Young farmer lad [17]needs recipes

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shanf1, Apr 12, 7:14pm
My grandson 17 yrs has just left home and now living on a dairy farm in his own cottage and needs quick wholesome recipes.Not too keen on alot of veges. He is a novice cook so very simple ones please.

dorothy_vdh, Apr 12, 7:21pm
maybe someone could buy him a crockpot,or even make him up some meals to put in the freezer if he has one.

I remember when my eldest son went farming he didn't eat very well.Pies and pizza,unfortunately he was too far away for me to send him meals

rainrain1, Apr 12, 7:26pm
Does he have a slow cooker, that might be a good start for stews and roasts.Fill the freezer with chops and sausages and frozen chips, they are always quick and easy. Plenty of eggs, baked beans, tinned spag, rissotto, pizzas

Spaghetti Bolognaise
500 g lean beef mince
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 rashers bacon, chopped
420g can Wattie's Condensed Tomato Soup
400g can Wattie's Pesto Style Tomatoes
400 g dried spaghetti
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or parsley or use 1 tbsp dried
1. Quickly brown the beef mince in a hot frying pan, breaking up the mince with the back of a spoon as it browns. This is best done in two batches. Set aside.

2. Add oil to the frying pan, gently cook onion, garlic, green pepper and bacon until tender, but not brown. Stir in Wattie’s Condensed Tomato Soup and Wattie’s Pesto Style Tomatoes with 1/2 cup water. Return the browned mince to the sauce, mix well, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

3. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.

4. Season the Bolognese sauce and stir through the basil. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese if wished.

shanf1, Apr 12, 7:32pm
Thanks Dorothy, yes I will make him some freezer meals, but he is very independent and wants to learn to cook,A crockpot will be essential for him, he does have a microwave now.

chooky, Apr 12, 7:53pm
I have been making my son his own recipe book for when he goes flatting. Everything that he likes and everything that is easy. From eggs on toast to full meals.Knowing my luch he will never leave home!!!!

chicco2, Apr 12, 8:18pm
There is an Edmonds Flatters cookbook which is good.

lythande1, Apr 12, 8:22pm
Tut tut. he'll end up with deficiencies. Educate him

elliehen, Apr 12, 8:27pm
I've still got one who needs a little motivation to cook properly and I email him recipes to print out and put in a clear file - just one at a time with an interval in between, so as not to overwhelm.I adapt the ingredients and method to make them look easy on the page - so far it's working :)

Plenty of ideas here in Recipes!

ant_sonja, Apr 12, 9:12pm
I love the idea of sending them on their way with a recipe book of all their favorites (and possibly not so favorites!) from home. I could have done with something like that back in the day :-) I agree with the slow cooker, very handy for this time of year. As well as a decent fry pan and one or two good pots to get him started in the kitchen. Then, so long as he can follow a simple recipe and knows some food basics, he should be able to start looking after his own meals without too many problems. Don't know if I'd make up any dishes to pop in freezer once they have fled the nest & are more or less set up (mean mummy here lol) but sending him some handy & yummy ingredients from time to time or some more kitchen tools every now and then can make all the difference, especially if he wants to learn to cook.

Simple recipes ideas such as soups/stews & casseroles are great now that the colder months are ahead of us and the crock pot will take care of 95% of the work :-)Poached/Fried/scrambled or boiled eggs are a quick and filling breakfast as well as porridge which can also be made ahead of time and kept in fridge (he can then simply re-heat a portion in microwave every morning - add a splash of milk and some fruit or whatever he likes.)

Once he starts fending for himself and experimenting with different recipes etc he may even begin to appreciate vegetables- stranger things have happened :-)

cookessentials, Apr 12, 9:27pm
This beef and bean casserole will suit him well, it makes plenty, so will give him a few meals or some to share.

BEEF AND BEAN CASSEROLE

2 tbsp butter
750g minced steak ( I use premium mince)
1 lge onion,finely chopped
1x 425g can of chopped tomatoes
1 cup hot beef stock ( I use a Maggi Beef stock dissolved in boiling water)
125g pasta - I use the curly pasta-often the tri-colour
1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tsp chilli powder ( I use about half as it can be pretty hot with 1tsp)
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce ( Lea & Perrins if you have it)
1x can baked beans

Melt butter in large saucepan (I use my smaller stock pot) and brown the meat and onion. Stir in all the remaining ingredients except the baked beans. Mix together well and simmer with lid on for 30 mins or so,stirring occasionally. Add a little more water if necessary. When pasta is tender and meat is cooked, add the baked beans and stir through. Heat through gently and serve.

