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The Single Man's Guide To TV Dinners
yokimbo writes "The Food Network had a show about TV dinners and how they're prepared, their history, etc... But, what about the useful information, like how they taste? Ray Cole has your solution at The Single Man's Guide to TV Dinners. Although, I think he needs to visit Web Pages That Suck." (Of course, TV dinners don't scream out the way ramen does for improvement and improvisation.)
.... could be used in learning how to make real food.
Cooking is like UNIX, invest the right amount of time and you'll be thanking yourself for the next few lifetimes.
Sunny Dubey
I thought we quit calling them TV dinners back in the 70s......
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Seriously... Those bowls of rice have saved me from crappy lunches...
Over the years, I've gone from making ramen a meal to making it a carbohydrate base in the occasional meal. I use it similarly to a base of rice for my favorite stir-fry recipe.
Sliced squash and zuchinni, with eggplant, stir-fried with soy sauce and optional sesame seeds. It's a basic ingredient for several dishes. Use it atop ramen or rice. Add drained black beans and rice and roll it in a burrito.
Squash season is here. Yum.
You gotta WORK that ramen. Make it work for you.
Visit Lockjaw's Lair. He won't bite.
hot dog + cheese (2 minutes nuked)
Ramen noodle (cooking time 2 minutes nuked)
frozen lasagne (10 minutes nuked)
grated cheese on bread (5 minutes toasted)
pasta mix (12 minutes nuked)
potato salad straight out of the tub (instant!)
and of course the chips and biscuits
Exactly, repeat after me "Life is too short to eat crap". Anyone who can follow basic directions can learn to cook. Cooks Illustrated was a huge help in this process for me.
At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun.
Alan Greenspan
isn't plastic meant to created & leach carnsonagenic material when run through a microwave oven?
Don't whack off after handling hot peppers.
You'll eat better, more healthy and more tasty food plus you'll acquire a social skill that might - note: might - help you get and hold onto a girlfriend.
I've yet to meet a woman who's impressed by a man who can work a microwave. However, women do go for a guy who really can cook.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I'm serious. How tough can cooking be? One definitive resource for the basics is all we need.
A "Learning Cooking" book from O'Reilly would rock.
Over last summer, instead of going out or cooking food for myself, I had a TV dinner almost every night, and it helped me lose a lot of weight. Why? Portion control. If you're counting calories, it's dead easy with these - just read the label. Plus, if you're like me, you always feel like you have to clean your plate. With one of the low-calorie tv dinners (Lean Cuisine is especially good tasting, compared to the others), you can - and still not overeat.
So, if you're looking to lose a few pounds, I highly reccommend them.
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized. -AC
I'm a good cook. I throw dinner parties for my friends every once in a while. But a lot of time, I just don't want to be bothered cooking a meal for one. All the prep work, the cooking time, then the clean up involved. Sometimes I just want to nuke it , eat it, and toss it. So sites like that are kinda useful for me.
:)
Plus, those meals are a great last resort when you screw up the main meal.
Now, if that makes sense to anyone, could you please explain it to me? I think I've confused myself.
I'm a guy, I live alone, I have never purchased a TV dinner or package of ramen. When I was getting my place set up, I did have a few frozen pizzas, but not any more.
It's really easy to cook. Pasta's easy, hamburgers are easy, even homemade pizza is easy. The crock pot and bread machine are great time savers. Pork chops are easy: be sure to brine them before cooking (put them in water with some sugar and salt; osmosis does the rest). Just throw them in a pan and brown them, then add some chopped onions and other vegetables. Goes well with rice.
Jalapeno poppers are pretty good to make once in a while, too. Pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns are 100 times better when made at home, compared to fast-food or frozen variants. The best thing about cooking at home is the leftovers: you're making a meal not only for today, but you're rescuing yourself from pulling a mystery-meat burrito from the vending machine at work tomorrow.
Initially it takes some time, but you'll grow much more efficient. It's a good life skill to have, and you'll eat cheaper and healthier. Just make sure to buy small portions of food that perish quickly, and use them up before they go bad. You need some good tools, too. Sharp knives are a must. The first and only thing I've ever considered buying from Ronco is this huge knife set, and I'd have to say that for the price, they're a good deal and decently made.
TV dinners are industrialized, mass produced slop made from the cheapest ingredients. Even school lunches are gourmet by comparison. And the oddest part about TV dinners is that, even though they are billed as being convenient, since they are frozen food it takes forever until they are ready.
It's Sunday morning and I'm feeling cranky, and I'd like to write several more paragraphs about how awful TV dinners are. But instead, I'm going to rise to the occasion and try to write something genuinely helpful. Below, I'll offer some suggestions on what to eat instead of TV dinners, which are always your worst choice. Everything below is tastier and healthier than TV dinners -- while being just as convenient.
Spaghetti & Tomato sauce -- in the time it takes to boil water and heat up a jar of sauce, you're in business. Usually, I'll take a couple more minutes to mince up some garlic, and saute it in my pan with some olive oil before adding sauce. You can also buy pre-minced garlic in jars in any grocery store.
Most of the time, I'll also grill some fresh peppers in my George Foreman grill to add to the sauce. You can start the peppers as you heat up the water to boil, and they'll be ready to cut up and add to the sauce well before the rest of the meal is ready. Anaheim or bell peppers are great choices.
Grilled Veggies speaking of the George Foreman grill, which you can buy for less than $30 on Amazon, I use this thing all the time for ultra-healthy snacks. You can grill up just about any type of vegetable. My favorites are broccoli and cauliflower. I'll usually break them into pieces, then grill them give minutes or so. Then flip them around in the grill, turn off the power, and keep the grill on them for another five minutes or so. I'll then top with some non-transfatty acid margarine and some flax oil in a serving bowl.
