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Can I come over for dinner? Sounds nom nom :P
Anyways, we do a combo of things. If I am using anything prepackaged, we add veggies or what not to it.
Type B. My mom always told me there are shortcuts you just don't take, like boxed mashed potatoes or minute rice. Occasionally I will eat a Digiorno pizza but that's pretty much the extent of my use of pre-packaged food for dinner.
We try and make most of our stuff with fresh ingredients instead of buying frozen food. If we are too lazy to cook we usually pick up take out or something.
Pretty much everything we make is homemade with fresh ingredients, but we do use some pre-made stuff. For examply, I make my own tomatoe sauce but buy pasta. Make my own lasagna, turkey burgers, stir fry, etc. The onyl pre-packaged food we ever buy is the Morningstar "chicken" pattis. So yum, and so good for a quick dinner.
Definitely Type B! I feel like a failure if I pick up prepackaged food, lol--I don't consider that cooking, but more on the same lines of getting take out. When I cook, I make everything from scratch (not like my own chicken stock or own pasta though!). It honestly usually doesn't take that long, and I feel much more accomplished.
I do mostly homemade stuff, but I have no shame in steaming up some ready-made dumplings, using prego pasta sauce as a base, or grilling up some frozen veggie/beef burgers! Have you tried CPK frozen pizzas? Delicious!
We mostly use homemade everything because I love cooking! I make my own sauce, potatoes, rice But there are certain things I buy premade like Jelly, Mayo, e.t.c I dont make my own pasta, I buy fresh pasta from the store. but I dont buy ready cooked meals, LIke a precooked lasagna that just pops in the oven; thats not for me.
@ohheavenlyday: I cannot stand powdered mashed potato or minute rice.. it just has a certain taste to it!
I usually make things from scratch, but I don't mind things like premade pie crusts or using frozen veggies occasionally instead of fresh for convenience. When we're lazy we also have some go-to frozen foods like Central Market pizzas, frozen pumpkin ravioli, or boxed pad thai mix.
The prepackaged stuff usually has tons of sodium, so we try to go for fresh stuff as much as we can...but getting home from work at 7 doesn't always leave me totally motivated! I do love the crockpot, too, because it usually allows us to make something homemade that's ready when we get home exhausted from work!
I try not to buy pre-packaged anything. No frozen meals in my house!! I make everything from scratch, including salad dressing. Yesterday we had homemade potato salad, spinach salad, vegetable and steak kabobs on the bbq. I even made bbq sauce from scratch. We go out to eat about once a month, but RARELY eat fast food. McDonald's is limited to a couple times a year. However, I do buy alot of frozen fruits and vegetables. A fresh salad is a must for every meal. I am totally obsessed with what we eat, I have two kids and it definitely wasn't like this before they were born. I used to eat popcorn for breakfast and chocolate bars for lunch
I am a B - but sometimes a C, in that I will "cook" a pre-packaged meal, but its funny because I don't condsider it "cooking" its my lazy I don't want to cook meal.
For when I do cook, I pretty much make all my own sauces, seasonings, and mix marinades. Fresh meats (I hate the pre-cut/ meats, like for fajitas that have the chicken or beef cut up already) and fresh sides.
But, for work we do take frozen meals for lunch - so the fresh meals are only for dinner.
B - because I LOVE cooking and it's so much more fun making all of your own stuff!
I'm a type C with probably more pre-packaged stuff. DH is definitely Type B though!
I wasn't aware there was any other type of cooking other than type B. That's just how my mother always did it. I remember going over to my MIL's house for dinner one time and being absolutely appaled that the mashed potatoes were literally bought from giant, the rolls had been bought.. everything was pre-packaged and she was just throwing them in the oven like it was no big deal. To me mashed potatoes are so simple to make and I love putting effort into my meals and when they taste so good I know that I accomplished something and I feel good about myself.
rant over.
