Mumsnet Talk

I have recently started cooking meals from scratch having previously been a ready meal queen and am starting to build up a repertoire but the last few meals have been a big fat failure and I am starting to worry. I want to try to build up a "do it in my sleep" repertoire by the time I go back to work in April (currently on maternity leave). I got a slow cooker for Christmas so particularly interested in slow cooker recipes.

I know this will have been done hundreds of times before but I have just spent an hour or so doing a search and didn't find a decent thread.

So please please can you tell me your foolproof nice family recipes or point me to a thread which does?

TIA

Don't know any slow cooker ones, but can tell you what family meals we eat and cook from scratch (we have a kind of four-week menu thingamy).
From memory, the faves with the wee ones (4, 3 and nearly 1) include;
chicken curry
lasagne
spag. bol
pizza
shepherd's pie
tuna pasta
baked potatoes & fillings
toad in the hole
thai curry with sticky rice
veggie noodles
veggie risotto
carbonara
spaghetti & meatballs
sausage goulash with couscous
macaroni cheese / cauliflower cheese
beef stew & dumplings

We also have a few 'quick' meals like eggy bread which we need for certain days when we're back late and kids are hungry. I imagine your slow-cooker steps in then.

Ooh thanks! Where do you tend to get your recipes from?

Mainly make them up, but a mish-mash of various recipe books (my old students' recipe book is great!). I'd be happy to give you any recipes that take your fancy if you don't have them at home.

bbc website's food section is good for inspiration

I love a sausage tray bake - sausages, chopped red onion, peppers, potatoes, mixed herbs and olive oil etc in a roasting tin in the oven for half and hour, throw in some baby tomatoes at the end, maybe a little balsamic vinegar, serve with garlic bread. Always feels comforting!

I do a fish pie once a week, keep a stash of frozen fish and prawns in freezer, you can buy chunks of fish to cook from frozen.
Simmer fish in milk.
Keep milk. Make cheese sauce, add prawns ans froxpzen peas.
Top with cubes of par boiled potatoes, grate cheese over and bake for 30 mins.

I use the slow cooker for most of the recipes in the first post. Bolognese, chilli, curry, sausage casserole, moroccan chicken tagine, tomato and veg soup (which doubles as pasta sauce or ,when pureed, pizza topping). Also slow roast joint with pulses.
Roast on sunday allows leftovers for several days (reheated roast, meat with baked potatoes, risotto)
Quick and easy; stir fry noodles (keep frozen prawns, quick defrost under cold running water), egg fried rice, pizza (on french bread ,or keep bases in freezer), beans on toast!

Flubba, could you post your sausage goulash recipe if it's not too long... would love to give that a go!

I just found a fab rissotto recipe...... Right here on the mumsnet recipe section!

I kind of make it up as I go along, depending on what's in the cupboard & fridge - but essentially I cut normal sausages up in slices, fry them up to brown them with onion and carrot/courgette (cut in small cubes), chuck in some paprika (about 1 - 2tsps), then add tinned toms, a dash of worcestershire sauce or soy sauce or something similar, a slug of red wine if you have any lying around (we rarely do! ), and a squidge of tomato purée. Then let it all simmer down to a thick sauce while you make the couscous, then add a lovely great big dollop of thick greek yoghurt or sour cream on the top. Not sure it's very, very authentic, but it's mighty yum!
babybouncer that sausage bake sound perfect!

Sausage slices sounds wrong - basically cut them into 1-2cm bits, so you have lots of little chunks of sausage in the sauce.

Thanks! I have the same problem with red wine

Wow Flubba you have some great looking meals!

Don't want to hijack but what is the chance of the recipes for the following:
lasagne
spag. bol
shepherd's pie
spaghetti & meatballs

They look like things that I could make up more of and freeze.
I work full time and although my DH is a SAHD he doesn't really 'do' cooking and I find it hard to get together good nutritious meals. We have pasta and roasted veg and baked potatoes a couple of nights and I tend to rely on things like chicken breasts with veg and potatoes or fish with rice but would also like to add in some of the above

TIA.

this is a fab slow cooker recipe and freezes well too if you want to batch cook.

Our faves are pasta, cottage pie, curries, stir fries, fahitas, casseroles and on lazy some nights we often have jacket potato with chilli or tuna.

There's a fab recipe in the mumsnet recipe section called something like scooter chicken - its so easy & very yummy

here it is - i got the name the wrong way round it's chicken scooter!

I have a recipe which is dead easy and kids tend to love it. Its really tasty too.

Get a whole chicken, put it in a big pot. Fill water to cover the chicken and then leave to simmer for 90 mins (yes really). Pull out the chicken, then cook some spaghetti in the water. Serve spaghetti with pieces of the chicken and some grated cheese on top.

