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being a proper wife!

33 replies

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 09:00

decided I really need to pull my weight a bit more in the kitchen. my lovely DH normally gets home and cooks for us as I'm exhausted after a day with the kids. I have PND so find all this stuff difficult but I'd like to cook dinner for when he gets home; this also means we can get the kids to bed earlier!

I'm a fairly decent cook and can do the usual spag bol, fishcakes, stew etc, but tend to get flustered if there's too much going on. I'd like more ideas please, as I'd get bored with meat/spuds/steamed veg.

The whole batch-cooking/freezing thing doesn't really work for us though.

TIA

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LooL00 · 12/04/2010 10:03

When dc2 was a baby I'd start cooking something like spaghetti sauce and if I got distracted i'd just switch it of and leave it. And carry on a few hours later. And if dh got back and I hadn't finished he'd finish it off which was a lot easier than starting from scratch. Eventually as the kids got less demanding I'd generally finished by the end of the day.We're veggie though and maybe you should be a bit more careful with meat and fish being cooked on and off all day.

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 12/04/2010 10:05

hav you tried doing something like chicken cassarole? use chicken thighs totally delicious can be done a bit like LooL00 said and bit by bit when you get chance through the day, and if you have a rice cooker, you can put that on and it looks like you are a domestic goddess when it hasn't taken long at all.

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 10:47

thanks

we're not veggie but we have been cutting down the amount of meat we eat, for health/eco/money reasons!

the other thing I want to start doing is a proper weekly meal plan. we've agreed we're going to do online shopping every week now, but we always use half of something, then forget about the rest as we've got no ideas for it, and it gets wasted - got a new whiteboard for the kitchen but I've no idea how to plan properly!

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Alicetheinvisible · 12/04/2010 10:57

Have you seen this thread

Also soup is very easy to make and organise. Doesn't need constant supervision either!

You say you have PND and struggle. Why not aim for doing just one meal a week to start with? That way it gves your DH one evening off cooking and is not too much for you.

DH always did the cooking here. I can cook, but i moved in with him and he had always cooked and enjoyed it. But once DD was born, i enjoyed going into the kitchen and doing dinner while he had time with DD, it kind of gave me a break from DD iyswim?

Hope any of this is a help to you

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 11:40

thanks Alice

I like the idea of starting slowly with 1 meal a week!

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muggglewump · 12/04/2010 11:42

Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.
I love cooking and am good at it but during the week I'm looking for quick, easy, widely available ingredients and nothing too expensive.
Everything in this book, and we've tried everything fits the bill and tastes great.

lou33 · 12/04/2010 11:46

great british grub by brian turner is fab

clear instructions, beautiful pictures

i've made the hotch potch chicken , cornish pasties and the chocolate and hazelnut cake from it so far

later it's irish stew and scotch eggs (though not to eat at the same time obviously)

Tellhimhesdreaming · 12/04/2010 11:49

I'm a very boring cook but have tried as well recently to expand my horizons a little! I try to buy ingredients that work for two dishes and have a think in advance what those two dishes will be.

If you like prawns, you can buy a bag that sits in the freezer, then do things like fried rice or noodle soup (sooo easy, just buy those thin egg noodles, throw in some carrot, celery, vegetable stock and the frozen prawns!)

Mince - you can do lasagne, shepherds pie, meatballs.

My other favourite is so easy but looks like it takes ages. You just buy a ready made pie crust (the ones in the tinfoil), put some feta on the bottom, then do a mixture of eggs, bit of cream, sun dried tomatoes and whatever leftover greens you have in the fridge; asparagus, broccoli, whatever! Put that mix in the pie crust and bake for 15-20 minutes. It's really good!

If you have PND, you are a hero for even getting up in the morning as far as I'm concerned so I wouldn't worry to much about the cooking.

Hope that helps a little

thereistheball · 12/04/2010 12:30

I'm sorry to hear about your PND. A friend has this and I don't know how anyone going through it copes at all. I hope some of the ideas here are a help.