Half the time its quicker and simpler to make it from scratch. It takes 20+ minutes to throw in a frozen pizza, but 10 minutes to throw thin cut pork chops in the skillet, rice in the rice cooker, and either eat the veggies raw, steamed in the rice cooker, or quickly tossed in some olive oil in the skillet.
Type C - I'm very strategic about what I make from scratch and what I don't. I almost always make pasta and pizza sauce from scratch (though if Rao's is on sale, I pick up a jar or two because I can't make my sauce that delicious). Pesto and salad dressing are from scratch, but the salad is from a bag because we have a tiny sink and no salad spinner. Pasta is from a box on weekdays, but my fiance makes it from scratch on special occasions. Pizza dough is from the refrigerator section at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. I tend to make my own stir fry sauces, but I use the pre-chopped veggies sometimes.
The big pre-packaged thing we go for is fake meat - we both love it and while I know you can make seitan from scratch, I'm a little scared of trying. Veggie burgers, veggie sausage, veggie meatballs... that's definitely our #1 source of non-homemade.
Anyone feeling generous with the pasta sauce recipes?
I picked B, but perhaps "C with more B" is more accurate. We usually use premade sauces and noodles, but pretty much everything else is from scratch.
I chose C. We are not great in the kitchen :) I've never been interested in cooking. Before FI, I was happy with a salad and maybe tuna for dinner. I would eat the same thing night after night and was happy. But now we do a lot of crock-pot cooking. It's so easy to make, not a ton of prep, and we are eating fairly fresh. We usually put in a piece of meat and a ton of veggies - sometimes fresh, sometimes frozen. SO is a big meat eater and I mostly prefer veggies so it works for us.
We don't eat breads, pastas, bakery types items, etc. SO eats low-carb and I really watch my calories, so this eliminates a lot of the home-made type of feel good foods. Sometimes we'll try a low-carb recipe when we have extra time on the weekend.
I have noticed when I eat too much pre-packaged or high-carb food, I don't feel great. I feel sluggish and tired. Everyone's different. It's been interesting trying to cook for 2 people who are really different. So far, the crock-pot is a lifesaver in our house.
@Entangled:I love the veggie products too. We don't buy a lot because SO isnt a fan, but they are good.
I'm in between B and C. Some night's everything is from scratch (no pastas or breads I make though), but other nights I use jar sauces, frozen fries or perogies or something. But most nights everything is from scratch. :)
It is good to see there are no "A's". That sounds super unhealthy. lol
I try to make as much as I can from scratch. I would never buy a frozen lasagna or instant potatoes. To me, it just isn't that much more difficult to make things on my own. Of course, I don't have time to bake fresh bread every day or to make everything all the way from scratch all the time, but I really enjoy making an event out of meals, so I try my best.
And @teaadntoast: I prefer a more marinara type sauce since I do not each chunks of tomatoes, so I really like this recipe. I like adding fresh basil, as well.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/tomato-sauce-with-butter-and-onions/
I would say I am a Type C leaning more towards the homeade. I use frozen veggies though, as I can always have them on hand and if you are careful about the brand they are just as nutritious as fresh. I also do semi-homeade sauces with a store bought base.
Right now though, we are totally steak, burgers, salads... Grillin' it up baby!!
Honestly, the concept of frozen prepackage food was pretty foreign to me until college. Growing up everything was pretty much made from scratch. There's no such thing -imo- of a frozen meal in Chinese culture. Soups are simmered for hours. The idea of a Progresso soup or Lipton soup or throwing a bouillon cube in a soup threw me for a loop!
Buuut. In college we definitely ate our fair share of frozen pizzas and fast food takeout. We were younger, we had no time and we thought it was cheaper. Back then Olive Garden was a fancy awesome Italian meal to us!
We've come so far! hahah.
Nowadays, yeah on average night if we were to have pasta we make a huge vat of sauce from scratch and use Barilla pasta.
Pizza night at our house is all homemade from the dough to the sauce. I think the last time we had pizza delivered was 2 months ago?
