Learning to be frugal in the kitchen

bouicca21

I second Maddiemay's question about the recipes. It's beginning to look as though part of the problem is that you are not a confident cook. Is tackling new recipes daunting even when you are well?

MartagonLilies

I mean recipes from a cookbook/ YouTube / website etc.
I usually shop in person, with my husband. We tend to go and get it all in one shop, weekly. A lot of the time my husband does pop into a supermarket in the week, to pick up something he can cook if I'm feeling run down. We've done the occasional internet shop too.

Main meals since Sunday? Monday I made mushroom risotto, DH& DC1 had super noodles (he adds pepperoni, spinach etc)
Tuesday DH made tuna melt wraps for us. Yesterday DC1 made himself a round of toasties, and had McDonald's fries. I had a BLC burger and DH had cheeseburger and fries.
This week the little DC have had school dinners, and so had a light tea (sandwiches / babybel / yogurt etc) We've eaten once those 2 are in bed.

MartagonLilies

Yes, I find it all very daunting. I seem to need written recipes to fall back on. I get quite overwhelmed if (and when) things go astray with the meal plan.
I don't even really plan the week myself. I tend to find somewhere that will have the meals already planned out for me, and follow that.

As you can see, it's all gone to pot this week:eek:

[Deleted User]

Just goes to show you're normal love, we all have weeks when all goes to pot!

I have a daughter who teaches and she's watched me over the years and decided what I am is a 'kinesthetic learner' which means the first time I do a recipe (or anything else) I have to have the book open right beside me and follow it to a T! constantly referring to both ingredients list and method. I have to do this at the very least half a dozen times before I have a go at collecting together ingredients from memory, usually having left half of them out. It takes about a dozen makings of a recipe for me to have it wired in my head and able to do it from memory. However if I don't make it for a few months we are back to day one of all that, so confusion around food isn't always a conscious thing! I've been cooking for 60 odd years and I still have to make things right because it's all gone to pot horribly regularly, you're not alone!!! xxx.

MartagonLilies

Thank you.
I would love to walk into the kitchen, and put something together. I'm rather fed up of it all, following recipes all the time. Sometimes, yes, a new recipe book is a treat and it's fun to cook the new things in it. It's just the everyday cooking something from them is tiresome.

I wonder too if it would make things easier when I'm not 100%. I wouldn't have to load up the video / drag the cookbook out to make dinner. It would be easier to teach DC how to cook. I'd know what to make with leftovers, or how to just make something simple.

The cost will probably go down, as well as our waste. We'd eat dinners we've all chosen, instead of another cooks meal plan. I may even lose weight, without spending a fortune on healthy superfood or whatever.

I'm tired today, though I'm doing bits around the house in short bursts. On days like today, it would be so nice to go and throw something in the slow cooker for dinner tonight, for example. It would be nice for my DH to come home to it cooking along in there.

Things like that would make all the difference.

MartagonLilies

I've just read back through the thread, and I do realize I sound a bit useless here. I really would love some help though.I'm definitely willing to put in the work to change this all around.

I can't keep going on like this. It's a bit every where really.

All advice I've had so far has been extremely helpful, so thank you.

C_J

Do you have access to a printer? When I am meal planning I quite enjoy browsing the internet for recipe suggestions but despite being a confident and capable cook, whenever it is a very-new-to-me recipe I always have to print it out and have it stuck to the front of the fridge so I can refer to it while I cook.

Confidence comes with practise; I would suggest putting together a notebook with a dozen or so recipes that you know you can manage, and start from there. Simple things like a bolognese sauce to go with pasta, or some chilli, or a stir fry. We can talk you through how to cook things! And how to turn the leftovers into another meal

Then, as you get more used to cooking from scratch, you can add to your repertoire. Just take it a step at a time, so you don't get overwhelmed by it.

MartagonLilies

I have access to a printer.
I'm trying to think of things that the DC will all eat! I think spaghetti, pizza, burgers, rice, chicken, sausages, wraps, supernoodles, macaroni. I'm sure there's more, just can't think of them all now!

bouicca21

Small steps. Try one recipe - something easy like a simple tomato sauce - cook it regularly until you can do it in your sleep. Then you will be confident enough to turn it into bolognese, chilli con carne, etc.

I think it's confidence you need to concentrate on.

suki1964

Im not a natural cook either, but I cooked for 7 years for a living and not only did I never poison anyone, I had plenty of " compliments to the chef "comments

Im like Mrs Lurchwalker, I have to follow a recipe a few times before it clicks and it only stays there whilst that recipe is on the menu regularly

To me it sounds that your lack of confidence in the kitchen, plus your illness makes you feel you have to over compensate by having a cordon bleu meal on the table when you are well. I used to do the same when I first gave up work, felt I had to be this perfect housewife and chef. Nearly put me back in the funny farm with the stress of it all and believe me, they are lucky to get a meal thats edible most days and they ( thats mum and hubby) clear the the lot

Last nights disaster was HM pizza, guess who forgot to put salt in the dough lol

I think you really need to go back to the basics. Those simple every day meals that families all over the country eat week in and week out - forget the fancy ingredients and confusing recipes. When I was a child the weeks meals went like this - Roast on Sunday, left over meat minced up and stuck in a pie for Monday, Pork chops on Tuesday , sausages on Wednesday , Ham and egg pie on Thursday, frozen battered fish and chips on Friday , stew or liver and bacon on Saturdays. The only changes were a salad, lamb chops and now and then a chippy tea

Week in and week out, that was the menu. Now and then mum would try something new, like making a sweet and sour with the pork shop and serving with rice which once she perfected it we all liked

And tbh thats kind of how I cook today. So mince will be on the menu most weeks, but what I do with it changes. And those changes come about after a lot of disasters and practice with recipes

if you keep an eye on the whats for dinner thread on this board, you will see Im not alone, most people stick to the same few dishes that they are comfortable cooking. Once you make spaghetti Bol 200 times, it becomes 2nd nature to throw one together

So relax. You aren't a bad wife or mother. None of this comes naturally to most people , we all had to learn somewhere and we on here will be happy to walk you through step by step until you have 7 meals you are comfortable cooking