Am sick of eating crap.... someone help me write a healthy, quick and easy to cook shopping list that doesnt cost the earth, doesnt go off quickly and that tastes good please. No more chicken dippers!!!

[TambaIsHotHotHot]

When H was around he used to do the shopping and he bought mainly crap (frozen microwave toad in the hole anyone?)

So now that I am on my own I want to change the way we eat. I need healthy, easy to cook foods, that store well. And are cheap.

Also need to learn about veggies cause I have never cooked them!

My list comprises of -

Baking Potaotes

thats it so far !!

tamba .. one big ole chicken can serve you with loads of meals..
roast the chicken whole for your big sunday roast.
After, take all reamining meat off to throw into a risotto next day or make sandwiches or reheat the leftover veggies and serve it with hot gravy. Or make a salad with it etc etc
Boil up the chicken carcass that day and throw in a potato/ celery/onion and you have soup to freeze for another day!!

Spanish omlettes are a winner here. Boil a couple of potatoes for about ten minutes. While they are boiling, chop up whatever you have in the way of toms, peppers, courgettes, onion. Beat two eggs per person (that makes 16 eggs in my house!) and add dash of salt and pepper. Drain potatoes, slice them and leave to cool. Put the grill on high. Chuck eggs into lightly greased deepish frying pan, fry for minute or so and then add sliced veg and the potatoes and if you like ham or cheese. When it starts to look firm, no bubbling liquid, put it under the grill till it all bubbles up and browns ever so impressively. Is very nice hot and even better cold, in slices, for picnics , like the spanish eat it.

We should have an MN cookbook really

Spagetti with olive oil, bacon, chopped bell peppers, lots of garlic. Yum and easy to make.

Put chicken wings (very cheap part of chicken) in a pot, just cover with coca cola (or any generic cola), a little water, soy sauce (can get it from Asian food section). Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer until chicken is cooked and gravy thickened. Usually eat with rice and a veg.

Grilled veg. Cut up some bell peppers, courgettes, broccoli, aubergines and put in a tinfoiled lined tray. A sprinkle of salt and generous olive oil. Grill. For broccoli, it is necessary to par boil them first.

Peppers and cheese. Halve bell peppers, put soft cheese in them (eg Camembert, blue, feta). Drizzle with olive oil. Grill.

Blueshoes - that chicken in coke one was given to me by a chinese woman! It is amazing, isn't it, very rich and authenically chinesey tasting? I never tell anyone what was in it. I serve it with steamed pakchoi/chinese cabbage and rice - hey ho, complete meal.

Tamba - chinese cabbage is good - it seems to last forever and works cooked - steamed for five minutes, or fried in a wok by itself or with peppers, green onions or whatever you have, or just treated like a normal lettuce and served as salad or even with shredded carrot and apple in coleslaw a la chinese.

Pierre, yes, I got that recipe from my mainland Chinese flatmate! You seem to know your way around Chinese food...

How about fish pie:-

Four bits of fish (I often use frozen cod loin from Tesco, that way it can be a bit of a standby meal)
Two eggs (although I often use three as DS2 likes the eggs better than the fish)
One onion
One carrot
A couple of leeks
284ml (? I think, the normal sort of size carton) of double cream
A couple of handfuls of cheddar cheese
Tablespoon of mustard
Juice of a lemon
Potatoes
Salt and pepper

Bung the fish in a deep dish (I don't bother defrosting if using frozen, just give it an extra 10 mins or so in the oven, cover with some foil if the potatoes are getting too brown). Boil the potatoes and eggs. Quarter the cooked eggs long ways and put in with the fish. Fry the onion and carrot in a little olive oil, when it has softened add the leeks, continue to fry until the leeks are soft, I quite like them a little brown at the edges but that is probably personal taste. Add the cream to the frying pan and gently bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and add the mustard, lemon juice and cheese, stir in until all the cheese has melted, pour this mixture over the fish. Then mash your potatoes with some olive oil and salt and pepper and cover the top of the fish pie with the mash. Bung in oven, 200 ish for 25-35 mins (depending on whether frozen fish has been used).

This is my version of a Jamie Oliver recipe that I have made loads but started to tweak slightly to suit our tastes.

