/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.4187721]

Sup /ck/, I'm headed out to Safeway to buy some food.

This is what I have:
1 egg
1 pack of shredded cheese
3 cuts of steak
Cream Cheese
Butter
A pack of terrible buffalo wings
California Sea Salt and Garlic
Crushed Peppers

What should I buy so I can I finally start cooking for myself?

[Anonymous No.4187726]

what do you want to eat this week? What is your budget? How many people must you feed?

[Anonymous No.4187730]

You're probably going to want more than one egg.

[Anonymous No.4187746]

>>4187730

This. Also, rice and milk are a necessity.

[Anonymous No.4187749]

>>4187726
Do I have to buy food every week? Seems like a huge pain.

1.) Rice, meat, fish (seems obvious but when you get there there are a million combinations of rice and fish)
2.) Don't really have one. I've spent a ton of money on the past few weeks alone on take out. If I add it up, 10 breakfast, 10 lunch, 20 dinner, * 7, $280, so I want to spend less than $280 for a weeks worth of food.
3.) 1.

[Anonymous No.4187763]

>>4187749
Make a list, go to buy food once a week, it makes it easier not to waste anything. Going everyday is when it gets expensive.

If you go less often then once a week you end up not buying any fresh vegetables/fruits o running our of them and having crap to cook with until you go do the groceries again.

Make sure you pantry is stocked (spices, flour, sugar, rice) with your staple ingredients.

So, meal suggestions :
Beef with broccoli (with rice)
Some sort of curry with protein of your choice
Fried rice with chicken, vegetables and eggs.
Egg strata (casserole dish made with eggs and bread)

[Anonymous No.4187785]

>>4187749
> 20 dinner, * 7

Do you really spend $20 for take out dinner, 7 nights a week? Not a single meal was leftovers from the night before?

And everything you have on hand, except the crushed peppers, is full of fat.

How did it come to this?

Anywho, I trim my budget by making it a point to have a few ultra-super-duper cheap meals each week. For example soup beans made with bacon fat leftover from BLTs earlier in the week. Spaghetti w/out meat (I get a craving for very tangy plain tomato sauce for some reason). Cauliflower curry with rice and home made roti (its literally flour mixed with warm oil and then rolled out like tortillas. Brown them without oil in a hot-as-hell skillet,.... Doesn't get simpler/cheaper than that).

Rest of the week you can feast on steaks, chops, fish, etc and not have to worry so much about the cost. I find that works much better than trying to cut costs on all meals or buying inferior ingredients for all your food.

[Anonymous No.4187787]

>>4187746
Cuties topped rice pudding.

[Anonymous No.4187801]

>>4187785
>Do you really spend $20 for take out dinner, 7 nights a week? Not a single meal was leftovers from the night before?
The minimum at my favorite japanese place for dinner is $20.

I don't know how it came to this. I'm just out of college and being paid quite a bit, and never really had the patience for cooking. However the other day the delivery guy told me "I must love their food" and I checked my mint.com account and I was spending a ton on takeout. I then opened my fridge and found _all_ that I had was listed above.

I went to the grocery store last week and about the meats but I dont know how to cook them.

I'm not really worried about the cost, I am just sure I am not eating healthy, and I am developing an addiction. Even now I'm craving their (expensive) seafood udon, and the only reason I don't have it is that they don't open till 5.

[Anonymous No.4187803]

>>4187763
> If you go less often then once a week you end up not buying any fresh vegetables/fruits o running our of them and having crap to cook with until you go do the groceries again.

I tangled with this problem for a long time. I don't have time to shop and the closest decent grocery is far away so about once a week is all I can do. Two pro tips:

1. Take the time to learn how to handle/store fruit/veges. Some things need air, others need darkness, some love the cold, others hate it.

