Prepared foods? Or cooking from scratch?
With prepared foods, there is less to do, so easier to make? But then there is all that packaging.Of course a lot of things are packaged now, so there can be lots of packaging with cooking from scratch too. But I suppose you are buying in bulk, so that might even itself out.
It sure is easy to pull something out of the freezer on a busy day, and just pop it in the oven. But if I keep a well stocked cupboard, I think I have an easier time, because I can make almost anything.

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Once you're use to scratch, I honestly don't find it that hard when your organized. That said, sometimes I go with pre-packaged food. Of course I have learned to expect that those times will be way more expensive, especially if I'm just buying on the run. Those trips are NEVER good!

My DH & I were actually talking about this last night. We cook almost everything from scratch and honestly don't see how everyone doesn't. Of course, being home all day helps a lot as there's more time to prepare a meal than if I had to run home after work and do it. Still, there are lots of quick and easy meals that can be fixed from scratch. So I'd say it's simpler to do meals from scratch. Of course we do keep frozen hamburgers for those nights that we need a super quick meal as well as sandwich fixings. But overall, it's all made from scratch and so much healthier for us to boot!

I use a mix. It works for me. With a large busy family, my dh working more than full time and me working a full time and pt time job, it is just the easiest for us!

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I prefer the taste of home cooking to prepared stuff, so I try to do that whenever possible. We have some recipes that we can make in a pinch, so we keep those ingredients on hand. I've also started making double batches and freezing a portion to eat later, which really helps.

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I don't bake my own bread but I never buy Hamburger Helper, crockpot starters....... I always keep a box of instant potatoes just in case, and when I find a good sale combined with coupons I will pick up a frozen pizza for those busy nights. I figure thats better than running out to eat.

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Personally, I like homemade. That way I know what is going into the food and can control the amount of salt, etc. It definitely takes some planning. In the winter, my crockpot is my best friend. I love to make stew, sauce, soups, etc. I just make sure I do as much as possible the night before (i.e. cut up meat or veggies, measure ingredients). We used to cook a lot of prepackaged meals, but DH's cholesterol was dangerously high and his Dr. put him on a strict diet. That's when we started cooking from scratch.

I prefer home made as well. It makes me feel better knowing we aren't consuming all of the weird things that companies put in their prepackaged foods (salt, preservatives, etc).

Plus, I have turned it into a hobby rather than a chore. I try new recipes all the time, and I learn new cooking skills as well. You can't do that with packaged foods.

I guess I kind of do both. I do not make my own bread, pasta or pasta sauce. But pretty much everything else I do from scratch. We all prefer homemade cookies and not the already cookie dough like pisburry or tollhouse. I do use the box mix for brownies and most of the time for cakes. Frozen dinners I don't do. We will get frozen pizza from time to time but thati is it. I sometimes get the frozen Michinas(not sure if that is the name or not) but that is for my lunch because I like them, they are small enough and fairly cheap for my lunch. So really I guess I mix it up and do both scratch and some prepared stuff.

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Jenifer
Proud wife to one amazing man
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April showers bring May flowers
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

I'm pretty much the same. I can't handle the salt in prepared foods and it only takes a few minutes to cut up and combine ingredients. I figure that if the worst I'm doing is having boca burgers or frozen pizza one night each week for dinner, than we're still overall healthy.

It does help that I stay home. I think if I was working full time I would have to prep the crock pot the night before a couple times a week, which I can't stand doing, I don't feel like starting tomrrow's dinner when I just finished today's! However, making a healthy pasta is always easy and a basic dinner of protein/whole grains/veggies is quick. Menu planning is the key!

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