<p>I’ve been out on my own for a few months now and I’m really having trouble when it comes to cooking. My mom never really cooked, so I’m pretty clueless about it (I’m actually afraid to cook meat because I don’t know how to tell when it’s done). After many failed attempts at meals, I have resorted to frozen meals, canned things like soup, and spaghetti. I want to find cheaper, healthy things to make, but it seems like every “easy” meal needs 30 ingredients that I don’t have and it ends up costing a lot to make. I also am not a big fan of meat (the ONLY meat I will cook is chicken).</p>
<p>What are some recipes (or even a cookbook) for simple, low ingredient, cheap things to make? It would also be great if it was healthy and quick to make!</p>
<p>Chef salads are great. Breakfast for dinner is also fun once in a while (eggs, pancakes, omelettes). Fish is very easy when cooking for one. You could make your own pizza and top it with chicken/vegetables.</p>
<p>Google on “5 ingredients or Less” and you’ll find lots of recipes. I like cooks.com…but there are other good sites.</p>
<p>Boneless breast of chicken is great for making many different, QUICK meals. It’s more expensive than chicken parts, but…not so expensive for 1 person (you should be able to get at least two or 3 meals from a pound of boneless chicken.) Look for it on sale…and freeze whatever you don’t use (or…even better…cook it all and freeze already cooked so you’ll have meals that just need to be defrosted.)</p>
<p>When I first started out, I found the easiest thing was to get a bag of frozen mixed veggies and cook that – throw it in a pan with some oil and add on some bottled stir fry sauce and/or soy sauce and some seasonings you like. Then boil some rice or pasta and serve the veggies over that. It can all be done with one pot, it’s simple and you have no worries about undercooking anything, there are lots of combos of stir fry mixes and seasonings available so you get some variety, and it’s healthy.</p>
<p>Boil up a bag of frozen cheese tortellini. While it’s boiling, heat up a large handful of frozen peas. Drain the cooked cheese tortellini. Put cooked tortellini in a big bowl. Add the cooked peas. Add some butter (or olive oil if you prefer) and parmesan cheese. Mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with additional parmesan sprinkled on top.</p>
<p>Son bought cooking for two for dummies. He learned enough to have confidence and explore. I cook a lot but I don’t think he ever paid attention. He even cooks for his dates sometimes.</p>
<p>This may sound like an odd suggestion but you might try a hay box cooker. Then all you have to do is throw a bunch of ingredients together in a dutch oven, bring it to a boil, and then pack it into a hay box. You do this in the morning, then when you come home at night it is done. At the most you will just need to heat it back up. It’s economical and fast and is also a great way to conserve energy.</p>
<p>This was dinner tonight: buy a cooked rotisserie chicken and grape tomatoes, boil pasta in microwave (big bowl, cover pasta completely with water, 5-10 mins. depending on quantity and power of microwave), drain cooked pasta, add small quantity of prepared pesto (I made my own in a food processor attachment to my immersion blender [Amazon.com:</a> KitchenAid KHB300OB Hand Blender, Onyx Black: Kitchen & Dining](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KHB300OB-Hand-Blender-Black/dp/B00008GSAC/ref=pd_sim_k_5]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KHB300OB-Hand-Blender-Black/dp/B00008GSAC/ref=pd_sim_k_5) out of a handful of basil (grown on my deck from plants I paid a quarter each for at a local farmstand), a garlic clove, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese, chicken broth 'til right consistency. There are lots of prepared pestos that are decent, but higher in fat content.) Toss pasta and pesto, pull desired amount of breast meat from chicken and slice tomatoes in halves, mix and eat. Portion out the rest of the chicken into freezer bags (or sandwich bags if you’ll be using it in the next week or so) and freeze (or refrigerate for up to four days). Use remaining chicken in tacos, quesadillas, soups, casseroles, sandwiches, salads. The chicken cost me $5.49; pasta, tortillas and bread are pretty cheap.</p>
