Help me, I'm a complete idiot.

[Haku]

So, I've been looking over my expenditures again. I think I'm doing fairly good overall, but right now, my biggest "money sink" is food.

No, I don't usually eat expensive food, but I will admit that I regularly eat out.

I want to try to put a stop to that and start cooking at home.

Trouble is, I don't know how to cook, and until I find a woman that CAN cook AND put up with me, I'm basically on my own.

Well, I shouldn't say I'm totally helpless. I can boil water. That's pretty good, right?

Right?



Uh, so anyways, I do like pasta and rice, and I like veggies too, and oh yes, I love meat of all kinds. Are there recipes for complete and utter idiot males that can't cook AND is cheap AND is easy and fast to do? I mean, even some of the recipes found in this forum... looks kinda scary to me.

What do you think?

[Ima saver]

When I got married, I couldn't cook either, at all, so I understand you. You can probably fry a hamburger, can't you? You could eat out cheaply at Wendy's by sticking to the dollar menu and ordering fries.
Buy a crock pot, get a shoulder roast, add a cup of water and some seasoning (I put on the packaged ranch dressing). Cook it for 8 hours, add some cut up potatoes, carrots, whatever and cook another hour, it will fall apart and make several meals.

[Ima saver]

There is always eggs and bacon or sausage. I do breakfast for dinner once in a while.

[PRICEPLUS]

Haku,

Thomas Huxley said that a few failures early in life are of the greatest practical benefit. Look for simple recipes and try them. The best way to learn is by doing. Go for it. Be adventurous! If I can cook anyuone can. Trust me on that one!

[PrincessPerky]

Ill ditto that, I knew very little of cooking whemn I got married, but here I am 6 years and countless failures later (countless successes too!)

Just try something, anythying. start small, and don't be afraid to 'adjust' a recipie as needed.

[poundwise]

You know this already, or you wouldn't have mentioned it, but dining out or picking up fast-food is a 'frugal killer.' When I began tracking ALL of my spending I thought this figure would be high for my family and I was STILL shocked by how much we spent. It adds up.

As for cooking: Don't worry about precision. If you stick with basic recipes and pay attention to temps and times its not hard. I'd say crock pot recipes are a good place to start. Also try casseroles and other one-dish recipes.

My wife does the majority of cooking for us but it is only 65/35, I do a good bit myself. I've been surprised at how good some dishes I have made for the first time have turned out.

[Fern]

There's a cookbook out there for every little niche.

There's one i have that you might like, i think it's called "5" or something like that. Every recipe in the book has no more than 5 ingredients. so they're pretty simple.

[lucasrd]

Here's a good book...it's called "A Man, A Can, A Plan" If you like to grill out, there is even "A Man, A Can, A Grill" or "A Man, A Can, A Microwave" Every receipe involves cooking up some meat and opening a can, they are all pretty good to eat too! Very few ingredietns. here's a link to it on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...Fencoding=UTF8

[boefixepa]

Look around for a basic cooking class and invest in lesson. Heck you might even meet a girl that way?? Never know. I've learned that the only way to learn is by doing. So give it try, get some simple cookbooks, and take a dive...just watch those portion amounts if you are as single as I am....I like my own cooking too much!!

P.S. --- If all else fails and you burn up the kitchen...it's not like you can't order pizza

[marjorie]

You might also tell us what you most like to eat. Between us we can prolly come up with ideas/recipies you can use.

[Haku]

Originally Posted by lucasrd

Here's a good book...it's called "A Man, A Can, A Plan" If you like to grill out, there is even "A Man, A Can, A Grill" or "A Man, A Can, A Microwave" Every receipe involves cooking up some meat and opening a can, they are all pretty good to eat too!

That is awesome! Definitely sounds like right up my alley.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, gang. Keep it coming.

[jodi]

Browse around on recipezaar.com. I love that site. You can search by ingredient ("uh...I've got a pound of hamburger and some instant rice...what can I make??"), by dish (entree, side, dessert, etc), by method (crockpot, etc.) and on and on. You can also search by the quickest recipes if you want something easy to start, or by the highest rated recipes if you want something tried and true (and you can rate the recipes yourself after you try them). I never use cookbooks anymore - this site is the best.

