Tips for a rubbish cook - really need to improve

[Jemster]

Hi there
I've been looking through the threads & everyone seems to be great cooks, doing wonderful things for their families.
I never learnt to cook from scratch when I was younger but realise the importance of it to look after my family. I think there are a number of factors that put me off;
1.I lack confidence, whenever I do try something it turns out pretty dire
2.I find chopping & lifting physically hard sometimes due to rheumatoid arthritis mainly in hands & wrists

1. I work until 2.00 everyday & once home with dc's I'm pretty tired (due to my condition) and lack motivation & energy to cook from scratch
2. My 2 dc's are so fussy it makes it so hard to cook something that will please everyone. When I do make something they pull a face & hardly touch it!!
3. I have started food shopping on line but I'm alwats running out if thungs, forgetting them, or throwing things away that haven't been used.

I am starting to worry that we are all not eating a varied enough diet. DS has school dinnners but dd only has a sandwichy lunch at childminders. She is so fussy though & so slow at eating.

Please could people give me some advice to improve things/make things easier?A lot of it is down to my energy & pain levels but I must do better to look after my children's nutritional needs.

Firstly, there is no shame at all, no matter what MN says, about using convenience products to make your life easier. I still consider it cooking from scratch even if I've used chopped onions (M&S sell a bag of frozen, chopped, sautéed onions which are awesome!), sliced mushrooms, garlic from a jar...these things are made for people who lack time and energy just like you.

Also, keep it simple - my kids love omelettes, which you can serve with a side of veg and hey presto, balanced meal in 10 mins.

Make a meal plan. Think about your energy levels and time in the week. I start with Sunday - we have a roast dinner. Actually this is quite easy and you could use ready-prepared roast veg where you just shove the tin in the oven. Then the next day you can have leftovers or chop stuff up and put egg on for a Spanish omelette. One day do pasta or jacket spuds, one day a freezer meal, one day something more complicated! And rotate like that. Then you can shop more efficiently but by giving yourself permission to have 'easy' days it feels less of a grind.

What are your favourite family meals?

Start with them.

I find chopping/prepping BORING as all get out. That's where a food processor/chopper comes in

I'll give you my go to soup that requires very little prep and if you have a hand blender..... liquidised in no time!

Fry off (in your soup pot) some bacon lardons til crispy
Peel and roughly chop 3 or 4 carrots
Peel and roughly chop an onion
Fling veg in soup pot with at least 1.5litres water.
Rinse a handful of orange lentils
Add to pot.
Bring it to boil then turn down heat simmer until veg soft.
Turn off heat and leave to cool slightly before blitzing with hand blender

I don't add salt/pepper at the time. Just add as eat as I find the bacon adds enough salt.

But have added cumin before and it gives it a lovely warmth without missing salt

HTH

Oh a bags of frozen veg are a godsend as well.

I find hairy biker recipes really easy to follow
BBC Good food has tons of recipes.

Top top would be to read recipe a few times before starting
Get all ingredients out so you not scrabbling looking for something

And be prepared for for things not to turn out quite right.

I consider myself quite a good cook but every now and then it goes wrong - eek! Normally when I'm trying to be smart!

Keep it simple and dont try to many new dishes. Just add a new one a week. Build up your confidence

Oh, I'm the same. Terrible cook really.

I don't worry about how exciting the food is that I cook for DD, I just try and make sure there's as much fruit and veg as possible.

Lots of pasta, with tomato sauce and throw in frozen veg. Or stews, which I've decided even a terrible cook can't entirely ruin.

Absolutely agree with everything Brian said. There's no shame in using products which make your life easier. It may seem that everyone on MN is making 10 nutritious meals from one chicken, but that shouldn't make you feel like you're doing it wrong. Do what works and what's easiest for you. Because it's you that has to physically cook it and eat it.

I love, love, love cooking 90% of the time, but I go through stages of reaching for convenience food out of sheer laziness on my part (sauce from a jar, fish fingers etc) and I feel guilty for not cooking it from scratch. Then I ask myself what I'm feeling guilty for? Jamie Oliver isn't going to walk into my kitchen and berate me for feeding my child fish fingers once in a blue moon. So if it makes it easier for me at that moment and my child eats it, then what's the problem? I think the rise in popularity of cooking on TV has a lot to answer for, making us feel like we should all be knitting our own yogurt!

BBC Good Food taught me how to cook. I looked for recipes for meals I already knew I liked, spag bol, chilli con carne, pasta, cottage pie etc but I would previously use a jar or packet mix. I didn't start out with anything complicated. I then realised how much nicer the homemade versions tasted compared to shop-bought.

I food shop online and throughout the week I make a note on my phone as and when I'm running out of things, so when it comes to doing the online shop the following week, I have a list already of things we need.