<p>Here is an easy way to cook up a bunch of chicken breasts, then you can freeze them. I buy the boneless, skinless ones in large packages when they are on sale. The results of this recipe are super moist (dryness can be a problem with chicken), and great for making some kind of wrap, sandwich, chicken tacos with black beans, chicken salad, etc. later.</p>
<ul>
<li>Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove (make sure it has a lid that fits the pot). It needs enough water to cover the chicken completely when it is in it, I use a pretty big pot.</li>
<li>Put the chicken in the water and leave it for 1 minute.</li>
<li>Take the chicken out and put it on a plate until the water is boiling again.</li>
<li>Put the chicken back in the water, put the top on, and turn off the burner.</li>
<li>Let it sit for one hour.</li>
<li>Get it out of the water and into a freezer baggie. I usually cut into one just to make sure it is cooked, and leave it in a little longer if it isn’t.</li>
<li>You can now refrigerate or freeze them until you need them (freeze in the quantity you usually need, eg one or two breasts for 1 person). rry to squish all the air out of the freezer bag before you close it. I always label the bags in the freezer with what it is and when I froze it so I can take out the oldest stuff first if there is more than one bag.</li>
</ul>
<p>I first read this recipe in the “Global Gourmet” cookbook for a whole chicken, but found it is much easier with boneless, skinless breasts.</p>
<p>Canned diced tomatoes
Canned beans (I like cannellini or kidney beans are my favs)
Instant rice
tortillas (whole wheat if you can)</p>
<p>Often when I needed something quick this was a go to meal.</p>
<p>I also have pasta with “chicken” strips (I’m a vegan…regular chicken works), diced tomatoes, and broccoli often.</p>
<p>I also do lots of stir frys with any veggies I have… (zucchini, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, broccoli… etc) and some rice.</p>
<p>I also like baking whatever veggies and throwing them on two pieces of bread with light Italian dressing.</p>
<p>Potatoes are very cheap. I like baking them and eating them as is… but you can also throw them in with stir frys. You can also poke holes in them and microwave for a quicker potato. I also mash them and make a crustless, pot pie. I just throw in the mash potatoes, broccoli, corn, carrots, green beans, and veggie stock, and bake.</p>
<p>Also stuffing veggies makes a nice meal. I like to stuff peppers with rice, beans (you could use meat, just cook in a pan a little before), and tomatoes (or salsa).</p>
<p>Put some sliced tomatoes, or microwaved frozen vegetables of your choice, on the side. It’s yummy, fast, cheap, and healthy…and vegetarian. If you want to get fancy, brown some onions and mushrooms in olive oil and mix them in. Leftovers are good the next day, too.</p>
<p>My favorite quick lunch - Pita bread Pizza. Spread some tomato sauce (small can or from jar - keep rest in fridge - not in the can) over the pita, put some precooked chicken on (I like the southwestern), sprinkle some mozzarella, bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes. You can add whatever ingredients you want, and make it as healthy (or otherwise) as you want.</p>
<p>My S learned to throw herbes de Provence and salt over pretty much any meat: beef, chicken or pork chops. He likes dark meat, so he makes mostly chicken legs. He browns them in a little hot oil in a skillet, throws the herbs and the salt over them and lets them cook. You could substitute ready-made sauces. Meanwhile, he’ll make some rice or some pasta. Fresh pasta costs more but cooks faster and tastes better. He likes salads, so that part is easy. In winter, he’ll have vegetables steamed in the microwave oven or blanched in boiling water.
