Let’s say, before I became a Mum, I was capable of cooking about 3 meals. One was pasta with butter and raisins (it sounds awful! But it got me through the teenage years!). The other was sausage sandwiches (not healthy, but it was still classed as cooking in my book!). The final was the essential beans on toast. This was not what I wished for my children. So after years of us struggling with my home-made dinners, I joined a cookery class for around 4 sessions. I learnt the basics of cooking, and now use delicious recipes to master being our main chef at home.
Background To Cooking Struggles
When my oldest daughter was born, I did everything in my power to feed her ‘the best’. It was easier when she was little and fruit was the equivalent of a meal. Fast forward to having 3 kids and they expected a dinner each evening. Inevitably most of my attempts at home-cooked meals got thrown in the food waste, which was getting depressing.
I wanted my kids to grow up comfortable with healthy foods and making healthier lifestyle choices if they choose. I have had issues being addicted to junk foods, such as crisps and chocolate. Unfortunately if I’m eating junk, I don’t make room for anything else. I literally turn into a junk monster. Yet, if someone would have cooked me a delicious roast dinner with tonnes of vegetables and some potatoes, I know I would have opted for that instead. But since I couldn’t cook, doing a meal like that would be a disaster, especially with 3 little kids under my feet whilst trying to learn cookery skills.
I did not want my same food habits to become the only choice for my children too. I wanted them to grow up around home-cooked meals, so that they would be comfortable with eating them. Also seeing someone cooking around them would likely give them a head start with basic cookery skills. I just wished I was that person who could actually cook!
My kids ate relatively well overall since we could do fish fingers and beans, or the odd sausage dinner but with some vegetables, a few nice chicken recipes I’d succeeded at with some sort of vegetable sauce, or spaghetti bolognese with a few edible vegetables. However, all 3 of my kids suddenly decided to become vegetarian.
Vegetarian Household
So now, not only could I not cook decent edible meals for my family, but we had the added challenge of making only vegetarian meals. This was not going well…
Their decision cut out all of their fish, and basically any of the chicken recipes. It left me with a couple of sausage recipes which I could substitute for vegetarian sausages. That was never going to be sustainable or offer a variety though! We started having pizza and chips more… and eating out… and just generally our dinner-times went downhill in terms of any nutritional benefit.
I was feeling alarmed. Not only was the healthy dinners impossible, but I didn’t even like the dinners either. I reverted back to 100% junk food in my secret late-at-night eating. I was also dealing with the isolation and loneliness issues I’ve mentioned in other posts, but this was different. This was so deeply rooted into ‘I am a failure of a Mum’ etc, because I could not cook but truly wished to.
Cookery Classes
So what would the answer be to finding out how to cook family meals? The obvious answer to this dilemma was to do a cookery class. They would all be at least a 30 minute commute each way. My youngest kids especially were not emotionally willing for me to leave them with their Dad even. In light of their alarm at the prospect of me not being with them, I also felt alarmed that if I forced the separation and then if something happened (e.g. a broken bone) and I couldn’t be there for 30+ minutes, well, I never did any of the classes.
Then on our local village Facebook page, there was a post by a lovely local lady. She advertised a small cookery class in our village. This meant a 10 minute walk! I signed up immediately. It was indeed a very small class, with a lovely local grandmother and a talkative granddad. It was nice for me to finally get out of the house with a purpose to learn to cook, as well as no pressure to watch the kids. My husband managed the 3 kids alone, whilst I spent 2 hours learning to cook.
Main Cookery Lessons Learnt
- Salt and Onions – The first meal taught me how important a little salt is, especially when cooking onions. One twist of salt into the pan, cover with a lid and some oil, and leave the onions on a low heat for 5 minutes. If they started to burn you can add extra water and turn the heat down. This, combined with a little bit of salt when the recipes said ‘seasoning’ worked magic!
- One of the ladies mentioned that she used a Jamie Oliver cook book. I searched if he had a vegetarian cook book – and he did! It’s called Jamie Oliver VEG and this book has been incredible. I let the kids choose which recipes they liked the look of, in the hope it would get them invested in them. My son’s new favourite is a yellow pepper pasta (‘sunshine pasta’). Given he has turned from refusing to try anything to actually liking something made out of yellow peppers has made me a life-long fan of Jamie Oliver. He also likes some of Jamie’s soup recipes to dunk wholemeal bread into. This is not a complete miracle as he still uses his eyes to make decisions as to whether he likes something… but it is such better progress than before the classes and Jamie’s recipe book.
