Cooking for the recent graduate

[Archbob]

Depends on what job you got. If the salary is really high, you could hire a really hot chef of the opposite gender to cook you something.

Otherwise, chicken+peanuts+pickled hot sauce is always good.

 

[Azale]

What a terrific post Arwon

Peanut butter is another must-have item, for me anyway.

 

[downtown]

Stir frying stuff requires buying utensils like frying pans and spoons and such. I'm not too keen on buying large pieces of cutlery and kitchen utensils at this point.

Dude, are you serious?

Go to the local dollar store. For 20 bucks, you can get a frying pan, and 3 pots. Another five or six gets you a cutting board and silverware.

You can't cook without some tools. You don't need a blender or a food processor or really expensive knives, but at the very least, you need pots and pans and cutting boards. I'd buy a Foreman grill too...you can get one at a salvation army for a few dollars.

 

[Abaddon]

Mince Meat is good, fry up with some vege, tip in a jar of spag sauce and you have a good spagettil bologneise

 

[MobBoss]

Soon to lose the comfort of the meal plan and dining hall, thrust out into the cruel world forced to contend with groceries and cooking. How does one manage? What are the necessities to start with? What is fast, nutritious, and affordable?

Ramen of course is a staple, krafs mac and cheese, oatmeal, eggs, deli meats, orange juice and cereal, bread, peanut butter, jelly.

Anything else which requires the absolute minimum of effort?

Here is a good general rule. If its processed and easy to make, its probably terribly bad for you.

You can never go wrong with lean protein and some greens. You can buy a huge pack of chicken thighs if boneless chicken breasts are too expensive for you. A head of lettuce, tomatos, cucumbers and onions are cheap. A little salad dressing of your choice. Bake the chicken, add some spices to it, cut up the salad mix and voila, you have a easy to make meal for pretty cheap thats really good for you.

Stay away as much as possible from stuff like hamburger helper, ramen, mac and cheese, etc. Although they may taste good, and are easy to make, they are terrible for your body.

 

[Shekwan]

Soon to lose the comfort of the meal plan and dining hall, thrust out into the cruel world forced to contend with groceries and cooking. How does one manage? What are the necessities to start with? What is fast, nutritious, and affordable?

Ramen of course is a staple, krafs mac and cheese, oatmeal, eggs, deli meats, orange juice and cereal, bread, peanut butter, jelly.

Anything else which requires the absolute minimum of effort?

Woah you had your meals cooked for you all through University? Thats not on! Thats the existence of a Manchild. One of the things I most enjoyed about the college lifestyle was totally controlling your own intake of food, for good or bad.

Basically go to a supermarket, look for the cheap stuff. Use common sense to deduce how healthy those products are. Decide whether you would pay more for the healthier option. Buy whatever you thought was the wiser option. Figure out when you get home how you will make it into a meal. Straightforward really. The hard part isn't cooking, its the balance between budget and health.

Aside from that, just make pasta. Easy, nutritious, can add fancy stuff to it to spice things up.

 

[Boundless]

Mince Meat is good, fry up with some vege, tip in a jar of spag sauce and you have a good spagettil bologneise

Could probably even do it easier than that without buying an expensive spag sauce - get a tin of tomatoes and add salt, pepper, mixed herbs (and ketchup if you're a real pleb like me). Nom nom nom. Oh, and some mushrooms!

Edit: not easier, cheaper

 

[downtown]

Mexican food is big in my household. I cook a lot of beans and rice, fajitas, tacos, etc. Ground beef and Chicken are not terribly expensive. I also eat a lot of peanut butter (although not in the mexican food).

Pastas and Salads are also very easy.

 

[Takhisis]

What Arwon said, I'd add rice to that. Start boiling some rice, figure out what to put on it next.

 

[Mise]

Here is a good general rule. If its processed and easy to make, its probably terribly bad for you.

