Does anyone have some REALLY SIMPLE RECIPES for stuff that can be frozen?

[Mossie]

I am only just learning to cook, have started my maternity leave (today! yippee!) and want to make loads of stuff that I can put in containers and freeze for when my lo is born so I don't rely on dh or the takeaway!

But they need to be FOOL PROOF! I have had many, many cooking disasters over the years. I mean really, really fool proof. No "pinch" of this, no "approximately" that, no "put in the oven until the juices run clear". Oh no, that way lies ruin!

I also need ingredients that I can buy from the Asda / local grocer / butcher.

And if at ALL possible in metric! But now I'm just being ultra fussy!

Thank you kind people in advance!

[Mossie]

Thanks ladies!

Also Twiglett I bought that book, it arrived the other day, and I have already made the spag bol from it, it was very tasty! Dh had the shock of his life that I had made it without using a sauce! (He still tried to dig his oar in though, before I'd even served it he said, "I don't think that's enough spaghetti"! Er, like, wait until it's served, eh?)

You were right it is quite easy to follow!

[Shivs1974]

Sorry I also went awol for a few days...anyway beef casserole.
Main ingredients
2 x 500g diced beef suitable for stewing
1 onion
3 carrots
1 leek

Roll beef in flour and fry a few pieces in oil at a time until nutty brown in colour.
Put into casserole dish when all fried.

Chop & fry onion - to minimise onion smells I put chopped onion in a bowl with some oil, cover with clingfilm and microwave for 40 secs. Add to casserole dish

Peel & chop carrots & leek. Add to casserole dish

Dissolve 1 beef oxo cube in a mug of boiling water. Add 2 more mugs of boiling water.
Add 1 bay leaf, a generous sprinking of thyme & some black pepper.
Add 2 tablespoons of flour & stir, stir & stir.

Depending on how tender you want the meat, put in preheated oven for 180 for 1.5-2.5 hrs.
Serve with mashed potato.

[chirpygirl]

Sorry Mossie, went for a wander last few days!
I just use ready diced beef, good old oxo is fine, and the stilton melts into the sauce so just bung it in whole if you really want!

[Mossie]

Thanks everyone for the recipes, Twiglett I have ordered that book & will let you know how I get on when it arrives!

HappyasLarry I will no doubt be watching my weight after lo is born, I've been pigging out on the nutella butties and quality street since about week sixteen so it'll have to go soon after!

I'm sure I'll be back in a week or so with a question about shopping and what ingredients you should have in your cupboard but for now I just want to practise the actual cooking side!

[Coolmama]

sorry - I normally sort of poach or boil the chicken breasts in a deep pan in about 3 cms of water - or alternatively just nuke them in the microwave.

[HappyasLarry]

Mossie, soups I regularly make...

• mushrooom
• leek and potato
• brocolli with soft goats cheese or cream melted in
• split pea and bacon
• tomato and basil
• cauliflower

To cook for 4-6, most soups involve an onion and a quantity of veg (eg. 1 cauliflower, 4 leeks, head of brocoli). You brown the onion, brown the veg, then add a GOOD stockcube with enough water to cover all. Don´t buy the cheap crappy stock cubes. Cook until the veg is soft and ready to be blitzed in the food processor. Add cream if you have it if you think it makes senses (who hasn´t heard of cream of tomato/mushroom/etc.

Delia Smith does good reliable soup recipes. She´s a good starter cookbook generally I think!

Soups are also great if you´re watching your weight (if you leave the cream out ; )

Start small and you´ll soon get better. Also try bbc.co.uk/food for great recipes, also FAST recipes!

[drosophila]

so is mine . What I love abut it is you shove it in the oven and forget about it.

[Twiglett]

actually its not is it? but it IS delicious

[Twiglett]

my chilli is simpler

500g minced lamb or beef
beef stock cube
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 can kidney beans in chilli sauce
tin tomatoes (400g one)
1/2 tsp chilli
1.5 tablespoons cumin

brown mince (in saucepan stir until no red left)
add crushed garlic
(can add chopped onion at this stage and / or mushrooms .. optional)
add tin kidney beans and tin tomatoes
add chilli and cumin and simmer covered for 30 mins

serve with rice and green veg

[drosophila]

Pork Chilli

Ilb minced pork (you can use minced lamb too)
2 onions chopped
2 garlic cloves (I use more cos I love garlic)
2 tsp harrissa paste (BArts do a nice one - hope you can get it in ASDA)
2 teaspoons hot chilli powder
Half teaspoon of Cumin powder
tin tomatoes
150 mls of veg stock.
Salt (how ever much you like)
tin red kidney beans

Fry onion and garlic for about 5 mins
Add mince and brown
Add harrissa paste, chilli powder, cumin,tomaotes, salt and stock.