2. Stuff will stay fresher longer by doing #1. You also can go for produce that lasts a bit longer or buy it unripened and it will be ready to go later in the week. Example, granny smith apples will last for a few weeks without losing a noticible amount of fresness. Sweeter ones, not so much. Tomatos get better the longer they sit. Just as long as they haven't started to sprout I find them to be delicious when over ripe. Same with bananas. Avacados not so much.

[Anonymous No.4187814]

>>4187801
> I'm not really worried about the cost, I am just sure I am not eating healthy

This is a different scenario entirely. It sounded like it was just the cost.

Eating out doesn't have to be unhealthy but if you are doing it every day, you have to be careful what you order. If I'm eating out twice a year, then I will order my favorite dish no matter how unhealthy. If every day, you need to discipline yourself and understand that you need to change things up and stay away from the fatty stuff.

[Anonymous No.4187827]

>>4187814
The cost still matters. 280/wk on food comes out more than a grand a month on food. I think I can significantly cut that down. What I really meant is I'm not looking to go excessively frugal with ramen every night meals.

How are you cooking you meals. If you are the rice+roti guy, I'd imagine you have a rice cooker, but roti, how the hell did you learn to make that? My problem with recipe site is they always give you these grand recipes like chicken parmesean that have 8+ hour prep times. I just want to learn how to come home and cook something.

[Anonymous No.4187840]

Looks like you have some good advice so far. Here's my take.

You have three options, OP:

1.) Southern food (rice, beans, stews/gumbos, gravy, fried chicken and porkchops, cornbread and biscuits, meatloaf, greens, fried eggs and potatoes, pork sausage, etc.)
2.) Pasta
3.) Regional food

The ingredients for the Southern food should be fairly ubiquitous. Practically everything can be made in advance, and is simply enough for anyone to learn. It's comfort food, so it's going to please every time.

Pasta and the rest of the ingredients can be prepared ahead of time, and simply reheated quickly in a skillet. A day in advance, chop your raw chicken, slice your mushrooms, onions, etc. Parcook your pasta, drain, coat in vegetable oil, and store in the fridge. Finish cooking in the sauce. Here's some pasta dishes by Ramsay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvPUywSVk

See how quick that is? Sure, it's edited for television, but it definitely took no more than 3 minutes to cook everything through.

As for the last, just figure out what the people in your area are buying. If you live in San Diego, for instance, you can get cheap Mexican ingredients. Make us envy your cheap avocados.

And advice that applies to all: seasonal. Food prices change, so start paying attention.

[Anonymous No.4187914]

>>4187785
>>4187803
>>4187814

> How are you cooking you meals. If you are the rice+roti guy, I'd imagine you have a rice cooker, but roti, how the hell did you learn to make that?

I'm the roti guy. I posted the 3 posts above.

Wife is Indian, she picked it up from her ma. Its really super easy. I just watched her make it one time and was able to make it myself the next time. The simplicity of indian food is actually what turned me on to cooking.

I always eyeball it, but I'll estimate here. You can't really get it "wrong" but if you want it to turn out exactly the same every time, pay attential to how much you use.

Cup of all purpose flour. Make a little mound on your table or counter top or a mixing bowl and then make a crater in the center, like a little hot tub.. Heat up some cooking oil (vegetable/canola is fine to start). About 4-6 tablespoons. It doesn't have to be smoking hot, just very warm. Pour 1/3 of the oil in there and push the flour from the top over onto it. Keep pushing the flour from the outside edges toward the middle until you have it mixed it. When you see that you have a bunch of loose flour that is not mixing in, add a little bit more oil. Too much oil? Add a little more flour. When thoroughly mixed the dough should be a bit greasy but not dry.

Pull off little balls of it, about the size of a gold ball or a little smaller. Roll it into a ball with your palms, then use a rolling pin to roll it out like a tortilla. Thinner the better.

There's enough oil in the dough tat you won't need anything to fry with, just toast them until lightly browned in a hot skillet.

You can also add some grushed garlic and salt to the dough if it seems too plain.