You can never go wrong with lean protein and some greens. You can buy a huge pack of chicken thighs if boneless chicken breasts are too expensive for you. A head of lettuce, tomatos, cucumbers and onions are cheap. A little salad dressing of your choice. Bake the chicken, add some spices to it, cut up the salad mix and voila, you have a easy to make meal for pretty cheap thats really good for you.

Stay away as much as possible from stuff like hamburger helper, ramen, mac and cheese, etc. Although they may taste good, and are easy to make, they are terrible for your body.

Chicken thighs are pretty fatty, I'd definitely spend the extra 20% or so on boneless breasts. Anything on the bone is gonna be very fatty as you alluded to, although it's still less fatty than pretty much any other meat.

Otherwise though I agree. Definitely steer clear of processed food, Kara. You WILL notice the difference between eating processed food and eating healthy food on your alertness, fitness, and general well-being.

 

[Karalysia]

Woah you had your meals cooked for you all through University? Thats not on! Thats the existence of a Manchild. One of the things I most enjoyed about the college lifestyle was totally controlling your own intake of food, for good or bad.

Are you joking brah? It was great all the cafes and stores surrounding campus would accept meal swipes as legit $$ I think it was worth $7.50 and I had 210 meal swipes.

Dude, are you serious?

Go to the local dollar store. For 20 bucks, you can get a frying pan, and 3 pots. Another five or six gets you a cutting board and silverware.

You can't cook without some tools. You don't need a blender or a food processor or really expensive knives, but at the very least, you need pots and pans and cutting boards. I'd buy a Foreman grill too...you can get one at a salvation army for a few dollars.

The problem is I'm going to be moving around a lot. I'll be all over and be staying in each place for several months so it's long enough that I can't eat out every day, but short enough that I can't buy hardcore utensils. I can't exactly lug around grills and frying pans with me.

What happened to you anyway? You never post in OT anymore.

Classes, work, graduation, applications, job scramble etc.... I don't care for OT anymore.

 

[MobBoss]

Chicken thighs are pretty fatty, I'd definitely spend the extra 20% or so on boneless breasts. Anything on the bone is gonna be very fatty as you alluded to, although it's still less fatty than pretty much any other meat.

Fatty, yes. As bad as that processed crap a lot of young people eat? Hell no.

If fat is a conern then simply remove the skin, and cut away as much of it as you can with a small sharp knife. Or bake it with an elevated pan or use a Foreman grill or something similar to get the fat off it as it cooks.

Otherwise though I agree. Definitely steer clear of processed food, Kara. You WILL notice the difference between eating processed food and eating healthy food on your alertness, fitness, and general well-being.

Yeah, you dont have to be a 'free-range/organic' health nut to realize the benefits of eating more healthy foods.

 

[downtown]

The problem is I'm going to be moving around a lot. I'll be all over and be staying in each place for several months so it's long enough that I can't eat out every day, but short enough that I can't buy hardcore utensils. I can't exactly lug around grills and frying pans with me.

Ahh, will you still have access to a stove? I made a thread on kitchenless cooking back when I was doing campaign work. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Takhisis]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=375115

 

[Karalysia]

I will have access to a full kitchen, fridge, stove, microwave, and oven.

 

[Rashiminos]

More fat, less sugars and starch (cut down on pasta).

 

[Takhisis]

A couple pots and pans, plus some knives/etc. shouldn't take that much space, unless you're travelling with serious baggae limitations.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

You're going to have a hard time with literally nothing. How will you even cook ramen and mac & cheese without at least one pot? If space and moving around is a huge concern might I suggest a good cast iron skillet with good sized sides. One pan to move around only and it can do so much, probably the most versatile pan in the entire kitchen arsenal, you can seriously do a LOT just with that.

 

[Takhisis]

Buy two pans that fit into each other and you're practically invincible.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My mom says that powdered milk is awful to drink but its good for cooking stuff because you cant really taste the difference and its cheap and doesnt go bad easy.

If you dont like oatmeal, which is very cheap if you buy it in bulk, you can put stuff in it to make it taste different.