Crockpots are great too - just throw everything in before you leave in the morning and you've got a great meal when you get home. They are cheap to buy too - and common in thrift stores and garage sales. I know I said I don't use cookbooks anymore, but the "Fix It and Forget It" series is great for crockpot cooking.

[markio26]

my son uses coupons for restaurants and makes two meals out of it, when he is too busy to cook... he uses one restaurant for home cooked meals and they give him extra.. try a chinese restaurant and buy the $5 for a lb. of food tray.... eat oatmeal, cereal, micro pancakes, toast waffles, pop tarts, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.. buy the carnation instant breakfast powder and stir in milk.. buy progresso soup and warm it up in micro.. ask the deli counter person at your local grocery store.... they will have ideas...

[zakity]

Learn to make a bechamel sauce. It is cheap and easy and can be used so many different ways.

For the bechamel sauce, I don't use cream, I use skim milk because that is what I have around the house. I use butter (you can use margarine) because that is what I have around the house.

[robex]

If you use Campbell's soup, most cans have a recipe printed on them. They're economical, easy, and delicious! They'll make more than one meal, so you can freeze leftovers for another day...

[baselle]

Just like a couple of other posters - try some in-between solutions. When you order a pizza, stretch it out by a salad--even if you have to go to bag-o-salad--or heating up vegetables in the microwave.

Got tuna? Got eggs? Tuna salad sandwiches, or since you like/cook pasta, tuna pasta. Hard boil eggs for egg salad sandwiches.

Don't forget about using some of the canned & packaged sauces. Trader Joe's has some great ones. Find a small tub of pesto, boil up any size or shape pasta that you fancy, put some frozen peas at the bottom of the colander, dump pasta and hot water in the colander. Peas will cook and cool the pasta a bit. Drain throughly, mix cooked pasta and peas with the pesto.

[Fern]

Also, while i wouldn't rely on this excluisively, i think the overall quality of frozen dinners and such has improved over the years. I usually have a Lean Cuisine for lunch and they're pretty good i think. There's dozens of other brands out there, too, including some organic ones. They're goo to have around in a pinch.

[CheaplyClever]

[quote=jodi_m]Browse around on recipezaar.com. I love that site. [quote]

Thanks Jodi M. I had forgotten about that site!

And back to the original discussion here, yes, anyone can cook. It all depends on what you want to eat. Have you looked over the "Anyone using a crock pot?" post? There are good recipes on that one. I know 'cause some of them are mine! A crock pot is a great tool for beginners.

This is my all time easy favorite. Serve with a bag-o-salad or can of greens.

Parmesan Fried Chicken

1 small chicken breast, skiness and boneless
4 crackers, crushed (I use Captain's Wafers)
1 oz of canned parmesan cheese
1 tsp of oil (I use Olive Oil)

Rinse the chicken in water and shake dry. Mix the crackers and cheese, roll chicken in crumbs and pan fry in the oil over medium heat about 5 minutes on each side. (You won't get all the crumbs to stick, that's ok)

This recipe doubles, triples, easily. I buy the 5lb bags of frozen chicken breast and use the smallest pieces for this recipe. The flatter the meat, the better. This chicken would also be tasty on a bun with lettuce and mayo. Yum. I'm getting hungry!

[eisor]

http://www.savingdinner.com/

This is a website my sisters both have used. Basically, it costs very little and you get a menu emailed to you every week. It includes a shopping list, recipe, etc. It also gives you the nutritional informaiton. They have different choices (but, be warned they charge $1 to switch to a different menu group) including a Frugal Menu Mailer.

I thought it might work for you. Having everything planned out. It tells you what to buy and how much of it, how to prepare, etc.

[jaksilee]

Originally Posted by eisor

http://www.savingdinner.com/

This website also has a 1 week sample menu you can print out for each of the menu type. You can get it for 2 people and it is a smaller recipe! I printed off each type (IE: frugal, crockpot or heart healthy) and it ended up to be almost 6 weeks of menus. With each one being 5-6 recipes that is a lot of food! I don't use them every night, I figure that at least 1 night a week I won't really feel like cooking and one night a week I eat out so I can make that 6 weeks of recipes last more like 8-10 weeks!

Also check out this topic on cooking for singles..... Cooking for singles