[Anonymous No.4187929]

>>4187914
> imagine you have a rice cooker

And about that, actually the fucking pot from my rice cooker somehow went missing during my last move... Still scratching my head about that one. I don't have one now... But I noticed I don't really need it. Its one of those thing that once I figure out ow much water to add, I can just repeat that same process over and over and get the same results. They are kind of handy though to save stove top space, but I actually need more counter space so I use the stove.

Speaking of that, 1/2 my kitchen table is a stack of appliances. Microwave on the bottom, then toaster oven on top of that, then george forman + blender/grinder on top of that. A regular toaster sits behind the toaster oven and I can put it up top and put the blender in its place when needed.

[Anonymous No.4188156]

>>4187914
> The simplicity of indian food is actually what turned me on to cooking.

Something's bothering me about that statement. I don't think its so much the simplicity, it's more like approachability. Flavor-wise, it can be quite sopisticated, especially compared to the slop I grew up eating.

I think the epiphany for me was:

- anyone/everyone has access to it. I have 3 Indian groceries nearby and some of their produce is not the best but everything else is dirt cheap and no matter how broke, you can always make a good meal for cheap.

- with a small investment in learning the basic tenents and tactics of Indian cooking, you can go and make 100's of dishes and most will be quite unique.

- it's a breath of fresh air if you have been raised on fast food, starch and cheese your whole life.

- you get to use your spice rack like a mad scientist, and then eat the results. That appeals to me for some reason.

- it doesn't rely on fat and sugar to make it edible... Delicious spices and lots of cooked vegetables. Any method for making vegetables not only edible but desirable is OK in my book. (Caveat emptor: if your only interest in Indian food is making butter (makhani) chicken, then you're probably better off with your usual foods. That's a british dish full of cream and butter. Eat that every night and in a few years you can go and tell my kitty cats and me grammy that I said "Hi".

- Very inexpensive. Giant bags of spices for $3-4. And the veges don't have to be ultra-exotic to be tasty.

Its win-win.

[Anonymous No.4188185]

>>4187721

some aspirin

you'll need it to thin your blood when your heart stops

[Anonymous No.4188270]

>>4188185
> some aspirin

> you'll need it to thin your blood when your heart stops

Little bit of poly-unsaturated fat never hurt anyone.

If it makes the medicine (veges) go down, jump on it.

[Anonymous No.4188277]

>>4188270
>implying steak, butter and cream cheese are sources of PUFAs

[Anonymous No.4188740]

>>4187749
>$280 a week on food

ahahaha, I don't even spend that much per month on my 2500kcal/day well balanced diet.

[Anonymous No.4188760]

>>4188740
Sorry, I might sounded a bit off here.

Anyway, you could learn how to make japanese food yourself. It's piss easy once you have all the ingredients in your fridge.

Here's how you do it:

>watch youtube "udon recipe"
>print out the recipe list
>buy ingredients at local japanese town
>follow the instruction step by step

Since this is your first time cooking, you might have to shop almost everyday to get the necessary ingredients for different recipe. But after a while, you'll have most of it in your fridge/pantry.

You will also be able to cook simple recipe without having to measure or reading instructions.

Good luck.

[Anonymous No.4188780]

Y'all niggers posting in a tholl tread. Safeway was bought out by Morrisons aeons ago.

[Anonymous No.4189347]

>>4188740
> >$280 a week on food

That's more than I spend on rent + utilities. And I live in Philly.

[Anonymous No.4189349]

>>4188780
Not saying that isn't true, but it's called Safeway in Washington state.

[Anonymous No.4189401]

ITT Best chicken or steak marinades.

Mine is Italian vinaigrette, and salt/pepper/ Italian seasonings on chicken.

[Anonymous No.4189407]

>>4188780
In the US, it's pretty common for nationwide grocery chains to retain regional names and brands when they buy them out. So a chain will have like 10 different names across the country. And I believe this is the case with Safeway.