What are your favorite simple and delicious meals you like to cook?

[ChrisCRISPR]

Tomorrow my food stamps will be available and I want to actually get things to cook instead of snacky quick stuff. I've been really depressed lately and my diet definitely reflects that. I want to make an earnest effort to start eating healthier and to prepare more nutritious meals but when I look at cook books I get very overwhelmed. So many recipes are very complicated and too fancy! I was wondering if you had any recommendations for simple, healthy but yummy meals that I can prepare so I know what to get from the store.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Stuttermabolur]

I'm not a good cook, which might make this reply more or less helpful depending on how you view it.

I'm not really a fan of cooked vegetables, so I tend to make a simple course like pasta, and then just eat lettuce or broccoli or something with it. Maybe cook potatoes or rice. Spices are a good way to make a cheap meal taste good. You can often find pretty cheap spice blends, and they last a while.

I've found that simply looking online is by far the simplest way to figure out how to cook. Even my grandmother who is a great cook prefers looking online, and hardly ever opens a cook-book. There are also a lot of people in a similar situation to you, and people giving advice on simple meals. Just be careful to use up what you buy so it doesn't spoil.

 

[Progster]

I would choose salads, which you don't actually have to cook at all and which require little preparation. As for cooking, stews, soups and casseroles are good. You can add the ingredients and cook everything in one pot. Do batch cooking - cook several portions and freeze individual portions for a later time when you don't feel like cooking. It usually works out cheaper, too.

 

[Luca]

My go-to “simple” meals to cook are eggs, pasta, stir fry, soup, and anything I can make in the air fryer or on the grill.

I’m usually a pretty adventurous cook myself, but I agree with Stuttermabolur that looking up recipes online is helpful no matter what your skill level is.

You might also want to check out some cookbooks. There are a huge range of cookbooks available for basically every type of meal for any level of cooking skill!

 

[ChrisCRISPR]

I would choose salads, which you don't actually have to cook at all and which require little preparation. As for cooking, stews, soups and casseroles are good. You can add the ingredients and cook everything in one pot. Do batch cooking - cook several portions and freeze individual portions for a later time when you don't feel like cooking. It usually works out cheaper, too.

I really like stew! What are some of your favorites? Thank you by the way!

 

[Progster]

I really like stew! What are some of your favorites? Thank you by the way!

Hungarian goulash (with beef). Bean or lentil stew (vegetarian).
Another thing you could try is getting some meat (pork, beef or chicken) and putting it in a roasting pot in the oven with vegetables - potatoes or sweet potatoes, carrots, courgettes, salt, pepper, seasoning. You'd need to put a little water at the bottom (not too much) then cover it. When the meat is tender, take the cover off and give it a few minutes to brown on top.

 

[Gerontius]

Dried beans and rice,
Peas (black eyed not just green) and rice
Lentils
These are your friends.

 

[ra49]

Good luck with your cooking!

I love soup and every pot is different

Pretty much anything that you like together, can be "Soup"

Even recipes that aren't "soup" can be - this weekend, I made Caponata Soup (that's an Italian dish, eggplant peppers tomatoes etc, cooked low and slow to make a spread for little toasts)

My friend Cindy says look in the frig, see what you have, and make soup out of it

My only caution is be careful of volume - a little of this and a little of that and suddenly you have 3 gallons of soup!

I tend to make ~3 servings' worth of soup so that it will be gone before I tire of it. If I had to pick just one it would be Minestrone . . Altho if January 35° and freezing rain, it would be either Split Pea or Chowder

Have fun cooking!

 

[AndyFBlues]

Most days, I don't cook anything fancy. On occasion, I do enjoy baking. Brownies are easier than one might think. I have a great chocolate cheesecake recipe. Not exactly the healthiest thing to eat on a regular, but nice as an occasional treat. I usually cut it into slices and then freeze them. Things like pies and baklava are rather labor-intensive, but are rewarding to make as well. Sometimes I make whipped cream from scratch. It's way better than anything one might spray out of a can.