Bread Machine.Amazon.com offers a West Bend bread machine that makes a small loaf suitable for one or two people in less than an hour. You can modify the recipes so that the breads are nearly all whole grain. And it takes only about five minutes to measure out the ingredients. Then, just go away for 45 minutes, and when you get back you've got a piping hot loaf of bread, that costs something like 30 cents even if you've used organic flour.
I hope some of this is helpful. If this inspires you, you can also try some cookbooks geared to convenient and healthy eating. There's one called _The Everyday Vegan_ which I think is especially good as a source of convenient recipes to replace TV dinners. I have no financial interest in the sale of this book; I just think it's great.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Totally agree. I didn't cook much until my girlfriend started to encourage me... Then I found this very funny book which has been a great help - Cooking for blokes: Duncan Anderson and Marian Walls. Note: It even includes a detailed section dedicated to explaining all those weird "gas mark" settings and spoon sizes!! Now I just wish they would write "ironing for blokes" :-)
http://opencurve.org/~sunny/misc/tv_dinners/
Some images are missing, but all the text is there.
Sunny Dubey
I used to be the same way until I got a good gas barbecue. Throw a piece of chicken and a corn on the cob on the grill still in it's husk and you have better than anything you'd ever get from Hungry Man with no cleanup (if you have a dishwasher).
That's women-work boy. In Soviet china we have too many woman.
One word "freezer"!
Prepare extra food in advance, freeze, decide what you are eating the night before, thaw overnight, place in fridge whilst before going to work, return, zap, eat. Decent food at the speed of a microwave meal.
The operative word here is scream. I've known people who lived for months on ramen noodles but I still haven't figured out how they didn't get rickets or scurvy or something similar. There isn't much in the way of nutrition in those things.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Agreed. Once you are getting a bit better it is great fun. For me, it has ceased to be a chore, and feels more like a time to relax, be a bit creative.
Also, this topic is a great opportunity to copy and paste some fun links.
The worst breakfast ever: "Swanson, producers of some of the world's fattiest TV dinners, is seeking to take over the breakfast market with a new line of microwaveable morning meals. It's called the 'Hungry Man All Day Breakfast,' and it's threatening to turn people into manatees."
For those who like Mystery Science Theatre 3000, here is a similar take on edibles; The Gallery of Regrettable Food
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
try this strange brew, that's good for you, & freely distributable too.
Cooking is fun! Trying to get your favourite dish just right should appeal to any geek who has the same drive for perfection when building computers or coding. Get the base right from a book or a magazine and then start tweaking the recipe until it's perfect.
Sauces, in particular, are rewarding. They either make or break your dish.
The owls are not what they seem
Even in a war in the middle of Siberia you can have TV Dinners.
Except that they Call them MREs. Meal Ready to Eat. Almost. I've never had one, but as far as I know, the soldiers don't like them, and the ones that stay downrange for a long time take out as much food as the can and take away almost all the packaging, to cut down on weight.
Now they buy food from the camping stores.
At work I see almost everyone eating something from a little black plastic tray that came out of the microwave.
I am considered to "cook" because I usually reheat something I boiled the night before.
Steve
It's called the 'Hungry Man All Day Breakfast,' and it's threatening to turn people into manatees."
I've gotta try that!!!
I use a bit of a different method on the ramen.
I generally fill the bowl with water and then nuke for about five minutes. It usually sits in the microwave for about five more minutes.
After that, I drain the water and pour generous amounts of whatever cheap hot sauce I've come by.
This last batch has been Texas Pete's hot sauce.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Oh, and that lazanga does not have any real meat in it too. I found that out from my vegan girlfriend, who also had me over once for thanksgiving dinner. She put this thing on the table and when I asked her what it was she proudly say's Tofurkey! Tasted like crap.
Vegans, go figure, when you try to tell them that what you were really hankering for is a deep fried "real" turkey dinner for thanksgiving. They go ballistic with all this health crap mumbo jumbo!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Nobody I know who has ever worked in a processed food plant will ever eat the stuff. When pressed for a reason they just say "You don't want to know". I suppose it's somewhat analogous to restaurants where you don't want to know what goes on in the kitchen. But with restaurants you can at least select on the external quality of the place. With processed food the same places that make the upscale stuff also make the cheap crap you wouldn't feed to your dog. Dogs will eat anything and come to think of it, so will geeks, so maybe this really isn't an issue.
Gas sucks. A regular fire is what's needed. My barbeque is a few concrete blocks stacked together with a grill on top of it, and an old oil pan that used to sit under my car for making a fire on. You need flames for stuff to taste really good. Real flames, not just heat.
No idea what Hungry Man is - you sound fucked up.
Dishwasher - yes. Greatest invention ever.
Yeah, I'm making this for breakfast today...
Poor Man's Egg-Foo-Yung 1 packet ramen 1 1/2 cups of cheap frozen mixed veggies 1 egg Some water Put about a 1/2" of water in a frying pan and turn it on high. Once the water starts boiling throw the whole brick on top and reduce heat to medium and let it cook. Turn it occasionally so it sucks up all the water evenly. When the pan getting close to dry but the noodles are still a bit firm but soft, dump in the frozen veggies (you can put in half a seasoning packet and/or a tsp. sesame oil for flavor at this point) and stir cooking off the water from the frozen veggies. Once they appear thawed, dump in a scrambled egg adding salt and pepper for taste. Let this cook either stirring it up or flipping it omlette style for a filling but cheap entree.
