Jamies Ministry of Food (foody thread so in here)

[valentine]

I like cooking too - I've slacked a bit on cooking and being organised since being back at work - I should really be making more meals at the weekend to freeze and reheat.

At the moment, on nights when I'm at work til late and OH has a very short timescale to cook for DD, me and him, bath DD then both come to the train station to collect me; he'll cook very quick things like fresh gnocchi and fresh pasta sauce (DD LOVES this) or fish fingers, green beans and peas etc. On my days off, I cook things like chilli, mince & tatties, stovies, marinated salmon and veg/salad, macaroni cheese, homemade pasta sauce etc.

OH is a bit fussy with anything new. He does cook for the family too but tends to use the same 4 ingredients in everything - he doesn't use herbs or interesting veg or put any seasoning (not necessarily salt or pepper but paprika, mustard powder, worcester sauce, wine, herbs etc) in anything so its all a bit bland - but he does it so I can't really complain.

My mum HATES cooking and I felt very much like she resented meals she made for us - but to be fair to her, she did cook pretty much from scratch (the odd jar of pasta sauce but with added extras was about as far as she got to a ready meal) every night except a Friday when we'd have boiled eggs or beans on toast in front of the TV.

I do like finding new recipes and things to cook - this weekend I am doing a roast chicken dinner, something I haven't made since last Christmas - we very rarely buy chicken as I only buy free range and its just so expensive. I love making soups in the winter too. I'd also like to attempt a fish pie soon and some various curries as I've not really made these before. I am finding the rise in food prices a bit restrictive to trying new recipes as we are trying very hard to stick to a limited budget - so its plain cheap food all round. Is this the same for anyone else?

Valentine Xxx

 

[Foxxi]

I am shocked that the girl didnt even know how to make pancakes.

me neither!

 

[clairescunny55]

I enjoy cooking but i'm restricted what i cook as DH is a very picky eater. All he eats is any meat, pasta, cheese (lots of it) potatoes, sweetcorn (the only veg he has) No fruit at all.

 

[LilysMummy]

My OH wont eat anything unless its from a take away Only exceptions are fry-ups and roast dinners.

His bosses wife cooks him a fryup every morning and a beef dinner at lunch

My OH eats with his eyes as well he wont try ANYTHING new if it doesnt look like he would enjoy it

 

[Steelgoddess]

I don't know if this helps but before I started training/losing weight I missed junk food alot but decided to star5t making "homemade" versions of the junk me and OH actually prefer the homemade stuff now, we also never got tummy upsets and I still lost weight the weeks I made it

Chips are fine, for REALLY healthy chips cook them in the oven with fry light spray or cook in a pan/fryer with sunflower/olive oil, still fatty but alot better, if he HAS to have the shop kind get them from the chippy as the larger ones are better and then dry off oil with towel paper...

Sausages: Really get him to ditch those or have them as a treat now and again, they are full of bristle, fat etc...

Burgers: Easily homemade with mince,breadcrumbs loads of herbs and some beaten egg

Breaded chicken: The frozen stuff is nasty buy this:

froim sainsburys it tastes so lovely just like kfc minus the oily taste, or coat with breadcrumbs and a bit of chicken seasoning!

I could go on and on I have billions of recipes, you prob already now alot of these but the fact is theres no real reason to buy takeaway/processed food when the homemade versions are not only nicer, cheaper they could save your arteries too!

This is a list of what my OH diets mainly consists of
Chips
Sausages
Burgers
Breaded Chicken
Pizza
Gammon Steak
Eggs (fried)
Chocolate Biscuits
Crisps
Twixs
Ham Sandwiches for work.

Honestly that is what he will usually eat.

The only veggies he eats are
Potato
Peas

Fruit
Apples

 

[~*Leanne*~]

nothing to do with food but just wanted to say that my dad's best mates son and his girlfriend were in the 'group' Jamie picked and was on TV last night

 

[Magic Monkey]

Any ideas for a decent 'normal' recipe book?

The Delia how to cook books are quite good if you have never really cooked before - my MIL bought these for my OH when he was first leaving home! Plus they are quite old now, so you can probably pick them up quite cheap. Also try some of the recipes in the AK books for older children, they look easy to follow. Or use the internet, then you can search for something that you fancy and it will tell you how to make it.

www.uktv.co.uk/food
www.bbc.co.uk/food

I agree with SarahH I don't believe that there is anyone that CAN'T cook because if you can read, you can follow a recipe. Ok things may not always be ready at the same time, but who cares! I can cook and things are still not always ready at the same time.

We eat home cooked food 99% of the time, but I do use some convenience things e.g. jars of curry sauce, frozen veg etc. I don't know how people can afford to eat takeaways all the time - we had a curry last week and it was £13 for two of us!

