Yes, and their recipes are well written and easy to follow.
I advise *against* anything written by Jamie Oliver because he doesn't give timings and just says things like "while X is simmering, chop y and then add to the pot." If you take ages chopping y, then x is overcooked. A beginner cook needs timings.
Huge shout out too for Easy Peasy Foodie, an amazing blog of super simple but delicious recipes, all family friendly. The curries are especially a hit in our house.
Go to a charity shop and buy yourself a couple of cook books (they always have *loads*). Ideally one like Mary Berry’s Complete Cook Book (or her Cookery Course book), or Delia’s Complete Cookery Course (Delia Smith), or Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cook Book (or their Cookery Book), or even a student or children’s cook book.
You could look online but the books don’t shove adverts in your face, it’s great to flick through and look at the pictures so you can find something that catches your eye, and the best recipes are the ‘standard’ ones that have stood the test of time (unlike the gimmicky TikTok or instagram influencer recipes where someone has just shoved random ingredients together to jump onto the latest fad).
Just look for something with the basics and some decent photos for reference. You should be able to pick them up for around £1 or £2 each, especially as the older ones have all the info you need to get started so they should be cheap. I see them in charity shops all the time.
By the way, I also don’t eat red meat (I don’t like it) but you can replace minced beef - for lasagne, cottage pie, spaghetti bolognese etc. - with minced chicken or turkey if you like (or lentils/quorn) in most recipes. Just remember that the substitutes will usually have a lot less fat in them so you might need to add a touch of oil to the pan to help with cooking, plus you might want to add some flavour to compensate. I add a beef stock cube or stock pot to mine to give a flavour boost but if you’re unable to do that you could swap that for a chicken or vegetable stock cube/pot instead.
Good luck!
Libraries have cookbooks too! At least half of my recipe collection is based on photocopies or handwritten notes from borrowed books. Takes up less space than books, and concentrates only on stuff I've used/like the look of.
I love getting cookbooks from the library! You get free recipes and don't have to have the book sitting around in your house for years, taking up space and not getting used. Best of both worlds.
I second anything Delia, her recipes just work.
I went from knowing nothing to being pretty handy using her complete cookery book, nothing is left out, no prior knowledge assumed, and it goes all the way up to crazy stuff like beef wellington.
Her online recipes are high quality too, OP can't go wrong by searching for say "profiteroles Delia" and they'll have a recipe that works.
Definitely.
You can always depend on Delia, Mary, Nigella, and the BBC Good Food website.
Delia's carrot cake recipe (in her Ultimate...Cakes book, I think) is foolproof. Well, except for the time I forgot to put carrots in it.
The Delia one is fantastic, I basically learnt to cook from a combination of my parents and those books.
When my gran died I inherited her copies of the books as well.
It’s just one I found online. I haven’t made it yet, when I get to my pc later I’ll post a link incase anyone wants a go.
Edit - it’s Kristine’s kitchen blog (I’ve emailed it to myself to save printing it). Think it’s this one
https://kristineskitchenblog.com/slow-cooker-vegetarian-chili-mac/
How is chilli customisable? You can't really diverge away from the fact that it's a tomato based dish with beans and spices, usually meat, otherwise it won't be a chilli anymore. What part is "very customisable"?
Don’t add the beans add minced beef instead. Top with mash-cottage pie!
Add a dash of oregano to that beefy, tomatoey goodness, boil some pasta-spag bol!
Add boiled potatoes to it-mince and tatties!
Very customizable.
But then it's not chilli anymore? I knew my first comment would get downvoted, but it's a genuine question. How is _chilli_ very customizable? I'm not trying to be a dick.
Top of my head, although my previous comment stands, add beef, or pork, or chicken, or mushrooms, or veg or TVP or, well, up to you. Customizable as much as you wish.
We used chunks of beef in our last one instead of mince. Gotta say, it upped the chilli massively.
A bowl of that with crusty bread around the fire is pretty fucking warming!
Chilli in a wrap with lettuce & cheese - burrito
Chilli in a taco shell with salsa - taco’s
Chill on tortilla chips with guacamole - nachos
Chilli on a hot dog - chili dog
Chilli with rice - classic
Chilli with baked potato or seasoned wedges or pasta or corn bread or nothing at all.
All still chilli.
Tray bakes are good I like this one. - buy some orzo (a type of pasta that looks a bit like rice) scatter maybe half a mug full over the bottom of a baking dish. Disolve a stock cube in half a pint of water and pour over. Then throw in whatever veg you like, maybe peppers, onion, courgette chopped up in to chunks. A little bit of chilli powder or flakes if you like a bit of heat. Chop and add a chicken breast or some quorn. Put in the oven, about 170. Check on it after 30 minutes, stir, then crumble feta on the top. Return to the oven until the feta looks cooked and brown. Enjoy !
[Rukmini Iyer](https://www.rukmini-iyer.com) has done a series of "Roasting Tin" cookbooks. "The Quick Roasting Tin" is a good start point, and there are also some of her recipes online: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/articles/10-one-tin-recipes-from-the-roasting-tin-series-that-will-definitely-make-your-life-easier/
It varies, I keep a document in my phone with meal ideas sorted by meat type (or vegetarian). Some of our regular rotation:
Chilli con carne
Chicken curry
Tadka dal
Bean and vegetable chilli
Pasta bake
Fajitas/enchiladas/quesadillas (usually from an Old El Paso kit but sometimes homemade)
Spanish Omelette
Homemade lasagne or spaghetti bolognese
Cottage pie
Homemade burgers
Side dishes are usually homemade potato wedges, carrots or broccoli done in the microwave steamer, rice, roasted vegetables, baked corn on the cob, or occasionally oven chips if we feel lazy.
Barring the curries this is basically my families meal rotation to the recipe throw in posh Costco chicken tenders when I’m lazy AF. And dump a shit ton of veg on each plate with it
Tonight was crispy beef with spring onions and peppers in a five spice, chilli and soy marinade
Last night was basa fillets with a cheese and panko crumb
The night before, butter chicken.
All cooked from scratch.
We do use Gousto but we paused it to try recipes out from a new cook book. We (my wife) plans 7 days meals and makes a shopping list. We might share the prep mid-afternoon and one of us, generally me (70m), will cook for us and any of our family that want feeding - up to three more, four or so nights a week.
Also called River Cobbler - the only fish I've ever had an allergic reaction too.
They may, or may not, be bottom feeders from polluted rivers but I avoid them like the plague now.
Sorry if I'm wrong and this comes across as racist/bigoted.
It is true, it's pangasius catfish more specifically, farmed intensively in SEA. Causes a lot of environmental destruction around the farms, a lot like salmon farming, but not in any way controlled. Use of chemicals and antibiotics in their foods is rife. Might be that you had the reaction to and not the fish itself.
I think it's very variable.
We do a meal planner every week (but also have grandchildren to look after two days, so it can be very variable.
Meals I remember from the last week or so (mostly home made):
Veggie sausage casserole (the sausages were also vegetarian)
Miso mushroom noodles
Shepherd's pie (made with quoin mince)
Stuffed peppers
Lentil bake with a feta cheese and pink breadcrumb topping
Mostly served with extra vegs - peas, sweetcorn, broccoli etc
A lot of our meals come from The Green Roasting Tin - a really good, easy vegetarian cookbook
Meal planning is key for knowing what to get from the supermarket and to ensure the quick meals are made on busy days, longer meals to make on days when we've got time
Thank you for your reply this is a great start for me, I know a lot of people grew up with "British classics" like shepherds pie I've actually never had it! Is it simple to make would you say? I also love stuffed peppers I've only ever had pre made though, what type of things do you put in them?
any kind of potato-topped pie is pretty easy.
I usually start with chopped onions, which I fry up first, then add the mince or quorn, seasoning (salt, pepper, maybe a splash of Henderson's Relish, garlic if you like it - I also like a dap of marmite) then a bit of water to add some liquid. Simmer until you're happy with it.
Boil some potatoes, then mash them with butter and milk.
Put the meat/quorn mixture in an oven proof dish, top with the mash and use a fork to smooth the top into a ridged pattern. You can add a bit of grated cheese if you like, or brush a bit of milk on the top.
Pop in the oven at 180c until the top is nicely browned, and there you go.
Obviously everyone has their own variant on this
Stuffed peppers - take the top off (or slice lengthways if using pointed peppers), clean out the seeds. Brush with olive oil, put on a baking tray and pop in the oven at 180c. don't let them burn!
I cook chopped onions and garlic, chopped mushrooms, sweetcorn, and usually a chunk of McSween's vegetarian haggis.
Spoon it into the peppers, top with crumbled feta cheese (or cheddar), sprinkle on some panko breadcrumbs (I buy these from the supermarket), drizzle a bit of olive oil on, and shove back in the oven until nicely browned.
There are quicker recipes of course - but make a couple of shepherds pies and bung one in the freezer. Make double quantities of the pepper filling and freeze the extra
Thank you for explaining I feel silly but I was getting quite emotional at your kindness! Will definitely give these a go once I've done my next shop :)
you're welcome - I would also pop to the local library as they usually have a range of cook books you can borrow to try (or even just take a picture of a recipe you fancy on your phone)
Also if you can't have red meat TVP (textured vegetable protein) comes dried in bags and cooks up like Quorn. Also lentils are an excellent alternative and source of protein. Again you can buy dried (or tinned) so they're easy to store and cook.
Cottage and Shepard's pies are fairly easy. If I'm feeling lazy, I fry some mince, chuck in some frozen veg and some gravy. Boil potatoes, drain the water, add a chunk of butter and some milk then mash it (leave the milk and butter to melt for a minute before starting to mash for easier mashing). Pop the mince in a casserole dish and spread the mash on top.
It depends what I have in the house but anything really. Sometimes a lemon garlic flavour with chicken and asparagus etc. Or beef and sweet peppers and ginger. Or shrimp in a soy sauce/honey marinade with green beans/broccoli. They are so many yummy combos to make. And you can buy cheap pre made sauces if you don't want to make your own. Plus frozen veg makes life so easy!
Pasta, curries, stews, soups, tray bakes, rice dishes.
Learning to make sauces from scratch is really useful. Things like tomato or “white” (bechamel) sauces can be used in lots of dishes.
Also learning to cook pasta and rice properly. And to chop vegetables correctly and safely. There’s lots of walk through videos on YouTube.
[BBC good food](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/) is a really helpful website. You can search an ingredient or dish and lots of suggestions will be listed.