*Bonus tip, adding a bit of milk to the crambled egg (or two) makes it fluff up nicely. You might have to experiment wtih the water amounts a bit... I kinda freestyle my cooking without any measurements.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
You might have planted a seed...
You sound just like my girlfriend!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Two words: Dollar store and freezer! Ok, that's three or even four words.
I bought a bunch of inexpensive clear top plastic containers at the dollar store. Then I buy food in large quantities, like sausages, salmon filets, frozen vegetables (they're quite good and come in a variety of mixes). I cook the salmon with Paul Prudhomme's Salmon Magic, I grill the sausages, etc... I even make prime rib burgers. Anyways, I toss in one piece of meat and some vegetables per container and freeze em. I spend two hours preparing two-three weeks worth of food.
Think about it.
Mr Chalabi argued that "the IGC is the forces that opposed Saddam Husain and, allied with the US, overthrew him. Now the US wants to overthrow us?"
To which another - and more realistic - IGC member, cleric Ghazi al-Yawar replied: "They think they are entitled to a role because they believe they overthrew Saddam Husain. It was the US that overthrew Saddam while we were eating TV dinners."
so apparently the term TV dinner is not only in use its internationally in use. Plus its damn funny in this inconcrous use.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
On my travels through asia I have had a chance to try many of the Ramen of diffrent Asian countries. So far China has made an Excellent showing as has Japan.
Unfortunatly some Japanese ramen tends towards the $3 soup that eats like a meal mark which is so much crap.
It's important that ramen coniseurs get their hands on some Shin-Ramen comming out of Korea as it is definitly a staple.
A pet cat the knew well enough to stay away from anything veggie based, loved the cooked carrots found in TV dinners. That makes me wonder just what they made them out of and how they were made.
1800-Food ... problem solved. :) and they diliver...
Here in Australia frozen meals really had a late start, they certainly don't have the cultural identity they seem to in the States.
Because eating out has traditionally been an expensive way to eat in Australia everyone knew how to cook. The growth of fast food chains through the 80s and 90s into smaller and smaller towns has eroded this a little, but not to the point that the microwave is the cooking appliance of choice.
Having cheap access to good quality ingredients also helps to encourage decent cooking. An uncle of mine who is a chef spent 12 months in the UK, he was amazed how difficult it was to source quality fruit, vegetables and meat.
In Australia the culinary joke is 'meat and three veg' which a lot of us grew up on. Thinking about it though, steak and veges most nights of the week really isn't a bad way to eat.
I want to use these Mod points but I can't find anything Interesting, Informative or Insightful on Slashdot.
ironing for blokes
Seriously, don't. Find a local laundry or dry cleaners and find out how much they charge.
I pay 5.50 UKP for the washing and ironing of 5 shirts. When I iron shirts myself - and I used to iron them all the time - it took me 15 minutes per shirt (OK I'm a perfectionist). That's 1 hour 15 minutes of my life per week, just to start off. Add the time spent loading the washing machine and hanging out to dry, the cost of the washing process and the cost of the electricity to power your iron and it's a no-brainer.
And when I outsourced ironing I realised I did not need to iron any of my clothes. Properly folded and hung or stowed, there is no requirement to iron casual clothes.
I invested in two decent, identical, M&S, non-iron suits (yes I have to wear a suit to work, no I am not a suit) and so far (two years) they have lived up to this claim. Hung properly they dry from the wash with a crease and no wrinkles.
So I got rid of my iron and ironing board and freed up more space that I can live in rather than sweat in.
No-one with a job requiring them to wear a shirt should be paid so little they can't easily afford to get someone else to iron it.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
The best frozen dinners, no contest, are the Boston Market frozen dinners. I've been eating them regularly for the past several months, and I'm telling you, in a taste test I doubt you could tell that it was a frozen dinner. It tastes just like a home cooked meal. Cook em in the oven for the best results. The food actually tastes real unlike the other frozen dinners. A++++++++ highly recommended!!!!
I dunno, my fiance and I eat TV dinners often enough. It's not that we don't know how to cook, it's that we don't care to waste the money, prep time, and worst of all, cleaning dishes. To make most decent meals, you end up buying all sorts of different groceries (expensive). Then you get home and have to cook it (we usually don't mind this part a whole lot). Then the best part - you eat it. Then the worse part - cleaning dishes.
We both absolutely hate doing dishes. You say life is too short to eat crap? I say it's just food, and life is too short to spend hours a day on shopping, preparing, and cleaning for a single meal that only feeds two people. TV dinners are cheap, are easy to cleanup, and get the job done.
(And before anyony mentions a dish washer, forget it. As much as I hate doing dishes once, I really hate doing them twice.)
"There will be things for men,
including comfortable chairs
and remote-controlled television
sets, and bowling balls, and
baseball caps, and thick sweaters,
and girlie magazines, and
beer, and bourbon, and scotch,
and potato chips, and cheese
curls, and pretzels, and pizza,
and submarine sandwiches, and
fishing tackle,"
Any thought you've ever had has already be
There is a REAL need for high-school and adult-education classes to teach how to do basic real cooking and more importantly, how to store multiple portions for later eating!
Kitchen appliances should be your friend, not your enemy. You'll be amazed how just with basic knowledge of cooking skills you could create quite an amazing variety of decent meals. For example, go to the Campbell Soup Company website and there are a huge number of delicious recipes you can make using Campbell's Condensed Soups as a base.
Also, you may want to invest the time and money on decent food storage; when I was living away from my parents I would make a huge pot of chicken a la king, store the portions in small Tupperware bowls, and put them in the freezer for later use over rice and/or toasted bread. You can nowadays do the same with pasta sauce, especially with the new generation of Tupperware containers that are tolerant of the acidic nature of tomato-based pasta sauces.
