for me, cooking at home is really preferential towards stuff that gets baked/broiled in the oven.
salmon w/ oyster sauce/soy sauce/white pepper and served with rice (from rice cooker) Japanese mayo, Togarashi, kimchi and miso soup.
Greek Salad:
2 large tomatos
2 large cucumbers
1/2 red onion
Feta cheese
greek/italian dressing of choice
peppercinis (optional)
Skin the cukes, dice the veggies and add the other stuff to taste.
1 Like
i do this except skip dressing and just do red wine vinegar and a little oil
I hate paying down for food quality but the time and prep cost of cooking is very real. Thatās my bottleneck. My favorite go-to is street tacos which are fairly easy and inexpensive. Mini corn tortillas crisped up with a bit of butter, cilantro, onion, and a protein. Whether or not I cook the protein myself or gringoize the tacos with crumbling cheeses and diced fruits depends on how much time I have and how inauthentic Iām feeling.
1 Like
especially for something like tacos, which are actually so simple but of everything thatās out there I canāt think of anything with more prep and cleanup.
You should prep more than you can eat, then combine the leftovers into other configurations with additional ingredients to make new dishes.
I do my chicken Parm even more half ass. I used frozen breaded chicken patties.
Also, really easy dinner that my family likes: rice and ground beef. I season the ground beef with garlic powder, onion powder, and soy sauce (I add the soy sauce toward the end of browning). Add more soy sauce to taste once played.
You think street tacos are high prep and cleanup? Now that Iām thinking about it, the lowest effort thing Iād make is probably a cheese quesadilla. A bit of butter in the pan, some medium sized tortillas, and a solid cheese like oaxaca / asadero. For me, the only trick is getting the tortilla to flake properly. I usually have sour cream, salsa verde, and salsa roja on hand to use as dips.
1 Like
no, but prepping lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion, cilantro is a lot of prep, and thatās if you didnt spend a day marinatinf meat.
my quick quesadilla is tear off a few random chunks of cheese, throw it into a folded tortilla, microwave 45 seconds. lol
For quick and healthy, get Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar, and keep some canned black beans and a jar of jalapenos around. Perhaps your favorite salsa or a southwest chipotle sauce/dressing.
Add whatever combo you want to a low carb tortilla by La Banderitas (50 calories I believe) and microwave it 45-90 seconds, fold it over, and enjoy.
1 Like
For EZ mode when Iām tired, I usually have a pre-cooked meat in a bag on hand. The onion and cilantro are not fun preps but I get to them while the meat is heating, then toast the tortillas lightly in a skillet and wrap them in foil. I dunno, itās pretty easy compared to, say, the shrimp ceviche tostadas I make which are stupid amounts of prep for a minor dish.
Iām not sure what sort of flakiness youāre looking for. I donāt grease my pan at all when I make quesadillas.
I didnāt intend it when I started it but this thread is just begging for me to post the leftover chili pizza pics from like 2 years ago lol.
1 Like
I feel like this thread is going from ācheap eatsā to ālow effort eatsā, but I think thatās the logical way for it to go. Food itself can be quite cheap. Iām sure Kenji could make a great meal out of bargain items from Aldi.
On the other hand, labor is not cheap. After all, time is money. Time spent prepping, cooking, and cleaning up is time that you could be doing something else. I guess there are some who just really enjoy cooking so much that the time commitment doesnāt feel like an expenditure of sorts, but I think those people are the minority.
4 Likes
Itās a fair point. I intended this to be cheap AND low effort good eats(as an alternative to fast food) but you are indeed correct there are tons of cheap and not low effort foods. Some of them are some of the best foods in the world.
I am inarticulate if nothing else.
ETA-going to change the thread title.
1 Like
A tin of smoked oysters and toast.
a can of tuna in oil, celery, red onion or scallion, pickle or capers, stone ground mustard, and a heaping spoonful of mayo. dice it up real fine, mix, and spread on a toast.
add an apple to the salad if you are feeling frisky
1 Like
I hate cooking and was trying to eat healthier so a couple years back I bought this program called AIP Batch Cook and quite liked it.
Basically you just cook once a week for about 2 hours then just keep the portions in a fridge or freeze a couple meals.
And itās pretty healthy as it conforms to the AIP Diet, auto immune protocol, so it avoids foods that can cause inflammation.
I see that it costs around $47, but she really lays out the program in a way that even an idiot in the kitchen (like me) can follow.
Some example meals were chicken noodle soup, rosemary beef breakfast skillet, lemon salmon with roasted veggies, etc.
Link here if anyoneās interested: