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  #1  
Old Sep 29, 2014, 03:35 AM
seraphic seraphic is offline
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I live alone and have a very hard time cooking anything more complicated than scrambled eggs or an occasional simple pasta dish/soup. My "larger" meals are things like frozen food, peanut butter sandwiches, or mac and cheese, but many days I end up surviving by eating a lot of small things: cups of yogurt, toast, deli meat on its own. I am ashamed of my eating habits, and I end up undereating very often, which causes a lot of problems.

Does anyone have suggestions for more filling or healthy meals that would be easy to prepare? Things with few ingredients are good, but more than that I have a hard time cooking anything with multiple steps (i.e. chopping several kinds of vegetables, cooking with more than one pan at a time). I would like to keep things fairly cheap, but money is not a huge issue, and I definitely value convenience & nutrition over saving money at this point. I could really use any ideas you have for how to feed myself better.
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  #2  
Old Sep 29, 2014, 05:18 PM
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Blue_Bird Blue_Bird is online now
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Hi seraphic, you may want to check out this thread:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/self-...hemselves.html
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  #3  
Old Sep 30, 2014, 06:27 AM
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IchbinkeinTeufel IchbinkeinTeufel is offline
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Better than me. I heat up tins of stuff, or heat up things in microwaves. I haven't actually cooked in ages, and even then, it's like... not so much cooking as heating, such as cooking quiche in the oven, or things you'd put in a grill. Be better when I get my own flat, but right now I'm in supported housing, shared accommodation. >.<
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  #4  
Old Sep 30, 2014, 10:15 AM
Bedlambabe Bedlambabe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by seraphic View Post
I live alone and have a very hard time cooking anything more complicated than scrambled eggs or an occasional simple pasta dish/soup. My "larger" meals are things like frozen food, peanut butter sandwiches, or mac and cheese, but many days I end up surviving by eating a lot of small things: cups of yogurt, toast, deli meat on its own. I am ashamed of my eating habits, and I end up undereating very often, which causes a lot of problems.

Does anyone have suggestions for more filling or healthy meals that would be easy to prepare? Things with few ingredients are good, but more than that I have a hard time cooking anything with multiple steps (i.e. chopping several kinds of vegetables, cooking with more than one pan at a time). I would like to keep things fairly cheap, but money is not a huge issue, and I definitely value convenience & nutrition over saving money at this point. I could really use any ideas you have for how to feed myself better.
Ok - easy stuff. Do you have garlic? Boil water and add good pasta. The word here is pasta. Not the 99 cent stuff. You want something that holds its shape. You are not doing nursery cooking. And for one person you only need your serving size. Splurge a little. Your worth it. Spend 3 whole dollars. Catholics can go to confession later. Back to the cooking. You now have 10 minutes to fiddle with bits. Warm your fry pan. Grab your grater and grate as much garlic as you can stand. Fry it off in olive oil. Don't let it go brown. Quick, quick. Grab the grater and roughly victimise two slices of bread into the same pretty hot pan. Your choice of victim - I'm a sour dough girl. Let it turn browny and crunchy. Don't panic if it's not even bits. Everything gets crunchy in the end. Lots and lots of salt and pepper. I am actually having a white pepper revival at the moment. Hipper tension be gone! Now - if you are female you are able to co-ordinate a little microwaving into your 10 minutes. This is for the green things. Any green things. Brocolli, asparagus, beans, snow peas. Make sure you leave a crunch factor. This step is also optional for male types.
So we have crunchy garlic bread things in one pan. Drain you done pasta. Add your green bits to your garlic awesomeness and throw in the pasta. Toss. Squeeze on lemon juice - real stuff please. Squirt/pour more lovely olive oil over. Choose a nice plate. Proven fact that 50% of the meal is visual. More lemon juice. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Music choice optional.
  #5  
Old Sep 30, 2014, 06:56 PM
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cherrykix cherrykix is offline
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Ugh I hate cooking, but I've been having to do that for myself more and more recently, as I just moved out of my parents house and into an apartment.

What I like to make is stir-fries, pasta (add fresh veggies to the pasta sauce!), Homemade soup (more like broth with veggies and chicken), and basically anything fresh you can get your hands on!

I love artichokes, so the other day I ran to the grocery store and bought some and then boiled them for dinner. It was the first time I've ever done that!

How about hard-boiled eggs, or rice dishes? Noodle dishes are easy.
Thanks for this!
IchbinkeinTeufel
  #6  
Old Oct 01, 2014, 04:36 AM
Evaluna Evaluna is offline
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Member Since: Oct 2014
Posts: 166
I love cooking and find it quite theraputic to cook a meal or do some baking.

An easy thing to make is soup.. Its easy to make and you can make a big batch and freeze some for another time. I make leek, potato and smoked bacon. Just chop everything up and then put the leeks in a pan with some oil to soften. Then add the bacon until its cooked through and then add the chopped potatoes. Add in some chicken or veg stock made with a cube, just enough to cover the stuff in the pan then simmer until everything is really soft. Then you could either mash it or blend it and that's it. Its really filling and comforting
  #7  
Old Oct 01, 2014, 03:13 PM
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splitimage splitimage is offline
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Location: Ontario, Canada
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Roasts are dead simple to make, and if you watch for sales and inexpensive cuts of meats can be relatively cheap since you get multiple meals out of them.

Chicken - I don't normally stuff mine, I just rub it with garlic, and put it in the roasting pan with the lid on for 1.5 - 2 hours at 375. It's cooked when you pierce the breast or the thigh and the juice is perfectly clear.

Pot - roast, get an inexpensive beef roast - brisket or rolled rump is good. Put in roasting pan rub with garlic and sprinkle with pepper. Put in about an inch of liquid. Water is fine. Cover and bake - any basic cook book, should tell you how long to cook it for / lb. I buy mid sized roasts and they usually take about 2 hours.

You can easily get 2-3 dinners out of a roast, depending on how much you eat, one or 2 sandwiches, and then enough left over to chop up and throw into stirfried rice.

splitimage
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Easy to make meals
  #8  
Old Oct 01, 2014, 03:16 PM
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tealBumblebee tealBumblebee is offline
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I usually buy a can of pasta sauce (alfredo or the progesso starters are good), a bow of noodles (i like the spirals) and you can get precooked/flavored meat or your own. I throw in some frozen corn and frozen pepper mix and it makes a lovely filling pasta.
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  #9  
Old Oct 01, 2014, 03:20 PM
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lilypup lilypup is offline
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I cook for 6 and use my crock pot often. They have very small ones out there. You could make up as crock pot (small) and then freeze individual servings for later.
I feel better in the morning so the crock pot helps a lot. I load it and then it's ready at dinner.
If you need easy slow cooker recipes, go to allrecipes.com. You can adjust the serving sizes to what you need. Do you have friends? Have them over...they would love a good meal and probably will invite you back.
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Thanks for this!
seraphic
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