Do you do much food preparation or are you Mr convenience?
 

In the modern world, it's entirely possible to go through life with no culinary skills beyond sticking a packet in the microwave for ten minutes then emptying the contents onto a plate. Many people have hectic lifestyles or simply have never learned how to properly prepare food from basic ingredients. Others balk at the idea of eating processed food and will go to great lengths to prepare proper meals.

Are you the kind of person who eats out of packets or do you make yourself "proper" meals?

Personally, I prefer actual cooking. My parents always cooked proper meals as I was growing up so the idea of convenience food was kinda alien. Also, I find stuff you make yourself is simply so much nicer. Plus you get the benefit of knowing exactly what's gone into it, I dread to think what kind of shit they stick in most packaged meals.

I also think there's a great sense of satisfaction to be had from preparing your own meal from scratch, especially if you're feeding other people too.

So your thoughts please kids. Are you a cooker or a packet fiend?

I was on the ready meals for a while after moving in to my student house, but after a while I realised it was too expensive, the meals weren't big enough and after a while I got completely fed up of them.

Since then I've been cooking properly and noticed a huge improvement. Sure, it takes a bit of time, but it's worth it to eat a decent sized meal that actually tastes like food. I grew up always eating cooked meals too, my mum often puts hours into her cooking, and the results have always been delicious.

People should find the time to cook themselves proper meals once in a while, or make the time if they do have hectic schedules; even get others to cook for them. It's not hard to cook basic meals, and plenty of recipe books and websites exist if you want to do something a bit special, and the results are much better than saving a few minutes.

I'm a rather poor college student, so I don't really have the means to make a "proper" meal everyday. I really don't have the time either most days. My meals normally consist of left over pizza or popping a cheap TV dinner into the microwave.

On occasion I find myself watching the food network though; I'll see something that looks good and think "Hey, I can do that..." Nine times out of ten though it turns out that I'm wrong and can't.

Don't you find it cheaper to cook your own meals than to buy the ready meals? I noticed microwave meals in particular are more expensive than other things you can buy such as fish (which doesn't take long to cook and you can't really go wrong with), and you can eat this with say potatoes and some veg, which are likely to last a few days.

Or are ready meals considerably cheaper over there? I guess on a meal-to-meal basis they might work out slightly cheaper, but overall you should be able to make things more cheaply yourself. I tend to go for the cheapest option in the supermarkets without really noticing a real decline in the standard of the food.

I'm with TRZD on this one.

A microwave meal will cost you three or four quid whereas you can pick up enough basic ingredients for three meals for that if you know what you're doing.

I find cooking to be a very edifying experience every time, so I much prefer it. Cooking from scratch is even better, because you're not just "following the directions on the box".

It's just common sense that you enjoy things more if you put work into them.

Well, my main meal is heating up a Tony's pizza which will do me for just about all day and they go for about $2 ~ 2.50. I do buy my chicken and cook that up but I really don't do anything to it.

I guess for the most part if I knew what i was doing I might be able to save a few bucks cooking casseroles and what not. I know my old roomate used to make a pretty good chicken and noodle casserole that was cost effective. We'd have left overs for a few days.

Yes, it's very satisfying to sit down to a meal that you prepared yourself. I ate every last piece of coal-black burnt rice from my attempt at a Spanish rice recipe I found online because it was so personally gratifying. It was a bitter triumph.

I keep some canned goods and a few packets of instant-whatevers they give away at conventions and food fairs in the pantry for when it's really late and I'm really tired but really hungry, but generally I cook everything I eat. And it's great to see other people enjoying my food.

I'd prefer cooking too, but when you have 4 roommates living together and 2 of them always buy a lot of grocery and cook twice more than you do, it's kinda hard to prepare and cook what you want to eat at home. So I always cook something easy and small portion, and buy some 'convenient food' in store for later use if I ran outta my grocery.

I admit I'm pretty much a packaged foods whore, but I really do like cooking shit myself better. It's just that I don't always have the time to do so. Whenever I do (usually around holidays and stuff), I always try to make something that my family and I can enjoy.

