Beginner cooks, no fuss, cheap and easy thread.

[picklemewalnuts]

Would anyone be interested?

Basically I'm happy to chat with anyone who wants to, about cheap and easy cooking. I'm great at short cuts. At one time I had a big, high needs family so got excellent at being efficient.
There are better cooks out there, but I'm good when you're under pressure!

I'm good at making a meal out of whatever the supermarket had yellow ticketed!
I'm good at cheap subs for fancy items in a recipe.
No fuss, no frills.

@CPL593H?

@returntothebasic just in case.

@return2thebasic

@Return2thebasic @picklemewalnuts Thank you! I'm trying to use my slow cooker more at the moment (because obvious reasons ) and always appreciate one pot meal ideas..

My humble contribution is slow cooker lentil soup; basically chopped onions, tin of chopped tomatoes, couple of stock cubes, 200 gram(ish) red lentils, squirt tom puree, whatever else you fancy eg leftover veg (if cooked these can go in towards the end), ham, spices and herbs (chilli powder good) 2ltrs water. Throw in, stir, switch on, wait several hours. It is really forgiving and can easily be adjusted/stretched by adding more water or extra lentils if needed.

Slow cookers turn up in charity shops quite often, too!

Have you tried bulk cooking onions? Slow cooker or pressure cooker will soften several bags of chopped onions at a time. I keep them in the fridge and it really speeds up cooking in the evenings!

No, I hadn't, but I will!

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food is a fantastic book for this.
Your library might have it, or probably available cheap, second hand on Amazon/Ebay.

For lentil soup I slow cook a gammon first for the stock, it really makes it.
I use the meat in other dishes and serve the soup with cheese toasties.

I'm placemarking for ideas don't really have anything to contribute. It's just me so cooking can seem quite expensive and I'm not great at leftovers as I'm scared I will make myself ill. Is a slow cooker worth it for 1 person I have thought about getting one but don't know if its pointless for me.

It's not strictly what you're offering but I would welcome any suggestions for a teenager with autism who doesn't like strong flavours.

She will eat: very plain cheese and tomato pizza, jacket potatoes, spaghetti bolognese, steamed vegetables, lettuce, cucumber, chips, roast potatoes, baked potatoes, rice, pasta, plain meat (chicken, lamb, beef, mince, pork), sausages, burgers, fish fingers, battered cod, ham cheese, m&s steak pie, pancakes, bread.

Won't eat: curry, mashed or boiled potatoes, fish that isn't birds eye fish fingers or chip shop style fillets, raw tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, savoury sauces like bread or cheese, sweet sauces or glazes, chicken pie.

It doesn't look to bad but she tends to have the same meals on repeat and I'm always worried that she'll get bored of them. This happened with omelettes which she loved making for a while then got fed up of. I will try them again in a few months.

Thanks in advance if anyone feels like taking up the challenge!!

Slow cooker meaty Baked beans
A chunk of cheap cooking bacon
Dried white beans, soaked overnight in water
Garlic, herbs
Tin of tomatoes.
Can add finely chopped celery, onions, carrot to bulk up veg, too.

Put all the above in a slow cooker and add just enough water to barely cover.
Cook for about 6 hours on high, or til it's cooked and the beans are soft.

Makes lovely beans to have on toast, with a pitta bread or crust, sprinkle of cheese if you've got one! Yum.

Either chop and stir the bacon in, or fish it out to put in a sandwich.

@rurbane
chicken risotto?
Peanut and pea risotto?

If she likes that, you could tweak it to move her into curries. Add mango chutney on the side. If she likes it, stir it in and it becomes coronation chicken. Add peanut butter and lime and it becomes satay chicken. Coronation/satay chicken is a whisker away from chicken curry...

Purists back away. This is about fast, easy, cheap food not authentic anything!

Leftover rice: chop up some mushrooms, heat them dry in a pan for 2-3 minutes to encourage the mushroomy flavour, then add some seasoning and drop of oil to the pan, cook till they are nearly done (takes 4-5 mins), throw in the cold cooked rice, some spring onions and heat rice through. (Keep stirring or the rice might stick.) Add some soy sauce at the end. Whole thing takes about 10 minutes to cook! I do this frequently, it makes a really tasty meal you can have on it's own or with some salmon or whatever on the side. Just did it today for lunch, I had only a tiny bit of rice left so I only used 2 mushrooms for a little lunch!

Risotto is a good idea, will try that.

What easy family meals do you do? Can I ask for ideas?

I'm talking on a budget, but meals that can be thrown together (after coming in tired from work and before teens go out to clubs). Need high energy / protein for teen boys, but one is veggie and the meat eater is fussy.