WOW

Thanks! I will be printing this off to make a list of what I will need to buy!

You are all fab

Pasta pasta pasta!!!

Thats my answer everytime I can't think what to eat, with..

Tomato based sauce can add sausages.
Cheese sauce can add tomato on the top and grill.
Carbonara sauce, I do a lovely traditional style one that isn't running in sauce.
Pesto, couple of tablespoonfuls stirred in to cooked pasta can add grilled chicken and sundried tomatoes.
Or simpley stir through some basil infused olive oil and sprinkle with grated cheese.

On and I do roasted veg with almosted everything. Usually onions, peppers and tomotoes all chopped into big chunks drizzeled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. Cook in a hot oven until as soft or crunchy as you like.

I'm going to try the chicken in coca cola today. It sounds SO easy!!!!!!!!! and I like easy recipes. Wonder what it tastes like.

Fantastic dish if you like curries because it's cheap and actually tasted even better after freezing:

Leek & Lentil curry:

4 leeks
1 mug red lentils
2/3 spoonfuls of any kind of pataks curry paste (you can keep this in the fridge for next time)
Optional veg: you can add peppers, courgettes or mushrooms

Instructions:

Use a non-stick pan if you've got one big enough - makes the washing up a doddle.

1. Chop leeks into rings and fry in olive oil/butter until soft (+ extra veg if you're using them)
2. Add the lentils, 2 mugs of water and the curry paste
3. Simmer for half an hour (or more if you like) checking at regular intervals and adding more water when it looks a bit parched - you're going for a curry consistency at the end.

Serve with rice/poppadums/chappatis etc etc.

This dish tastes so good because the lentils go lovely and mushy and absorb all the curry flavour and they're full of protein so you don't need meat. The more you make and freeze in portions the cheaper it gets too. I'd always cook rice fresh though if serving it with that.

Can definitely recommend buying a book called 'Classic 1000 student recipes' (I'm not a student) - has loads of cheap tasty recipes with instructions on how to make as cheap as possible and written for complete beginners. Also helpfully arranged into recipes you can do with one pan/two pans/a grill/a whole kitchen etc. I can feed the family (3 of us) on £25 ish per week on this book if I do 2 weekly shops and freeze a load.

ahhh, liquidclocks, curries taste better after freezing because they have been allowed to stand so that the taste sinks in. We always cook our curries one day before. Great recipe.

SSSandy, coca cola chicken is fab. If cooked slowly, the meat just falls off the bone, and the gravy is rich, sweet, and ... oh so hard to describe (soy sauce to taste in terms of saltiness).

try this, chickin cubes, cook in wok add smoked backen bits, and then add condenced chiken soup add one tin milk to wash soup out, then add noodles, leave 8 mins so easy and great taste,

TambaIsHotHotHot, trouble I find is mine are so so so fussy they wont try anything decent and so I resort to the rubbish I can just shove in the oven and even that they don't always eat! Did you try any homemade food on them yesterday? & did they like it?

What a great thread this is! I've picked up loads of ideas to try. Often find that i'm cooking the same things over and over. So now feel excited about trying new dishes. They all seem quite simple too!

I agree with sssandy we should have our own cookbook!

That chicken in coca cola smells fantastic. Shame I ate a packet of crisps while I was waiting....

See I did it wrong from memory - put in the oven and left it on at a high temp. I'll try the pot version next time. Curious to how it'll taste.

I'll try the fish pie this week too.

I did tuna steaks last night and they just looked at me like I was barking... oh well, if they dont eat whats put in front of them then they will soon get very hungrey... they'll learn!

Am going to go shopping friday (when theres money in the bank!)

am planning on doing excersize and quitting smoking too!

Well dont want to be old and flabby and coughy do I?

You'll be running the world if you carry on like this Tamba!

SSSandy let me know how the Cola chicken tastes please. I'm curious.

I quite like that idea

Update on that chicken in coke?

sorry forgot to report back, just going through the food section to print off recipes to take on holiday with me and noticed I hadn't said how it tasted.

The chicken in coke is really good. Definitely try it. I had it with steamed rice and peas, dd wolfed it down. If you have frozen chicken wings, it'd be a great stand-by meal.