Cooking help for my husband!

[Jourdain11]

Sorry for this exceptionally dull thread... I am wondering if anyone has any recipe / cooking suggestions for my husband, who is currently looking after our three DC solo.

Normally I do almost all of the cooking (he does other things, I'm not a put-upon wife!) and unfortunately, he really just doesn't know how to cook anything! He and DC are currently living on frozen pizzas and ready meals and while I'm sure it won't do them any harm, I'd quite like to think that they are getting some protein... vitamins... etc.

Does anyone have any recipe book recommendations? Or websites? Nothing too complicated and nothing with weird ingredients, since if we don't have it in the house he'll just assume that he can't make the recipe (since he won't know what ingredient he could replace it with!).

I've made suggestions like "give them some pasta and pesto with a bit of salad on the side" but it's apparently too much fuss!

Urgh, I really sound like a nightmare... or like he's utterly hopeless... or both! But the problem is that I am a very "make it up as you go along" cook and, as he knows this, i don't think he has much confidence in my suggestions!

TIA

Jamie Oliver ministry of food cookbook. Recipes with 5 ingredients on Pinterest.

chicken pasta bake:

-cook the chicken in a saucepot, until it is fully cooked through (can be broken easily in half with a wooden spoon), along with 1 clove of garlic/one teaspoon of frozen garlic
-add 2 tins of canned tomatoes, half a tube of tomato puree, some frozen peas, and salt and pepper to the saucepot. Add 2 tsp of basil, 1sp chilli if you like.
-leave to simmer until the pasta (which you cook in a different saucepan according to the instructions on the packet) is done.
-when they are both done, pour the pasta into the pot containing chicken and sauce. then, tip this mixture into a casserole dish, add cheese on top and bake at 170*c (fan oven) for 40 mins (or until the cheese is brown).

If that is to hard, he can use ready made tomato sauce so all he has to do it just cook the chicken and pasta, add the peas to the sauce and bake

No recipe book recommendations but if he does lunches too then DH bought a pretty cheap panini maker when I was busy with a project a few years ago and he took over all weekend cooking. You can make some pretty good protein based fillings. Mozzarella, tomato & pesto, tuna melts, all sorts of cheese & something combinations very quickly and easily and they take any kind of bread due to the flat plates and require only a perfunctory wipe to clean.

The BBC cooking website has tips and tricks and 'how to' for many basic cooking skills. Would he spend the time learning them though?
Could you plan out the weeks meals so he has a list of dishes to go by?

www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques

Do you have a slow cooker? My DP finds that easy as you basically just have to bung everything in and switch it on - so no harder than putting something in the oven! You can get loads of veg in chilli/bolognese type stuff

If pasta and pesto with salad is too much fuss, I'm not sure which books would be suitable. Even the beginner/student books use complicated ideas like chopping vegetables, frying meat or sticking a chicken in the oven.

The Mob Kitchen website is full of easy tasty recipes aimed at students, and the Roasting Tin series by Rukmini Iyer are good, but both go well beyond sticking a couple of spoons of jar sauce on pasta.

Hello Fresh, Gousto or the like?

Also, things like chilli/bolognese/curries done in the slow cooker are good for freezing so he could cook once and save a portion for another night.

I find it a bit relentless cooking every night so tend to do this and then can just bung some chilli and a sachet of microwave rice in the microwave on a night I can't be arsed!

I second the BBC Good Food website. I used to be like your husband and have found that website fantastic.

Traybakes are great and you can just google recipes for the ingredients you have.

Bing everything in the oven and leave for appropriate time and hey presto dinner is done!

Chilli is my favourite multi level meal.

First night with rice and a fresh tomato, cucumber and coriander salad.

Next time as nachos in layers over tortilla chips with plenty of cheese and avocado on the side.

Third time as burritos along with microwave Mexican rice and cheese.

Fourth time, in quesadillas with cheese and extra beans.

Coleslaw is a quick and easy side.

Crudités with dressing as dip.

If he can’t be bothered to do pasta with pesto then I’m not sure he will actually cook anything else.

And I totally understand that This is not what you want to hear but aren’t you peed off that he can’t cook? My friend’s husband can’t cook and she has so much resentment for her mother in law for not teaching him to do the basics.

I think it's the idea of cooking he finds stressful - if he actually started doing it, I'm sure it would be fine! Thank you for the ideas - I will have a look at the things you've suggested.

Perhaps I should do the plan and then he just had to follow it to the letter! The problem is that I am disorganised spontaneous in terms of meal prep, so we tend to have meals made up of whatever needed to be used up that day. Perhaps it is a good chance for me to finally get organised and DH to acquire some basic cooking skills though?

The Usborne Beginner's Cookbook is brilliant. Lots of nice recipes but it doesn't assume any cooking knowledge at all and has illustrated instructions for each step.

@Collision

If he can’t be bothered to do pasta with pesto then I’m not sure he will actually cook anything else.

And I totally understand that This is not what you want to hear but aren’t you peed off that he can’t cook? My friend’s husband can’t cook and she has so much resentment for her mother in law for not teaching him to do the basics.

Not annoyed, but I have to say that I find it weird that a totally intelligent and capable person isn't able to! And yeah, I think it would have helped if MiL had made him learn at least how to cook pasta and rice, or boil an egg, before he left home at 18!!

Assuming he is NT and has a job, how is he unable to cook? It's incomprehensible. Can he not read a recipe book or watch internet videos?

Things on toast
Omelettes
Baked potatoes
Endless variation of meals with mince
Basic roast meat and veg

nothing with weird ingredients, since if we don't have it in the house he'll just assume that he can't make the recipe

Is he also unaware of supermarkets, that sell just about anything you could imagine, and more?

If pesto pasta and salad are too much fuss he’s just being a lazy sod IMHO

If you can read, you can cook

I think he just has a weird hang-up about it, tbh.

Although I do understand his thing about recipes with loads of ingredients, to be fair. You've just decided on what you're going to cook and then you realise that you're missing half of what is necessary!

He's a big boy, he can figure it out himself. The more you mother him, the more dependent he'll be. It's really not hard for him to type into Google "easy family meals". If he can't handle the responsibility of cooking a few basic meals for his wife and kids then it's time to give up!

Slow cooker and simple things like spag bol, meatballs, some types of casseroles which require simple prep and leave it on low to cook!

What ages are the children? They could get involved for sure if old enough.

My DH has always been a reluctant and uncoordinated cook, but we’ve been getting HelloFresh since lockdown began, and he’s really been enjoying cooking them.
I have a £20 off code if you’re interested in trying then for a week. Just PM me.

Uncoordinated should say not confident!

Gousto boxes have taught my husband to cook

Why not sit down with him and find easy recipes, and next time a shop is done make sure all the ingredients are in the house, even cook with him a few times.

@o987

You misread, she's posting about her husband not her 9 year old son

@herbie0987 even