I Have No Cooking Skills
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I would like to become healthier and lose weight (especially by changing the way I eat) , but I have no cooking skills... at all. I'm ashamed, but do y'all have any tips for me?
I've been cooking since I was pretty young. I made mistakes to start with but got better with a lot of practice. Don't get discouraged if something doesn't turn out perfectly.
A lot of soups are very easy for beginners I think. Recipes for slow cookers are generally very simple preparation.
Don't start with cookies or bread.
Try making something that you've had before so you know what it is supposed to look and taste like.
Get a basic cookbook. Something like Better Home and Gardens or a cookbook for kids. They generally explain terms and equipment and even have recipes for simple things like scrambled eggs. Read the recipe through before you start so you understand the steps.
Cook with someone who knows how to cook so they can show you what to do.
Watch cooking videos or look a cooking blogs.
Take a cooking class.
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Everyone has to start somewhere, so don't worry about being a beginner. Start looking for recipes go foods you like to eat. Look for simple recipes, and when you find yourself thinking, "I can do that," that's the recipe for you. There are gazillions of websites with free recipes, a simple google search should turn up more information than you can ever use.0
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My family endured a lot of kitchen disasters with me as I learned to cook, and bless them for that. I started off cooking myself eggs -fry 'em, boil 'em, dress them however you like. It's a good way to get comfortable with a stovetop. From there try things that are simple, quick, and yummy like french toast.0
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That's really surprising to me. From about 13 on I was cooking dinners at home. Which was totally not normal, but I would think after however many years... people would pick up some skills?Didn't your parents ever teach you to cook?
For the majority of people I know these days, the answer there would be a big, fat no. Parents and children both have to have time to teach/learn cooking for this to happen. With exhausted parents trying to make food as quickly as possible plus kids doing 3-4 hours of homework every weeknight, not including whatever extracurricular activities they have, there often IS no extra time.
Most people I know in their 20's and 30's know a couple basic things by the time they leave home, and have to learn the rest of it themselves once they leave home. That's not a universal thing, of course, but I believe it's more common than not.
I didn't realize we're in the lost skills area. Do middle schools and high schools still have home ec?
I'm in the UK and we had Food Tech classes at my high school. However, we started with an hour, and then they dropped our lesson time to 50 minutes. It's very difficult to teach 30 kids to cook much of anything in 50 minutes when that also has to include clean-up time. I learnt nothing in Food Tech, unless you include the time we made sausage rolls with sausage meat and ready made pastry. Or a swiss roll...which we had to bring in a plain swiss roll for, and then we iced it. Useful cooking skills right there. I think a lot of schools struggle to teach much in the way of cooking, thanks to time restraints and class size.0 -
Take it slow. Give yourself plenty of time to cook at first, rather than trying to create something when you've just come in from work and you're already starving.
Student recipe books are great, usually very simple.
I love A Girl Called Jack's blog. Her recipes are dirt cheap, simple to make, and don't assume you have all kinds of crazy kitchen implements and a convenient health food store/ethnic supermarket on your doorstop.
Make it fun too! Get some music on, dance round the kitchen while you cook. Do you have friends who are good cooks? Ask them to teach you some of the tricks! Make cooking social.0 -
I agree with getting some good basic cook books. I have a Betty Crocker book as well as Better Homes and Gardens. Both were giving to me as wedding gifts, I turn to them often as they have a ton of tips and tricks for getting good results. And watching Good Eats also taught me a lot. I did take cooking classes for two years in high school, but most of the class was about food and kitchen safety. We only got to cook once a week, and again a lot of that time was spent cleaning. Also there were 4-6 students in each kitchen, so we all only did one step each most of the time. It was more of skate class than a learning class0
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oh, let me give you a piece of advice that I still occasionally forget.
That salt looking substance in that cup right there? Might not be salt. Taste it first if it isn't labeled.
I made a very sweet bechamel once, it was fine until the final seasoning where I mistook sugar for salt. I ruined a buttload of lobster that way.0 -
rainbowbow wrote: »Here's my suggestion. Watch good eats. I know it's cheesy but Alton does things simply and explains how and why things need to be done.
He even explains food safety, sanitation, where to/not to prep or have stuff in your pantry, knife skills, etc.
There's a YouTube channel where a guy goes from good eats episode 1 and makes everything along with Alton starting with practically no skills.
Just my thoughts!
