/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.4268055]

Starting college and need some decent budget and college friendly meals. Would really appreciate some ideas. Picture not related.

[Anonymous No.4268061]

make friends with your carbs if you're not a health nut.

spaghetti is easy and can be made in bulk

soup/stew is basically just throwing shit in a pot

also casseroles.

i can elaborate, but you gotta be specific in what you like, because there's a shitton of stuff that can be made on the cheap.

[Anonymous No.4268066]

Buy rice and beans, and vegetables such as onions. Onions are cheap, taste great, are easy to prepare in numerous ways, and they go in all kinds of dishes.
Need some decent spices along the way, of course, but that depends on what you want to cook.

[Anonymous No.4268076]

I'm not a picky eater. I'll eat pretty much whatever. I don't think there's really a food I hate.

[Anonymous No.4268086]

>>4268055
http://www.zupreem.com/our-food/primates/primate-diet-canned

All the nutrition a growing primate needs

[Anonymous No.4268092]

Rice and beans, ramen, eggs, green onions, and juices are all you need. If you want meat, just get whatever you like or is on sale.

[Anonymous No.4268155]

OK OP, here's your staple pasta as an undergraduate bachelor. Everyone says, "OMG you have to live and eat like a pig in college blablabla so poor ramen ramen"... then they spend hundreds of dollars on substance abuse monthly. Eating well is the first step to living well. This bacon-onion-tomato pasta is called Amatriciana in Italy, although this recipe will be Anglicized a bit.

- Quality dry pasta: strozapretti or penne is good for this recipe.
- Thick-cut bacon
- Onion
- Good canned tomatoes
- Parmesan
- Optional: chilli P, garlic, balsamic, herbs, sriracha

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil.

Take a few of the bacon strips in a stack, turn the stack horizontally, and cut into little sticks, like so: --|--|--|-- and so on.

Start the bacon in a cold pan and render the fat out on medium-low heat. While that's going on, slice your onion. It's good to invest in a quality sharp knife. (Go to your local knife house where the chefs get their gear and they can hook you up with something perfect, and have them sharpen it for you every month or so, depending on how much you'll use it.) There's so much fuss about slicing onions-- so many people do it wrong. Get the Henckel's Complete Book of Knife Skills pdf and check out their onion slicing tutorial.

[Anonymous No.4268156]

>>4268155

Once the bacon is starting to brown nicely, chuck in the sliced onion, stirring with your trusty wooden spoon. When the onions are translucent, you can turn up the heat and deglace the pan with balsamic, or just go right for the tomatoes. If you want to add garlic or sriracha, I would recommend adding it once the onions are cooked and sweating it for a moment. Now the sauce is finished and you can hold it at a low simmer while your pasta cooks.

Speaking of, throw your pasta in the now rolling boil. Don't trust the time on the packets, but rather use them as an estimate. If it says 6-8 minutes, fish out one with a slotted spoon and taste it at around 5. Once they are getting al dente, transfer them to the sauce to finish cooking. Add a pinch of salt and a good amount of fresh cracked black pepper. Plate up and grate parmesan over the thing. Fantastic. I also really like to fold in a handfulla greens before plating. Makes the pasta more of a well-rounded meal and very aesthetic. Blanced asparagus tips, sautéed zucchini, whatever- it's all good in this pasta. Enjoy.

[Anonymous No.4268160]

The next thing I can tell you is that baking your own bread is the most economic thing a human could possibly do. Pick up a good baking book like Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads every day and get to work.

Another great dinner is a braised cheap cut of meat, like beef short rib or pork shoulder or lamb shank. I can post a recipe for that if you'd like.

[Anonymous No.4268164]

>>4268160
i'm a huge proponent of braising meat, but am i the only one who thinks short ribs arent cheap? my local store sells them for like $5/lb. if you take the weight of the bones into account, that's close to the price of fucking steak.

[Anonymous No.4268180]

Thanks for the feedback. If possible, I'd like to spend only $50 a week on food.

[Stephen No.4268187]

>>4268180
That would depend a lot on where you live
Try your local shops and markets as opposed to supermarkets for food
It is often both cheaper and better quality
Also supporting small business owners

[Anonymous No.4268188]

>>4268164

Yes they have become very trendy with the whole "gastropub" "Americana cuisine" craze. Better to shoot for chuck cuts. Even cheek has gotten expensive because of fewdiez. But I do think it's good that people are getting more gastronomic.

[Anonymous No.4268193]

Make some curry in bulk.

buy 2 big jars of cheap curry, cheapest meat that'll fry (you can use braising steak if you slowcook). Cheap onions.

Cook it all up, put it in containers and stick them in the fridge or freezer.

Seems expensive until you notice you get around 4-5 large sized meals out of it.

[Anonymous No.4268194]

>>4268180
no matter what anyone tells you, $50 a week on just food is a lot. unless you want to eat out, then it becomes very little. i spend $50 or less every week and i have no problem eating good food like steak. i just try to balance it out with cheaper food like dark meat chicken.

[Anonymous No.4268199]

>>4268188
can't say i'm too happy about it since i fucking love making braised short ribs, and it's not so cheap. at these prices, but that's the price you pay for liking foods that are delicious enough to get popular i suppose.

[Anonymous No.4268203]

Something that's nice and pretty easy to do is make a huge pot of soup like a few people said.
Although if you take the time to make the broth, it'll be amazing and can be enjoyed for days and days after. Most of the time getting even better.
Usually on Sunday I'll make a huge 14 quart pot of broth. Just roughly chop up some carrots, onions, celery, and any other generic vegetable you like for flavor. Whole chickens are very inexpensive, you could easily find a small bird for less then 10 bucks, probably closer to 5.
Stick the bird in the huge pot of water along with the mirepoix and let it extract for atleast a couple hours, remember to skim any impurities off the top. When the bird is on the cusp of falling off the bone you'll know you're ready.
Remove the bird and mirepoix from the broth and strain it just to make sure it's clear of any bone matter, then put it back on the stove and throw in just about anything!
I like sweet corn, brussel sprouts, snap peas, hearty greens like kale, etc. Also, this would be a time to raid the pantry of any canned beans or any leftovers in the fridge to toss.
While those are cooking you'll want to separate the poached meat from the bird's carcass, then just drop it in with the soup.
I'll seriously just take out a few hours of my Sunday just to do this, it's a no-brain type deal, you barely have to watch the thing, just leave it on the stove. Afterwards, I'll have anywhere between 12 to 14 quarts of dank-as-fuck chicken soup that lasts me a week.
It goes well with rice, which is also cheap and healthy for you.

[Anonymous No.4268211]

>>4268160
&this.
You could make a huge amount of dough, then pre-portion, bag-tag, and freeze.
Store-bought bread is like ice-cream and chips, almost all air and government fortified.

[Anonymous No.4268267]

>>4268203
>12 to 14 quarts
>dank-as-fuck

Pick one. The normal rule for making stock is 8 lbs of meat plus 1 lb of mirepoix yields 4 quarts of stock. If you have one chicken then that's perhaps enough to make two quarts of chicken stock, tops. 14 quarts? weak. weak. weak.

Also, cut up your chicken before it goes into the pot. You will get much more flavor out of it than simmering it whole.

[Anonymous No.4268465]

image is old (saved at least a couple years ago) and i could say where the prices are based out of but this might give you some ideas. got another as soon as i can find it.

[Anonymous No.4268475]

found it

[Anonymous No.4268486]

>>4268465
couldn't say*

Also a seasonable eating chart just because.