A cooking flylady?

[coleslaw]

I have never been very into cooking. We do take-out or go out to restaurants way too often. I know it's a big mistake for so many reasons, but I dread the whole process of cooking - the planning meals, having the right foods in the house, remembering to take the meat out of the freezer in time, not buying too much so that food goes to waste or buying too little and having to go again. And then cooking at the end of the day when I've had it. To those who are really good at it, I know I sound pathetic, but I have come to realize that it stems from not having a good role model in this area and my mom used to make fun of me whenever I cooked and would make fun of me whenever I made a mistake. She still brings up the time I made blueberry muffins and almost forgot the blueberries from 20-something years ago.

I have a crockpot, wok and George Forman grill but am intimidated by them. I have no organization to my recipes - and not many decent things that I make. We have milk issues in the family, so any recipe I find seems to have a milk product in it. I know much of what it takes to eat healthy, but I still seem to need help.

I know there is flylady to help with cleaning the house and such. Is there something for cooking? Or can anyone give me tips. Thanks!

[Persephone]

There is a place. Oddly enough, I was looking at flylady's site today, and there is a link there to a site to help with cooking and meal planning and such. It's a pay site, but I think that the savings of not eating out as often would well offset it. It's here: http://www.savingdinner.com/

And looking over the flylady site again, there's a few pages about meals and cooking: http://www.flylady.net/pages/FoodForThought1.asp

[coleslaw]

Thanks so much! It's a great website. I'm going to try a sample menu and see how it goes.

[heatherdeg]

My BIL had a girlfriend like you... and she made the absolute BEST tuna casserole I have ever tasted in my life. Once she overcame the fear, she could experiment (something some of us got to do in younger years under the guidance of moms and grandmas) and then she got great. You're just starting this journey now that you're old enough to care about what others think!

There are plenty of recipes out there without milk products and there are substitutes for alot of milk stuff. We have casein (milk protein) allergies in this house and it's in alot of processed/packaged stuff. So everything is cooked from scratch.

There is recently a great idea on a thread in the food forum. A poster here got together 21 recipes and these are all her family eats all month. It doesn't sound like alot, but it really is quite a variety. I challenge you to do the same. If you go into the Meal Planning forum you'll see the thread.

Then, try some version of bulk cooking. Even if it's just doubling/tripling the amount when you cook something and freezing the extra for another day. That gets you off the hook for another 1-2 nights of cooking. If you have a FoodSaver and can vacuum seal the food in bags, they're easier to cook/defrost by throwing the bag in the microwave or a pot of boiling water--so remembering to take them out of the freezer isn't a trauma.

Keep track of what you have in the freezer and pantry. This is time-consuming to set up, but will help with food shopping and meal planning. If you have stuff you need to use up, check out the Pantry Challenge thread (I think it's in the Meal Planning forum).

You will be STUNNED by how much money your family saves by eating at home. You don't have to be a master chef--it doesn't take much. And health-wise, you'll benefit greatly. If you incorporate some version of bulk cooking, you'll also save lots of time to spend on cleaning or your family.

Maybe I should start a FlyLady site for cooking...!

[coleslaw]

I just bumped into my thread by accident (I didn't know it was moved) and saw your reply heatherdeg. Thanks so much! I know I need to do more organizing so I will check out the new boards here to get me going. I have come to the conclusion that it just takes practice to be a decent cook. I am working on it!