It's just an extension of the old proverb "Teach a man how to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime."
Cooking a similar meal from scratch is much more time consuming and messy, plus the portions are way too big for a single person.
Looking at the prices in the supermarket, buying fresh meat and vegetables is more expensive than buying the frozen dinners. It only makes sense if you are preparing food for a group of people.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
If you want egg drop soup bring back to a near boil and stir in one raw egg making sure it gets cooked properly. What I do is actually mix the egg and some lemon juice together (shake in a small closed jar is easiest technique) and stir that into headed soup mixture. You get a creamier soup than the regular egg drop soup. Don't overheat though.
Didn't you learn anything in elementary school or didn't they teach you all that then?
That dried out stuff that they sell in stores has no resemblance to real ramen whatsoever. I lived in Sapporo Japan, the home of Sapporo Ramen. The real stuff is amazing. The noodles are freshly made, and lightly cooked in a bowl of broth. Add a few veggies, a slice of venison (or pork) and an egg and you have a complete meal.
I can still remember coming in from the cold in the winter and having a bowl of hot ramen in the back of a friends record store.
Amazing!
Apropos bread machines, boyfriend of tuxette makes a wonderful wholegrain bread in his machine, using beer as the liquid.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
"The Single Man's Guide to Bandwidth Bills - Post Slashdotting"
I would like to recommend:
The Joy of Cooking
if you only have ONE cookbook - this is it....
... hi bingo
Voila! meals in a bag are a mainstay in my diet. Whether it is chicken or beef variety it is always very easy to fix and store. Just grab a pan with a lid and apply to a hot stove top with half a cup of water and in 15-20 minutes you have an adequate dinner for two. As for taste - mild to lite depending on how well you cook it. You can usually taste the veggies and the meat and pasta usually do their own thing. I usually fix 2 or 3 bags of this stuff and freeze it for quick meals through the week.
I have a hard time thinking about food as other than "provisions."
In other words, I know that I have to eat properly in order to maintain the meat-sack that is my body in order to obtain optimum functionality from my mind, but why would I want to waste time or brainspace by learning special preparation methods for it?
"Cuisine" is simply a form of mental (or is it oral?) masturbation practiced by those who either have too much time on their hands, or for some reason need to distract themselves from the other aspects of their life while they eat.
Which doesn't stop me from watching "Good Eats" or "A Cook's Tour" on Food-Network occasionally: the physical chemistry behind even a simple mayonaise can be fascinating, and the significance that people ascribe to eating raw shellfish is intriguing, psychologically. Emeril, on the other hand, grates on my psyche like fingernails on a chalkboard.
In my opinion, eating is overrated, and I have a hard time believing that I'm alone among the crowd that is /.
What is the difference between a small revolutionary change and a large evolutionary change?
When I was single, I had the ability to eat things that were too strange for other people, but that worked for me.
For example, for a low-fat meal that had the prescribed amount of protein & carbs, I would mix dry curd cottage cheese into canned spaghetti sauce, over whole-wheat pasta. Also, storebought burritos with cottage cheese on the side. Grits. Ground turkey.
Now I'm married and eating more traditional foods, and back to being overweight again.
I say it's just food, and life is too short to spend hours a day on shopping, preparing, and cleaning for a single meal that only feeds two people.
Sadly this statement is the way the majority of the population thinks about eating. Food is what goes into your body, and eventually becomes the stuff you're made of. You may not value the taste, but you certainly should value the nutritional value of it. Most processed food like TV dinners contains a huge of amount of saturated fat and/or trans-fat, both major contributors to heart disease. Not to mention all the preservatives and other crap that's likely not very good for you.
The value in cooking and making your own food is an investment in your own health. What's more important than your, and your wifes health?
AccountKiller
This show on FoodTV has aired about 100x. This article is incredibly outdated compared to the first airing...
Prepare extra food in advance, freeze, decide what you are eating the night before, thaw overnight, place in fridge whilst before going to work, return, zap, eat. Decent food at the speed of a microwave meal.
How about just paying for the microwave meal and not bothering with the cooking and freezing part?
I really don't see the point of people who advocate "real" cooking because of the "convenience". "See, all you have to do is [x], [y], and [z], and you have a meal." "That's great, but sometimes [z] is all I want to do." "Don't do that! Just do [a], [b] and [c] instead!" "Or I can just do [z]. Fuck off."
Sure there are other reasons for avoiding microwaved food, but convenience ain't one of them.
yeah, thanks dad. all 3 of the little points you made are obvious to me and im sure the rest of the people that read that post. probably the person that wrote the post knew those were "bad". was it really so important for you to tell everyone that those foods were unhealthy? tell you what, you take care of your body how you want and the rest of us will deal with ours how WE want. oh and if it's ok with you, i thought the persons list was pretty funny. so go ahead and make a list of reasons it's bad to think that post was funny, too.
For a change of pace:
take a package or two of ramen
throw the boullion as far away as humanly possible
cook the ramen al dente (don't laugh)
add a dollop of spaghetti sauce according to preference
hey presto - ramen-ghetti
I know real spaghetti noodles aren't terribly expensive, but ramen can be significantly cheaper (important when every dollar counts). Ramen is also easier to cook (where "cook" == "make pliable").
Sometimes I think of these meals - 10+ years in the past - when I'm putting a very thick steak on the grill. It helps to have a side of perspective every now and again.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Nowadays, all you need is one of George Foreman griller/cooker.
My personal recipe for single guy
1. One plate of London Broil
2. Some soy sauce or terriyaki
3. cover soy sauce over london broil in a sauce pan over night
4. next day - take out london broil and put in George cooker - grill it on low - the whole thing take 10 mins!!
