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.

Fettuccine nests go into a smaller pan easily so you could use your 2 litre for those if it's just for you. Most spaghetti dishes are fine with fettuccine.

Tagliatelle also comes in 'nests', I think pasta nests are good until you get used to how much dried pasta swells. I would have 2 baskets of wither for myself unless I was really hungry.

Easy pasta recipe - it should cost you less than £2 and will make you two meals.

2 pasta nests -dried pasta, fresh cooks so quickly you won't have time to use it as a first time cook, but you will speed up.
1/2 packet of cream cheese - Philadelphia or similar
salt and pepper
water

Utensils

Pan
frying pan
desert spoon
Wooden spoon
colander to drain the pasta or you can pick it out with tongs or a spaghetti server.

Start with boiling water in your pan, either bring it to the boil in the pan or pour it in from the kettle

Add the pasta nests leave for about 8-10 mins with the water boiling.

Get your frying pan, use the desert spoon to dollop about 1/2 the pack in to the pan, add salt and pepper.

Turn the heat on under the frying pan and use the spoon to add 2-3 spoonfuls of the water the pasta is in.

Stir with the wooden spoon.

Drain the pasta and put the pasta in the frying pan, give it another stir and hey presto your first home cooked meal.

Once you have done this, the next time fry some mushrooms in butter in the frying pan first and then do the above.

The next time try frying some bacon or lardons with the mushrooms. Try adding some grated parmigiano at the end.

Could you try making sandwiches at home instead of buying them to get you started? It's basically an assembly job, you can buy what you need and works out a lot cheaper. Buy blocks of cheese and grate in a tub then put it the fridge so ready to use or buy slices of cheddar etc cheese if you don't yet own a grater. Bagged salad. Mayonnaise. You could boil an egg and mash with some mayo/ cottage cheese. Fillings are endless.

Your saucepan is fine. You can substitute any sort of pasta in recipes. Penne or fusilli are often cheapest and as they are in small pieces will work fine in smaller pan. Two big handfuls is a portion but do extra, it’s cheap and less annoying than running out of cooked pasta mid meal!

I second the cream cheese recipe above, that’s a regular standby for us!!

vegetarian recipes have an easier learning curve as you don’t have the germs from raw meat to worry about.

fajitas- brilliant. Get all your sides ready (the grated cheese, yoghurt if u r having it). Open packet and put one on plate ready to microwave.
chop the onion - look up a YouTube video on how!!
chop peppers and any other veg.
chop garlic if using.

get the oil hot. Use maybe a tablespoon (about 3 ordinary spoons?). Drop one piece of onion in and if it sizzles, it is ready.

add all the onion. Turn the heat low. Give this a few minutes - five or so - but stay with it turning the pieces regularly and moving them about. After the onions have had a couple of minutes head start add the rest of the veg. You’ll see the onions go a bit more translucent, then softer, then some will get a bit golden or crispy. Take one or two out to try.

the great thing about cooking yourself is you get everything just the way you want it. Once you’ve made a recipe a few times you’ll know whether you prefer crispier onions for example and you’ll do them for a shorter or longer time.

just taste things every couple of mins after the first 4, keep the heat on the low to medium side. After maybe 8 mins should all be cooked but it’s fine to give longer.

the tortilla - 80p for 6 from any supermarket - needs only about 10 seconds in the microwave. Take it out, add some veg, toppings, enjoy. You’ll have about 2-3 tortillas worth probably.

id recommend avoid meat for first while as you can get sick eating undercooked meat so won’t be able to taste as you go along. I think learn basics with straightforward veg and eggs first.

enjoy!!

I would say try making porridge, frying bacon, frying an egg, finding Delia Smith's video of how to make an omelette. Just to get practice at handling the utensils.
Also try meals but you'll find out if you have a decent frying pan, spatula, pan.

French toast was where I started with my kids!

OP, that saucepan is fine. I put the spaghetti in then pressurise it down with a wooden spoon as it softens, avoiding getting my hand anywhere near the hot pan or hot water.

