To be fed up of cooking and no ideas what to cook!

[Redruby2020]

Now lol, I know there was a thread recently that had me in stitches recently about what kind of food Mumsnetters recommend or would be horrified about 😆

But I need simple easy meal ideas, more so for my DS. I have a small kitchen and very short on time and patience at the moment as moved in a few months ago, and first time being on my own, so it is all catching up with me, no one was lying when they said single parenting is hard work. And I am fed up of hearing people say oh but you only have a flat, oh but you only have one DS, so what! It's still hard work, but we still need to eat as healthily as we can but not to be the be all and end all of the day.
I have one or two people close to me who mention having cooked all day, and making things from scratch, that's not for me, certainly not at the moment!

Thanking in advance ☺️

One thing that goes down well in our house the jars of pasta bake sauce - we like the cheese and bacon and I add broccoli (cut small and in microwave for 4 mins first) and mushrooms (not cooked) or the tuna pasta bake one with sweet corn. So easy and tastes really good and one dish to wash up

I know most of Mumsnet thinks that if you're using jar pasta sauce you might as well just sit there with a bag of sugar and a spoon, but the Loyd Grosman (or other similar good quality) ones don't have anything in that wouldn't be in a home made pasta sauce, which always contains a small amount of sugar in the recipe anyway, and are good for a quick standby.

Plus they're good to stock up on, when on offer so hardly a great extravagence compared with a decent quality tin of tomatoes and all the extra bits you normally add (oil, garlic, seasoning, herbs etc).

Also, how old is DS? While you may be very busy most of the time, is there a day or a meal that you are less busy and you could get them involved too?

I know most people talk about baking with DCs in those circumstances, but I used to also get DD standing on her stool in her apron helping me with dinners. So teaching her how to chop an onion (you ignore the size of the chunks!), or mixing seasonings into a sauce.

And I know this one is messy, but doing the "flour, egg, breadcrumb" treatment system - it can help DCs enjoy the idea of HM chicken goujons or fish goujons etc. It works for lots of different things, and gets much faster and less messy as you get used to doing it (although it never stops being an "involved" meal - it's for the days you have time). And you can fry, deep fry or oven bake the results.

We also found meals like fajitas/tacos, or other buffet style meals, worked well for DD. Putting things on the table and letting everyone help themselves to what went into their wrap, or salad. Or choosing not to have the wrap but making it into a "burrito bowl" (apparently that's the current teen trend...). By "everything", that meant a pan with meat, plate with wraps, plate or bag of grated cheese (depending if we did it at home or bought it grated), bowl of sliced salad leaves, the cherry tomatoes in their tub, and jars/tubs from fridge of salsa/crème fraiche/sliced halapenos etc. But not decanting those into serving dishes - a couple of extra plates/bowls for the wraps and salad (and cheese) which went into the dishwasher, and jars going back into fridge afterwards.

@PurpleDaisies

Have you got a decent sized freezer? What do you like to eat?

Jamie’s 15/30 minute meals are great. Lots are on his website.
The Bbc good food website is great for quick and easy food.

It would be perfectly acceptable to punch anyone minimising how much work it takes to be a single parent, regardless of whether you’ve got a flat!

Aww Thankyou, yes I have a freezer, got one of those tall fridges and top part is where the freezer compartment is, so not lots of space. I and DS are quite happy with meat and veg and put some starchy side with it, or I do pasta's, sometimes a bolognese etc. I would really like to do a couple of things that are really simple to most, like a nice soup or a dish of some sort just to break things up a bit. I get looked at like I am stupid if I say yes but how do you make this soup, and it's just like a broth with potatoes and other vegetable in it, keep saying I will look some things up online and then don't.

Hi all, thank you for all your very helpful replies, there are some really good ideas there, and I shall consider them all, and got plenty of choice.

Does anyone know how you can see what posts you put up yourself, sometimes when I am trying to see if anyone has replied to my posts there may of been a lot of others since, and therefore the older ones just move down the list,

I have a freezer, got one of those tall fridges and top part is where the freezer compartment is, so not lots of space.

In that case I’d do a meal plan every week where two or three meals have essentially the same prep to cut down on work.

