it already made, is awful. And we don't have almost any convenience foods because of many allergies, so usually it's just in the 'awful' category. They don't get hungry at the same time every day, they just get hungry.
But The real time issue is, frankly, the time it takes, period. Time I could be spending doing ANYTHING other than cooking. I do not enjoy cooking. I have cooked from scratch for years now, I have plenty of recipes or ideas for cooking, and I know how to do it. But it is not an activity I enjoy, it's a chore, and it's a chore that takes at least 3 hours a day, every day, on average.
2. Cost - fresh ingredients to make things from scratch are pricey, especially for us as some need to be free from certain allergens.
3. Dishes - HATE dishes, and the more you cook, the more dishes you dirty. That takes up even more time so it feels like the 'time' it takes to cook is really more like 4-5 hours a day (I have some physical limitations so it takes a while to get dishes done, plus a lot of dishes being used).0 -
The biggest pain for me is the fact that I am the one cooking. I don't cook. I'm a great cook, but I don't cook. My husband does the cooking and he's so good at it. However, maybe that's part of the problem. I ate super healthy when I was single - clean & unprocessed....
I'm going to start cooking more! ;-)
Glad I came across this post.0 -
Time and cleaning.
I'm hungry when I get home. Most of my meals take at least an hour to make. I end up eating stuff I've pre-made and then batch-cooking after I eat dinner and storing that for later.
Cleaning pans and cutting boards and corning ware baking dishes and mixers and such is tedious, and my dishwasher is always too full to take everything* so stuff gets rinsed and stacked in the sink until the current load is done which I also hate.
*The cats use the whole dang thing. They eat raw food so its 4-6 dishes every day just for the two of them. Then there's my usual 2 plates/bowls, 2 mugs and at least one glass transport container so the dishwasher seems to be always at least 1/2 full when I cook.0 -
MynameisChester wrote: »A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.
Well you got to empty and fill the dishwasher too. And as someone else said, you can't put the big bowls and pots and pans in there anyway...0 -
MynameisChester wrote: »A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.
Well you got to empty and fill the dishwasher too. And as someone else said, you can't put the big bowls and pots and pans in there anyway...
Maybe I should start a thread of "post your favorite one pot wonder recipes!"0 -
I prefer cooking my own meals as opposed to eating out or ordering in, because I know what I'm eating and I can trust that I'll enjoy it. But if I had to pick one thing that drives me a little nuts about cooking at home, it would have to be not having all the ingredients I need at the same time, like ever! For example, If I have pasta,, garlic, and ground beef, you can almost guarantee I'll be out of tomatoes; if I have garlic, meat and tomatoes, I'm almost always out of the pasta....We shop on Sundays, so that doesn't usually start till about Wednesday tho
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The biggest pain in my butt regarding cooking at home is cooking a healthy meal that my other half will also eat. The man rarely eats chicken, only if it's fried or I've forced him to. Turkey is even worse. And he LOVES rolls. The drawback for me? It's just the 2 of us at home and I REFUSE to cook an entire meal for him as well as an entire healthy meal for me. So I find myself eating things I shouldn't or in quantities I shouldn't just because it's there. The man has to eat a 5,000-6,000 calorie diet just to maintain his current weight - it's just not fair!! LOL0
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We make just about all of our main dishes from scratch. Depending on the meal though someones it's not just my mom doing all of the cooking. Also, none of our frying pans are dishwasher safe. Time and energy is definitely a factor for us.
This past Thursday we did one of our lengthiest dinners (enchiladas). We had 3 of us in the kitchen during the whole time, and it still took about an hour to assemble it all together for baking (granted it was for 2 dinners). And that's with some of the work already done previously.0 -
My least favorite part is the meal planning and grocery shopping. I don't mind the cooking and cleaning once the kitchen is stocked.0
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One of the things that lighten up the clean-up is music or a good movie. I'll tune into TCM while cooking and cleaning (since I do both at the same time), frighten the cats while singing along with Judy Garland, use good, soft dish soap for the pans and such so that my hands are happy, and then we're done before we know it, and it's time to go on to other things.
The pre-planning and cooking for the week is a big help too: I just finished baking up my oat flour muffins for the week, and will be portioning them out in daily packs as soon as they cool down. Breakfast is set for the week. The whole procedure before throwing them in the oven took about 20 minutes, during the broadcast of "In the Good Old Summertime". The stand mixer did most of the work. I washed the bowl and the mixer down while singing "I Don't Care" and the oven worked on puffing and cooking the muffins.
Later today I'll do the same with weekly lunch - I already have a few chicken cutlets in the freezer. For some variety, I'll cook up a tortilla espanola (just an omelet with sauteed onion and potato), for which I'll use my electric mini-pie maker (a cute and useful toy).
That leaves dinners, which are free, easy, improvised, and always include dessert!
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Quote[My brother, who is a wonderful cook, and who taught me many things, included an important one when I first started cooking for my parents: Clean as you go. I practice this religiously and when I'm done, there's no mess to clean afterward.[/quote]
This.
I mainly learned from being around family cooks.My Grandmother always had a pot of soup ready to heat up.Her 3 DDs were great cooks....learning from Grma. My Mother was a wonderful down home cook.They all started by filling a sink with hot soapy water.So glad I learned this.By the time food is ready,there are very few dishes to wash & pans are soaking.Takes me about 15 mins to clean up.