cookessentials, Apr 12, 9:28pm
Also, check out the meat thread, there may be some ideas there. i know I put up a chilli con carne and a good spaghetti bolognaise.

pickles7, Apr 12, 9:47pm
lol... and then they drive into town to get a Big Mac.. I did the good Nana thing for my Grandson, then when it stopped, he went straight back to FAST foods. Good luck. A BBQ is great, they don't have any cleaning, after using that. I told him to crank it up on high, gets all the vermin's excrement's well cooked and safe to eat, or, scrape it down before throwing the next steak on .

cookessentials, Apr 12, 10:00pm
best thing you can do and i have been pushing this through our store and website is to teach your children to cook. My son started at 3yo on a chair, next to me in the kitchen. He would help out at the supermarket, choosing fruit and vegetables to put in the bag. I never had a fussy eater and now at 24, he is a brilliant cook and loves to experiment. When flatting earlier on, his mates couldn't boil an egg and they lived on takeaway food.

pickles7, Apr 12, 10:17pm
Why didn't he cook for all of them, cooks.
My son cooks all the meals in his house, for his house mates. He recons, they pay his mortgage, he should look after them. Mind you I do cook the larger cuts of meat for him. whole rolled beef is there fav. His chocolate cake out of a pkt. doesn't last long.
I was too busy to teach my kids to cook, they ate everything put in front of them.

cookessentials, Apr 12, 10:38pm
These were not the mates he was flatting with. Never to busy to teach your children to cook, if you are baking and cooking, they can stand alongside and help and as they get older and get confident, they can make meals themselves.

beebs, Apr 12, 11:16pm
can you teach him to do a basic mince?He could do a slowcooker big batch then, have plain mince one night (with rice/potatoes/spaghetti noodles/on toast), then another night, add some canned tomatoes and chilli beans and have it as nachoes with cornchips, sourcream and cheese, another night, add a couple of tins of flavoured tomatoes and have it on spaghetti for spag bol, he could also have those pastry sheets in the freezer, take a couple out when he gets home and put them on the bench to defrost....then make a pie with mince and pastry

lizab, Apr 12, 11:47pm
those sachets of casserole mixes are easy for flatters.

indy95, Apr 13, 12:31am
Shanf1, you could do a lot worse than buy him a copy of the Australian Woman's Weekly Beginners recipe book. The recipes are very straightforward with clear instructions and there is a photo of every finished dish to give him some idea of what he is aiming for.

greerg, Apr 13, 12:46am
If he learns a few basic things he'll be able to extrapolate as far as he likes.So a basic beef casserole, bolognaise from scratch, a roux based sauce and how to roast and he's away.

duckmoon, Apr 13, 2:38am
start with two basic recipes, and then do variations...

1. Pasta...
In the pantry keep pasta and pasta sauce...
then he can add whatever he has in the fridge - ham, or brocolli, or tuna or whatever...

shanf1, Apr 13, 5:33am
Many thanks to you all.I wish I had had all this advice when I left home [at 20] and didnt know how to cook. No my mother didnt teach me, I did her gardens instead, didnt want to know how the kitchen worked.Had a laugh at Pickles7 comment, yep he does love his Big Macs, certainly hasnt made him fat at all, but better than veges!!I have copied out the Bean and Beef recipe, might even try that one myself, thanks cookessentials.What a marvellous site this is, and always a good laugh.Thanks again.

punkinthefirst, Apr 13, 6:46am
Don't want to sound like a Nana, but he's going to need the vitamins he gets from fruit and/or veges, if he is to cope with the long hard hours he'll be working..... akin to those of a finely tuned athlete. If he absolutely won't eat them, buy him a large bottle of multivitamins.

lcscott, Apr 14, 12:06am
he needs a wifelol

macandrosie, Apr 14, 10:18am
Yep get him a slow cooker! You can put a whole frozen chicken in an oval slow cooker turn it onto low & it will be ready late afternoon! Apart from that in Paper Plus just now they are advertising those recipe books with 4 ingredients. However as Iscott suggested a wife might be the best solution!

macandrosie, Apr 14, 10:22am
Our son is working for us just now (on the farm) & the first door he opens at our place is the fridge! Those young lads know how to load the hump when thye get the chance! If I'm feeling generous I'll cook an extra big lasagne or casserole, & send some home with him, the guys never have potatoes, can't be bothered cooking them! Have been known to buy that frozen mashed stuff! You can bake spuds wrapped in tinfoil in the slow cooker.