- I also learnt that home-made dinners are going to be significantly healthier than shop bought meals, just because they’ll have lower salt and additive amounts.
I am not by any means a master chef. But I don’t need to be! I just needed to be able to make a variety of dinners that would give my whole family some nutritional benefit and vegetables. You can see the sorts of vegetables we are now eating with most of our evening meals shown in this post’s main photo above. I did not expect our whole family to love being vegetarian and eat relatively healthily like this. And for my son, he’s watching us all grow comfortable with trying new foods, and every once in a while he is also giving something new a try. As the years go on, I’m sure his love of delicious home-cooked dinners will grow too. My cooking skills will improve even more too.
Favourite Recipes From Online
I’ve broken this down into a few sections. All of these meals are enjoyed by both my husband and myself. Then I’ve got a column for whether my least fussy oldest daughter (aged 8) likes it. For clarification, she loves to eat celery and cucumber… Then I’ve included another column for my average eater / will try most things but not everything youngest daughter (aged 6). And finally a column for my son who, at aged 6, visually has to not see vegetables and it has to smell good. Hopefully one of these columns will match your family’s needs and you can work from there with some starting recipe ideas. From a personal recommendation, all of these are easy to use if you know the very basics of cooking.
| Recipe Name and Website | Chef’s Influence | Parents Views on This Meal | Will Eat Anything Child’s View | Will Try Almost Anything But Not Necessarily Eat All Of It Child | The Fussy Child’s View |
| https://delishsides.com/avocado-potato-salad-jamie-oliver/ | Jamie Oliver | I never knew red potatoes existed! This was quite a surprisingly nice meal. | Liked it. | Liked it but didn’t love it. | Didn’t try it. |
| https://delishsides.com/sweet-potato-fritters-jamie-oliver/ | Jamie Oliver | This is quite easy to make, although takes me longer than the recipe suggests as I think our oven is not up to Jamie Oliver’s standard. Have made it twice so far – the first time we had just on its own. The second time I did beans as well to make it feel more like a meal. | Favourite Dinner. | Ate one the first time. Ate two, with beans as a side, the second time. Has asked for it again. | Tried it but didn’t like. |
| https://delishsides.com/swede-soup-jamie-oliver/ | Jamie Oliver | Left the curry paste out so the kids would eat it. Also left off the yoghurt, corriander seeds and parsnip crisps for sides, as it would likely put the kids off it. | Eats it with and without the bread. | Ate with bread only. Likes it just not without the bread. | Has one try with bread and then pushes it away. He tries it in this way every time we’ve made it though, so visually it’s good but his tastebuds are getting used to it. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/veggie-chilli/ | Jamie Oliver | We’ve eaten this a few times now. Used paprika instead of cayenne pepper. Very, very healthy. | Loves it. | Loves it. | Hasn’t tried yet. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/quick-falafel/ | Jamie Oliver | All of my kids like wholemeal pitta bread, so I hoped they would like this. We’ve done it a few times now. | Loves it all. Eats the falafels on their own once the pitta breads are finished. | The first time ate half of the falafels and all the pitta. Since then, just likes the pitta bread, but doesn’t mind a little bit of the falafels inside. | The first time ate half of the falafels and all the pitta. Now I put the falafels inside and tell him that’s what this recipe is. He then removes the falafels and then eats the pitta bread. I think this is a good start – surely some of the falafel taste is still in the pitta? I’m sure with time he’ll eat the whole thing again. He found it ok the first time so this is a definite meal for us to work at. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/vegan-shepherd-s-pie/ | Jamie Oliver | It’s easy enough but takes a long time. I did cheese instead of breadcrumbs. I also forgot to season – so must remember this the next time and I’m sure it’ll go even better! | Ate bits of it but mostly just ate the mash. | Ate most of this and liked it. Wants me to make it again. | Didn’t try. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta/cauliflower-cheese-spaghetti/ | Jamie Oliver | My husband liked this too. | Liked it. | Ate a bit. | Didn’t try. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/sweet-potato-coconut-cardamom-soup/ | Jamie Oliver | We’ve eaten this many times now. It’s pretty easy to make. | Likes it, but mostly only eats with bread. | Likes it, but mostly only eats with bread. | Likes it, but only eats with bread. This is his favourite soup. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta/squash-tagliatelle | Ate half of it. | Ate half of it. | Ate two spoonfuls (which is good for him!), but said he didn’t really like it. | ||
