i don't trust a "successful" pork loin or green beans from a dude who can't make pasta
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
I'm debating on just eating TV Dinners and take out from now on
- Thread starter Deleted member 1258
- Start date
- Status
It deserves its own category. Chili is the greatest of stews.
Get a rice cooker. Canned vegetables, and omelettes is probably better than what you're eating now. Maybe upgrade to some seasoned chicken once you've got that down. Small steps can improve your overall food a lot.
Also, I can empathize. My mom died and like a year later I started having intense Thai food cravings. No local restaurants, so I tried to make my own with her leftover supplies in the cupboards. It went very poorly. Felt like garbage afterwards. I can make semi-reasonable Thai stuff now, but it took me like 6-7 years. I always asked my mom to teach me, but she was always like "you'll learn if you want to." Technically true, but she could have saved me like 5 years of wandering in the forest blindfolded.
Also, I can empathize. My mom died and like a year later I started having intense Thai food cravings. No local restaurants, so I tried to make my own with her leftover supplies in the cupboards. It went very poorly. Felt like garbage afterwards. I can make semi-reasonable Thai stuff now, but it took me like 6-7 years. I always asked my mom to teach me, but she was always like "you'll learn if you want to." Technically true, but she could have saved me like 5 years of wandering in the forest blindfolded.
Are you a farmer? Just making tacos is an easy $20.
Where in the world are you grocery shopping? Bloomingdales?
I can buy a box of taco shells for $2 and ground beef is around $4 a pound. The seasoning is like $1.49 a packet (or you could make your own for next to nothing) and the other stuff (cheese, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, hot sauce) are negligible in cost for the amount you're going to use for tacos for 3-4 people.
I cook simple food during the week like pasta, and more complex when i have time at the weekend. Works out cheaper in the long run, got a freezer with portions of food ready for a quick meal if needed. Try pasta or rice dishes, quite simple to make and quite cheap.
So... ~$20. It would definitely come out to less per serving, but that's not how single people look at buying food usually.
ETA: The trick, of course, is to use those ingredients in other dishes or to meal prep. Those are learned skills, however.
Last edited:
Sure, but multiply that x2 for another meal or two for the week if you're really stretching things and that's $40 on dinners for the week. Now you have to get through 7 lunches and breakfasts on $10 for 3 people to hit the $50 a week budget he has.
I have yogurt for breakfast a lot of days. That's more than $10 by itself.
No, more like $8. If you are cooking just for yourself you can easily store the meat and other stuff in the fridge and make 4 meals out of it, S2 each.
$20 of ingredients for ground beef tacos with one pound of beef should come out to at least 8 tacos or 4 servings. Considering you don't use a whole tomato, onion, block of cheese, container of sour cream, etc. for 8 tacos, a person would simply by an additional pound of beef to extend the amount of servings. That would not cost an additional $20. And that's only if said person desired to eat tacos all week.
The box of taco shells = $2
Ground beef = $4
Produce and dairy = $2?
That's not how much produce and dairy cost up front.
I've noticed everyone thinks they have to make some world class or perfectly prepared food everytime they cook or its just "not worth it", which is so ridiculous. Just make something easy and tastes good to you, not everything you eat has to be a instagram drool pic.
ok but what's my budget if i shove a family's worth of ingredients into the food processor and stare listlessly at the resulting sludge
He said he feeds 3 on $50 a week which I can't imagine being able to do.
I wish I grocery shopped where you did.
Hamburger - $5, taco shells - $2.50, seasoning - $1.00, cheese - $2.50, Lettuce - $1.00, Frijoles - $1.00 is $13.00 if you're cooking for one or two and leaving out sour cream, salsa, chips, flour tortillas or whatever else.
I was in the same place. Couldn't cook and couldn't afford to fuck up.
I learned to cook by starting on cheap simple dishes then working up.
I learned to cook by starting on cheap simple dishes then working up.
Wouldn't add up to $2 for the amount you're putting on a taco re produce and dairy. I shop at Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) and an entire head of lettuce is $1.49 for most of the year. Roma tomatoes are $1.29 a pound. For tacos for four people you're using maybe a 1/3 lb of tomato and like 1/8th of the head of lettuce. Shredded cheese is $3.49 regular price, $2.49 on sale for a pound. You're using maybe a 1/5th to 1/8th of the bag of cheese.
If you're fat gluttons perhaps. For that $5 a hamburger meat you're buying 16 ounces of meat. One serving size of meat is 3 oz - https://www.thekitchn.com/a-visual-guide-to-protein-serving-sizes-243496. In your example you're buying enough ingredients to serve five people (four if you go a bit larger and say 4 oz per person of taco meat), not one or two people.
And I do - most weeks my grocery bill is around $50, sometimes a bit less sometimes a bit more. I buy a lot of produce, rice, dried beans, etc. and all of that is cheap. I also take advantage of sales. Fred Meyer sells chicken (usually whole) about once a month for $0.79 a pound which is when I stock up for the whole month, for example. Although in fairness I will point out that my two kids are over at their mom's house two or three nights a week which saves me on grocery bills as well.
