Please help me with my family's diet, its terrible

[xxxJess123xxx]

Hi all, I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. Both typically fussy. No allergies.
Our diets are absolutely terrible as I seriously can't cook. I'm the type of person who can't make an omelette or burn pasta for christ sake.
We eat shit basically. Ready meals, nuggets and chips, pizza. Lunches are sarnies crisps and some grapes etc.
I'm feeling like an absolute rubbish mum and I want to change but I seriously can't cook.
Does anyone have any stupidly easy, cheap to make, fool proof recipes for dinners for my family.
I am slightly overweight. Kids are good weights and take a multi vitamin each day. Eat far too much chocolate etc
I feel so ashamed 😞
Thanks x

@xxxJess123xxx I’ve just come back to this thread and I’m so happy you’re feeling a bit more confident!! Meals so far look great 😊😊 and that’s amazing that the kids are enjoying it too!! Well done you for making a change and tackling it head on 😊 I bet you find that you actually love cooking as you get more confident 😊

Have a look for the cook in bag seasonings for chicken, they're good. Just follow the instructions, they look like this
Add potatoes and veg/salad and it's done

Well done, just catching up and both dinners look great. Glad your kids have been eating it too!
Meat and two veg type dishes are my kids' favourites.

@xxxJess123xxx I am not exaggerating but that is one bloody fantastic looking plate of food!!! Well done!!

Everyone has really helped, I'm feeling so much more positive and was smiling to myself watching the kids eat dinner xx

You are amazing - keep up the good work xxx

That looks fab!

Well done op.. The roast looks fab.. I'd polish that off in 3 mouthfuls 😂😂

My fav meat is lamb, can that be done in a slow cooker? I'll be the next jamie Oliver soon 🤣 xx

I think some basic meals are reasonably healthy for children:-

Beans on toast
Boiled egg
Jacket potato & cheese
Pasta & sauce
Hummous & pitta bread
Cheese toastie
Ready roasted chicken breast & salad
Pancakes

Then bump up the vitamins with smoothies, banana, strawberries etc.

I think if you start trying out things like fish pie you'll get put off.

Lots of healthy things don't need cooking. Cheeses, lean meats, canned sweetcorn, fruit of all sorts, nuts, seeds, bread, carrot sticks, hummus, canned fish, tomatoes and cucumber.

I've just gone to bed and I suddenly remembered you must have had your tea by now, so I came to look.

And now I wish I hadn't, because it looks cracking and I want it! I reckon you've done a better job of carving it than I would have too.

My fav meat is lamb, can that be done in a slow cooker?

Yes,

I always roast lamb in the SC. One of my friends tried it, then she bought a SC. Her brother came to visit (lived in Spain) and she cooked it for him, he bought a slow cooker.

OK this is tricky, you need:

A slow cooker
A joint of lamb

Plug in the SC and switch to high.
Lift the lid.
Put the meat in.
Put the lid on.
Leave for 5 hours.

If yo want to eat later just switch to 'keep warm'.

The fat in the lamb melts and bastes the lamb, if you have a shoulder that has a lot of fat you will end up with a lot of liquid fat in the bottom of the SC.

You have already done the YPs and veg with your chicken so just do that again.

That roast dinner looks delicious @xxxJess123xxx
So impressed! You are now someone who can cook
I'm so pleased your children enjoyed it!

I think slow cookers are okay but not for new cooks really. I would concentrate on oven roasting to start.

That roast dinner 😍

I wasn't going to do a roast today but after seeing yours, I am heading off to buy the ingredients for one right now!

We're not born knowing how to cook - either someone teaches us or we learn ourselves.
Of course you're not a bad mum!
I would suggest learning how to do a couple of simple things your dc's will eat, and getting so you can do them off pat, then building up from there. It's too overwhelming to swap and change between multiple new recipes you don't know at first.
Plan what you need to buy, and think about snacks too and changing them to fruit/ veg if they aren't already.
Fwiw I cook mainly from scratch, and I'm a bit scared of cooking things like nuggets or sausages as I worry I'd undercooked them and give everyone food poisoning, but you're confident to do that, so there's no reason you can't get comfortable and confident cooking less processed food.
Good luck!

Hi, I haven't RTFT, but can I recommend "Pinch of Nom" to you - great cookery books with delicious, easy meals that your kids will also love.

Roast dinner looks great!

I’m a fairly confident cook (in the sense of family meals I’d be a bit more stressed at doing a dinner party or similar). But I’ve still found this thread really useful for ideas or just reminders of quick easy things.

Apologies if this has been mentioned and I’ve missed it but I’ve found the What Mummy Makes cookbooks really useful - they’ve got some really simple recipes in there (as well as more complicated stuff) and they’re quite clear to follow. They talk about weaning but we’ve enjoyed everything I’ve made from there as much as the baby! You could follow her on Instagram if you have it as there’s some recipes shared on there and she does videos sometimes too. Also, you could follow the wean in 15 account on Instagram and scroll back towards the beginning - lots of very simple recipes shared in video form. Ignore that they’re for weaning, no reason why you can’t all eat them.

