Cooking in your country
- Thread starter Naira
- Start date
That caused me to do a double-take too, but I think it was was a mistype and they meant 4-5 times a week, surely!
I'm the same as you, I cook one meal a day. Breakfast is coffee and lunch is something easy like a bit of fruit and cheese or a cup of cottage cheese or if I have soup or something leftover that I'd made before.
I do treat myself to sushi on Friday for lunch if it's been a rough work week.
I love sushi. On a regular basis. As fingerfood.
^Hahaha. I would too, but it's so damn expensive! I simply can't afford it more than a couple times a month!
Yeah I was taken aback by how pricey it was in the US. Here it is literally the cheapest thing you can grab on the go and it's pretty much everywhere.
Yes. But I found an asian restaurant that offers it affordable. But you're right. Once a week is enough.
Here in rural North Carolina, USA home of rednecks and ghetto babies, good restaurant food is a rarity. We have a Chinese-run establishment with a quality buffet, cooked by authentic Mexicans. (Yeah, go figure!
) The longest lines are at East Coast Wings... in fact, it is the only place where you wait for a table here. 
Otherwise, we have the usual chain places: McDonald's, KFC, etc. One of our local supermarkets offers fairly fresh sushi, but for the same price I can go to the China Buffet.
The best food here is Hendrix Barbecue. I can order baby back ribs, chicken & dumplings, or breakfast all day. It doesn't get any better than that!
When my brother comes to visit, we usually go to Olive Garden. I'm addicted to their salad, which I haven't been able to duplicate at home.
) The longest lines are at East Coast Wings... in fact, it is the only place where you wait for a table here. Otherwise, we have the usual chain places: McDonald's, KFC, etc. One of our local supermarkets offers fairly fresh sushi, but for the same price I can go to the China Buffet.
The best food here is Hendrix Barbecue. I can order baby back ribs, chicken & dumplings, or breakfast all day. It doesn't get any better than that!
When my brother comes to visit, we usually go to Olive Garden. I'm addicted to their salad, which I haven't been able to duplicate at home.
I live in a more health conscious area of my country, so I'm sure my experiences differ from those living even a couple of hours away, but in general folks around here cook healthy meals using fresh ingredients nearly every day. Typically this would be for dinner. Many of my coworkers are vegetarian or vegan, or have sworn off of preservatives or processed foods, so they visit local farmer's markets frequently for ingredients. Though I do have to say that the quality of our grocery stores are pretty good too, even the big chain stores. Many of the ingredients are locally sourced, simply because we live in the area where many of the fruits/vegetables for the country are grown. The town I grew up in was known best for growing corn, and even though I live a couple of hours away now, I still see that same corn being sold in my supermarkets here. I have traveled to other parts of the country and was not so impressed by the selection of fruits/vegetables in their grocery stores, often because they had to be trucked in from quite a distance and so they just simply aren't as fresh.
We are also lucky in the city I work in to be surrounded by a very large number of ethnically diverse restaurants that are quite good. So, even though I work full time, for lunch I usually have my choice of Mexican, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Irish, Vietnamese, Indian, etc., just a few minutes walk or drive away. So, often my coworkers will have lunch out at a fairly healthy restaurant and then cook a healthy dinner at home.
However, I grew up in a household where my mother hated cooking and hated the taste of vegetables, so we rarely got fresh foods. Most often we ate canned or boxed meals. We ate a LOT of ground beef based meals, or things like Kraft macaroni and cheese, and ate fast food quite a bit as well (so much Taco Bell...). It was just the easy and cheap thing to do. So it has taken me longer to get accustomed to a healthier diet. Thankfully I enjoy cooking, I just don't usually have time for it on weeknights. For the most part I no longer eat fast food or even go to restaurants that often, but I do sometimes rely on quick recipes that use processed ingredients, like starting with a boxed meal, as shortcuts. On weekends when I have more time, I tend to cook healthier and fresher meals with lots of leftovers that will last me as work lunches throughout the week.
We are also lucky in the city I work in to be surrounded by a very large number of ethnically diverse restaurants that are quite good. So, even though I work full time, for lunch I usually have my choice of Mexican, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Irish, Vietnamese, Indian, etc., just a few minutes walk or drive away. So, often my coworkers will have lunch out at a fairly healthy restaurant and then cook a healthy dinner at home.
However, I grew up in a household where my mother hated cooking and hated the taste of vegetables, so we rarely got fresh foods. Most often we ate canned or boxed meals. We ate a LOT of ground beef based meals, or things like Kraft macaroni and cheese, and ate fast food quite a bit as well (so much Taco Bell...). It was just the easy and cheap thing to do. So it has taken me longer to get accustomed to a healthier diet. Thankfully I enjoy cooking, I just don't usually have time for it on weeknights. For the most part I no longer eat fast food or even go to restaurants that often, but I do sometimes rely on quick recipes that use processed ingredients, like starting with a boxed meal, as shortcuts. On weekends when I have more time, I tend to cook healthier and fresher meals with lots of leftovers that will last me as work lunches throughout the week.
