I have been conversing with someone who tends to eat take away and ready made meals as they 'can not/will not cook'.

Since it is pretty hard to eat healthy good tasting food easily in this way, and I teach basic food/coiokery skills part time voluntary, I thought I would set up a thread to post not just recipes, but ideas and basic learning techniques that can be added to.

I thought to start with something like soups and a tomato sauce might work.

Will prepare some info later in day.

Please could anyone else interested put their names and needs up.

Many thanks.

Carol

Thanks for starting this thread Carol,

any ideas will be much appreciated!

Hi Carol.......... fantastic idea......... i have just joined and look forward to any simple good food prep ideas.

cheers !

Yes count me in too!!! I'm getting a bit bored with the recipes on here now, I've lost nearly a stone in 3 weeks and would love some new menus. Will they have the calories counted as well?:biglol:

Ok folks,
I will start shortly with some basics. Please feel free to give feedback. I am aiming this at those who for various reasons think they cannot cook much at all, are not confident, think they do not like cooking, think they don't have time to cook, are too busy or who don't think they know how to make simple meals healthy.

Ruth
It won't be calorie counted as such but almost all will be low fat/cal ideas and as such shoudl be able to be eaten fairly freely. I will give suggested portion sizes too.

Hope that might help.

Will post a couple of things this evening.

Carol

I'm looking forward to this, thanks

Ruth - you are doing brill, well done and keep up the good work!
(since i joined on here a week or so ago, i have gained a couple of pound.. but havent yet really started properly, and have had a weekend away which included lots of great food!)

hopefully these recipes will get me on the right track!

Get / use a microwave. You can control the cooking time.

You can cook virtually anything.

Apologies for having promised and not delivered last night. I work from home and as ever something urgent came up late afternoon.

I consider myself fortunate for find cooking comes naturally and enjoyable to me. That’s not to say that I don’t have days when the retort to the question ‘what’s for dinner’ is “ Dunno, it’s still on the supermarket shelf� or, “Number 37, 2 number 52’s and a side order of noodles. Who’s driving?�

But over the years, I have developed a method for preparing simple, tasty and variable meals for family and friends so I thought I would share them.

All will be based around healthy choices, portions, low(ish) fat, low (ish) cals and with little salt used. I am going to write them in really basic stages as I am aiming at beginners or low in confidence cooks. I am teaching very similar to a bunch of 14 â€" 17 year olds.

This coming week I am covering stocks, soups and sauces so thought I might begin here likewise. I firmly believe in teaching principles and practical skill sets. Once anyone knows a few basics, the options are almost endless.

I will highlight stock cupboard ingredients in blue/bold (assuming this translated in cut and paste) and will also try and answer any questions or requests for info. I can talk for Britain on food and cooking (healthily). The gold medal is MINE! So, my next post, following immediately, with no more pre amble, will be a basic (very basic) tomato sauce.

I realise these could be big posts so will split them. I don’t have a blog or website so can’t think of another way besides email exchange.

Basic Tomato Sauce.

This will make enough for 2 â€" 3 really good pasta portions and can be doubled or more for bulk cooking. Freeze in useable portions.

Equipment required:
Chopping board, small/med knife, saucepan, wooden spoon (a fine grater, microplane or garlic crusher can be used but not necessary).

Ingredients:
4 â€" 5 squirts spray olive oil (or ½ tspn olive oil)
1 â€" 2 cloves of garlic, chopped or grated
1 tin chopped tomatoes
squirt of tomato puree (about a teaspoon)
fresh ground black pepper
grind of salt (ONLY if no added salt in tinned toms.)

Method.
This can be ready in 10 minutes or less but can be left on low heat to intensify flavour and thicken as required. Having everything ready in one place is a time cutting action.

1. Spray/pour oil into saucepan.
2. Prepare garlic. This can be done by grating with grater or microplane, putting through garlic press of bashing with side of broad heavy knife, removing paper and finely chopping.
3. Put pan on VERY LOW heat and add garlic and stir for 1 minute. CARE. Garlic can burn and get bitter very quickly.
4. Add contents of tin of tomatoes; continue stirring with the heat up on medium. Add tomato puree (this just enriches the flavour and helps thickening.)
5. After about 10 minutes (you do NOT have to stir the whole time but ensure it doses not catch or get too dry) your sauce can be served.
a. If you want a pizza topping you can let it reduce and thicken a bit more
6. When ready, taste and add black pepper to taste and slat ONLY if absolutely essential.

Variations:
At stage 4/5 you can add
· Herbs of choice. Basil (fresh is best) is a classic. Chopped parsley, thyme or coriander if you want an oriental tang.
· If you are cooking a deep rich sauce (up to an hour) adding a small glass of wine can be nice.
· If you want a spicy sauce, try adding a little chilli and ginger. Fresh Ginger can be peeled and kept wrapped in foil and plastic in freezer. To use, just break/cut off about an inch and grate finely as needed. Chillies need careful handling. The supermarket mixed bags are usually quite mild. Top/tail, halve lengthways, remove the seeds (this is the hottest bit) and chop finely. (I find keeping a jar of ready prepared in the fridge â€" you can get garlic and ginger this way too - can be a help)

I will follow this with a selection of ways to use the sauce.

Then before end of week, one or two basic soups.

Please give me feedback (I don't mind constructive criticism - just keep it polite!) or ask questions.

Carol

What a brilliant idea but if you are not too shy, you could do a video clip and upload to youtube? Doesnt have to show your face if too shy, just a pair of hands.

Thanks Lisa
Not shy, not me, but a bit of a techno-phobe, at least until I know what I am doing. And we only have a still digital doo dah.

What could I picture that you may think of any value. Could maybe do something at my class tomorrow where we are doing some of the above, but must be sure students are NOT in picture. I'll see.



.

For those who don't like cooking, there are some simple things you can do.

I sometimes have a baked potato (done in the m/wave) then heat up some baked beans, there are lots of varieties, or a tin of spaghetti.

I like Tesco healthy Living Meals or even WW though they are smaller portions, I do them in the m/wave then put a bag of Steamfresh vegetables in. When the veg are ready I put all together on a plate and give a 1 minute boost to be sure it's hot. There's quite a plateful with the veg.

I'm sure there must be other things that make for easy meals for anyone who doesn't like cooking or like me is disabled and limited as to what can be done.

I look forward to soups ideas! (I have allergy to anything caned, so must be fresh ;)) Thanks!

This is a warming soup idea and very low calorie. I've got it off my site.

Place 3-4 carrots diced, about 150g/5oz sweede/turnip, a large chopped onion and 2-3 sticks of finely sliced celery into a large saucepan with 2-3 tbsp water.

Bring to the boil, stir, cover and then turn down heat.

Leave vegetables to sweat 10 minutes.

Disolve 2 oxo vegetable cubes in 900ml/1 1/2 pints of hot water

Add to the pan, cover and simmer about 10-15 minutes

Serve chunky or crushed with potato masher

Here's another:

Serves four, The ginger makes this a very warming soup in winter.

200g/7oz washed and trimmed leeks, thinly sliced
100g/3.5ozs chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
Spray oil
0.5tsp ground ginger
2 Oxo vegetable cubes
1200ml/2pints hot water
juice of 0.5 lime
black pepper

1. Spray a large saucepan with oil and heat. Add the leeks and mushrooms. Cover and cook very gently about 5-7 minutes, stirring now and again.

2. Add the ginger and the crumbled vegetable cubes, then stir in the hot water. Bring to a simmer and cook gently a further 10 minutes or until the leeks and mushrooms are cooked.

3. Stir in the lime juice and season with plenty of black pepper.