Hi guys, so I eat out embarrassingly often. I’d have to say I order food or eat out 2-3 times a day probably 20-25 days out of the month. One reason for this is that it’s a pain to cook for one person (outside of breakfast which is easy) and I wouldnt want to eat the same thing more than twice in a row or I’d get tired of it and end up throwing the rest out. That said, I’ve noticed how expensive it can be and was wondering what some of you guys with cullinary skills and like to cook do to keep things interesting and easy.
Please post your best simple recipes (that dont have a bazillion ingredients)! All recipes are welcome, but I like things low in sugar and carbs. Cheers!
1 cup instant oats
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup oat or almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp mixed Italian dried herbs
1 tsp chili flakes (only add if you want it spicy)
1 tsp onion flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp white or black pepper (if you more spice/kick)
Toppings of your choice, eg. veggies, hemp seeds, herbs, spinach, tomato, avocado, corn, beans, mushrooms, basil etc.
Instructions:
-Place all ingredients into large pot or pan.
-Bring to light boil then turn down to low simmer.
-Keep stirring as it simmers until it reaches porridge consistency or desired thickness. Remove from heat.
-Mix in toppings of choice.
I’ve been cooking at home for 12 years and I have two younger brothers who are chefs, so we love cooking here! If you’re someone who eats a lot of chicken breast like I do (literally every day) and doesn’t want to get sick of it, here’s the best recipe I’ve used:
Chipotle Chicken
4-5lbs Chicken Breast
1 14.5oz can chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tbs olive oil
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
Trim the chicken breasts however you like them, then marinade them in all the other ingredients mixed together for about 72 hours in the refrigerator. I have played with marinade times a lot, and you can do it with just 24 hours but you don’t get as strong of a flavor. It really keeps getting better the longer you marinade them, but I can’t detect a difference between three and four days. Take them out of the fridge for about an hour prior to cooking. I cook them on a grill pan on medium-high heat with some cooking spray for about eight minutes a side for the larger chicken breasts. You get really nice black sear marks and texture. DEFINITELY HAVE THE VENTILATION ON WHEN COOKING THIS. The flavor of the chicken has some heat but isn’t too spicy, but the chipotles mixing with the steam during cooking can make you cough.
This works with tons of things - tacos (personal favorite), chicken sandwiches, rice bowls, with vegetables, or just by itself. Some plain Greek yogurt is great with it too.
Bonus tip: To clean pans with lots of burnt bits stuck to them, boil some water and vinegar in the pan for a few minutes. Have the vent on or it’ll smell like vinegar, but it helps a ton.
4 cup fresh blueberry
1/4 tbs cinnamon
2 ts salt
1 cup sugar
5 tbs cornstarch
2 pre made pillsbury pie crusts
Set oven 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients good. Pour try ingredients over blueberries and mix good. Put down a premade pie crust in a pie pan. Add blueberry mixture. With the other crust, make a lattice top on your pie. Bake for 1 hour. LET COOL FOR 2.5 HOURS.
If you want something really easy just make hamburger helper or something. Tater tot casserole is another easy good meal.
When I lived in an apartment with a few guys in college it was always just cheap and easy that we had as our goal (for food). No need to get too complicated with long recipes. Even today I just go off the cuff for meals for the most part. We will generally pick one meat a week and just use the leftovers a few creative ways to not feel too repetitive and to get some economies of scale both cost and time wise (even though I personally can eat the same thing over and over if it’s good). Make 4-5 days worth of chicken breasts on a certain night chopped up and cooked in a pan on the stove. Toss in a few veggies and do a stir fry. Another night buy some wraps, lettuce, blue cheese, hot sauce and have buffalo chicken wraps. Use a can of alfredo add chicken some broccoli and mushrooms and cook some pasta for a nice chicken alfredo dish. A big thing is always stocking spices and a core set of staples that you enjoy and will frequently use that have a long shelf life. For my wife and I that is always being stocked with rice, various pastas, ready made sauces, spices, frozen veggies and you can really come up with a load of different things on a whim any given night. I stock a lot of meats in the chest freezer as well. Same idea above can be done starting with a few steaks one night, to fajitas another, to steak sandwich, various pastas etc.
Crockpots are also awesome. Very little effort and you can have an easy meal without much effort or thought. They make small individual meal sizes. Have a few cans of cream of mushroom or other various soups as a base. I was also big on eggs back in college too. Really cheap, quick and you can do a lot of different types of omelettes and scrambles and feel like you are getting a decent variety. Toss in any of the leftover meats above any given night as well.
I’ve been cooking stuff on my own ever since graduating HS, and have to say: its been a wonderful experience.
If I were you, even though it may be expensive to buy raw ingredients, and tough to learn how to cook, you should start.
Like collecting, you will have a feeling of fulfillment when you see the work of your labor on a plate looking delicious AF.
And tasting good.
With that being said here are some of my recipes that have helped me:
Ragu Pasta:
Simple but you may need a bit of time
You can cook in a large batch and use the sauce for lasagne or Pasta
Able to keep in fridge (1 week) or freezer (2-3 weeks)
A Practice makes perfect recepie
Delicious AF
I based off my current recipe that I use off this video:
I like to make BBQ ribs now and then and love a sweet sauce, i tend to make a large amount. Its inspired by a Jamie recipe with varying ratios that are not measured to exact standards.
Heinz tomato ketchup 1 bottle
1 whole small bottle of balsamic vinegar
Worcestershire sauce 3 table spoons
1 table spoon of olive oil
Clear Honey 2 table spoons
orange juice from 2 oranges
Smoked Paprika 6 table spoons
Fennel seeds 2 table spoons roasted and ground
cumin seed 1 table spoon roasted and ground
5 cloves
salt & pepper
fresh rosemary chopped fine
fresh thyme chopped fine
1 large bulb of garlic, chopped roughly
chopped chilies or cayenne pepper to taste
all mixed together in a bowl cold and then either cooked down to a reduction of half or used as marinade on the ribs.
I marinade ribs in it over night along with other meat and then cook the meat in it for several hours, strain the sauce and sieve it and use it as a sauce after.
Its not too greasy with the lack of oil, nice and sweet with the orange juice, the smoked paprika is what makes it.
That will work great! And nope - you can just leave the peppers as-is. They’re just for flavor, and I generally throw them out after I cook the chicken because I haven’t found a good use for them yet.
As someone else suggested, you should buy a crockpot. There are a gazillion recipes and most of them take about 5 minutes to prepare. You throw all the ingredients in and let them simmer all day.
You would also be amazed the amount of things you can cook/bake in a microwave!
I’ve been using my crock pot to make pulled pork a bunch recently. You can take a couple of the lean pork sirloin tip roasts from Costco and throw it in with some fajita sauce for about five hours on high and then on low for a two-three hours until it all falls apart.