5. Slice and serve with salad in bag
It's quicker, cheaper and yummm
These are very tasty. They are actually better than normal burgers.
These "lean quest" burgers are made with beef, oats, and cherries. You would think that's a horrible combination. However, you cannot taste the oats or cherries. It is also jucier than others. They also cook faster.
On top of this, each one has only 140 calories, 3 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams of fat, and 16 grams of protein.
Try them out if they are available in your area (or online). Note: I have no connection with JTM other than liking their product.
JTM entry
If you look at it the 2 most expensive ways to eat are fast food and preprocessed.
You can either spend $15 on a fast food meal, or buy a couple of steaks, some veggies, potato etc. and have money left over for dessert.
If you are worried about clean up, as a bachelor I got good at one pot or one pan meals.
Woks are great. throw the protein of your choice and some veggies in it and sopice to taste. for carbos use quick pasta, rice or even microwaved potatos (trust me, it can work!).
Crok pots are great. Throw a cheap cut of meat, veggies and spices in it in the morning, turn it on low and when you return from work the house smells great and dinner is ready. Take the left overs to work for a good lunch. I like to make big pots of stew or soup (chili is god) and freeze it for a fast, cheap,and tasty meal. Just throw it in a microwave, heat and serve.
And finally as a friend of mine put it: "an apple is fast food, a banana is fast food". You can have a good, inexpensive, fast meal simply by buying some soft cheese, some fruit and good bread or crackers (whole grains are better of course).
Just some ideas.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
give me a break. those meal-like ramens are more like the real ramens. instant variety sold in america and elsewhere for 10 cents a pack aren't the real thing.
don't say you went around asia eating ramens. you went around asia eating instant ramens.
this is like going to america after growing up in asia, eating a white castle steamed burger and telling me they aren't really good hamburgers. duh.
$15 on a fast food meal???
Scratch the potatoes and desert, too.
Of course, cooking your own meals doesn't necessarily address your health concerns.
The most important investment in your own health is "your own health". Cooking your own meals isn't necessarily required to accomplish that but a good understanding of diet is. Eating well is possible while eating out just as eating poorly is possible while eating in.
Lets do some math..
I'm single and lazy so I cook in large batches and freeze the result.
A real example:
I spend an hour cooking 20 days worth of curry chicken. That meal plus rice comes down to $1.90 CDN per serving and I'm full for this amount. Then I spend 15 minutes cleaning the kitchen.
Or I can spend $4.00 CDN on the cheapest frozen dinner and still not be full!
Of course I don't eat that every day but I can rotate what batch of food I eat that day.
I find that since I got into cooking for myself the quality of my meals has gone up and I've even managed to drop a little weight.
Not one healthy suggestion in the bunch. I wouldn't touch one of these things.
And to think this is offered in the context of healthy alternatives to TV dinners!
Also very good, and very funny, is Alton Brown and his book "I'm just here for the food". I believe Alton was actually interviewed on slashdot at some point, but I can't find the story. He focuses on the science behind cooking, and how the food cooks, rather than just recipes. He also has a show Good Eats on Food Network. I find that he occasionally contradicts himself, but overall is a very good resource, especially since the humor makes his book very easy to read, and his show very easy to watch.
You might want to look into the toxicity of used motor oil before you cook your next meal over a fire in that pan. Frankly you might as well be using a barbeque fueled by PCBs instead of propane.
I do agree with you about dishwashers tho :-)
Ensure you have foodstuffs representing the following categories on hand:
- Fresh veggies - broccoli is best, keeps well. Also consider carrots, tomatoes, greens (spinach, etc.). At a pinch, frozen veggies will do
- Some sort of quick prepare starch - potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous
- Protein - fish, chicken, tofu, frozen shrimp. If needed, cook in advance for the week.
- Sauces - salsa, curry, soy, etc, Spicy is good
start cooking the starch (steam or boil as case may be). 10 minutes before done, add the veggies. 5 minutes before done add protein. Vary times depending on starhc's cooking times (20 min for rice, 15 for pasta, may 10 for potatoes, etc.). Add in sauce. Eat from cooking appliance.Vary by choosing a different combination of veggies, starch, protein and sauce. E.g. rice-spinach-shrimp-soy sauce one day, potatoes-chicken-carrots-curry the next.
Exclude the starch item if you are on Atkins.
By buying basic fresh ingredients, you save a ton of money, get healthy food, can control the salt/fat/sugar content yourself, and it really isn't any more work than a frozen meal.
Think of this as an open source DIY meal, as opposed to a closed source frozen dinner, where you get whatever mysterious ingredients the vendor decides.
"dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope"
for 2 people. I was gestimating ~7 to 8 USD per person, all sales taxes included.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
You make some good points I suppose. Regarding the "$15 on fast food or steaks" comment - a TV dinner costs about $2-$3 on sale. For that meal, you're looking at making the steaks (George Foreman or broiler cleaning is an unpleasant cleaning job). Then you have the potatoes pan, veggie bowl (optional), and the dishes you use to serve it on (unless you go all plastic and paper plates).
As far as "one pot meals", you're right, there are some out there. Chicken Teryaki over rice is a favorite, but you still have the pan with teryaki fried on it plus plates/silverware (paper plates are too messy with this). You can make that for about $8 I guess. Can't eat that every day, though. There's also the hamburger helpers, but that creates a messy pan+lid and serving dishes as well. I'm nitpicking now, but with a $2 TV dinner there's next to nothing to cleanup (maybe a fork).
I don't like fruit, and my fiance doesn't like salads. I don't like to buy salad for one since the rest goes spoiled quickly.
