It is real cooking, maybe not, but you are still feeding you family. Not sure I would say these meals are no better than fast food, but I guess that all depends on what you are throwing together and what you order from fast food. I would argue that most of these types of meals are still likely better for you in terms of calories, fat and salt than the vast majority of restaurant meals.

Anonymous wrote: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.”

I think that word would be “preparing.” Yes, you are getting dinner together, but you aren’t really “cooking” in 10 minutes at the end of the day.

This isn’t the way I cook most nights, but nights like these are definitely in my rotation, and I do consider them to be cooking.

Ask your sister:
When your son or daughter is in college or a young professional, would you rather have them dining out every night, getting takeout, getting fast food, eating cold cereal or a cold sandwich, or “feeding themselves” a hot meal that they prepare at home?

Anonymous wrote:Microwaving rice and heating up a premade dinner from the store isn't cooking. It's making dinner. It's feeding your kids. But not cooking, no. It is better than picking up a pizza, I think, depending on what kind of premade meal you choose.

BTW I do much more of your style of making dinner (so I'm not smugly judging you or anything), but I don't call it cooking. It's reheating, assembling, doctoring, etc.

Microwaving rice and heating up a premade dinner from the store isn't cooking. It's making dinner. It's feeding your kids. But not cooking, no. It is better than picking up a pizza, I think, depending on what kind of premade meal you choose.

Most of the time I cook to feed my family. And sometimes I cook to feel the joy of cooking!

The distinction is all in our minds, OP. Don't let your sister shame you or anything.

The only point of this discussion on the part of your sister is to make you feel guilty, OP. Don’t let her. My biggest concern would be limiting the kids’ exposure to unnecessary additives and excess fats and sugars. That could mean simply baking some fish, making rice, and steaming/microwaving a vegetable. It may not be exciting, but it gets the job done. Also, frozen home cooked leftovers (pot roast, casseroles, etc.) are your friend. But if you have a full-time job or other responsibilities, then you just do the best you can and let it go.

Cooking =\= cooking from scratch. You are both cooking. She is cooking from scratch. It’s not even clear that one will necessarily taste better or be healthier than the other.

It’s definitely cooking. I alternate between a meatloaf dinner and a sheet pan meal but you need to know what you are doing and combining. A baked potato is easier than steaming frozen vegetables. It’s really mix and match so let’s not get too hung up.

I love cooking, but mostly think of what I do these days as getting dinner on the table. With kids and two parents WOH, cooking from scratch cannot happen every night.

Occasionally I’ll still spend a weekend day doing the real thing, but not nearly as often as I did pre-kids.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, because I'm not pretentious.

Exactly! She’s attaching a lot of ego and superiority to the word “cooking.”

If you're changing the format from a packaged versionn(e.g. shredding rotisserie chicken for enchiladas), it's cooking, just not "from scratch." We already have a term to distinguish this!

I do think if you use shortcuts or pre-prepped food, you can't really brag about how quick your meal was. If you buy rotisserie, you didn't find a brilliant way to cook a chicken faster. If you spent hours on the weekend chopping vegetables and prepping meats and sauces, you didn't spend 10 minutes making a weeknight dinner from scratch, you spent 10 minutes on the weeknight PLUS x% of the time you spent on all the other components. It's false advertising.

Making dinners with leftovers is better than cooking, it’s smart and creative.

People who can’t do this are recipe followers not chefs.

Also people who follow recipes are not good cooks.

I microwave a lot of food for my kid, but I do it in a $40 glass bowl from David Chang so I know it’s fancy enough for her to still get into college.

I’m like u OP. I call it making dinner, not sure I would say I’m cooking. Making dinner, definitely. I also think it’s silly to bicker about this. You do your way and she does her way, you’re both doing what works for you. That’s ok.