Before kids I cooked from scratch. I made sauces for pasta and stir fry and curry. I made vegetable stock and froze it to use later in recipes. I used dry beams and soaked them over night. I baked lots of bread and dough.

And now I used jarred sauces and canned beans and boxed broth/stock. If I'm cooking for company I definitely make my own sauces and things but on a day to day basis it saves prep time and clean up time and leaves me a little time to actually be with my kids. It's cooking using shortcuts. Because life is busy. But for the most part the ingredients in those sauces are the same as what I would use anyway so I don't think there's a huge difference in the health factor.

I call it “half made” dinner. And I make that a lot. Fully cooked protein with sides I cook, or sides (like Misson BBQ green beans and a baguette from a bakery) with a protein I cook.

Anonymous wrote:I think it's cooking. I don't think that it's really elaborate skillful cooking, but it's not "fast food" by any stretch of the imagination, even if you are bringing home one prepared ingredient (e.g., rotisserie chicken) to save time. You're still making enchiladas with it. It's not like you're just plopping the rotisserie chicken on the table with some carrot sticks and chips and saying, "Dinner's ready!"

What kind of things is your sister cooking, if she doesn't consider the meals you listed to be "cooking"?

She doesn't use shortcut products like pre-cooked chicken. She'll roast her own chicken. She's one of those people who meal prep on Sunday for the whole week and sometimes cooks a meal or two that day. She would never dream of using jar sauce (we aren't Italian, either).

She's definitely more of a foodie but I think it's silly to look down on others who do quick meals/shortcuts because, you know, life. She claims her kids would never eat some of the things I make for mine, but I fed them fish sticks one time and they chowed down on those babies. She was horrified, of course, but I'm not slicing fresh fish and hand-breading it on a random Saturday at noon.

It's cooking but it's a shortcut. It's fine. I'm not a personal chef and cannot spend an hour or two cooking a "real" meal every single day of our lives, plus cover breakfast and lunch and snacks, and still have a job and a functioning brain. I can't.

Usually I solve this by making large meals from scratch where half of it can be frozen or where we will get several nights of leftover out of it. I prefer this to frozen items from Trader Joe's because the quality is better but I still get the ease of just throwing something in the oven or thawing it on the stovetop and not actually having to cook that night. I will also do stuff like soup and sandwiches (where the soup is from a carton) or breakfast for dinner, where the cooking aspect of the meal is very simple and easy. It's still cooking -- it does actually take some skill to make a really good grilled cheese -- but I don't have to chop vegetables or worry about seasoning or marinade anything, etc.

Tonight we are having a frozen casserole I made last month and it's large enough that we'll be able to have leftovers from it tomorrow for dinner. I'll throw together a simple salad and that's dinner. It's best of both worlds because I did actually put quite a bit of effort into this meal, which includes good quality vegetables and meat and is thoughtfully seasoned (i.e. not loaded with salt and preservatives like a lot of frozen foods), but I did it a month ago so I can just enjoy the results tonight without having to do much. Best of both worlds.

Anonymous wrote:I guess I would agree with your sister in that it's not the same as cooking from scratch and often as unhealthy as fast food (sodium levels in particular are bonkers on some of that ready-heat stuff), but I also think that it's kind of crappy to tell someone they're not cooking if that's what they made for dinner. Not everyone has the time or ability to cook amazing meals from scratch. Sometimes I do and sometimes I throw some Kirkland meatballs on a cookie sheet, and I think in either instance I'd say "I made dinner" but I wouldn't say "I cooked" if it was a meatball and bagged salad night.

So for myself: yes I think there's a distinction. For someone else's kitchen: I can't think of any reason to make that distinction except to be a jerk.

+1

I don’t know. There probably could be a word for cooking that is more than heating/reheating but less than using techniques like roasting, frying, sautéing, braising, etc. There’s not that I know of but I think what you describe falls under the cooking umbrella. Language can be imprecise.

Your sister sounds obnoxious and insecure though. She probably lacks in areas of parenting/homemaking or maybe her career (or lack thereof) and probably says to herself “well at least I actually cook for my kids unlike those other moms who just phone it in with rotisserie chicken.”

Is heating something up to change it's form/make it edible involved? Counts as cooking to me! So box mac and cheese and frozen peas? Yes, cooking! Hummus and veggies/pita chips/etc.? Not cooking. Putting a premade frozen meal or leftovers in microwave? Edge case, I'd probably call that heating up. But honestly this seems like an unnecessary level of nitpicking over language. Colloquially using cooking to indicate preparing food for dinner is totally fine imo.

Yes, because I'm not pretentious.

I guess I would agree with your sister in that it's not the same as cooking from scratch and often as unhealthy as fast food (sodium levels in particular are bonkers on some of that ready-heat stuff), but I also think that it's kind of crappy to tell someone they're not cooking if that's what they made for dinner. Not everyone has the time or ability to cook amazing meals from scratch. Sometimes I do and sometimes I throw some Kirkland meatballs on a cookie sheet, and I think in either instance I'd say "I made dinner" but I wouldn't say "I cooked" if it was a meatball and bagged salad night.

So for myself: yes I think there's a distinction. For someone else's kitchen: I can't think of any reason to make that distinction except to be a jerk.

Yes. It’s cooking. If you’re taking food from a state you wouldn’t or can’t eat to a state you would then that’s cooking in my book. Whether it’s “better” nutritionally than fast food has virtually nothing to do with how fast or easy it is to cook. Microwave rice, microwave frozen veggies, and rotisserie chicken or heated pre cooked chicken breast is better than fast food. Kraft mac and cheese is not better than fast food.

I think it's cooking. I don't think that it's really elaborate skillful cooking, but it's not "fast food" by any stretch of the imagination, even if you are bringing home one prepared ingredient (e.g., rotisserie chicken) to save time. You're still making enchiladas with it. It's not like you're just plopping the rotisserie chicken on the table with some carrot sticks and chips and saying, "Dinner's ready!"

What kind of things is your sister cooking, if she doesn't consider the meals you listed to be "cooking"?

If your family is getting fed, what does it matter?

I agree with your sister. Your feeding your family. There's nothing wrong with that. But cooking is an activity that takes some skill and knowledge as well as time. In the end though, does it really matter what you call the activity as long as you get the food on the table.

Cooking, yes, but also joyless. I used to cook real meals.

This comes from the post by the person who said they made dinner in 9 mins.

Do you consider heating up frozen meat and veggies and microwaving rice as cooking?

My sis and I bicker about this all the time. My sis says that a meal like the one described above isn't cooking for your family, but feeding your family. I say it's cooking. She views those types of meals as no better than fast food. I say if it's made at home, for the most part, it's better than fast food.

My sis will make elaborate meals 3 or 4 nights a week and then eat out for the remaining meals.

I make the shortcut type meals most nights of the week and we eat out Friday dinner and Saturday lunch & dinner. Sunday afternoon is when we make our big family meal (pot roast, roasted chicken, homemade sauce & pasta, etc.)

Examples of meals I make:
-buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and make quesadillas, enchiladas, a pot pie, soup, etc. with it
-make an extra large pan of lasagna (store bought noodles & sauce) and eat it for 2 or 3 nights
-frozen fish (like salmon, cod, tilapia) defrosted in 10 mins in a bowl of water paired with a bag of frozen veggies, a bag of salad mix, and a baked potato/sweet potato
-jar sauce to make a large pot of curry
-pre-pattied, frozen burgers tossed right on the grill
-TJs tomato soup with grilled cheese