Can't cook don't cook! Time for change.

sophistica

A great thread - a pity it is nearly a year old. I couldn't even make a cup of tea until I got divorced and HAD to learn. I had 2 cook books Robert Carrier's "Great Dishes of the World" and Delia Smiths "One is Fun" and I just cooked my way through them. To learn to cook you just need to follow recipes in books...any books.

I also reckon you can save a fortune (I don't NEED to do this) but as an experiment I am trying to see if you can spend just £10 a week on food for one person and only eat gourmet. And I am doing well, first day fresh salmon in a cherry tomato sauce with homemade lemon cake, yesterday, lamb chops with butterbean and dijon mustard mash and fresh cherries ...today Italian meatballs with wholemeal spaghetti and fresh mango.

I just pick up reduced food from Waitrose at the end of the day (I check to seee if it can be frozen - this is an added bonus), or search out the offerings in my local Indian greengrocer or check out the "value" ranges in most supermarkets.

I then plan my recipes using my library of books (picked up in charity shops - I have 350 recipe books). I get some exercise while on my buying missions (it helps to have a freezer) and if I succeed I will save £'000s every year towards holidays.

Katie_Bell

Thanks everyone, sorry I didn't say thanks earlier.

jobbingmusician

Rather nice that you didn't, actually, as you've resurrected this thread and given me a nice read!

Katie_Bell

Glad my lack of cooking skills could be of use! At least someone appreciates them :rotfl:

grimelda

hi. This site is American but I find it had a lot of good tips for cooking and managing your kitchen. http://www.flylady.com/pages/TableOfContents.asp

Scroll down to 'Food for Thought' and read the links at your leisure. There's a section on slow cookers, too.

It's a generally good site, not just for cooking but managing your whole life. I used to get the reminders emailed to me but they took up way too much space and I didn't pay much attention to them anyway.

Good luck. Cooking really isn't that hard. As far as losing weight goes, the best thing I found (I lost 40kg in a year and a half and have kept it off for more than two years now) is to keep a food journal with the approximate calorie count of everything you've eaten. It sounds tedious but it really isn't. It's the only way I have found to make myself concious of how much energy I put into my body. If my weight starts to climb up, I go back to journalling. Otherwise I have a tendency to shove things in my mouth without thinking. Yes, I was one of those people who claimed not to eat much but still put on weight!

Again, good luck and let us know how you get on.

grimelda

Oh yeah, and I LOVE Nigella Lawson's books, especially 'How to Eat' -- loads of great recipes explained in easy to understand language, including a section on 'the basics' (roasts and veges and so forth) and another on 'temple food' (ie. diet food). Her love of cooking and food just oozes from the page and even just reading them is a pleasure.

mae

Sophistica you posted saying you made butterbean and djon mustard mash would you mind posting the recipe it sounds lovely?

Katie_Bell

Have you tried PMing her?

scoobytooby

A really simple dish is roast chicken and veg. Peel and chop veg (onions, carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, etc, etc) and lay in the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the chicken on top of the veg, pour in half a pint of stock, cover with foil and cook for 1 hour at 170 degrees, remove foil, stir veg around and replace in oven without foil again at 170 or a little higher if you prefer for half an hour. Test chicken is cooked by skewering his leg joint, if clear fluid runs out its cooked, if a little bloody leave in for a bit longer. Really easy and simple and you can always add stove cooked veg as well, i.e., broccoli, green beans, etc.