Alton really is a good teacher. Oh and they just added some of his shows to Netflix. Even when he does stuff I know I'm never gonna do (build a smoker and smoke salmon for example) you can learn stuff.
Someone mentioned America's Test Kitchen. That's good too.
OP just start trying. You're gonna burn some stuff and undercook other stuff. Heck, I've burnt the outside of chicken and cut it to find it was nearly raw inside. Just learn from each screw up and do better next time.
On and a meat thermometer can help you avoid the raw on the inside problem.0 -
Oh I totally agree on Alton Brown! I really enjoyed a lot of the information I got from his various cooking shows. As time went on, he got a little more oddball, but that never detracted from his first information!0
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Get some mccormicks grill mates, learn to grill your fish and meats, and make salads, rice, baked potatoes as sides. Supplement with fruits, nuts, yogurts. That should get you through phase 1.0
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Just grill everything that isn't rice. After I just learned how to grill, everything else came easier.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I would like to become healthier and lose weight (especially by changing the way I eat) , but I have no cooking skills... at all. I'm ashamed, but do y'all have any tips for me?
Oh don't be ashamed!
Yes, it probably would have been better if your father had taught you to cook, but hey, he didn't and you're a grown-up, so that's past and it's up to you to deal.
I strongly recommend the Betty Crocker cookbook. It's really good and basic, and will walk you through a lot of easy cooking techniques. My mother in law gave my husband the current one (back in the dark ages) and that's what he wound up learning to cook from when he got his own place. It was a wonderful thing for her to do. He couldn't cook when we were first dating, but he can make a nice meal now.
For healthy cooking, I cannot recommend enough learning to make a stir fry.* It teaches you how to make rice, and knowing how to sautee on the stovetop is amazing for all kinds of "cooking for one" healthy meals. You also have to learn to cut up vegetables. Knife skills are a huge part of cooking, and once you're comfortable with chopping stuff up, you're on to chef's salads and all kinds of healthy meals.
That said, don't sneer at the microwave. Holy mackerel YES, I will microwave frozen broccoli when I am feeling lazy. The instructions on the package are usually a good guideline.
Crock pot meals are also nice because they're pretty easy. Chop up a bunch of stuff, put it in the crock pot and just let it cook all day until dinnertime. I am an extremely skilled cook, and for days I don't bloody well feel like getting my Gordon Ramsey on, you BET I use it.
Learn to make soups. I used to live with a chef. I learned a lot from him about how you could rummage through the kitchen, throw a bunch of stuff in chicken broth and make the most amazing, healthy meals. It's great for cooking on a budget.
Just keep in mind a few things.
1. Cooking is a skill. You WILL screw up a bit as you're learning and that's okay.
2. Knife skills are da bomb. There are a lot of YouTube videos demonstrating them. Learn them and love them.
3. A skillet is your very best friend. Veggies and meat, and you can have a quick, tasty meal.
4. When you're old enough, red wine is your friend when it comes to flavoring cooking.
*grin* Sorry I am running on, but I am passionate about food and cooking.
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* I have a son a little older than you and when I taught him to cook, I made for damn sure he could handle a stir fry. It's now his go-to dish when he cooks, and it's really tasty, too!
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Oh yeah, I just wanted to add, I still burn something at least once a week. And I always somehow end up with one piece of meat out of four under cooked0
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I learned by trial and error, but luckily now we have the internet and you can find anything you want online. You can find how-to videos of whatever you want to cook. I've spent my entire life thinking that I couldn't bake bread. Well, I've been baking my own bread now for a few months and it's awesome!0
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People have mentioned Alton Brown, and he's great. But just watching various shows on Food Network and The Cooking Channel can be good too. Also, as cheesy as it sounds, practice makes perfect. The first time I made bread, homemade pasta, and tried to grill a rare steak (for my husband) it was a disaster, but over time, I've gotten better.
Keep trying, experiment, and have fun!0 -
How do you stop it from falling between the grill spaces?!!!
Heck fried rice is better anyway.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Allrecipes.com is great for recipes.
Start following recipes and then tweak them when you feel like it. Don't like broccoli? Add peas. Want more onion? Throw it in.
That's a good way to start.
A lot of it is trial and error.
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i LOVE pinterest for everything cooking related:
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=easy healthy recipes&term_meta[]=easy|typed&term_meta[]=healthy|typed&term_meta[]=recipes|typed0
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