I'm out of ideas 😢

My contribution: serve a boiled egg with soldiers or a poached egg on toast each, rather than scramble or omelette, as it is so easy to serve everyone 3 eggs if they are beaten.
Eggy bread/ French toast stretches 2 eggs to 3 people if you add milk, and can be savoury or sweet. Use thick sliced bread and dip it quickly to coat it rather than allowing it to soak all the way through.
When things are really tight if you can use a big packet of something up in different meals it makes the repetition easier:
So sausage and bean stew with baked potatoes.
Then sausages made into meatballs in a marinara sauce with pasta
Then leftover sauce bulked out with onions and veg (peppers work well) made into a shakshuka with eggs
Then eggs made into a big Spanish omelette with potatoes, onions and peppers.
Veg chilli with onions, peppers and 3 types of beans.
And so on.

I do this ‘chaining’ of meals, as a way to save both money and food waste, especially if the ‘base’ meal is more costly to cook. So I make a lot of tomato mince sauce with a pack of mince and 4 tins toms, onions etc (which needs a decent simmer to taste good) then eat it as bolognaise, add beans to so e of the leftovers for chilli, add more veg for lasagne, then use those vegetables in a curry, then use extra rice from the curry in a fried rice etc etc.

Another slow cooker one, this is the basic sauce recipe

Campfire stew

1x chopped onion
2x sliced red peppers
1tsp chilli/cayenne
Lots of garlic (if you like)
1tbsp smoked paprika
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400g baked beans
400g kidney beans
Salt and pepper
1tbsp tomato puree
(Water to thin as needed)

To this can be added chicken thighs/sausages (or chopped up cheapo tinned hotdogs towards the end) Can be left on low all day

Possible to do it without a slow cooker of course cooking the onions/peppers first and adding cooked meat. It goes a long way! The smoked paprika is nice but not essential especially if using eg a smoked ham hock with it.

This is the thread for me! If I can't cook it in under 30 mins I'm not doing it 🤣

My contribution is get a rice cooker, honestly the best use of my birthday money ever, cost me about £15! It cooks perfectly every time and stays warm until the rest of the meal is ready. Before I used boil in the bag/microwave as I couldn't cook rice at all!

And our favourite chilli, soften a couple of onions. Add 2 tins chopped tomatoes, baked beans, green lentils, butter beans, chick peas, kidney beans, half a bag of quorn mince (about 150g) and some mild chilli powder (I think around 5/6 teaspoons) depending on how spicy you want it! Stick a lid on and simmer for about 20 mins, stirring occasionally. This did 4 portions for dinner and 5 extras for freezer. Served with rice, cheese on top and a bag of tortilla chips for dipping!

Easy nachos - bag of cheap tortilla chips, tin of salsa and a heap of grated cheese. Stick in the oven until cheese has melted.

No cost alternative to rice cooker... microwave and deep jug.

I use a Pyrex jug, but a deep plastic pot will do (like an Aldi 1L yogurt tub, or those deep plastic tubs of mini chocolate rolls)

2 cups of basmati rice, just about cover with water, then add a little more. It covers your fingernail basically.

10 mins full power in the microwave.
Don't stir, just leave it alone.

It will be ready to stir and serve at the end, will also sit and wait for ten minutes.

Serves 4 sensible people. My 3 blokes will eat the lot if no one's looking.

Brown easy cook rice takes more like 12 mins. I've not tried normal white rice, as I always use basmati.

Much cheaper than any packet rice.

@SnowdropsInSpring I keep frozen cooked chicken chunks in the freezer and stir them into my veggie meal to brighten it up for my menfolk. Would work with cooked sausages, too.
Also, chorizo chopped and fried/air fried does the same job.

We like dhal- curry paste and onions fried off. Red lentils, water. Bring to the boil and simmer. Serve with a naan bread, pitta bread, air fried halloumi, air fried sweet potato chunks. Or pour it over air fried chips!

@SnowdropsInSpring

Sweetcorn chowder?

Soften an onion and garlic.
Add Diced potatoes
Cover with water, a stock cube and cook til almost soft (ten minutes?)
Add sweetcorn
Lots of black pepper
Cream cheese and water, or just milk.

Enough liquid to get a loose chunky sweetcorn and potato soup.

Can all be done in the air fryer.

For the meat eaters, add chicken at the end.

Love this! What setting is full power, ours is 1000w which sometimes seems a bit much...

Slow cooker quick & easy veg curry:

• curry paste or powder to taste
• 1 bag of frozen veg
• 1x can chick peas
• 1x can chopped tomatoes
• some lentils
• coconut milk to taste (i use powder)
• choped onions & garlic to taste
• potatoes or fresh veg if you want

Just put everything in and cook for 6- 8 hours.

Serve with rice or naan bread.

Reposting this, because cooked onions in the fridge/freezer speeds everything up so much!

Peel and chop in a spare half hour listening to the radio. Fill the slow cooker and leave on overnight. Or pressure cook appropriately, if you have one.

@TooMinty mine's 1000W too. They vary though. You soon get used to your own, if you cook the same amount in the same pot.

Also, if you leave it sitting in the water before starting to cook, it cooks quicker. Saves energy.