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The average person spends two hours per day cooking


August

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I had to remind myself that there was a time when people made do with what was on hand and didn't run to the store for one or two things. On a good day, I will look at it as a challenge and play "iron chef". What can I make with what I have. A quick seasoning and searing of meat in a pan with any potato(our preferred starch) and whatever produce on hand. I discovered whole fat yoghurt makes an excellent base for sauces. just add garlic and whatever I have on hand that would compliment my main. Cooking can be fun when I remember these things.

Polecat I am interested in what you put in your kids lunches, I am having a burnout in that department and have asked the kids for ideas they just shrug.

I can only think of a few things I make that take much more than that -- my honey cloverleaf rolls and other yeast-based breads and doughs take more. Maybe when I make ice cream in the summer and have to stand and stir the custard. But for the most part, cutting veggies, seasoning meat, etc. takes just a few quick minutes. Once it's in the pot, slow cooker, pan, whatever, that's that.

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Oh that's sad :( I won't complain about cold omelette then. She has brought home homemade macaroni cheese (basic white sauce lesson) Scones. Vegetable stir-fry. Good old lentil soup. I think it's good they learn the basics.

That sounds more like the stuff they made in "foods" classes at the last school I taught full time at. I do think it depends on the teacher as there are no standardized curriculums for those areas. They didn't take any of it home, though. They dished it up and brought portions to the other teachers! We loved it when we smelled things cooking in the FCS room!

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We never took stuff home in my day - it was all eaten at breaktime or on the bus!

These days I spend little time cooking but it is still healthy, using a steamer, halogen oven and other gadgets. The dishwasher is also my bff.

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So... reading? And following instructions?

That's the problem. Everyone is convinced that making real food is some impossible, expert task.

Here's the easy way to make potatoes: Poke holes with a fork, place in microwave-safe dish, put in microwave under "potatoes" setting. When it's ready, cut potatoes in half to eat as a baked potato, or scoop out to make mashed potatoes.

Easy method #2 - buy a bag of new potatoes (you can even get them pre-washed). Cut potatoes in half, toss with some oil, salt, pepper and rosemary, and place in a roasting pan (you can even use cheap disposable foil ones to avoid cleaning). Put in oven at 400 degrees.

Both methods don't take any more time than making boxed crap, and since raw potatoes are cheap, it's also more economical.

Microwaving a potato is so easy, though, that it doesn't get mentioned on Food Network or written up in magazines, so people still think that cooking = difficult.

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I love to cook, always from scratch, and there are some days when I definitely spend two hours on task. But that's in total. Over the years, I've gotten great at time management and learned how to multi-task so the whole process doesn't seem overwhelming. I often do as much prep as possible in the morning so when I get home at night I can start cooking right away. The crockpot is great too. Prep before and let it cook overnight or while I'm at work. Nothing like waking up or coming how to that heavenly aroma. I've also learned how to clean up as I go so I'm not faced with a sink full of dishes at the end. I don't cook dinner every night since it's on Mr. Dough and me at home now–leftovers galore–but I do bake almost every morning before work (helps that I'm an early riser at 5 am). Muffins and scones take maybe an hour from start to finish. And I always have dough in the fridge so I can have fresh bread every day. It's not like I have a ton of time on my hands; I work a full-time job, freelance and have a 45-60 minute drive to work each way. Cooking is just something I love to do so I've learned how to manage.

It's a shame that real cooking skills aren't taught anymore or that so many kids don't have an interest in it. My daughter was the same way until she moved out on her own and found out how expensive it is to eat out, have delivery or use convenience foods on a regular basis. Now she also loves to cook and manages to work it into her schedule.

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I'm renting out the guest quarters of my house, and our tenant occasionally eats with up (I'm Italian, I always cook for a dozen people, even if there's only 5 in my family). I made what I call "faked meat sauce"- basically Italian sausage in a tomato based sauce and pasta. The tenant was shocked at my home cooked meal. It seriously took about 20 minutes to throw together. I'll do a few roasting chickens almost every Sunday, with stuffing, mashed potatoes and vegetables. It's super easy, but again, the tenant was overwhelmed. Prep takes no time at all. I don't even peel the potatoes before I boil them, because I send them through a food mill after they're cooked.

I don't bake from scratch, unless you're counting Chocolate Chip Cookies. I make pies with store bought dough (though I do the filling prep from scratch), and cakes/muffins come from a box mix.

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Maybe that daily average is true if you've got a large family to cook for. Not if you live alone and you tend to grab a piece of fruit for breakfast as you're leaving the flat, and bring your own dinner to work as well.

