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?

I make this a lot without the booze. Add mushrooms and a bit of marmite/Lea and perrins too

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-and-ale-stew/

Cottage pie is pretty foolproof as well

Perfect, thanks!

Two tips I've got for slowcookers.
You always need double the herbs and spices you think so don't buy the jars look in the world food aisle for bags, also tinned coconut milk it's often much cheaper there.
Cooking bacon is just the chunky ends, not all fat and freezes well 75p for 500g goes much further and is great for soups and Bolognese.

In terms of stretching meals, dumplings or a cobbler (scone) topping are excellent. The are very easy, there are loads of recipes online (and I imagine people here have favourites) depending on whether you are using suet (not essential) or rubbing in some shortening, butter or whatever. They are added to what you're cooking anyway and can remove the need for another carb side with a casseroled dish (a fight I'm still engaged in ) or bulk out a meal cheaply and easily.

Eeeeh I love a suet crust!
I even put suet dumplings in chicken noodle soup.
If you have a Jack Fulton or heron but tinned corned beef and hotdogs when on offer, they can stretch a casserole or stew and corned beef when it's dissolved gives good seasoning.

Suet pastry is the only type I can make, I buy the rest!

Brilliant thread OP.

I have a fussy 12 yo and a very hungry 23 yo who's back from graduating next week so god knows how long he will be here.

I could eat chickpeas and lentils till the cows come home but they are both very MEAT driven

Great idea for a thread!

There was a good article in the Times today about microwave cooking (so much cheaper than an oven) but unfortunately it's behind a pay wall. But the gist was that broccoli, cauliflower, spinach rice, confit garlic, salmon etc are all fine cooked in one and it takes very little time and energy.

To my dumpling love, I'm adding a plea for the humble spud. We all know the permutations are endless and if other ingredients are tight, they will eke them out.

I haven't added butter for years but a spare egg in a big pan of mash after giving a preliminary bash and/or a dash of milk helps. Any leftovers can be fried up with other leftover veg and meat as a side or for lunch very quickly.

It occurs to me in these straightened and possibly soon to be quite cold times, we can do worse than adding recipes that grew out of having less money and the need for warming food in our uncertain climate.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c83268e2-294c-11ed-9092-6adde03bf612?shareToken=1ee0b18849ce290437a553b20a753c93

This might work.

Thanks @Gubu and @Needhelp101 . I've copied a couple of ideas from that.

I use the microwave a lot. Often give things a blast before finishing them off in a pan or air fryer. It just speeds everything up when you are in a rush.

So if I'm adding frozen sweetcorn to a soup, I blast it first so it doesn't slow it down.

I always cook my veg in the microwave, so much quicker and easier.

I have a Pyrex bowl with a lid I always use. Chuck veg in bowl. Wash. Put lid on to strain excess water. Leaving veg slightly wet is good as it gives them some moisture to steam in.
Then bung it in the microwave for about 4 mins (can be a bit trial and error). Check with a fork. Use the lid again to strain off excess water. Done!
If you want to then put in the oven / air fryer to roast that works and much quicker than cooking from scratch in the oven. Or you can dress with olive oil / butter / seasoning etc and just toss around in the same bowl with the lid on. So easy.

I also like doing rice in the microwave, in the same dish usually. This again is trial and error at first depending on your bowl / microwave / portion sizes but once you're used to it, it's really easy. Can boil over so keep an eye on it the first few times.
I generally find 5 mins on high then 2 mins on low (with lid on but slight gap to let steam out), then leaving to stand for 5/10 mins (lid properly on for this section) works well for white basmati. You need the standing time though to let it finish off. Just then fluff with a fork and put some butter through if you like.

The times article looks good but does mention cling film which I avoid using wherever possible as it stresses me out. I never use it in the microwave anymore, I think you get the same results with a bowl with a lid or a plate over

How do you cook your gammon please, @JohnsShirt ? I'd like to give it a go but don't fancy it in coke.

Thank you for doing this.
Am autistic and have started cooking with support worker. Need very simple recipes with not many ingredients.
If I do the slow cooker lentil soup (on my own) I can't eat meat but have the other stuff, what spices and herbs should I add? And what makes it soup rather than stew?

You can just stick it in the slow cooker with no liquid- it will produce quite a lot of intense stock that way.
Or add some liquid, onions, carrot bay leaf etc. that's a less intense stock, but all ready to go just add soup mix when you've taken out the gammon/ham.

Is there a way of adding pasta?

Hi @StopStreet .

If you don't eat meat at all (not stock?), then you need quite a lot of extra flavour.

I'd either do

Dahl-
curry paste
lentils/onions/grated carrot

or
Scotch broth mix-
Soup mix, or scotch broth mix is a bag of similarly small mixed pulses.
Use the instructions on the side of the packet to show how much water to use.
Add a stock cube,
garlic (fresh cloves or paste/frozen cubes)
Black pepper
onions,
fine chopped carrot
and maybe leeks.

@StopStreet this is the soup mix.

Pasta- yes.
If you are making soup, break it up into small pieces or buy soup pasta (little bits).
If you just want bigger chunks put a handful in.
It may get a bit over soft. Ideally you add it to the rest about two hours before you want to eat it, but that takes planning.

On Thursdays I always make leftover soup with the veggies that look sad in the fridge. Fill up with more potatoes. To make it exciting I sometimes add cream and mix it and sometimes not.

The the kids get something sweet after to make them accept this food.

Haha, @Soffana I do garlic bread with anything I know they'll not fancy!
Fridge soup... and garlic bread!
Anything stew... and garlic bread!

@picklemewalnuts thanks. It's feeling a little complicated now but I may try later. I have an aubergine, two courgettes, a pepper and onions left over from making ratatouille with s.w. (very difficult)
I eat vegetable stock cubes?

My favourite 'cheat' recipe is my chicken pie. The sauce is a tin of Campbell's condensed chicken soup- for a big family pie I either use two tins or just one tin and some milk. Then mix in leftover roast chicken, leftover veg if you have it, plenty of seasoning. I've added leftover gammon or bacon in the past too. Then ready roll pasty to make the pastry case- I line the pie dish and lay it on top but you can just do the the top. The condensed mushroom soup works too.

Sorry @StopStreet. I gave too much information in one go.

For your left over veg:

In a biggish plastic/glass bowl in the microwave.

Chop veg into chunks.
Add a cup of rice.
2 cups of boiling water
A stock cube
Some garlic.
pepper, herbs

Microwave for 10 mins.
Wait 5 mins
Stir and taste

If it's ready, great. If not give it another 5 mins.

Haha! I've been known to pull that stunt as well!

Brilliant, thank you!