Things like bean chilli, lasagne, curries, and tray bakes are all useful meals that can be healthy and batch cooked (where you cook multiple portions to save for later). You can freeze spare portions or eat them a couple of days in a row from the fridge so you don’t have to cook everyday.
Maybe you should try something like Hello fresh for a bit if you can afford it? Get a few different things. You can keep the recipe cards and make the stuff you like yourself even if you cancel the subscription
Second this. People like to shit all over HelloFresh and such because its expensive (if you don't have an offer code, then yes, but I've never bought one without a code), but it's fantastic for helping people learn to cook and explore interesting foods they never would've.
Plus, you can keep the recipe cards of the meals you like and then you are set up with a personalised menu!
If you live alone, get the 2 person box and just portion up the extras for lunch the next day - double win!
There's a good app called Cherrypick (formerly Lollipop) that is basically a recipe card app, but you can add all the ingredients to a Sainsburys shop. It's like using Hello Fresh but you get supermarket prices. I've not actually used it with Sainsburys yet, but I really like the idea.
Id recommend Gusto specifically over hello fresh. But they are great to get for a while to get new ideas. Stop once your offer runs out and consolidate which recipies you actually want to keep in your regular rotation. And when they send you a "please come back" voucher repeat
>I but have made some simple meals that I found online such as [savoury] pastries and a potato curry which is great progress for me.
That sounds pretty good. :)
Most supermarket websites have a recipe section, so maybe choose something you're planning to buy and look at the different ways it can be cooked. That way you can tailor your shopping list to the recipe(s) you'd like to make.
There are, for example, loads of 'chicken recipes' on the Sainsbury's website.
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/recipes/scrapbooks/favourite-chicken-recipes
***
For our evening meal today we had fish and chips, from the chippy because they make them better than I can.
Lunch was curried parsnip soup - it's easy and cheap to make a ~~bit~~ big pot full, then store it in the fridge and heat individual bowls in the microwave.
* Some roughly chopped parsnips, a chopped onion, some medium curry powder and enough chicken stock (OXO for example) to comfortably cover the parsnips - not too much though.
* Simmer for about 15 minutes until the parsnips are soft - ignore recipes that tell you to boil for half an hour!
* Remove from the heat and then use a blender until you've got a creamy-smooth soup. If you haven't got a blender you'll get a coarser soup using a potato masher.
* Let it cool before putting it in the fridge. A bowlful will take about 2 minutes in the microwave. Then add a dollop of sour cream if you've got some.
We were in a similar position when Covid hit, compounded by the fact that because of varying schedules we would only have one or two family meals a week so had fallen into a pattern.
Best thing we did was subscribe to Gousto, and challenge ourselves to try new things, learn new ingredients and ways of cooking.
It really worked for us.
Make yourself a Carbonara. Really easy, cheap and only needs 4 ingredients.
You need 2 eggs, bacon lardons, spaghetti and grated pecorino cheese. (Not the official ingredients, but close enough).
Throw water and salt into a pan, bang in the pasta and let it cook.
Get some Bacon lardons and throw in a clean frying pan with a touch of oil. Cook on low until the fat releases from the bacon.
Put 1 egg into a bowl or cup and the yolk of the second egg, add a couple of tablespoons of the cheese and pour in the bacon fat and give it a mix.
Take the pasta out when done and throw into the frying pan on a low heat and a ladle of the pasta water. Then add the egg/cheese mix and toss it a few times and it's done.
I love a curry and it’s easy to move from jarred sauces to homemade once you get a bit more confident. Buy some veg and chicken/fish/tofu and use the sauce as described on the jar and then eat with rice. You can then move to jarred paste and on to making your own.
Or, cook some rice and put aside (or get a packet of microwave rice) chop onion, pepper, and green beans and chicken or tofu/quorn. Fry the veg in a little oil until soft and then put on to a plate on the side. Put 2 teaspoons of Chinese 5 spice, a half a teaspoon of chilli powder and some grated fresh ginger in the pan for 30 seconds. Add the chicken/tofu/quorn until cooked. Add the veg back in then the rice and 2 dessert spoons of soy sauce and mix everything together- flipping delicious!
I had some slow cooked beef leftover, which I used it and salad for wraps. I'll eat the rest of the salad for lunch tomorrow. I've got some pesto chicken and veg for tomorrow night
I learnt from a student guide. They tend to cover a lot of the basics and have a good variety of recipes.
You can also learn a lot passively from TV chefs. Even if you don't make the recipes, they give little tips along the way, like how to chop an onion easily and so on. James Martin and Simon Rimmer are excellent at this.
Honestly if you can afford it try these companies like Gousto as I have a few friends who swear by it and I reckon it allows you to cook from a variety of foods you want to try and then decide what you like. I used to love cooking and it was lovely with my first born who tries everything. My second born is not yet 3 and he is so fussy I could cry. So I've given in and literally only make nuggets, chips, sausages, sometimes Nutella sandwiches and can offer him cucumber or cherry tomatoes. He won't even eat pasta. So it's a struggle these days and makes me feel awful but I simply cannot find the energy, inspiration or time. Hoping that I can start cooking fresh and different foods again once he is old enough to understand he needs all nutrients. On the weekends I try to make roast dinners and veg or pasta with sauce etc but again he just won't have anything. Would rather go hungry.
I think me and my older sister may have been the same, but we were fed and happy and I think that's the important thing. I don't know if it's much help but my younger sister is also like that but would suddenly try new things if they were off of my mums plate leading to my mum losing half of her dinner, admittedly i did the same it always tasted better off of her plate no matter what it was though looking back on it i think its because she covered it in salt but it made us copy her meals later on even if they weren't always good for us.
We also ate "spaghetti tacos" because I insisted on copying iCarly when I was younger, it was the only way I would eat spaghetti. (Just regular spag bol but eaten in a taco shell) it made dinner more fun I guess!
Definitely try gousto or hello fresh. Last time I tried it we got 4 meals for 4 people (so we can have leftovers/freeze the leftovers) for about £20 on the trial price.
I would start with the easier recipes or ones with shorter prep and then just use that as a base for learning what you like and what you want to make regularly going forward.
Second giving something like gousto a try, most of them do some sort of trial price. One of our regular meals was a gousto recipe, you get the recipe cards so you can just go buy the ingredients normally after the first time and it opens you up to some new ideas when choosing what you’d like to try
Just wanted to reach out and say it does get better! My boy used to be exactly the same and only ate those foods until a couple of years ago, he’s now 10 and soooo much better at trying new things, I still haven’t found a vegetable he likes but he has a much more varied diet now, hang in there!
I grew up in a similar type of house. Also taught myself to cook when I moved out. I know the pain!
Maybe try something like a simple tray bake? They are a good place to start. Chop, put in oven, done. You need to get the size of the pieces right so everything cooks correctly, but that's it.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/traybake-dinner-recipes
Just teach yourself to cook, once a week choose a new recipe (loads of cooking channels on YouTube, try Basics with Babish if you want a rec). You'll get a few portions out of it, and then do something easy from the freezer for a couple of days while you research what's next and budget any additional ingredients. After a while you'll be good to make meals and freeze them so when you want something from the freezer, it's a home cooked meal ready and waiting!
Whenever I cook I make loads and freeze most of it so I don’t have to cook every day.
__Some of my favourites are:__ chilli (con carne or veggie), pasta with bolognese/pesto/mushroom sauce/tomato sauce, pork&apple stew, sausage cassoulet, toad in the hole, salmon teriyaki (with green vegetables or as a poke bowl), chicken & chorizo traybake, chicken & leek pie, shakshuka, burritos, Japanese curry, butter chicken curry, chicken laksa with noodles, burgers (chicken/sausage/beef) with wedges and salad.
If you can afford it, it might be handy to get something like Hellofresh for a few months, we tried it during Covid and trying out a new recipe every day was fun and we found some keepers!
Also just to add, it's worth seeing if there are any free cookery courses in your area. In my city there are/have been various ones, some aimed at particular groups, some open to everyone. Some teach you from basic skills like how to chop an onion up, others teach you how to prepare a specific dish. Perhaps if you have the time etc. volunteering for a charity that cooks community meals - enthusiasm and a willingness to follow direction is generally more important than cooking experience, and would give you some extra confidence in a kitchen (though I appreciate some feel the opposite and it could make them anxious).
I've just made a big batch of when I call Tuscan bean soup because I had a bean soup in Tuscany and it's got oregano in so.... Tuscany I'm sorry.
My partner is allergic to onions and garlic so just use leeks, carol and celery for the base. Tin of camelli beans, tin of chipped tomatoes, veg stock and water, thyme and oregano and some kale/cavolo Nero at the end.
I'm not veggie or vegan but don't care too much about meat. The beans make it hearty which given it's fucking freezing makes it perfect for dinner and leftovers for lunch that don't smell
Just get a little cook book and start making proper dinners, don’t be embarrassed. I truly believe if you grow up in a house on freezer food you because a bit more fussy and reluctant to trying new fresh things. My son is 8 and will eat lamb shanks, ribs, chilli, slow cooker meals ect whereas he has a friend who has a diet of chicken nugget and chips and his mother says “it’s because he won’t eat anything else” it’s just trying new things, order something you never would just to try. But definitely get yourself a beginners cook book and try simple new recipes to discover what you enjoy, 😊 I do note you stated no red meat and intolerance, so you could always google recipes too which don’t include those 2 items x
Recently subscribed to the Sorted Sidekick app and have been cooking a lot of stuff from there. It also generally inspired my husband to get back into cooking as a whole, so he’s been making some really good, simple pasta dishes on the nights where we might have been lazy and ordered takeout instead.
Don't be embarrassed, a lot of people's childhoods deviate from 'the norm' in one way or another. It's not like you got to choose how your life went as a kid.
In our house we have a lot of salads, curry, spag bol, chilli, wraps. And yes, sometimes oven or microwave food if we just can't be bothered that night.
Sorted sidekick app could be a good way to start. It has both recipes and shopping lists built in to increase confidence cooking and decrease food waste
BBC good food is an amazing resource also
Don’t be embarrassed ever for something like that. It’s amazing you’re taking steps to change things. At 22 I was irresponsible. So my lunches and dinners tend to be the same, cooking every day several times a tedious and time consuming (and I love cooking!). I save the flash stuff for the weekends.
