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

With the slow cooker, just put less water or liquid in it hardly needs any. Put new potatoes and carrot batons in the bottom, then sit a whole chicken on them. Cook on high for five hours or low for 8, or something like that. It won't be a crispy roast (it's called a pot roast) but if you pull the skin off and discard the meat will be lovely and tender. For a crispy roast just put the same ingredients in a roasting pan and roast for an hour at 180 (or more if a large chicken). Then boil some Kale for three minutes in a saucepan and make some bisto instant gravy, lovely meal. Add frozen Yorkshires if you want.

Or use a beef joint for either too.

Watch jamie oliver on TV. Borrow a beginners recipe book..

Make a salad to go with every meal. No cooking involved and adds loads of veges

Kids
Carrot sticks
Sliced peppers
Cucumber sticks
Frozen peas (dont cook them they make kids think they are getting a treat)
Frozen corn
Grated carrot
Chopped romaine lettuce as its a bit crunchier
Baby tomato halves/quarters

Then for adults
Lettuce bag mix
Add items from list above
Add raisins or currants or other dried fruit in small pieces
Add slivered almonds or chopped other nuts (very good for you)

Plonk 2 salad dressings on the table and everyone can dip or toss their salad. Suggest you try a few until you find a couple that everyone likes. Ranch and balsamic vinaigrette are the favs in my house

Serve the salad while the meal is cooking, that way everyone nibbles on it first and is more likely to eat it

Then cut up apples, and other fruit for dessert.

Chocolate and other sweet treats get saved for after Sunday lunch

Give that a go for 6 months. If you can get everyone to stick to it for that amount of time, then you can tackle what you are cooking.

If you want to learn to cook, watch you tube videos or go on a course. You are probably a visual learner which is why reading a recipe doesn’t help. If you see it, you might understand it properly

What do you enjoy eating?
Is it possible it tastes bland because you’re used to so much salt in ready meals etc?

Try one meal a week, on a day you have a bit more time. And make it easy at first too.
Can you buy a jar of sauce, and some ready made, but fresh meatballs.
Cook it and some pasta (pan of hot water, set a timer, and just leave it - timer is key!)

And that’s a cooked meal, that’s better than a ready meal, but not too much for you to risk getting wrong if you struggle cooking.

You could try it the next time and add some chopped veg or even frozen veg into the sauce.

Other quick and easy things that are a bit healthier could be some soups and things like that, that you can buy ready made.

I’m also a fan of a pasta bake, you can literally buy a sauce, some veg, add some water and dry pasta and put it in the oven, covered in foil for a bit,
Then take the foil off, add some grated cheese and let it go nice and brown on top.

You can do home made pizzas.

Cous cous is basically impossible to get wrong and there are a million things you can do with that once you figure it out

If you can do eggs and soldiers that’s great nutritionally but super quick and easy and cheap too.

Don’t be ashamed anyway, it’s hard having time and money to feed everyone, trying something hard and then having the kids hate it!
Don’t do too much at once. Make one meal a week slightly more ‘from scratch’ or with a bit more veg in. Then next week see if there’s another little real you could make. And so on, it could be as simple as adding some veg on the side of their nuggets and chips. Or getting the kids to try one new fruit or veg

Another good basics book is Nosh for Busy Mums and Dad's. It takes you through some basic recipes and doesn't assume you know what you're doing

Frozen veg is def your friend - I add frozen peas or mixed veg to anything if I need to make something more nutritious.
Something simple and filling like cooked pasta, pesto and peas is easy and kids tend to love that. If you pick up a rotisserie chicken then you can shred some of that and add it to the pasta. My DS loves egg fried rice - you could get some microwaveable rice pouches, scramble some egg, get some frozen veg and a splash of soy or teriyaki sauce and then just heat up in a pan all together? Would also be another good use of rotisserie chicken if you wanted to add meat.
Jar of curry sauce, pack of pre chopped sweet potato or cauliflower and frozen veg - easy curry.
I love cooking from scratch but appreciate it's not for everyone. Try and find easy shortcuts like jarred sauces and add lots of veg to the dish. Once you feel you've got a grip on that then you can do something like get a curry paste, add some coconut milk or yoghurt and then chuck in some cooked chicken and veg.

Have you tried any of the packet mixes designed for a slow cooker or the one bag bake type things? I do sausage casserole, chicken in red wine, pulled pork in the slow cooker- just add browned meat, packet mix, whatever ingredients it says on the packet and switch it on. Also do bbq chicken in a bag in the oven (chicken and flavour in the bag and in the oven).

Anyone can cook, you just need to follow the recipe. Think about the type of food you enjoy as ready meals and start there, just google "easy pasta dishes" etc, you'll surprise yourself!

Cooking isn't automatically easy you learn it through practice. In my view most "easy" recipes start off too hard for complete beginners. E.g. someone recommended lasagne, but that has a lot of steps in it for someone who's not confident.

In your position I'd start by adding salad or veg to each of your normal meals. If you have a freezer, a bag of frozen veg is the easiest thing. That will instantly make your week more healthy.

What kind of food would you like to be able to cook?

Maybe try making one or two new recipes a week while you learn cooking techniques?
In the meantime, could you make healthier swaps for the convenience foods you are eating? Eg adding extra veg (frozen and pre-chopped veg can usually be cooked in the microwave and has instructions for cooking times), swapping your chips for lower fat or sweet potato versions, swapping nuggets for vegetable fingers sometimes (like fish fingers but they have veg instead of fish), if you have rice try swapping to brown (microwave) rice? Swap crisps for baked versions or plain popcorn?
I would say wholemeal pasta is easier to cook than white pasta, as well as being healthier, because it can withstand overcooking better due to the fibre!