 

[Outdated]

You can live very cheaply and very healthily at the same time if you put a little thought in to it. Simple cooking for a single person is fairly easy, and if you have a good freezer you can always cook extra and freeze some for later.

Fresh vegetables are expensive and if you live by yourself you'll struggle to use much before it starts to wilt and go bad, tinned vegetables are very handy to have around sometimes. Chicken is the cheapest of all the meats and there's quite a lot you can do with it.

Soups are great now and then but you can get sick of them pretty quick, I make a big pot full of soup and I split it in to single serves and freeze it. Quick easy meals for the future.

Rice is also good value, it's generally quite high in protein for a grain. Risotto is a quick easy and cheap meal.

Risotto:

This is another great way great way to use up leftovers from your fridge. Any meat you have left over, in this case I used Roast beef. You can use raw meat but you'll have to cook (fry) it first then carry on with this recipe. So please note that in this recipe the meat and the tinned vegetables are already cooked. This is "single man’s" cooking.

250 grams left over roast beef, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 cup of rice
2 cups of water
1 tin of mixed vegetables
salt, herbs and spices to taste

Put a little oil in a saucepan on a low heat and start gently frying the onions. When the onions start to go clear throw the rice in, along with whatever herbs and spices you like. When the rice is starting to brown and sticking to the bottom of the pan, throw the diced meat in as well.

Keep stirring and turn the heat up.

Let just a tiny dribble of your 2 cups of water into the pan, keep stirring. When the water's gone add a tiny dribble more, keep stirring. Doing it this way tricks the rice into sucking up all the oil as well as the water.

Keep doing this until you have used half your water, splot the rest in in one go and turn the heat back down low.

Drain the brine from your tinned vegetables and tip them in too. Give it one last stir, put a lid on the pan and turn the heat off. It will be perfect in another 10 minutes.

 

[Shevek]

I make a big pot of rice and lentils, 3/5 rice. As the water drops below the surface of the grain, I put chopped vegetables on top to steam. I eat those, and part of the rice, with soy sauce, olive oil, crushed nuts and chopped green onions, all mixed together. Then, for several more days I use a smaller pot with chopped veggies at the bottom, with about 3/8 cup of water, and left-over rice on top to steam. That's quite quick. I add the soy sauce part way through, to check that it does not sizzle, indicating low water, and turn off the heat as soon as much steam starts escaping the lid.
I also make my own granola, hummus, popcorn, and bread, using a machine. Pasta is done with just enough water, and the veggies on top. It needs occasional stirring to prevent sticking, but there's no loss of nutrition to drain water.
One recent refinement is sauteeing a batch of mushrooms to last for a few days, and then using that pot for the usual veggies with rice on top.

 

[Outdated]

Sausage Rolls

Just because we call them that doesn't mean you have to use sausage meat, it's a great way to use up leftovers from your fridge. Any thing as long as it's not too wet and sloppy, dice it finely, roll it up in pastry and chuck it in the oven. Good food fast and cheap.

In the example below I used Beef Bolognaise sausages, very nice. A popular one with the ladies is Chicken sausage meat with Cheese and Spinach. I also like Pork sausage meat with Cheese and Onion.

Being single I freeze sausages in pairs, two real sausages contain enough meat for four sausage rolls. One sheet of frozen puff pastry cut into quarters makes four sausage rolls. Handy that.

2 nice sausages
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
1 egg
salt, herbs and spices to taste

Peel the skins off of the sausages and put the meat in a bowl.

Crack an egg in there as well.

Add whatever salt herbs and spices you like.

Mix it all well, until the egg starts to thicken the mixture.

Lay your sheet of pastry flat on the bench, it should be thawed out by now. Use a butter knife to cut it into quarters, you don't need a sharp knife for that.

Put about a quarter of your meat mix on a quarter of the pastry and roll it up.

Best to use a ceramic baking dish rather than a metal one, it's easier to burn them on the bottom if you use a metal dish.

Chuck them in a moderate to hot oven, 200° C, for about 35 mins. Until golden brown.

