Hellllpppp!

KittyKate

Hi all. I am sure you have had loads of 'I'm a TERRIBLE cook!!' threads, and yes, I don't think I am too blessed in the kitchen. My main problem is, when we have been to Tesco, I can make 'meals' made up of 1 part 'meat' (like a chicken kiev, pie etc), 1 part veg (usually frozen, I shamefully admit to buying bags of fresh prechopped veg) and 1 part potato (oven chips, mash or roastie). Or I do pasta and sauce. But not only is this rather boring, unhealthy, and pricy, as soon as we are out of 1 of the 'parts' of a meal I panic. And inevitably go to our nearest shops, which, living in a city centre are M&S Simply Food and the Co-Op (both rather costly). We're probably overspending by £250 a month!!!

Shamefully, when I decided the sausages in the freezer last night were looking 'funny' I went to the co-op and bought premade pasta sauce, fresh garlic pasta and a garlic bread, and then 'thought ahead' and bought an oven ready cumberland pie and bag of lazy fresh veg!! Am ashamed!!

We can't do a huge shop really as we go to Tenerife on Tuesday (oh the joys of having a show chef cook you whatever you like...I wish I could bring him home!!) so can anyone suggest what I do with what I currently have in, for the rest of the week?

I have:

Frozen carrots, frozen green beans, frozen honey roast parsnips, oven chips
Tinned sweetcorn, tinned mushy peas, tinned chopped toms, 3 boxes of passata, various lentil things, loads of herbs and spices, tons of dried pasta, risotto rice (why did OH buy this when I don't like risotto!?), tin of coconut milk (again, OH purchase!), tin of premade dolmio bol sauce (I'm sorry!!) tin of ravioli (yuk), baked beans, 4 cans of tuna
Bag of fresh carrots, celery, peanut butter (I love but OH doesn't), milk, cream, bread, olive spread, scary looking chicken legs x 4, frozen stew beef (but last time we had this there was a huge bit of bone in it and it chipped my tooth and I REALLY don't want to eat it now ), loads of frozen fruit...

I seriously couldn't make a meal of that, well chicken and veg yes but I don't trust my cooking, hate chicken skins, and work 9am-5.30 (I get home at 5.45 though). I have a wok, slow cooker, etc, fan assisted oven, every gadget/utensil going (OH is an aspiring Jamie Oliver)...

Hellllp!

lynzpower

Oh I jsut have to laugh :rotfl: so funny!

Well first off. Time to think outsode the box.

You siomply cant afford to be buying what you are buying if you are overspending to the tune of 250 per month :eek:

I dont think thef chicken legs are scary, they are jusdt legs are they?

Heres what to do

heat oven

lie deforsted legs in a roasting tin

put in oven for 35 mins

meanwhile - boil carrots, heat up tin of mushy peas, roast parsnips. Voila, you have a roast dinner.


I would be able to cook this up in under an hour, so you have plenty of time to do this when you get home.

redruby

Have you got cheese ? if so you could make a quick pasta bake, boil up some of your pasta, pour pasta sauce over, grate cheese all over top and cook on oven for 20 - 30 mins, very quick easy dinner

x

patchwork_cat

Hi
Is Morrisons not as close as M&S?If OH is an aspiring Jamie Oliver let him cook!!!

debtworrier

You can substitute bread for the starchy spuds (and don't forget that's posh herby bread or pitta pockets or doorsteps to ring the changes) and salad instead of veg.

Instead of serving the meat hot, cook it simply and then serve cold with a fancy salad (so the meat is an accompaniment to the veg rather than the other way round.)

If you've got lentils, then fry some chopped onion/garlic/celery (or combination) in the bottom of a saucepan, add a measure of lentils (I use a coffee mug) and twice the measure of cold water. If you have any turmeric, add half a teaspoon, it's good for digestion. (Do *not* add any salt, it makes the lentils tough. Add it after they've finished cooking.) Stir, bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 mins, or until the lentils are tender (add more water if it looks to be getting too thick.) You now have plain dhal.
Decide what flavour you would like:
slivers of garlic/chopped fresh chilli/flaked almonds/mustard seeds/ anything crunchy
decide what spices you fancy: garam masala/cumin/curry powder/
Heat about a tablespoon of oil, first fry your flavouring, then add whatever spices you decided on. Tip the hot mixture into the dhal (be careful in case it spits) and stir. Add a knob of butter if you like.

You can have the dhal as a side dish, or use it to substitute completely for meat.

It's best if you can arrange to eat a dairy food at the same meal, otherwise your body doesn't make the most of the veg protein. Raita is traditional (yoghourt +grated cucumber/chopped herbs +pinch salt + half teaspoonful ground cumin or pinch of chili powder) but if you can't be bothered then either ice cream for dessert or a glass of milk with it will do just as well.

KittyKate

Thanks everyone - Lynz - daft question but how do you defrost chicken legs? (They're currently in the freezer, and I am at work!) Do I pop home on my lunch (14.00) and take them out of the freezer, or can I do them in the microwave (is this safe??) You wouldn't think I was 24 would you!!

Redruby - the pasta bake is one of the few things I can make that OH will eat (as it is unlikely to kill him). He's sick of looking at it, sadly, and reckons my lack of Nigella skills are making him fat (I sprinkle cheese on everything in an effort to look culinary!)

