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.

Eggs are also great - melt butter in pan, scramble eggs in until set and pop on some toast - sliced tomatoe on the side

My tip would be with whatever recipe you use pretend you are a TV chef and have everything prepared ready.
Having seen my DH bumble his way through recipes and getting frustrated at getting things wrong because he was slowly peeling and chopping garlic while his onions were frazzling away in the pan.
Read through the recipe first and peel, chop or slice anything that needs it.

Can you make eggs? Boiled, poached, scrambled etc? Cheese in toast?

Simple staples:
Simple pasta sauce.
Soup (veg and stock).

If I were you I'd choose some simple looking recipes from Gousto as they yea j you step by step. Keep the recipes and build your skills from there.

You are never too old to start.

Youtube is brilliant for showing you how to do things. Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food is on there. Start when you have time. If you like pasta, learn how to do it then start testing it at around 8 minutes, bite a piece, do that at 1 minute intervals so you can literally taste when it loses the crunch and becomes just done. Dish it up but keep some back and carry on cooking it and overcook it. That way you can learn. This is how I taught my children to cook.

If you have any lovely friends, they may be able to teach you too. We often swapped recipes with friends. I would happily teach someone to cook.

Read the room. OP has said she can’t afford to have her oven on much. Hello Fresh is going to be out of reach.

There are lots of easy meals you can prepare on the hob or in a microwave.
Preparing food for one person can be expensive if you don’t plan carefully to avoid waste (it’s easy to get carried away buying fresh ingredients!)

What kind of food do you enjoy eating?

Shrove Tuesday is coming up…
One of my favourite things to make is pancakes with lemon juice (I buy the bottled stuff!) and sugar. For two big pancakes you just need a frying pan, a fork to whisk with, an egg, 55g plain flour and some milk, and a little bit of vegetable oil or butter to fry them. The first time I made pancakes they were awful. I didn’t heat the frying pan up enough and I made the mixture too thick so they took about 10 minutes to turn into rubbery floppy things. Second tim I made them, they turned out perfectly!

I have slowly learned to cook and not everything it great, but nowadays almost everything is edible 😃 I enjoy it!

I taught myself to cook using an old book called ‘Grub on a Grant’ you can still buy old copies online - also Good Food magazines .. now a good easily searchable website and just be reading the instructions - everything from pasta / rice etc comes with instructions on the packets . As others have said though start simple- cook some pasta and use a jar sauce or a jacket potato in the microwave with beans and cheese , cook some rice from scratch and use a premade curry to go with it , make scrambled eggs or an omelette with some toast - once you’ve mastered some basics you can get more adventurous

I learnt to cook from Delia Smith Complete Cookery Course, she presumes you know nothing which is good for a complete beginner, I find Jamie presumes you know a bit.

Start by perfecting a few pasta dishes

The spaghetti and meatballs from the Jamie book are excellent and very easy- my ds loves making them.

Then maybe expand to chicken and rice - this could be as simple as marinated chicken drumsticks with plain rice and a nice salad. Or a very simple curry recipe - either make a paste by mixing curry powder, chilli powder and paprika with a bit of water or use a patak's paste. Fry a large onion. Add the paste and fry some more. Add chicken pieces - thighs or breast, whichever you prefer. Fry until golden. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of coconut milk and some salt. Cook for approx 45 mins to an hour.

Start by perfecting a few pasta dishes

The spaghetti and meatballs from the Jamie book are excellent and very easy- my ds loves making them.

Then maybe expand to chicken and rice - this could be as simple as marinated chicken drumsticks with plain rice and a nice salad. Or a very simple curry recipe - either make a paste by mixing curry powder, chilli powder and paprika with a bit of water or use a patak's paste. Fry a large onion. Add the paste and fry some more. Add chicken pieces - thighs or breast, whichever you prefer. Fry until golden. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of coconut milk and some salt. Cook for approx 45 mins to an hour.

I’d recommend the bbc good food books. The cheap eats and one pot one, and the pasta and noodles books

www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Food-Triple-tested-Tried-tested/dp/0563488417?nodl=1&dplnkId=bc018bf0-fb78-4558-a14c-3abe23683870

Buy a bag of stir fry mix instead of chopping up vegetables!

Another for Jamie Oliver ministry of food!

The recipe section of the supermarket websites often have some good, simple recipes. Many have a section of 5 ingredient recipe or quick and easy recipes.

If you are cooking on a hob and are on a budget pasta is a good place to start. There is so much variation, search simple pasta recipes for ideas.