 

[claire2711]

what we mainly eat....

lasagne
mince & tatties
chips
tatties (boiled, mashed, chipped roasted)
chicken in ruskoline
curry
pasta in sauce or pasta bake
roast chicken/beef
breaded fish
soup (sometimes homemade!!)
rice
fajitas/tortillas
pizza

the occasional chinese/indian/chippy/kebab every few weeks

and most of it is homemade

is that good?

 

[evemarie8]

I cook loads, probably because my Mom always did and I have half inched all of her recipies! I also love using BBc recipies, UKTV food or delia online for new ideas, I don't really see the point in spending a fortune on recipie bopoks if you have the net as everything is on there all ready!
My latest favorite was Raymond Blancs Casserole of Beef in Red Wine, it was yummy and pretty easy to make, even if you do need a lot of red wine (obviously Clark had something else!!).
Another favorite is an recipie of my moms that I am doing tonight called Virginian Chicken Casserole, its really simple and freezes so well!
I don't think cooking is a particularly hard thing to do, but it can be totally overwhelming if you are starting from scratch, I really think its our schools who are letting us down, I don't remember actually learning any cooking skills in home economics, we were too busy talking about nutrition tables!

 

[fifi211]

I am really lucky cos hubby will eat anything I put down in front of him and he prefers home cooking over take aways. I'm not saying we never get them, but I do cook a lot and we enjoy them better. I cook a lot of chinese, curries, roast dinners, fajitas etc. At the moment got a fish pie in the oven, first time I've ever made it but it smells lush

 

[widowwadman]

My niece, who's now 16 had been a fussy eater for years who refused to eat green veg etc, but ate pasta with ketchup (seriously, wtf) almost every day until possibly a couple of years ago. This mostly was born out of my sister's and my mother's (who looked after my niece while my sister was at work) convenience, as it's easier to feed crap to a child then insisting that it tries different things.

I hope that I won't fall into this convenience trap if Horatio turns out to be a fussy eater. Both me and the bloke love cooking and we're good at different things - he's brilliant at traditional English cookery, roasts, toad in the hole, etc, while I'm better at curries. We share the cooking equally between us.

Of course, once in a while we go to the chippie or have a take-away, or throw in a pizza, but not very often and there a ways to make convenience food yourself and be healthy. For example, today neither of us could be bothered to cook, so I threw some spuds in the oven when I got home, 90 minutes later I quickly cooked some broccoli (2 minutes in boiling water) and grated some cheese. The cheese went onto/in the potatoes which then were served with the broccoli and some smoked mackerel. It hardly involved any work, probably didn't cost half as much as a trip to the chippy would have, is healthy and tasted great. It's not rocket science really. I think a lot of people who rely on nasty processed junk are just not aware how easy it actually is, as nobody ever taught them to cook. And they pass it on to their children, as they won't be able to teach them how to prepare a good meal either. It's sad really, I feel sorry for them,

 

[charlie84]

I don't know if this helps but before I started training/losing weight I missed junk food alot but decided to star5t making "homemade" versions of the junk me and OH actually prefer the homemade stuff now, we also never got tummy upsets and I still lost weight the weeks I made it

Chips are fine, for REALLY healthy chips cook them in the oven with fry light spray or cook in a pan/fryer with sunflower/olive oil, still fatty but alot better, if he HAS to have the shop kind get them from the chippy as the larger ones are better and then dry off oil with towel paper...

Sausages: Really get him to ditch those or have them as a treat now and again, they are full of bristle, fat etc...

Burgers: Easily homemade with mince,breadcrumbs loads of herbs and some beaten egg

Breaded chicken: The frozen stuff is nasty buy this:

froim sainsburys it tastes so lovely just like kfc minus the oily taste, or coat with breadcrumbs and a bit of chicken seasoning!

I could go on and on I have billions of recipes, you prob already now alot of these but the fact is theres no real reason to buy takeaway/processed food when the homemade versions are not only nicer, cheaper they could save your arteries too!

Thankfully i am at least encouraging him to eat the better versions of the food i listed, such as fillet chicken instead of mushed up chicken. With the sausages i try not to cook them that often but when i do i buy the good quality ones to try and limit the manky stuff they add to sausages.

I got rid of his deep fat fryer and all chips are cooked in the oven, i try and make my own wedgy chips on most occasions he has chips.

I just wish he had a broader taste for foods, it drives me mad. Plus the health implications dont bare thinking about
At least when Calleigh is older i can cook yummy meals for us both

 

[mrs_metal]

I grew up on home cooked food, hardly ever had a take away and I always thought ready meals were rank, although I did go through a really fussy stage where I'd only eat chicken and chips for about a year when I was 14 (but they were home cooked not frozen packet stuff)

I've been cooking since I was little with my Mum and I can't remember not knowing how to cook basic stuff, I've just always known thanks to a wonderful mum. As I get older I'm trying more thing and my tastes are broadening but there's still a lot of stuff I genuinly don't like the taste of. I cook everyday for me and DH (he hates cooking) and my version of a lazy day is still something homecooked but quick or something from the freezer that I'd made earlier.