I’m veggie so I’d use lentil but you could use mince to make a bolognese type mix that could be pasta bolognese one day, cottage pie another day and a chilli with rice/jacket potato a third day. You only really need to properly cook once.

I like butternut squash-cut up the “barrel” part and roast. The “base” I just slice in half and scoop the seeds out. You can use the chunks in curry with a jar sauce and chick peas, in pasta (really nice with red onion, feta and pesto-you can roast the onion at the same time). The base can be stuffed with something like cous cous which could come from a packet mix and cheese on top. Roasting a whole tray of Mediterranean veg saves a lot of time here because they can just be used from the fridge instead of cooked from scratch.

There was a programme called Economy Gastronomy on ages ago which had this sort of idea of “bedrock” recipes and “tumbledown” recipes. I really like this way of cooking. Once you get in the meal planning habit it makes things much easier and saves money too.

discover.hubpages.com/.amp/food/Economy-Gastronomy-TV-Series-Recipes

One of my faves is cajun salmon with veg and potato wedges…

Cut spuds into wedges, coat in oil, sprinkle with cajun seasoning, bake for about 30-40 minutes.
Veg - I use courgettes, bell peppers, red onions (cut into wedges), and minced garlic, tossed in a little oil and baked for 30-40 minutes.
Sprinkle cajun seasoning on the salmon. Cover and microwave for 2ish minutes.

I love it because it’s so tasty, it’s very healthy, and the only prep is cutting up some veg.

OP, click “See All” on the left-hand side of any of your posts and it will just show your ones.

Slow cooker , get a decent recipe book though. Soup maker- so easy and nutritious and makes me much more likely to make soup. Roasted vegetables - brocoli, carrots, onions, tomatoes on a tray, slosh olive oil over and bung in over. Maybe eat with fried haloumi. Put pasta and frozen peas to boil - add bit of smoked salmon for your oily fish and some cheese or pesto or something.

Make sure snacks are healthy- have bowls of buts and dried fruit to snack on. Smoothies too.

Or even bowls of nuts rather than bowls of buts ... 🍑

Surprised no one has mentioned the batch lady.
Her recipes on her website are free and you can follow along from her fb.page too.
She is all about convenience of freezer to take away the pain of cooking

So ready made mash and chopped onions
And storing flat to make most of space
It has made a huge difference to the argh of meal planning for me

I hear you OP 😭

I got my life back when i instigated a new routine: i cook Mon to Wed plus Sunday roast (we laways have one); ready meal or pasta or one of my ki cook Wed; take away Thursday; the kids take turn and cook on Friday; and finally Saturday is whoever is ready to do it (mostly I dont really mind or my husband do it).

I had 2 epiphanies

1. It is Thursdays that I find hard after a long week hence the take aways as everyone feels the same

1. I HATE cooking on Fridays but I hate MORE pizzas on Fridays.

Actually 3 epiphanies 😂

1. The kids love being in charge. They give me their ingredients list by wednesday.

Oh my it changed my life - literally

It is expensive but i m not going anywhere or buying anything so it evens out!

damndelicious.net/2020/08/17/one-pot-chicken-and-mushroom-orzo/

I made this last week when I was also feeling bored and tired of cooking. It was really good and very easy.

I have also made the dog biscuits from this site, and they are obviously pretty good as the dogs snaffle them down. The owner of the site has two very cute corgis.

Someone mentioned stir fry - iv started buying the ready cook noodles, pre prepped veg and sauce deal. Bit pricer but brilliant when I'm working late

Cooking in greaseproof parcels is easy - fillet of fish, squeeze over some lemon juice, add some sliced spring onions, mangetout, tender stem broccoli, wrap up and bake for 20 mins on 180. WHilst its baking put some couscous in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave to stand for minutes. Fluff up with a fork, add some chopped pepper and serve with the fish.

Or chicken breast/salmon fillet topped with pesto in a foil parcel and cook for 20 mins at 180 for fish and 25 at 200 for chicken. Chicken is also nice spread with sundried tomato paste and a slice of mozzarella.

