semi-homemade

From semi- +‎ homemade.

semi-homemade (not comparable)

1. Constructed at home, using a commercial product as a basis.
   • 1909, Bird-lore - Volume 11, page 71:

     These provisions are considered in the blind illustrated by the diagram. This is a semi-homemade blind.

   • 1922, The Blacksmith & Wheelwright - Volumes 85-86, page 28:

     The next essential part of this semi-homemade process is a quantity of moist earth for banking around the jig while the metal is being poured.

   • 1974, The Washingtonian - Volume 9, page 134:

     Even the onion soup was semi-homemade, a bit salty, but better than many a pretentious French restaurant.

   • 1995, Gail Baker-Woods, Advertising and Marketing to the New Majority, page 72:

     The younger women, many whom were employed mothers, found the product's convenience appealing. Older women were more likely either to stick with homemade stuffing or to use Stove Top as the foundation to a semi-homemade product.

2. (cooking) Based around commercially available convenience food, which is then customized at home with more natural ingredients.
   • 2008, Kimberly T. Matthews, A Little Hurt Ain't Never Hurt Nobody, →ISBN, page 113:

     The more I thought about it, the better Jaxon 's little joke about Semi-Homemade sounded. On the way home, I dropped by KFC. Once home, I put the chicken in a pan, poured the cream of mushroom soup over it and cooked up a pot of rice.

   • 2011, William D. Lassek, Steven Gaulin, Why Women Need Fat, →ISBN:

     If moving to real foods all at once is too big a step, consider some hybrid meals as a transition, using both real and processed foods. Sandra Lee's “semi-homemade” cooking is an example of this approach.

   • 2011, Julia Usher, Julia M. Usher's Ultimate Cookies, →ISBN, page 7:

     While semi-homemade, 30-minute meals have sadly become de reigueur these days, they were a foreign concept to us.