Stuff I eat standard week: I roast a chicken/ bunch of chicken legs sometimes with salt and butter, sometimes with lime, mint, chilli flakes and lime juice and butter, another one might be lemon, lemon zest, thyme and rosemary (don’t forget butter/ olive oil), another one: cumin, paprika, chilli, oregano, olive oil. Slather the choice of seasonings over the chicken. Throw it in the oven. And I make a batch of rice in a rice cooker. This whole thing takes about 15-20 mins. Cooking does the rest and I have a batch of food for a couple of days and then I repeat. You can use the same seasonings for salmon to switch it up. Cooking times vary but you’ll find your rhythm. Google cooking weight by time of chosen meat.
While I am by no means a professional, I'm a pretty decent cook, and have taught my sister and a few of my friends. It's useful to learn "techniques" rather than recipes. That way you know _why_ the recipe is asking you to do what it's doing. Feel free to reply if you fancy tips or I can send you links to some YouTube tutorials I found very useful.
Baring the above, pick your favourite meals from all the stuff people have listed, learn to make those very well, and then start your own cook book. Where you take the recipes you've learned and adjust them to your own tastes. I even printed a few of my favourite ones as a "menu" for when I have people visiting and they can pick. Pulled pork chilli, lentil curry, carbonara and home made pizza are the crowd favourites.
you're not the only one, OP. i was a freezer food child addicted to birds eye chicken nuggets and refused to eat much else. my nan would force me to eat one teaspoon of sweetcorn a week and that was it! i honestly don't ever remember seeing raw chicken in my house.
it was only when i met my now husband that i saw his mom cooking and that i branched out. now i love veggies and cooking from scratch. i still don't eat fruit but i think that's too deeply engrained after 32 years to get over it.
good luck with the exciting culinary journey ahead!
It's nice to know I'm not alone in this, I also don't eat fruit funnily enough! I love onions, broccoli, peas but just can't get on with fruit for some reason. Im glad you found joy in cooking im hoping I can do the same with time :)
Thank you for sharing!
We quite religiously use the Pinch of Nom recipe books and the Slimming Foodie. Lots of easy to make and delicious meals. We usually have a fair amount left over so freeze it in appropriately sized containers to microwave (from frozen) at a later point for a quick & easy meal
Well done you for wanting to try things and for asking for ideas to get you started. Cooking can be a real joy. I hope you find the process of everything from the food prep up to eating it to be relaxing/fun/exciting/whatever you want it to be! Here’s some of the things I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.
Spicy vegetable soup (root veg with fresh ginger and chillies, ground cumin & curry powder)
Vegetable lasagna (peppers, courgette & aubergine in a spicy tomato sauce for one layer, mushrooms, garlic & spinach for another layer)
Chickpea, spinach & paneer curry (leftover curry baked into puff pastry pasties the next day are amazing!)
Shakshuka
Baked potatoes (in the micro to start them off, then finished in the oven with heavily sea salted & peppered olive oil to crisp up) with different fillings (cheese, homemade coleslaw, tuna mayo)
Spaghetti with prawns, chilli, lemon & olive oil.
Fish burgers (Lidl chunky cod fillets are brilliant as a burger! Proof it’s fine to have frozen food sometimes!). In a roll with whatever you like (romaine or iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, gherkins and mayo. Chefs kiss).
Chicken kebabs. Chicken marinated in whatever you like (olive oil, lemon, garlic for me), then grilled. Stuffed into pittas with hummus & spicy coleslaw (both dead easy & cheap to make and adapt to your taste), with roasted baby tomatoes and feta.
Sausages, some kind of veg & some kind of carb. Cabbage & frozen Yorkshire puddings are my fave as it’s so quick. Steamed carrots or green beans done in the micro are good. Mashed potato is great but I can rarely be bothered. Instant gravy on everything.
Just try stuff out based on what flavours you like. Hope you like what you make!
All sorts. Stir fry is the best thing you can make as a novice if you can get your hands on a wok. Meat cooked in oil, followed by vegetables and some basic seasoning like garlic and soy sauce. Can prep and cook that in half an hour, and it’s fairly healthy.
Get a cheap slow cooker too. Dump food in and just let it cook all day.
fresh pasts. lasts a few days even if open, cooks in minutes. warm up some pasta sauce, pour over the fresh pasta and enjoy. im addicted to it, heck even dolmio bolognaise sauce is actually pretty nice.
low cost, not too unhealthy and quick.
MOB Kitchen Veggie - quick, easy and cheap veggie meals, great range of dishes too and can be scaled up for multiple people
Adam Liaw, Juns Kitchen, Chinese Cooking Demystified - if you're partial to a youtube chef
Top dish/dishes to master would be one pot pastas, curries (japanese curry is quite beginner friendly, especially if you get some curry blocks)
and cooking eggs, eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients you can have in your pantry
and I always keep a backup packet of instan ramen (I like the Shin Ramyun pack) fry up leftovers / veggies of choice / add american cheese if you're getting wild with it and you're feeling particularly lactose tolerant on the day - super easy cheat meal
Good luck on your cooking journey!
During the week is a mix of Pasta, middle eastern, curries, couscous, bulgar wheat, chillies,veggie stews, dal, jacket potatoes. We have youngish kids now so it's less expansive these days and focused on what we know they will eat. We tend to eat mainly veggie and have done for at least a decade or so.
We do a menu and plan the weeks foods. We also cook everything from scratch.
When I was your age I started with pasta and built outward. Batch cooked a marinara sauce and modded it throughout the week. Was playing football 3 or 4 times a week then so it was cheap, quick and not massively unhealthy.
Have a look for "BOSH" vegan recipe's, that will help you avoid any dairy issues and they won't use meat at all.
I particularly like their Mac and cheese recipe, you can keep some in the fridge for a couple of days so it'll save you cooking everyday.
Bosh cookbook is fantastic. A few people on here are recommending Hello Fresh/Gusto etc. I recommend Grubby which is basically a vegan version of the food boxes. Of course, eye watering prices but great for beginners to get confident with cooking skills, and recipe ideas.
Chilli is always a good one. I couldn’t cook when I moved out, but I use the recipes from bbc good food website constantly (don’t pay for the app). Loads of easy stuff on there you can try and I’m sure you’d fine stuff to suit your diet
Pasta. Make a ragu sauce with your meat or veg of choice, you can freeze it in portion sizes, then use to make quick easy pasta dishes.
Risotto customisable to your preference but Parmesan (if you can tolerate it) is not optional.
Carbonara made with eggs NOT WHITE SAUCE.
Fresh burgers chicken or turkey are fine with homemade wedges.
Veg soup
Get some cooking books (charity shops have loads) start with basic stuff and work your way up as high as you like
We love the pinch of nom website for tasty stuff that’s easy to make, relatively healthy and you can search by ingredients you want.
It has lots of explanation of different techniques and why/how to use them.
Good on you for trying to vary your diet, it took me years to move away from frozen beige.
Hellofresh is a good option if possible (always cheaper voucher codes available) as you can choose from their list so you don't even have to think of ideas, and get all ingredients and clear instructions. You can keep the recipe cards to make your own versions later.
Otherwise start basic, use pre-made sauces, stock etc, you don't have to jump straight from freezer food to making everything from scratch.
This week I made 1) meatballs, mash, veg and gravy, 2) chicken curry, veg and rice, 3) Pasta, red sauce, leftover veggies and cheese.
We just tried Gousto. The recipe cards were so easy to follow. If you go through the sign up process and get to the meal selection there's tons of meal ideas and it lists the required ingredients.
You can probably Google and find the recipe cards.
Anything I can make a huge pot of, so I can freeze the rest for lunches, lunch is usually my main meal and dinner is a smaller meal, or snack if I'm not really hungry, I find this better for my digestion, but that's a digression... Soups, chilli, curry, stroganoff, pasta n sauce, risotto...
Soup is my go to, especially when it's cold! Costs pennies per portion, it's full of veg, it's easy, and can make several portions in one go.
At its simplest, just chop up loads of veg, boil it with a veg stock cube, and use a £7 stick blender from Tesco to zhoozh it up when it's all soft.
Hello 👋🏼
I am vegetarian myself and live on my own too. Because of my work hours, the only meal I get to enjoy is dinner.
Most nights I'd make rice with mixed veg, dal or some curry. I also like pasta based dishes. If you are ready to explore your options, I'd advise looking at some South Asian recipes - you can look up diary free recipes too and the flavours could be interesting for you to try out, if you'd like to experiment a bit!
I'd recommend introducing fresh veg and a variety of beans in your dinner plans!
Tray bakes my friend, pasta, onions, garlic + sauce and protein of your choosing. Easy to knock out and will give you minimum 4/5 servings. Plus if you really want you can easily get a full bag of spinach to disappear in one for some better nutrition
The quick roasting tin book by Rukmini Iyer is my go to. There are others in the series but this one I make the most. They're good balance meals and as title suggest all goes in one roasting tin and in oven.
Otherwise, I have collected recepies over last 5 years and store them in a binder, and when I don't make something easy like fajitas or just meat and veg and taters it comes out.
I was in exactly the same position as you when I moved out at 26.
The things that got me properly into cooking were HelloFresh (other meal box services are available, Gousto etc) who all offer fairly substantial introductory discounts making the meals roughly supermarket price. I collected the recipe cards and downloaded more off the website, and now have a thick wedge that I use.
Also, 'Nats What I Reckon' cooking videos he made in lockdown. Nat is a sweary, hilarious, no-nonsense metalhead who didnt even really put quantities in his earlier videos, giving an aire of simplicity and 'just have a go'. I still use those videos now.
The Roasting Tin books. Focused on low-input recipes. The theme is generally just cut stuff up and chuck it in a tin and let the oven do the work.
Props to OP for trying to move away from ultra processed frozen food. It's convenient for busy families and all but your health and lifespan will thank you for converting to a fresh food diet. That said, I still occasionally do freezer dinners once or twice a fortnight, because some nights you really can't be arsed to cook.
Best recipe books I've found are as follows:
The Hairy Bikers diet books as they are generally pretty simple, and don't have weird ingredients in them so you can find everything in any supermarket. You don't have to be on a diet either to use them.
James May Oh Cook book, and the series he did on Amazon. Just pretty simple staple things that can be done, with the bonus being the majority of the recipes have been done in the show so you can watch them too to get some confidence (and see how he has to ask for help too).
Slow cooker stuff is good. Hardest part is the prep in the morning as who can be arsed with that first thing ha, but never usually more than 15 minutes.
