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I've always thought that chili is a great "practice" meal for beginning cooks. It's a complete meal in a bowl, and there are hundreds of recipes online (white, red, vegetarian, meat, spicy, not spicy, etc.) and it's pretty hard to mess up, because presentation isn't really a factor and you can throw all kinds of goodies in. Plus, it freezes and reheats easily.
My go to meal when time and money are short is pasta- in the time it takes to boil the noodles, dinner is ready. A few simple, fast and yummy ones:
Any noodles with frozen or fresh veggies tossed in the last couple of minutes then olive oil, butter or a combo of the two and some parmesan. Nuking or baking a spaghetti squash and adding the butter & parm is also delish.
While you boil the water and fettuccini noodles, in another pan heat up cream & butter slowly, then add some parm, fresh ground pepper and fresh grated nutmeg if you have it - alfredo as good as any out. Put some broccoli (fresh or frozen) in with the noodles for the last 3 minutes and add some cooked chicken if you have any to the sauce and it's a very filling meal.
For a quick red sauce that is cheaper (and to me, better) than jarred, mix equal parts diced or crushed tomatoes (seasoned if you like) and tomato sauce, any seasonings you want- garlic and / or Italian are my go to- simmer that down while the water then noodles boil. If you want to add ground turkey or beef, that's good too.
A couple of non- pasta fast go to meals:
Chicken breasts (even those frozen in the bags) just take how many you need toss them in a pan put whatever seasoning and bake for about 20-25 min or grill then toss on to whatever salad veggies are handy, add oil & vinegar s&p, or even bottled dressing and call it dinner.
Any white fish (like orange roughy or tilapia) can be put on a bed of veggies and baked for 25 minutes with whatever seasoning you like- lemon pepper is a classic- either fresh lemon & pepper or a blend - do these in individual foil packets. A fave around here and easiest on me is using the bag of tri pepper and onion blend still frozen put the fish on sprinkle with Tony's creole seasoning wrap and bake 45 minutes- that is perfect and the fish doesn't get overdone because the veggies are still frozen).
You've gotten some great suggestions from other posters, hope they help.
I like the idea of some cookbooks - for starting out I would go with Betty Crocker or something rather basic until she develops skills and desire to learn. For me, I knew how to cook when I moved from home, but it seemed rather pointless to cook a meal just for me. When I had company for dinner, I delighted in cooking something special and serving it up nicely to make a nice presentation. You could offer to pay for her to take some cooking classes in her area during the evenings or weekends - maybe both she and her SO could attend. Some businesses offer classes and some of the community college type organizations offer classes for adults (at least in my area - probably others too.) Could make it a Christmas gift - a nice cookbook and some lessons...later on you could add a nice set of cookware and various tools she can use her whole life. You could also start writing down some of your recipes that you make and that she likes, and give her the opportunity to learn to cook the way "Mom did it." She needs to learn basic skills first and graduate from there - if she has any interest in it at all.....and remember - some people just don't have any desire to cook. I'm glad I do!!! Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
I would say that the Betty Crocker Cookbook is one of the better beginning cookbooks as MOST of the recipes are pretty basic. They can be screwed up easily, especially if you do NOT know the difference between TSP and TBSP. (g)
Sometimes I wonder if the younger folks really WANT to cook ... there is always a reason NOT to cook.
For the less than successful, I always recommend the George Foreman grill. It makes it a lot easier to score a couple of wins.
I believe that since everyone needs to eat, everyone needs to know how to cook. I think that cutting a girl OR boy loose on the world without at least a basic ability to create edible meals for themselves is doing them a big disservice. Eating out all the time is an expensive habit, is time consuming, and is often a less than healthy choice.
That said, I'd start a new cook (of any age) out with simple dishes that are hard to mess up. Packaged multi-bean soups, for example, start out with a small package of dry ingredients and wind up as a big pot of tasty soup without much fuss. That's a big win! Then look for +1 meals, which start with a package or a jar, and the cook adds one key ingredient, like a piece of meat. Then "kit" dinners that have more steps and more ingredients, but where everything is premeasured. That eliminates a lot of confusion for beginners.
