The Official Professional Bachelor Food Suggestion Thread

[chisness]

My fave is rice from rice cooker and rotis. chicken already cooked from supermarket. Basically no cooking involved, though adding a baked potato would be nice. The meal totals $2-$4 depending on if you eat 1/4 or 1/2 the chicken.

[***]

I might have missed it, but I don't think so. This was a staple for me when I was living in London and my employer wasn't giving me a paycheque. It is cheap and very very easy.

This recipe serves two, and is totally approximate:
225g Linguine (1/2 lb)
75 mL Olive oil (3 tbsp)
1 clove Garlic, chopped finely
Red chili flakse to taste (I'm guessing like 5g or 1/2 tsp)
salt and pepper
Optional: parmesan cheese. Use the hard stuff that you grate, not the gross Kraft powder.

Put the water on to boil and salt it. you should be able to taste the salt in the water, but it shouldn't be overpowering. Use a lot of water to boil pasta, more than you think you might need.

While the water is boiling put the olive oil and garlic in a sauce pan over very low heat. You want to infuse the oil with the garlic and chili flavour without breaking down the flavour of the delicate olive oil.

A couple minutes before the pasta is ready remove the garlic from the oil. Use a strainer, spoon, or whatever. If you miss one piece it's no big deal, but the garlic can take on a bitter flavour so you'd like it out of there. Add the chili flakes to the oil now.

After straining the pasta (cook it al dente, meaning slightly chewy), return it to its cooking pot (off the heat). Season with salt and pepper, and add the oil, stirring to coat.

Add the cheese now if you are using it.

Enjoy!

[NorCalJosh]

my biggest issue while cooking as a bachelor isnt the food. i can always whip up something tasty from whatever i have lying around. the problem is i create the largest mess known to man kind every time i set foot in the kitchen. does anyone have any tips on dish saving cooking technique?

[***]

[ QUOTE ]
does anyone have any tips on dish saving cooking technique?

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Eat out of the pot.

Seriously though, clean as you go. If you divide your cooking into micro tasks and clean up after each of them, you'll be amazed at how much smoother your cooking and cleanup both go.

[Aloysius]

NorCalJosh - not sure on dish saving (I do try to be as efficient as possible with cutting boards, pots, pans etc.) - biggest thing for me has been to employ a "clean-as-you-cook" approach.

So for prep if I'm chopping up vegetables / meat, always tossing stuff into garbage disposal or trash bin as I'm chopping. Also as stuff is cooking I make a point to clean up anything I can in the kitchen, rinsing stuff out whatever.

Think this might be fairly standard, but the resulting clean-up at the end is not nearly as painful.

-Al

[guids]

Ya, tinfoil. If you look at my post, like every single thing up there, requires little to no cleanup, other than maybe one dish, and a piece of tupperware. that was my main problem too, the [censored] cleanup.

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
Ya, tinfoil. If you look at my post, like every single thing up there, requires little to no cleanup, other than maybe one dish, and a piece of tupperware. that was my main problem too, the [censored] cleanup.

[/ QUOTE ]

Buddy of mine just uses disposable plates - another (though overtime obviously costly) option.

-Al

[Big Poppa Smurf]

[ QUOTE ]
Grilled pork roll and cheese on a hard roll, frozen fries with beef gravy.

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sam you're from NJ right? we do pork roll (and breakfast sandwiches) better than anyone!

[Big Poppa Smurf]

Anyways some serious suggestions (some of which have been mentioned already I believe):

Chili is easy to cook, delicious, really healthy, and very cheap to make a huge batch and freeze most of it. You can also use it to top potatos/chicken/salads/etc.

Pasta is easy and cheap.

You can buy frozen veggie stir-fries for like 2 bucks each. Just throw in some chopped up grilled chicken (you can grill up a bunch at once and just keep it in the fridge until you need it) and you have a very filling, healthy and tasty meal.

Burritos are really easy to make and are obviously super delicious, and you can use the tortillas for soft tacos/burritos/breakfast burritos, and you can stuff them with pretty much anything.

Another little tip I have is buying meat right before the sell-by date, especially ground meat. You can pick up ground turkey for like $1/lb if you buy it the day before they have to pull it, and then just freeze it until you need it. This will drop your shopping costs way down.

Whenever you do cook, just make a huge batch of what you're making and freeze the rest of it. This makes shopping for one easier, and it leaves you with a bunch of leftovers you can just heat up instead of having to cook every single night.

edit: I forgot yogurt. You can do so much with yogurt, especially for breakfast - put it on pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, whatever. It's tasty and very healthy.

[ThaSaltCracka]

too many pasta dishes here.

One that I find very easy to make, and is quite delicious.

Fish Tacos

If its just you, cook 3 pieces of fish in the oven, 20-25 minutes or so.

Place in a tortilla with some cheese, lettuce(or cabbage) and some salsa. Very good, and a nice change from Pasta LOL.