We plan on having kids, so we won't be able to live like this forever, but might as well enjoy the dish-free freedom while it lasts. By then, the thought of cleaning dishes will be pale in comparison to diaper changing.
I'd like to offer an addition to this process. Vacuum Seal bags/containers. I will typically cook or prep a month's worth of meals in a weekend, vacuum seal the portions and freeze.
They will keep this way for much longer than stuff frozen in regular plastic containers/ziploc bags, and you have the option of "boil-in-bag" reheating. That last came in handylast month when the magnetron on my microwave went. Took a week for the warranty repair to get the part.
Add to that the fact that the bags make it possible for a single guy like myself to buy bulk quantities of stuff at the local Warehouse Club, and portion/freeze it, and it's saved me a ton of time/money already.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
... that only single guys are condemned to a diet of TV dinners. Some of us married guys who have wives working evening shifts can't be bothered (or don't see the need) to learn to cook either!
In Japan, you will often find a ramen shop that is literally the back of some tiny little pickup truck. Usually outside of a train station.
:)
Some of the best damn ramen and coldest beers around!
Cheap, too. See, guys *do* like quality food. We just like CHEAP food too.
10 min knead+ 20 min rise+15 min knead+ 20 min rise+ 30 sec punchdown +55 min rise, and finally, an hour to actually bake.
If you make a white-bread with processed sugar, then you can use the "quick-bread" setting and cut it to 2:20 (no secondary knead/rise.)
The whole-wheat cycle takes 3:40 (longer rise times.)
The only way to get the cycle time under two hours is to forgo yeast entirely, and use baking soda or baking powder instead: 1 hour &50 minues for the quick bread setting.
In fact, even just baking the loaf takes a whole hour!
If it weren't for the timer letting me set a cycle to start while I'm asleep, I doubt that I'd use the thing at all. (It _IS_ great to wake up to the smell of fresh bread.)
My recipe for honey-grain bread(modified from the book that came with the machine.)
- Add to the machine in order:
Tasty, and filling.13 oz of carbon-filtered water (to remove the chlorine.)
-use more when it's cold and dry, less when it's warm and humid
1 teaspoon plain salt (I started using a free box of "canning salt" and just stuck with it.)
2 tablespoons 100% oil hard margerine (none of that half-water soft "spread" stuff.)
-I've got a slicing "butter dispenser" made by Kitchen Art that makes this easy. Plus, it's a gadget, so I love it.
1 tablespoon Honey (use pan-spray oil to get it to slide out of the spoon)
2 cups bread flour (I've been using all-purpose: it's cheap)
1 cup whole-wheat flour(why is this more expensive that white?)
1 half-cup of quick rolled oats
2 tablespoons dried milk (optional)
2 tablespoons oat-bran (optional)
1 rounded teaspoon active, dry yeast
Run on Basic or Whole Wheat cycle, let cool before slicing.
What is the difference between a small revolutionary change and a large evolutionary change?
While I agree with the sentiment that people should really not consider food just as "whatever fills my stomach attitude" (and I wouldn't consider taste less important than nutritional value, actually), this I have beef with.
Your statement is plain old FUD. "Hey, they are, like, chemicals, and thus they are BAD unless proven not to be, and even then they may be". I'm not biggest fan of all the techniques industry uses to shortchange us (injecting water, faking taste with MSG, garlic, salt, adding too much sugar [high-glucose corn syrup] in places it doesn't belong to), but many of additives -- especially preservatives -- are GOOD for us. Why?
Without preservatives (including ones with some unfortunate problematic effects like nitrates), thousands of people would die in food poisoning each year in US alone. Without preservatives, much more food would be lost, meaning that current world population could not be fed (at this point it's more about distribution and economics; not a hard physical limitation). Likewise, many chemical compounds that help create or maintain proper food texture allow reducing amount of salt used (more salt is otherwise needed to preserve moisture etc.), as well as extend lifespan of products. As nice as it is to get truly fresh products, that's not always possible, esp. if you don't want your local super-dooper walmart to be the only store in town (they can have freshest produce due to huge turnover), and preservation techniques help in getting decent balance between low spoilage and fresh products.
There's balance between being tin-foil food paranoid, and being ignoramus that blindly accepts all additives industry comes up with. It's good to know basic food microbiology and chemisty to know essential additives that make world a better place (when appropriately used) from the ones that only enrichen corporations and allow sub-standard food to be sold.
I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Here's a good one:
1 package Mac&Cheese (spring for the "Annie's Shells&Cheddar" (the one with the bunny on the front. Its organic and much more healthy for you. Or at least go for the Kraft low-fat version.
1 15oz can Black beans, rinsed, and then nuked with a little water for about a minute
Make the mac&cheese, dump in the black beans, add some of the following (tabasco sauce, oregano, hot pepper flakes, ground cumin and/or coriander, or heck just throw in 1/2 jar of salsa)
You're done in 10 minutes (less if you use the new microwave mac&cheese) and you have pretty decent meal.
What's really strange is that it takes about 8 minutes to broil chicken or fish, a cut of which probably costs less than most of his frozen meals, about 3 minutes to cook rice or thin pasta, which you can do at the same time, and it's (instant!) to take the salad out of the little pre-package baggie it comes in and toss it in a bowl.
If you're taking a few minutes to cook yourself dinner, why not cook yourself a decent one?
That... THING... can... IMPOSSIBLY be called... (buerch) FOOD! (hurl)
Seriously, that's the worst pile of crap I've ever seen.
It's almost so that it should be illegal and the makers punished by eating one of these for each hour of the day until they die from severe heart problems.
People actually eat this stuff?
TV dinners are a false economy.
