Help me start cooking

amother

Navy

Thu, Aug 03 2017, 11:15 pm

How do I even get into this? Please help!

Background:
After years of barely cooking for myself, I need to start and I don't know how to get into it.
When I was married (over five years ago) we were students. I barely cooked, although I sometimes did, but we ate at his mom's house a lot. (We had no kids together tg.)
By the second half of graduate school I was single and crazy busy and just got into the habit of buying meals. Then came career, still super busy, still buying meals.
Now I realize that my budget can no longer afford this.
I need to start cooking for myself, mostly to save money.

What's in my kitchen:
Regular stove. Microwave. Toaster oven. Large pot (meat). Frying pan (dairy). I can get more equipment if need be. I think I need a regular size cooking pot.

I'm single now so I have a sufficient amount of freezer space.

What I'm looking for:
Making good, nutritious, filling food for relatively cheap with minimal time. Ideally can cook on Sunday (lunches and some parts of dinner) and stock up for the week. I like to eat healthy so I wouldn't use stuff like duck sauce, etc. I love veggies but need protein and carbs to feel full.

I'm not looking for recipes here, more for how to meal plan, and how to change my habit to doing this. There are so many takeout places around me and it's going to be really hard to change my habits unless I prepare the food and then have them ready to eat when I'm hungry. Please help!!

Also, how much should a single person be spending on meals in NYC?

tichellady

Thu, Aug 03 2017, 11:35 pm

I find meal planning by genre helps- so make a list like this meatless Monday, taco Tuesday, One pot Wednesday and quick Thursday- then think of all the ideas of things you would want in each category. I make one pot of soup each week and you can freeze half and then start having a collection in the freezer. Make enough of each meal to have for lunch the next day, or possibly more for meals that freeze well or if you can eat the same thing for a while then go ahead and do that.

Meatless Monday could be- spinach lasagna, salmon potatoes and green beans, quinoa with roasted veggies and cheese, a big Greek salad, tofu stir fry, veggie chili and cornbread
, quiche
Taco Tuesday- sweet potato bean burritos, fish tacos, chicken fajitas, beef tacos, salad or soup as the veggie, or cut up cucumber and pepper and baby carrots

One pot Wednesday- brocolli and shells, lentil and brown rice casserole, chicken and rice bake, chicken and potato bake,

Easy Thursday- omelet, refried beans in a tortilla with cheese and Avacado, whole grain bread with fake bacon and tomato, etc

Some more ideas: for meat dinner- schwarma, turkey pineapple burgers, meatballs, chicken stir fry

Some ideas for dinners using a sheet pan- chicken fajitas ( buy tortillas), shwarma ( buy pita and make Israeli salad), roasted veggies, roasted sweet potato halves, roasted salmon,

My favorite kitchen tools are a rice cooker and half sheets for roasting, great for roasting veggies, potatoes, chicken, meatballs

Hope this helps, happy to help more if you have more specific questions

amother

Pink

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 12:05 am

I was single for many years and here's what I settled on after trying a number of different food prep methods:

Each week I prepared one "lunch food" and one "dinner food".

I would make 1 batch of each, which would come to about 4-5 meals worth, which I would eat for the week.

I didn't mind eating the same thing a few days in a row, but the next few weeks would be different combinations, so I wasn't repeating things too often.

I felt like if I had meals for Monday-Thursday prepped, I was set.
Shabbos I usually ate out.
Sunday I did the food prepping so I would end up tasting whatever I was making.

Foods I would stock for breakfasts and for fridays/sundays/days I wasn't in the mood for the food I'd prepped:
- pureed soups like zucchini or butternut (I'd make these in batches and freeze in single serving containers)
- eggs & toast (nothing to prep, just ingredients to keep around)
- avocadoes & matzah
- sliced smoked turkey breast - easy to keep in the fridge and lasts pretty well
- fruit, veg

Some examples of my 2 dishes a week food prep:

LUNCH:
chicken salad - chicken marinated, cooked, and sliced in advance. lettuce washed and ziplocked. Dressing made and distributed into small dressing containers. Nuts/seeds also put into small containers. I am very picky about pre-assembled salad so I would do that part in the morning before going to work. Cut the veggies and stick in a container of dressing and nuts. Eat plain or with crackers/matzah/bread.