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta/sweet-pea-orecchiette/ | Jamie Oliver | This was liked by everyone who tried it. | Ate all of it. | Ate all of it. | Didn’t try it. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta/jarred-red-pepper-pasta | Jamie Oliver | We’ve done this twice and it was nice so it is on my favourites list, but for some reason it is spicy. I guess it must be the jarred red pepper. Or perhaps I did too much garlic. Since it wasn’t a huge success with the kids, I’m keeping it as a back-burner in case they like spicy meals one day. | Liked this. | Tried but didn’t like – too spicy. | Ate two forkfuls, so can’t have been bad. But decided he didn’t like it. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/sausage/sausage-casserole/ | Jamie Oliver | This is good! | Liked it. | Liked the potato, may have eaten bits of the rest. | Liked the potato, may have eaten bits of the rest. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta/veggie-pasta-bake/ | Jamie Oliver | The kids all liked this except not the spinach in big clumps from the first attempt. So since then I’ve tried blending less spinach in, although that makes my fussy eater not eat it. So I’d probably do smaller clumps of spinach next time, which he can leave out and everyone else can enjoy still. I missed whether the garlic bread was meant to be cooked first. I think it is meant to be fully cooked (and cooled?) before blending. | Liked it. Wasn’t too fond of the big clumps of spinach, but she did like some of the spinach. She liked it blended in. | Liked it without the clumps of spinach. | Liked it without the clumps of spinach. Didn’t eat it when the spinach was blended in. So think smaller clumps of spinach which he can remove and the rest of this recipe works for him. |
| https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/somerset-stew-cheddar-parsley-mash | BBC Good Food | This has been a regular of ours since before our cookery lessons. It’s always been enjoyed by the girls and parents. Our fussier eater has always eaten the mash. | Loves it. | Likes it without the stew, though if you encourage her to eat the stew with the potato she does enjoy it. | Won’t try the stew part, but loves the mash with parsley. Parsley is good for you… so I’ve always stuck parsley in any mash recipes after this one. |
| https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cauliflower-egg-potato-curry | BBC Good Food | I used to absolutely LOVE this dinner. My kids used to struggle with the spiciness of the curry paste. The other day I thought to retry it but with sundried tomato pesto instead of curry paste. Smash hit! A whole new, non-spicy recipe which (almost) everyone enjoyed. | Ate it all. Wants it again. | Liked it. Ate a lot of it. | Didn’t try it, regardless of me insisting it was different to the spicier version. |
| https://www.happyveggiekitchen.com/cheese-onion-enchiladas/ | Happy Veggie Kitchen | Most of us loved this a couple of years ago. However our local supermarket stopped selling enchilada sauce. I have left it on our favourites list as I should find a recipe for how to make enchilada sauce… when I have more time! | Loved it a lot, especially with creme fraiche on the top. | Liked it, especially with creme fraiche. | Just ate the creme fraiche off the top… and the crispy ends of the enchiladas with hardly any of the sauce on. |
| https://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipeView.do?recipeId=162977 | Ocado | I called this ‘Home Made Soup’ as it was the first soup recipe I ever made a couple of years ago. My kids misheard and thought it’s called ‘Home Ed Soup’. So this is our home ed soup. | Loves it, eats it all. | Likes it, eats mostly with bread but has tried a few times without too. | Likes this with bread. |
| https://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipeView.do?recipeId=42440 | Ocado | This is also an old recipe from pre-cookery classes. It’s still really good. | Likes it. | Likes it. | Hasn’t tried it. |
| https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/desserts/chocolate-cheesecake/ | Jamie Oliver | This is our favourite cake recipe. If you look at the nutritional value, it’s pretty shocking. But it has got the kids involved with helping to bake, which will help them be comfortable with cooking when they need. | Loves it. | Loves it. | Loves it. |
Gentle Parent 