I Want and Need to Learn to Cook Can You Help Me?

S., Good for you to want to make home cooked meals for you and your little one! If you do not have a slow cooker, get yourself one. We are entering the greatest time of year for crock pot meals! ...cool weather. You can find them really cheap. Buy a full size crock pot; not one of those tiny ones for appetizers. Wal-mart maybe? My favorite website is www.allrecipes.com. They have tons of great recipes, rated by at home cooks. I subscribe to their daily newsletters (you can have it customized to your interests). Another great idea is to buy yourself a roasted chicken at Sam's or Costco. A package of corn tortillas, a small bunch of cilantro, an avocado and a fresh lime. Heat the corn tortillas in a skillet until soft and warm. Shred up the chicken on a plate, slice the avocado (cut it in have lengthwise and twist the two pieces apart. Take a sharp knife and slam it into the seed; twist to pull it out and use a towel to grab the seed and pull it off the knife). Slice the avocado while it is in the skin, then take a spoon and scoop it all out. Wash the cilantro well and chop a bit in tiny little pieces (steams and all but not the stem below the twist tie that holds the bunch together). Top a tortilla with chicken, avocado, cilantro and fresh squeezed lime. VERY healthy and extremely easy. Also, www.foodtv.com has tons of videos you can watch. Robin Miller, in particular, is a chef who makes easy, healthy, everyday meals. Just play around on there. A few other really easy ideas, spaghetti with meat sauce, sloppy joe's with a bagged salad. Put a chicken breast on a cutting board, cover it with plastic wrap and pound it out very thin! Dredge it in flour and then shake the excess off. Season with salt, pepper, cumin...anything that sounds good to you and pan fry it in a combination of butter and olive oil. Serve it with steamed veggies. I've been cooking for years so I like more flavorful dishes. When I make chicken this way, I usually make some sort of sauce to put on it. However, take it slowly; don't overwhelm yourself. Also, don't get discouraged if something doesn't turn out the way you had hoped. I hope I haven't offended you with all of the detail. It's just that I have an old friend who couldn't cook. She wanted to make cookies so we suggested she follow the recipe on the back of the choc. chips. She threw the eggs in, shell and all!!! Who knew we needed to tell her to crack the eggs open. ha-ha! I never know what people really mean when they say they "can't cook." :) Good luck, S.!

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Just wanted to wish you luck in your cooking adventure!!! Also, be careful with crockpot recipes and "quick and easy", "dump and eat"......these meals are often full of fat, calories and starches. You'll blow up like a balloon on these "easy" meals.

M. :)

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When I was about your age I taught myself to cook and it ended up being one of my great pleasures. It is a very creative process like making art. Not everything turns out great but try to enjoy the process and you will end up with great times and nurturing meals for your family.
I started out by thinking of things that I enjoyed to eat. Now adays it is so easy with the internet. Just google something that you enjoy like soup or a casserole whatever and then read the choices and find one that sounds like something you can follow.
Make your grocery list and then go for it. Anybody that can read, can cook. Good Luck!

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We need to get together! I am a consultant for Homemade Gourmet and it is a company all about fast, easy and heathly meals for todays busy families! Tami, the founder of the company, says you should just have to dump, stir, heat and eat! Please visit my website for some great, easy ideas! www.easytopreparemeals.com Click on the link at the top that says Easy Recipes. I also have a DVD I can send you that shows how to put 4 meals in your freezer in 4 minutes! Let me know how I can help you!

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Take chicken breasts and cut them up into bite size pieces (I like using kitchen scissors, personally). Then, heat some butter (or olive oil) on medium heat in a pan. Throw in the chicken pieces. Season to taste (SeasonAll seasoning is great and requires no thought). Stir occasionally. Since it is cut up, it will cook pretty fast. You can always cut one in half when you think it is done just to make sure.

Add a vegetable. You can even buy frozen vegetables that come in a microwave bag that steams the vegetables in the microwave for you.

