How To Feed Yourself

I'm 26, been cooking since I was about 4 years old. I love cooking, but life is chaos and feeding yourself is hard when you barely feel like existing. So here's a blog to help: simple recipes, easy prep, and budget friendly ideas to help you

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In the interest of the "care and keeping of humans" side of this blog, I would like to recommend that you talk to your doctor about taking some very basic supplements (especially if you are on any kind of hormone treatments!), especially as we head into winter. For me, I take a multivitamin for women and a lysine supplement.

For multivitamins, I do recommend going with one meant for people with your hormone situation (i.e. women's vs men's vs senior). I'm normally not one for gendered anything, but hormones affect basically everything in the body, and that means if you have more estrogen or more testosterone, it is going to affect what vitamins and minerals your body needs. If you're on hormone therapy for any reason, it's definitely a great idea to talk to your prescriber or PCP about what supplements will help you specifically, if you haven't already (for example, if you're on testosterone supplementation, your immune system likely needs a boost, so more vitamin C might be a good idea).

Like I said earlier, I also take a lysine supplement. Lysine is thought to aid your immune system in battling viral infections. However, PLEASE DO NOT GO OUT AND SUDDENLY TAKE A TON OF LYSINE. It is not some magic cure, it will not protect you from COVID, and you should always talk to a doctor about adding any medication or supplement to your regimen. I can tell you thatsince starting using lysine, I have fewer issues with fever blisters and the ones I do get seem to stay smaller and last a shorter amount of time. Of course, that could be totally unrelated, so talk to your PCP about all this!!

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Well the good news is, I made a whole chicken for the first time (see the whole chicken with lemon recipe i posted a while back)! The "bad" news (which isn't that bad) is that I accidentally left it in the slow cooker way longer than it needed and it completely fell apart. But now I have shredded chicken and chicken stock, so still a win in my book!

To make the stock, I just took the liquid left over from cooking the chicken, put the bones from the chicken in there, added black pepper corns and more water, and let it boil for several hours. Then just strain, cool, remove the fat on top, and freeze!

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Been a while since I posted, but today I thought I would mention the wonders of freezing things.

I honestly don't keep any meat in my fridge for more than maybe a couple days. I freeze basically all of my meat. This is because meat is almost always less expensive to buy in bulk and freezes very well. This also works well for me because I really only go grocery shopping a couple times a month, if that. Generally, I buy several pounds of chicken (both breasts and thighs) and some ground beef, then portion it out and freeze in single portions.

This makes it easy to cook for just two people or to prep a bunch of meals at once; I just defrost whatever amount I need. It also gives more flexibility because I have various types of meat to make whatever I feel like making that day.

I also made my own stock for the first time this weekend (chicken stock and vegetable stock, very inexpensive and easy, I'll post about those later), and froze those in plastic bags so I can break off however much I need or defrost the whole thing, as needed.

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This Totally Counts as a Recipe

You will need: rice, peanut butter, honey if you want

Cook the rice in a pot. When there’s about ¼” water left on top, add 1 Tbsp peanut butter. Stir and cook the rest of the way. 

If you feel fancy, add a teaspoon of honey or a handful of crushed peanuts.

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How to make a week’s worth of lunches in about an hour

Start with putting some frozen chicken thighs in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and set a timer for about 20 minutes.If you’re using thawed chicken, skip the defrost period and just preheat your oven.

Next, cut up your veggies (I used zucchini). Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Set that on top of the oven until you’re ready for it. After the defrost period (if there was one), cook the chicken for 10-15 minutes. Once it’s about half cooked, go ahead and put the veggies in and set a timer for another 15 minutes or so. At the end of that time, both your veggies and chicken should be cooked through.

(I know, the picture is in a pan not a cookie sheet, but it looked so pretty!)

For the rice, if you have a rice cooker, just dump the rice and water into the cooker, set the cooker to whatever type of rice you’re making, and you’re good! Now you see why I love this little gizmo so much. If you are using a pot, simply place your water and rice in the pot, heat until boiling, then reduce the heat to a simmer until it looks like all the water has been absorbed. The pot method will of course take a little more effort on your part, but it’s still basically just checking it every few minutes.

The rice can be started basically any time during the cooking process above. I started mine once I was done cutting my zucchini, while the chicken was still defrosting. Once it’s cooked, stir in some lime juice, cilantro, and maybe a little butter.

And behold! You now have chicken thighs, zucchini, and rice for lunches for the week! I shredded the chicken and mixed with barbecue sauce to make sandwiches, but chicken is very versatile. You could season with salt, pepper, and some Italian seasoning. You can put some paprika and a slice of lemon on top. I’ve even made some were I covered them in barbecue sauce, baked them, and had barbecue chicken thighs! Let me know what you guys try and how it turns out

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Meal Prep Multitasking!

