2015 Cookbook challenge

A question about : 2015 Cookbook challenge

Hi all! Well this is the first time for me starting a thread. I've committed to cooking from all my cookbooks this year as a challenge at home. I have quite a lot, although have not totalled them up yet!

A bit about me....I'm a 40 something mum of one and wife who enjoys cooking but don't seem to find as much time to do it as I used to. Also as there are only 3 of us, it's often tricky to find things we all like and although he is reasonably adventurous, there are things my little one won't eat. I currently cook most meals from scratch / batch cook reasonably often and make most of our bread. However I feel somewhat stuck in a rut with recipes.

It's a shame seeing all those books sitting there un-used and I want to do more meal planning and add in variety to our meals during 2015. Hopefully I've chosen the right board as this is about cooking from scratch and avoiding waste...both of books and food!

Anyone fancy joining me but otherwise I will just ramble on!

If you haven't already, join the forum to reply!

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Best answers:

• So to get me going, I am going to start with Jamie's new book, I used some Christmas money I rec'd to buy it the other day. I'm going to aim for 2 recipes from it in Jan as I also want yo target another cook book....as yet undecided!
• Hello KDF
  I would like to join you. I'm a wife & mum of 2 girls.
  We have similar challenges - I'm veggie, and I work some evenings so finding food that suits us all and can possibly be served at 2 sittings!
  We had lunch out today so just planning sandwiches tonight but I'll have a look and let you know my first recipe plans. I did a similar challenge in 2011 and cooked over 100 new recipes
  I've love cookery books and got a new one for Christmas so will probably start there.
  Good luck x
• Hi Scholt,
  Good to have you on board and know that something like this has worked for someone in the past. I'm not great with New Year resolutions...great at planning them, less good at carrying through.
  I have quite a few books I've shamefully never cooked from and need to change that. However need to combine it with losing some weight too, so not too much baking in January sadly
  Good luck to you too x
• Liking this thread ~ I have loads of shiny clean cookbooks that need opening...currently hidden in boxes as we're renovating, but once sorted, will definitely do this...Jamie's books, Nigel Slater and my slow cooker and veggie books need putting to use!
• I've been helping my parents sort the loft as they want to move house and have ended up with a stack of my mum's old cookbooks that she was going to get rid of. As it's only me I often eat the same thing 2 or 3 nights in a row, and only have to cater for myself 5 nights a week so couldn't commit to a challenge! But I will be lurking with interest.
  Good luck!
• Hi! I'll join in too, since the Cook Something Different thread seems to have died. I'm only cooking for myself so no problems with worrying if anyone else will eat it. I've been cooking roughly one new thing per week from my cookbooks and will try to keep that up.
  This week's new recipe was pasta with lemon and walnuts from Plenty More.
• Id like to get involved in this too. I have just moved house and am about to unpack my books, I have a shameful amount of cook books that I haven't cooked anything from!
  I have the JO budget cooking book, so will leaf through that to make a start. I don't have time during the week to cook a proper meal as I don't get in from work until late but fri-sun I have no excuse!
  Can we share the recipes that we are trying too for inspiration?
• Love it! Brilliant idea!
  Might have to make some substitutions to recipes as also trying to cut back on grocery spending... so can't justify buying a huge pack of something exotic just to use once.. but will definitely give it a go.
  I don't have many cook books but they're ALL neglected so I think I'll try and do at least three recipes from each, and at least one *new* meal a week
• I'd like to join in this challenge. I don't have as many cook books as I used to have, as I've got rid of a lot during my decluttering, but I still have quite a few that never get used, so I must start trying some new recipes this year, instead of just making the same things over and over.
• I would love to join this thread. I like cooking a lot and try to cook new things often. I have just counted and I have 56 cookbooks! I will do at least one new thing a week. I still will barely have cooked any meals from all the books!
  Think I have a cookbook problem!
• I'm in too......will aim for at least one new recipe each week from my mainly Jamie Oliver books
