i should make a low-effort cookbook
like you get thoseĀ āi hate to cook! 101: easy meals for the kitchen novice!ā and it still wants you to make a three-cheese spinach casserole
mine would be like
did you know you can put chocolate chips on a spoonful of peanut butter and obtain the perfect snack
did you know if you crack some eggs into your pasta sauce and stir thereās more protein in it so you can go longer without having to make another goddamn meal
did you know you can mix a cup of cooked rice to any condensed soup instead of water and now you have dinner andĀ breakfast
also put cheese on it
put cheese on fucking everything
and finally hereās a list of things you can microwave in a short enough time that you wonāt walk out of the kitchen, go back to bed, fall asleep for four hours, and totally forget you attempted a lunch
frozen pizza is expensive but! Ā biscuits in a can + last dregs of jar of tomato sauce + some shredded mozzarella cheese = EIGHT MINIPIZZAS
dump all your chinese delivery into a hot pan and crack two eggs into it, stir, now it is soft and good
if you add a kraft single to mac and cheese from the box itās magically more delicious (and if you also add hot sauce then itās spicy)
nachos: chips + shredded cheese + salsa + rummage in fridge in case thereās other things? Ā and then under the broiler for a minute or two. Ā if itās hot it counts as a meal! Ā works good on stale chips.
an incomplete list of vegetables that wonāt instantly rot on you: anything frozen, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes (they get wrinkly but u can still eat them), carrots, onionsā¦i throw away a lot of veggies that have gone soft :(
i love parchment paper. Ā $4 for a roll but lay it down on ur baking sheet and know youāll never have to scrub cheese or cookie crumbs off it again. Ā perfect for cooking with low spoons. Ā nothing sticks to it!
also: mug cakes also also: if you cook rice you might as well dump some canned tomatos and canned beans in it. TADA NUTRITIONALLY COMPLETE MEALS in the list of foods that last: apples. apples can last an entire fucking winter. also also also: cottage cheese + bell peppers + crackers = what I ate for dinner for like a year
1. You cook the rice in a pot. No spices, no nothing, just water oil and rice.Ā
2. Just before itās ready, when thereās about a pinkie fingernailās worth of water on the top, add in a tablespoon of peanut butter.Ā
3. Stir. Cook the rest of the way.Ā
4. Itās a meal! It has carbs and protein, itās filling, it tastes good and it looks and feels like a legitimate dish, which is great for lifting the spirits a bit.Ā
5. If you feel fancy, add a teaspoon of honey or a handful of crushed peanuts.Ā
Alt., mix the rice with lentils. Cereal (rice, wheat) + legume (lentils, beans) = complete protein. Most peopleās bodies will accept that in lieu of animal products.
Since no-one explained how to cook rice: (1) put bit of oil in pot, heat up on medium flame, (2) add 1-1.5 cup rice, mix up and add a bit of salt (you may need to reduce flame), (3) while youāre doing that, boil water in an electric pot, (4) add 2 cup water for each 1 cup rice; reduce flame a few seconds before you do that and mind the steam wonāt hit you, (5) cover and set a 20min timer.
Pasta: (1) boil water, lots of water (covered pot goes fast; you can also use an electric pot for a shortcut and bring to a full boil on the stove - experiment), (2) up to 100 gr pasta per 1L water will work, but the more water per pasta the better, (3) reduce flame to medium (light bubbling), add pasta, set time to 10min, (4) check and add time as necessary - you may not need to.
Egg or bean noodled cook faster than pasta - like, half the time.
Easiest pasta sauce: 20-50gr of butter, melt; 1-2tbs lemon juice, homogenize; dump in pasta (and possibly peas, boiled from frozen). Taken 5min or under and will liven up pasta thatās been sitting in the fridge.
Easiest cream sauce: 1 standard (250ml) cream carton, 1 tsp shredded cheese (keeps well in freezer) or more, 1 tbs cottage cheese, spices to taste. Heat in a small pot on a small-to-medium flame while stirring constantly (if itās too hot to stick a finger in, itās too hot). Takes maybe 5-10min. Will keep in fridge up to 1 week.
Rice freezes well. Pasta doesnāt. Plain pasta (and most noodles) will last for up to a month in the fridge, though, and just dump it in the pan with some ketchup/tomato paste(+oil + water) and youāre good.
ā¦nobody said that dry onion lasts? Dry onion lasts. Fried onion freezes well and keeps forever. So does diced garlic. If you like āem but worried about them going bad/donāt always have the time or spoons to deal with āem, there you go.
Fresh bread freezes well. Keep emergency bread in your freezer, sliced. Itāll thaw in the fridge/on the counter overnight, or you can stick a slice as-is in the toaster (just turn it up 1 notch relative to your usual preference).
Potatoes in their peel are the single most nutritious food. (You can, actually, survive on mashed potatoes.) A boiled potato will stay good in the fridge for a couple days. Boil partway (should still somewhat resist a fork), turn over/toaster oven on 150C (350F) or higher while you do the rest, slice potato(s), spread like deck of cards, brush oil over (with the sort of silicone brush one uses for eggs - costs next to nothing and youāll be glad you got it), bit of salt, stick into oven and come back 20-40min later. Will re-heat well.