My contribution for really easy meals we make fairly often -

Get one of those prepared tins of bags of roasted Mediterranean veg, you could also get one of sweet potato and butternut squash chunks if you wanted. Put them in the oven according to packet instructions (preheat oven first). Cook pasta. Mix the veg through the pasta with a jar of sauce (in no time you’ll be making your own but for now the jars are fine). You could crumble over some feta or grate Parmesan or cheddar over.

Shop bought falafel (cauldron are nice), toast some pitta breads in toaster, spread with hummus or another dip you like the look of, put some salad leaves from a bag in, few cherry tomatoes and the falafel. You could also add cheese like feta to this too.

Salmon fillets - put each fillet in centre of a piece of foil. You can add toppings/ flavourings if you like - eg a slice of lemon or squeeze of juice, bit of melted butter, some garlic or garlic powder, dried or fresh herbs, few chilli flakes, some Cajun spices - whatever you want or just leave plain to start with. Fold the edges of the foil up and squeeze them together. Put on a tray in an oven at 200 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I’ve found that doing them this way it doesn’t actually matter if they end up getting left in a bit too long either.
Then you could serve with microwave rice and fresh/ frozen veg, or with salad, or oven chips or some combination of those. Frozen mashed potato isn’t bad either.

You could also cook the salmon like above but with a bit of soy sauce in the foil or a squeeze of lime. Then you can get a bag of ready prepped stir fry veg and some fresh noodles and Chuck then all in a big frying pan or wok for a couple of mins and serve altogether.

Those oven bags that you can get are really good too - there’s a Nando’s one I like - they’re meant for chicken breasts but we don’t eat chicken so I do them with fish but whatever you prefer - literally throw the meat/ fish/ veg in and put in the oven.

Lamb to roast usually has instructions on it, like “put in 180C oven for 2 hours 10 minutes, cover with foil until last 20 minutes”. So for that you’d need a baking tray, the lamb joint, and something to carve it on and with (chopping board, large sharp knife, ideally a big fork to hold it still while you carve).

For the slow cooker, I find diced lamb leg works better, as they’re less fatty.My favourite slow cooker recipe for lamb is this one, but they have really over-complicated it, so maybe it’s one to build up to (or pm
me, and I’ll send you the simplified version I wrote out for my 12 yo who is just learning how to cook):
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/slow-cooker-lamb-curry.html

I find the Tesco slow cooker recipes come out well, you can find them all here and sort by ingredient (like lamb) or by how easy they are:
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/popular/slow-cooker-recipes.html

I do my mum’s slow cooked lamb hotpot, and that is just (in the order you put it in the slow cooker):
Sliced onions (covering the bottom - you’ll need sharp knife and chopping board)
Lamb steaks (put them in so they’re covering the onions)
More sliced onions and chopped carrots and parsnips (aim for pieces of carrot and parsnip to be similar sizes, you’ll need a peeler to peel carrots and parsnips plus the knife and chopping board you used for the onions)
Sprinkle on salt, pepper, dried rosemary (amount depends on size of slow cooker, start with the a teaspoonful of salt and rosemary and work up as necessary)
Pour over a pint ofBisto, made from gravy granules as per the packet instructions (you’ll need a tablespoon to measure, measuring jug, spoon to stir, boiling water - you can do more Bisto if you like it juicier but a pint should do for the first time abs then you can adjust)
Peel a couple of big baking potatoes and slice them (use onion chopping board and knife) and lay the slices on the top
Cook all day on low, or about six hours on high

Don't try to do too much though OP, don't let this thread overwhelm you. As I said above, remember cold things too. Mixing tinned fish with cream cheese was always good when my lot were small. We'd give them carrot sticks or even pringles to scoop.

A few nuts over their cereal, even sugary raisins are better than biscuits. Sometimes I make flapjack and tip in loads of seeds and dried fruit.

You’re doing so well . Look how far you’ve come in just a few days.

Try to get a few basic dishes which you can manage, then maybe put one of those elements with something new.

But pace yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. I once cooked rice for so long it looked like mashed potato.

I managed to burn onion so badly last week the pan needed to be cleaned with a Brillo pad. And I’ve been cooking for decades.

A v easy desert is frozen fruit in an oven dish, little bit of sugar or honey on top. Sprinkle packet crumble on top and bake for 30 mins (or whatever the packet says). Lovely with yogurt.

Today's, lasagne was frozen as don't feel up to that yet but I didn't burn it and cooked the veggies

Fantastic! Looks lovely!

I cook from scratch most days and I never do lasagne - much too faffy.

Bet you are all enjoying some new meals @xxxJess123xxx it's so easy to get stuck in a rut and great you are trying out different meals