Five Meals Everyone Should Know How to Cook
If you can cook these five meals, you can feed yourself and your family for life. They're cheap, nutritious, adaptable, and genuinely delicious. No packets. No jars. Just real ingredients and basic skills.
Meal 1: Scrambled Eggs (10 minutes)
Ingredients: 2-3 eggs, butter, salt, pepper.
Method: Beat eggs lightly with a fork. Melt butter in a non-stick pan over low-medium heat. Add eggs. Stir gently with a spatula, pushing curds from the edges to the centre. Remove from heat while still slightly wet — they continue cooking. Season.
Variations: Add cheese, herbs, smoked salmon, mushrooms, or spinach.
Meal 2: Pasta With Sauce (20 minutes)
Ingredients: Pasta, olive oil, garlic, tinned tomatoes, salt, basil.
Method: Cook pasta in salted boiling water (1 tablespoon salt per litre). While pasta cooks, sauté sliced garlic in olive oil for 1 minute. Add tinned tomatoes. Simmer 10 minutes. Season. Toss with drained pasta. Tear over basil.
Variations: Add meat, vegetables, chilli, olives, or capers.
Meal 3: Stir-Fry (15 minutes)
Ingredients: Rice or noodles, any protein (chicken, tofu, prawns), any vegetables, soy sauce, garlic, ginger.
Method: Cook rice/noodles. Heat oil in a wok or large pan until very hot. Cook protein first, remove. Cook vegetables (hardest first: carrots, then capsicum, then greens). Return protein. Add sauce (soy sauce + garlic + ginger). Toss. Serve over rice.
Meal 4: Roast Vegetables + Protein (45 minutes, mostly hands-off)
Ingredients: Any vegetables (potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, zucchini, onion), olive oil, salt, chicken thighs or sausages.
Method: Cut vegetables into similar-sized pieces. Toss with oil and salt. Spread on a baking tray with protein. Roast at 200°C for 35-40 minutes.
Meal 5: Soup (30 minutes)
Ingredients: Onion, garlic, any vegetables, stock (or water + stock cube), salt.
Method: Sauté onion and garlic. Add chopped vegetables. Add stock to cover. Simmer until vegetables are soft (15-20 minutes). Blend for smooth soup or leave chunky. Season.
Variations: Pumpkin, potato and leek, minestrone, chicken and vegetable — the template is the same.
Cost Comparison
Each of these meals costs approximately $3-6 per serve from scratch. The equivalent takeaway or ready-made meal costs $12-20+. Cooking from scratch is one of the most effective money-saving skills you can develop.
Tonight's Question
"Which of these five meals could our family cook together this week? Let's pick one and do it."
The Five Meal Challenge
- Over the next five weeks, cook each of the five meals together.
- Each week, a different family member leads the cooking (with help).
- Rate each meal: taste, difficulty, cost, time.
- By the end, everyone in the family can cook five real meals.
- Calculate total savings vs what you would have spent on takeaway/pre-made food.
Go Further
- Book: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (2008) — the ultimate reference for simple, real cooking.
- Challenge: Cook every meal from scratch for one week. No packets, jars, or takeaway.
- Research: What are the most cost-effective meals you can cook? (Hint: beans, lentils, eggs, and seasonal vegetables.)
- Skill: Master one meal until you can cook it without looking at a recipe.
What We Simplified
- These recipes are starting points. Real cooking involves adjusting to taste, available ingredients, and experience.
- Not everyone has a full kitchen. Some families cook with limited equipment or space. Adaptations are possible.
- Cooking takes time. We acknowledge that after a long day, a pre-made meal is sometimes the right choice. The goal is capability, not perfection.
Sources
- Bittman, M. (2008). How to Cook Everything. Wiley.
- Oliver, J. (2010). Jamie's 30-Minute Meals. Michael Joseph.
- ABS (2022). "Household Expenditure on Food." Cat. 6530.0.
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