Please help! I can't cook! I can't operate my oven! I'm fat and unhealthy!

[frankie80]

Title says it all really.

My DH does the cooking but he works long hours, which means I wait til he's home or get a take away.

DD is fed at my mother's (looks after her before/after school) so I'm fortunate there.

My mother never taught me to cook, or to do housework (although I'm okay at that). She refuses to show me even now as she thinks I should 'figure it out' etc.

I have NO idea what the symbols on my oven mean. Nor the symbols on the packs of food. I don't understand weighing of food.

I don't know how long to cook things like steak for, I even exploded an egg I was trying to boil.

I can make a sandwich and I can use my microwave (one thing I can do, wowee)

I'm a fussy eater too. I don't like pasta/pizza/most vegetables/fish/curries

I want to be healthier and slim. I want to be able to cook for my family.

Please tell me where to start. I tried some books but they didn't help because they had food I don't like or spoke about 'settings on the oven' without me knowing what it meant!

Please give me really really simple foolproof recipes for normal meals? Quick ones too?

I'm very embarrassed by this so please don't make fun of me.

You like eggs but your husband doesn't - if you're eating without him, eggs are a really healthy and nutritious quick meal. There are loads of videos on youtube for how to make an omelette. You can have that with a salad on the side, once you practice you can make the omelette with veggies that you like inside it - that's really healthy and simple.

Baked potatoes are really easy - just put them in the oven. Treacle has said how - mine never seem to be done in 50 minutes, I always give them about an hour and a half! but the basic principle is you just wash them, prick them, I rub olive oil on mine, salt, but you don't have to, and leave them in the oven for a really long time. Fillings like tuna mayo and baked beans are good for you and require no cooking at all.

I'm serious about the beans on toast too, OP. Beans are a really good non meat source of protein.

Bypassing the chips, how about you slice up the chicken breast. Heat a frying pan, add some oil, is the fry light the spray oil? If so, spray a few pumps Ito the pan to lightly coat. Add the chicken and keep moving it about in the pan to seal it. When you've no pink meat showing, just white tip in a can of veg soup. Mix and season with salt and pepper, if you have any. Sea/rock salt and freshly ground pepper is best but if you only have ground white pepper and table salt that will do, a small sprinkling of each, more pepper preferable. When it starts bubbling, turn the heat down low (I'm hoping the oven directions up thread are helping here) and leave to simmer (cook) for approx 15-20 minutes. Won't be fantastic but is a semblance of chicken casserole.

Second thirding the fruit salad of rafters.

Please get in touch with your local Adult Education centre, there is lots of help out there for adult learners that need it. I use to volunteer as a co student with our local linking scheme and one of the classes I helped with was a Basic Cookery one.

Good luck OP, you're halfway there by wanting to learn.

When I left home a friend bought me Prue Leith's Beginner's cookbook.. no idea if it's still available because that was well over 25 years ago but if you manage to find it it's excellent. It explains what different utensils are and what/how to use them and recipes from boiled eggs to coq au vin.. really, really good book

Just seen your veg order, if making the above, chop up a pepper (discard the seeds) and slice some mushrooms (don't wash these, just wipe them if they have soil on - I never bother to even do that to be honest) and add to the chicken with the soup.

Of rafters??? For afters!

OP What's your main concern about cooking, is it the practical chopping etc, is it the instructions in books, is it the maths? Fear of failure, burning?

And what is it about food that puts you off, texture, taste too strong or too weak, too many bits to chew? Smell?

We can help you better if we understand the reason why you have never really tried with cooking.

Frankie you can do jackets in the microwave for about 10 mins each. Rinse, prick all over with a fork, wrap in a paper towel and zap. Turn over halfway and take the paper towel off.

It's a lot cheaper than using the oven. Boiling is easiest I find.

If you want to do the onions and mushrooms, sautéed together is good, and learning how to peel and chop an onion effectively is going to pay dividends. Check out videos on how to do thisnand remenpmbervwhat I said about the knife. Good luck

I think the main thing is to start small and work up. Get today's meal for DH done, that's a great idea. Then choose one thing at a time to learn. Literally even if you only learn egg boiling next week, then that's still great, because it's a skill you've learnt. :) I didn't even master boiled eggs until a few months ago!

Put eggs in a saucepan, and add cold water until you've just covered the eggs. Put on the hob at highest heat. Once it starts boiling properly, that's when you start the timer - I do 5 minutes because that's slightly soft but not runny - you'll gradually find your perfect egg time with practice. I leave the heat on unlike a previous poster, we all have our ways of doing things, you'll get there. Anyway when timer goes off immediately take pan off and pour water away. Whack the eggs with a spoon to slightly crack the shells, then put cold water in the pan. This stops them cooking further. After a few minutes they'll be cool enough to handle and easy to peel.

Anyway, after that maybe master scrambled eggs or omelette. Or stir fry. One thing at a time.

I do agree about trying harder with veg - could you maybe challenge yourself to try one new veg a week? Also remember that they can be totally different depending on how they're prepared, over cooked soggy veg is a world away from decent cooked stuff.

It might be a good idea to start with frozen veg at first. You can even get frozen chopped onions.

I keep going on about onions because they are good for you not only as a veg with fibre and vitamins but can help the heart. Above all they are flavour for everything and a great basic ingredient.

