Before lockdown, I didn’t really enjoy cooking. I enjoyed eating, but the process of getting there wasn’t something I really enjoyed or put in a lot of love. I had a rotation of meals I enjoyed eating and were easy to make. But now that I have more time in the evenings and a boyfriend who seriously enjoys cooking, I have been learning both how to cook and how to enjoy it. Below I’ve outlined some of our favourite meals, most pretty easy to make and especially delicious!
Chicken Ramen (but make it fancy)
I LOVE ramen. When we eat out, Conor and I enjoy Japanese cuisine and have discovered some great ramen bars in London. So it makes sense that we would learn to cook a really good ramen while in lockdown. And it was still pretty easy to make!
We used miso soup as our base and added chicken, cabbage, onions, carrots, and ginger. Very easy – I did the chopping while Conor did the meat and the presentation.
Crispy Duck Salad
We had leftover crispy duck from making crispy duck pancakes the night before. So we repurposed our crispy duck into a salad, adding lettuce, carrots, greens, and an asian dressing. *chef’s kiss*
This was a super simple way to eat leftovers and still feel relatively healthy. Great light lunch idea!
Sunday Roast
I love this English tradition. It’s like Thanksgiving but acceptable to do it every Sunday! Chicken, stuffing, potatoes, veggies, and Yorkshire puddings! Oh my! We don’t do this every week but I love it every time we do. And it’s pretty easy – the only thing that’s difficult is timing to make sure it’s all done at the same time.
Hibachi
Like Benihana, but not as fancy. We bought a hibachi grill one of the first days of lockdown and honestly it was the best purchase we made. We love Benihana when we’re not under lockdown and we’ve almost cracked it (though nothing can truly replace the experience of Benihana). And it’s lovely to do in the garden when the sun is shining – which doesn’t happen often over here!
Bento Bowl (sort of)
This is my favourite meal because it’s so easy and so tasty. I seriously cannot get enough of peppers, onions, broccoli and garlic. I usually don’t have chicken with it because I don’t like handling raw meat but Conor helped out with this one. All over rice and sprinkle a bit of soy sauce in there *chef’s kiss*.
Chocolate Cupcakes! (ft. English Breakfast Tea)
I know it’s not ‘cooking’, it’s baking, but I still want to include it because I’ve been baking a lot more than usual. Thank you Betty Crocker. While Conor enjoys baking from scratch (hello delicious cinnamon buns), I am still as terrible at baking as I am at cooking if I don’t follow a recipe. So I cut out the middle man (that’s me) and go for the premixed box baking because how can I mess that up? Famous last words. I somehow managed to turn cookie dough into a hybrid cookie brownie cake. But I’ve pretty much nailed chocolate cake, whether in cup form or not.
Bonus meals!
Not pictured: only because I keep forgetting to take pictures because I keep forgetting I have a blog
Fajitas – my favourite meal to make!
Stir Fry – Besides ramen, this is our second go to meal. As I said, I simply cannot get enough of onions, peppers, and garlic. Add some stir fry sauce and bon appetit
Spaghetti Bolognese – Conor is unendingly disappointed that I do not like this meal and prefer to eat my spaghetti with only butter and parmesan cheese. But it is such an easy meal and smells delicious!
California Girl Going Global 