Last edited:
Yes. I mentioned that in the original post you quoted.
The original post you responded to was referring to the cost of the total bill, not the cost per serving.
man, you must make some real struggle tacos if you're using that little of cheese on it.
the time spent on cooking, cleaning, buying food is a wash imo.
i only make very simple things, like a sandwich. anything more than that is off the table. i'm not going to spend 3 hours cooking and cleaning when i can be doing something a lot more meaningful with my time like playing a video game.
i only make very simple things, like a sandwich. anything more than that is off the table. i'm not going to spend 3 hours cooking and cleaning when i can be doing something a lot more meaningful with my time like playing a video game.
I don't have any shredded cheese at the moment but looking online they sell them in 7 oz bags. A serving of cheese is 1 oz so you've got seven servings. The bag should last you for two taco nights if you're cooking 3 or 4 servings each time. I was off on the 1/5th to 1/8th guesstimate but still, you're talking $1.25ish to $1.80ish for the cheese.
like is this "grated cheese product"
can't tell if this is a sarcastic post or not.
3 hours? Jeez. Are you cooking a 5 course gourmet dinner party?
No, real cheese, not that any shredded cheese is hardly upscale. You could get a block and shred it yourself as well and the cost would probably be less.
Save the fancy food for restaurants and Uber Eats. Cooking is a massive hassle. I eat frozen food for pretty much every dinner. If I'm running late for McDonalds in the morning, I'll just have a Quest Bar. If I don't get Uber Eats at work, I'll have small tin of tuna with a small microwavable thingo of rice, using a plastic bowl and spoon to skip the washing up.
I value my time. I'm not wasting it on washing dishes. Frozen burgers and lasagnes have their own plates in the box so they don't waste my time.
Microwave burgers are a regular meal for me. I raised the bar when I found microwave chips a few weeks ago:
I value my time. I'm not wasting it on washing dishes. Frozen burgers and lasagnes have their own plates in the box so they don't waste my time.
Microwave burgers are a regular meal for me. I raised the bar when I found microwave chips a few weeks ago:
OP
OP
I don't ever intended to behave this way but it's something that I've always struggled with.
Sorry
Listen cooking for yourself sucks now but you will get good. It takes time. You could always try out Blue Apron/ECT.. they are always running deals. I did these until I got really comfortable (..not good hahah) and then stopped. Now I make food for myself all the time. Easy.
I usually don't think they're worth the money, but if you don't know how to cook well and want to learn it in an easy way, why not use one of those meal kit services? If you're spending big bucks anyway, you're getting it pre portioned with idiot proof instructions so you shouldn't be wasting a ton of food by messing it up.
Once you get more comfortable you could try to recreate your favourite meals from scratch rather than with pre-packaged portions.
I barely knew how to cook until I was about 28, but learned to cook by watching Youtube videos and slowly getting better at following recipes. When I tried books it never made sense, if you don't know how to cook things like a "pinch" of this or "salt to taste" are impossible to follow. Videos that take you step by step are much better.
Once you get more comfortable you could try to recreate your favourite meals from scratch rather than with pre-packaged portions.
I barely knew how to cook until I was about 28, but learned to cook by watching Youtube videos and slowly getting better at following recipes. When I tried books it never made sense, if you don't know how to cook things like a "pinch" of this or "salt to taste" are impossible to follow. Videos that take you step by step are much better.
I vaguely recall a thread a while back that tried valiantly to argue that any and all cooking took hours, was wasteful and was never as good as fast food. I think someone also argued for exclusive use of paper plates and plastic cutlery to save valuable hours a day washing up.
I assume (read, hope) that they're riffing on that.
I mean most people buy pounds of hamburger and bags or blocks of cheese. I've never shopped by the serving.
I usually just use what's left for leftovers.
My friend, check out Huel. It's a 100%, nutrient-complete meal replacement powder. It's perfect for folks like us who wish they could eat healthy but lack the time, motivation, and cooking skills to do so.
You can theoretically drink Huel 3 times a day for the rest of your life and remain healthy. Though obviously it's more sensible and realistic to just substitute for one or two meals a day so you can still have normal human food.
It tastes kind of like a sugar-free oatmeal cookie batter (the vanilla flavor, at least), but it can save so much time and hassle and otherwise poor eating choices that the tradeoff is worth it.
You can theoretically drink Huel 3 times a day for the rest of your life and remain healthy. Though obviously it's more sensible and realistic to just substitute for one or two meals a day so you can still have normal human food.
It tastes kind of like a sugar-free oatmeal cookie batter (the vanilla flavor, at least), but it can save so much time and hassle and otherwise poor eating choices that the tradeoff is worth it.
Uhhh, surely you can pull off Spaghetti...seriously?
My 11 year old cooks. She makes her own toast and eggs for breakfast. She's still learning cooking meat properly, but she can do a meatless spaghetti just fine. She just follows the directions on the box, or if I write them out.