Another nice thing to do with frozen prawn is curry: fry an onion, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some curry paste or powder, some frozen spinach and the prawns. Goes a sludgy brown colour but tastes delicious. We eat this with 'cauliflower rice', which is just grated then microwaved cauliflower (put it in a bowl, cover with microwavable clingfilm with a few holes poked in, and blast it for a couple of minutes. Don't add any water.) This is because we are avoiding carbs but I've always been a lousy rice cook and this is fool-proof, not to mention healthier, quicker and easier.

And don't forget that you can freeze things part way through preparing them. For instance, if you got some lamb mince (I think Tesco was recently doing two packs for a fiver) you could turn the lot into burgers and freeze half of them for another day. I do lamb burgers by squidging together lamb mince, green olives which I've processed into a paste, and coriander. They're delicious. We have them with fried courgettes and feta cheese, and tomato and red onion salad. But you could equally (and more easily) put them on a bun, with humous and salad.

Other things to do in batches and freeze:

  • Basic tomato sauce for using on pasta, as the basis for more complicated sauces such as bolognese, to have with chicken, and on home-made pizza (you can buy ready-made pizza bases, but it's cheaper and nicer to make your own if you can be bothered.)
  • Basic cheese sauce for cauliflower, broccoli or macaroni cheese, to have in pancakes with snips of ham and steamed leeks, to put on top of lasagne (not strictly authentic, but lovely)
  • Savoury muffins, eg feta and sun-dried tomato, blue cheese and walnut, spinach and parmesan, which are really easy, good for using up odds and ends, and turn home-made soup into a meal
  • Portions of cooked veg and accompaniments, eg mash, onion gravy, ratatouille, or fried mushrooms, so all you have to do to make a meal is defrost something and grill some sausages, or fry some mince with an onion to make a cottage pie

Re meal planning: I find the easiest way to do this is to plan around the veg you want to eat. So if you want to have cottage pie one night with broccoli, plan on freezing any leftover pie, and using (the rest of the broccoli the following day for lunch with poached eggs and anchovy butter (this is what I've just had - delicious, You can do all the broccoli the night before and just reheat at lunchtime, to make it easier). Then every so often you can all have different leftovers to clear out the freezer, and you don't have that dispiriting feeling that the fridge is full of slowly rotting bits and pieces of veg. Incidentally, if you notice that happening, that's the time to make soup (to have with your muffins) or veg curry (as prawn curry above but with whatever veg you've got knocking about and a tin of chickpeas instead of prawns).

blametheparents · 12/04/2010 14:39

Roast chicken is always a good bet. Don't have to serve with roast pots etc, I agree that this can be a bit full-on near the end, but could serve with jacket potatoes and salad/veg.
Will also be some left over for cold chicken sandwiches the next day, ot you could make chicken pie from the leftovers which is lovely.

blametheparents · 12/04/2010 14:40

Another vote for JO's Ministry of Food cookbook, I love it

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 14:41

I might try the Jamie Oliver book then - TBH I was worried it'd be a bit patronising, as I said I can cook fairly well, but I did enjoy the TV series so it may be worth a go!

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Alicetheinvisible · 12/04/2010 14:48

More suggestions for you (you can tell me to bog off if you like ):

Jacket potatoes. Just put them in an hour or so before dinner, then if everything goes a bit tits up, all your DH has to do is to open a tin of beans to go with them or grate some cheese. We have started having Jacket potatoes once a week now, as they are fuss free (i am pg and have a toddler!) filling, and everyone can choose what they have with them eg:

Ham and cheese
Coleslaw
Tuna mayo and sweetcorn
Leftover bolognese/shepherds pie(mince part)
Pasta sauce and cheese
Cauliflower cheese (also a good meal by itself, can add all sorts of finely chopped veg)
Leftover casserole (sausage/chicken/beef)

We normally get posh sausages (ooh, get us ) but we now do it so that every other week we get the cheap ones and do a sausage casserole instead which does us two nights.

Now the weather is getting warmer we have started having pitta breads with salad and some sort of meat (meatballs, sausages, leftover roast etc) also falafel is good. We usually make up some mint yoghurt or have houmous with it too.

