To think I might be alone - I don't cook

[badbadcook]

I don't cook, or bake, or anything really.

This is not a stealth boasty "ooh I have better things to be doing" and the children DO eat well. They have porridge, toast, bananas, things like that, for breakfast. I make poached egg on toast. I bung corn on the cob in the microwave. I use a George Foreman grill for fish, I boil carrots and potatoes and broccoli and things.

But I don't COOK. I don't know, for example, how to make a roast, or pie, or lasagne - even simple fairy cakes are beyond me. I keep reading of Mumsnetters who make mince pies and biscuits for Rudolph and the like.

I'm sure I could but I don't know where to start and how do you do it with children marauding about?

What do they do when you're doing the hard parts yourself, though? (Genuine question!)

I dislike cooking mainly because I have extremely fussy eaters. DC1 is very good and likes her fruit and veg and meat but won't eat pasta or small meat i.e. Spag Bol plus has coeliac. Dc2 has sensory food issues as she has autism so eats a very limited diet won't even eat nuggets or fish fingers and hates meat dc3 has autism and coeliac and eats beans and spag with home made veggie sauce plus toast and apples and pears and that's it. They've ruined my love of cooking as any food I suggest is met with a no. If I dish it up the main course ends up in the bin. They eat a lot of veg and fruit which I suppose is good.

The trick to baking with kids is to make things that are easy and to weigh everything out beforehand. So I do fairy cakes using the all in one method with my neices and nephews (all 4-5 yrs old). They get to tip the ingredients into the bowl and have a go at mixing. I make sure the all mix properly. Then we use ice cream scoops (poundland do them in the Jane Asher baking range that are perfect) so they get to scoop the mixtures into the bun cases.

Then the decorating is just water icing and sweets, sprinkles.
It's a bit messy but not that bad really.

You can give them a "mix" to play with while you do another process, so just put a few cheap ingredients in a bowl and let them stir away at it. Or they could be chopping something for you, you can get a safety knife for children called a kiddy cutter (the worst name for a kids knife ever!) that they can use to chop without hurting themselves.

You're not alone!
I can cook things. But I hate it. It bores me it's tedious and i get no pleasure out of it whatsoever. I cook because I have to though as we don't buy ready meals etc.DH does most cooking as he fortunately for me, enjoys it. But i batch cook at the weekend for us and DD.
I can't bake and the thought of this also bores me !

I love baking but I loathe baking with my children. It's the sort of thing I always think that 'proper' parents enjoy and there must be something wrong with me for hating it! Still, my husband quite likes baking with them so they're not too deprived.

In terms of teaching yourself how to cook or bake, I don't have any magic suggestions. As an earlier poster suggested, most people teach themselves at some point. There's no magic trick to it. For me I just started with things I like to eat. Simple one-pot stuff. You mention lasagne - if you taught yourself how to make a ragu that you like, that could be a basis for lots of different dishes.

Felicity Cloake's "cook the perfect' column (all available on the guardian online) is a great resource, I find, where she compares lots of different recipes and makes up her own version based on the best bits of all of them. She explains everything really well and talks through the recipes step-by-step so you get a sense of the thinking behind them.

Once you've got one or two things down you'll gain both in confidence and that sort of intuitive knowledge that you don't know you have until you use it. Don't be afraid of getting things wrong, that's probably my best advice. That's how you learn.

I am not a good cook (esp things like sauce, always taste terrible) but I bought an old copy of Delia's How To Cook and so far so good. Some recipes are just too much faff so I just ignore them and try something else.
I cook for my baby using the Baby Led Cookbook which is pretty simple. A lot of the recipes are tasty for adults too if you add a bit more spice or a pinch of salt.
I don't enjoy cooking and don't think I ever will but I do lots of things I don't enjoy... Cleaning, changing nappies, going to work...

OP, do you struggle with all new skills and following basic instructions?
When you are trained at work, do you find it hard to put the training material into practice?
Do you find it hard to operate your phone, a computer or drive a car?

If cooking is the only place in your life where you can't follow a simple set of instructions, then it is probably because you can't be arsed rather than because cooking is especially tricky (it isn't).

I'm the same. But I learned to bake a Victoria sponge this year (surprisingly easy) and it's my resolution to do more cooking next year.

I bought this book in Poundland the other day: www.amazon.co.uk/Ingredients-Quick-Delicious-Recipes-Using/dp/0646470809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482506712&sr=8-1&keywords=4+ingredients

All the recipes use four ingredients or less and they look really quick and simple. It's not all 'proper' cooking, as some of the ingredients are pre-made, but I thought it would be a good introduction to build my confidence. Plenty of veggie recipes in there as well (I'm a veggie too).

I got my dad a great Mary Berry basics book for Christmas one year. Of course my mum won't actually let him in the kitchen to try it, but it looked great - very clear instructions, and sections on things like how to Chop veg, what cuts of meat were, etc, how to use your oven best.

If you're interested it's totally learnable, and a great life skill to turn teach your kids.

Ive only learnt to cook in the last few years. I usually type a main ingredient into the BBC goof food page and lots of recipe ideas are shown.