It is cheap, so easy and feeds up to 8 depending on how much pasta you make.

Curious

You can make a massive batch of cooked mince, onion and red sauce to freeze in portions so you can make the recipes you want.

I make my own red sauce with roasted veg and freeze in portions.

Lasagne I would add courgettes and carrots to a defrosted portion of mince and sauce (you could use a jar of red sauce)

Spag Bol, I would add some fried bacon, courgette and carrot.

Shepherds pie, I would bulk out with a tin of beans and chopped carrot, then add the mash on top.

Basic meatballs can be mince, herbs and egg but you can also hide loads of veg in meatballs and pasta sauce.

PM me if you want full recipes and how to too tired to post it all now

Thanks all!

How about grilled lamb steaks (rubbed with some ras-el-hanut or harissa paste mixed with oil and/or honey for grown ups), with couscous (packet mix or made up with some stock, raisins and pine nuts), salad and pitta/wraps/flatbreads. You could also have hummus or yoghurt or grated carrots. It's a particularly good one if people like different bits, so they can easily have more of the bits they like and less of the bits they don't. It only takes about 10 mins, too.

I can't believe that only takes 10 mins, that's great! I need more of those types of recipes for when I'm back at work! I have no room in my freezer to batch cook!!!

Macaroni cheese (sometimes with broccoli in) and baked beans
Mince and gravy with mashed potatoes and peas
Oven-baked salmon (brush foil with oil, put salmon on foil, season, wrap foil loosely round salmon, bake for 20 mins or so - follow instructions on pack for temp and timings) served with mash or couscous or rice - loads of variations of flavourings can be added to this.

These are probably the top 3 with the DCs.

Thanks shine will be giving some things a go this weekend

I rotate the following meal plans. Sometimes deviate and get a takeaway, but it helps to have a rough idea of what to shop for and throw on when I get home from work. I cook ahead / freeze as much as I can and try not to cook anything (except for roasts) that takes longer than 30 mins.

Week 1
Spaghetti bolognese
Salmon teriyaki with noodles and stirfried greens
Jacket potatoes with veggie chilli
Baked macaroni cheese w/ veg
Vegetarian topped pizza (homemade - piece of piss to make)
Honey mustard pork chops w/ Colcannon & veg
Roast chicken with trimmings

Week 2
Homemade chicken soup w/ crusty bread (corn on cob as starter; use left over roast chicken to make this))
Homemade haddock fishcakes w/ sweet potato mash & veg (make fishcakes ahead and freeze)
Jerk chicken w/ rice & salad
Sausages, mash & veg
Spanish omelette & salad
Tuna & sweetcorn pasta
Gammon/ham with Colcannon & veg

Week 3
Cold ham, potato salad, coleslaw, green salad, crusty bread
Jamie Oliver's Mediaterranean chicken pasta bake
Chickpea tagine & cous cous
Fishfingers, chips and peas (gotta have the odd freezer food day)
Spaghetti Carbonara
Pesto pasta bake
Roast chicken & trimmings

Week 4
Fajitas ( I use leftover chicken + chargrilled veg and sometimes king prawns)
Spaghetti w/ meatballs in tomato sauce
Veggie curry, rice & naan
Homemade salmon fishcakes w/ sweet potato wedges & veg
Halloumi & roasted veg bake
Thai green chicken/veg curry
Roast pork wit apple sauce etc

Pasta and peas - saute chopped smoked bacon, add 300 g frozen peas, once they're heated through add a couple of spoonfulls of creme fraiche and a handful of grated parmesan - add to cooked pasta.
Jamie Oliver Chicken Maryland - wrap 1/2 a banana in a chicken breast fillet, cover with a couple of bits of bacon, place on top of a layer of sweetcorn (frozen is fine) in a baking dish, add some double cream and a glass of white wine - cook for around 35 m at 200 c until cooked
CharSui pork - marinade a pork fillet in some soy sauce, hoisin sauce, chopped garlic and grated ginger. Cook in oven for about 35 - 40 mins. Slice thinly and serve with stir fried veg and rice
Pork with cider & apples - can't remember all teh quantities but it's a Delhia SMith Waitrose one and is really easy and tasy
(by teh way - I work full time and get home between 6 p.m. and 7.30 so these are all things that can be cooked fast!)
Also chilli which I tend to make in advance, or spag bol.
Trout fillets are really nice if you put them on a foil sheet on a baking tray add either orange juice or soy sauce grated ginger and crished garlic , cover with the foil and cook for 15-20 mins.
Another tip - I use ginger A LOT and if you buy a chunk, peel it and cut into 2 cm chunks, stick it in a freezer bag in the freezer. It is alot eaier to grate frozen and means you actually use it all instea dof it going mouldy in teh fridge.