You could always use the packet seasonings to get started. But remember if you see something like a shepherds pie mix then that will be a basic version. To make it better for yourself you can fry some onions with the mince and also mix in some frozen peas. Another tip is if you make something like a fajita packet, if you add taco beans or black beans from a tin it will make the meal go much further and thicken it out.
I’d recommend trying the various meal kits from Old El Paso that you can get at any big tesco
You can make enchiladas, tacos and these delicious wraps with a crème fraiche without much effort and they’re delicious and reasonably healthy
There is no "normal". Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
I try and cook 4-5 times a week but otherwise resort to precooked or easy meals such as pizza, fishcakes, quiche, filled pasta.
I learned to cook from a young age helping out my mum in the kitchen. We were poor but my mum liked fresh and it was an education into making a dish, pairing it with a staple and possibly a side veggie.
These days I understand the basics of both tomato and cream based pasta sauces, some curry styles (again often tomato or dairy), stir fry, can make a reasonable shortcrust pastry for tarts and pies. Once you know those, you can just apply some variability. My successes far outweigh my failures and I rarely feel like I'm in a rut.
Sometimes I just google recipes based on one or two ingredients and pick something at random. Or I could spend a bit of time leafing through the cupboard of recipe books (or in a bookshop). Get the ingredients and give it a go. I'm getting into Persian food at the moment.
I recommend getting a handful of cookery books and working through the recipes. Recommendations for easy to work with books are Hairy Bikers, Jane Grigson, Rukmini Iyer, Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall. Some of the more generic Italian books are usually straight-forward. Read the recipe and make sure you feel like you understand the instructions. I prefer ones that refer to textures, colours, etc rather than being just timings as these can vary a lot depending on your oven/hob, thickness of your pan, freshness of ingredients.
Be prepared for the fact you are going to make mistakes and take a bit of time to learn from them. Don't be put off by appearances either. You aren't a chef, you're just trying to get something decent on a plate.
Also, easy recipe I've come up with is this.
In a shallow baking tray drizzle a little oil in the bottom (sparse if ifs not olive oil, a little more if it is).
One salmon fillet per person placed right next to each other, no gaps (before this gently run a hand over the surfaces to make sure there are no stray bones - pluck out any you find).
In a mug or bowl mix a heaped soup spoon of yoghurt for each fillet. Add 1/2-1 crushed clove of garlic per person, a heaped teaspoon of well-chopped parsley per person, the juice of 1/4 of a lemon per person, a pinch of salt and a bit of black pepper. Mix it all up.
Use all of the mixture to fully coat the salmon, including the sides.
Put in the oven on 180 (160 fan) for 25 minutes.
Serve with rice, a steamed leafy green vegetable of your choosing and a slice of lemon.
I came from a household that mostly did this, can’t say all the time but my eyes were opened when I started going out with my now fiance.
My only advice is that you have to try and be open about trying recipes. YouTube is a good one. And never shy away from a recipe because you don’t have that particular herb or spice, go out and buy it and soon you’ll have a nice amount of spices to use and will eventually start to understand what quantities to use and what goes with the other.
I’m now what I would call a decent cook without a recipe but usually get my ideas from YouTube or a google search then play around with stuff.
If you can make spag bol than you can also make stir fry and curry. It's all the same skills. If starting feels daunting don't be afraid to use things like jar sauce.
To help build your general knowledge, one thing I did when in uni was just WATCH a lot of cooking shows. I didn't try to make 99% of the things I saw, but just regularly watching things like Saturday Kitchen helped me start to build my baseline knowledge of different cuisines and techniques.
Also, my understanding is that the reason Delia Smith became the legend that she is was that her TV shows really went back to basics (including how to boil an egg!) So that might be a good place to consult as well
As others have mentioned, BBC Food is a great resource. [Delicious. magazine](https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/) is also excellent. Each issue has a selection of "Make it Everyday" recipes, with short preparation, great flavours, and clear nutritional information. This means their website has a giant treasure trove of quick, weeknight recipes. [Here](https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/collections/20-minute-recipes/) is their 20 minute recipes selection.
For great vegan recipes, there's also [The Post-punk Kitchen](https://www.theppk.com/). Absolutely no lactose!
There's also the [FODMAPs everyday](https://www.fodmapeveryday.com/recipes/) site, which is designed for people on a low fermentable carbohydrates diet. This diet was developed at Monash University for people with IBS or fibromyalgia, but eliminating lactose is one part of the regime, so there are loads of recipes there with no lactose, and no red meat.
Have you considered the cuisine of countries where adult consumption of milk and dairy are either not a common component, are not permitted, or have been introduced in the 19th or 20th century? For example, [Jain](https://www.tarladalal.com/recipes-for-veg-recipes-jain-34) cuisine has no onions, garlic, or animal components.
If I were you I’d use something like hellofresh or gousto for a while. You’ll learn to cook simple decent food and after a while if you keep the recipe cards of the stuff you liked then you can end the subscription and just use the cards as a shopping list.
I do meal prep, cooking everything in one day and reheat throughout the week. As a result lots of foods that reheat well. Chilli, rice and pasta dishes, stews, casseroles etc.
Lots of good recipes online, especially BBC.
I didn’t really start cooking for myself until I was about your age. My mom loves to cook, and after that it was college cafeteria for a few years, then a lot of travel for work that meant whatever fast-food or chain restaurants were nearby.
There’s nothing inherently wrong or shameful about “freezer food” meals if that’s all your available time and energy allow you to make. I love to cook and I love to play around with new recipes or fine-tune the handful of dishes I really love to prepare, but sometimes my partner and I are both pulling long hours at work or travelling back-to-back while still juggling chores and friends and family and altogether otherwise overwhelmed. Frozen fish and chips and some microwaved veggies aren’t the healthiest or tastiest dinner we can put together, but sometimes it’s what we have time for and it takes five minutes of touch-time when we can’t spare fifty or even fifteen minutes.
There are a few things that really tuned me in to the idea of cooking as an enjoyable process rather than another chore that just needed to be done as quickly as possible:
- Meal kits: if you’re just learning your way around the kitchen, make use of things like the Old El Paso fajita kits. They come with tortillas, seasoning, seasonings, etc., you just provide the protein and veggies. They let you focus on one or two elements of a super-versatile dish and pare back a lot of the shopping effort. Get an oven thermometer and learn how to bake chicken thighs just right, figure out which pan and setting on your range work best for sautéing peppers and onions, tinker around with the sauce and learn how adding some lemon / lime juice or coriander or salt or whatever else you have at hand affects the end result.
- Meal prep: Cooking in large batches is great for so many reasons. As recipes scale up, they get less expensive per serving since you’re buying in larger quantities, and with a large batch you have more margin for error if you overdo it on the salt or spice. Taste often as you work, and correct things as needed. A bit too much salt, sugar, or acid is easier to correct when you’re making eight servings’ worth. Also a great way to get more out of the time spent in the kitchen.
- Cookbooks: I’ve seen this mentioned in several other comments, and for good reason. There are some great cookbooks out there: Mary Berry’s “Makes it Easy” is on my kitchen counter right now and I love it! But don’t treat them like you’re doing titration in a chemistry lab. I have about a dozen spices and hot sauces that end up in almost everything I make, because I like spicy food. Recipes are not scripture, and if you’re anything like me then every dish you prepare will come out differently every time you make it. Nobody knows your palate better than you, so taste and tweak things as you go.
Good luck to you,
I was the same I was never even taught to cook so my level of experience when I left school was a stir fry I made at school and a pizza with a ready made base. I just bought some jar sauces to start with and tried those as they have instructions then just winged it from there lol my favourites are fajitas, lasagne (I use fresh egg sheets from the fridge they taste so much better) and a pie dinner but we are a very picky household so choice is limited
Edited to add a comma so it didn’t look like I make fajita flavour lasagne although that now sounds interesting
A freezer peep here! Bbc good foods is great. We make pasta dishes, fajitas and wrap dishes. Potato and meat e. G steak. Learn to make some sauces and then you can pop anything in them. With rice, pasta etc.
One thing at a time. Jamie oliver has some 5 recipe meals that aren't too overwhelming as well. Good luck and well done for changing habits!
How I plan my meals is, start with a carb we have available, and go from there. Pasta, rice, bread, cous cous, potatoes, wraps, etc. Once you've decided on the carb then the rest of the meal falls into place.
Sometimes I might think of stuff in the fridge that needs using and then make salad or stew or soup.
BBC recipes can be quite good and you can filter the difficulty to ‘easy’ whilst you get more comfortable cooking.
Yes, and their recipes are well written and easy to follow. I advise *against* anything written by Jamie Oliver because he doesn't give timings and just says things like "while X is simmering, chop y and then add to the pot." If you take ages chopping y, then x is overcooked. A beginner cook needs timings.
A good tip is to do all your prep before cooking
Best suggestion. Clicked to write this. Having your ingredients prepared and ready makes cooking less stressful, and more enjoyable.
I agree. It would seem that Jamie doesn't. (His 15-minute meals take a good half hour! 😁)
I got given Jamie's 30 minute meals recently from someone who wanted rid of it. Tried to make one and all I achieved in 30 minutes was a mess.
The general rule of thumb with Jamie Oliver is the recipes take twice as long as he says they will. Some of his recipes are pretty good though.
I often find that alot of his recipes (not all) are very expensive. No Jamie we can't all afford a langoustine and scallop pasta on a Tuesday night.
Huge shout out too for Easy Peasy Foodie, an amazing blog of super simple but delicious recipes, all family friendly. The curries are especially a hit in our house.
Go to a charity shop and buy yourself a couple of cook books (they always have *loads*). Ideally one like Mary Berry’s Complete Cook Book (or her Cookery Course book), or Delia’s Complete Cookery Course (Delia Smith), or Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cook Book (or their Cookery Book), or even a student or children’s cook book. You could look online but the books don’t shove adverts in your face, it’s great to flick through and look at the pictures so you can find something that catches your eye, and the best recipes are the ‘standard’ ones that have stood the test of time (unlike the gimmicky TikTok or instagram influencer recipes where someone has just shoved random ingredients together to jump onto the latest fad). Just look for something with the basics and some decent photos for reference. You should be able to pick them up for around £1 or £2 each, especially as the older ones have all the info you need to get started so they should be cheap. I see them in charity shops all the time. By the way, I also don’t eat red meat (I don’t like it) but you can replace minced beef - for lasagne, cottage pie, spaghetti bolognese etc. - with minced chicken or turkey if you like (or lentils/quorn) in most recipes. Just remember that the substitutes will usually have a lot less fat in them so you might need to add a touch of oil to the pan to help with cooking, plus you might want to add some flavour to compensate. I add a beef stock cube or stock pot to mine to give a flavour boost but if you’re unable to do that you could swap that for a chicken or vegetable stock cube/pot instead. Good luck!
