Please advice, what can I cook - living alone, working full time

Fusspot

Hi, its as the title says really. I must admit I have tried various ways of cooking but seem to fail at them all.


I have a slow cooker and have tried batch cooking but then I end up forgetting to take stuff out of the freezer so I end up buying a ready meal on the way home from work. Also in the summer I don't always want stew type meals and often find them too filling.


Then I started buying fresh fish and chicken, cooking it in the oven and getting the steamed packs of veg that you just put in the microwave for five minutes (very tasty), but again I found I was forgetting to thaw the meat out ready for when I get home and I'd find myself putting the oven on just for one piece of fish or chicken for myself.


I have now bought some breaded fish and chicken pieces in packs with the thought of having them with the microwave steamed veg, these can be cooked from frozen so it doesn't matter if I forget to take them out of the freezer.


However, all this seems very much eating the same thing all the time. I want to eat well but stuff has to be quick to do. My boyfriend says any veg that is packed (even non frozen) is full of preservatives, as is breaded fish and chicken in packs. I don't have time or the inclination to be peeling veg when I get home from work, I also hate washing saucepans and the slow cooker. I used to have ready meals every night which meant just washing one plate but now I have cut these down to just one night a week and try to eat better the rest of the time.


How can I get around this? I feel like just going back to ready meals every night as they are much quicker and less hassle.

Upsy_Staffordshire

I find that pasta is very quick and easy to do. I make pasta sauce just by using some passata, a crushed garlic clove and some herbs, and then chuck a few vegetables into a pan and voila.

Stir fry is also a good option. I just chuck some frozen veg into a pan and then add a bit of honey and soy sauce when the veg is cooked, cook some noodles in a separate pan, and then add it all together. Really quick and easy and very little washing up.

Hope this helps

PasturesNew

It is difficult .... by the time you get home, check the answerphone, pick up the mail off the mat and open it .... put your bag down, pull off your work clothes, go round opening windows and/or closing curtains, flick on the kettle and the telly .... all you want to do is nuke something and snooze.



It's also a pain "just for me" - seems not worth the effort.

Some frozen stuff you can cook from frozen so you don't have to remember ahead of time. Then there are the quick/easy meals: one packet of nuked noodles and half a tin of peas .... eaten straight out of the measuring jug you nuked them in. Or a cheese toastie made by toasting two bits of bread, then nuking cheese on them for 30 seconds. Then there's just opening a can of pineapple and eating straight out of the can with a teaspoon.

kboss2010

Pre-packed veg (fresh and frozen) is perfectly fine. They freeze veg so it doesn't need to have preservatives added, that's the point! Fresh veg (both organic and non-organic) will contain some pesticides on the surface (organic only bans the use of certain types of pesticides and is no better or worse for you, it's the biggest food con of the 21st century) so either peel your veg or wash it thoroughly, either way, it won't kill you and it's better to eat an apple than a French fry anyway.

eleanor73

I sometimes set alarms or use post it notes to remind myself to get things out of the freezer. To be honest I think that you make a choice - you decide to eat well and feel good but do a bit of cooking and washing up or you eat badly (and expensively) but shove something in a microwave for 3 minutes. Unfortunately we can't have it both ways.
I tend to mix things up - I batch cook so I have home made ready meals which are healthy but can just be reheated (tonight was thai chicken curry), then I also have nights where I cook fresh, I batch cook at the weekends (if I fancy it) and every now and again I have a lazy night where I have picked up a pizza or something reduced and just get that out of the freezer.That is the closest I would get to a ready meal these days.
I don't like stews in the summer however I can do spicy currys and chillis so I go for those.
Sometimes I will cook chicken breasts all at once and then have them with different salads in the evenings.

Good luck.

Hermia

I am in the same situation. I definitely find menu planning helps. I have a magnetic menu planning pad that sticks to the fridge. I look at it every night and that helps me remember to take things out of the freezer (I am forgetful like you are!).

I use my George Foreman grill a lot. It's a little single-person one and so much easier than heating up the oven for a chicken fillet.

I like omelettes and I also make pizza using one of those part-baked baguettes and I just shove some tomato puree, sliced mushrooms, diced pancetta and black pepper on and then shove it in the oven. I buy the mushrooms/pancetta ready sliced/diced so it takes very little prep.

elsien

I use the microwave to defrost meat I've forgotten to take out of the freezer and I've not poisoned myself yet. Ditto the chillis etc that I've forgotten to defrost. I eat more salads in the summer.
Planning ahead the night before worked when I got really busy. And for nights when I was really pushed, either a veg stir fry or keeping a bit of bacon in the fridge for bacon, egg and beans, or something quick like that.
I have to be honest though, as a full time worker myself I don't think a couple of minutes chopping a carrot is that much hassle. It's more taking the time to plan ahead and shop a few days at a time it took me a while to get to grips with.

BritishBibliophile

I batch cook bolognese and freeze it and then recook it from frozen without a problem, I tend to just take it out of the oven once pasta water is boiling so I can give it a bit of a stir/break the frozen middle in half, then chuck it back in the oven and put the pasta in the water. 12 minutes later the pasta is done and the bolognese is cooked through.

I agree with the menu planning, even if I end up leaving one or two days blank as a "see what I feel like" thing, it still gives me something to focus on.

Admittedly in this heat, as you say, it's harder to want to cook from frozen. But the other night I had chicken tortillas where I cooked 2 lots of chicken, ate the first part on Sunday night and then had the leftovers on Monday as it was easy to just warm up 2 tortillas to make them softer and then add the leftover chicken. Very tasty and with minimal Monday night cooking!

SailorSam

Where do you work ? If they've got a good subsidised canteen there could you have lunch as your main meal and some quick snack like thing of an evening.

meritaten

Don't forget that 'Stir Frying' is fast, easy and healthy.
You can make it easy (if you want to spend the money), by buying ready prepared noodles you just throw in the wok or frying pan after cooking the meat and veg - you can also buy packets of different sauces to add.
even using the ready prepared noodles and sauces, this is still FAR healthier than buying ready meals. One pan, and ten minutes and supper is on the table!
TiP - You can buy fresh veg and prepare it as 'batches' and you CAN put frozen veg straight into the wok if you forget to defrost it. just takes a minute or so longer to cook.

I often stir fry just onions mushrooms and whatever veg is lurking in the fridge add a packet of hoisin sauce and in five minutes a delish meal is ready. don't always bother with noodles - a microwave pack of rice takes two minutes.

PasturesNew

SailorSam wrote: »

.... a good subsidised canteen ...

They're as rare as hens' teeth

If I worked somewhere with one of those I'd definitely never cook at home ... and I'd even work out how to buy two dinners and put one in a plastic lidded box to take home for the weekend