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Help! Living alone need cooking ideas!
So now that I'm out of college, I no longer have access to a college meal plan and I am no longer living with parents that will cook for me. I need some easy and tasty cooking ideas so I don't die from frozen food and hamburger helpers. I have all the basic kitchen apparatuses but little to no experience in cooking. Maybe others that were in the same situation as I am now can share some advice?
Comments
Another answer is learn about the great carry out restaurant options.
1. Consume all media involving this man in some capacity.
2. Do everything he tells you to do.
3. Consume delicious food.
Really, though, the only way to learn how to cook is, well, to cook.
It's the be-all and end-all of easy recipes. I learned to cook with it (and watching my mom when I was younger).
Cooking isn't that scary. Don't be afraid to try something new because even if you screw it up. Pizza is only a phone call away.
Otherwise, experiment away.
Some ideas will turn out into great meal... other ideas will turn into funny stories to tell your friends
Here are some other bachelor tips:
-Buying in bulk is only a deal if you're going to eat it. Cereal, canned goods and other none perishables are best.
-Fresh fruits and veggies are great, but they go bad a lot faster then the frozen or canned variates.
-Cook in bulk. You can turn yesterday's grilled chicken breast into today's chicken salad and tomorrow's chicken soup.
-Screw around with stuff you already know how to make. If you can do meatloaf, next time add some mushrooms into the mix and rolling it with mozzarella cheese.
-One dish cooking is fine. A 5 course meal is 5 times the dishes. Rice+ black bean soup+ sausage = dinner.
For example. Let's say you go to the grocery and look at some english muffins. They usually come 6 in a pack. Quite often there will be a deal where if you get two packs together, it's cheaper than the price of two individual packs. Of course you're going to get the double to save money, right?
Well, you will save money, but only if you actually manage to eat all 12 muffins before they go bad. If you're just one person living alone, and you're not some crazy obese overeating person, then it actually takes a long time to eat something, especially if you eat a variety. If you eat an English muffin or two every day, you'll probably eat all 12 before they go bad. If you rotate between those and a few other breakfast options, they will get stale or moldy before they get eaten. You would have saved more money buying just 6 instead of 12.
When I move to the city I plan to only stock certain things in the kitchen like juice, cereal, pasta, etc. Because I will be in a city, I will buy dinner, or dinner ingredients, every single day on my way home from work. I will buy exactly what I plan to use, and no extra. I did this recently when I was visiting grandma in Florida. I was only there for a few days, so I went to the grocery and bought exactly a few days worth of food. It was good times.
Cooking time is nothing compared to the preparation.
I tend to also cook side dishes in bulk over the weekend but prepare salads, rice, pasta or other carbohydrate sources from scratch for each night.
I've never used the Alton books however the book that actually taught me how to cook food which was better than stuff I pay for was Jamie Oliver's - The Naked Chef. It's excellent because he's given up all the recipes which he cooked when he had moved out and was learning to become a chef. It details how to produce restaurant or better quality food even after a long day at work.
Fresh ingredients is best but only buy fresh when its close to your day of cooking.
Invest in a good multichopper, it helps reduce preparation times, trust me it helps alot.
Even the girls at my last job thought I was crazy cooking what I was cooking for a single guy but it's better than getting crappy take out, becoming nutritionally unstable and also spending a lot of money.
Remember to eat breakfast and lunch, missing breakfast and just having a big lunch and dinner will seriously play havok with energy levels, plus fat storage will rise quickly.
As a college student who isn't loaded and has no time, I tend to eat the same easy things over and over. Pasta and sauce is very easy- just cook the noodles and buy a jar of sauce to dump in. The best part about noodles (for me) is that they tend to be pretty cheap (and you can get all kinds of crazy shapes!). Cooking chicken is easy, especially if you have a George Foreman grill. Homemade pizza is awesome... Just get a pre-made pizza crust (or any kind of bread really, I like to use bagels sometimes) and put some kinda tomato sauce and cheese on it, stick it in the oven for awhile, and voila!
Sounds tasty though.
Another similar food brand is Neueva Cocina. They make the best rice in a box you can get. If you make it, nobody will believe it was from a box. Their taco seasoning is also the absolute best taco seasoning you can get.
Where were these companies when I was in college?
As for inexpensive, fast cooking, don't underestimate the value of eggs. There are so many variants on eggs and egg dishes... an egg in a basket is one of my favorite go-to one-shot meals. We're talking five minutes, here.
Lyddi's right about pasta. Angel hair cooks the fastest, and can be combined with just about any meat, vegetable, cheese, and olive oil to make a tasty meal. Try angel hair, sausage, broccoli, feta, and olive oil. Try angel hair, chicken, red bell peppers, mozzarella, and olive oil. Try angel hair, hamburger, diced tomatoes, parmesan, and olive oil. Try angel hair, lamb, fresh spinach, asiago, and olive oil.
I was in your situation during my senior year of college. My roommate and I moved off campus and pooled our resources. We'd hit the discount grocery store with $20 and get through an entire week on that budget for two people. It can be done.
1 Calorie of HFCS is one calorie of fructose. No big deal. The thing is, HFCS has a lot more fructose per unit volume.
Take two twins. Put them at a table. One of them has soda with HFCS. The other has the same soda with sugar. They will both be able to drink roughly the same number of fluid ounces of soda before being full and unable to continue. However, the one who was drinking the HFCS will have ingested far more calories.