Recipie book advice needed for family meals

[blossomhill]

I am a useless cook and find it so hard to come up with meal ideas. Please can anyone think of a good recipie book (apart from Delia) that would help me make nice, simple dinners for the whole family!!!! TIA

contraversial , but I think Annabel Karmel - family meal planner is good.

Anyone else had the Annabel Karmel book?

I have to say there is not much in the AK book that remotely resembles the sort of meal we would make. I do struggle a bit with 'family meals' myself though, and haven't come across a good basic recipe book that fits.
Why not try another thread asking for mumsnetters best easy family recipes - might be much more productive!

what kind of meals were you looking for BH? From the AK book I do things like meatballs, chicken balls, lasagne, salmon with watercress sauce (comes out better than the Nick Nairn one I tried), fish pie etc Nothing really fancy just good standard meals that ds1 (3) usually eats.

That's what I am looking for good standard meals.

How much did you pay for yours Zubb?

Eat Up! by Mark Hix

AK is OK too

I've just got "Jamie's dinners" and also Nigella's "Feast". I also crave inspiration. I subscribe to Good Food mag which is great as there is a constant source of new ideas, but I find it patchy - some months it is really good family food, others it's very dinner party-ish.

Who out there is is publishing?! We need a monthly family food mag!! Even if it's stuff you'd make anyway, it's the ideas that dry up when you're doing it day after day after day...

Good Housekeeping mag is a good source of ideas (though I don't feel old enough to buy it yet - I nick my mum's!). Is Good Food the BBC one?

I personally struggle with most cookbooks as 1/2 the recipes are too fancy or theres stuff that ds wouldn't eat or DH doesn't like or maybe you have to prepare half the stuff the night before etc. I have made my own. I bought a ring binder with some A4 clear wallet pages and an index labelled eg soups, fish, chicken, beef, desserts.... and either got from here, or Delias site or cuttings from magazines of receipes that I know will go down well. It might take a while to collate your info, but when you have, you know that anything from the book you make will suit you and your family. It's also fun looking out for new stuff as well.

didn't buy it, sister gave me hers. What age are your kids BH? what kind of food do they like?

They are 5 and 7. They like pasta, potatoes, chicken, all sorts really!

Furball thats a great idea. I tend to just keep buying cookery books, doing a couple of recipes from them and moving onto the next one. Have a storage problem at the moment though and can hardly get the cupboard door shut on them

Furball, i've thought of doing that as i have tonnes of cookery mags and can never find the recipe i want at the time!
(MIght get organised tonight!)

good food is a bbc one, yes. Compiling your own is a good idea, I agree, but you still get BORED of doing the same old stuff...!!

I really like Nigel Slater but sometimes he is a bit fancy (although he would disagree). The magazine I've always found very useful in that all the recipes have worked in Bella. They also (or certainly used to) do a Cookbook Magazine which came out every 3months or so. I have a few of them and they have some excellent ideas in them. Good luck

Has anyone used annabel karmel as I am thinking of buying it but it is £12 so needs to be good

BH - do you want me to list some of the recipes to see if it sounds like you'd use it much? TBH its like all books, you'd find a few things that you like and do them over and over....

Zubb - that would be great but only if you don't mind

Have a look at the new Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners It's just what you're after

For good basic ideas I usually go trawling around the web. Can thoroughly recommend The Foody - has basic traditional recipes like shepherds pie, etc, but also some more fancy things if you're feeling adventurous!

I also like the Campbell Soup website - always amazes me how many quick and cheap things you can make with the help of a can of condensed soup. Although I suspect that's a throwback from student cooking nostalgia...

I haven't used AK's family meal planner - but I used to have her first two baby/children's books. The recipes were lovely - BUT - they drove me crazy - very fiddly & used so many pans & bowls, I gave the books away long before my children outgrew the food. (and I am a keen cook, btw, not usually put off by complicated instructions!)

I'll skip the breakfast and snacks sections, but there are some soup recipes in there that may be useful. She gives things riduculous names so I'll sumamrise them!
Pasta -
15-minute tomato sauce
Lasagne (traditional recipe)
Simple pasta - bacon / mushrooms / creme fraiche
Chicken Stir-fry (chicken marinated in soy sauce / sake / sesame oil)
Bolognese sauce
Three chesse macaroni
Lasagne with spinach, cheese and tomato
linguine with spring veg
bow-tie pasta with peas and prosciutto
penne with chicken, tomatoes and basil
vegetable tagliatelle
turkey bolognaise
tagliatelle with prawns and vegetables
pasta with tomatoes, basil and salami
back in a bit - have to do some work

Hi Blossom hill,

I have used lots of children's books but these two are my favourite:

Cooking for Coco

superfoods

If you buy it from Amazon you can buy it from a seller and it's much cheaper. Hope this helps.

Jules x

BH - did you want any more details? don't want to write out the chicken and meat sections if you've already been out of by the pasta!