Originally Posted by Kevin M
Instead of gathering a crapload of recipes, just learn some staples that will get you 80% done on 80% of your meals.
Simple steps:
1. Get a Foreman grill. Use it to make burgers, boneless pork chops, boneless chicken thighs and breasts, even steaks. Pretty much any boneless meat small enough to fit on the grill that isn't fairly thick or very tough will work, and with beef you can get away with thick if you like medium rare meat.
2. Keep rice, egg noodles, pasta, and potatoes handy. Pasta is especially nice because it's so flexible. You cna just cook it and add oil/butter, garlic salt, spices, parmesan cheese, etc. or use one of the 45,000 tomato sauces, or whatever. This is also your cheapest source of carbs. Cubed red potatoes in a saute pan are also cheap and tasty, and easy to keep varied.
3. Don't forget a decent amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, or at least frozen veggies. Seasonal produce is cheap and you'd be amazed how much better you feel if you don't live off protein and carbs.
4. Cook enough for leftovers. Cooking twice as much usually costs less than twice as much and requires very little extra effort, so eating leftovers for lunch can help your budget.
5. When you just don't feel like bothering, there are usually a dozen or so frozen dinners you can find that will not suck too bad, and fill you up for about $3. They're also not all that bad for you usually, except for being high in salt and a little high in fat sometimes, plus you get no vegetables and sometimes get shorted on calories.
Making meals using all that is pretty easy- as long as you pay attention and don't burn things, it will always be edible, and once you get the hang of it, downright tasty. Cooking is less about knowing lots of recipes or everything about using spices, and more about putting the right amount of heat for the right amount of time in the right method to what you cook. For that, there's no substitute for experience.
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