How much time do you spend cooking?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Now, I'm probably not normal as I'm an obsessive cook and I spend a lot of the day cooking. Or so it seems. But here is the question - when you are at home, how many hours per day do you spend making meals? This includes preparation and any checking, turning, stirring of food - but not the time when it is roasting in the oven or simmering on the hob etc.

I'm having trouble estimating this since I spend much of my waking time thinking about cooking and recipe development. But perhaps I don't really spend as much time actually cooking as I think!
 
I work 65+ hpurs a week, then add in 15 hours of commuting and there's not much time to cook. My wife does the cooking along with occasional help from our son. I maybe spend 20 minutes total cooking or preparing something for myself to eat.

My schedule is changing, though, so I should get at least one night off every week. I plan on spending more time cooking on that night off, about 45 minutes minimum, upwards of 4 hours if it's something special.
 
I assume "Cooking" includes all food prep. My schedule isn't quite as full as Tom's is, but I don't have a lot of spare time to devote to big projects. So, what I do is try to sneak in small things here and there when I can. For instance, pickling is very quick - a total of half an hour from cutting the vegetables to putting them in a jar - so I can do this whenever I want. If I'm going to grind meat - which I do a lot - I can spend some time one day cutting it into chunks and covering in seasoning, then spend time another day grinding it after it's had a chance to freeze (which I just got done doing tonight).

Due to time constraints, I've also gotten really quick at doing things. I'm using the pressure cooker more, and I'm consulting different ideas much less than I used to do. I realized that a fair amount of my "prep time" in a new recipe is consulting other examples of the thing I want to make, so now I might look at one site I trust and then let it fly.

It might work out to an hour a day on average that I spend with cooking-related activities. But, if it's been too long since I last made something special, I will set aside a few hours to do something elaborate.
 
I'm working full time and it's a 50km drive to work. So I leave just after 7am and return just on 6pm.

Leaving me an hour to cook each night. My teens have a night each week they are expected to cook. My OH has no interest but he can roast a chook, make baked potatoes or cook tacos.

I'm not a quick cook so I try and do lots of prep on weekends.

I'll buy a heap of chicken fillets and marinate & freeze or buy bulk beef mince and flavour & roll a variety of meatballs or burgers. I might make a huge batch of chilli, baked beans, bolognese, cacciatore, curry, soup etc and freeze in family sized portions or individual portions.

This week there is oyster blade (flat iron) steak on sale so I'll do something with that next weekend.

I also make a big frittata for quick breakfasts and lunches, do salad prep, veggie stick snack prep, maybe a lentil salad.

I don't like many purchased ready meal type foods and I like to eat a variety of veg each day but it's time consuming.

Right now I probably spend 12-15 hours a week cooking. Plus writing a menu plan, doing a shop Coles online for OH to collect, write him a short list for Aldi and then sending family members instructions via text.

Before I went back to work I used to do a lot more cooking, biscuits, cakes etc.
 
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Little as possible

Meat, starch & vegetable. The thing that takes the longest with would be the meat first, thyen the starch, then the vegetable. Unless its a roast or stew, or even soup, that & the veggies are cooked together.

About a few hours. :wink:
 
As Karen said, it depends on the meal. When I was growing up, my Oma would spend most everyday cooking. She didn't work. So if I make sauerbraten and dumplings (Kartoffelklosse), it can take most of the day. Making andouille, tasso and other sausages can involve 2 days (after curing if required). BBQ prep and cooking, depending on the meat, can take a few hours and up to 12 hours. Many Sundays are spent prepping meals for quick week night dinners.
 
I would say it depends on the recipe. My specialty is frozen meals. Throw it in the oven and bake 'til done.
My husband, in his younger years, would sometimes prep all day. He had a Lemon Mirror Cake recipe that took three days to make. Now, his diabeties is getting worse. He has difficulty walking and standing, so while he sits at the table, prepping everything, I'll walk around getting everything he needs.

I'm slowly taking over the cooking from him. It takes him a while to get interested in a recipe now.
 
Matilda said:
My specialty is frozen meals. Throw it in the oven and bake 'til done.
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I'm sort of hoping that you make these meals yourself or with the help of your husband and then freeze. But if not then who could blame you? It sounds as if you have a husband who likes to cook and has some great experience. I mean, I couldn't even start to cook a Mirror cake! Perhaps you could encourage him to share the recipes?

On a different note, I have a close friend who developed type 2 diabetes - he has managed to totally control it by diet alone. I'm really not one to promote diets or anything else for that matter but I saw him transformed. Here is the method he used: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/may/12/type-2-diabetes-diet-cure. I'm sure you have probably tried everything though. So please feel free to ignore me!
 
If I'm cooking in bulk (e.g curry or chili) I could spend over 3 hours preparing, cooking and frequently stirring. However, I would end up with at least 8 portions to freeze and in subsequent days, only spend 30 minutes reheating and preparing and cooking rice and/or bread/potatoes.

For a non-frozen dish I could likely spend maybe 90 minutes/day but my wife assists sometimes.

Today, I'll spend a few minutes reheating a jacket potato (in the M/W), 10 minutes making a mushroom sauce, 2 minutes cooking defrosted (blanched) sweetcorn and about 5 minutes cooking and searing a fillet steak. Plus, if my wife returns from the market with sufficient ingredients, I shall spend another 20 minutes slicing and marinating chicken for tomorrow's chop suey.

The chop suey will then take around an hour tomorrow to chop and stir fry all the ingredients.
 
I should point out that I rarely eat more that one meal per day plus possibly a snack.
 
Yorky said:
Plus, if my wife returns from the market with sufficient ingredients, I shall spend another 20 minutes slicing and marinating chicken for tomorrow's chop suey.

The chop suey will then take around an hour tomorrow to chop and stir fry all the ingredients.
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My wife was a little late back from the market but obtained everything required for the chop suey (the water chestnuts that the Fat Lady gave us were great but unfortunately the bamboo shoots had been pre-cooked with pandan leaves so we needed more fresh).
 
During the work week I'll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour cooking. Sometimes less.

As a few have mentioned I'll spend half of my Sunday cooking meals to cover me through the first few days of the work week. My wife usually works on SUN's. I spend it listening to death metal and cooking (and/or recovering from a poker game).
 
Is this fat lady related to fat Brenda from Coro st.

Russ
Yorky said:
My wife was a little late back from the market but obtained everything required for the chop suey (the water chestnuts that the Fat Lady gave us were great but unfortunately the bamboo shoots had been pre-cooked with pandan leaves so we needed more fresh).
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rascal said:
Is this fat lady related to fat Brenda from Coro st.
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I wouldn't imagine so (although I don't know of Fat Brenda). She is known throughout the village as Ewan with is an abbreviation of
P̄huhỵing ewan (ผู้หญิงอ้วน - fat lady).
 
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