DINNER:
zucchini noodles and meat sauce - The zuchinis I would spiralize at the beginning of the week and store in a ziploc. Meat sauce in a container in the fridge. When I would come home, the zoodles cook in less than 2 minutes, take them out of the pan, heat up a scoop of meat sauce and mix the zoodles back in. If you feel like you need something starchier you can add in some quinoa. I've also done this with a lentil sauce with quinoa and the zoodles.

LUNCH:
a green bean based salad with nuts, sliced shnitzel, can't remember what else, with a nut butter based dressing. Cook the green beans in advance. Cook the shnitzel, or bread and freeze and then bake it fresh each morning if you're picky. Prepare dressing and salad add-ins in advance like before. Assemble the morning of.

DINNER:
Stir-fry - For this I cut and stored my veggies separately and cooked it fresh each night. Cooked a batch of brown rice at the beginning of the week and used that each night. Also cooked the protein at the beginning of the week.

I made sure to have at least 8 combinations in rotation, so that I wouldn't mind eating the same thing for a week.

I hope that helps a bit.

Good luck.

tichellady

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 12:28 am

amother wrote:

Oh. My. God. I just looked it up on amazon. BUT. It's 100 dollars so this will only save me money if I really use it all the time. Will I really use this? What do you use it to make? Do you use it to make the sort of things you store in the freezer?

I just got one, it's not a life changer for me ( the rice cooker is a life changer for me just for perspective) but I like it. So far I have made risotto, split pea soup, beef stew, and meatballs.
I'm not sure it's really advantageous in terms of saving time for making lots of things ( although it is for beef) but I like that I can set it and walk away and I would never made risotto normally because it's too time consuming. I have heard it's very good for making beans

amother

Navy

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 12:48 am

tichellady wrote:

Okay so I'm trying to decide now between getting this or a rice maker. I'm trying to figure out what this is.
A friend of mine had a thing where it had the recipes in the machine, and it told you when to add what, and how many minutes it would take for the machine to complete the next step, etc. That's something I could use because I wouldn't have to figure out how to work it.
This, on the other hand...do I have to figure out how long to set cooking timing for? Is it going to be difficult to figure out?
Also, I see on reviews that people say you can cook two things in it at once, something about a steam-rack basket set. What?
I think I'm getting ahead of myself and getting overwhelmed, but on the other hand, I don't want to just by a rice cooker if I'm going to end up wanting this which also cooks rice.

tichellady

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 12:52 am

amother wrote:

My rice cooker cost $10 and I keep it pareve, you have to choose if your instant pot will be dairy, meat or pareve and I like to have pareve rice

essie14

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 3:35 am

When I was single I ate a salad for lunch every day with either tuna or hard boiled egg or cottage cheese or sauteed tofu for protein.

Here are some ideas for dinner
1. crockpot chicken. Line crockpot with sliced onions. Stick a small whole chicken in the crockpot. Season with Montreal steak spice or your preferred spice blend. Wrap potatoes or sweet potatoes in foil and add to pot. Cook on low for 8 hours. (I would do this in the morning, set a timer to go on 8 hours before you get home)
I would eat half one night and eat the second half the next night. Or it can even stretch to 3 nights.

2. Buy a package of fresh boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Wrap each one individually in saran wrap and freeze. In the AM, take out one or two, defrost in the fridge. When you get home, season and cook on George Foreman grill. Or marinate all day if you prefer.

3. Make burritos and freeze individually. Defrost one or two for a meal.

4. Make a large pot of meatballs. Freeze in single size portion containers. Buy quick cook rice and make that fresh (or you can actually cook and freeze rice as well)

5. Stir fry - buy and prep veggies in advance. Defrost a chicken breast. When you get home, cut up the chicken into small pieces, stir fry the chicken with the veggies and some bottled sauce and you have dinner in 10 min.

6. Salmon or tilapia - I would buy the IQF salmon and tilapia fillets. Take one out in AM, defrost in fridge. Cooks very quickly. For tilapia, pour jarred salsa on top and bake for 6-10 min until fish flakes with a fork.
Salmon - season with salt & pepper and some fresh lemon juice, bake or pan fry.
Or you can make fish en papillote very quickly as well. Google for recipes.

