GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
The point of the Foreman is that it's cheap and easy. I have a griddle of when I need a griddle. If someone wants to spend the extra money, go for it...but the idea behind the Foreman is how cheap and simple it is.
Yeah, freezing and leftovers are the key to cooking for yourself. I cooked a whole package of boneless chicken thighs on the Foreman and froze them all. Now, I just take one out, defrost it in the microwave for a couple minutes, chop it up, add it to the rice and frozen veggies in the rice cooker and turn it on. Minutes of prep, walk away for 20-30 minutes for the rice cooker to do its thing. And, it's still healthy.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
You can also freeze marinated cooked chicken. I will marinate my chicken in Yoshida's Gourment Sauce overnight, cook up a whole package, and freeze the marinated breasts. Put a bit of the excess sauce in there so when you thaw and heat it up, there is some juice/sauce to moisten it. Last for weeks this way, and a meal of rice + that will go forever and is really tasty, toss in some veggies and go.
I don't have a crockpot myself, but I know firsthand that they are fantastic!
OP, the one thing I'll relate to you that I find a bit of a challenge is that buying produce (fruits and vegetables) is a trial, since it seems that fresh produce is sold in amounts that are far too much for a single person. In my area, anyway. Take sandwiches, for example. I love sandwiches. For me a sandwich requires lettuce - a sandwich without lettuce is a sad sandwich (sadwich?). Butter lettuce, romaine, spinach, even iceberg if nothing else will do. My problem is that 90% of lettuce heads (of ANY type) are more than I can handle. I use half the thing before it goes bad. I just can't keep up. I can find the prewashed, sorted, organic stuff in plastic containers, but that's a hell of a lot more expensive. The same holds true for certain items like strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers - anything with a high moisture content.
You need to maximize your use of fresh veggies. Make salads and well as using things like tomatoes and lettuce on sandwiches. You'll use 'em up before they go bad.
Duly noted. I know that I'm often too lazy to make a fresh salad, which is a shame, because I really ought to be doing so. I'll make a point to use them up more.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited November 2012
A fresh salad is one of my primary ways to get vegetables...because I am very weird about texture, it's a side effect of my Aspbergers. I don't like too many textures in my mouth at once, it weirds me out...so I can do very little mixing. No vegetables on sandwiches for instance. I can eat a sandwich, and then a salad, but I can't put the salad on my sandwich.
I can do things like Stir Fry where the texture becomes somewhat consistent due to cooking (and I do regularly), but no crunch veggies on a smooshy sandwich.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
A fresh salad is one of my primary ways to get vegetables...because I am very weird about texture, it's a side effect of my Aspbergers. I don't like too many textures in my mouth at once, it weirds me out...so I can do very little mixing. No vegetables on sandwiches for instance. I can eat a sandwich, and then a salad, but I can't put the salad on my sandwich.
I can do things like Stir Fry where the texture becomes somewhat consistent due to cooking (and I do regularly), but no crunch veggies on a smooshy sandwich.
My husband is like this without the Aspberger's. Drives me nuts, because I like vegetables better in things when they're lightly cooked and maintain their own flavors and textures. When he gets his way it's all cooked into a slurry, and so we kind of have to trade off who gets to win the meal.
The best thing about cooking for one? You can cook your veggies however you want and no one will complain.
ceres on
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One thing to realize is that it is really, really easy to reformat leftovers into different meals. It is easy to dump whatever is in your fridge into a pan, add coconut milk and curry paste, and saute into curry. It similarly is easy to dump that stuff into a pan, add a can of beans, spice with chili powder, coriander and cumin, and use it to fill a burrito. Those are two meals that take pretty much any leftovers you have, and end up tasting quite different (but still good!) based on which leftovers you have, so you can repeat them ad infinitum. So cook four meals at once, eat one, use one to make a curry, one to make a burrito, and do whatever with the fourth.
Leftovers can still be good, if treated well.
EDIT: I'm oversimplifying, you probably want different accents for both of those (some cilantro maybe with the curry, some salsa and grated cheese with the burrito), but you can mostly fill out a meal this way.