My suggestion would be stir fry. You can start with those supermarket kits - sauce, chopped veggies and noodles, then just add a protein like chicken or prawns - and slowly replace with your own choice of veggies and sauce. You can eat one portion and keep the rest in the fridge to heat up for lunch the next day. Stir fry is quite a good way to use up leftover vegetables like broccoli or carrots, or you can add frozen peas.

I would buy an air fryer with a bake setting (so can do 160). You can get an affordable one for quite cheap as it’s only one of you.

Then borrow the Jamie’s 5 ingredients book or the rumini ikers roasting tin series from the library.

I really like the roasting tin as it’s super easy. Throw it all in and voila!

Or cook once, eat twice by Nadia is good because there’s some super basics in there and she teaches you how to expand the leftovers into a second meal.

Which will be useful for you as a single cooker

What kind of food do you like?
I've found the easiest way is to look up recipes on youtube and follow through the steps.

Take some time out. Make a note of the ingredients required and buy them so when you start cooking you have everything you need to hand.

Also note if you need any utensils such as a garlic press, sieve etc. That way you are prepared and don't feel stuck halfway through cooking.

If a certain meal gives the quantities to serve say 4 people but you only need 2 servings, make sure to divide the ingredient quantity. Or you could cook up the amount given and freeze some for a later date.

Bulk buying seasoning, spices, rice, lentils etc often works out cheaper, if thats a concern. But you might want to wait until you have a bit of experience and work out what you like to cook and eat before make bulk purchases

Genius - I’m going to use this with my daughter to help her know when the pasta is ready

op - another vote for Jamie’s ministry of food on YouTube or the book is quite often in the charity shops as it’s been out so long

A lot of easy to follow recipes that are cheap and cheerful on BBC food, plus easy to follow instructions.
Loads of ideas on You Tube, maybe?

Please try not to be embarrassed, I was exactly the same.. you are trying to do something proactive about it now, that is the main thing!

Do you like pasta, its so easy to make a pasta dish and some tinned tomatoes or a jar of sauce.

Stir fry is super easy.

Curry, but with a jar sauce, super easy.

Maybe also google easy recipes for kids, not to be patronising but there will be some good easy recipes to start with.

Pasta is a good start. Like above you can keep tasting until it’s done

Then add whatever toppings.

jars of red or green pesto are handy. They keep in the fridge, and you probably need about 1/2 small jar so can use later in the week. ( or make double pasta straight away and just microwave leftovers for next day dinner or lunch). You can add things like mushrooms, frozen peas, bacon bits, peppers depending on what you like.

Ovens are also a good way of cooking things. The best way is to make full use of it when it’s on for economy. For example if you want to cook sausages for dinner tonight, you could roast some veg like onions, peppers, courgettes, broccoli in a separate dish at the same time.
Then just store the roast veg in fridge and tomorrow make couscous and add all the already done veg.

What do you like to eat

Hello everyone. I ordered the Ministry of Food book by Jamie Oliver which was recommended by multiple posters. It arrived today. Near the start of the book (page 16) he lists what kitchen equipment and ingredients you need to buy. Suffice to say, it looks like I'll be needing to spend quite a lot of money as I don't currently have about 90% of the required equipment he describes as being essential. The essential items he mentions include a large griddle pan, an extra large non-stick saucepan, 3 thick-bottomed saucepans (small, medium, large) a casserole dish, wok, a set of roasting trays, a set of chef's knives, a speed peeler, a microplane grater, colander, metal tongs, a sturdy wooden chopping board and a food processor. At the moment all I have is 2 frying pans, a cooker, fridge/freezer, tin opener, some forks, a few spoons and a microwave. 😂

If you were buying all of that equipment for the first time, where would you suggest buying it from? At the moment the plan is to just buy everything on Amazon, as it seems to be the easiest and cheapest option. I would be buying the actual ingredients from my local Tesco, most likely, unless there is another shop you would recommend. I would assume all the ingredients can be bought in any supermarket. I've had a look through the recipes and a lot of them seemed quite daunting even for a beginner, but I'd like to try the recipes for classic spaghetti (page 43), chicken fajitas (page 38) and chicken korma (page 74). Has anyone tried making those recipes from the book? What would you say is the easiest one for a beginner?

My male friend didn't cook so I recommended Simply Cook to him, they send you spice mixes and pastes, you then buy the few ingredients in the recipe card. They're very easy and quick to cook, you don't need to put anything in the oven. Also, you can usually get the first month for free!