Patchwork cat - Morrisons is a fair walk away, sadly I live in a city centre and am always paying through the nose for 'little bits'. We have a great market locally, I will have to make more of an effort to go there on my lunch hour. I can just imagine trundling back into the office with a huge bag of veg As for the OH cooking, bless him, he cooks more than I do. I like to give him a break and he does moan a bit that I make such a song and dance about cooking (when to everyone on here, it's second nature!). So I'm trying to learn to impress him and treat him more often!

Debtworrier - sounds gorgeous. I always look at the lentils, spices etc and think 'I'm sure there's SOMETHING I can do with them' but when I research recipies on the net, they look scary, by which time it's 7pm and the OH is chuntering, out come the unpleasant premade chicken things and chips and beans! Yuk!

lynzpower

I am very sceptical about defrosting in mocrowaves,and we dont have one, so maybe someone else will tell you about that

I usually defrost meat by taking it out of the freezer overnight
putting it on a plate and covereing loosely with a clean teatowel
leaving it on the worksurface overnight
then in the morning touch it- does it feel frozen, look, can you see any icicles or frosty bits? If so leave out for the rest of the day - make sure its not in direct sunlight eg on a windowsill. if its not, jsut stick it in the fridge til you get home.

When you come home, it should be cool to the touch.

patchwork_cat

Kittykate is there not still a Morrisons in the Merrion centre. Yes the market is excellent as are all the chinese supermarkets. I know where you live that's why I mentioned Morrisons

debtworrier

KittyKate wrote: »

Thanks everyone - Lynz - daft question but how do you defrost chicken legs? (They're currently in the freezer, and I am at work!) Do I pop home on my lunch (14.00) and take them out of the freezer, or can I do them in the microwave (is this safe??) You wouldn't think I was 24 would you!!

Debtworrier - sounds gorgeous. I always look at the lentils, spices etc and think 'I'm sure there's SOMETHING I can do with them' but when I research recipies on the net, they look scary, by which time it's 7pm and the OH is chuntering, out come the unpleasant premade chicken things and chips and beans! Yuk!

I regularly defrost things in the microwave, but I've always found that the 'defrost' setting is too high, and partially cooks the food. I'd give something like a chicken leg about 15 mins on the lowest setting and then check to see if it's defrosted. (I cut open the thick bit if I'm not sure: looking pretty is less important than being safe!)

I find that I'm much too tired to make decisions and cook properly when I get home from work, so I either try to have the preparation already done, so it's just a matter of opening a few plastic tubs and throwing the contents into the wok, or I throw everything into the slow cooker in the morning and only have to dish up when I get home. If you're managing to cook properly after work, well done! You're an :A

If you're stuck with lentils remember you can always use them to thicken stews - just chuck in a handful at the start of cooking and they'll quietly break down and make the gravy all thick and lovely (except for green lentils, which keep their shape.) - Oh, just remembered: do check lentils before you cook them; they're often shipped loose in bulk instead of ballast (which makes them very green! ) so look out for little stones and the occaisional shrivelled monster that accidentally did a dozen trips!

mioliere

One of things I do which really helps is forward planning; as soon as I have cleared up the evening meal things I put the kettle on for my after-dinner coffee and then decide what tomorrow's meal will be. If the meat I'll be using is in the freezer, that's when I get it out and defrost it overnight in the kitchen then put it in the fridge in the morning. I know you can defrost in the microwave but I try not to - I just don't like how the meat looks when it's been nuked!
The other really helpful thing to do - and this will definitely stop you overspending! - it to plan all your meals for the week/fortnight/month (whatever suits you - you'll soon get to know), put the plan somewhere handy so you refer to it every day and then you'll find it's so much easier to write your shopping list out to buy just the ingredients you need for each meal. You'll find plenty of really helpful advice on the threads here and lots of people post their own menu plans so you can even follow someone else's until you have enough ideas for your own! Lots of recipes can be doubled-up on so you can build up a stock of 'ready-meals'; these can then be taken out of the freezer the day before you need them and defrosted in the kitchen as you would frozen meat. Things like frozen stew, curries, etc., I bring to the boil (adding more liquid if necessary) and simmer for twenty-minutes to half an hour to make sure it is heated through properly. I did a freezer inventory two weeks ago and was surprised at how many 'ready meals' I had - we've been eating 'free' food for a fortnight now and I'll start stocking up again. Once you've tried some of the excellent menus on the other threads, you'll soon be confident to adapt some of them to your own tastes - you'll find you become very inventive! Good luck! We all have to start somewhere and I admire you for wanting to get it right!

Katgoddess

KittyKate wrote: »

Morrisons is a fair walk away, sadly I live in a city centre and am always paying through the nose for 'little bits'.

I take it you don't drive? Do a meal plan for the week/fortnight/month then walk to Morrisons (lovely exercise!) and get a cab back. If you are overspending by £250 the cab fare will be a worthy investment.

Compromise. There is nothing wrong with having a few jars of pasta sauce and chicken tonight in the cupboard for when you are feeling lazy. You can even add a tin of tomatoes and chopped mushrooms to bulk the pasta sauce out and make it feel more homemade.

Defrosting mince in the microwave is ok, as long as you are going to cook it straight away.

Salad is a very nice and easy accompaniment to a meal rather than veg. Goes nice with lasagne as well.

The frozen fruit on your list can be used to make summer pudding, smoothies, or a nice easy crumble to be eaten with ice cream.

Good luck, and enjoy your holiday!