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A fresh salad is one of my primary ways to get vegetables...because I am very weird about texture, it's a side effect of my Aspbergers. I don't like too many textures in my mouth at once, it weirds me out...so I can do very little mixing. No vegetables on sandwiches for instance. I can eat a sandwich, and then a salad, but I can't put the salad on my sandwich.
I can do things like Stir Fry where the texture becomes somewhat consistent due to cooking (and I do regularly), but no crunch veggies on a smooshy sandwich.
My husband is like this without the Aspberger's. Drives me nuts, because I like vegetables better in things when they're lightly cooked and maintain their own flavors and textures. When he gets his way it's all cooked into a slurry, and so we kind of have to trade off who gets to win the meal.
The best thing about cooking for one? You can cook your veggies however you want and no one will complain.
Yes.
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superhappypandaZug Island Sport FishingSeattleRegistered Userregular
Also (and some will agree with this, some will disagree, but for me it's perfect):
HOW TO COOK A STEAK IN YOUR KITCHEN:
1) Don't.
2) I kid, it's actually not that bad.
3) Tenderize/marinade. I used to just use a fork to poke it a bunch (giggity), then use some Worcestershire sauce and ketchup (if you're broke and don't care about flavor), or a nice marinade from the store (A1 makes them, so do several others). If you want something a bit more hardcore, rubs are relatively cheap for the amount you get. Either way, let it sit in the marinade for a while (like, set it up before you go to bed, have it for dinner the next day).
4) Get a frying pan that's oven safe. I use a glass one. This is key to making sure you have a properly cooked steak, without being overdone, inside or out.
5) Preheat the oven to 350.
6) Preheat the pan. You can just wait until the oven preheats, then let the pan sit on the stove on ~medium heat for a few minutes.
7) Slap that steak on that pan. Make sure the pan is good and hot. Let it sit for THREE MINUTES (well, 2-4 depending on exactly how done you want it)
8) Flip. ONE TIME! And cook the other side for the same length of time. You will want to have placed the steak to one side of the pan, and flip it to the other side, as your marinade is probably sticking to the pan a bit. Let it sit on this side as long as you did on the other side.
9) Toss it in the oven. When I do this, I let it sit on the stove for 3 minutes per side, and 4 minutes in the oven, so it's a 10 minute steak. Your cook time will vary depending on how well done you like your steak, as well as how thick it is. I did this with NY Strips that were not quite an inch thick (I always got them cheap in the mornings when the butcher marks down the meat from the day before to make room for that day's cuts).
10) Pull the steak out. DON'T EAT IT YET! Let it rest for a few minutes. This is important, because all the juices are cooked out of the steak, so the meat is dry and tough. Letting it rest lets it re-absorb the juices, and it'll be much much better for it.
11) Eat. That. Steak. You're welcome.
This has been Tox's guide to how some guy with meager cooking skill stumbled onto a way to make a halfway decent steak. The original recipe calls for three beers. Two you drink while you're cooking, the third you have with your dinner. I didn't feel like being quite that silly this time around.
I'll testify to the pan seared steak. It can be really good once you get the process down but I'd recommend a cast iron skillet and make sure either your exhaust fan is working or you have a window fan and disable your smoke detector while you cook because it will smoke like Snoop Dogg.
That said, I do up boneless skinless chicken breasts for the week and then throw em in ziploc baggies with 4 oz of meat in each so it's portioned out (i'm watching my calorie intake). Marinate them with a bottled marinade (I keep Stubbs around for this) or make your own with some acid and a base (Vinegar and Oil, Lemon and Yogurt, etc.) and sear on each side for one minute on Med/Med-Hi and then throw the lid on and turn down to low for 10 minutes and then turn off the burner and let it continue to cook in the residual heat for another 10 minutes (don't take the lid off for any reason - you want to preserve that heat). Then I just nuke that between two plates for a minute when I'm ready to eat it the next day and throw it on a salad, in a wrap on a sandwich with some sweet hot mustard.
Any way you cut it, leftovers will do you right. As much as I hate them that's what singles do. That or eat tubs of cottage cheese or peanut butter like savages.
