Making Stuff at Home

[Brian SD]

I realized today that I am in dire need of some help on making food at home.

What do you guys eat? PB&J is hardly filling (read: not at all), and I'm having a really hard time figuring out stuff I can make at home.

I assume many others went through this same feeling at some point.

Any ideas on how to start?

 

[skalogre]

What raw/semi-raw ingredients do you have at hand?

Pasta can be a quick filler. Grab a few tomatoes, blanche them, peel them then cook the insides (or a can of prepared tomatoes) with some oregano basil, pepper olive oil and salt; cook it a bit then toss it with finished pasta.

Edit:
I really think we should have a recipe thread...

 

[Kent Wang]

Cooking for yourself is a good way to start eating healthily since you have control over exactly what you put into your food. Stir-fries are easy, healthy and low cost. High quality proteins, like a steak or fresh fish, are also very easy to roast in the oven with a simple crust of salt and pepper. Miso soup is incredibly easy to make, fairly healthy (though a bit high on sodium) and soup is always filling. Recipe.

 

[dusty]

A friend of mine made some chicken and couscous with this curry sauce from Trader Joe's the other day. It was fantastic and took like 20 minutes.

 

[phenom]

Epicurious.com has some really good recipes and you can sort by ingredient/method.

 

[stach]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

Stir-fries are easy, healthy and low cost.

Plus you can get trimmed and cut meats, chicken, vegetables etc. Makes it very fast to cook.

 

[j]

Here's that pot roast slow cooker recipe I told you about Brian:

Buy a pot roast (chuck roast) and a few new or red potatoes, a couple stalks of celery, a small onion and some carrots. If you do it in the crock pot (easy!) cut the veggies in chunks and pile them into the bottom of the crock. Sprinkle one packet of onion soup mix and about 1/4 cup of red wine (or not if you don't have any) over the veggies. Place the piece of meat on top of the veggies and season with S and P if not seasoned at the store. Open one can of stewed tomatoes and dump over the meat. Cover and cook on high for 8 to 10 hours. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

I like to cook it the day before, cool it, refrigerate overnight and reheat it. That way you can take any fat off the top when it is cold, and pot roast is always better the next day (or the next...)

You can cook it on the stovetop in a deep pot, or in the oven in a dutch oven, too. The technique is similar; long, slow cooking at a med low temp. I think it is worth getting a crock pot just for the ease of it. You plop all the stuff in in the AM and go to work, or wherever, come home and there it is.

 

[Tck13]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

Cooking for yourself is a good way to start eating healthily since you have control over exactly what you put into your food. Stir-fries are easy, healthy and low cost. High quality proteins, like a steak or fresh fish, are also very easy to roast in the oven with a simple crust of salt and pepper.Recipe.

Easy stir fry: Cut up - Broccoli, green pepper, suger snap peas, red pepper?, onion, top with sprouts, add egg?, and soy sauce.

Heat olive oil in pan, throw everything in pan, sizzle - sizzle, done.

Parmesan cheese on top? Also, cut up some tofu (firm) or chicken and add once in a while. Another good add after cooking is a tablespoon of flaxseed oil. (lots of omega 3s)

Save everything you didn't use the first time and use throughout the week.

With the saved ingredients, one can make a good omlette in the morning.

Vegetables will keep you "full" for much longer as they are complex carbs and will take a much longer time to digest. You'll probably end up eating less overall if you eat more veggies. You might fart more too!!

 

[StevenRocks]

If you're clueless about how and what to cook, a good resource is Martha Stewart's website. There are thousands of free recipes, many of them really easy, and she has lists of essential cooking tools and where to get them.

 

[matadorpoeta]

i hate to cook for myself. on the rare occasion when i do cook it's for a group of people on a special occasion.

consider that any recipe will call for a certain amount of shopping time and clean up time.

i eat out every day, and when i have to prepare food for myself, it's usually a sandwich.

 

[heartworm]

Jambalaya is good. You can make enough to last for a week.

 

[tiger02]

The classic Joy of Cooking is worth its (substantial) weight in gold, but should be available for only a few bucks used.

 

[GreyFlannelMan]

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

i hate to cook for myself. on the rare occasion when i do cook it's for a group of people on a special occasion.

consider that any recipe will call for a certain amount of shopping time and clean up time.

i eat out every day, and when i have to prepare food for myself, it's usually a sandwich.

Agreed. I hate to go through all of the effort of cooking for myself, only to eat the meal in 10-15 mins.

I do try to prepare a rotation of steak and chicken, usually with steamed broccoli, green beans, snow peas, carrots or corn. And/or some sort of potato.

 

[Fabienne]

Originally Posted by Brian SD

I realized today that I am in dire need of some help on making food at home.

What do you guys eat? PB&J is hardly filling (read: not at all), and I'm having a really hard time figuring out stuff I can make at home.

I assume many others went through this same feeling at some point.

Any ideas on how to start?

I thought you had a girlfriend, why don't you make her cook?

 

[j]

Originally Posted by Fabienne

I thought you had a girlfriend, why don't you make her cook?

That's what I told him, after the last thread...