White rice (or mashed potatoes, or whatever). You can cook on this on the stove at the same time or in the microwave. On the stove, follow the directions on the package. In the microwave, get a bowl that is pretty tall. Put your rice and water and butter (as per the directions) and mix them up in the bowl, Lightly cover the bowl and microwave on high for 15 minutes. Rice will be done perfectly. If the bowl isn't tall enough, or you put too much in for that size bowl, it may overflow and you have some clean up to do. But, for just you 2, one cup of rice/2 cups of water should do fine.

Easy, kid friendly, healthy.

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Someone mentioned mac n cheese with ham. We do it with ground beef. Just brown the beef (cook the mac n cheese at the same time), add some seasoning to the beef (we like worcestershire sauce), drain the beef and mix with the mac. Serve with a salad or cut veggies and fruit. My 3 year old loves it.

I also usually keep some ground beef formed into burger patties in the freezer, as well as regular ground beef (buy those value packs of beef, then split it up and freeze.) Ground beef is cheap, easy to thaw and can be used in a lot of things (burritos, tacos, chili casseroles, burgers).

Another favorite is bacon ranch wraps. Just fry up some bacon, put it in a tortilla with lettuce, tomato, ranch dressing, and anything else you want. Roll it up and eat. I serve it with canned fruit. This is another toddler favorite.

Also, check out www.e-mealz.com - someone from this site recommended it before and I find it very helpful.

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Betty Crocker.com gives a lot of "toddler friendly" recipes, you can alco try investing in some inexpensive cookbooks.(ie. walmart, the library, or a resale shop)

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If you ever want to hang out I can help you learn. I am not a great cook but I have some tips, lol. :)

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Chicken Spaghetti

You can use chicken breast or 1/2 of a whole chicken for this recipe.

Cook chicken in boiling water. If using a whole chicken I boil it for about an hour, add a little salt and pepper for taste.

1 can of cream of mushroom
1 lb of velvetta cheese, diced and melted. I melt mine in the microwave two minutes at a time and stirring in between. I also add a cup of the left over chicken broth when melting.
1 lb box of spaghetti.

Mix everything together. Very simple 4 ingrediants and enough to freeze for another meal.

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I have found great recipes all over the internet. Kraftfoods.com is great and another web site that has links to some good reciptes is simplemom.net. Some quick, easy meal ideas that both my toddler and husband enjoy are:

Turkey sausage links, cheesy rice, baked beans, and steamed carrots. I buy the butterball already cooked turkey sausage, simmer it in a pan with water, the three cheese rice a roni, canned baked beans, and frozen carrots. SUPER EASY!

White cheddar noodles chicken, and veggies. I buy the HEB white cheddar mac n cheese and prepare, when it is ready, I add shredded chicken breast. You can either cook your chicken, or if you are trying to save time, I buy the hormel natural chicken breast strips (I find these by lunch meat in the store). Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Add a can of peas (or any othe veggie) and you are good. YUMMY!

Another great product is the Oven Fry Chicken. You buy chicken breasts, rub them with olive oil (this is my own trick), coat them with the oven fry and bake. Serve this with rice, beans, and any veggies. If you want to make it Italian, when they are finished baking, pour your favorite jarred tomatoe sauce on each chicken breast, sprinkle with mozzerella and bake 10 more minutes. Then serve with a noodles and a salad.

If you like a little spice Zattarans has a product for pork and chicken that my husband loves. To go with it, take baking potatoes or sweet potatoes, pierce them all over with a fork, rub them with olive oil and bake them in the oven at 415 for 45 minutes to an hour.

Tacos are another favorite. Buy the Taco Bell taco kit and some ground beef and follow the directions. We do tacos almost every week. Serve with canned beans, corn, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, sour cream, really whatever you like.

Good luck!!