I mix it up a bit. Usually half my meals during the week are real, while the other half are either fast food or microwave. Microwave dinners can be gotten for less than $1 if you shop well.

I cook everything from scratch for the most part. I probably have TV dinners or take-out only a few times a month.

I try to cook my own meals whenever I can, but a lot of the time I'm in a hurry and can't really commit to anything like that. I often have work schedules with REALLY weird hours, and as a result I'm forced to eat out a lot as well, so I'll typically grab something fast from Subway.

I did make some spaghetti tonight with home-made sauce, nothing too extravagant 'cause I had just gotten home from the gym and was kinda tired, but it ended up being really good. Cooking I find is a nice way to unwind and just kinda relax for a while after a long day. It's fun to try throwing different spices into things and see what you can come up with.

Breakfasts, though, are completely different. I like a nice big breakfast whenever I'm able to have one, but most of the time I'm so rushed I just throw a buncha stuff into a blender and chug it down before running out the door.

I eat out (80%) or make my own food (20%). I live by myself so when I dp cook, I usually make too much food that I get sick of being the only one eating it or it sits in my fridge and rots, literally.

I can make a mean pasta salad. And obscure Asian dishes, those are awesome.

So far I've been a ready made guy for like...5 years now. Ever since I began college, in other words. I'd like to really start cooking, for health, for expense, and for the experience. And if I ever get a girlfriend again I'd like to be able to cook for both of us. That would be very nice.

I love to cook whenever I could. So insta-food are of little affect to me. That doesn't mean that I dont eat them. It's only when I'm really in a rush.

Yeah, I'm Mr. Convenience (I'm also Captain Obvious, but that discussion it for a later time). Pre-made, ready-to-be microwaved or popped into the oven is what I eat when there's no one home who actually knows how to cook. Go me.

Anymore, I prefer convenience (e.g., microwavable dinners are my friend) over any long preparation. That being said, it is refreshing to have a well-prepared, non-freeze dried meal every once and awhile; those meals always taste better.

Depending on how much I want to spend, I might make a nice from-scratch entree with a couple of more 'packaged' like sides (frozen, canned, etc). Fresh ingredients make for the best cooking, but they can get expensive pretty quick.

Every so often for fun I'll make everything fresh from scratch -- vegetables, condiments, and all.

To be honest, it really depends on my day, what I have left to go in the day, and how I am feeling.

Most of the time in the winter, I am much more prone to cook larger meals which take a lot of time and effort. This is probably because it gets dark out earlier and its fucking COLD out there. I would rather spend my time indoors - and what better way to spend time but in preparing food?

But yea, in summertime, I am much more likely to use the grill and cook up quick things. Winter, I make full-out meals.

When I am exhausted, heading home from class, and its nearly 9am, thats when I hit up a fast food joint.

Almost every weekend, though, I treat myself to a meal in a restaraunt with friends and drinks.

I prefer actual cooking as well, that way I know exactly what's going in my food. Besides, it's more fun that way. I don't go around eating a bunch of garbage (lots of salt or lots of sugar).

If I had all the time in the world, I'd go for homemade meals rather than pre-packaged foods, but since that isn't the case, I just do whatever I have time for. In the morning, it's either cereal or TV dinners (yes, those). When possible, I do try to avoid "convenient" foods, especially since I enjoy cooking.

There aren't many things I enjoy more than cooking, so I'm all about doing everything the old-fashioned way. For example, last night I made chicken and leek soup. I bought a raw chicken, cooked it, took all the meat off the bone and shredded it. Then I used the chicken stock as my soup base. I cut up carrots and leeks and added rice and seasonings. It took me about an hour and a half, but I couldn't have bought anything nearly as tasty in a can.

When you cook like this, things taste better and are usually healthier.

I am both. Some nights I will make a big gourmet meal, and other nights I will take the shortcuts and make instant. My shift at work doesn't always allow me too eat or cook right, which is my I take multi-vitamins, and do most of the cooking on my days off.

