30 and never cooked a meal from scratch in my life - input needed

[Girlwhonevercooks]

Hi. I am a bit embarrassed to be making this post. I'm 30 and I've never cooked an actual homemade meal in my life. My diet is abysmal. I live predominantly on ready meals that you put in the microwave, meal deal sandwiches from Tesco and takeaways. I have a few questions. Do you have any recommendations for meals that can be made without using the oven? As it uses a lot of electricity and I can't afford to use it very much. I have a cooker and a microwave. What else do I need? Also if there is a cookbook for someone who is a complete beginner, please recommend one to me. Any other advice would be appreciated MN.

It's never too late to start! What kinds of food do you enjoy eating? Any allergies etc?

Do you have a fridge and freezer? Do you have any pans?

If it makes you feel any better, I'm 54 and never cooked a meal from scratch. It's probably the reason I'm single!

I started with student cook books, learned some excellent basics with how to cook rice and pasta dishes.

Other than that, I'm recommend an airfryer, perfect with cooking meats and fish with different flavourings on top.

I have a fridge and freezer. I have a few pans as well. I would say I am open to trying most things (except seafood as I've never liked any that I've tried).

Jamie Oliver ministry of food is a really good cookbook for learning a few adaptable basics

Rather than cooking from scratch, buy some jars of sauce. You can do bolognaise (mince and jar) or curry (chicken and a jar) in one pan on the hob, then rice/pasta in another pan.

Cooking from scratch is overrated, it's a lot of effort 😅

I second the jamie oliver book.

Start with something really simple, like a basic onion, dried parsley and tinned tomato sauce with a stock cube and some pasta. I default to this old Jamie Oliver recipe when I'm ill and just need hot quick food.

Agree with this. Good food, not complicated, explained well.

Or grab a student cookbook.

What ready meals do you eat?

If you are able to get your hands on a slow cooker and air fryer that would make cooking from scratch nice and cheap. If you ask around you may well find someone who has one languishing in a cupboard who is happy to give it to you for free. Facebook groups for your area such as free cycle may be good too.

Do you have a community centre type place near you? Our local one offers free beginner cooking classes where all ingredients are provided. At the end you take home a couple of recipes, all the required ingredients and a free slow cooker/air fryer!

I use Good Food recipes, you can search by easy recipes to start off with.

Hard disagree. Jarred pasta sauces are grim. It’s really not difficult to make basic meals from scratch. YouTube makes it even easier.

What kind of ready meals do you buy? (Curry? Pasta sauces?).
I always cook from scratch, and I must have about 20 cookbooks with “easy” or “simple” in the title.
If you say what you like to eat, perhaps we can point you in the right direction.
One thing that helps is meal planning, as if you shop for the meals you are going to cook, you will know you have the ingredients before you start. Following recipes is easier than busking it, until you have a bit more experience.

If you are just starting out you are going to find it more expensive as you need a decent range of herbs and spices plus pantry items like oils,vinegars, flours.
Also equipment like blenders,whisks,colander,grater etc
Start simple.
One pot stews are a good start, basically meat,veg potatoes,a stock pot and some seasoning.

I think some people have a natural talent for cooking and some (like me) really don't. In a blind taste test I'm confident you'd prefer any jar to my cooking even if I have followed a recipe to the letter!

Youtube basically taught me to cook, I liked seeing the steps much more than reading them in a book and it gave me a lot more understanding. Jamie Oliver has a lot of the ministry of food videos online and for the ready meals you like just search for basic recipe videos of that food or similar.

You could try signing up to hello fresh or similar
If you've never cooked at all it's quite a steep learning curve to learn how to shop for ingredients, plan meals so you aren't wasting too much food, and find and follow recipes.
Hello fresh would be quite an easy introduction. They have simple recipes included with the box, and they send all the ingredients you need already measured out in the right amounts

Perhaps you could suggest what you would like to do and we could take it from there ?

Really simple - jacket potatoes in the microwave ( stab the potatoe so it doesn't explode ) , microwave for up to 10 mins - does a fork go in smoothly ? If yes it's done

Then pop sone baked beans in a pan and heat - jacket and beans

Or grate some cheese, cabbage and carrot and a little chopped onion ; mix with a dollop of mayo - jacket and cheese slaw

Or Tin tuna and mayo and the slaw again

No herbs or spices needed and quite healthy , cheap and easy

Also if you have any understanding friends who are good cooks, you could ask to cook with them. Learning with other people is great, because you can smell and taste and hear and feel what the food is meant to be like at each stage of cooking. If a picture is worth a thousand words, actually being there is worth ten thousand!

That community centre sounds brilliant!

I agree with the recipe book suggestion.

I think the hardest thing to actually master is juggling and timing. There is nothing complicated about boiling potatoes and mashing them. Or boiling broccoli without overcooking it. Or frying sausages in a pan. But getting it all ready at the same time takes practice. So I recommend starting with sides until you are competent. Keep the protein part of the ready meal, but cook your pasta/rice/potatoes/veg from scratch. Once you are good at these add in the main part. Whether that's chicken in sauce, or sausages, or tomato sauce to go with pasta.
The other thing is when doing a new recipe always read the whole recipe first and do as much of the chopping/prep ahead of time as you can. This decreases the stress considerably!

Good Food is my go-to website, I am not the best cook but I like to eat well so I just find something on there and do my best. It has lots of simple recipes, everything is laid out clearly and there is plenty of both inspiration and information.

I often think stir fry is a great quick food. Get a cabbage, red pepper, carrots and a big of bean sprouts. Slice stuff thinly and toss in a pan, add some noodles. I like a splash of chilli sauce and soy sauce.

The veg will be fine just keeping chopping it up. Can add in different protiens or change up the sauce so it feels different every day.

What do you like to eat? If money is tight I’d be looking at how to cook things that use cheap ingredients such as eggs or potatoes.

Delia Smith did a Cookery course book that you can buy on eBay for a couple of quid.

I second this

I was the same as you, now a good few years on and I can do a fair bit.

When I lived alone I'd do a lot of stir fries, easy to do with veg and chicken and then a packet of rice over the top. Soy sauce and coconut oil was enough flavouring for me but I do like quite plain food.

I used to also batch cook a load of tomato sauce to use with chicken or mince and pasta, I froze it in portion bags to make it easy and quick.

Hello fresh is another good suggestion, really easy with the instructions and lovely food but sometimes not that fast with all the chopping if you want really fast meals. Good to learn with though.

I agree with starting with things you know you like. Often following written recipes can be daunting and it's better to start with the motivation of a particular dish. I find that universally a home cooked dinner will taste better then any ready meal version and likely be healthier too. As it wont contain preservatives to extend the shelf life.

Once you choose a dish, find someone making it online, you tube or similar which will take you through the steps.

It's easy for experienced cooks to take a lot for granted but if you have done zero then even the very very basics e.g. boiling Vs simmering. Medium Vs high heat, when are onions cooked, al dente pasta etc are hard.