7. Sliced turkey deli - sandwich or add to a salad

Good luck!

Miri7

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 12:35 pm

I would probably cook some chicken or another protein on Sunday and then think of several ways to prepare it.

Like on a green salad
Making chicken salad
Shredded with salsa - makes a great taco, or a taco salad with the right salad dressing
With veggies and rice.

I'd also make a few freezer items that is store in serving sized portions to take for lunch each day.

I like to make mini crustkess quiches in a silicone cupcake pan. You can customize each one, so I will make a few each of: mushroom, caramelized onion, lox and cream cheese, etc.

I'd keep it simple so you can have variety without having to cook a full meal each night.

I'd also freeze small portions of hearty soups. I love lentil soup.

emzod42

Fri, Aug 04 2017, 2:26 pm

I second the soup idea. When I was single, especially in the winter, I would make a pot of pareve soup every Sunday or Monday night for dinner, and eat some during the week for dinner or lunch. I would freeze whatever I wasn't going to use that week in single portions. Soups I made often: Butternut squash, white bean and vegetable barley, brown lentil, red lentil, mushroom barley, mulligatawny, zucchini. You can do this with other foods that freeze well, too, like burritos, lasagna, etc.

I wouldn't buy any many appliances until you figure out what you like and what you would use it for--many things you can make with basic pots and pans, and if there's something that you make often enough that it would be really convenient to have an appliance for it, then get one.

amother

Navy

Sun, Aug 06 2017, 1:15 am

Thanks again for all the ideas! Regarding the instant pot- curious if anyone knows because I haven't received mine yet, but I see that you actually cook things inside a pot insert and some people say they got two different pot inserts for one reason or another (usually so that they can leave food in one pot while cooking a new item in another)...but anyway, maybe getting ahead of myself but just wondering-

Does anyone know... if someone got a separate insert pot and cover, could you ultimately use the instant pot for both meat and dairy since you're not cooking straight out of the outer pot anyway?

Super Mom

Sun, Aug 06 2017, 7:55 am

I also love cooking and trying new things. Remember, Google is your friend. Make sure to read the comments from people after the recipe and adapt. I take my phone round the supermarket to remind myself of the ingredients or if something catches my eye on sale, I'll Google a recipe. That way, you use the food you buy and don't throw stuff out. When cooking for shabbat, make double and freeze half. That's 2 dinners already prepared. Prepare breaded shnitzels, separate with grease proof paper and freeze. After work, put them in the oven and they'll be done by the time you've cooked the rice and side dish. Cook a whole chicken or roast. Cut it up and freeze in portions. Can be used in several different dishes thought the week. A kilo of ground meat: prepare meatballs, burgers, etc and freeze. Can throw the burgers on the grill or meatballs in the pan while you cook the spaghetti and cut salad. When you bake challah, freeze some dough for pizza base, foccacha etc. For lunches, do salads that include grains to keep you going. Can be couscous, quinoa, bulgar. Bring the dressing or tuna separately so it's not soggy. I have a pressure cooker. It's a real time saver and easy to clean.

SixOfWands

Sun, Aug 06 2017, 11:15 am

I love my instant pot, but I wouldn't recommend it to you first thing.

You need more pots and pans. And a Food Saver. That's a vacuum sealer. Then you can cook several portions of things, freeze the extras, and eat from your freezer without significant degradation of quality. You can also freeze raw meat, chicken and fish in small portions, and keep it fresher for a longer time.

With sufficient freezer space, I'd look into once a month cooking. You prepare a bunch of things at once, freeze, and eat.

And as others said, prep ingredients. Chicken, browned ground beef, etc can be made in bulk and frozen. You can also cut up a lot of veggies at the beginning of the week for easier use.

jkw

Sun, Aug 06 2017, 11:26 am

Try to find a copy of this cookbook:

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Imagine you have unexpected guests on yom tov or you simply forgot a dish from your menu!

How about those times when you just do not want to drag out another machine or you are away and did not bring your mixer with you?!

Enjoy this cookbook, full of useful recipes that are truly delicious and best of all easy to prepare!!

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email me at recipesunplugged@gmail.com
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SixOfWands

Sun, Aug 06 2017, 11:28 am

jkw wrote:

Do all of the recipes use Spam?