Totally agree with Delia's omelette recipe. It's on Youtube here.

I'd suggest getting really good at stir-fries which means you can eat super-healthily & with endless variations with just a few minutes cooking time.

Also agree with porridge - I cook it really simply then put bits on the top like walnuts, tahini, mango, grated dark chocolate, almonds, blackberries, Greek yogurt, banana etc etc. Anything that'll taste nice and add nutrients. I don't add sugar or honey.

For one person thats fine, you just have to push the spaghetti in as it softens. No need to spend more money until you have the basics under your belt, thats when you will be able to see what you need, not what we or your (am sure well meaning!) mum thinks you should have.

Good luck! And well done on the boiled eggs, I am a good cook but have never got the knack of doing decent soft boiled eggs!

For pans, the 2 I use almost all the time are

A large frying pan with a lid
A large pot like this (for pasta, mash, casseroles etc)
You can't have too big a pan really for pasta as it needs lots of room and water

amzn.eu/d/7kMJt4q

Soup recipe - chop up a couple of rashers of bacon and fry them for 2 minutes in a large pan. Chop 2 carrots and grate on a cheese grater, 1 stick of celery cut into half centimetre small cubes, 1-2 leeks sliced across finely, add 2 tablespoons of lentils (orange ones). Add water to only just cover the veg and a ham stock cube. Simmer for half an hour. Eat as is or mash with a potato masher to break up the pieces.

A top tip that someone gave me that used to live in a caravan was when you are boiling veg: pretty much only place water up to the top level of the veg or even below, and use a lid. When the water is boiling, bring down to a simmer and place a lid on. It requires some practice to get it right/to stop overflowing/over boiling. But you can use this method for potatoes and most veg. And it will stop you turning your house into a sauna and save energy. Grains will require more water but use the same method. Basically don't bother using too much water.

(The exception is pasta. Every 100g of pasta needs 1 litre of fast-boiling water with 10g of coarse salt. You can partially cover but it requires a bit more skill.)

Try and get into good habits by using whole grains like brown rice and millet, rather than white rice and pastas. I've found you can pretty much get a taste for anything with positive association, old habits tend to die hard. Pasta and tomato sauce is a pretty poor meal. Creole beans and rice is much better. The one pot recipes can be quite effortless and go a long way.

pretty much only place water up to the top level of the veg or even below, and use a lid.

I use half a cm of water in the bottom of the pan. Tight fitting lid and turn the heat off after it's ful of steam. Nice crunchy vegetables and no waste. That's probably advanced level!

I was just about to recommend IKEA for pans! I started out with an IKEA 365 set of 3 with one handle and two with two handles when I got my first place 17 years ago and I think I’ve still got them all! Only one pan lid down. I also have their non-stick frying pan and griddle pan. As you have frying pans, I’d get a set of saucepans in small, medium and large, as that will allow you to do most things.

Bowls can be handy as well - they used to do a set of three which stack inside each other, which is good for saving space.

you can cook pasta in any size pan. Just break spaghetti in half if small pan or use shapes or pasta. If only one person portions

If, like me, you don't like brown rice you can make white rice healthier. I do it half and half with quinoa and sometimes put in a few tinned chickpeas or frozen beans too.

Hi everyone. I was able to cook my first actual meal a couple of days ago. It was the chicken tikka recipe from the Patak's website. It was very simple. It was perfectly edible, but nothing amazing. The taste was roughly on par with the ready meal chicken tikka I usually eat, so there is certainly room for improvement. I used 2 chicken breasts, about 3/4 of a jar of Patak's cooking sauce and a bag of Tilda basmati rice. There are a few things I think I did wrong. The first was that I wasn't quite sure what heat setting to use. The hob I have goes from 1 to 9. I had it set to 6. I poured some sunflower oil into the pan, then I added the chicken breast pieces, then added the sauce about 5 minutes later. I noticed some of the chicken pieces were going brown nicely, but some were taking longer. I cut them up before putting them in the pan, but they weren't perfectly diced by any stretch. Also the frying pan I used doesn't have a lid. I'm not sure if that makes much difference though.