Stir-frying is very quick and uses less meat. But it takes some cutting of meat and vegetables. A basic sauce is soy sauce, corn starch and water; it is added after the food has cooked.</p>
<p>Buy yourself a $10 food thermometer and print off a chart for doness temperatures. After awhile you’ll get a feel for what it looks like done. I have 50 year old friends who can’t turn out adecent meal. You don’t want to end up like them becuse they end up eating poorly in general!</p>
<p>But if you don’t like meat I would keep it that way. Eat chicken and turkey and skip the rest for long term health. Get in the habit of eating healthy now and you will really benefit in the long term. </p>
<p>If you want to eat healthy meals without meat, learn about legumes and cooking with Tofu. They are cheap, full of protein (and fiber with legumes) and are easy to cook if you can boil water. </p>
<p>Easy meals with whole grain pasta are much healthier than the white stuff and can be as simple as mixing with some garlic and a couple of uncooked, scrambled eggs for a tasty Carbonara.</p>
<p>Mixed greens with lentils is a good dinner salad and Trader Joe’s even has cooked lentils if you have them in OK.</p>
<p>A stir fry can be quick with some tofu and whatever veggies are on sale, just add a couple of spoonsfulls of Chinese Oyster sauce (cheap and keeps along time) and a couple of soy sauce and keep cornstarch to thicken. I love just chicken with bean and other sprouts.</p>
<p>Hungry Girl cookbook has a lot of easy, healthy recipes.</p>
<p>Spaghetti or other pasta is easy. Boil the water and add salt, dump in the pasta, and cook for however long it says on the box. If you forget to set a timer, you can just taste a piece of spaghetti to test for doneness.</p>
<p>For toppings, anything goes. Simple grated cheese. Butter and cheese. Cut up vegetables and cheese. Bottled spaghetti sauce. Frozen vegetables, nuked or boiled, or fresh vegetables, cooked or not, plus salad dressing, plus a can of beans. Dump some tofu (fried or raw) or some cooked hamburger (add some salt, cook until it’s not pink) into bottled spaghetti sauce. Don’t laugh-- peanut butter mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, a little sugar and some oil makes a great, easy no-cook spaghetti sauce (we add Chinese sesame oil, but it’s still good without that).</p>
<p>Salads are easy too. Just cut up whatever raw vegetables you like, then add bottled salad dressing or just dump on oil, vinegar and salt.</p>
<p>A baked potato (put in the oven, cook for an hour or so at 400 or so) is delicious. Top with butter, cheese, cooked broccoli, canned or homemade chili, sour cream-- you choose.</p>
<p>Get a paperback copy of the Better Homes and Gardens New cookbook (I think the 14th edition is current). You can find it online, in bookstores and Walmart/Target et al. This is the best cookbook I have found for telling you how to do everything. There are instructions on hard boiling eggs, pictures of various types of foods, such as meat cuts, pasta and cheeses. Some recipes are labeled easy, etc. and you can learn substitutions.</p>
<p>Another thing to do- experiment. Add ingredients to packaged mixes. “Baked” potatoes are easiest when pierced (with a fork) and microwaved. Many packaged fish portions have times to cook- use fewer minutes and check for doneness (just white, too much time and it gets tough/dried out). Ground beef is easy- crumbled like for sloppy joes- done when brown. Even experienced cooks have to do some trial and error to optimize meat cooking- if you’re not used to cooking any food there is a learning curve. </p>
<p>The microwave oven is the single person’s best friend. Vegetables are easy to cook by putting the amount you want in a covered bowl, cooking a couple of minutes and adding time (frozen bags work well). Spice to taste. Also be aware of things continuing to cook after you remove them from a microwave or conventional oven and that electric stove burners stay hot after turned off, therefore continuing to cook foods.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how conventional your meals are- just so you get the proper amounts of the needed food groups. Eggs can be supper, sandwiches breakfast. You can discard egg yolks if you want the protein but not the fat.</p>
<p>Remember to store foods in covered nonmetal containers (don’t just put the part can in the refrigerator). Also- you can portion out cooked pasta, rice, spaghetti sauce and other leftovers and freeze them. Consult a cookbook or look at frozen foods to see what can successfully be frozen- if it’s in a TV dinner, it can be frozen (no fresh tomatoes, that was tried commercially in the '60’s). Look at ground, dried spices for their fresh equivalent- garlic powder for example instead of cloves (never buy garlic salt, use them separately). They last a long time.</p>