I offered to help a young couple who live near me, they want to economise by cooking instead of living on takeaways.
During a conversation they were amazed to hear that I cooked every day, but as I explained, we eat everyday so that means cooking.
I tried to come up with a meal plan that wasn't too expensive or too complicated & included a couple of quick & east meals.
They only need meals for Monday to Friday as they eat with his or her parents at the weekend
This is what I came up with.
Sausage & Mash with beans, make double the quantity of mash.
Spaghetti bolognese, cook double the quantity of mince'
Cottage pie with frozen peas, using the leftover mince & leftover mash
Jacket potatoes with beans & cheese.
I'll be showing them how to make the meals after work this week.
12 comments:
This reads very like my meal planning ,I always try to double up a couple of times a week . Saves time and energy . Last week I did the sausage and mash ,spag Bol and cottage pie combo . Then served the rest of the sausage with the left over pasta with some add veg . Really tasty and quick . All youngsters should be taught home planning skills from their parents and at school . Would save a lots of debt problems in the future .
That's an affordable, manageable "do-able" list for beginners. I'm sure that has given them a good start.
Gill
Sounds wonderful....it's so good to be able to share knowledge of cooking and planning.
I would recommend teaching them about slow cookers. In my recent retirement I am using this a lot to do a good stew that lasts 2 day. or a gigantic minestrone soup that gives 10 or 12 bowls in return for a days work. It also means I can wander off to develop my veg garden and crafts and not have to lurk in the kitchen.
That's a good list for beginners.
I have done this often over the years and found that it was best to start with simple but very familiar foods like these, as the learning curve of shopping and food prep was overwhelming enough without adding "strange" yet budget friendly meals I to the mix.
hope you have a good time!
Tell them to get a slow cooker, they're so easy and very forgiving, it's almost impossible to over-cook food.
I use the small one for just a couple of chops, chicken legs or stewing meat, and the big one for ham shank and soups.
Like the mince idea, so easy to cook spag bol or chile-con-carne in the slow cooker as well.
Bless your heart for helping these folks! Ditto TrishWish's suggestion for teaching them about slow cookers.
I did wonder about a slow cooker but as they are 10k in debt I didn't want to add to that, but may suggest they ask for one as a Christmas present.
http://resourcefulcook.com/
Useful planner with costings and step-by-step recipes
Thanks for that Anon, very useful
It lifts the spirit to hear of young people who want to learn, and of you for giving your time, especially as I know that you have so little spare.
Slow cookers are reasonably priced now, e-bay from £14 for a small 1.5l and £20 for the big 3.5l, well within reason if asking for one as a Christmas pressie.
Mine are years old, in weekly use, looking a it battered but still work just fine. Today the big one's full of lentil soup happily simmering away after boiling bacon ribs for dinner.
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