All of the following are good in eggs, just (1) dump them in the pan before the eggs, (2) the more you fluff up the eggs the betters: cubed semi-boiled potatoes, sliced/cubed tomatoes, tinned garbanzo beans (<-legume), tinned/frozen corn. Tinned and frozen stuff lasts forever. A pre-boiled potato and a couple eggs will save your ass on a cold, miserable morning.
3 shortbread cookies + 2 glasses of milk = 500kcal balanced dinner. Or breakfast.
1 cup cooked pasta + couple fluffed up eggs + shredded cheese (from frozen) to taste, in a stove-top pan or in the oven for ~20min = full meal.
Black lentils, cooked, will last nicely in the fridge - and unlike other legumes, they donāt need a pre-soak and only take 20min to cook. Ā½ bowl + 3 tbs oil + 2 tsp lemon juice + Ā¼ onion = dinner so nutritious you wonāt believe it.
Cottage cheese and honey. No really. You only need a couple tsp honey for 250gr cottage tub.
1tbs peanut butter (flat as you can make it) + 3 tbs soy + 2 tbs maple/honey + 1 tsp vinegar = marinade for ~500gr of whatever. Takes ~5min to mix, 20min-2hr to soak, 5-10min to fry (non-stick pan and you donāt need oil). This + pot of rice (<-make while chicken/meat soaks) = lunch for a week. (Or dinner, if dinnerās your main meal.)
A tin of mayonnaise will last for months in the fridge. Hardboiled eggs last a nice while, too. 3 hardboiled eggs, chopped + 1tbs mayo + 1/3 onion chopped = 5min of work and egg salad for a few highly nutritious meals.
Ever make yourself hot chocolate? Make it with milk instead of water, for fuckās sake. A large cup of hot chocolate is a legit small meal.
Buy broccoli and green beans frozen. For a couple dollars you can get a big enough bag of either to get at least 8-10 servings out of it and it keep for at least 6 months if you keep the bag closed. Buy a jar of chopped garlic in olive oil as well. Thatāll keep in your fridge for months and adding a little bit to a handful of broccoli or green beans and sauteing(lightly browning them in a pan or pot on the stove) them together until everything is warm is a cheap, easy way to have a flavorful snack or meal.Ā
Also, ramen, drop an egg and a handful of some kind of frozen veggie(the previously mentioned ones or even some mixed carrots and peas) it adds a lot of nutritional value to your ramen, makes it so much more filling, and makes it have way better flavor than plain ramen.Ā
Buy a jar of Better than Bouillon. Amazon has them for as cheep as $2.99 a jar and one jar has enough in it to make a couple gallons of broth. Just one teaspoon of this stuff added to 1 cup of water will give you a deliciously broth for soup. Pick your flavor and drop whatever veggies or noodles youāve got leftover in the fridge and youāve got dinner. Itās also great to add to the water youāre cooking your rice in to give it some flavor as well.Ā
Donāt buy boxed Kraft mac and cheese. It may seem like an easy approach but there is a cheaper approach. A 3 lb bag of macaroni noodles is only a couple dollars and you can get a 1 lb bag of the powdered cheese just like in Kraft for $10 on Amazon. I bought a bag of cheese powder that size and it lasted me more than a year and I made mac and cheese once a week. You can also mix it with milk and broccoli and youāve got a great dinner of broccoli cheese soup.Ā
My biggest tip for saving money on food is to make things that will freeze well. Say you make a pot of spaghetti. You could get 5 or 6 servings out of a full pot easily, if not more, but youāll get tired of spaghetti before itās gone. Stick servings in plastic baggies(which are fine to rinse and reuse!) and freeze them! Then youāll be able to take out just the amount to eat for a meal and have some back up meals for when youāre loaded down with work, homework, etc and have no time to make a meal.Ā
Iā¦ Really, reeeeally wish Iād seen this about 5 months ago. So rebloggin now so I can find it again.
Get yourself some mac n cheese, throw some frozen corn & some canned meat (we usually use spam). Super easy, and the only way I eat mac n cheese. You can add some chopped jalapeno or hot sauce for spicy. Or, alternately, make yourself some tuna mac. Mac n cheese, peas, onions, drained tuna, and some breadcrumbs. All the things u need in a meal. And for cheap.
Hullo, another quick tip from a culinary student who has been yelled at a number of times for wasting greens!! Those pesky fresh greens that wilt and go soft can be saved! Just grab some ice water or just a container of really cold water and stick your celery, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and hell even fresh herbs can be saved. Leave it in the fridge over night (or if youāre impatient a few hours) and tada! Crisp greens for your consuming needs. If youāre planning on doing this with lettuce remember to remove the heart and kind of separate the leaves. With cabbage and iceberg lettuce just smack it, heart down (the heart is the gross hard part connecting the leaves) on the counter or table or any hard surface and rip that sucker out like itās the heart of your sworn enemy. With Romaine and other leaf lettuce, remove the unwanted and battered leaves from the outside (these will be bitter and unpleasant) and cut about two inches up from the base, pull apart the leaves and put in the water. With herbs (try to avoid doing this with the woody herbs such as thyme and rosemary as it wonāt actually do anything), just take the leaves off of the stem first. Celery on the other hand is easy, you donāt even need to separate it, just toss it in the water. Be sure to cover your container as well. Salads are quick and easy as well as terribly healthy. Enjoy your leaves friends <3
