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I forgot how to cook (recipe request thread)
DirtyDirtyVagrant
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I know how retarded this must sound, but I'm sitting here trying to come up with recipe ideas, and the only food item I've come up with that doesn't involve noodles in some way is salad.
Not only that, I'm coming up with shitty ideas for noodle dishes. For all my inventiveness, my most intriguing idea so far has been to use whole grain noodles and chicken with parmesan cheese and basil in some capacity.
I would appreciate any help or ideas you guys could offer.
Note that I'm looking for the kind of recipes that one might expect to find in the fitness thread.
Edit: A big part of the problem is that I've gone a long time without actually cooking real food, so I've forgotten how to use different herbs, vegetables, oils, spices, and so forth.
My heating apparati are as follows: A deep electric skillet, a smallish electric grill, a charcoal grill, a microwave, and a hotplate with a saucepan. (I am poor as shit)
Not only that, I'm coming up with shitty ideas for noodle dishes. For all my inventiveness, my most intriguing idea so far has been to use whole grain noodles and chicken with parmesan cheese and basil in some capacity.
I would appreciate any help or ideas you guys could offer.
Note that I'm looking for the kind of recipes that one might expect to find in the fitness thread.
Edit: A big part of the problem is that I've gone a long time without actually cooking real food, so I've forgotten how to use different herbs, vegetables, oils, spices, and so forth.
My heating apparati are as follows: A deep electric skillet, a smallish electric grill, a charcoal grill, a microwave, and a hotplate with a saucepan. (I am poor as shit)
DirtyDirtyVagrant on
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There's like... a million recipes there.
Standard Burger
1 bottle of Worcestershire Sauce (which you will only use a bit of each time of course)
1 Ziploc bag
a few hours before grill time put the beef in the Ziploc add at least a few tablespoons of the sauce, knead the beef a little, zip it up and keep it in the fridge until it's time to grill.
Curry Burger
Knead about a table spoon and a half of Curry, Ginger and Cumin into the meat and cook. Top with some sour cream. (Cumin, Curry and Ginger can be expensive. If you live in a big town there's a high probability that there is an Indian or Ethiopian grocery store that you can get this stuff for a better price than at regular stores)
1 Glass casserole (dependent on how many you're feeding the size will change. For my wife and I we do just fine with what I think is a 6x9 glass casserole)
1 pound of beef (more if you're using like a 13x9 maybe 1.5 pounds)
1 package of Taco Seasoning
1 bottle of enchilada sauce
1 can of re-fried beans
4 cups of shredded cheese
1 container (8 oz) of sour cream
Cook the Beef in your skillet as per the directions on the taco seasoning packet
warm the beans in the microwave or just mix with the cooked beef in the skillet and get it all nice and heated through (WARNING: DO NOT mix the beans with uncooked meat!)
Set aside/keep warm your bean/meat mixture
Boil the lasagna several strips at a time.
Pour some of the enchilada sauce into your casserole (think of this as acting like cooking spray) then lay your cooked lasagna noodles down onto it, covering the bottom of the casserole. Spread some of your meat/bean mixture over the noodles add some cheese then lay down more noodles on top and add more enchilada sauce. Repeat until you've reached your desired thickness of lasagna, I usually shoot for about four layers. For the last layer, lay down the noodles but don't use any meat/bean mixture. Just plenty of enchilada sauce and cheese. Cover in foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
But the only ones you'll ever need are from Good Eats. Start watching Alton Brown religiously. If you bought something and want to know how to cook it, check Good Eats. His is not the only way of doing things, but he won't ever steer you wrong. You'll be a far better chef by learning from Alton.
Edit: spoilered because, while I still think this is good advice, this wasn't strictly what you were asking for based on one of your replies.
Once you figure out a meat you can do whatever for sides. Noodles are fine: toss with butter, breadcrumbs, and a little garlic for my favorite side dish of all time (mmm, buttered egg noodles). Mashed potatoes are good. Baked potatoes are even better. Garlic toast is easy and delicious. Rice is good enough for half the world's population, it'll work for you. If you're not only cheap but also lazy and/or strapped for time, the prepackaged side dishes at the supermarket (Rice-a-Roni and so on) aren't all that bad a deal.
To round out your meal get whatever lettuce is cheapest in the grocery section plus salad dressing (or make your own vinaigrette which takes all of thirty seconds). Meat, side, salad. This has basically been my lunch and dinner blueprint for the past year.
I used to cook by going "that sounds tasty, I'll cook that tonight" when I saw a recipe, but then I started going "that's on sale, how can I cook that tonight?" and I'm spending a lot less. Also trying new things, until last year I'd never cooked a london broil but now my steak sandwich (featuring top round steak a.k.a. the toughest cut o' the cow) is one of my staple recipes.
I also started talking about cooking with my friends and there's a couple of us who get together every week or so and drink beer and cook a bunch of food at once. I have a lot more fun, maybe you can try to make it a more social thing with someone you know?
One last note: you have a charcoal grill. Learn how to use it. Life becomes much more delicious once you've mastered charcoal. Sadly, the price of charcoal makes using it more of a luxury than a daily thing. You should be able to cook almost anything else with just an electric skillet and a saucepan. The lack of an oven will rule out some things, though.
TL;DR: if you're cooking on the cheap, don't ask for suggestions and go get that. Go buy something on sale, and then start looking for things to do with it.
Stock spices, oils, vinegar, cooking wine, etc that are appropriate to the style of food you like. Looking at some recipes will give you an idea for what you need. It's a large initial purchase, but necessary and inexpensive when you divide it among all the meals you make.
For vegetables, some are always cheap (potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, cabbage) and some are cheap (and much tastier) when they're in season. Your local farmers market may be a good source for cheap seasonal fruits and veges, but in some places they cater to a more upscale crowd and price accordingly. It's worth a look at least. Using fresh seasonal vegetables will make simple cheap meals taste really good. If you're looking for ideas for recipes, I'd start by picking out what you like from a list of what's in season.
If you want to save money, don't treat dinner as meat + sides. Make soups, casseroles and salads (as in bean or pasta salad, rather than leafy salad) rather than meat + sides. Meat's the most expensive part of most meals, and these dishes will let you do more with less of it. They also let you use cheaper cuts of meat (like half dark and half light meat chicken in a pot of soup, or ground meat in chili). Small amounts of bacon, cheese and/or eggs are relatively cheap additions that make otherwise vegetarian dishes delicious.
Herbs can get expensive. You might want to plant a few in pots if you have a window that gets good light.
For specific dishes, I'd recommend finding a good beans and rice recipe, and a good lentils/daal recipe (to which you can add almost any vegetables you've got). Pasta primavera is great with whatever's in season and easy to make on your skillet. Mostly-vegetable curry's good, although I guess some people don't like the sat fat in coconut milk.
Watched them over a weekend at work.
This is a lot of good info here. :^:
I'd also second the Good Eats rec, at least to help you with the whole "so what do I do with a pork loin (asparagus, etc) anyway?" The Good Eats fan page has good recipe links and show transcripts along with some Youtube links.
I ran into an interesting site recently with a meal plan for eating relatively healthy on a food stamp budget. They've got an e-book they're trying to sell, and not all of it's going to be applicable for you since several of the recipes involve baking (which you could only really do with a lot of effort), but the meal plans on their site might be good for idea generation.
I do this all the time, and it's definatley an easy way to spice up something ordinary. Mashed potatoes for example, I mix in shredded cheese and bacon bits.