Baked potatoes with beans and cheese,
Poached salmon with mashed potatoes and broccoli (all done in sauce pans, only “cooking” involved is chopping potatoes and broccoli),
Sausage, mash, peas and onion gravy,
Chicken curry and rice,
Chilli con carne and rice,
Tomato pasta with cheese,
Macaroni cheese,
Shepherds Pie,

All of those are relatively quick and at the most need a quick browning of mince or a chopped onion or pepper/carrots etc. All done in less than half an hour plus simmering time.

You can use a jar of white sauce for macaroni cheese if making one is too much faff.

We were getting in a rut with meals so I bought the 3 Pinch of Nom books and for a change there's loads of recipes in there I like the look of (normally buy a book and it never gets used). Even DH is getting inspired - tonight he's cooked Singapore fried rice and rice pudding (I did ask him if he's bought shares in a rice company )

@Bubblesgun You see what I mean though. It's the whole thing for me at the moment just going through a bit of a low time, as reality sets in that this is it now, and I have to do it on my own, pretty much. I know things will adjust and pick up in time though, I hope so anyway.

@orchidsonabudget

Surprised no one has mentioned the batch lady. Her recipes on her website are free and you can follow along from her fb.page too. She is all about convenience of freezer to take away the pain of cooking

So ready made mash and chopped onions
And storing flat to make most of space
It has made a huge difference to the argh of meal planning for me

My kids cooked a lot of suppers in the first lockdown but that backfired as the standard of cooking increased so much and now I struggle to keep up!

@FamilyOfAliens

OP, click “See All” on the left-hand side of any of your posts and it will just show your ones.

Thanks I looked there is no option to see all though, I tried on this post, nothing there, I am on an iPhone if that helps?!

*I didn’t say there’s anything wrong with shop-bought meat pies or omelettes, if that’s what you like.

They’re just strange suggestions from a chef, whose job is to cook delicious food from scratch.*

I wonder if you also imagine a cleaner comes home after a long day and decides to unwind by giving the bathroom a good scrub?!

OP I am the laziest cook in the world, max 10 minutes prep I’d say, yet we do eat fresh virtually every day. Baked fish with some form of topping, pouch of rice and beans or peas, any form of traybake, one pot chicken with veg, stir fry, tuna hash.

Something that helps is having a good range of herbs and spices including Lazy garlic, chilli and ginger which I keep in the fridge at all times. I keep salad in the fridge and can throw that together in 2 minutes and might jazz it up with a few grapes etc.

BBC Good food website is great. I also keep a notebook with a very short note on what we had, if I added anything and if it needed more or less so I make fewer mistakes second time round.

I promise you I’m totally lazy but a few minutes of organising myself at the beginning of the week is wonderous.

Another one to recommend a slow cooker. A big one so you can make a big batch and freeze. We (I) tend to cook 5 nights, takeaway weekend Fri or Sat, then a freezer type meal one day, whether it be a previously batch cooked casserole or something or a pie, chips, peas type meal.
One simple dish that kids seem to love is pesto pasta- I literally cook pasta and bung sweetcorn and/or peas in for the last few minutes (same pan) and either griddle chicken, or stir in a tin of tuna and stir through pesto. Simple and quick

Another thing is your DC fussy?
Mine are good eaters but don’t really eat tomatoes and spinach which I love in recipes!

I find pasta sauces in a jar a life-saver when I just can't be bothered to do something from scratch:

• sausage pasta bake. Just precook sausages and pasta, mix with sauce and maybe sweetcorn from a tin, grate some cheese on top and stick n oven for 15 mins.
• lasagna, normally such a fiddly dish. I make a big batch of bolognese with the jar sauce to save faff and time. I make a quick cheese sauce and combine with pasta sheets to make up the lasagna. I freeze the left-over bolognese for a different meal and we enjoy the lasagna that week.

I’ve read on here lots of people struggling with getting anything to taste good in a slow cooker, but I’m not sure what they’re doing. I love cooking but it’s so lovely to be able to prepare dinner while my kid’s having breakfast and have it ready to eat it in the evening with little else, I’d anything else to sort out.

There’s loads of great slow cooker recipes out there that are fool proof. The internet is full of them, but bbc good food site is a good start.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/slow-cooker-recipes/amp