Creating a simple cookbook for dh to follow when baby arrives- suggestions please!

[whizzyrocket]

Hey there,

As the title suggests I'm putting together a cookery book so that my husband has a few recipes he can follow to make easy nutritious meals for us when our baby arrives (due Nov)... he's a sweet intelligent chap but all his culinary knowledge has been picked up in the year we've been married so far.

So! What would you put in the book? Do you have any recipes you'd like to donate? What disasters should I advise him to avoid?

He knows to always use different boards and knives for veg and meat, can barbeque almost anything and can poach an egg, but he himself says that's about it! He cooked me a cake for my birthday (the first he'd ever baked) and managed to make a pyrex jug explode! Goodness knows!

Your ham sounds great, I suggested the gammon as my DP watched me make it once and I got home one day and he had cooked it for us, was better than mine too but Id never tell him that. Have fun with your baby and your DH cooking .

Get him The Classic 1000 Beginners' Recipes awesome book!

I think that is a note to all parents-the mess doesn't matter-the skills do!

Another life skill for DCs is clearing up the mess!

Congrats on the forthcoming bub Whizzy!

Some of the comments on here have been pretty , who asked for comments on your domestic setup? Some people need to learn when to STFU :P

I suggest you just teach him yourself, get him roped into the cooking on Sunday, get him to choose a menu earlier in the week. It'll be all romantic and that, like the scene in Ghost with the pot. Only with knives like.

BTW once you've had the bub there's nothing wrong with one of those steamfresh rice + veggie microwave jobbies and some fish fingers/can of tuna/ham. Anyway. Good online resources include:

5-a-day-planner (has good easy recipes)
BBC Good Food
Delia online

Jamie was great at teaching mr moo how to cook. The enthusiasm was very much in evidence when ds1 was born, it has since waned somewhat...

Best thing I ever did was cook once or twice a week the 6 weeks before baby was born in bulk and then freeze in foil containers. It fed us proper meals for months and months. Then DH only had to supplement with lunches and dinners.

If cash is an issue, check out your local library. Mine has all the Jamie Oliver books and lots of other cookery books as well.

What do you both actually like to eat? Write a list and can tell you how hard/how easy to freeze etc etc. Me and the OH both adore cooking Personally I reckon that you should cook the things you really love.

PLEASE tell me why you won't just get him one of the gazillion how to cook books there are out there? Many recommended on this thread?

Try here for quick and easy recipes it's quite good, my DH has used some of these and when we first got together he had trouble boiling water

i don't get those raising the issue of a man not being able to cook, I know plenty of women who can't.

But back to the meals for postnatal period, I would second the suggestion of frozen batch cooks like curries, veg sauce for pasta, spag bol etc. Maybe DH could help prep these to learn the basic skills.

Then write out a list of basic meals that can always be scraped togethet from your cupboards and include obvious things like beans on toast or cheesy baked spud as you may forget in the haze of sleep deprivation.

Can I also suggest some ready meals, m&s cans are not bad for a meal you can just heat up and serve with toast.

I know I didn't have the energy to do all the prep for some of the dishes suggested on this thread so someone new to the kitchen might be a bit lost. You'll also want him to do his share of fathering so not spend more time than esssential cooking.

Try Easycook magazine too by the BBC

Mincemeat recipes are always handy, versatile & difficult to go wrong - also good because it doesn't necessarily matter if you don't have some ingredients or want to chuck some others in!
My DH is a great cook, but learnt most of his repetoire by trial & error and just experimenting!
I'd go for a few of the following types of dishes:
bolognaise, chilli, shepherds pie
casserole/stew that can just be banged in the oven/ slow cooker for a few hours
pasta bake using that condensed soup as a base (think it's batchelors?) - I cook off some chicken/turkey/pork with some onions, mushrooms, garlic (and celery/green beans/mange tout if I have them in the fridge); cook the pasta separately, then mix the meat mixture in with the soup to warm it through, add the pasta to this and combine well, then either eat as it is or bang it into the oven with some cheese on top.