Put into a lowish oven - 150 degrees - for One hour 15 mins. Take out add more stock if is dry and then add the rinced kidney beans and back into oven for half an hour.

Serve with rice or pitta bread.

[Mossie]

Thank you Twiglett that is brill!

[Twiglett]

(PS I also add a tin of chick peas to the sausage casserole cos I like them but they're not needed)

[Twiglett]

this one

seriously you make a dish a couple of times and you stop measuring cos you get an eye for how much to bung in .. and if you read the ingredients in stuff like mixed herbs just so you've a vague idea over time when you run out you think oh I haven't any mixed herbs bollocks I'lll just throw some of xx in instead

honestly we all started somewhere

[Mossie]

Ooh now yes that does sound like something even I could get my head round!!!

[Mossie]

Thanks Twiglett!
Sil got dh that Jamie Oliver one for Christmas but it keeps going on about different cuts of meat and is full of ingredients that you can't get unless you want to drive out to the super-huge Tesco (which is fine for him, but I can't drive!)

Will look into that one!!

[Twiglett]

here's one (excuse the paraphrase)

12 sausages .. brown them (either under the grill or in a frying pan) .. make the skin all nice and brown .. takes about 10 minutes normally

throw them in a casserole pot (with a lid)

add a tin of baked beans, a tin of tomatoes, a tablespoon of mixed herbs

bung in the oven (with lid on) for about 45 mins to an hour at 180

serve with mashed potato

[Twiglett]

buy The Dinner Lady cookbook

seriously easy recipes and nice dishes too

[Mossie]

HappyasLarry thanks for that I do feel a bit silly I'm nearly thirty and I can't cook, I sometimes watch dh, or his Mum, with their "pinch of that" and their "ooh we've run out of X oh it's okay we'll just use Y instead" and am not quite sure how they know, iyswim.

What soups are easy to make then?

[HappyasLarry]

Mossie, I couldn´t cook before having a family. Am now perfectly capable of telling people to add a pitch of something or another and to leave it on the stove till it´s cooked... You will be amazed at how much progress you can make.

You could maybe start with soups. Easy to make and almost all freeze well, albeit nicer in winter than mid-summer...

[Mossie]

Slayerette don't worry my dh has "lentil weaver" tendancies anyway so I think he will be amazed if I cooked that!

[Mossie]

Oh thank you everyone for the responses!

(Lol Pann, I am actually a hairy arsed trucker, and I'm not really pg, it's actually a very large beer belly )

A few questions. These are going to sound really stupid. Apologies in advance.

Coolmama when you say, "lightly cooked", is that fried, in the oven, or boiled?

Chirpygirl how thin do you cut the beef and stilton, or do you get it as mince? Does it matter what type of stock you use?

Shivs1974 yes beef casserole would be great!

Thank you everybody for this, dh normally does the cooking but given I'm on maternity leave I thought we should swap! It's a hell of a lot easier for him to learn to do the dishes though!!

[chirpygirl]

I know you have been offered a beef recipe already but this is what I had in my freezer

Beef with stilton
500g beef, 100g stilton, about 10 mushrooms, chopped and 1 pint of stock. simmer for an hour and a half.

Beef with guiness
as above but replace half pint stock with half pint guiness (the alcohol will boil off while cooking)

Feel free to add potatoes and carrots but DH will not allow them in his stews....

[Pann]

mossie - you so sound like a man!..well apart from the maternity leave bit..giveaway there..

[northerner]

Easyiest way is buy a vat load of mince and have 2 pans going on teh hob at once. One for Chilli, one for shep's pie and one for bolognaise.

Allf freezes really well.

[foxybrown]

Ooh, I'd like the beef receipe please! I make and freeze single portions of mash (doesn't work so well in larger quantities) and make sure I have fish fillets in the freezer. I think I'll get off this thread...