Simple, easy wins. That's what you want them to have at first. Gradually they'll become more interested in learning more. Cooking demos at supermarkets are a good next step, or short cooking classes that are offered by department stores and better markets. Even if they don't become a gourmet cook, the desire to eat tasty food... which most of us share... will lead them into learning more.
29 y.o. daughter lives 400 miles away with SO in studio apartment with very little storage. She is discouraged by her cooking attempts and says she is too tired coming home from work to even want to cook so grabs a sub or cereal for supper. She gets a great free lunch at work every day so I don't know how much incentive she has to really learn how to cook. She says everything she makes is a failure but once in a while she posts pic on her FB. Money is tight between the 2 of them as he is in graduate school.
How can I help her? I've started off by making a list of bare essentials in way of equipment, herbs, appliances she will need. I also suggested she won't learn to love cooking until she has a few successes under her belt so she shouldn't try anything except basics like baked chicken and pork chops, meat balls, pork tenderloin, etc. I think SO would like to join in as they are spending way too much money on eating out.
What else can I do to boost her confidence or help her learn to cook. She was so involved in extra curricular activities after school that she rarely helped me in the kitchen and here she is with no cooking skills. very sad. I had even less experience when I was newly married but I quickly learned how to cook and enjoyed it very much. My two 10 y.o. girls know their way around the kitchen better than oldest daughter does!
I think there are a couple of things to remember here: 1-not everyone loves cooking or can ever build a love for it: 2-if a spouse is not completementary or a good eater it makes it harder and living in a croweded studio apt isn't the best cooking situation. I have 2 grown daughters, one love to cook, the other, never has developed the love I have for it, she has a husband that is an awesome cook, but she has grown to be a decent one. This is my granddaughters as well: 1 is busy being a mommy to a couple little girls, works full time and is in nurse practioner school. She is also a borderline vegetarian, married to meat eater, but he never helps her much in the kitchen. She is a basic cook, at best. Her little sister is the opposite. Her husband love to eat, complements her all the time, he too is a good cook, she is busy, working on an advanced degree but doesn't have 2 little ones running around the place and has a large home. Her kitchen is well stoked, she loves cook books and is turning into an outstanding cook.
About all you can do is, encourage your daughter to try simple, fast recipes, maybe pick up some of the magazines that have several 30 min meals in them, even get her a R. Ray, 30 min cookbook. other than that, you might have to understand, your daughter will be the one that always brings the frozen pie for Thanksgiving dinner.
Cooking is easy.
You just need taste buds and gumption.
She may just have (no pun intended) too much on her plate right now to tackle it.
Give her some very basic healthy recipes for now.
When she has more time and a better set-up, she may enjoy it more and take more interest.
Cooking and food means different things to everyone. My Grandmother always cooked a full meal for dinner...meat, rice, dessert. I often just make eggs or a salad for dinner. It is just food. There is nothing wrong with just sandwiches for dinner.
Cooking and food means different things to everyone. My Grandmother always cooked a full meal for dinner...meat, rice, dessert. I often just make eggs or a salad for dinner. It is just food. There is nothing wrong with just sandwiches for dinner.
We got either way and often have pancakes, french toast, or oatmeal for supper, it depends on the day how I feel if he wants to cook, if I want to cook or if we want to have a pizza delivered. I love too cook and he loves to eat and my cooking skills have developed tremendously over the last 10 years and I am quite pleased and proud of the development.
I also love the crock pot, I don't use it as much as I should, but it's so convenient and quick.
If I really don't know what to make, I search for fast recipes on the back of containers. My French's mustard bottle has a recipe for easy sloppy joes, homemade. I made them last week, took 10 minutes to make 'em, we had french fries and a salad. Took about 30 mins including the fries. It was fun to make too.
Sometimes soup cans, salad dressing bottles, Bisquick boxes, BBQ bottles, etc - they'll have a ton of easy recipes. Campbell's Kitchen online has a ton of real easy ones to choose from. And all are very good.
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