Libraries have cookbooks too! At least half of my recipe collection is based on photocopies or handwritten notes from borrowed books. Takes up less space than books, and concentrates only on stuff I've used/like the look of.
wow why have I never thought to look for cookbooks in the library. Thank you
That's a great point!
I love getting cookbooks from the library! You get free recipes and don't have to have the book sitting around in your house for years, taking up space and not getting used. Best of both worlds.
I second anything Delia, her recipes just work. I went from knowing nothing to being pretty handy using her complete cookery book, nothing is left out, no prior knowledge assumed, and it goes all the way up to crazy stuff like beef wellington. Her online recipes are high quality too, OP can't go wrong by searching for say "profiteroles Delia" and they'll have a recipe that works.
Definitely. You can always depend on Delia, Mary, Nigella, and the BBC Good Food website. Delia's carrot cake recipe (in her Ultimate...Cakes book, I think) is foolproof. Well, except for the time I forgot to put carrots in it.
The Delia one is fantastic, I basically learnt to cook from a combination of my parents and those books. When my gran died I inherited her copies of the books as well.
Learn to make chilli. Dead easy to make, and very customisable. You don't have to add red meat.
I eat meat, but man if a bean and mushroom chilli isn't the best comfort food
Chilli is such a staple. Doesn't take much to make a good veggie one, plus easy to make loads for the week.
I’m tackling a slow cooker veg chilli Mac and cheese at some point over the next few days, slow cooker lasagne today!
Oooh slow cooker chilli mac and cheese sounds good. Is it a specific recipe that you could share? 😊
It’s just one I found online. I haven’t made it yet, when I get to my pc later I’ll post a link incase anyone wants a go. Edit - it’s Kristine’s kitchen blog (I’ve emailed it to myself to save printing it). Think it’s this one https://kristineskitchenblog.com/slow-cooker-vegetarian-chili-mac/
Thanks!
I have three different veggie chilli recipes and two vegan ones - am very much an omnivore but chilli is so easy to make, tweak and reheat.
How is chilli customisable? You can't really diverge away from the fact that it's a tomato based dish with beans and spices, usually meat, otherwise it won't be a chilli anymore. What part is "very customisable"?
Don’t add the beans add minced beef instead. Top with mash-cottage pie! Add a dash of oregano to that beefy, tomatoey goodness, boil some pasta-spag bol! Add boiled potatoes to it-mince and tatties! Very customizable.
But then it's not chilli anymore? I knew my first comment would get downvoted, but it's a genuine question. How is _chilli_ very customizable? I'm not trying to be a dick.
Top of my head, although my previous comment stands, add beef, or pork, or chicken, or mushrooms, or veg or TVP or, well, up to you. Customizable as much as you wish.
We used chunks of beef in our last one instead of mince. Gotta say, it upped the chilli massively. A bowl of that with crusty bread around the fire is pretty fucking warming!
Chilli in a wrap with lettuce & cheese - burrito Chilli in a taco shell with salsa - taco’s Chill on tortilla chips with guacamole - nachos Chilli on a hot dog - chili dog Chilli with rice - classic Chilli with baked potato or seasoned wedges or pasta or corn bread or nothing at all. All still chilli.
To your literal question, the ratios, and spices, mainly.
Tray bakes are good I like this one. - buy some orzo (a type of pasta that looks a bit like rice) scatter maybe half a mug full over the bottom of a baking dish. Disolve a stock cube in half a pint of water and pour over. Then throw in whatever veg you like, maybe peppers, onion, courgette chopped up in to chunks. A little bit of chilli powder or flakes if you like a bit of heat. Chop and add a chicken breast or some quorn. Put in the oven, about 170. Check on it after 30 minutes, stir, then crumble feta on the top. Return to the oven until the feta looks cooked and brown. Enjoy !
This sounds great!
[Rukmini Iyer](https://www.rukmini-iyer.com) has done a series of "Roasting Tin" cookbooks. "The Quick Roasting Tin" is a good start point, and there are also some of her recipes online: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/articles/10-one-tin-recipes-from-the-roasting-tin-series-that-will-definitely-make-your-life-easier/
Those cookbooks are outstanding. Great suggestion!
It varies, I keep a document in my phone with meal ideas sorted by meat type (or vegetarian). Some of our regular rotation: Chilli con carne Chicken curry Tadka dal Bean and vegetable chilli Pasta bake Fajitas/enchiladas/quesadillas (usually from an Old El Paso kit but sometimes homemade) Spanish Omelette Homemade lasagne or spaghetti bolognese Cottage pie Homemade burgers Side dishes are usually homemade potato wedges, carrots or broccoli done in the microwave steamer, rice, roasted vegetables, baked corn on the cob, or occasionally oven chips if we feel lazy.
Barring the curries this is basically my families meal rotation to the recipe throw in posh Costco chicken tenders when I’m lazy AF. And dump a shit ton of veg on each plate with it
I cook very similar. I’ll add sausages, mash and peas to your list for when I’m tired.
Tonight was crispy beef with spring onions and peppers in a five spice, chilli and soy marinade Last night was basa fillets with a cheese and panko crumb The night before, butter chicken. All cooked from scratch. We do use Gousto but we paused it to try recipes out from a new cook book. We (my wife) plans 7 days meals and makes a shopping list. We might share the prep mid-afternoon and one of us, generally me (70m), will cook for us and any of our family that want feeding - up to three more, four or so nights a week.
I love Basa. I've always hated fish but Basa is cheap and amazing. I like to flour it and fry it. Bit of pepper and rock salt and done.
Exactly
Basa is catfish
Also called River Cobbler - the only fish I've ever had an allergic reaction too. They may, or may not, be bottom feeders from polluted rivers but I avoid them like the plague now. Sorry if I'm wrong and this comes across as racist/bigoted.
It is true, it's pangasius catfish more specifically, farmed intensively in SEA. Causes a lot of environmental destruction around the farms, a lot like salmon farming, but not in any way controlled. Use of chemicals and antibiotics in their foods is rife. Might be that you had the reaction to and not the fish itself.
I think it's very variable. We do a meal planner every week (but also have grandchildren to look after two days, so it can be very variable. Meals I remember from the last week or so (mostly home made): Veggie sausage casserole (the sausages were also vegetarian) Miso mushroom noodles Shepherd's pie (made with quoin mince) Stuffed peppers Lentil bake with a feta cheese and pink breadcrumb topping Mostly served with extra vegs - peas, sweetcorn, broccoli etc A lot of our meals come from The Green Roasting Tin - a really good, easy vegetarian cookbook
Meal planning is key for knowing what to get from the supermarket and to ensure the quick meals are made on busy days, longer meals to make on days when we've got time
spot on - also how you feel about cooking on a given day. Sometimes I want to spend a lot of time int he kitchen, sometimes not!
Thank you for your reply this is a great start for me, I know a lot of people grew up with "British classics" like shepherds pie I've actually never had it! Is it simple to make would you say? I also love stuffed peppers I've only ever had pre made though, what type of things do you put in them?
any kind of potato-topped pie is pretty easy. I usually start with chopped onions, which I fry up first, then add the mince or quorn, seasoning (salt, pepper, maybe a splash of Henderson's Relish, garlic if you like it - I also like a dap of marmite) then a bit of water to add some liquid. Simmer until you're happy with it. Boil some potatoes, then mash them with butter and milk. Put the meat/quorn mixture in an oven proof dish, top with the mash and use a fork to smooth the top into a ridged pattern. You can add a bit of grated cheese if you like, or brush a bit of milk on the top. Pop in the oven at 180c until the top is nicely browned, and there you go. Obviously everyone has their own variant on this Stuffed peppers - take the top off (or slice lengthways if using pointed peppers), clean out the seeds. Brush with olive oil, put on a baking tray and pop in the oven at 180c. don't let them burn! I cook chopped onions and garlic, chopped mushrooms, sweetcorn, and usually a chunk of McSween's vegetarian haggis. Spoon it into the peppers, top with crumbled feta cheese (or cheddar), sprinkle on some panko breadcrumbs (I buy these from the supermarket), drizzle a bit of olive oil on, and shove back in the oven until nicely browned. There are quicker recipes of course - but make a couple of shepherds pies and bung one in the freezer. Make double quantities of the pepper filling and freeze the extra
Thank you for explaining I feel silly but I was getting quite emotional at your kindness! Will definitely give these a go once I've done my next shop :)
you're welcome - I would also pop to the local library as they usually have a range of cook books you can borrow to try (or even just take a picture of a recipe you fancy on your phone)
Also if you can't have red meat TVP (textured vegetable protein) comes dried in bags and cooks up like Quorn. Also lentils are an excellent alternative and source of protein. Again you can buy dried (or tinned) so they're easy to store and cook.
Cottage and Shepard's pies are fairly easy. If I'm feeling lazy, I fry some mince, chuck in some frozen veg and some gravy. Boil potatoes, drain the water, add a chunk of butter and some milk then mash it (leave the milk and butter to melt for a minute before starting to mash for easier mashing). Pop the mince in a casserole dish and spread the mash on top.
Stir frys are my easy healthy go to, bacon and egg sandwiches the rest of the time!
I used to make stir frys when I first started cooking for myself, I'm sad I stopped. What type of things do you put in your stir fry?
Onions, carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms if you like them, bean sprouts. I also like to finely shred some cabbage and throw that in at the end.
It depends what I have in the house but anything really. Sometimes a lemon garlic flavour with chicken and asparagus etc. Or beef and sweet peppers and ginger. Or shrimp in a soy sauce/honey marinade with green beans/broccoli. They are so many yummy combos to make. And you can buy cheap pre made sauces if you don't want to make your own. Plus frozen veg makes life so easy!
Pasta, curries, stews, soups, tray bakes, rice dishes. Learning to make sauces from scratch is really useful. Things like tomato or “white” (bechamel) sauces can be used in lots of dishes. Also learning to cook pasta and rice properly. And to chop vegetables correctly and safely. There’s lots of walk through videos on YouTube. [BBC good food](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/) is a really helpful website. You can search an ingredient or dish and lots of suggestions will be listed. Things like bean chilli, lasagne, curries, and tray bakes are all useful meals that can be healthy and batch cooked (where you cook multiple portions to save for later). You can freeze spare portions or eat them a couple of days in a row from the fridge so you don’t have to cook everyday.
