I can’t cook. Please help.

[MamaTT]

Well I can cook. Just not very well. I’ve fallen into a rut of cooking 12 million different things for dinner every night because of fussy children. I just want some simple dishes I can cook well and can adapt to fussiness if needed (although to be honest at 10 and 11, they’re old enough to know where the toaster is if they refuse what I give them). I’m spending a bloody fortune on food, and it’s so time consuming.
I’m not particularly fussy, neither is DP. Although neither of us like fish.
Any basic foolproof recipes would be hugely appreciated.

Traybakes are a doddle. Some are more of a faff than others, but here are our favourites:
Mary Berry’s sausage www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roasted_sausage_and_39127
Spicy pork chops realfood.tesco.com/recipes/asian-pork-chop-traybake.html

Oven-baked risottos are normally very simple www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/oven-baked-risotto

Cheese and tomato bread pudding recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/leftovers/cheese-and-tomato-bread-and-butter-pudding

Macaroni cheese www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/cheats-mac-cheese-recipe/

Pulled beef/pork burritos.

I use this recipe for the meat and sometimes use shoulder of pork instead of the beef brisket. It cooks for a long time but it's really easy and you can make it the day before and reheat it. We have it in burritos rather than tacos. Put out some rice, salad bits, grated cheese etc and everyone can fill their own burrito with what they like. The dc love it!

You might already do this but I make my spag bol/chilli/lasagne in batches (fry frozen diced onion, garlic powder, tin of chopped Tom's and either chilli or mixed Italian herbs) and I portion it, adding the appropriate carbs (rice, pasta etc) when it's needed...i really like a book called feed you family for £20 (title is something along those lines ) also the batch lady on YouTube. I have a basic level of cooking and budget is an issue for us, but does that help? Xx

As above with some tweaks.

I've learned that in things like spag bol, pasta (I always use something like penne rather than spaghetti) freezes quite well so I'll mix it with the sauce and freeze as a portion. Slightly undercook the pasta initially otherwise after reheating it's a little soft.

Rice freezes even better - cook enough for 6 and spread it out on a tray and cover with cling film and freeze. When frozen, batch up into individual bags. To reheat just pop in microwave.

There's so many things you can do this with - and it's always cheaper and less effort to batch cook and freeze portions.

This is so simple yet so good! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mustard-stuffed-chicken

I try to cook the same for everyone 90% of the time but am relaxed about people picking out the bits they don’t like. So for example if I makes a pasta bake with chicken, bacon, mushrooms one will pick out the mushrooms.
If I do a casserole with jacket potatoes one may just want jacket potatoes and cheese but will probably pick a couple of pieces of meat from the casserole
Anyway, that’s not what you asked!
Chicken breasts rubbed with paprika and baked are really quick and easy an go well in buns like or burgers or wraps. Just serve with salad.
Sausage tray bake is really easy, I use do one with sausages, butternut squash (I cheat and use ready chopped and frozen), shallots or red onion, parsnips and apples with a honey and mustard dressing.
Stir fry is super speedy if you use ready prepped stir fry pack. If you cook the noodles separately and offer a couple of options of protein e.g chicken or cashews it caters more for fussy people.
Pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and bacon (happy to remove a portion of sauce before adding chilli.)
Fritata really easy and good for using up odds and ends.
A quick puff pastry tart tends to go down well. I use ready rolled puff and can then add different toppings in different sections according to taste.

I understand your frustration. Have you sat down with the family and discussed what they all like/dislike, and come up with ideas together? The make a meal plan for the week that includes one person's favourite each day. You can easily find recipes online using your favourite ingredients (sometimes I'll check the fridge and just google "chicken with XY or Z" and something always comes up)

I second the PP who mentioned traybakes, it makes it easy for fussy eaters to pick out something they don't like and they are very easy and quick, I've done chicken ones, salmon, sausages etc with different herbs and flavourings.

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food cookbook is great for straightforward recipes, with suggestions of how to tweak them.