As a general rule, I like to make at least one protein, one side, and one “filler” for meals every week. For example, this week I’m making shredded barbeque chicken, zucchini slices, and rice. And I am making all three of those, plus iced tea, tonight. I am also sitting here making posts to queue so you all don’t get bored, bingeing Godless on Netflix, and doing the last of my laundry. So how am I doing all that?

First off, make friends with your oven! Baking is excellent for prepping when you don’t have a lot of spoons left, because you pretty much throw things in there, set a timer, and that’s the end of your effort. 

Second, consider investing in things like a rice cooker or electric kettle. These are also great “set it and forget it” kitchen tools, and they cut down on the amount you have to keep checking on things in the kitchen. 

There are tons of other kitchen gadgets, and I might make a post about those later, but those are my two biggest that I have found to be helpful. And use timers. I cannot stress this enough. They are so incredibly helpful

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Homemade Iced Tea

So before you scroll on thinking “why should I bother reading this?”, just wait a second. Are you broke as hell? Are you tired of drinking water because it’s the only thing you have? Can you afford $3 every 2-3 months and 15 minutes a week? Then consider making your own iced tea. 

So the “recipe” is so simple I could teach it to my Yorkie. Boil some water, throw tea bags in, throw some sugar in, and toss it in the fridge. I use about 8 tea bags or 2-3 Tbsp loose tea steeped 15 minutes and 1/2 cup sugar per gallon of water. You can of course adjust to your preference of sweetness and strength of the tea, but I like that as a starting point. I store mine in a gallon pitcher in the fridge, and I don’t know how long it keeps for because it never lasts more than week in my house anyway! I also take it to work with me to have something other than water to drink.

The other thing I highly recommend if you don’t have one already is an electric kettle. Like my rice cooker, mine was a gift, but they’re not terrible expensive, and it’s really useful to have boiled water in 15 minutes, especially if you like tea in winter and have no patience, like me. Happy sipping!

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I love this recipe for a lot of reasons. First off, I want to use my slow cooker more, and this is a nice simple recipe for it. Second, it looks very impressive when you have guests over, without being all that difficult or labor intensive. Whole chickens in general just look fancy to me, and given how easy it is to break down a chicken, it’s definitely high on my list of recommendations for when you have people coming over. Finally, cooked chicken is one of those leftovers that you can use for basically anything. Overall, just a very useful recipe to have in your box!

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A great snack or side for most meats

Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies. Not sure if it’s the texture or what, but it’s cheap, easy to grow yourself, and extremely versatile. Cut into ¼” slices, toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Toss it in the oven for about 20 minutes and ta da!  

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Hump Day Healthy Habits!

Is that too cheesy of a name? Well, I’m committed to it. I’ll try to do these with tips and such each week to help you set up good habits.

So here’s the thing: I work night shift, and between shifts, all I want to do is sleep. That means the only real time I have the time and energy to cook is on weekends, which is also my only time to do much of anything else. So what’s a chaotic bisexual like myself to do? 

Well the biggest thing for me is my rice cooker. I got it as a gift several years ago, and it is probably my second or third most used appliance, including oven and microwave. 

There are a lot of reasons to own a rice cooker, but one of the biggest is also the most obvious: it makes really good rice with very little effort on your part. If you looked through my other posts on here, you know that rice is an excellent way to add carbs, which are slow burning and keep you feeling full for longer, to really any dish. There are lots of other awesome things about rice, but that will probably be its own post later on. For now, let’s talk about other things you can do with a rice cooker!

First off, pancakes!

I’m kinda lazy, so I like to use Bisquik to avoid measuring and having to pull out a bunch of jars and such, but regardless, all you need is a rice cooker and enough pancake batter to cover the bottom of the cooker by about a half inch to an inch. Then just set your rice cooker to the “white rice” setting and wait! You get these big fluffy pancakes that are actually pretty fun to eat by just tearing them up.

Next, the thing basically every rice cooker will tell you it is also good for: steaming! 

Most rice cookers actually come with a plastic or metal insert meant specifically for this. Basically, you put water (and rice, if you want) in the bottom of the cooker, then put in your insert and put whatever you want to steam (like carrots, broccoli, salmon, chicken, etc) into the top part. Set your cooker to whatever type of rice you put in (white or brown), or just the white rice setting if you’re only steaming, and steam until everything is cooked through (time depends on what you’re steaming) 

And finally, basically anything you can make in a slow cooker, you can make in a rice cooker. I’ll add some links at the bottom of this since there are about a million individual recipes, from ribs to soup to curry. 

