Trying to cook more

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Actually many americans don't learn cooking either. Why? Either eating out or some one else takes care of it. I didn't learn until I married my DH. He only learned because he moved out as well. It takes time.

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by Radiance

Agree, but you need to consider this is affordable even now in countries like India and many latin american countries....Back there I always had some type of help. If not for cooking, for cleaning.

Oh I know, many countries still have a good labor force.

Just not here in the US (and I am looked on as a terrible person for wanting one, how could I demean another by asking them to do my dirty work?)

As to learning how to cook, who has time between 6-8 hours of school, 1-3 hours of homework, and baths, eating, extra curricular activities, ect. America is blessed with tons of cheap tech to make life easy, so we fill it with more cheap tech....

[snafu]

Don't know how or just don't like to cook? Turn that negative into a positive by inviiting a neighbor or a friend in for a Sunday cook-a-thon once a month. Try cooks.com or some similar site for the ingredients you have on-hand.

As a newly wed, I got together with 2 friends and the three of us made entrees focused on Chicken or Beef or Pork...whtever was on sale at the supermarket. We put on some music, made a ton of mistakes, laughed about our inexperience and produced at least 10 meals each to freeze. Once in awhile one of our moms came over to show how to make her 'specialty.' Best of all DH was responsible for the clean up!

[rob62521]

Find a basic cookbook -- not a fancy chef cookbook, but an old time one with basic recipes. If you can find a few basic recipes, you can alter the ingredients and have quite a few recipes under your belt.

[Radiance]

This is what I decided to try first. It can evolve to incorporate other things:

I saw a 30 day weeknight dinner meal plan on a magazine and I bought it ($4)

What I like is how well organized it is:

Each page has three columns:
In the left page is the grocery list for the week, the Monday and the Tuesday recipe
In the right page, the recipes for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Then the same for weeks 2,3 and 4 in the next pages
Besides, very important, it includes a good quality color picture of the completed dish at the top of every column and each recipe is less than 30 minutes prep time.

ok, so on Saturday I checked my kitchen to see what I was missing and went shopping.
Because it was not a latin based menu, I had to buy some things I am not sure I will use in the long run, such as rice vinegar (?!?). But I did it anyway because I know that If I deviate, I will not do this. (I've tried before and I failed because I was making so many changes to the plan, this time I am going in auto-pilot!)

I only made two changes, so far: I replaced pork with chicken breast and white rice with brown rice.

ok, so On Sunday night, I was tired, but I got my tired self to the kitchen and cooked the Monday dinner! Done!
Well, I actually brought it as lunch today; I plan to have cereal for dinner.

Tonight, I will cook the Tuesday recipe... wish me luck!

[rob62521]

You sound quite organized, Radiance! Good luck!

[Radiance]

It is a gift and a curse at the same time.
I don't see myself as highly organized but there most be some thuth to it since I get that feedback very often...

I think it helps me getting things done, but it makes it that I need things to be organized certain way so they work for me....

Anyway, I am happy to report that I am on day 3 of my weeknight meal plan and so far so good, and, I am enjoying it!!

I'll leave it like this for 3 weeks before I try to add lunches, breakfasts, snacks. I also want to do healthier stuff, more veggies, some raw food, some vegetarian. But I know I need to get into the rhythm first. Baby steps.

[alexis]

well good luck. That is good for you.

Try to search easy cook meals ... if you want i can help you. I loved to cook. FYI, i am not a good Cook but because of my husband i learned and it become my hobby

[snafu]

Radiance if you are unfamiliar with Vinegar... This product has a great many uses. Frugalistas use it for cleaning, others use it medicinally, it sets color, degreases, meat tenderizer etc. Try Googling for all the things vinegar can do!

[Radiance]

Thank you Alexis, I might cry for help as I add more recipes to my collection. For now I am liking Allrecipes and eatingwell. I also have a "30 minutes meals" cookbook and a"easy vegetarian" cookbook.

[mtsen]

Originally Posted by Radiance

In my quest to develop a taste for cooking at home I have had a couple of hiccups:

one, I am not ready to improvise, I end up wasting ingredients and , since I am making up the steps as I go, it tends to be messy. Both things frustrates me. for now, I am sticking to a selected recipes.

two, My selection of recipes is too disperse. I am a good cook, my food, when I cook, is very delicious and nutritionally rich. However, the recipes I know are so different from each other than I can hardly reuse an ingredient. What is worse, every time I am to cook, I need to buy the one ingredient that i am missing and that is then in danger of not being totally used before expiration date. (which in turn triggers my need to improvise so I can use the immense assortment of ingredients I end up with in 4 days or less)

You might read this and think I am taking this too seriously. Well, after 3 years of trying to figure out meal planning without success, I am paying attention to what I do, and why.

I'll get there.

I too started a lot of self cook recently and has successfully develope my own recipee on Bak Kut Teh and Curry ... its just yummy while saving some money. I actually am selling my recipee to earn extra income too ...