The only thing I royally screwed up was pan searing a steak (well, I tried the reverse....oven then sear). The steak came out great, but I ended up with grease/juices flying everywhere on my stove, lol. Made a mess of my kitchen. Going from the oven to the pan may be a bad idea if it's a really juicy steak, although covering it may avoid what happened to me.
I've forgotten things in the oven before and burnt them, but that's an easy screw up to explain.
Goes to google
I know but what I'm trying to say is that the tacos themselves are not costing anyone $20. That $20 is going toward a lot more than just one night of tacos.
oh shit, i remember that thread. is that the one where one poster was complaining about his neighbors cooking food and said that he didn't know why they bothered to cook when their food will never be as good as "restaurant" food?
Might have been, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is a common enough sentiment that there's been more than one thread to that effect.
i seem to remember one in particular where one guy "refused to eat" home cooked food. trying to find it lmao
Just eat your own shit, if you can even make any.
OP, I'm sorry, but I think you are lying or greatly exaggerating your inability for attention.
OP, I'm sorry, but I think you are lying or greatly exaggerating your inability for attention.
You can live on microwave meals, but you better be ready to work off the calories, and your body won't thank you in the long run. As I get older, I only feel worse when I eat that stuff.
My advice is always to cruise through BudgetBytes.com. I can't stand cooking for longer than a half hour, but the recipes there usually have 5-6 ingredients, take 15-30 minutes to make, will feed you for several days, and they're usually pretty yummy depending on what you find "good". I don't like any of their salads on the site, but their soup and meat recipes are usually really yummy. The recipe you had listed in the OP would be one that I'd maybe, MAYBE make once or twice a year. It's too expensive and time consuming for me to just make for a daily dinner, and even as someone who's cooked for about ten years, I still wouldn't feel super comfortable making sausages from scratch as a meal unless I was having company over. That stuff is really hard, so I respect you going for it.
In college, before I really learned to cook, I lived mostly on sandwiches, and learned to cook a bit by figuring out extra stuff to put on those. Started with cold cuts, veggies, etc on white bread, but my go-to was eventually pre-made sandwich rolls with steak strips in salt/pepper with green peppers and onion, covered in provolone cheese, basically a philly cheesesteak. It usually took 15 minutes to make a big batch, and all the ingredients cost me $15 for about 3-4 days of food, depending on how much I bought. Just throw meat, peppers, and onion into a pan with some oil, throw salt and pepper in, cover it, and throw cheese on before eating. Maybe melt it in the microwave before eating. Not fancy, but it got the job done and it's still a comfort food for me.
OP, what do you like to eat? I know you're against crock pots and that hyper-soft texture, so maybe seeing into what you like to eat would help us provide easier recipes for home cooking that don't break the bank? I just see people throwing out recipes in here with no regard to your taste, and idk if that's useful at all.
The incredulous responses in this thread probably aren't helping much. As someone who also burnt spaghetti and sandwich after sandwich as a student with 0 cash, I totally get it. My parents never taught me to cook, and I had a hard time with time management in the kitchen + seeing when things were properly "done".
My advice is always to cruise through BudgetBytes.com. I can't stand cooking for longer than a half hour, but the recipes there usually have 5-6 ingredients, take 15-30 minutes to make, will feed you for several days, and they're usually pretty yummy depending on what you find "good". I don't like any of their salads on the site, but their soup and meat recipes are usually really yummy. The recipe you had listed in the OP would be one that I'd maybe, MAYBE make once or twice a year. It's too expensive and time consuming for me to just make for a daily dinner, and even as someone who's cooked for about ten years, I still wouldn't feel super comfortable making sausages from scratch as a meal unless I was having company over. That stuff is really hard, so I respect you going for it.
In college, before I really learned to cook, I lived mostly on sandwiches, and learned to cook a bit by figuring out extra stuff to put on those. Started with cold cuts, veggies, etc on white bread, but my go-to was eventually pre-made sandwich rolls with steak strips in salt/pepper with green peppers and onion, covered in provolone cheese, basically a philly cheesesteak. It usually took 15 minutes to make a big batch, and all the ingredients cost me $15 for about 3-4 days of food, depending on how much I bought. Just throw meat, peppers, and onion into a pan with some oil, throw salt and pepper in, cover it, and throw cheese on before eating. Maybe melt it in the microwave before eating. Not fancy, but it got the job done and it's still a comfort food for me.
OP, what do you like to eat? I know you're against crock pots and that hyper-soft texture, so maybe seeing into what you like to eat would help us provide easier recipes for home cooking that don't break the bank? I just see people throwing out recipes in here with no regard to your taste, and idk if that's useful at all.
The incredulous responses in this thread probably aren't helping much. As someone who also burnt spaghetti and sandwich after sandwich as a student with 0 cash, I totally get it. My parents never taught me to cook, and I had a hard time with time management in the kitchen + seeing when things were properly "done".
All I do is do TV dinners and my friend suggested a crock pot (and even linked me to a deal where one is only about $7). Says it's all I need for a person like myself who doesn't cook.
Hope she's right!
- Status