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superhappypandaZug Island Sport FishingSeattleRegistered Userregular
It doesn't angle down and drain the fat away from the meats, though. That's one of my favorite things about the Foreman Grill, is the gross fatty residue that's left in that little tray at the end. When I'm dumping that out and cleaning it up, I say a little thank you that it's not inside my body. I do the frozen vegetables once in a while, but I'm trying to get away from that as much as I can. If you have a small pan and a steamer basket, you can buy fresh veggies and steam those, usually in about 10 minutes or so.
If you're eating steamed veggies, please please please try tossing them with some EVOO, kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper and then baking them for a few minutes. They taste loads better than steamed unless you're trying to avoid the olive oil (but really, why?). Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower are all pretty damn amazing baked.
It doesn't angle down and drain the fat away from the meats, though. That's one of my favorite things about the Foreman Grill, is the gross fatty residue that's left in that little tray at the end. When I'm dumping that out and cleaning it up, I say a little thank you that it's not inside my body. I do the frozen vegetables once in a while, but I'm trying to get away from that as much as I can. If you have a small pan and a steamer basket, you can buy fresh veggies and steam those, usually in about 10 minutes or so.
If you're eating steamed veggies, please please please try tossing them with some EVOO, kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper and then baking them for a few minutes. They taste loads better than steamed unless you're trying to avoid the olive oil (but really, why?). Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower are all pretty damn amazing baked.
Olive oil is awesome. With that said, it's still packed with a lot of calories for just a small amount.
Personally I liked my cooked veggies with little to no oil or margarine.
Asparagus I'll usually just steam and salt, for example. Or cook in a skillet on a low heat with a little water. Then crank up the heat at the end to sear the stalks.
I don't have a crockpot myself, but I know firsthand that they are fantastic!
OP, the one thing I'll relate to you that I find a bit of a challenge is that buying produce (fruits and vegetables) is a trial, since it seems that fresh produce is sold in amounts that are far too much for a single person. In my area, anyway. Take sandwiches, for example. I love sandwiches. For me a sandwich requires lettuce - a sandwich without lettuce is a sad sandwich (sadwich?). Butter lettuce, romaine, spinach, even iceberg if nothing else will do. My problem is that 90% of lettuce heads (of ANY type) are more than I can handle. I use half the thing before it goes bad. I just can't keep up. I can find the prewashed, sorted, organic stuff in plastic containers, but that's a hell of a lot more expensive. The same holds true for certain items like strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers - anything with a high moisture content.
You need to maximize your use of fresh veggies. Make salads and well as using things like tomatoes and lettuce on sandwiches. You'll use 'em up before they go bad.
Duly noted. I know that I'm often too lazy to make a fresh salad, which is a shame, because I really ought to be doing so. I'll make a point to use them up more.
There's also a lot of more savory salads that can work well for winter months, such as waldorf, niçoise, larb, and older variations of olivier just for romaine lettuce.
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superhappypandaZug Island Sport FishingSeattleRegistered Userregular
Agreed on the salads. I tend to prep veggies on Sunday for the week and make a huge Fattoush salad every night for dinner. Since I keep tabs on my calories and cut back on my carbs through the day, the 1/4-1/3 cup of olive oil i have with the salad doesn't push me past my daily calories. Plus all the vitamins and nutrients from the veggies and the Omega 6's from the EVOO make me feel fantastic the next day. Plus it keeps me regular. If I'm low on protein I'll throw in some of that pre-cooked chicken breast I mentioned before after cooking it in a shawarma marinade.
I don't have a crockpot myself, but I know firsthand that they are fantastic!
OP, the one thing I'll relate to you that I find a bit of a challenge is that buying produce (fruits and vegetables) is a trial, since it seems that fresh produce is sold in amounts that are far too much for a single person. In my area, anyway. Take sandwiches, for example. I love sandwiches. For me a sandwich requires lettuce - a sandwich without lettuce is a sad sandwich (sadwich?). Butter lettuce, romaine, spinach, even iceberg if nothing else will do. My problem is that 90% of lettuce heads (of ANY type) are more than I can handle. I use half the thing before it goes bad. I just can't keep up. I can find the prewashed, sorted, organic stuff in plastic containers, but that's a hell of a lot more expensive. The same holds true for certain items like strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers - anything with a high moisture content.
You need to maximize your use of fresh veggies. Make salads and well as using things like tomatoes and lettuce on sandwiches. You'll use 'em up before they go bad.
