Enthusiastic but rubbish cook!

Dieting_Jen23

Guys, can you help me.

I love the idea of preparing meals from scratch, using fresh ingredients etc etc and 'cooking' rather than just 'heating stuff up', but I'm not the best cook and not great when it comes to just chucking stuff in a pot and making it up. I know how much better for you the 'from scratch' stuff is, and most of the time, you get more food for your calories than compared to shop-bought which has lots of gunk in it.

So, does anyone have some trusty, go-to, healthy recipes you can throw my way? Like everyone out there, we (boyfriend and I) work long hours, don't have lots of spare time for laborious recipes and, to top things off, we have completely different likes and dislikes! Since I do most of the cooking, we usually get what I like though!

I'm not a huge meat eater, but we have common ground with chicken, so we eat a lot of that. Pork and lamb are definite no-nos.

I have the Hairy BIkers Diet book, which we like. Are there any other diet-friendly cookbooks you could recommend? I have browsed the 'Recipes' section on the main forum, but a lot of them are American-based.

Thanks!

mounty89

Something i will be trying this week i found the other day

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-chicken-chimichangas

Nutritional Facts
1 chimichanga equals 269 calories,
8 g fat (3 g saturated fat),
31 g carbohydrate,
17 g protein.

Mostly i am cooking alot of stir fry's atm, Egg noodles,beansprouts, i cheat and use packs of stir fry add ins from morrisons then throw in some prawns/chicken and add a splash whichever spice/sauce i want. Very filling and can make 3 meals in one. Some of the stuff i cook is very simple but works for me as i haven't eaten a ready meal in about a year

Also google bbc good food for some ideas. Hope this helps.

plantboy2

A good and quick curry sauce that makes any veg or meat you put in it taste amazing is:

Fry a sliced onion or two
Add 4-6 cloves of garlic chopped and fry for a minute or two (don't let the garlic burn)
Add tablespoon or two of mild curry powder (you can add your own mix of spices - ground cumin, mustard seed, fenugreek, cumin seeds, garam masala, turmeric, paprika - play around and it will make for more varied curries) and fry for about 30 seconds
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some tomato paste
Add a little water and some stock if you like
Blitz to death

Add this back into a pan and let it bubble away on a low heat. You can add any veg you like (green beans, broccoli, butter beans from a can, bell peppers, courgette - whatever), pre-cooked meat (just roast your chicken pieces in the oven whilst making the sauce), lentils, etc and let them cook - should take anything from 10-30 mins depending on what you put in.

Eat with rice (brown if super keen), mango chutney and a big healthy, satisfied smile. Hardly any fat apart from the frying oil and meat addition.

Make it unhealthy by adding butter or yoghurt or even cream :-/

Bubblevixen

http://www.skinnytaste.com !!!!!!!

This site is my bible at the moment for all food! The past 50 odd days, I've cooked at least one thing a day from this site. Absolutely AMAZING.
The recipes are in easy to follow steps, also with pictures of the stages on most recipes...All the calories are listed, WW points, portion size etc... I'd be lost without it.
You can save your favourite recipes and theres a clicky button thing that makes a shopping list for you if you plan your meals
I had to order a few things online as it asks for some things that aren't stocked locally in my tiny little town in the UK , such as Sazon Goya and Mesquite liquid smoke.... oh my days..the food though. I've never eaten so well! At least give it a look to trawl through some of the recipes Hope this helped!

Dieting_Jen23

Thanks guys, much appreciated. I'll turn myself into Nigella yet!

kendrafallon

My trusty go-to site is http://www.bbcgoodfood.com:bigsmile:

MrsSWW

My trusty go-to site is http://www.bbcgoodfood.com:bigsmile:

Was just about to advise the BBC site, it's got such a wide range of recipes and will give you ideas on what is in season too :happy:

siany01

Jamie Oliver's 15 min meals is good. Think it has all the calories in it. I'd get up and check but I am being pinned by a one year old

Dieting_Jen23

Ooooh, I'm loving the skinnytastes website, thanks!

farway

And as always, Saint Dehlia

Not always the low cal stuff, like Nigella has cream, cheese etc, but some are good low cal, and follow her and it always works out

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes

LilMissDB

Jamie Oliver's 15 min meals is good. Think it has all the calories in it. I'd get up and check but I am being pinned by a one year old

Yeah, it does have the calories listed. The recipes are quite high in cals in general though. I bought it but I've never made anything from it, was a bit disappointed - everything looks like it would take way longer than 15 mins!

I like www.taste.com.au. They have a whole section that has nutrition information (although need to convert from kj to kcal) and they have good quick meal sections as well.

rowl61

BBC FOOD WEB SITE , TESCO, EVEN SLIMMINGEORLD sit you can get good easy to follow

Dieting_Jen23

Thanks for the replies, chaps. Lots to work on here. I have Jamie's 30 minute meals at home, but some of them are quite high in cals. I'll be trawling the sites you've recommended and doing lots of experimenting!

Time for trial and error...hopefully I won't poison us!

kendrafallon

Thanks for the replies, chaps. Lots to work on here. I have Jamie's 30 minute meals at home, but some of them are quite high in cals. I'll be trawling the sites you've recommended and doing lots of experimenting!

Time for trial and error...hopefully I won't poison us!

Practice makes perfect! And once you're a bit more confident with cooking, try modifying recipes that are high calorie to lower the the calories. All the best!