Expenses? Look up the ingredients in a standard pre-prepared meal, then do the math to see what fresh ingredients would have cost you. I guarantee you will find that you come out 10 to 50% cheaper.
Washing up? I suspect you're not eating with your fingers, so you have to wash up after a pre-prepared dinner as well. Let's be charitable and say you eat the stuff from its packaging. You have now saved the time in washing up 2 plates and 3 pans (about what you need for a 2 person dinner). Trust me, that's about 1 minute of washing up and toweling off.
About the only thing I can say against buying fresh is that fresh ingredients come in bulk (e.g. a single head of lettuce will give 4-6 servings), and therefore you will generally have to buy for several days at once. That can be solved with a good freezer, but it is a chore.
I found out myself that cooking with fresh ingredients is an enormous saving. I have more money to spend even though I generally have to spend about 15 minutes on a meal, and I eat like a king.
Also, although I am not a health nut, I do find that I feel better after several days of fresh food. It appears that the methods of conservation do destroy nutrient value, to say nothing of additives.
Lastly, pre-prepared food is often salted heavily. A month of eating fresh will cure you of your salt habit, and you'll suddenly find your taste has improved, you're now able to discriminate more flavours, and whenever you do use salt you will find that in moderation it tends to strengthen other flavours, instead of obliterating them, making for a richer experience.
So do yourself a favour, try eating fresh for a month. You will not go back except occasionally.
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
First of all Alton Brown never contradicts himself context is everything and most of the places you think he has contradicted himself you were not paying attention.
/ 0, 1976,FOOD_9956_23807,00.html
And to make this topical if you want Good Eats fast and easy watch this episode next time it is on.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/episode
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Isn't it: "Give a man a match, and he'll be warm for an evening. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Me email iz skyewalkerluke at microsoft's free email service.
I personally do not have a computer in my kitchen, yet. I use this book and printouts from Allrecipes.com for recipes. I have not had a hiccup since I overbroiled my last bit of fresh salmon. But that was because of the consumption of too many beer molecules.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
ITYM this episode.
Lesson #1: Hyperlinks good.
Lesson #2: Linking to page with transcript so he doesn't have to wait for the episode to reair doubly good.
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
From the link, is that legal? 230% of your daily cholestrol intake, 100% of your fat intake and only half of your recommended calories?
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
The First Men's Guide to Ironing. Although it dedicates most of the space to telling you the type of shirt which is easiest to iron.
Here's a link to the bread machine I was talking about. It uses quick-rise yeast that you can buy in any grocery store. This was the best fifty bucks I've ever spent, and now the unit has dropped to forty bucks. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 05KIR0/qid=1085939586/
Even though I have an affiliate ID with Amazon, I have not embedded it here, since I think it's sleazy when people do that on Slashdot.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
You know, I keep thinking about moving my recipe notes and wine cellar inventory into a DB and resurrecting the old HP box as a kitchen workstation. It wouldn't take that long to build a kitchen inventory and recipe file. Add in the nutritional info (trying to drop a few pounds) a menu planner/shopping list generator, Hrmm...
At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun.
Alan Greenspan
But having done the sums I know I *can* gorge myself on healthy food like salad.
Yeah, but so long as you stay away from those nice-but-fatty dressings, bacon bits, croutons, etc. etc.
Which I guess means you *can* still gorge yourself on lettuce. Mmmmm... yum yum! Oddly, I've never had the desire to do that.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Without preservatives (including ones with some unfortunate problematic effects like nitrates), thousands of people would die in food poisoning each year in US alone. Without preservatives, much more food would be lost, meaning that current world population could not be fed
You statement is true in the general case, for the entire world population. All well and good for the 3rd world nations of the world where there's food shortages. I however live in the United States where there's a food glut. Spoiled food doesn't concern me as I just won't eat it. I have a nose that's pretty damn good at detecting spoilage. I also have this invention called fire, which produces heat which kills bacteria. For when I do want to preserve food, freezing is cheap and available as a preservation method.
I'm not trying to write a scientific paper on the ill effects of preservatives, just avoid risk. I don't have time to research every new food additive that comes along, and I sure as hell don't have ultimate faith in the FDA. Why should I take that risk, however small and unknown when it doesn't provide me with ANYTHING? Nutrasweet, olestra, christ, I'd rather eat the sugar and fat in reasonable amounts than eat something that degrades into formaldyhyde in-vivo (nutrasweet), and robs me of fat soluable vitamins (olestra).
AccountKiller
I do hear you. Eating in guarentees nothing. Healthy living is a lifestyle of everyday choices.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
For the record, apertame is a sweetener and olestra a fat-substitute. Neither was classified as a preservative.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Cooking is easy, the part that keeps me from doing it more often is the cleaning up afterward. Probably going to have at least 2 pots/pans to clean, as well as the plate and cooking utensils. With a frozen, dinner you just through out the cardboard when you're done, and toss the fork in the sink.
> (George Foreman or broiler cleaning is an unpleasant cleaning job)
:) Of course, you have to be a firm believer in propane and propane accessories.
The BBQ is my favorite. Open the first beer, and turn the grill on high, close the lid, and a few minutes later, knock the ashes of the last meal off with the wire scraper brush.
Open your second beer, and throw your meats on the bottom rack, your vegetables on the middle rack, and your toastable bread stuffs on the top rack, and shortly you'll have yourself a winner of a meal.
For my vegetable, I like corn on the cob. Wrap it in foil with lots of butter on it, and let it cook while the meat cooks.
Open your third beer, take your food off the grill, and enjoy.
Any man that can't cook on the grill for himself shouldn't consider himself a man.