Duly noted. I know that I'm often too lazy to make a fresh salad, which is a shame, because I really ought to be doing so. I'll make a point to use them up more.
There's also a lot of more savory salads that can work well for winter months, such as waldorf, niçoise, larb, and older variations of olivier just for romaine lettuce.
I hadn't really thought of that. I should write down a list. It's a shame since I grew up in a moderately health-conscious family and I successfully retained virtually all of my good health habits - but alas, my mother's habit of frequently serving spinach and egg salads and other such savoury combinations didn't stick with me. Thanks for the tip.
If you would like a recipe, here's my quick-fix sausage casserole! (I've added prices in British pounds to give you an idea of how cheap it is).
Grab a big frying pan (I actually use a wok) and coat the inside with some oil. Peel two red onions (£1.50 for 3) and chop them into bits roughly. (When I chop onions, I stick a fork into the root and hold the onion with the fork, which allows you to chop more onion and stops you from chopping your fingers off). Chew some chewing gum while cutting them; it will stop your eyes from watering. Drop the onion bits into the pan and stir slowly on a medium heat for about a minute or two (until they soften up).
Next, the Cumberland sausages (£3 for sixteen). Chop each one into half (thumb-size pieces) then add them to your onions. It's okay if they burst. Play things by eye, and stir them up in the onions until they start to go slightly brown. If you like, add some salt/pepper/mixed herbs at this point.
Pour a tub of tomato pasta sauce over the whole mixture and stir it all up. I personally use a tub of Sainsbury's tomato and bacon sauce (2 tubs for £2.50), and I use two tubs if I'm feeling like feeding a big group (or myself for longer).
Now just keep stirring, adding herbs, pepper and salt as needed until the sauce is bubbling and has a great tangy taste. If you like, add a splash of red wine and/or tomato ketchup to make the flavour sharper!
Finally, drop the heat a tad and cover the frying pan/wok with a baking tray, then just let it simmer for five to ten minutes, stirring every so often.
Serve with mashed potato, or by itself (it's lovely!) Invest in a Pyrex dish (about £6) to keep some in the fridge to microwave at your leisure. Or make it a Winter Sausage Casserole by adding mulled wine instead of red wine, and cooking it on a slightly higher heat so it cooks the sausages hotter!
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joshgotroDeviled EggThe Land of REAL CHILIRegistered Userregular
Eggs with skim milk, scrambled up with one Archer Farms spinach and garlic chicken sausage.
MAMA brand Ramen w/non-fried noodles and artificial duck flavor. I ditch the oil packet, use less than half the seasoning packet, and instead season it with Sriracha. Not bad for around 220 calories and 4g fat (probably less since I throw out the oil packet). The Nissin and Maruchan brands tend to be around 390 calories and 14g fat, in comparison.
MAMA-brand 'Quick n' Tasty' instant fried rice. Wal-Mart carries these, at least out here in the Puget Sound area. Mushroom & Seaweed is my favorite flavor, but they're all good. They come in a little plastic mess kit of sorts, which looks like something the astronauts would take along on an ISS expedition. Easy prep, and then it goes right in the microwave. Just under 400 calories, 5g fat, and again you could probably cut that down by throwing away some of the seasoning oil and using Nori flakes or S&B's outstanding Nanami Togarashi or Shichimi Togarashi spice powder.
Heinz Curry Beanz. An import for those of us in the US, but worth ordering from Amazon, IMO. Comes in small cans, with beans and raisins (I know, but it works) in curry sauce. Surprisingly filling for onl 190 calories and 2.5g of fat.
Zoku Gojira on
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
The trouble with cooking for one isn't that cooking is a pain (even though it is)
it is that you have to cook for more people and then eat all the leftovers for the next five meals because
a: nothing comes in portions smaller than meal-for-two ever
b: in order to actually save money on cooking at home you can't just cook whatever whenever
c: you can't keep the raw ingredients for more than a week
d: no one else will ever use the stuff you buy for one recipe
e: you won't feel like cooking for a while
f: you don't have the time to anyway
g: you'll feel bad about wasting the food
I do it anyway, but I absolutely try to make the meals as practical for my situation as possible. George Foreman = yes. I do a lot of grilled fish, because it is super easy to marinate + steam in foil pouch and you should really eat the fish the same day you buy it anyway, so no storage woes.
