Meals that don't take long to prepare/find ingred forredients for, can be slow cooker

[theDudesmummy]

Hi, just looking for some ideas. My DH usually does all the food shopping and cooking, mainly because of my work (self-employed and wfh but long hours), but really also because hes a very good cook.

He has to spend the next few weeks putting in long hours into our house renovation and has asked me (and autistic DS, who likes to help but can't do cooking unsupervised) to step up and do all the weekday shopping and cooking. I still need to keep up my work hours, which usually involves working till about 7.30pm, and what will probably work quite well will be putting "dump and go" type meals in the slow cooker in the morning, although I can spend a short time on food prep in the evening.

I am looking for ideas! DH will not eat purely veggie meals, although obviously veggie sides are good. DS doesn't eat most veg especially not green ones, and will reject a whole dish if there are (visible) green things in it, so a casserole with integrated green veggies won't work.

Ps sorry about mangled title, why not edit function for titles?!

I have the Bored of Lunch book and am planning some meals from it!

I think your idea of the slow cooker is a good one -if you're not a confident cook, and don't have a lot of time, it's a great way to get perfectly edible food on the table with very little effort.

Also as a rule, if you're cooking meat, doing it slower is often more forgiving - if you cook it for a bit too long or a bit too short, it's unlikely to be ruined. Unlike overcooking a steak you've been cooking hard and fast.

Having said all that, if you are a semi-competent cook, I think some of the easiest quick meals around are fried/grilled meat/chicken/fish with basic sides like steamed veg/salad/new potatoes/noodles/rice. DD and I came in from a day out on Saturday and I had steak, chips, pickled slaw and mushrooms on the table within about 20 minutes (used oven chips - in the airfryer).

Here's my favourite slow cooker recipe - beef stifado - love it because it's so simple and result is yummy.

Thanks so much, will definitely make that!