All of the above will/can be bulked out well (mushrooms, grated carrot, peppers and/or whatever other veg you may have!) to serve a few meals.

Also, have you got plenty of space in your freezer? I would start cooking double portions of some meals and freezing them in preparation. Other freezer staples (I think!!) are oven chips, frozen peas (and other veg), good quality sausages, frozen cooked meals, plenty of diced meat (turkey thigh, chicken, beef etc) that can be easily made into casseroles and other easy-ish dishes.

I think you are being very organised, and I wouldn't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise!!!

Hi,

my hub is also not very good at cooking. He is an engineer and likes things to be very precise and is not good with the 'art' of cooking.

But he now enjoys cooking using this website. Cookingforengineers

It is very user friendly and is his default if i am late or too busy to make dinner.
Maybe this would help!

laurasmurf, get him to baake as precision in there gets best results.

Absolutely agree with the previous post - for my husband it is Nigel Slater, specifically his book called Real Food (but all others are good as well) - very "blokey" recipes, no requirements to weigh things (like Delia), not too many ingredients (like Jamie), and also suggestions on what can be substituted with what.
My DH first wend through the chicken section (from soup to Coq au Vin), then moved on to potatoes and then puddings.... He now makes pizza from scratch, marinates chicken in a variety of ways, does great vegetable dishes.
I have loads of other books, but nothing worked as well...

Nigel Slater Real Food was my first, along with Prue Leith's cookery bible for the techniques and more recipes.

I think a lot of people are being hard on OP.

I have done my own cookery book with my own favourite recipes in that DH uses. It's a good idea and not a bad habit to get into. if you like cooking that is.

JennieC79 v good list. Woudl add some basic pasta sauces ie tomato that can be built on for variation, ie adding bacon, or curry paste.

Also, basic veg soup. Day one eaten as is, day two eaten with a spoonful of curry paste, day three eaten with a glass of wine wine added before heating up.

That's how I stretch out what I have cooked in bulk, but make it feel as if have something new each time.

Ratatouille - yummy when reheated - easy to cook.

Hmm do think some of the comments here are a bit harsh - she's not asking for advice on her domestic situation, she just wants some recipes.

One really simple thing to do is chop up a load of different veggies e.g. tomato, onion, cougette, aubergine, carrot etc, roast them in the oven with some olive oil, seasoning and maybe some mixed herbs then they can be used as they are with some cooked meat or fish or they can be blizted up as a soup or pasta sauce.

Also I agree with mrswoodentop slow cookers really are brilliant. Just chuck a load of stuff in and leave for a few hours.

my dh (who managed to put a pizza in the oven with carb base still in place!) uses Sainsburys recipe site. I also find my favourite "basics" cook book is actually one I got as a child that is aimed at children. Might sound patronising but it include spag bol, hot pot, omlettes and so on. Might be worth a look, bit less daunting than a full-on cook book. I've made lots of meals and frozen them so dh just has to cook rice/pasta. Get in lots of soup.

oh and dh isn't great at cooking (mostly he lacks confidence) but he's fab at everything else. I cook and he washes up (and hoovers), so there's no issue for us - we all have our strengths. I enjoy cooking so why would it be?

hi whizzy, i dont have any advise persay but just wanted to say reading some of these 'man up' etc rubbish people are saying i think you are doing a very nice thing, and it will make your life alot easier if he has simple recipes to follow rather then attempting some out of a book and asking for your help every 2min when your trying to feed a baby lol. after my 1st was born i still cooked practically every night , we would just have tea at different times depending on what time dd was asleep, i found it quite easy to prepare tea when baby was sleeping during the day so by the the time tea time comes all you have to do it turn it on, check it a few times and dish it up, currently preg with 2nd baby and it will be the same this time around i will still be cooking during the week when dh is at work but he will be helping out in weekends, i would feel quite rude if dh had worked all day and then had to come home and cook tea.. i wish you the very best! GOODLUCK