The more time-consuming meals must be prep - freeze - cook. Make a batch of empanadas, throw in freezer uncooked, go from frozen to oven.
I do love my George Foreman, because it lets me cook things like burgers without them swimming in their own grease (the difference in calories might not be too great, but the flavor is very different). And the little grease tray is effective as well, but I wish there was an easier way to clean the thing. It's keeping me from using it, because it takes me nearly as long to scrub in between all the little ridges as it does to cook to begin with.
Also, as much as I've come to love cooking nearly everything with olive oil, it's got way too many calories in it to be worth using regularly. I've found that you can sauté veggies with just a little water: heat up a little less water than it takes to cover the bottom of the pan, and once it starts bubbling, you throw the food in and keep it moving. If the water boils off and the food starts to stick, just splash a little more in. No added calories, and it sautés just as well.
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If you have a decent non-stick pan you really only need a tiny amount of oil to saute vegetables in, to the point where calorific considerations are pretty much moot. I wouldn't use olive oil of that though; high temperatures degrade the health benefits of olive oil, and it has a fairly low smoke point. I use a very high quality rapeseed (I think you call it Canola?) oil, which also tastes delicious.
Also sugar, especially hidden sugar is a far bigger weight gain danger than good quality cooking oil used in food you make yourself.
Also, as much as I've come to love cooking nearly everything with olive oil, it's got way too many calories in it to be worth using regularly.
If you just use a little bit (an olive oil cooking spray can help with this) you're hardly adding any calories at all. Watch a professional kitchen stick a dollop of butter on a pan, or squirt oil generously from a squeeze bottle, and then compare that to the fine layer of mist you lay down with a spray.
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Just about any olive oil you can buy, at least in western countries, is going to be largely cut with canola or other less healthy oils. Even if the label claims to be 100% extra virgin olive oil, there is literally no one enforcing those claims. So it's probably a bad move to regard it as a healthy ingredient, and wise to limit the use of cooking oil in general wherever possible.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
The trouble with cooking for one isn't that cooking is a pain (even though it is)
it is that you have to cook for more people and then eat all the leftovers for the next five meals because
I call it the "being single tax". You can't buy bigger packages of stuff and thus save money, because unless you can freeze it you won't eat it all before it spoils.
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Just about any olive oil you can buy, at least in western countries, is going to be largely cut with canola or other less healthy oils. Even if the label claims to be 100% extra virgin olive oil, there is literally no one enforcing those claims. So it's probably a bad move to regard it as a healthy ingredient, and wise to limit the use of cooking oil in general wherever possible.
If you can't tell by the taste when you're getting good olive oil, then you might as well not buy it. Luckily I'm in the UK where it is actually illegal to sell deceptively labelled goods and that law is enforced.
If you can't tell by the taste when you're getting good olive oil, then you might as well not buy it. Luckily I'm in the UK where it is actually illegal to sell deceptively labelled goods and that law is enforced.
The taste test can be deceiving, as the counterfeit mix is meant to deceive the palate, not just the eye. Many will not pass the fridge test, where you put the bottle in the refrigerator overnight to see if it thickens. If it doesn't, you just bought canola oil at olive oil prices. Not a perfect test, since the positive result isn't a guarantee, but it's a way to test for the very chemical properties that make olive oil a relatively healthy form of fat.
Zoku Gojira on
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Just about any olive oil you can buy, at least in western countries, is going to be largely cut with canola or other less healthy oils. Even if the label claims to be 100% extra virgin olive oil, there is literally no one enforcing those claims. So it's probably a bad move to regard it as a healthy ingredient, and wise to limit the use of cooking oil in general wherever possible.
From googling, it seems that a half second spray of oil is about 6 calories. Let's say you go for a full second of spraying your pan, and that somehow you manage to consume every last drop of it along with your meal. Let's also assume that the olive oil is so laden with canola oil that it is actually just canola oil.
So we're talking 12 calories of canola oil, which is also one of the healthiest types of fat, in order to make Xerlith's sauteed veggies actually be sauteed, cooked better, taste better, and be a bit more filling. Still sounds like a good deal to me.