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Hi S.-

If you don't already have one, invest in a slow cooker and a good slow cooker cookbook. There are a ton of recipes out there and the great thing is you just put all the ingredients in the cooker in the morning and it's ready at dinner time. There is virtually no way to overcook or undercook anything in a slow cooker and you can play around with any recipe to use ingredients that your kids will eat. I use allrecipes.com a lot and also have the Fix It and Forget It Lightly cookbook for the slow cooker. The other bonus is once you find recipes that you like for the slow cooker it is easy to make a lot so you can freeze some for dinner another night.

Good luck,
K.

Cooking is the easiest thing in the world and so satifying when you make things yourself....

If you email me directly I have a ton of recipes - and I am more than willing to share them with you

But a good place to start is www.kraftfoods.com

Soups are really easy to make - especially since the weather is starting to cool off - and its simple enough to split the soup into two separate pits - so you can add extra spice to yours if you desire....

My daughter is 5 yrs old and has been helping me in the kitchen since she was about two - it helps to encourage her to eat what she has a hand in making.

We make a lot of casseroles and use the crockpot during the cooler months - During the warmer months (and TX has a lot of those) we tend to eat more fresh fruits and veggies along with cubed cheese and salami and so forth.... Finger foods for the most part.

We also bake our own breads - like cranberry orange, corn bread, wheat bread, peanutbutter breads and so forth.

i am a thrid generation terrible cook. one book i love is deceptively delicious by jessica seignfeild. she sneaks fruits and veggies into foods. . . like brocoli chicken nuggets. its really good so far and easy enough for me to do.

Hi. I can definitely relate. I've been searching for the same thing and I think I've found it during my homeschooling journey. The website is called suegregg.com and she has some great free recipes that explain how to make healthy meals for the family. Don't be intimidated -- I've found her recipes to be quick and easy. For more information you can check out: http://www.hs-wahm.com/biz/recipes/whole-foods-a-journey-...

C.
www.hs-wahm.com

When I got married, I had never even browned meat before. Now, I LOVE to cook! I actually starting cooking from the Eating For Life cookbook. Not only was it healthy, but it was easy. It also showed me how I could start to experiment with foods.

We are getting a group together to go to the Viking Cooking School in The Woodlands. If we get more than 12 people, they waive the room reservation fee. If you want to join us, that would be awesome! Here's the info on it. (see link below) We run a fitness center and have many clients who are interested in learning hwo to cook, as well. So, we thought this would be a great idea. http://www.hubbellandhudson.com/viking-cooking-school.html

Best of luck!
C.
www.uniquephysiqueonline.com

The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook is one of the best EVER. It has all the basics and simple step by step instruction with photos. Then you can go to food network.com after that for more ideas and skills. Also see if your city offers some cooking classes or maybe even a local restaurant.

Get a box of Mac&Cheese ....boil some water, put in the noodles , once done drain the water, add cheese from packet and stir real good.
Cut up small chunks of cooked ham and add to mac&cheese & stir . Its delicious !! My son loves it.
Fast, simple, and yummy. :)

Hi - Don't be overwhelmed and think you need to cook like Julia Childs. Just remember that every good cook started right where you are now. Several good websites, www.tasteofhome.com, www.bettycrocker.com, www.recipes.com may be able to help you. Just follow the instructions and steps. Tackle easy recipes first and plan on cooking the same recipes a couple of times to get them just like you want them. Slow cooker recipes are also great for a busy mom like you! Don't be afraid to add additional spices, seasoned salt, poultry seasoning to chicken dishes, etc. Frozen pie crusts are great as you begin baking. The Food Channel has some great shows. Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee are great shows. Take advantage of gravy mixes, and convienience foods while beginning your journey of cooking. Bisquick has some great recipes on the back of the box as well as easy ways to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits. Good luck to you as you begin this cooking journey. Sometimes I still burn things! Take Care S.. K.

If you want easy, a crock pot is the way to go! There are so many websites with free recipes. I would google "crock pot recipes". Good luck.