Once you've learned to bake (or microwave) a potato, you can also make mash without as much chopping and no boiling/draining. You just need a potato ricer. Cut the baked potato into quarters (or eighths if they're really big) and put them in the ricer. Squeeze the handles and catch the potato in a bowl. Fish out the skin that's left in the ricer and do some more. Finish with salt, pepper, milk and butter to taste. You can warm this up in the microwave for about 30 seconds before adding it if you like.

Or (and I'm totally serious here) frozen mash is very nice and made with the same ingredients you'd use at home. Put the requisite number of pellets in a microwaveable bowl (double the suggested number per person, unless you like your meal served with just two teaspoons of mash), add a splash of milk. Cover the top of the bowl with cling film and microwave according to the times on the packet. You can stir in cheese or mustard (or another flavouring) at the end if you like and make fancier mash.

I'm deaf too, OP. Search for deaf punk chef on bslzone, he's deaf and goes to different families to teach them how to cook. If you look at your local adult learning centre, you'll be able to get interpreting support, or note taking, or lip reading support to do the classes, look at your local college maybe. I don't use YouTube videos because they go to fast but BBC good food is useful.

I started with easy things, bolognese, chilli, jacket potatoes. A lot of cooking is about timing. And slow cookers are fab, chuck it in and don't think about it for 8 hours!

thankyou teaforthree, I'll check that out, I'm not a BSL user though so not aware of bslzone but I'll try.

unrealhousewife - my main concerns about cooking are: under/over cooking, weights/measurements (I'm good at maths, but I don't have weighing stuff in the kitchen), time (I want super easy quick food), and the fact we all like different things!

I did the chips okay tonight yaaaay!!! But the steak in the george foreman was over done and hard :(

You'll be delighted to find that most savoury cooking doesn't really require precise weights and measurements. It's quite forgiving. Nonetheless you can buy a cheap set of electronic scales, a measuring jug and some measuring spoons (for tablespoons, teaspoons, half teaspoons etc) in supermarkets, which will solve your problems entirely.

Well done on cooking tonight. It doesn't matter that it wasn't perfect! You'll get better at timing the steak with more practise. The important thing is that you fed everyone.

hubby has just said he'll teach me how to cook some simple meals - stir fries, steak & chips, chicken casserole for example. :)

He just explained the dials on the oven to me too.

I know it seems like he should have done this before but a, we moved here a few months ago so its a new oven b, he's not here much due to working hours which he's just said are getting better and c, he does feel its super easy and not that hard to figure out

fab! I hope it's something you enjoy doing together

www.lucycooks.co.uk/description/27182/Kitchen-Confidence---Beginners-Cookery

well done frankie! i think steak is hard to get right - too many variables like type of cut, thickness etc. so i wouldn't sweat that at all. good luck with your cooking adventure.

You said you all like different things, how do you deal with that at the moment?

We don't have a choice in our family, whoever cooks chooses and everyone else just gets on with it. There's no great discussion, if someone doesn't like part of the meal they just leave it on the plate.

You mentioned time being a problem, just cooking one meal will save a lot of time. Also cooking fresh food will obviously save time. We had stir fry chicken with noodles tonight it took about 20mins. I part cook the veg in the microwave then adding to the stir fry. I did add some frozen peas as well. Red Thai sauce and chicken stock cube for seasoning.

Obviously you don't want to start with that yet but I'm describing it to show you that fresh food is quicker than convenience food

tonight I shall be attempting a stir fry with fresh egg noodles, chicken breast, peppers, mushrooms, onions, frylight, I think we have some cajun seasoning.

Trying to look up videos etc of what to do but they seem to be with rice or american videos :(

unreal - just seen your post, DH did tell me last night that stir fries were 'super easy' but you've scared me a bit now!

" I part cook the veg in the microwave then adding to the stir fry. I did add some frozen peas as well. Red Thai sauce and chicken stock cube for seasoning. Obviously you don't want to start with that yet "

frankie, don't worry, this is one of the most unusual stir fry recipes I have seen, most are much simpler. I have never heard of cooking a stir fry in the microwave.

A simple stir fry can be just veg and meat with a little grated ginger or garlic and soy sauce, takes only a minute or two in a hot pan.

All you do for a stir fry is add the ingredients and make sure they keep being moved round the pan. You can toss the veg in the pan if you feel confident, otherwise stir them.

Do the meat first, cut in narrow strips and add to the pan with the fry light, then when it's cooked through (you can cut one in half and make sure it's opaque throughout) add your veg.

The trick with veg is to cut it all in similar sized strips (so with carrot, cut thin lengths rather than discs IYSWIM?) so it cooks evenly.

After a few minutes when the veg is softer add your noodles (as they are fresh ones they should be ready to stir fry, as opposed to dry ones which need boiling first)

Once you are confident you can start adding seasonings during cooking - I never thought I'd get to grips with it but now I add a splash of soy sauce, lime juice or whatever, or garlic and spring onion at the beginning, or marinating the meat for a while before cooking (like honey/lime/soy sauce combo) no measuring I just make it up as I go along. I can't remember the last time I had a Chinese takeaway as now I can do the flavours myself! :) Get confident with the stir fry method first and then you can start adding more stuff.

Mmmm ginger. The best tip I read on here was to get fresh ginger, peel and cut into big chunks. Wrap the chunks in cling film and freeze. You then grate it from frozen, it's SO much easier. I use it loads more now!

I don't find it difficult to grate from fresh.

I find it goes a bit pulpy! :)