Mind you, I'm not calling olive oil or canola oil actual health food; there's a reason I'm calling it "one of the healthiest kinds of fat" instead of just "healthy." I don't think you should chug a bottle of olive oil because of the reported health benefits (an opinion you can find out there), just that it's a perfectly fine thing to include as part of a healthy diet.
Mind you, I'm not calling olive oil or canola oil actual health food; there's a reason I'm calling it "one of the healthiest kinds of fat" instead of just "healthy." I don't think you should chug a bottle of olive oil because of the reported health benefits (an opinion you can find out there), just that it's a perfectly fine thing to include as part of a healthy diet.
Fair enough. Sorry for going off on a tangent.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Just about any olive oil you can buy, at least in western countries, is going to be largely cut with canola or other less healthy oils. Even if the label claims to be 100% extra virgin olive oil, there is literally no one enforcing those claims. So it's probably a bad move to regard it as a healthy ingredient, and wise to limit the use of cooking oil in general wherever possible.
From googling, it seems that a half second spray of oil is about 6 calories. Let's say you go for a full second of spraying your pan, and that somehow you manage to consume every last drop of it along with your meal. Let's also assume that the olive oil is so laden with canola oil that it is actually just canola oil.
So we're talking 12 calories of canola oil, which is also one of the healthiest types of fat, in order to make Xerlith's sauteed veggies actually be sauteed, cooked better, taste better, and be a bit more filling. Still sounds like a good deal to me.
Mind you, I'm not calling olive oil or canola oil actual health food; there's a reason I'm calling it "one of the healthiest kinds of fat" instead of just "healthy." I don't think you should chug a bottle of olive oil because of the reported health benefits (an opinion you can find out there), just that it's a perfectly fine thing to include as part of a healthy diet.
I'm pretty sure that having some fat in your diet is a good idea.
And as I said above, the health and calorie overhead of a drop of olive (or canola) oil is trivial compared to the reduction in overhead you achieve by cooking food for yourself that is not laden with hidden salt, sugar, HFCS, far more fat, transfats, nitrites, and fuck knows what else.
Having fat in your diet is a good idea. There's a notion that eating/drinking fat gives you fat, it does not. If your goal is to "eat healthier" you should remove assloads of sugar from your diet. IE, high fructose corn syrup. Check your labels, that shit is in tons of processed goods, even goods you wouldn't think had it.
If you're home cooking things, it's good. Even if you deep fry something in canola oil, still isn't going to kill you.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Thread is not about the merits or drawbacks of fat and sugar, thread is about cooking for one person. Please post about that.
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Duly noted. I know that I'm often too lazy to make a fresh salad, which is a shame, because I really ought to be doing so. I'll make a point to use them up more.
I can do things like Stir Fry where the texture becomes somewhat consistent due to cooking (and I do regularly), but no crunch veggies on a smooshy sandwich.
My husband is like this without the Aspberger's. Drives me nuts, because I like vegetables better in things when they're lightly cooked and maintain their own flavors and textures. When he gets his way it's all cooked into a slurry, and so we kind of have to trade off who gets to win the meal.
The best thing about cooking for one? You can cook your veggies however you want and no one will complain.
Leftovers can still be good, if treated well.
EDIT: I'm oversimplifying, you probably want different accents for both of those (some cilantro maybe with the curry, some salsa and grated cheese with the burrito), but you can mostly fill out a meal this way.
Yes.
I'll testify to the pan seared steak. It can be really good once you get the process down but I'd recommend a cast iron skillet and make sure either your exhaust fan is working or you have a window fan and disable your smoke detector while you cook because it will smoke like Snoop Dogg.
That said, I do up boneless skinless chicken breasts for the week and then throw em in ziploc baggies with 4 oz of meat in each so it's portioned out (i'm watching my calorie intake). Marinate them with a bottled marinade (I keep Stubbs around for this) or make your own with some acid and a base (Vinegar and Oil, Lemon and Yogurt, etc.) and sear on each side for one minute on Med/Med-Hi and then throw the lid on and turn down to low for 10 minutes and then turn off the burner and let it continue to cook in the residual heat for another 10 minutes (don't take the lid off for any reason - you want to preserve that heat). Then I just nuke that between two plates for a minute when I'm ready to eat it the next day and throw it on a salad, in a wrap on a sandwich with some sweet hot mustard.