I haven’t tried most of these, but as always, if I try it, I will update you all on how it goes! Until then, here are some links, and if you guys try any of them, send me an ask or submission on how it went!

18 Surprising Things You Can Make in a Rice Cooker

Rice Cooker Chili

5 New Cooking Uses for Your Rice Cooker

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Egg Salad Ideas

This is another recipe I love for using the last bit of leftovers from the fridge, and it’s extremely customizable! The basics of it are to chop up about three hard boiled eggs, add in about 1/4 cup mayo, 1 tsp mustard, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and spread on toasted bread or crackers! Store in the fridge for 5-7 days, works great as a meal prep for taking to work. Just make sure to store the egg salad and bread/crackers separately to avoid sogginess.

You can also try adding paprika, chopped onion, dill, chives, Dijon mustard, pickle juice, diced pickles/relish, celery or carrots (for texture), diced cooked shrimp/chicken/ham (for added protein), diced tomato, cherry tomatoes, avocado, bacon, or olives

Don’t have mayo or don’t like it? Try Greek Yogurt, Hummus, Pesto, or Nut Butter

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Boiled eggs tips and tricks

Start by putting the eggs in a pot and add COLD water until it covers the eggs by at least an inch or two of water. More eggs? More water above them. Adding 1/2 tsp of salt may help prevent the shells from cracking and make them easier to peel. Adding 1tsp of vinegar to the water will prevent the white from running out if any cracks that do form.

Bring the water to a rolling boil, then turn OFF the heat. Leave the pot on the burner, covered, for 10 to 12 minutes for hard boiled eggs. (For medium or soft boiled eggs, simply reduce the time by 3-5 minutes). Don’t panic about taking them out immediately at 12 minutes. Eggs can sit up to 15 minutes without being overcooked, using this method. 

Once the eggs are cooked how you want, you need to cool them to stop the cooking process and prevent overcooking. This will also make them easier to peel as the egg inside shrinks and the shell remains where it is. There are several ways to do this, but I find the quickest and simplest is to remove the water from the pan (leaving the eggs in it) and dump water and ice into the pan used for cooking. 

For peeling, there are several methods. The one I normally use is to gently roll the egg on a hard surface (like a counter) until there are small cracks all over, then gently peel under running water. Another method I have not tried but have heard repeatedly is to place the egg in a cup, Tupperware, etc and shake vigorously, which in theory will entirely remove the shell. If I try this, I’ll post whether it worked or not!

Eat as is, add some salt, make egg salad, or put them in a salad!

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Simplest Nachos

You’ll need: chips (this works great with stale ones), shredded cheese, salsa, whatever leftovers are hanging out in your fridge

Pile up your chips on a plate, top with cheese, salsa, and leftovers (try it with shredded chicken/pork/beef, ground beef/chicken/turkey, tofu, beans, tomatoes, olives, corn, onions, other veggies, etc) in whatever order you want. I recommend putting a layer of cheese between the chips and everything else, to avoid sogginess.

Broil (or bake on the highest temp setting) for 1-2 minutes until things are hot and melty. After baking, you can also add more salsa, tomatoes, or sour cream.

This is another great recipe for when you have guests over, because it takes the same amount of time regardless of whether you’re making one plate for yourself or a sheet pan for everybody!

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Bulk up your canned soup

Canned soup is one of those things I always keep in the house. It stores well, can be used in all sorts of recipes, and I love a good bowl of soup on a cold day! You can mix one cup of cooked rice into any canned or homemade soup to add some carbs (long term energy) and make sure you’re not hungry between meals. Also works great for bulking up that leftover soup that’s not quite enough for a meal!

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Roasted garlic is a great addition to just about anything, if you ask me. Of course, I love garlic in nearly anything (that Italian life). But this is a great thing to have in the back of your recipe box, it really makes things feel fancy and doesn’t cost much in money or effort.

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Upgrade Leftover Chinese Food

Want your leftover Chinese food to actually taste like it did the first time? Dump leftover Chinese delivery into a hot pan. Crack two eggs into it, stir. Feel free to add in some sesame oil, if you have it. 

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Mini Pizzas on a Budget

You’ll need: canned biscuits or crescent rolls, last dregs of a jar of tomato sauce, some kind of cheese (mozzarella is my fav), any toppings you wish

For biscuits: just remove from the packaging and flatten out to make them a bit thinner. For the croissants, unroll the dough and separate at the horizontal (not the diagonal! perforations). Pinch the triangles together so there isn’t an open seam. 

Top with sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake according to the directions on the packaging, or until the dough is cooked and the cheese is all melty. I made mine with canned crescent rolls, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced zucchini and banana peppers. The crescent roll dough definitely changed the taste a bit, but they held up great in the fridge and were an awesome dinner at work. I will definitely be making this again!