I’m not a very good cook. It’s one the biggest things I struggle with in this whole adulthood thing actually. I have this problem where if I mess up a recipe, I take it as a personal offence on my ability to take care of myself. Oh, hypersensitivity, is there anything you don’t take a personal offence? Anyways, that means that simple recipes that are easy to make en masse and freeze for leftovers are my life blood. Here are my most reliable recipes to make over and over that I’ve found on Pinterest. I’ll list my pros and cons with each recipe, so you can know whether or not you’d like to try it yourself! Also I’ll try my best to not put “it’s yummy!” on every pro list.
Breakfast
Baked Oatmeal Recipe by The Wholesome Dish
Pros
- Makes enough to easily last a week and then some of breakfast
- Easily customizable to your personal tastes by changing the toppings
- Easier portion control with the handy bites
Cons
- After being reheated, they get a little tougher and chewier, and not in a good way
- Toppings can burn due to how long the oatmeal takes
- More of a sweet breakfast, while I rather a savory breakfast
Lunch
Crock Pot Creamy Tomato by True Couponing
Pros
- Goes very well with a grilled cheese, which makes for a perfect lunch
- Even for a crock pot meal, the precooking instructions are extremely simple. There is no chopping or anything besides pour in and turn on
- It reheats really well
Cons
- You need an immersion blender, or you could try to strain the soup into a normal blender. Either way it’s kind of a pain
- It’s not really necessary to make in the crock pot. It seems a bit wasteful to spend 6 hours of electricity in a crock pot when you could probably cook it on your stove top in a couple minutes
- Still rather watery, even though it calls itself creamy. Perhaps adding more butter could easily remedy this, but I haven’t actually tried myself
Dinner
Creamy Tomato and Spinach Pasta by Budget Bytes
Pros
- A realistic sauce AKA doesn’t expect you to chop 27 fresh tomatoes and just tells you to get some canned ones
- Doesn’t require too many pans, especially for a pasta dish. You could make it in one
- Very singular cooking style, by which I mean there is only one thing going on at once. You don’t have to try to coordinate three different components to be prepared at the same time
Cons
- Loses quite a bit of quality when reheated, especially the creaminess of the sauce
- The recipe has prices associated with the ingredients which is a really unreliable fact to include since prices on groceries vary from region to region
- Way too much onion for me personally (obviously this can be changed)
Sausage and Spring Vegetable Pasta by Lexi’s Clean Kitchen
Pros
- Absolutely full of vegetables that are absolutely full of vitamins
- Uses sausage instead of chicken, which I find 99% of pasta recipes use
- True to it’s name, in springtime every vegetable is in season (at least in Southern Ontario)
Cons
- There is no sauce, so it doesn’t taste like a regular pasta dish
- It claims to be a one pot meal, but I’ve never done it that way. That requires you to put raw sausage in with vegetables to cook, and I always feel nervous about not cooking meat separately and then combining it with other ingredients
- You also need several large pots in that case, because there are so many vegetables (at least if you’re making the standard six servings)
Slow Cooker Ground Beef Tacos by Wholesomelicious
Pros
- It’s a slow cooker recipe, which means way less effort. I love my slow cooker
- You don’t even have to brown the beef beforehand
- It’s really well seasoned. The recipe has it’s own taco seasoning, and I find it very delicious and better than store bought
Cons
- It’s extremely greasy and watery. I would recommend cutting down on the apple cider vinegar and chicken broth in equal amounts. That should generally preserve the flavor but make the meat less runny
- It makes SO much. It say 4 servings, but I find it’s a lot more. Although that’s only a con to me because I only have two mouth to feed, including mine
- It gets even waterier after reheating it
So there are my favourite recipes so far! I have found tons of other ones on Pinterest as well obviously, since it’s chalk full of them, but these are the ones that I’ve found myself making again and again. They’re on the simpler side and are very delicious indeed. Let me know if you try any of them and how they go for you! Thanks for reading and later days!
PIN ME:
Avoiding Adulthood 