Any way you cut it, leftovers will do you right. As much as I hate them that's what singles do. That or eat tubs of cottage cheese or peanut butter like savages.
If you're eating steamed veggies, please please please try tossing them with some EVOO, kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper and then baking them for a few minutes. They taste loads better than steamed unless you're trying to avoid the olive oil (but really, why?). Asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower are all pretty damn amazing baked.
Olive oil is awesome. With that said, it's still packed with a lot of calories for just a small amount.
Personally I liked my cooked veggies with little to no oil or margarine.
Asparagus I'll usually just steam and salt, for example. Or cook in a skillet on a low heat with a little water. Then crank up the heat at the end to sear the stalks.
There's also a lot of more savory salads that can work well for winter months, such as waldorf, niçoise, larb, and older variations of olivier just for romaine lettuce.
I hadn't really thought of that. I should write down a list. It's a shame since I grew up in a moderately health-conscious family and I successfully retained virtually all of my good health habits - but alas, my mother's habit of frequently serving spinach and egg salads and other such savoury combinations didn't stick with me. Thanks for the tip.
Grab a big frying pan (I actually use a wok) and coat the inside with some oil. Peel two red onions (£1.50 for 3) and chop them into bits roughly. (When I chop onions, I stick a fork into the root and hold the onion with the fork, which allows you to chop more onion and stops you from chopping your fingers off). Chew some chewing gum while cutting them; it will stop your eyes from watering. Drop the onion bits into the pan and stir slowly on a medium heat for about a minute or two (until they soften up).
Next, the Cumberland sausages (£3 for sixteen). Chop each one into half (thumb-size pieces) then add them to your onions. It's okay if they burst. Play things by eye, and stir them up in the onions until they start to go slightly brown. If you like, add some salt/pepper/mixed herbs at this point.
Pour a tub of tomato pasta sauce over the whole mixture and stir it all up. I personally use a tub of Sainsbury's tomato and bacon sauce (2 tubs for £2.50), and I use two tubs if I'm feeling like feeding a big group (or myself for longer).
Now just keep stirring, adding herbs, pepper and salt as needed until the sauce is bubbling and has a great tangy taste. If you like, add a splash of red wine and/or tomato ketchup to make the flavour sharper!
Finally, drop the heat a tad and cover the frying pan/wok with a baking tray, then just let it simmer for five to ten minutes, stirring every so often.
Serve with mashed potato, or by itself (it's lovely!) Invest in a Pyrex dish (about £6) to keep some in the fridge to microwave at your leisure. Or make it a Winter Sausage Casserole by adding mulled wine instead of red wine, and cooking it on a slightly higher heat so it cooks the sausages hotter!
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
If I was to somehow end up single again, I would definitely continue with my wife's cooking routine. Prep a bunch of meals on Sat/Sun for the week.
Eggs with skim milk, scrambled up with one Archer Farms spinach and garlic chicken sausage.
MAMA brand Ramen w/non-fried noodles and artificial duck flavor. I ditch the oil packet, use less than half the seasoning packet, and instead season it with Sriracha. Not bad for around 220 calories and 4g fat (probably less since I throw out the oil packet). The Nissin and Maruchan brands tend to be around 390 calories and 14g fat, in comparison.
MAMA-brand 'Quick n' Tasty' instant fried rice. Wal-Mart carries these, at least out here in the Puget Sound area. Mushroom & Seaweed is my favorite flavor, but they're all good. They come in a little plastic mess kit of sorts, which looks like something the astronauts would take along on an ISS expedition. Easy prep, and then it goes right in the microwave. Just under 400 calories, 5g fat, and again you could probably cut that down by throwing away some of the seasoning oil and using Nori flakes or S&B's outstanding Nanami Togarashi or Shichimi Togarashi spice powder.