I taught my DC to cook properly before they went to uni. It's not as easy as people make out if you have literally never cooked. I ended up writing a full scale idiot proof recipe book.
OP what is your skill level really like?
Can you prepare veg? Would you know how to peel and chop things like potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers? Have you ever cooked meat from raw?

I agree with frozen veg...it is so handy! We rarely buy fresh now because it's so easy to prepare and just bung into stuff. Also it's probably Alot fresher than the "fresh" stuff!

If you can read, measure and use a timer, I promise you that you can learn to cook!

For Jamie Oliver, I would suggest starting with his "5 Ingredients". Super simple and delicious.

Youtube is also a fantastic and free resource for learning to cook. And it might be helpful to be able to watch the food being prepared and cooked than just reading a recipe at the beginning.

One of my favourite all time easy meals is roast chicken (taken chicken out of plastic, pat dry, put in baking dish, sprinkle salt) and cook for one hour at 190 degree Celsius. One the side serve with mashed potato (boil until soft then add a pat of butter and splash of milk and mash) and stream some broccoli and beans. Only about 15 minutes of effort.

Get a big roasting dish.

Chop carrots, peppers, courgette, mushrooms, potatoes into bite size slices (no need to peel). Throw in some cherry tomatoes.

Put a big spoon of chopped garlic and oregano in and a couple of big spoons of olive oil. Shake it around and add a packet of sausages or a pack of boneless chicken thighs.

Bang in oven for 40 mins.

Give it a shake halfway through.

Stick on table

Serve with crusty bread

honestly don't be so hard on yourself. I would also reccomend the Jamie Oliver 5 ingredient recipe book. if you don't want to spend the money i find the bbc food website fairly good at explaining things.

if you have the funds then maybe look into things like hello fresh. delivers all the ingredients and gives you great instructions on how to cook it

You could try Hello Fresh. They send you the right amount of fresh ingredients and show you how to do it (with pictures).

@LifeBeginsNow

I can give you my fish pie recipie. I love it as it's freezer bits and pieces so I can have it on standby. 700g ish of potatoes - boil these and mash with a butter 3-4 white fish fillets (depending what fits in your dish) Handfuls of frozen peas Make up some white sauce (I use the granules so just add water) Get the fish, peas and white sauce ready while the potatoes are cooking. Once they are soft and mashed, add to the top of the dish. I then add grated cheese on top which makes it so crispy and tasty. Cook for about 35-40mins at 180C. I place the white dish on a baking sheet to cook as it sometimes bubbles over. You can add other veggies in there to hide or even add carrot to the mash to help up the amount eaten.

It is tough though if you're not naturally a cook. My meals from mum were mainly nuggets and beans in the 80s but I'm trying to improve on this with my son.

is the fish fillet frozen?? or you defrost them first?

I would start by watching simple tutorials on YouTube or perhaps Jamie Oliver on tv, get used to seeing how they cook, terminology etc. Jamie Oliver's ministry of food book is a good option if you want a cook book as it's designed for those who are not confident cooks and is budget conscious.

I would start with pasta, the instructions are on the packet, large pan of boiling water is key. Serve at first with a ready made sauce until you have the actual pasta mastered - then it gets fun, chop up veggies, meats etc to make sauces, there's no rules whatever you like is fine.

Further down the line casseroles, curries etc are brilliant, possibly invest in a slow cooker. You can do it but step by step.

It's tough when you have a fussy eater, what will your children actually eat?
There are lots of great ideas from other posters but I know my youngest won't eat 90% of the ingredients and there is nothing worse than putting in loads of effort to cook something that turn their noses up at it.

You can learn how to cook and once you can do the basics then you will know how to adapt recipes that you like the look of that contain things your kids don't eat. Then you learn how to introduce new foods and hopefully build their range.

I would definitely recommend Full time food on instagram, Marcus Rashford being taught how to cook by Tom Kerridge so it is definitely pitched at complete beginners.

For basic skills it can be really helpful to watch YouTube videos.

What meals do your family enjoy? I’d try and cook a simple version of whatever they’ll all eat. Keep trying as it might take a while to get everyone used to it.

I’d also try some fairly simple meals like chicken drumsticks and potato wedges with peas and pasta with a simple sauce.

Look on bbcgoodfood for some recipes.

I would start with pasta/spaghetti and build up from there.

Also minced beef - it’s so versatile (and cheap).

I also swear by soups - you can bung in anything with a stock cube. Veg soup - onion, carrot, celery, leek, potatoes etc. It’s so easy. Blend so they can’t pick pieces out.

Firstly, it's brilliant you want to try.
Secondly, you know more than you think you know.
Thirdly, there are so many cheats available these days that you can get going really easily.

OK so you mentioned chicken nuggets and chips. To make that healthier and home-made I would simply swop to chicken strips so you are giving them 100% meat rather than any fillers. Oven chips are fine, if you want to pep that up get a couple of big baking potatoes, cut them into wedges, drizzle them with oil, put them on a baking tray, salt and pepper, then stick in the oven for an hour. After half an hour, give them a shake. Put the chicken strips on another tray and add them to the oven after 40 mins have gone by. Serve with chopped up pepper or frozen peas. That is a perfectly nutritious meal!

Marcus Rashford is involved in an initiative with a chef to provide recipes for inexpensive straightforward meals - maybe google that OP.

Jacket potatoes take no skill put them in a skewer and in the oven and even better if you cook them for longer they go soft on the inside - have with cheese , cheese and bean, coleslaw or tuna with salad