Last week I'd defrosted some chicken thighs but really couldn't be bothered to cook so in the end so I put them in a roasting tin, with some peeled spud, carrots, sweet potato, onions, herbs and gravy, just cooked them for about hour and instant roast dinner with no effort (I was well impressed took less than 10 mins prep, cheap and was tasty). I only get free range chicken so we'll have thighs much more often then breast due to the price. In the winter I love my slow cooker, 10 mins work in the morning and come home to a lovely warming casserole.

 

[babsi]

Last night we had takeaway, but really good pasta. Freshly cooked, what you would get in the restaurant. Just couldn't be bothered.

Tonight we are having chicken stuffed with mozarella and swiss cheese, roast potatoes and carrots.

Cooking is not one of my favourite things to do, at all

 

[nissa]

I quite enjoy cooking although the last few weeks it hasn't been a priority!

Luckily my daughter is not a fussy eater and will eat most things I put in front of her as she is constantly hungry and knows it's that or Nothing lol! I think this is because I have always tried to give her new foods. We have a 3 bite rule. If she has tried 3 BIG bites and still doesn't like it that's ok but she's never been allowed to look at it and say she hates it without trying! I'm a mean mummy poor thing!

She nags me sometimes into doing healthier stuff for her because she got a 5 a day chart from brownies and always likes to fill up her 5! She'll ask for broccoli and cauliflower to be added to her mac and cheese if I'm having a simple day!

i have a slight obsession with cook books and have over 30 of them and most of them get used. Phoebes current fave is the Green and Blacks Chocolate one if we are making biscuits for the tin!

I also use the internet though and have to say my fave site is

www.allrecipes.com

I find it useful if I have something in the fridge that I can't remember what I brought for (happens alot these days lol) You can search recipes using just that one ingredient.

 

[Babylicious]

My ex once fed paris macdonalds 3 times in 2 days and then they had pizza and chips for another meal. I was livid!!!

 

[widowwadman]

I only get free range chicken so we'll have thighs much more often then breast due to the price. In the winter I love my slow cooker, 10 mins work in the morning and come home to a lovely warming casserole.

Just out of interest, do you buy chicken parts or go for the whole bird? When we have chicken (and we're subscriber to the Free Range only club, too - luckily my butcher does local free range birds for 1 quid per pound) we usually buy a whole bird and eat it for three - four days: on the first day the whole bird is roasted and we have the breast (and skin, i love fresh roasted skin, yum) with potatoes or fries and veg or salad. Then I pick the carcass, legs etc. The carcass is made into stock (just add onion, carott and celery) On the second day. Some of the picked meat is fried together with e.g. onion, tomatoes, a dash of orange juice, possibly a red pepper and served with couscous. On the third day the rest of the meat goes into something like a pasta sauce, or, together with the stock (which also freezes well) we make a chicken and mushroom risotto. This way a chicken goes a long way and is overall not that expensive.

 

[mrs_metal]

I only get free range chicken so we'll have thighs much more often then breast due to the price. In the winter I love my slow cooker, 10 mins work in the morning and come home to a lovely warming casserole.

Just out of interest, do you buy chicken parts or go for the whole bird? When we have chicken (and we're subscriber to the Free Range only club, too - luckily my butcher does local free range birds for 1 quid per pound) we usually buy a whole bird and eat it for three - four days: on the first day the whole bird is roasted and we have the breast (and skin, i love fresh roasted skin, yum) with potatoes or fries and veg or salad. Then I pick the carcass, legs etc. The carcass is made into stock (just add onion, carott and celery) On the second day. Some of the picked meat is fried together with e.g. onion, tomatoes, a dash of orange juice, possibly a red pepper and served with couscous. On the third day the rest of the meat goes into something like a pasta sauce, or, together with the stock (which also freezes well) we make a chicken and mushroom risotto. This way a chicken goes a long way and is overall not that expensive.

yes I do something similar, a free range chicken costs so much I'm not wasting any of it if you're inventive with the leftovers they sometimes taste nicer than the original dinner Sometimes I buy a chicken and joint then freeze the parts separatly (use the left over bones for stock as well) but I also buy a pack of thighs every now and then as we seem to go through more of these than the rest of the chicken. Occasionally when I've bought a pack of thighs, I'll fillet then chop them so I've got it ready diced in the freezer so I can just grab as much as I need for that meal, as well as savin time I find that can help it go even further. Thighs in a curry or stew are sooo much nicer than breast meat (I'd cook them on the bone as it tastes better but DH doesn't really like having bones in his dinner so only do that occasionally)