Help me be a better (cooking) mummy

[sweetheart]

Having read a few threads on here recently about good food I need your help.

My and dh work full time but we both prefer home cooked food rather than convienience type stuff. Please help me with some good old fashioned, home cooked recipies that don't take all day to prepare.

I work quite close to home so I could pop back at lunch to stick a casserole in the oven or something.

I'm going to try meal planning so that I only buy the ingredients I need at the shop and not a load of prepacked crap

So, come on ladies - I know you've got a ton of ideas please help!!!!!!

not very traditional but very easy - variations on roast vegetables. Any combination of the following are great, serve with pasta or cous cous, and/or a piece of baked fish. takes about 10 minutes to chop it all up, coat in olive oil, a bit of basil, lots of black pepper 20-25 minutes in a hot oven
peppers of all colours
onions/red onions/shallots/garlic
sweet potatoes
parsnips
tomatoes/cherry tomatoes
bacon/proscuitto/chirizo draped over it all goes gorgeously crispy
or you can put lumps of feta or haloumi or taleggio or mozeralla
you can even throw in some haricot or barlotti beans (best if you've got lots of tomotoes)
I do variations on this ALL the time. And if you don't go ott with the meat or cheese it's pretty healthy

spong - I don't think it's just a view of ease - it's also the convienience of them.

I'm not a very good cook and it's fear of getting it wrong - who wants to have a horrible meal at the end of a long day.

I've never been taught to cook and I'm not even sure what some of the ingredients on this list are!!! I'm going to push myslef to find out and learn these things but alot of people don't have the time or energy!!!

My dh and I also work full time and I attempt to have a home cooked meal each night. Slow cooker is great - I use it a couple of times a week.
Stir fries are good - really like sliced fillet steak and red pepper stir fried - a little meat goes a long way!
Chicken paprika - brown the chicken in olive oil (diced fillet) and add a sliced onion - cook onion until opaque, stir in about 1 tablespoon of paprika and a small pinch of dried chillies(optional) and cook for a minute - then add a couple of sliced peppers and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Cook for about 20 mins and serve with rice or mashed potato.
You can also do a quick stroganoff thing - cook sliced onion and whatever meat you fancy (slice it quite small) in some oil. Add sliced mushrooms and some paprika and cook for a minute or so before adding a dash of gin - cook for another few minutes until meat cooked then stir in some Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche.
Don't forget fish - trout fillets done in foil with some butter, fresh orange juice and chopped dill take only 20 mins to cook.
By the way - with slow cooker I prepare veg the night before then before work I brown the meat and warm the veg through before sticking in the slow cooker with stock or wine. It takes more organisation but it's worth it!
Good luck.

right some red meat / lamb, mince recipes will be coming your way tonight/ tomorrow / rest of the week.

Yes we work too, so I use slow cooker, always always cook at least double and freeze some.

Often on a weekend I will cook say 3 stews (double quantities) all at once and freeze them.

otherwise it's stirfrys, salads (hot often eg marinade some cut up chicken breasts in various things and cook with chorizo, then have on salad), or meat/fish and veggies or salad.

Easy quick sauces are good like salsa or guacamole to liven them up, or if you are panfrying some lamb or something just chuck in a bit of red wine and some redcurrant jelly at the end and reduce.

ps marinading stuff the night before always best

can I ask a real dumbo question do you put the slowcooker on in the morning and leave it on while you are out?

Each recipe has a different time, tbh the easiest thing I find is to prepare it all the night before, leave in the larder and then in the morning heat up quickly on the stove (it MUST be boiling when you put on the slow cooker)

Then put it in the slow cooker and using one of those timer things on the plug (we have one we use to make a light switch on and off when we are away) set it to switch off after say 6 hours. Then it will cool down and you just reheat what you need for dinner and freeze or refridgerate the rest

I hav e lovingly gone through my cook books and have found you some, red meat recipes that are quick to make, here you go:

SEARED GINGER BEEF & MUSHROOMS: (serves 2)