Heinz Curry Beanz. An import for those of us in the US, but worth ordering from Amazon, IMO. Comes in small cans, with beans and raisins (I know, but it works) in curry sauce. Surprisingly filling for onl 190 calories and 2.5g of fat.
it is that you have to cook for more people and then eat all the leftovers for the next five meals because
a: nothing comes in portions smaller than meal-for-two ever
b: in order to actually save money on cooking at home you can't just cook whatever whenever
c: you can't keep the raw ingredients for more than a week
d: no one else will ever use the stuff you buy for one recipe
e: you won't feel like cooking for a while
f: you don't have the time to anyway
g: you'll feel bad about wasting the food
I do it anyway, but I absolutely try to make the meals as practical for my situation as possible. George Foreman = yes. I do a lot of grilled fish, because it is super easy to marinate + steam in foil pouch and you should really eat the fish the same day you buy it anyway, so no storage woes.
The more time-consuming meals must be prep - freeze - cook. Make a batch of empanadas, throw in freezer uncooked, go from frozen to oven.
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Also, as much as I've come to love cooking nearly everything with olive oil, it's got way too many calories in it to be worth using regularly. I've found that you can sauté veggies with just a little water: heat up a little less water than it takes to cover the bottom of the pan, and once it starts bubbling, you throw the food in and keep it moving. If the water boils off and the food starts to stick, just splash a little more in. No added calories, and it sautés just as well.
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If you have a decent non-stick pan you really only need a tiny amount of oil to saute vegetables in, to the point where calorific considerations are pretty much moot. I wouldn't use olive oil of that though; high temperatures degrade the health benefits of olive oil, and it has a fairly low smoke point. I use a very high quality rapeseed (I think you call it Canola?) oil, which also tastes delicious.
Also sugar, especially hidden sugar is a far bigger weight gain danger than good quality cooking oil used in food you make yourself.
If you just use a little bit (an olive oil cooking spray can help with this) you're hardly adding any calories at all. Watch a professional kitchen stick a dollop of butter on a pan, or squirt oil generously from a squeeze bottle, and then compare that to the fine layer of mist you lay down with a spray.
Olive oil is just about the healthiest kind of fat you can eat, too, and in moderation it will help you feel full longer. Canola/rapeseed that V1m mentioned is also good.
Just about any olive oil you can buy, at least in western countries, is going to be largely cut with canola or other less healthy oils. Even if the label claims to be 100% extra virgin olive oil, there is literally no one enforcing those claims. So it's probably a bad move to regard it as a healthy ingredient, and wise to limit the use of cooking oil in general wherever possible.
I call it the "being single tax". You can't buy bigger packages of stuff and thus save money, because unless you can freeze it you won't eat it all before it spoils.
If you can't tell by the taste when you're getting good olive oil, then you might as well not buy it. Luckily I'm in the UK where it is actually illegal to sell deceptively labelled goods and that law is enforced.
The taste test can be deceiving, as the counterfeit mix is meant to deceive the palate, not just the eye. Many will not pass the fridge test, where you put the bottle in the refrigerator overnight to see if it thickens. If it doesn't, you just bought canola oil at olive oil prices. Not a perfect test, since the positive result isn't a guarantee, but it's a way to test for the very chemical properties that make olive oil a relatively healthy form of fat.
From googling, it seems that a half second spray of oil is about 6 calories. Let's say you go for a full second of spraying your pan, and that somehow you manage to consume every last drop of it along with your meal. Let's also assume that the olive oil is so laden with canola oil that it is actually just canola oil.
So we're talking 12 calories of canola oil, which is also one of the healthiest types of fat, in order to make Xerlith's sauteed veggies actually be sauteed, cooked better, taste better, and be a bit more filling. Still sounds like a good deal to me.
Mind you, I'm not calling olive oil or canola oil actual health food; there's a reason I'm calling it "one of the healthiest kinds of fat" instead of just "healthy." I don't think you should chug a bottle of olive oil because of the reported health benefits (an opinion you can find out there), just that it's a perfectly fine thing to include as part of a healthy diet.
Fair enough. Sorry for going off on a tangent.
I'm pretty sure that having some fat in your diet is a good idea.
And as I said above, the health and calorie overhead of a drop of olive (or canola) oil is trivial compared to the reduction in overhead you achieve by cooking food for yourself that is not laden with hidden salt, sugar, HFCS, far more fat, transfats, nitrites, and fuck knows what else.
If you're home cooking things, it's good. Even if you deep fry something in canola oil, still isn't going to kill you.