Moving in with my bf in about 2 weeks or less. Realized cant cook. How am i gonna feed him????

Question

Ive lived with my granny all my life and she does the cooking, I know how to cook hamburgers..fry steak and scramble eggs. Im only kinda familiar with breakfast. I have a child but shes easy to please with cereal and chicken nuggets and things. But my bf is gonna want REAL home cooked meals. He comes from a west indian background and all his sisters cook very well. I dont know where to start! Any ideas???Any websites with step by step recipes???

Answer 1

Have your Granny teach you. A couple can live on love and taters, but you will find it takes a lot more taters.

Answer 2

First of all, you *can* cook. You may not realize it yet, but you can do it. Making flavorful, healthy meals takes some thought, but it's not brain surgery. Here are some tips:

0) A balanced meal has three parts: a protein (meat, fish, beans), a grain (rice, couscous, pasta) or starch (potato), and a vegetable (too many to list). Plan on making all three for each dinner at least.

1) Learn how to make good rice. You need a pot with a tight-fitting lid. You bring the water to a boil, add the rice, stir, turn the stove down to Low, cover, and cook for the full time WITHOUT lifting the lid. Proportions: 2:1 (water to rice). White rice takes 20 minutes to cook. Brown rice cooks for 45 minutes, then you shut off the stove and wait for another 10 WITHOUT lifting the lid.

2) Couscous is a fast food that is reallly tasty. Add some zuccini slices and it takes care of 2/3 of your meal.

3) Steamed vegetables take only about 15 minutes to prepare including prep time. Wash & cut up your squash, green beans, broccoli, etc and get it ready to cook while your rice is going. If you've got a microwave, use something like a Corning Ware casserole dish. Put a little bit of water in the bottom of the dish, add the veggies, sprinkle with some spices & maybe a little olive oil, and cook in the microwave for about 4 - 6 minutes (depending on the microwave, the type of veggie, and how much you're cooking).

4) Protein: bake things as much as you can. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or turkey breast are both low in fat and can be tasty if you add the right spices. Depending on appetites, a family of three, can eat four chicken breasts for a dinner. You can already fry a steak, so you can estimate portions for that, right? I generally bake things in the 325 - 350 degree (Fahrenheit) range for about 45 minutes. I usually cook stuff with the cover on for all but the last 5 - 10 minutes. That'll keep things juicier and make less of a mess in your oven. You'll need a little bit of liquid in the bottom of your baking dishes so that things don't stick too much. A little bit of canola oil + some broth are good for that.

5) Herbs & spices: Garlic powder (not garlic salt), oregano, rosemary, cilantro, a curry blend, sage, pepper (both black & cayenne), and some salt will get you started. Use plenty of spices, but not too much salt. Experiment. Add chopped onions to your meat dishes. Add sliced tomatoes to your meat dishes. Add (a little) chopped celery to your meat dishes. Add all three. Ligtly fry the onions & celery together before you add them to the meat. I rarely, if ever cook big beef roasts, but if you try that, just ask the person behind the counter how long and what temperature to cook the roast. Add some potatoes & peeled carrots (and a few peeled, quartered turnips) to your roasting pan, and you've got most of a meal happening. Learn the spices of West Indian cooking and use them. I googled "west indian recipes" and got about 1.6 million hits. The first three or four looked great.

6) Use soups & broths. You can get pre-packaged, low fat soups & broths from the store. These things are great for adding flavor. Pour some over a meat dish before you bake it. Try a creamy portabello mushroom soup, or some chicken broth, or something else that seems cool. This can add a lot of variety without a lot of trouble.

7) Timing: this is where the rubber meets the road. Think about how long stuff takes. Here is an example: Brown rice takes about an hour to cook. Steamed veggies take about 15 minutes. Baked chicken takes about 45 minutes. So wash & prep (i.e. add the spices) the chicken and set it aside first. Get the brown rice going while you preheat the oven. Once you've got the rice under control, get the meat in the oven. Then prep the veggies and get them into their dish & into the microwave. Use the 10 minute period during which you let the rice sit to cook the veggies. You can set the table in this amount of time.

That's really most of what you need to know. Start simple. Allow yourself some time. Vary what you cook. Googling nearly anything with recipe or "how to cook" in it will get you tons of hits.

Mostly, relax and have fun. Again, allow yourself time -- especially at first -- so that you don't get stressed about it. Cooking is really fun. When my wife & I first were married, she said that she couldn't cook. Now she's a champ. You can do it too.

Answer 3

You could ask your gran for some of her recipes. My gran would have been ecstatic to give me hers. Or, pick up the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (with the red and white checkerboard cover). It was my first cookbook on my own, and a good lot of the recipes are easy, lot of tips and tricks, conversion charts, substitutions, and there are pictures of the techniques and what things should look like. Like for hollandaise they show what it looks like undercooked, overcooked, and perfect. Or the dough recipes show what it should look like during the different stages.

I'm sure websites would have something similar, but this cookbook is still my bible after all these years. It's easier to pick up and leaf through quickly instead of websurfing.

Good luck hon! I'm sure you'll be great!

Answer 4

Borders! Go to Borders and by a cook book. Also watching his sisters cook and asking for recipes will help you learn fast. It will take a while before you get the hang of home cooking but eventually you'll have your own recipes and ideas of what goes well together.

Answer 5

I moved in with my boyfriend without knowing how to cook, but he actually helped me out and showed me quite a few things (he was a great cook and could make a gourmet meal out of the scraps we had in the pantry). It took me at least 5 years to start doing things on my own that were of substance, but you will get the hang of it. One thing you really need is the DESIRE to cook. If you don't, nothing will taste good. Start with simple things, like how to cook rice and noodles properly, the temperatures, how much oil, and also what spices taste good together. Ask his sisters for advice, go online and print out recipes.

Allrecipes.com
Bettycrocker.com

It's going to take some time, but you will eventually start turning out great meals and gathering your own portfolio of recipes.

& make sure to find out what his favorite dishes are and learn those first!

Answer 6

Go to allrecipes.com. They have lots of easy recipes. Get a good basic cookbook - like Betty Crocker - and get The Joy of Cooking - every home should have those books. (Pillsbury has good cook books, too!) Cooking isn't hard - and I'm sure he won't expect you to be perfect! Just follow the recipes.

Answer 7

There is one Indian recipe blog. You can find lots of dishes there. It is very friendly and it has pictures of all the recipes with simple & easy steps. I tried recipes from there. It works great for a new chef like me :)

http://rasoiya.blogspot.com

The blog is updated daily or every alternate day.

Answer 8

I'd suggest taking a look at recipezaar.com. You can look up whatever recipes you think you'd want to make, or just browse around and try out whatever strikes your fancy. There are user ratings for each recipe, so you can get a general idea of how good any given recipe is.

Good luck!

Answer 9

Depending where you live, a lot of cities have business that will help you prepare meals that you can take home, store and fix at you leisure/descretion.
www.mygirlfriendskitchen.com

Answer 10

heres a link for easy recipe meal ideas

http://www.recipestogo.com/