I have been hungry today, can you tell?

ShinyAndNew · 12/04/2010 14:52

I love one pot meals where you just stick everything in the oven and leave it. Slow cookers are great too.

Jamie Oliver's book is very good and not patronising at all. I'd also reccomend it. I made a lovely beef and ale pie from his book a few weeks ago. It took ages as it needed to be slow cooked but it was very simple other than the time.

Collision · 12/04/2010 14:53

Chicken Fajitas

Hot salads go down well here. Make a normal salad and then add stirfried chicken/sausages/hotdogs/red onions/peppers/sauteed potatoes.

supergreenuk · 12/04/2010 14:58

Sorry if someone has already said this. I would get a slow cooker. It is fab. You can stick it on at lunch time and dinner is ready when he gets home. You don't need a lot of imagination either. I do a ham/bacon joint in it or a sausage casserole. Hope this helps.

Ivykaty44 · 12/04/2010 14:59

would it help to do a casserole in a slow cooker - that way you can limit the meat and add extra root vegtables and other vegtables. You can pu all the raw food in the slow cooker and pour over your stock and tommy puree, then leave for 6-9 hours and eat as it is when ready

I make casserole with skin beef and then tomato paste and stock with carrots, leeks parsnips sweetcorn, peas and pearl barely, I slice potat and layer on the bottom of the dish and put everything else in on top.

My friend makes a pasta dish with lots of sauce and then puts it all in the slow cooker to keep wrm unitl all the kids come home from school and college.

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 15:12

thanks again folks, lots of inspiration! I've been tempted by slow cookers, are they expensive?

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MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 15:13

And also can you do a wide range of things in them? or is it really just stews?

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Collision · 12/04/2010 15:14

Where do you live MMM? I am getting rid of my slow cooker!!

MathsMadMummy · 12/04/2010 15:15

ooh! crawley, west sussex

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ShinyAndNew · 12/04/2010 15:16

My slow cooker was about £30 from Tesco I think. It was a gift but my nan usually spends around £30 on me.

I mainly do casseroles in mine but you can do loads more. Soups, roasts, rissottos, desserts. They make any meat really tender and so easy for children to eat.

Ivykaty44 · 12/04/2010 15:54

I do curry in my slow cooker - any meat, curry paste and a tin or two of tomatos. Then cook for 7-8 hours and serve with rice and pitta bread

If you brown of the mince first with the onions and then use to make a chilli in the slow cooker, again serve with rice and garlic bread - my cousin buys the par cooked short french stiks and mashes garlic and butter together after slicing in half - then cooks in the oven until golden colour.

Chicken is really lovely cooked in the slow cooker and I often use chicken thighs as the bone will just fall out if cooked slowly - pick any simple casserole for chciken and throw in the pot.

I have done a rissotto in the slwo cooker and it was lovely.

ConnorTraceptive · 12/04/2010 15:58

I use a lot of recipes from Tana Ramsay's family kitchen. Alot of them are actually quite simple and quick to prepare and are actually really tasty. Favourites for us include Spag bog, Spag Carbonara, Chicken and bacon with cherry toms, macaroni cheese, steak and ale pie, her casserole is lovely too and the pumpkin rissotto is lovely but only use half the amount of parmesan she recomends!!

muggglewump · 12/04/2010 15:59

Oh I love my Slow Cookers. I have two, a really small 1.5l, and a bigger 3.5l and wouldn't be without either.
I use them for one pot dishes (obviously) batches of mince (spag bol/chilli/shep pie/savoury mince etc) soups, homemade stock, curry sauces and tons of other things.

If I'm working I prepare the night before and just switch on in the morning.

I don't find the Jamie book patronising. I can actually cook well above the level in it but it's the ease of the recipes for week nights, the fact that they are doable on a budget and nothing exotic or difficult to get hold of in a small town which I love.
They are also kid friendly and they work plus plenty of options for freezing some which I like so we can have homemade without needing to cook at all.

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