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Last two times I subbed in FCS classes (family consumer science = old home ec), I got depressed.

In a team taught middle school classroom, regular students (not special ed students), practiced heating water in a microwave and pouring cereal in a bowl and adding milk.

In a high school "foods" class, they made cheesy potatoes from a box. There was a student teacher; I asked her if they were learning to make anything from scratch. She said that is too hard and is "unrealistic" for today's families. Furthermore, she said she doesn't know how to make potatoes from scratch. They basically focus on teaching the skills necessary to make convenient processed food.

Seriously?

MY 10 yo has been making pancakes, banana bread and muffins from scratch for more than a year now. He's perfectly capable of following an actual recipe. Heck, he just made a home made cake a couple weeks ago. Why would we assume kids are so incompetent that they can only make boxed foods? That is just ... smh. We're setting up a situation in which the next generation is going to have as many weight problems as THIS generation. Kids need to learn how to make real food that will nourish them rather than convenience food that simply fills their bellies.

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I sometimes make fun of my mom's cooking, but my folks did teach me a couple of tricks:

1. How to use easy recipes that start with the sentence "combine all ingredients". Their favorite cookbook was Second Helpings Please (http://www.amazon.ca/Second-helpings-pl ... 0969391013), which I would describe as traditional Jewish meets Canadian "caker" convenience cooking. I got a copy from them when I got married. What to know how to use coca-cola in a beef recipe? Or how to make a cheesecake with Dream Whip and no baking? This was the original cookbook-fundraiser-gone-wild - a Bnai Brith women's group put it out in 1968, it sold over 150,000 copies and it's still being sold at my local supermarket.

2. How to use store-bought "magic ingredients". Mom liked good food - she just didn't think that she needed to make it herself. So, it was perfectly normal for her to buy something she really liked and incorporate it into whatever she served at home. I live across from an organic grocery store that happens to sell really great pestos. I don't need to make those from scratch, and I can just add them to guacamole, chick pea salad, black bean dip, pasta, etc. Same thing with good boxed soup - making butternut squash soup from scratch takes time, opening up a box and adding some of my own flavors is really quick. I'm also fine with making BBQ chicken by pour Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce over chicken pieces and sticking it in the oven - I've actually had a bunch of people ask me for the recipe. Since I like disposable foil pans, it's 2 min. prep, no cleanup, and I can cook for a crowd.

OKTBT - I agree about kids cooking. In fact, they are often better, since they often have more time than we do.

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It was a survey based on self-reporting time diaries, so the results are a bit suspect to begin with. Also, the actual survey counted food preparation AND time spent on clean-up. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639863/

Oh. Well that makes sense. Self-reporting doesn't always come up with the most accurate results.

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Phew! Thank you JillyO and JHeathen for explaining it better. That is waaay more reasonable.

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I'm intrigued by this concept of potatoes in a box. Are they dehydrated? or in a wet sauce in one of those foil packets? I googled, but there were only pictures of the box and the finshed thing, then there was a pic of someone crushing goldfish crackers and I ran away before I saw something that would scar me forever.

I have a friend who had never whipped cream in her life and was very surprised to see it took one ingredient and five minutes to do. I was too astonished for words.

Seriously?

MY 10 yo has been making pancakes, banana bread and muffins from scratch for more than a year now. He's perfectly capable of following an actual recipe. Heck, he just made a home made cake a couple weeks ago. Why would we assume kids are so incompetent that they can only make boxed foods? That is just ... smh. We're setting up a situation in which the next generation is going to have as many weight problems as THIS generation. Kids need to learn how to make real food that will nourish them rather than convenience food that simply fills their bellies.

Has he seen the great british bakeoff/baking show? It's a really fun, supportive and friendly reality baking show. It got my kids into baking all sort of delicacies, which I then eat, and they eat, but I didn't have to cook it. Win win.

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I'm intrigued by this concept of potatoes in a box. Are they dehydrated? or in a wet sauce in one of those foil packets? I googled, but there were only pictures of the box and the finshed thing, then there was a pic of someone crushing goldfish crackers and I ran away before I saw something that would scar me forever.

Sliced and dehydrated, yes. There's also a packet of powder that you use to make a sauce. Mmmm…

Then there are potato flakes and potato buds. Just add water.

Food Network has a series called Worst Cooks in America. Once you get past the "characters" and the reality TV bull, you can really see how clueless some of these people are. Truly, some of them CAN'T boil water.

