Which 3 recipes?

[MoodEnhancer]

My DH is not a confident cook. We’ve fallen into a pattern of me making almost all the meals and he recognises this is not fair. He has asked me to suggest 3 recipes for relatively easy, family friendly meals that he can practise and start making consistently.

Which 3 would you suggest?? Ideally the meals would be reasonably healthy too as also for our DC. And not pasta based as we eat it too often already! DC is relatively unfussy and eats most cuisines.

Massaman curry
quesadillas
beef stew and dumplings

Thanks @CalliopePlantain. Interesting choices. Both massaman curry and beef stew and dumplings take a long time to cook. I was thinking of more midweek style meals.

I guess he can roast some chicken breast, add some potatoes either roasted as well, or boiled?

Or some crockpot recipes?
They are all very easy to make and you basically just chuck everything in and let be for a few hours?

https://beatthebudget.com/recipe/nandos-spicy-rice we serve this with pan fried chicken.

https://www.easypeasyfoodie.com/tomato-pepper-chorizo-pasta

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/saucy-sausage-pasta

These are all recipes I've taught my teenagers. They can also make chilli, spag bol, Toad in the hole and basic roast.

He could slow cook or pressure cook pork shoulder or brisket and turn the cooked meat into any number of meals.

Pulled pork pie
Add leeks, peas, spinach and some of the cooking liquor turned into a sauce , top with scrunched up filo pastry or thinly sliced potato and bake.

Chilli
Add onion, garlic, rustic passata, cumin, ground coriander and chilli powder or a paste, kidney or black beans. Serve with tortillas or tacos or rice

Hash
Microwave cubed potatoes and fry with onion and garlic and herbs and spices if you fancy. Serve with lots of veg.

Barely even recipes but I'd teach him how to make

Stir fry

Some sort of traybake with meat and veg

Bolognese

Nigella's Spanish chicken is good too. Everything in one dish in the oven.

Garlic chicken & rice is super easy to make & I usually add some runner beans, baby corn & tender stem broccoli on the side.

Chicken or sausage tray bake, also very easy.

I used to make this recipe:

Chicken breasts approximately 4 cut in pieces
2 bell peppers cut in pieces
Onion and 3 carrots cut in pieces
Pour over with one can of tomatoes and coconut milk in a can and some tomato sauce from jar
Add some spices and let it cook in crockpot for 2 hours.

We used to eat it with rice.

Chicken casserole plus the various different ways of serving it, eg with dumplings, pie lid, serve with rice etc.

Risotto, as once you've mastered it, it's easy to make a meal with a wide range of ingredients.

Quiche.

Basic things such as Yorkshire pudding, béchamel sauce, crumble topping, cheese scones, being able to make them widens the range of dishes you can produce.

For ease:

Chilli (use bbc good food recipe

salmon, asparagus, Tenderstem broccoli, new potatoes, cherry toms tray bake - couldn’t be easier

Teriyaki chicken (I use the one on Anna’s Family Kitchen it’s v easy and quick)

Oven baked Fajitas - just put the chicken and peppers on a baking tray with spices, something like this https://www.budgetbytes.com/oven-fajitas/ and serve with wraps, chopped fresh tomatoes, sour cream, grated cheese etc. Very easy.
Or a really easy solution is go to local butcher and buy some freshly made chicken kievs or similar. Then cook with rice and veg.
My DH is planning to do the same and this week's announcement was "sausages"

Bolognese and chilli take hours to cook (I do mine for at least 4hrs as a minimum), so could be something he could prep and put in a low heat in the oven if he works from home. A lot of people like slow cookers for the reason, you could do a variety of meals in there and it will be ready as soon as you get in if you’re both out at work.

Tray bakes, one pot rice dishes (chicken, peppers, chorizo etc), tuna nicoise, stir fry, fried rice with leftovers and a fried egg, noodle soup, Thai curries are very quick if you buy pre-made paste.

Chilli, then it can be served in different ways like with rice, nachos, jacket potato, tacos, on the side of cheese quesadillas.

Then stir fry and risotto.

I agree with the poster who suggested stir fries and traybakes.

There is a great set of books on traybakes. I would gift him a set for Christmas. There are some fab, easy, tasty recipes in it.

Beef stew does take a long time to cook but you can put it in the slow cooker in the morning and by dinner time you have a gorgeous meal to have with Yorkshires or dumplings which don't take long to cook.

If you cook double, half can be frozen and put in the bottom of a pie dish with a pastry lid (homemade or bought) on another day.

Spag bol
Sausages and mash
Chicken tray bake aka chicken surprise

All really forgiving with timing but have skills that can be built on once he gets his confidence up.

You need learn once make lots.

So a traybake, a stew/casserole, and a griddle something plus sides. If we can add a fourth I’d suggest stir fry.

From those three basic techniques you can make a really nice rotation of solid midweek meals.

Both are super quick, super easy and super yummy :-)

Carbonara
1/2 pack smoked streaky bacon cut in bits and fried
1/2 pot double cream mixed with an egg or two all whisked up with a fork
Stir it all into hot cooked drained pasta in saucepan (use either of the ones you just used don't need washing) and the pasta heat does the cooking of the sauce bit

Or soy pork
2 onions chopped (or bag of chopped)
Fry with some squirted in garlic puree and ginger puree
I small pack pork mince fry brown in the above
Stir in 2 tbsp soy sauce
Plonk on top of or stir through some cooked noodles, rice, shredded cooked cabbage, whatever you fancy

Salt and pepper in both ofc

I suggest:

1. a stew (maybe in a slow cooker to keep things really simple), plus mash, then from that introduce variety, use leftovers to make a pie (puff pastry top, mash top, etc.), learn how to make dumplings, and so on
2. roast chicken pieces, traybake various veg, maybe rice on the side. Swap chicken for sausages, add various squashes, onions, etc to your roasting chicken pieces as time goes on. Switch up the carb for things like bulghur wheat, cous cous, quinoa, buckwheat... Swap roasting the chicken for grilling pork / lamb / steak / etc.
3. Chilli. Learn to do jacket spuds in the oven, and open a bag of salad leaves for chilli jackets. Use sweet potatoes for your jackets sometimes. Swap a few things to make a savoury mince with tatties.

My DH suggests:

1. Fish finger sandwiches
2. Jacket potatoes
3. buy a pizza base from the supermarket and add stuff on top.

I do most of the cooking, DH does most of the cleaning. I’m quite happy with this deal.

Stew is a stove top dish that has a soupy consistency and is traditionally made with leftovers. Possibly the act of cooking beef in a slow cooker makes it a casserole.

I suggest the recipe tin eats website for this type of food. I made the recipe below after a recommendation on mumsnet last night and I swear my 12 year old would be able to make it without too much fuss.

https://www.recipetineats.com/spicy-firecracker-beef/

Thank you all for some helpful suggestions. As well as this being practical, I’m finding it really interesting to see what people consider the 3 staples that anyone should have in their repertoire.

To the pp who suggested using cream in carbonara though - arrghhh!!! (Though carbonara itself is a good shout.)