1 tbsp groundnut oil\100g broccoli cut into small florets
300g lean rump steak cut into strips
3cm piece fresh ginger grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
125g shiitake muchrooms, sliced (or use oyster of chestnut)
100g canned bamboo shoots, drained & sliced

For the sauce
1 dsp sauce flour
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar (or white or red vinegar)
1 dsp black bean sauce
50ml beef stock

combine all sauce ingrediants in a bowl

Heat oil in wok and stir fry broccoli for 2 mins

Add beef, cook for 1 1/2 mins

Add ginger and garlic, stir

Add mushrooms & bamboo shoots and cook for 1 min

Chuck in sauce, stir & cook for 2 mins, keep stirring

Serve (with noodles)

STEAK AU POIVRE (serves 2)

100ml beef stock
oil
2 lean sirloin steaks
2 tbsp brandy
2 tbsp half fat creme fraiche

Put stock in frying pan and boil viforously over high heat until reduced by 1/2

Pour into jug

Clean pan with kitchen paper

add oil, or use oil spray and put over heat

Sprinkle steaks with s&p and cook for 2 mins each side for med or to suit you

Transfer steaks to warm oven.

Pit brandy in pan and boil for 20 secs.

add stock and some black pepper and creme fraiche,stir

When sauce begins to bubble pour over steaks.

Serve (with potato wedges / chip / baked pots or new pots, and veg

BEEF STEW & CASSIS & ORANGE (serves 4)

olive oil
70 g stewing steak cut into small pieces
1 onion finely chopped
3 s[prigs rosemary
200ml creme de cassis
3/4 pint beef stock
grated zest & juice of 2 oranges
2 carrots
450g mixed mushrooms

Heat some oil in casserole pan & brown beef in batches, then remove.

Add more oil onion & rosemary stir & cook for 5 mins.

Increas eheat & por in cassis, boil until reduce by 1/2

Return beef to pan, add stock & orange juice, bring to boil & then simmer for 1 hour.

Add carrots and cook for 30 mins.

Remove sprigs of rosemary, stir in mushrooms and orange zest.

Season with s&p.

Cook for another 5 mins

Serve (with mashed potato)

So that's a few beef dishes. Will be back later/another night with lamb & mince.

These are all great - thanks to Thomcat, sweetmonkey and everyone else.

I told my dh my plans last night to become an organized mum who cook good old fashioned food with fresh ingredients and his eyes nearly popped out of his head!!! He was so pleased!!!

He's now waiting in anticipation - just gotta spend this week clearing all the crap out the freezer!!

Cheers

I just made Jamie Oliver's tomato sauce. You can use it for pasta, pizza, chicken and fish dishes.

It makes a huge quantity so you can freeze it. My DS loves it!

3 small onions chopped
2 red peppers diced
3 courgettes diced
3 carrots diced
1 butternut squash peeled and roughly chopped
5/6 tins tomato
pinch oregano

Basically fry onion until soft. Add rest of veg and fry for few mins. Add tin toms, simmer for 30 mins. That's it. Hope I've got the recipe right as didn't write it down.

You can eat it as it is or Jamie suggests blitzing the whole lot so kids don't know what's in it!

I actually roasted the squash first and then scooped out the flesh - much easier than peeling it!

Found another one for you.
This'll be good on a Monday night when you've had a beed roast on the Sunday.

ROAST BEEF & SHIITAKE HASH

Olive oil
110g unpeeled red potoatoes, washed & cut into 1in cubes
110g diced red onion
2 red peppers, diced
110g shiitake mushrooms, diced
225g sliced roast beef, diced
2 tablespoons wholemeal flour
225 ml (8 fl oz) chicken stock

Heat oil in a frying pan over med heat.

Add potatoes and saute for 5 mins

Add onion, peppers & mushrooms and saute for 10 mins

Add roast beef and toss for 1 min

push all ingrediants to side of pan leaving a whole in centre.

Add flour, then stock and stir till sauce thickens

Toss with ingrediants to lightly bind the hash

Serve (with a green salad)