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Did the pots and pans from last night's supper this morning. I presoaked them as I had my breakfast. There were tons of them as my hubby has yet to learn the art of clearing up as you go along....
It took 4 minutes....I am sure they have drained dry by now.
If you hate doing washing I suggest you
A) leave it tio the morning when you are less tired. It honestly doesn't actually take long!
do a lot more one pot cooking (pop those peas in the same pan, when the carrots almost done etc - cook stews etc)
and you don't enjoy it, or have too much to do, maybe
A) expand your repertoire of quick and cheerful - (my 'fed up of cooking go to' is pasta, add frozen peas in for the last minute, drain, add some bottled pesto and yoghurt, serve with eg tomatoes - 10 mins total !) use the oven or slow cooker more ...2/ 5 or 10 mins prep and then forget about it for ages whilst you get on with something else...(eg some baked potatoes , joined half an hour later by a tray of sausages and then just 10 mins getting some greens eg courgettes done on the top when the sausages and potatoes are done is another easy go to when I am tired or busy.)
I guess it is like most things - the more you do the quicker and more confident you get, and the less pressure you feel to make every meal 'perfect', and so the more enjoyable it can get.
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MonkeyMel21 wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »kimdawnhayden wrote: »Just thinking of what to cook that everyone will like or eat. I'm trying to eat healthy and honestly I'll eat whatever is put in front of me. But hubby and kids are picky.
You could try to ask them what they want
Haha, you must not have small children. If I asked my 6 year old every day what he wanted he would eat chicken nuggets and French fries 5 days a week and burritos and pork chops the other two days.
Depends on your small children and their exposure (to foods, to tv, friends)
My kids (12, 7, 2) love a whole range of foods. If I ask the, where they want to go out and eat, before anything like McDonald's would come Sushi, dim sum, Dosa, Thai (they inhale pad si ew) and yes, Swiss chalet. yesterday at the grocery, I asked my 7 year old what I should cook this week. He picked out pork belly (which i will red braise), luffa, water spinach and starfruit. He was also running around and getting tons of samples of noodles, dumplings, tofu....
The do like it when I make proper soft corn tacos with shrimp or chicken (bean for the oldest), broiled trout, steak, fish pie, quiche, risotto...0 -
People don't know how and then as a result think it takes hours and hours and 50 expensive ingredients and special equipment and skills.
I make a lot of things that are delicious and don't take much time. It's cheaper once you have basics stocked and most of the time faster for me. I only have a McDonald's, subway, and pizza Hut near me
. Incentive to cook at home instead LOL
Eta: sometimes I hate clean up too but I've mastered the one or two pan/dish meals and use paper plates as much as possible. I even started using paper bowls to microwave my scrambled eggs cuz cleaning microwaved cooked eggs off a bowl suuuuucks. When I roast things I always line the pan with foil and/or parchment and I roast several things at a time. If it's things that the flavors or juices might run into another, I make small foil "pans" and set them all on the same pan and nothing gets mixed.0 -
Curious: how is it possible not to cook? I mean including simple meals under the definition of cooking, not 30 ingredient recipes. Honest question, what do people eat if they do not cook? I have never ever met anyone who did not cook at all, with the exception of students living in campus with no kitchen and eating all meals at the cafeteria.0
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Curious: how is it possible not to cook? I mean including simple meals under the definition of cooking, not 30 ingredient recipes. Honest question, what do people eat if they do not cook? I have never ever met anyone who did not cook at all, with the exception of students living in campus with no kitchen and eating all meals at the cafeteria.
Sandwiches. Lunch meat. Frozen/refrigerated meals and snacks that only need to be microwaved/put in the oven. Cheese. Yogurt. Junk food. Bread. Fruit. And eating out, of course.
It was my diet for most of 14 years (I did very minimal cooking, like once or twice a week).0 -
mskessler89 wrote: »MynameisChester wrote: »A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.
I use my dishwasher for every single thing that can go in there, but things like knives, nonstick pots/pans, cast iron skillets, large mixing bowls, etc. still have to be cleaned by hand, and that's the bulk of what I'm dirtying up when cooking. The dishwasher is great for daily use things like mugs, plates, and tupperware, but it doesn't help much when I make a complicated dish. At the end of that, a it looks like a bomb's gone off in my kitchen...
THIS exactly!0 -
MynameisChester wrote: »MynameisChester wrote: »A dishwasher takes care of a lot of cleaning woes imo. For the ones who hate dishwashing, do you not use a dishwasher at home? There are also countertop dishwashers available if you can't fit one under your sink.
Well you got to empty and fill the dishwasher too. And as someone else said, you can't put the big bowls and pots and pans in there anyway...
Maybe I should start a thread of "post your favorite one pot wonder recipes!"
I do have one of these...and it is good, but I need more!0 -
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cleanup (not so much dishes as pots and pans) and losing all my tupperware for no damn reason. there's a black hole in my cupboards somewhere. there've also been enough rough patches in my life financially that any recipe with more than 5 or so ingredients makes my eyes glaze over. i just assume i can't afford to make it.0
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