Ive gotten to where I eat out almost nightly. How long this is gonna last im not sure. More on subject, I do enjoy cooking my own meals, and I enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing so, but I usually find myself eating at awkward intervals throughout the day, and this makes preparing proper meals hard.

I'm most comfortable in a kitchen. I always opt for cooking my own meals rather than picking something quick and easy up on the way home (unless I'm terribly exhausted or pressed for time). Because I'm so fascinated with other cultures and food being an integral part of cultural traditions, I love to try out recipes from all sorts of ethnicities. I'm strongest in Chinese, but I also make a mean batch of gnocchi and my udon ain't half bad, either.

Basically, I love a good challenge. Cooking generally meets that challenge and in the end I've usually had a good meal and feel better because of my accomplishment. Plus, it makes for a mess of happy friends.

I wish my mom made homade food more often! She makes like one dish every 2 weeks. Oh well, I am the chef in the family, and i love to bake. I can really only make sweet deserts and yeast breads, not a main dish. Well, I never really try i guess. I am actually thinking about becoming a prefessional chef, I think I am pretty good at baking for 15 years old. I am better than my mom at baking.

I'm actually taking chef training and pastry chef training in college right now. I love it, but it's funny, cause at home... I'm all for the easy-to-cook stuff. I guess I get so much of it at school that by the time I get home, I just want it to be over and done with, heh.

I love to cook when I have the ingerdients.

I think recipes are so much fun to play with. Make my own little changes. Hell, I will eat hot pockets and hamburger helper but cooking is way better.

I love puertorican dishes especially :)

My grandparents own a restaurant, so since my childhood I've always been told how bad and disgusting packet food is. I almost always cook everything from scratch. Going out to shop for ingredients is one of my favourite activities, just looking around various shops for the best stuff you can find, discovering new ingredients and recipes can be really enjoyable.

The only time I go out to get some takeaway is during the exams, when my schedule doesn't allow me to spend time cooking.

I'm a microwave and toaster oven fiend. Give me some pizza rolls or some easy mac any day. It fills me up and is quick to make. I say this but when my mom cooks food it is better than any of this stuff.

Usually cook myself, but I do buy some convenience foods like pies to microwave or bake when I'm busy. But cooking up something from scratch is great, I feel really satisfied when something comes up smelling and tasting good. I'm not good at baking though, I try to follow recipes as closely as possible but they always don't come out quite right. :S

I used to be a toaster oven fiend until I accidently left waffles in there a bit too long and had flames and smoke pouring out of it...

If I'm in a hurry, it's most definitely the microwave. If I've got time, I try to use the stovetop and the oven.

Actually, not only do I cook, I cook for my entire family now on a regular basis. My mom pretty much has stopped cooking and left me to make meals nowadays. But that's OK with me, considering that I enjoy cooking, and I plan on going onto culinary school after high school.

We have absolutely no "convenience" foods at my house. None of those "heat in the microwave and serve" things. Personally, I think that they all taste horrible.

i always cook my own meals when i'm away at uni, though i guess i do cheat with sauces sometimes (mabo tofu, curry or cream stew roux) but that's mainly because the town i'm in while at uni only has 2 chinese stores and an extremely limited selection.

only time i buy pre-prepared here is when i don't have the time to make a packed lunch which is usually on days i have about 1 hour to go home pack my bags and catch a train back to london, though it's usually a sandwich or pasta salad. though my dad and sister always seem to buy ready meals; saturday night, dad ordered curry take away and sunday afternoon it was pizza. whereas my mum, gran and i prefer to cook. i got put off ready meals about 2-3 years ago when my mum was too busy to cook and so there fridge was just filled with them and the cupboard with instant noodles. had to eat like that for a year or so, and my school timetable back then meant i was unable to go food shopping with my dad and sister to buy the stuff i wanted.

I don't know how to cook jack shit, I'm stingy when it comes to time spent preparing food (including clean up), and I'm also a little bit lazy. However, I also dislike eating most frozen/packaged stuff more than sparingly, so I often just eat out at restaurants or eat whatever my mother cooks.

I'm taking culinary arts in college to get my associates degree, and I admire more cooking from scratch then having all this pre-made crap. :X