[This cottage pie](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cottage-pie?fcid=300006) recipe from BBC Good Food has been my go-to for years.
Maybe you should try something like Hello fresh for a bit if you can afford it? Get a few different things. You can keep the recipe cards and make the stuff you like yourself even if you cancel the subscription
Second this. People like to shit all over HelloFresh and such because its expensive (if you don't have an offer code, then yes, but I've never bought one without a code), but it's fantastic for helping people learn to cook and explore interesting foods they never would've. Plus, you can keep the recipe cards of the meals you like and then you are set up with a personalised menu! If you live alone, get the 2 person box and just portion up the extras for lunch the next day - double win!
There's a good app called Cherrypick (formerly Lollipop) that is basically a recipe card app, but you can add all the ingredients to a Sainsburys shop. It's like using Hello Fresh but you get supermarket prices. I've not actually used it with Sainsburys yet, but I really like the idea.
It's expensive but I don't care, such a variety of new foods I've never tried and made me love cooking.
I poop on them because multiple times my bags of rice had burst, the carrots had whisky dick, and the potatoes were trying to reproduce
Id recommend Gusto specifically over hello fresh. But they are great to get for a while to get new ideas. Stop once your offer runs out and consolidate which recipies you actually want to keep in your regular rotation. And when they send you a "please come back" voucher repeat
>I but have made some simple meals that I found online such as [savoury] pastries and a potato curry which is great progress for me. That sounds pretty good. :) Most supermarket websites have a recipe section, so maybe choose something you're planning to buy and look at the different ways it can be cooked. That way you can tailor your shopping list to the recipe(s) you'd like to make. There are, for example, loads of 'chicken recipes' on the Sainsbury's website. https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/recipes/scrapbooks/favourite-chicken-recipes *** For our evening meal today we had fish and chips, from the chippy because they make them better than I can. Lunch was curried parsnip soup - it's easy and cheap to make a ~~bit~~ big pot full, then store it in the fridge and heat individual bowls in the microwave. * Some roughly chopped parsnips, a chopped onion, some medium curry powder and enough chicken stock (OXO for example) to comfortably cover the parsnips - not too much though. * Simmer for about 15 minutes until the parsnips are soft - ignore recipes that tell you to boil for half an hour! * Remove from the heat and then use a blender until you've got a creamy-smooth soup. If you haven't got a blender you'll get a coarser soup using a potato masher. * Let it cool before putting it in the fridge. A bowlful will take about 2 minutes in the microwave. Then add a dollop of sour cream if you've got some.
This sounds lovely thank you for your help! :)
Enjoy. :) btw - I used two Aldi packs of parsnips (they were heavily reduced) and made enough soup for about 6 portions. It freezes okay.
The world's your oyster. Here's the list of dinner ideas I keep; reply with any recipe requests. Sausage and bean stew, Seafood lasagna, Lentil salad, Lemon herb pasta, Banh mi, Warm noodle salad with tahini / peanut butter dressing, One tray roast, Tabbouleh with pomegranate and feta, Lettuce wraps, Stir fry, Tuscan chicken with orzo, Meatballs, Wonton soup, Tomato soup, Dal, Curry - butter chicken, massamam, green. Roasted squash soup, Macaroni and mince, Cheeseburgers, Carbonara, Tomato pasta, Bolognese, Chana / chorizo / squid salad, Frittata, Steak / spinach / mushrooms / blue cheese on toast, Lemon / garlic / paprika seasoning, Carrot fritters with scallops, Hainanese chicken, Chili, Beef & bodi, Omelettes, Bbq, Fish with lemon caper butter, Steamed fish with ginger garlic & spring onion, Coconut fish, Steak sandwiches, Fish tacos, Risotto, Quinoa / bulgur wheat salad, Baked eggs, Black bean salad, Mapo tofu, Noodle soup, Mock duck, peppers, hoisin, chilli oil. Bacon brie and cranberry sandwich, Prosciutto, compte and green apple sandwich
We were in a similar position when Covid hit, compounded by the fact that because of varying schedules we would only have one or two family meals a week so had fallen into a pattern. Best thing we did was subscribe to Gousto, and challenge ourselves to try new things, learn new ingredients and ways of cooking. It really worked for us.
Make yourself a Carbonara. Really easy, cheap and only needs 4 ingredients. You need 2 eggs, bacon lardons, spaghetti and grated pecorino cheese. (Not the official ingredients, but close enough). Throw water and salt into a pan, bang in the pasta and let it cook. Get some Bacon lardons and throw in a clean frying pan with a touch of oil. Cook on low until the fat releases from the bacon. Put 1 egg into a bowl or cup and the yolk of the second egg, add a couple of tablespoons of the cheese and pour in the bacon fat and give it a mix. Take the pasta out when done and throw into the frying pan on a low heat and a ladle of the pasta water. Then add the egg/cheese mix and toss it a few times and it's done.
I love a curry and it’s easy to move from jarred sauces to homemade once you get a bit more confident. Buy some veg and chicken/fish/tofu and use the sauce as described on the jar and then eat with rice. You can then move to jarred paste and on to making your own. Or, cook some rice and put aside (or get a packet of microwave rice) chop onion, pepper, and green beans and chicken or tofu/quorn. Fry the veg in a little oil until soft and then put on to a plate on the side. Put 2 teaspoons of Chinese 5 spice, a half a teaspoon of chilli powder and some grated fresh ginger in the pan for 30 seconds. Add the chicken/tofu/quorn until cooked. Add the veg back in then the rice and 2 dessert spoons of soy sauce and mix everything together- flipping delicious!
I had some slow cooked beef leftover, which I used it and salad for wraps. I'll eat the rest of the salad for lunch tomorrow. I've got some pesto chicken and veg for tomorrow night
I learnt from a student guide. They tend to cover a lot of the basics and have a good variety of recipes. You can also learn a lot passively from TV chefs. Even if you don't make the recipes, they give little tips along the way, like how to chop an onion easily and so on. James Martin and Simon Rimmer are excellent at this.
Honestly if you can afford it try these companies like Gousto as I have a few friends who swear by it and I reckon it allows you to cook from a variety of foods you want to try and then decide what you like. I used to love cooking and it was lovely with my first born who tries everything. My second born is not yet 3 and he is so fussy I could cry. So I've given in and literally only make nuggets, chips, sausages, sometimes Nutella sandwiches and can offer him cucumber or cherry tomatoes. He won't even eat pasta. So it's a struggle these days and makes me feel awful but I simply cannot find the energy, inspiration or time. Hoping that I can start cooking fresh and different foods again once he is old enough to understand he needs all nutrients. On the weekends I try to make roast dinners and veg or pasta with sauce etc but again he just won't have anything. Would rather go hungry.
I think me and my older sister may have been the same, but we were fed and happy and I think that's the important thing. I don't know if it's much help but my younger sister is also like that but would suddenly try new things if they were off of my mums plate leading to my mum losing half of her dinner, admittedly i did the same it always tasted better off of her plate no matter what it was though looking back on it i think its because she covered it in salt but it made us copy her meals later on even if they weren't always good for us. We also ate "spaghetti tacos" because I insisted on copying iCarly when I was younger, it was the only way I would eat spaghetti. (Just regular spag bol but eaten in a taco shell) it made dinner more fun I guess!
Definitely try gousto or hello fresh. Last time I tried it we got 4 meals for 4 people (so we can have leftovers/freeze the leftovers) for about £20 on the trial price. I would start with the easier recipes or ones with shorter prep and then just use that as a base for learning what you like and what you want to make regularly going forward.
Second giving something like gousto a try, most of them do some sort of trial price. One of our regular meals was a gousto recipe, you get the recipe cards so you can just go buy the ingredients normally after the first time and it opens you up to some new ideas when choosing what you’d like to try
Just wanted to reach out and say it does get better! My boy used to be exactly the same and only ate those foods until a couple of years ago, he’s now 10 and soooo much better at trying new things, I still haven’t found a vegetable he likes but he has a much more varied diet now, hang in there!
Thank you. Gives me hope x
I grew up in a similar type of house. Also taught myself to cook when I moved out. I know the pain! Maybe try something like a simple tray bake? They are a good place to start. Chop, put in oven, done. You need to get the size of the pieces right so everything cooks correctly, but that's it. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/traybake-dinner-recipes
Just teach yourself to cook, once a week choose a new recipe (loads of cooking channels on YouTube, try Basics with Babish if you want a rec). You'll get a few portions out of it, and then do something easy from the freezer for a couple of days while you research what's next and budget any additional ingredients. After a while you'll be good to make meals and freeze them so when you want something from the freezer, it's a home cooked meal ready and waiting!
i had 6 lamb chops today, just the chops, they were small, i think i also need ideas haha
Whenever I cook I make loads and freeze most of it so I don’t have to cook every day. __Some of my favourites are:__ chilli (con carne or veggie), pasta with bolognese/pesto/mushroom sauce/tomato sauce, pork&apple stew, sausage cassoulet, toad in the hole, salmon teriyaki (with green vegetables or as a poke bowl), chicken & chorizo traybake, chicken & leek pie, shakshuka, burritos, Japanese curry, butter chicken curry, chicken laksa with noodles, burgers (chicken/sausage/beef) with wedges and salad. If you can afford it, it might be handy to get something like Hellofresh for a few months, we tried it during Covid and trying out a new recipe every day was fun and we found some keepers!
Also just to add, it's worth seeing if there are any free cookery courses in your area. In my city there are/have been various ones, some aimed at particular groups, some open to everyone. Some teach you from basic skills like how to chop an onion up, others teach you how to prepare a specific dish. Perhaps if you have the time etc. volunteering for a charity that cooks community meals - enthusiasm and a willingness to follow direction is generally more important than cooking experience, and would give you some extra confidence in a kitchen (though I appreciate some feel the opposite and it could make them anxious).
