Moved in with OH now wanting to 'cook from scratch!'

oooh well you are in the right place, theres LOADs of info here, and in the indexed collections.

Your best bet is to start thinking,

What sort of foods do we like ie if we went to a pub/resturaunt/ takeaway what would we have?
Or if you buy ready meals, what sort of things do you choose?
What flavour jars do you buy, there will be a way of making them yourself.
then find recipes -or ask on here

the way to a mans heart is through his stomach. Im a firm believer :T and with my OH , its 100% true :rotfl:

Hi - I would advise to find simple meals to prepare and cook, before being adventerous and it turns out to be a disaster then money/food has been wasted.

Like lynzpower suggested - find out what your likes/dislikes are and take it from there. Talk about the meals you both used to eat at home before moving in together. Make a point of getting to know what ingredients he doesn't like/or allergic to. And most all - his favorite

Shepherd pie, toad in the hole (if you fancy a change from bangers n mash, stew & dumplings, chilli, spag bol, curry, stir fry's, sunday roast (and using left over meat to cook another dinner) are the most popular and easy dishes to prepare and cook - even from scratch.

Im sure once you have advise us of your chosen meals to cook, then we will guide you along the way with hints/tips etc for you to follow.

When you have decided what you would like to eat, make a meal plan of what you intend to have on each day of the week. You dont have to stick to the plan, but it gives you an idea of the foods to use as a guide line.

Some of us OS, usually cook on avergae 4 or 5 times per week from scratch, maybe more or less, and usually have baked spuds, or salad, beans on toast as a change. Nothing worse if you've had a terrible day at work and then you got to home and cook a big meal.

Im pretty new to this site myself, and have found people to be really friendly and offer good advise/tips. So dont be afraid to keep buggin us

Good Luck

It can be worth reading the ingredients of ready made sauces to see if you can make any of them yourself. I did that with the lasgne sauces I had baought and after a bit of trial and error I am now able to make a lasgne which my husband (and I) enjoy as much as the ready made sauce version we originally had. Tomato based sauces tend to be easier to replicate then creamy ones.

THe best source of inspiration (excuse the pun) is the ingredients list on ready made sauces.
They invariiably have twenty or so ingredients. take out the preservatives, emulsifiers, and flavourings, and you have most of the base ingredients.
Making a sauce usually involes three things, Fat-flour-liquid.
e.g. Gravy: Fat (fat from roast or margarine), flour, liquid (stock)
Cheese sauce: Fat (cheese or margarine), flour, liquid (milk)
Just make sure you melt the fat, add the flour and stir it in, and add the liquid slowly, mixing it in so it doesn't go lumpy.
Also don't feel guilty about using tins stuff. sometimes, they are as good, if not better than fresh (tomatoes, I rest my case)
And don't worry about messing up a few times. If the worst comes to the worst and dinner tastes rubbish, go to the chippy, and put it down to experience. You'll laugh about it (though make sure you cook meat thoroughly. Thats a !!!! up that isn't funny)

Hi, another tip is to invest in a SC (slow cooker), you will be surprised what meals you can do in them. And it beats slaving over a hot stove.

Keep the ideas coming peeps. great tips so far

HTH so far