Man, now I'm hungy. It's a nice sunny Sunday afternoon here in L.A., maybe I'll have to fire up the grill and make some food. The beer's ice cold in the beer fridge. The foods waiting in the food fridge, and the basic instincts of man (fire and food) are waiting to be satisfied.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
For the record, I never limited my objections on food additives to preservatives:
and other crap that's likely not very good for you.
AccountKiller
I've actually found preparing my own food to be a time saver. Rather than drive to the resteraunt, find parking, wait to be seated, wait for the food, and wait for the check we just toss some pasta on and go. Stir fry is another quick, easy, and nutritious favorite.
At work I find grabbing my sandwich out of the fridge a lot more enjoyable than hiking out to the reseraunt or getting taken up the pooper at the cafeteria. (I work at a museum, while I get a discount, it's still damn expensive.)
Plus the money we saved meant we could pay for emergencies out of pocket instead of running up the charge card.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I eat this twice a week. It's good enough. Instant Lasagne: 1 can Beefaroni 3 spoonfulls Ricotta cheese open can mix together no need to heat Use Chef Boy-ar-dee if you're having company.
Seriously, don't. Find a local laundry or dry cleaners and find out how much they charge.
Agreed, for professional wear, nothing beats paying $1.50 per shirt to have a nicely starched and ironed shirt for the next day.
Laundry is a bit more of a toss-up. I live in a flat that doesn't have a washer/drier. I *could* spend 3-4 hours per week at the local laundramat and spend $5-$10 on machines.
Or I can pay the nice gal who owns the place to do it for $15-$20/wk.
Inexpensive enough that I can do other things with my weekend rather then spending it at the laundry.
The worst breakfast ever: "Swanson, producers of some of the world's fattiest TV dinners, is seeking to take over the breakfast market with a new line of microwaveable morning meals. It's called the 'Hungry Man All Day Breakfast,' and it's threatening to turn people into manatees."
Actually, I've had it before, and I quite like it.
Also, I'll add that they recently changed it. They dropped the eggs and replaced them with something else (I forgot which...it's been a while).
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
2 packages of noodles
1 bag of frozen veggies (little cubed carrots, corn, etc)
1 carton of chicken broth
throw in a pot and boil
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Hate to nitpick, but salt alone isn't going to make you clutch your chest and keel over in pain.
it's usually the deep fried transfat/hydrogenated fat that it's sprinkled on that'll do it.
(Unless you have a deficiency of water in your system, then yeah, that'll do it.)
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Scrambled eggs with ramen. Plus tabasco, if you're bored.
Hot dogs work, too.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
but many of additives -- especially preservatives -- are GOOD for us. Why?
Without preservatives (including ones with some unfortunate problematic effects like nitrates), thousands of people would die in food poisoning each year in US alone.
Plus, I find that 'home cooked' just doesn't freeze/thaw too well, and tasted like crap. Regular cooking is a truly arduous, time consuming and energy and food wasting activity. Outside of breakfast, my largest meal is lunch (usually @ 1-2 pm, sit-down, fast food, different kinds of foods, whatever it feels like that day... the joys of working downtown!); after that it's all snacks and fluids, etc, until bed-time.
Cooking IS simple, and anyone who can follow instructions can't screw up any but the most fancy dishes. I just don't feel like doing all the shopping, prep, cooking and cleanup that goes with it on a daily basis.
Now I just wish they would write "ironing for blokes" :-)
;)
No need. There's this great thing called gravity. You just hang up your clothes in the right way after they're washed and gravity does it all. Not only is it free, it's quite popular with females who hate ironing too.
.....
That near-death experience you had as part of the heart-attack (priceless)
For psuedo-religious experience of the afterlife there's heart attack, for all the crap food needed to get you there, there's TV dinners.
> Exactly, repeat after me "Life is too short to eat crap".
Life will be too short if you eat crap.
A friend of mine sent me that link a couple of months ago. I recall he said somerthing like, "is it possible to laugh and gag at the same time?"
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
There is a 100% death rate on this planet.
Have fun deluding yourself.
Who run Barter Town?
As a single guy, I have this to ask... who the hell can afford TV dinners?!
I'm barely scraping by on ramen and macaroni and cheese...
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!
The amount of (not merely their presence) salt and sugar or equivalent is quite definitly a big problem. And they are known to cause health issues, not just maybe.
See: diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity, etc.
Of course, you have to be a firm believer in propane and propane accessories.
PUMP JOCKEY! WORKS FOR TIPS!
and i find cooking for myself and my brother a very wonderful way to relax.It takes an Hour at the most and all my tiredness at the day's work is gone.
Cooking doesnt take too much time.Cook up a large batch of pasta sauce and deep freeze it.A 3 star(-18 C) freezer will keep it for 3 months.Everyday take a bit out and voila dinner's ready before you know.
Infact cooking is almost therapeautic when it comes to relive the tension of demaning work.
Wanted : A Signature.
Ironically, the more expensive restaurants seem to have realistic portion sizes more often.
Pay more, get less (but much better tasting food, though).
Incidentally, I didn't really defend artificial sweeteners, although I do think they are trade-offs people can do for themselves. For those like you who prefer sugars over, say, nutrasweet, fine, drink sugared water; for others, they can have nutrasweet. I don't like its taste, but at the same time, I might be more concerned with type II diabetes than with sweetener's unproven potential health risks. But to each his/her own.
I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Yes, no doubt. I think sugar especially is pretty much an underrated problem... at least salt has been advertised as a health hazard for a while now. And definitely it's the amount that's the problem -- human body needs sodium as an essential nutrient, it'd be dangerous not to consume any.
I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization -- Oliver Wendell Holmes