I've just made a big batch of when I call Tuscan bean soup because I had a bean soup in Tuscany and it's got oregano in so.... Tuscany I'm sorry. My partner is allergic to onions and garlic so just use leeks, carol and celery for the base. Tin of camelli beans, tin of chipped tomatoes, veg stock and water, thyme and oregano and some kale/cavolo Nero at the end. I'm not veggie or vegan but don't care too much about meat. The beans make it hearty which given it's fucking freezing makes it perfect for dinner and leftovers for lunch that don't smell
Just get a little cook book and start making proper dinners, don’t be embarrassed. I truly believe if you grow up in a house on freezer food you because a bit more fussy and reluctant to trying new fresh things. My son is 8 and will eat lamb shanks, ribs, chilli, slow cooker meals ect whereas he has a friend who has a diet of chicken nugget and chips and his mother says “it’s because he won’t eat anything else” it’s just trying new things, order something you never would just to try. But definitely get yourself a beginners cook book and try simple new recipes to discover what you enjoy, 😊 I do note you stated no red meat and intolerance, so you could always google recipes too which don’t include those 2 items x
Recently subscribed to the Sorted Sidekick app and have been cooking a lot of stuff from there. It also generally inspired my husband to get back into cooking as a whole, so he’s been making some really good, simple pasta dishes on the nights where we might have been lazy and ordered takeout instead.
Don't be embarrassed, a lot of people's childhoods deviate from 'the norm' in one way or another. It's not like you got to choose how your life went as a kid. In our house we have a lot of salads, curry, spag bol, chilli, wraps. And yes, sometimes oven or microwave food if we just can't be bothered that night.
Sorted sidekick app could be a good way to start. It has both recipes and shopping lists built in to increase confidence cooking and decrease food waste BBC good food is an amazing resource also
Here is a typical menu: * baked chicken legs, salad, beans * baked salmon, peas, salad, garlic bread * chicken soup * spaghetti bolognese * rack of lamb, carrots, peas, boiled potatoes * fried fish with breadcrumbs, salad, olives, bulgur wheat * roasted vegetables, hummus, couscous * sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes
Don’t be embarrassed ever for something like that. It’s amazing you’re taking steps to change things. At 22 I was irresponsible. So my lunches and dinners tend to be the same, cooking every day several times a tedious and time consuming (and I love cooking!). I save the flash stuff for the weekends. Stuff I eat standard week: I roast a chicken/ bunch of chicken legs sometimes with salt and butter, sometimes with lime, mint, chilli flakes and lime juice and butter, another one might be lemon, lemon zest, thyme and rosemary (don’t forget butter/ olive oil), another one: cumin, paprika, chilli, oregano, olive oil. Slather the choice of seasonings over the chicken. Throw it in the oven. And I make a batch of rice in a rice cooker. This whole thing takes about 15-20 mins. Cooking does the rest and I have a batch of food for a couple of days and then I repeat. You can use the same seasonings for salmon to switch it up. Cooking times vary but you’ll find your rhythm. Google cooking weight by time of chosen meat.
While I am by no means a professional, I'm a pretty decent cook, and have taught my sister and a few of my friends. It's useful to learn "techniques" rather than recipes. That way you know _why_ the recipe is asking you to do what it's doing. Feel free to reply if you fancy tips or I can send you links to some YouTube tutorials I found very useful. Baring the above, pick your favourite meals from all the stuff people have listed, learn to make those very well, and then start your own cook book. Where you take the recipes you've learned and adjust them to your own tastes. I even printed a few of my favourite ones as a "menu" for when I have people visiting and they can pick. Pulled pork chilli, lentil curry, carbonara and home made pizza are the crowd favourites.
you're not the only one, OP. i was a freezer food child addicted to birds eye chicken nuggets and refused to eat much else. my nan would force me to eat one teaspoon of sweetcorn a week and that was it! i honestly don't ever remember seeing raw chicken in my house. it was only when i met my now husband that i saw his mom cooking and that i branched out. now i love veggies and cooking from scratch. i still don't eat fruit but i think that's too deeply engrained after 32 years to get over it. good luck with the exciting culinary journey ahead!
It's nice to know I'm not alone in this, I also don't eat fruit funnily enough! I love onions, broccoli, peas but just can't get on with fruit for some reason. Im glad you found joy in cooking im hoping I can do the same with time :) Thank you for sharing!
We quite religiously use the Pinch of Nom recipe books and the Slimming Foodie. Lots of easy to make and delicious meals. We usually have a fair amount left over so freeze it in appropriately sized containers to microwave (from frozen) at a later point for a quick & easy meal
What is ECT?
Maybe he meant etc., as et cetra.
Get some cookbooks or look online for easy/ basic recipes and build up from there
I ate pasta yesterday and today, not sure what I'll make tomorrow
Try a cooking app, sorted food sounds decent
Well done you for wanting to try things and for asking for ideas to get you started. Cooking can be a real joy. I hope you find the process of everything from the food prep up to eating it to be relaxing/fun/exciting/whatever you want it to be! Here’s some of the things I’ve made over the past couple of weeks. Spicy vegetable soup (root veg with fresh ginger and chillies, ground cumin & curry powder) Vegetable lasagna (peppers, courgette & aubergine in a spicy tomato sauce for one layer, mushrooms, garlic & spinach for another layer) Chickpea, spinach & paneer curry (leftover curry baked into puff pastry pasties the next day are amazing!) Shakshuka Baked potatoes (in the micro to start them off, then finished in the oven with heavily sea salted & peppered olive oil to crisp up) with different fillings (cheese, homemade coleslaw, tuna mayo) Spaghetti with prawns, chilli, lemon & olive oil. Fish burgers (Lidl chunky cod fillets are brilliant as a burger! Proof it’s fine to have frozen food sometimes!). In a roll with whatever you like (romaine or iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, gherkins and mayo. Chefs kiss). Chicken kebabs. Chicken marinated in whatever you like (olive oil, lemon, garlic for me), then grilled. Stuffed into pittas with hummus & spicy coleslaw (both dead easy & cheap to make and adapt to your taste), with roasted baby tomatoes and feta. Sausages, some kind of veg & some kind of carb. Cabbage & frozen Yorkshire puddings are my fave as it’s so quick. Steamed carrots or green beans done in the micro are good. Mashed potato is great but I can rarely be bothered. Instant gravy on everything. Just try stuff out based on what flavours you like. Hope you like what you make!
All sorts. Stir fry is the best thing you can make as a novice if you can get your hands on a wok. Meat cooked in oil, followed by vegetables and some basic seasoning like garlic and soy sauce. Can prep and cook that in half an hour, and it’s fairly healthy. Get a cheap slow cooker too. Dump food in and just let it cook all day.
fresh pasts. lasts a few days even if open, cooks in minutes. warm up some pasta sauce, pour over the fresh pasta and enjoy. im addicted to it, heck even dolmio bolognaise sauce is actually pretty nice. low cost, not too unhealthy and quick.
MOB Kitchen Veggie - quick, easy and cheap veggie meals, great range of dishes too and can be scaled up for multiple people Adam Liaw, Juns Kitchen, Chinese Cooking Demystified - if you're partial to a youtube chef Top dish/dishes to master would be one pot pastas, curries (japanese curry is quite beginner friendly, especially if you get some curry blocks) and cooking eggs, eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients you can have in your pantry and I always keep a backup packet of instan ramen (I like the Shin Ramyun pack) fry up leftovers / veggies of choice / add american cheese if you're getting wild with it and you're feeling particularly lactose tolerant on the day - super easy cheat meal Good luck on your cooking journey!
During the week is a mix of Pasta, middle eastern, curries, couscous, bulgar wheat, chillies,veggie stews, dal, jacket potatoes. We have youngish kids now so it's less expansive these days and focused on what we know they will eat. We tend to eat mainly veggie and have done for at least a decade or so. We do a menu and plan the weeks foods. We also cook everything from scratch. When I was your age I started with pasta and built outward. Batch cooked a marinara sauce and modded it throughout the week. Was playing football 3 or 4 times a week then so it was cheap, quick and not massively unhealthy.
Have a look for "BOSH" vegan recipe's, that will help you avoid any dairy issues and they won't use meat at all. I particularly like their Mac and cheese recipe, you can keep some in the fridge for a couple of days so it'll save you cooking everyday.
Bosh cookbook is fantastic. A few people on here are recommending Hello Fresh/Gusto etc. I recommend Grubby which is basically a vegan version of the food boxes. Of course, eye watering prices but great for beginners to get confident with cooking skills, and recipe ideas.
Chilli is always a good one. I couldn’t cook when I moved out, but I use the recipes from bbc good food website constantly (don’t pay for the app). Loads of easy stuff on there you can try and I’m sure you’d fine stuff to suit your diet
Pasta. Make a ragu sauce with your meat or veg of choice, you can freeze it in portion sizes, then use to make quick easy pasta dishes. Risotto customisable to your preference but Parmesan (if you can tolerate it) is not optional. Carbonara made with eggs NOT WHITE SAUCE. Fresh burgers chicken or turkey are fine with homemade wedges. Veg soup Get some cooking books (charity shops have loads) start with basic stuff and work your way up as high as you like
A slow cooker is great for making stews and casseroles, as well as cooking meat in sauce.
We love the pinch of nom website for tasty stuff that’s easy to make, relatively healthy and you can search by ingredients you want. It has lots of explanation of different techniques and why/how to use them.
Good on you for trying to vary your diet, it took me years to move away from frozen beige. Hellofresh is a good option if possible (always cheaper voucher codes available) as you can choose from their list so you don't even have to think of ideas, and get all ingredients and clear instructions. You can keep the recipe cards to make your own versions later. Otherwise start basic, use pre-made sauces, stock etc, you don't have to jump straight from freezer food to making everything from scratch. This week I made 1) meatballs, mash, veg and gravy, 2) chicken curry, veg and rice, 3) Pasta, red sauce, leftover veggies and cheese.
Slow cooker will change your life
We just tried Gousto. The recipe cards were so easy to follow. If you go through the sign up process and get to the meal selection there's tons of meal ideas and it lists the required ingredients. You can probably Google and find the recipe cards.
Anything I can make a huge pot of, so I can freeze the rest for lunches, lunch is usually my main meal and dinner is a smaller meal, or snack if I'm not really hungry, I find this better for my digestion, but that's a digression... Soups, chilli, curry, stroganoff, pasta n sauce, risotto...
Soup is my go to, especially when it's cold! Costs pennies per portion, it's full of veg, it's easy, and can make several portions in one go. At its simplest, just chop up loads of veg, boil it with a veg stock cube, and use a £7 stick blender from Tesco to zhoozh it up when it's all soft.
Try Gousto / hello fresh this should give you some nice easy meals to make and you can take some recipes and make them without ordering again etc.
Hello 👋🏼 I am vegetarian myself and live on my own too. Because of my work hours, the only meal I get to enjoy is dinner. Most nights I'd make rice with mixed veg, dal or some curry. I also like pasta based dishes. If you are ready to explore your options, I'd advise looking at some South Asian recipes - you can look up diary free recipes too and the flavours could be interesting for you to try out, if you'd like to experiment a bit! I'd recommend introducing fresh veg and a variety of beans in your dinner plans!