• Hi I would like to join in as well. I have culled my recipe cooks and tend to use the interweb a lot but have the three Hairy Dieters cook books which I intend to use among others. I will aim for one new recipients a week. I'm not very tech savvy so will most like not be posting pictures but will give a description of the results of my trials.
• This sounds like a great idea. I keep buying more cookbooks even though I have loads of recipes untried in the existing ones.
• Hi, I'll join,too! I have loads of recipe books but don't use them as much as I should. I have the Hairy Dieters 3 cookbooks and although I used loads of the recipes from the first books, I have hardly tried any out of the other two. My main goal will be to try at least one new recipe a week from books 2 and 3.
  Just editing to say I have just noticed Mrs veg plot's post and it seems our goal is very similar! It will be interesting to compare!
• I'm in. We tried a new recipe just the other day from the fastest Hairy Dieters book. Chicken cacciatore it was delicious, next to be tried will be their potato bread. We were given a large sack of spuds for a Xmas premise so spuds will be featuring heavily in our diet for the next few months. Lol
• I'm pretty good at using my cookbooks but would love to join you. My boys tried school dinners last term and although they enjoyed them it didn't save me any money on the food bill and my eldest still wanted a cooked meal in the evening. So it's back to packed lunches and me providing wholesome food in the evening. I bought JO Ministry of Food a while back and there are lots of recipes that I'm sure the kids will eat so I might start with that one. My DD will just have to have 2 cooked meals as she gets the free meals as she is in foundation. I can't see that it will do her any harm. Look forward to sharing.
• Please count me in as I am on the NOT BUYING IT thread and part of this year is to cull some of my stuff which includes lots of recipe books have accumulated.
  I plan to do one new one a week and if it is popular will copy it out to save with the aim of donating the actual cookery book (if that makes sense?) Today I made a root veg crumble from the Cranks cookbook which will be eaten tomorrow so will report back but smells good and used only store cupboard stuff and is easily varied.
• Hello.
  Venturing out of DFW section as this caught my attention. I was just saying to OH (in the spirit of new years resolutions) that we should cook different foods and make more from scratch. We are trying to become more mature and live less like students (neither of us are students any more but are both quite immature).
  So this is exactly right for me as I have heaps of cookery books and loads of recipes saved on the internet. Although I might give my Zumbo cookery book a miss on this challenge.
  The aim is to try at least one new recipe a week but we will try to do more. I would love to get better at cooking and have more recipes that I can actually cook.
  Hope you don't mind me joining in.
  edit: fairy3... I have a folder with recipes from the internet so that I don't have to keep tracking them down. I haven't really tried to make any of them though.
  I would also like to get rid of the cookbooks eventually.
• Wow! I'm amazed by the response and that everyone has similar feelings to me! The common goal seems to be 1 new recipe a week and I will aim for that too.
  I'll will also add which recipe I've used and am happy to share although I have no idea to upload photos! As a start I'm going to try the ice cream recipe from JO Comfort Foods as I have loads of cream un-used from Christmas which will soon go out of date.
  I'm also going to re-visit recipes I haven't cooked for a while as I go through the books. I made the Delia minestrone soup from her soup collection on Tuesday, as I haven't made that for a couple of years. It was delicious and made good use of a large amount of the turkey stock. It also feels healthy after all the Christmas over-eating as it's full of vegetables.
  I also made a batch of left over veg soup....some cooked veg lurking in the fridge from Christmas along with a few in the salad box that would go to waste....1/4 of a swede etc. I even threw in the leftover Brussels thinking that would be my undoing but once blended and a dash of cream added (I seriously overpurchased!) it is also good. It is now stashed in the freezer as we have the minestrone to eat. Fortunately I love soup for lunch and bought a new soup flask in the Sainsbo sale to use at work.
  I will count up my cook books tomorrow and add ....I'll not start on the stack of Good Food magazines and recipes saved from the internet. However that reminds me of a great blackberry ice cream recipe I found online in the autumn and made. I found some blackberries in the freezer the other day so that will tackle more of the cream mountain! Best go freeze by ice cream maker bowl.
  Happy cooking all x