Also, I noticed that while cooking the sauce, a lot of it seemed to sort of disappear. I ended up with a lot more rice than sauce. Does that mean I had the heat on too high? I'm thinking of adding in onions or garlic next time to see if it improves the taste.

Well done,adding onions will help, you can sprinkle chopped coriander on just before you eat it too. If you need to loosen up a sauce you can add a bit of coconut milk or water but go easy as it will dilute the taste. All sauces will reduce if you cook them too long. Try chopping the chicken I to smaller pieces and it will cook quicker and more evenly. I have kitchen scissors just for cutting chicken,makes it easier.

Powdered coconut milk is good to keep in the cupboard as you don't waste it once opened.

Sounds like an ok start.

Chop chicken pieces to the same size. Heat the frying pan for a min or two before you put oil in. Don't put the oil into a cold frying pan. When you put the chicken in there should be a nice sizzle, not a crazy, too-hot sizzle. Don't move the pieces around too much if you want them to brown, just to stop them sticking. You can sprinkle a bit of salt on which helps prevent sticking. Do both sides. You don't want a lid on as that will create steam and is a different cooking process to frying. When you put the sauce in stir it all round then turn the heat down to a simmer (the lowest) and you can put a lid on at this point to keep moisture in. If it dries out too much, you can add a bit of stock or coconut milk - or yogurt or cream right at the end but don't overheat that.

In general, cut each ingredient to the same size for even cooking, but not all ingredients to the same size as they cook at different speeds, so eg carrots take longer to cook than sweet potatoes so you would either put them in earlier or cut them smaller.

I think you would really benefit from watching some Delia Smith videos on Youtube. She makes everything crystal clear.

You can put a big plate over the frying pan when simmering, if you don't have a lid, but it'll get really hot so you have to be a bit careful.

I think that this is a brilliant start.

Cooking is a skill and it takes time to get really good at it. But if the meal you made was as good as the ready meals you've been buying that's a really good start.

On your stove it sounds like 6 is a good setting for cooking the meat, and then maybe you could turn it down a bit once you add the sauce. One tip is that if a sauce is going a bit too dry you can add a little bit of water to thin it out again.

Using some onions and garlic is a really good next step.

Boneless chicken thigh or breast are quicker to cook than bone in.

I would start with a simple stir fry, chicken or beef, with rice or noodles.

A pasta dish.

Bolognese sauce is really easy.

A curry.

Think of your favourite dishes and google for simple recipes.

I can't stress enough that you need fairly good utensils (not fancy) that will make cooking a joy rather than a fight.

Look in charity shops, in TK Maxx, and ask friends for any spares they're not using. IKEA is cheap enough if you need a few things at once.

Lots of people these days are sniffy about nylon chopping boards and non stick pans etc. but honestly just get going and take it from there.

I would recommend:

A set of nylon chopping boards... keep one for savoury /meat
One good heavy-ish chopping knife
One small paring knife
A breadknife
A vegetable peeler
A set of wooden spoons/spatulas
A silicone spatula for scraping
A fish slice
A large serving spoon
A large slotted spoon
A measuring jug
A colander
A metal sieve
Two glass or ceramic ovenproof casserole-type dishes, ideally with lids
A small set of Tupperware-type boxes
Three saucepans of different sizes with lids
A roasting tin
A shallow baking sheet (type of tin)
A non-stick frying pan
A wooden mat/chopping board to put hot pans on
An apron
A set of measuring spoons
Oven gloves
A cheap non-battery weighing scale
A vegetable/potato masher
Aluminium foil
Cling film
Kitchen roll

Honestly I use all of the above ALL of the time. Most can be picked up very cheaply and will last for YEARS. If I were to buy any more expensive items I would prioritise the large knife, the pan set and the casserole dishes.

What you needed was probably salt.

And more water in the sauce.

One other thing I forgot to mention - my chopping board was moving around a lot when I was trying to cut the chicken breast. It's a cheapo one that I got from Ikea. I am looking for one that will actually stay in place on the kitchen counter.