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That sounds revolting. I knew about potato flakes, because I had a recipe which used them for supposedly super soft rolls. I was never brave enough to make "mashed" potato out of them.

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Seriously?

MY 10 yo has been making pancakes, banana bread and muffins from scratch for more than a year now. He's perfectly capable of following an actual recipe. Heck, he just made a home made cake a couple weeks ago. Why would we assume kids are so incompetent that they can only make boxed foods? That is just ... smh. We're setting up a situation in which the next generation is going to have as many weight problems as THIS generation. Kids need to learn how to make real food that will nourish them rather than convenience food that simply fills their bellies.

My high schooler had to take that school class, and I've had her cooking for years. She was bored out of her mind. We have a lot of allergies at our house so cooking actual food is a necessity. I don't like or enjoy cooking, but I know how. Both my older girls help with dinner most days, and my 12 year old loves to bake. She made us pumpkin bread for this morning (though I admit, that was a mix she added pumpkin to. Haha)

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That sounds revolting. I knew about potato flakes, because I had a recipe which used them for supposedly super soft rolls. I was never brave enough to make "mashed" potato out of them.

It's called 'Smash' in the UK. I can still hear the advert...For mash get smash!!!

I've never been brave enough either :lol:

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I remember making slice and bake cookies in home ec. And pizza, with premade dough. It was definitely a waste.

I have no issue using some boxed food. I happen to like mac and cheese with the neon powder (I have switched to Annie's organic because I can get a huge variety pack at Costco and they're yummy) better than homemade, which I'm perfectly capable of making. I also don't see an issue with cake and bread mixes. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't. I'll die before I buy a tub of premade frosting, though.

I cook from scratch a lot, and I have no qualms buying a frozen meal in a bag type thing for nights I don't want to bother. 2 hours is probably fair, if we're combining all aspects of cooking.

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If I spend one morning a month making chicken and beef broth, tomato sauce, and meatballs for the freezer, weekday meal prep time is significantly cut. Sunday night I'll boil beans for spreads and to put whole in dishes through the week. There are ways to cut time in meal prep, but they have to be taught and learned. That teaching and learning is what is being lost.

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I do a combination of quick on-the-spot cooking and cooking big batches to reheat.

For example: I've used the huge stock pot to make enormous amounts of chicken and veggie soup, which makes dinner for AT LEAST a week (the latest batch was close to two weeks). Or I'll throw chicken and veggies in with some rice and cook that during my just-got-home shower. (Lunches tend to be tuna, pbj, or a bowl of veggies.)

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This method probably doesn't fly with kids, but it works great for me as a single person: I may invest and hour and a half making something like a tagine or a navy bean soup, but that is going to carry me for at least 2 lunches and 2 dinners. I don't mind leftovers, so cooking a regular recipe for 4-6 works out nicely for me in that it frees 1-2 nights where I don't have to worry about cooking.

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Once the kids are eating adult sized portions (around 8/9 yo) cooking big batches is dramatically less effective. Storing a week's worth of meals would fill my freezer and leave no room for things like meat and bread. Plus your pots which used to be massive are now just a little larger than normal. I don't think my stock pot could fit a week's worth of soup. My normal saucepan fits three meals of pasta sauce.

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Anyone else here a hetero woman who spends less time in the kitchen than their male partner? I feel like I'm in the minority here!

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Anyone else here a hetero woman who spends less time in the kitchen than their male partner? I feel like I'm in the minority here!

That would be me, also. My SO complained about the food I served one too many times and I informed him he could cook for himself. He decided to do exactly that. :clap: :clap: :clap:

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It's called 'Smash' in the UK. I can still hear the advert...For mash get smash!!!

I've never been brave enough either :lol:

"Smash" is...I'm trying to find a word to accurately describe my experiences with it. The only time I've ever eaten it indoors was an experiment, and it made me want to hurl. On the other hand, if you've just hiked for eight hours, pitched a tent in the middle of nowhere, and are desperate for something to eat, it's pretty good.

I also once dumped some into home-made asparagus soup to thicken it. Now I know where that oddly chemical flavour came from in my mum's asparagus soup. Took me straight back to my childhood, and the soup went down the drain.

And that's me back to the prayer closet to contemplate my crimes against cuisine.

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Two hours a day, every day, to cook, with modern appliances, seems like a ridiculous waste of time. What are people doing that's so time consuming?

I was thinking about this in the car today on the way to the store. It used to take several minutes to toast toast, and you had to carefully watch it, and then flip and toast the other side. Now toasters are fast and do both sides at the same time. If it took as long to cook today as it used to, then something's wrong.

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