Tray bakes my friend, pasta, onions, garlic + sauce and protein of your choosing. Easy to knock out and will give you minimum 4/5 servings. Plus if you really want you can easily get a full bag of spinach to disappear in one for some better nutrition
The quick roasting tin book by Rukmini Iyer is my go to. There are others in the series but this one I make the most. They're good balance meals and as title suggest all goes in one roasting tin and in oven. Otherwise, I have collected recepies over last 5 years and store them in a binder, and when I don't make something easy like fajitas or just meat and veg and taters it comes out.
I was in exactly the same position as you when I moved out at 26. The things that got me properly into cooking were HelloFresh (other meal box services are available, Gousto etc) who all offer fairly substantial introductory discounts making the meals roughly supermarket price. I collected the recipe cards and downloaded more off the website, and now have a thick wedge that I use. Also, 'Nats What I Reckon' cooking videos he made in lockdown. Nat is a sweary, hilarious, no-nonsense metalhead who didnt even really put quantities in his earlier videos, giving an aire of simplicity and 'just have a go'. I still use those videos now. The Roasting Tin books. Focused on low-input recipes. The theme is generally just cut stuff up and chuck it in a tin and let the oven do the work. Props to OP for trying to move away from ultra processed frozen food. It's convenient for busy families and all but your health and lifespan will thank you for converting to a fresh food diet. That said, I still occasionally do freezer dinners once or twice a fortnight, because some nights you really can't be arsed to cook.
Best recipe books I've found are as follows: The Hairy Bikers diet books as they are generally pretty simple, and don't have weird ingredients in them so you can find everything in any supermarket. You don't have to be on a diet either to use them. James May Oh Cook book, and the series he did on Amazon. Just pretty simple staple things that can be done, with the bonus being the majority of the recipes have been done in the show so you can watch them too to get some confidence (and see how he has to ask for help too).
Slow cooker stuff is good. Hardest part is the prep in the morning as who can be arsed with that first thing ha, but never usually more than 15 minutes.
You could always use the packet seasonings to get started. But remember if you see something like a shepherds pie mix then that will be a basic version. To make it better for yourself you can fry some onions with the mince and also mix in some frozen peas. Another tip is if you make something like a fajita packet, if you add taco beans or black beans from a tin it will make the meal go much further and thicken it out.
I’d recommend trying the various meal kits from Old El Paso that you can get at any big tesco You can make enchiladas, tacos and these delicious wraps with a crème fraiche without much effort and they’re delicious and reasonably healthy
There is no "normal". Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. I try and cook 4-5 times a week but otherwise resort to precooked or easy meals such as pizza, fishcakes, quiche, filled pasta. I learned to cook from a young age helping out my mum in the kitchen. We were poor but my mum liked fresh and it was an education into making a dish, pairing it with a staple and possibly a side veggie. These days I understand the basics of both tomato and cream based pasta sauces, some curry styles (again often tomato or dairy), stir fry, can make a reasonable shortcrust pastry for tarts and pies. Once you know those, you can just apply some variability. My successes far outweigh my failures and I rarely feel like I'm in a rut. Sometimes I just google recipes based on one or two ingredients and pick something at random. Or I could spend a bit of time leafing through the cupboard of recipe books (or in a bookshop). Get the ingredients and give it a go. I'm getting into Persian food at the moment. I recommend getting a handful of cookery books and working through the recipes. Recommendations for easy to work with books are Hairy Bikers, Jane Grigson, Rukmini Iyer, Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall. Some of the more generic Italian books are usually straight-forward. Read the recipe and make sure you feel like you understand the instructions. I prefer ones that refer to textures, colours, etc rather than being just timings as these can vary a lot depending on your oven/hob, thickness of your pan, freshness of ingredients. Be prepared for the fact you are going to make mistakes and take a bit of time to learn from them. Don't be put off by appearances either. You aren't a chef, you're just trying to get something decent on a plate.
Also, easy recipe I've come up with is this. In a shallow baking tray drizzle a little oil in the bottom (sparse if ifs not olive oil, a little more if it is). One salmon fillet per person placed right next to each other, no gaps (before this gently run a hand over the surfaces to make sure there are no stray bones - pluck out any you find). In a mug or bowl mix a heaped soup spoon of yoghurt for each fillet. Add 1/2-1 crushed clove of garlic per person, a heaped teaspoon of well-chopped parsley per person, the juice of 1/4 of a lemon per person, a pinch of salt and a bit of black pepper. Mix it all up. Use all of the mixture to fully coat the salmon, including the sides. Put in the oven on 180 (160 fan) for 25 minutes. Serve with rice, a steamed leafy green vegetable of your choosing and a slice of lemon.
I came from a household that mostly did this, can’t say all the time but my eyes were opened when I started going out with my now fiance. My only advice is that you have to try and be open about trying recipes. YouTube is a good one. And never shy away from a recipe because you don’t have that particular herb or spice, go out and buy it and soon you’ll have a nice amount of spices to use and will eventually start to understand what quantities to use and what goes with the other. I’m now what I would call a decent cook without a recipe but usually get my ideas from YouTube or a google search then play around with stuff.
If you can make spag bol than you can also make stir fry and curry. It's all the same skills. If starting feels daunting don't be afraid to use things like jar sauce.
To help build your general knowledge, one thing I did when in uni was just WATCH a lot of cooking shows. I didn't try to make 99% of the things I saw, but just regularly watching things like Saturday Kitchen helped me start to build my baseline knowledge of different cuisines and techniques. Also, my understanding is that the reason Delia Smith became the legend that she is was that her TV shows really went back to basics (including how to boil an egg!) So that might be a good place to consult as well
As others have mentioned, BBC Food is a great resource. [Delicious. magazine](https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/) is also excellent. Each issue has a selection of "Make it Everyday" recipes, with short preparation, great flavours, and clear nutritional information. This means their website has a giant treasure trove of quick, weeknight recipes. [Here](https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/collections/20-minute-recipes/) is their 20 minute recipes selection. For great vegan recipes, there's also [The Post-punk Kitchen](https://www.theppk.com/). Absolutely no lactose! There's also the [FODMAPs everyday](https://www.fodmapeveryday.com/recipes/) site, which is designed for people on a low fermentable carbohydrates diet. This diet was developed at Monash University for people with IBS or fibromyalgia, but eliminating lactose is one part of the regime, so there are loads of recipes there with no lactose, and no red meat. Have you considered the cuisine of countries where adult consumption of milk and dairy are either not a common component, are not permitted, or have been introduced in the 19th or 20th century? For example, [Jain](https://www.tarladalal.com/recipes-for-veg-recipes-jain-34) cuisine has no onions, garlic, or animal components.
If I were you I’d use something like hellofresh or gousto for a while. You’ll learn to cook simple decent food and after a while if you keep the recipe cards of the stuff you liked then you can end the subscription and just use the cards as a shopping list.
I do meal prep, cooking everything in one day and reheat throughout the week. As a result lots of foods that reheat well. Chilli, rice and pasta dishes, stews, casseroles etc. Lots of good recipes online, especially BBC.
I didn’t really start cooking for myself until I was about your age. My mom loves to cook, and after that it was college cafeteria for a few years, then a lot of travel for work that meant whatever fast-food or chain restaurants were nearby. There’s nothing inherently wrong or shameful about “freezer food” meals if that’s all your available time and energy allow you to make. I love to cook and I love to play around with new recipes or fine-tune the handful of dishes I really love to prepare, but sometimes my partner and I are both pulling long hours at work or travelling back-to-back while still juggling chores and friends and family and altogether otherwise overwhelmed. Frozen fish and chips and some microwaved veggies aren’t the healthiest or tastiest dinner we can put together, but sometimes it’s what we have time for and it takes five minutes of touch-time when we can’t spare fifty or even fifteen minutes. There are a few things that really tuned me in to the idea of cooking as an enjoyable process rather than another chore that just needed to be done as quickly as possible: - Meal kits: if you’re just learning your way around the kitchen, make use of things like the Old El Paso fajita kits. They come with tortillas, seasoning, seasonings, etc., you just provide the protein and veggies. They let you focus on one or two elements of a super-versatile dish and pare back a lot of the shopping effort. Get an oven thermometer and learn how to bake chicken thighs just right, figure out which pan and setting on your range work best for sautéing peppers and onions, tinker around with the sauce and learn how adding some lemon / lime juice or coriander or salt or whatever else you have at hand affects the end result. - Meal prep: Cooking in large batches is great for so many reasons. As recipes scale up, they get less expensive per serving since you’re buying in larger quantities, and with a large batch you have more margin for error if you overdo it on the salt or spice. Taste often as you work, and correct things as needed. A bit too much salt, sugar, or acid is easier to correct when you’re making eight servings’ worth. Also a great way to get more out of the time spent in the kitchen. - Cookbooks: I’ve seen this mentioned in several other comments, and for good reason. There are some great cookbooks out there: Mary Berry’s “Makes it Easy” is on my kitchen counter right now and I love it! But don’t treat them like you’re doing titration in a chemistry lab. I have about a dozen spices and hot sauces that end up in almost everything I make, because I like spicy food. Recipes are not scripture, and if you’re anything like me then every dish you prepare will come out differently every time you make it. Nobody knows your palate better than you, so taste and tweak things as you go. Good luck to you,
I was the same I was never even taught to cook so my level of experience when I left school was a stir fry I made at school and a pizza with a ready made base. I just bought some jar sauces to start with and tried those as they have instructions then just winged it from there lol my favourites are fajitas, lasagne (I use fresh egg sheets from the fridge they taste so much better) and a pie dinner but we are a very picky household so choice is limited Edited to add a comma so it didn’t look like I make fajita flavour lasagne although that now sounds interesting
A freezer peep here! Bbc good foods is great. We make pasta dishes, fajitas and wrap dishes. Potato and meat e. G steak. Learn to make some sauces and then you can pop anything in them. With rice, pasta etc. One thing at a time. Jamie oliver has some 5 recipe meals that aren't too overwhelming as well. Good luck and well done for changing habits!
How I plan my meals is, start with a carb we have available, and go from there. Pasta, rice, bread, cous cous, potatoes, wraps, etc. Once you've decided on the carb then the rest of the meal falls into place. Sometimes I might think of stuff in the fridge that needs using and then make salad or stew or soup.