Also, this creamy chicken & potato pie is one of the nicest things I've ever cooked - I only tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and it's already become a family favourite. I leave out the spinach as none of us is keen, and just add extra carrots, but you could put any variety of veg in it really. It's incredibly tasty, and easy.

@JuneFromBethesda

Also, this creamy chicken & potato pie is one of the nicest things I've ever cooked - I only tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and it's already become a family favourite. I leave out the spinach as none of us is keen, and just add extra carrots, but you could put any variety of veg in it really. It's incredibly tasty, and easy.

That looks amazing! Bit too rich and high calorie for us on a day to day basis but looks like a really easy way to do a chicken pie/hotpot. Thank you - I'll keep it for future reference!

OP, without knowing what your DC will or won't eat, it' shard to make suggestions. But I have one fussy DD so here are a few things we do to make my life less irritating:

Steak - the rest of us will eat steak in all kinds of ways but DD is a purist. So, tomorrow, for example, DD will have steak with some boiled veg - potatoes, peas and carrots most likely and the rest of us will then have the rest of the steak in a stir fry with noodles.

I second the tray bake option - she generally won't eat the other things on the tray but will eat the chicken and I just nuke/boil additional vegetables for her if necessary. Sometimes I remove the skin off her chicken if she doesn't like the flavours.

Everyone likes a roast so I do roast chicken at least once every 2 weeks. I certainly can't be bothered with roasting potatoes etc so we usually have it with new potatoes and just plain vegetables. Sometimes I make yorkshire puddings instead of potatoes as the kids love them and they actually aren't that hard to make.

I roast sausages with tomatoes and like with the tray bake, just don't serve the tomatoes to DD. Do mash as usual and usually make some peas or other greens. Sometimes I do carrot and potato mash to up the nutritional content (sweet potato would work but I don't like sweet potatoes).

Chicken "nuggets". Slice large chicken breasts horizontally so that you land up with two thin ones (or sometimes it lands up being a couple of different sizes). Dip in egg then seasoned breadcrumbs (I add lemon zest and thyme). For DD, I'll double dip to make it crunchier. Then shallow fry. Nice served with salad - deconstructed if the DC won't eat regular salad.

Spaghetti bolognaise or spaghetti and meatballs usually go down fine with all members of the family. Stews are a bit more hit and miss so I don't do them as often as I used to.

I've got one kid who doesn't like a number of things. Things that seem to make the meal, such as mash. Another that doesn't like chips. So I found meal times really difficult trying to find something that would do them all. Especially if the oven was being used for one thing, and I couldn't cook the alternative for the other child at the same time.

Life changer is a slow cooker. I can put the meal on in the morning, and have plenty of time and oven/hob space to do even a completely different meal if need be for fussy child.

I totally forgot I started this thread (I do have memory problems).
Some really helpful ideas! Thanks so much!
Bloody love a tray bake. I’ve been doing a honey and soy chicken thigh one for the last few months and just Chuck whatever veg is in the fridge in. Kids just pick what they don’t like out and i do some mash on the side (the three of them will only eat potatoes in mash or chip form at the moment).
This week we had spaghetti bol. I did two batches - one with mushrooms, onions etc and the other completely plain for the fussiest dc. It was no bother as they just cooked along side each other. Did the same on Wednesday with cottage pie, two separate batches. Planning to make chicken stew tomorrow. Both DDs like all the veg going into it but DS is fussy so I’ve got visions of him using the sieve to drain it. Luckily he loves tiger bread so should fill up dipping that in and he’ll eat a lot of the chicken.
Food shop day is Tuesday so will put together some kind of plan tomorrow for the week or so ahead.

Definitely just make one batch of spag bol, but leave the veg big so DS can easily see it and pick it out. My brother spent years picking stuff out, but it was his fault for being a fussy pants.

My parents allowed us to have two foods each that we genuinely could not stomach, and they didn't cook with those. Other foods went in and we had to pick them out.

PP suggested cooking the meat part and then people add what they like to their burritos/fajitas etc. This is a great idea, and can also work with pizza - just make bases and tomato sauce and then people add their own toppings. Gets them involved in cooking too if they don't do that already.