Frozen dumplings to us are bought from a tiny store in Chinatown. The lady makes all her dumplings from scratch then freezes them in bags and they are sold by bags.
To be honest, recent events have pushed us to eat even healthier than we already do. So the 110% homemade comes more from knowing exactly what is going into our food for health reason than because of the whole "eco movement" of wanting to know where my food comes from. Although we are slowly trying to go that route as well w/o breaking the bank.
I would love to share our pasta sauce recipe!! But it's a old family recipe from a friend's Italian grandmother. We have modified to our robust taste buds but the base is hers so I do not feel comfortable sharing.
I will tell you in our modified version there are tons of fresh herbs, garlic, lamb shank, italian sausage, pork, st louis ribs, onion, peppers, tomato paste, whole tomatoes in juice, simmered for about 5 hours. :)
@bree72: I love smittenkitchen! Though I got my tomato sauce recipe from 101cookbooks: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/five-minute-tomato-sauce-recipe.html We decided we didn't like the lemon zest, though, so we usually add a bit of wine, or some fresh herbs, or a parmesan rind instead.
@dani ddha: I'm lucky - my fiance loves them. (though he was vegetarian for a very long time, so that might be part of why) In general, I'm not into processed foods at all, but I love all sorts of fake meats. Though at least with them, most of the stuff going in (aside from gobs of sodium) is still I'm pretty comfortable with like wheat gluten and soy protein.
If I only cooked for myself, I'd cook stuff from 101cookbooks a lot more. Unfortunately, my fiance does not love quinoa, tempeh, and other unusual but healthy and easy to cook stuff as much as I do.
OK, I'll be the first to pick "A". *ducks to avoid tomatoes or other items being thrown in my direction*
I know, I know. I hear everyone's reasons for why it's best to really cook. 
I haaaaaaate cooking, and I'm just no good at it. Even if it's something that's supposedly easy and foolproof, I can mess it up. In my defense, I try to pick the healthiest "not from scratch" items (Kashi frozen meals, Nature Valley no-salt-added soups, etc.)
I have no one to blame but myself; my mom loves to cook, and my brother and sister-in-law do, too. They even have a food blog. I'm just the weirdo black sheep, I guess.
@Ms. Sorbet: My MIL is this way, and her family is full of great cooks, too. I think it must be some sort of rebellion. :)
And I used to be this way in college, but it was mainly because I didn't know how to cook. I was uncomfortable in the kitchen, and therefore didn't like doing it. But I decided to start trying a few simple recipes, got really comfortable with just those, and then decided it wasn't all that bad. After a while, you start to feel comfortable going off-recipe and coming up with things on your own. But I can definetely relate that it is a little scary for a while.
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So I'm curious. There's lots of threads about how often we cook.
But I often wonder, what do you considering "cooking"?
Type A:
Is it throwing a frozen pizza in the oven?
Is stir fry to you throwing together a stir fry package complete with a sauce packet found in your frozen aisle?
Does having lasagna mean you are throwing in the oven a Stouffer Lasagna?
Is having a grain side Rice A Roni?
Type B:
Or is having pizza mean making your own dough with homemade pasta sauce, with fresh topping ingredients?
Or is stir fry going to the produce aisle picking up fresh ingredients and cooking it up with soy sauce and other spices?
Or is lasagna making your own meat sauce, and assembling at home with fresh ricotta cheese, etc?
Is a rice side, white rice in the rice cooker, cooked brown rice from the bag, couscous, etc?
Type C:
A combination of the two?
If so, which one is more prevalent?
P.S. The above are obviously just examples of meals. But the differential being the type of cooking you do in preparing the same items.
---
For us we are definitely type B. There are no prepackaged prefrozen foods in our home. Everything is made from fresh ingredients. No prepackaged sauces either. We even go to the extent of making our own pasta on the weekends. Smoking our own ribs/pork/brisket,etc. Making our own Canadian bacon. Own corned beef, etc etc.
So what type of a cook are you?