Because some people eat a lot.
I eat at least 6 meals a day, most of which I have to cook.
Total cost of the chicken marsala I made for dinner tonight: A little over four bucks, with the bulk of that being the chicken breasts and the small amount of cooking wine, since I had homemade chicken stock and parsley from my garden in my freezer. Cost of a footlong, chips and a soda from Subway: What, eight or nine bucks?
Just saying. You could, you know, try to learn so the food you make isn't shitty.
It really is.
I've been on medical leave and receiving short-term disability payments for a couple of months, which has resulted in me becoming very frugal -- to the point that I do actually price out the cost of the meals I cook here. And I couldn't tell you the last time a full dinner, meaning protein, vegetables and starch and usually a salad, came out to more than like eight or nine bucks for my wife and myself combined. And nine times out of ten there are leftovers for her to take for lunch the next day.
I think you might be surprised; with a little creativity and a few tricks, from-scratch, healthy meals can be super fast and easy. I make my dinner from scratch pretty much every night and I rarely spend more than 10 minutes prep time and 10-20 minutes cooking (during which time I can often do other stuff). Short of microwave dinners I can't think of any boxed meals that quicker than that.
Seriously. 15-20 minutes to cook two cups of rice in the rice cooker, during which time it takes maybe six minutes to lightly saute a pair of chicken breasts (and it takes about two minutes to season them prior to tossing them in the pan) and roughly the same amount of time to steam some vegetables. Boom, that's dinner as well as lunch the next day.
^Yep! Better yet, cook a few days' worth of rice in advance. I rarely cook meat, but a nice steak only takes a few minutes too. I like to sauté and simmer veggies most often, and make curries too, which are just as fast.
I know people say it's cheaper to eat crap but I think that depends on your tastes and familiarity with cooking with rice, lentils, beans.. I buy my beans in bulk, they last forever, they are extremely cheap food.
A great investment is a freezer. Even if you can't access cheap fresh vegies you can buy up frozen ones when on sale and have them always available.
A great investment is a freezer. Even if you can't access cheap fresh vegies you can buy up frozen ones when on sale and have them always available.
^ I think it's just a really complex issue that depends on a lot of factors. What you're saying is true for many people, but for others it is undeniably cheaper to eat crap, because you have to factor in things like the cost of time, storage capabilities, access, portability, etc.
There was a period in my life when I lived in a 6x11' apartment with no place to store food and only a single hotplate to cook anything. I could never have got a freezer, even if there was a place to put it. I was working two jobs, student teaching, and going to school full time. I literally couldn't afford the time it would have taken too cook (even if I had the space and facilities), because it would have meant losing out on work hours. There are people who work two, three, even four jobs to get by, people who do this and have kids. There are people who just don't live anywhere near a place that sells healthful food (I've lived in neighborhoods like that), and don't have the means or capability to travel to an area that does. Cost of time, cost of travel, cost of stress -- unfortunately, for some people it just balances out that fast food and junk is the cheapest option.
I agree that it can be surprisingly affordable to eat healthy for some people, but there are a lot of situations where it really is nearly impossible, and I think people often don't understand that.
There was a period in my life when I lived in a 6x11' apartment with no place to store food and only a single hotplate to cook anything. I could never have got a freezer, even if there was a place to put it. I was working two jobs, student teaching, and going to school full time. I literally couldn't afford the time it would have taken too cook (even if I had the space and facilities), because it would have meant losing out on work hours. There are people who work two, three, even four jobs to get by, people who do this and have kids. There are people who just don't live anywhere near a place that sells healthful food (I've lived in neighborhoods like that), and don't have the means or capability to travel to an area that does. Cost of time, cost of travel, cost of stress -- unfortunately, for some people it just balances out that fast food and junk is the cheapest option.
I agree that it can be surprisingly affordable to eat healthy for some people, but there are a lot of situations where it really is nearly impossible, and I think people often don't understand that.
Definitely agree with this. I can cook dinner for two usually for less than $10 without even trying to be frugal. When trying to be frugal, $5 per meal can easily cover dinners made at home.
Pick up a copy of the Food network's companion magazine. They usually have dozens of recipes that can be ready in less than 30 minutes.
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It also helps to sign up for a mailing list if you have even a mid-major chain like Copp's / Roundy's, Kroger, Hy-Vee or something along those lines. They generally send out free magazines packed with recipes every other month or so.
I need a brain scan! Sorry, I meant to type 4-5 times per week!