Turn the TV on, can of beer, bottle of sauce, can't go wrong.

Cheers,

Andrew.

 

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

Tomorrow my food stamps will be available and I want to actually get things to cook instead of snacky quick stuff. I've been really depressed lately and my diet definitely reflects that. I want to make an earnest effort to start eating healthier and to prepare more nutritious meals but when I look at cook books I get very overwhelmed. So many recipes are very complicated and too fancy! I was wondering if you had any recommendations for simple, healthy but yummy meals that I can prepare so I know what to get from the store.

Thank you everyone!

Cook spaghetti or pasta in a pot then wait until it ja a bit chewy let it rest for 5 mins.
You can put salt in with the pasta.
Then cook and steam some vegetables anything you work like with some herbs
Then mix the pasta and vegetables together and add soy sauce and cheese or just cheese.
Or you could add a sauce.

Vegetable fritters or patties
A soup, mix up a stock or vegetables and herbs

 

[Xinyta]

Something I use to make occasionally was chicken wraps. The only part that's kinda rough is baking the chicken. Chicken strips can work if you want to go more simple. It's whatever works for you.

Ingredients include:
Chicken parts or whole/Strips
Tortillas
Lemon Pepper seasoning
Honey Dijon Mustard

It's pretty basic and it's all stuff food stamps can buy. I think anyway. The rules with that government issued stuff changes sometimes.

 

[elgat0verde]

I recommend the webpage budgetbytes it helped me a lot while I was living alone in Utah. The recipes are easy to make, the ingredients are not expensive and the recipes are very well explained and straight to the point.

Also, if you can, a slow cooker is a life saver! Just put in ingredients overnight and you can get a good meal the next day. It doesn't really matter what you put in there! You can put beef, potatoes, baby carrots, broth and seasoning and you'll get a good beef soup the next day.

 

[Outdated]

Chicken Drumsticks are possibly the cheapest meat and so easy to cook. The picture below is from an Aussie supermarket so the price is Australian dollars per kilogram. In US terms that works out to about $1.50/lb.

Just sprinkle them with a little salt and put them all on a flat tray and put them in a hot oven for about 45 minutes. Turn them over once when they're getting near done. They're delicious hot straight out of the oven, delicious cold the next day, and once they're cooked they keep longer and it's easy to use the meat in other recipes.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I enjoy simple one (or two) pot meals. Beef Stroganov, or Smoked Salmon in a light cream sauce with Penne, or Lobster fra Diavalo. Then for soup if I have galangal and kaffir lime leaves, iI will whip up Tom Ka Gai. My favorite chili is a Cincinatti Chili base to have 5 ways. Then I have homemade Salsa Verde from the garden with Enchiladas Suiza.

This week I will be preparing and preserving garlic jelly.

 

[Wolfnox]

I don’t really cook yet. But, for something that feels the need for a home cooked meal. I recommend Campbell’s Old Fashioned vegetable soup and Hungry Man Boneless Fried Chicken.

 

[ChrisCRISPR]

I'm not a good cook, which might make this reply more or less helpful depending on how you view it.

I'm not really a fan of cooked vegetables, so I tend to make a simple course like pasta, and then just eat lettuce or broccoli or something with it. Maybe cook potatoes or rice. Spices are a good way to make a cheap meal taste good. You can often find pretty cheap spice blends, and they last a while.

I've found that simply looking online is by far the simplest way to figure out how to cook. Even my grandmother who is a great cook prefers looking online, and hardly ever opens a cook-book. There are also a lot of people in a similar situation to you, and people giving advice on simple meals. Just be careful to use up what you buy so it doesn't spoil.

@Stuttermabolur - thank you for the very practical advice. I like to get my groceries in little trips just what I need for a few days to a week at most. Also what are some of your favorite spices? I really love cumin and curry powder but mainly if im cooking for myself because my friend I live with doesn’t care for those very strong flavors but that’s okay!

 

[ChrisCRISPR]

@Outdated thank you so much for your kind (and delicious!) responses! I appreciate putting the pictures and instructions.