Bachelor cooking

[One Bad Pig]

Y'all are getting right fancy with your cooking for this thread.

On Saturday, I looked in my fridge and found ... well, four onions. Since it was onions or shopping, onions it was. But you can't just eat onions, so I put some rice in the cooker while I sliced the onions thin and set them to reduce in a frying pan before wandering off to do a bit of writing. A wafting smell brought me back to the kitchen. Fortunately, it was a non-stick pan, so I was able to take the burned bits and push them off the bottom.

Now rice and onions isn't much of a meal, either, so I checked my cupboard and found ... hey, two cans of tomato soup! Progresso, no less. So one of them got stirred in with the onions and I wandered off again. Hmm, seems I've been here before. Well, a cup of water into the pan brought it back to loose. Seeing as the rice had been done for a while, I plated some, poured the tomato-souped onions over it, and sprinkled some parmesan on top.

On Sunday, I had the rest of it. And that, my friends, is what bachelor cooking is really all about.


Seems I'm down to oatmeal and rice now. I bet Grandpa Jed could figure out a way to make that work. I've got a can of tomato soup, too, if that's any help.

On Saturday, I had a tin of sardines (in La. hot sauce), with a side of peas and lima beans and rice (spiced with garlic powder and ground ginger).

[Juvenal]

I use oatmeal most anywhere people use rice. Oatmeal alone, nah, it needs a little something with it - at least some butter (or what you might prefer).

Well, that makes sense. A grain's a grain, right? I use butter on my rice, too.

But looking again in the cupboard, lo and behold but there's three cans of Bush's Best vegetarian baked beans. And over on the counter there's some Smucker's all-natural peanut butter. Looks like a complete protein in the making to me: Grains, legumes, and nuts.

I've got a few pounds of dried milk, too, and with butter, a bit of flour, and plenty of parmesan, I could whip up some alfredo sauce without breaking a sweat.

Dairy, grains, legumes, and nuts ... that's the whole hog on essential amino acids.

A last lonely 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes is in there, too. And the last can of hearty tomato soup, too, if I like, for a wider range of veggies.

Now, how do I put all that together into a meal ... thinking, thinking ...

[Sparko]

Y'all are getting right fancy with your cooking for this thread.

On Saturday, I looked in my fridge and found ... well, four onions. Since it was onions or shopping, onions it was. But you can't just eat onions, so I put some rice in the cooker while I sliced the onions thin and set them to reduce in a frying pan before wandering off to do a bit of writing. A wafting smell brought me back to the kitchen. Fortunately, it was a non-stick pan, so I was able to take the burned bits and push them off the bottom.

Now rice and onions isn't much of a meal, either, so I checked my cupboard and found ... hey, two cans of tomato soup! Progresso, no less. So one of them got stirred in with the onions and I wandered off again. Hmm, seems I've been here before. Well, a cup of water into the pan brought it back to loose. Seeing as the rice had been done for a while, I plated some, poured the tomato-souped onions over it, and sprinkled some parmesan on top.

On Sunday, I had the rest of it. And that, my friends, is what bachelor cooking is really all about.


Seems I'm down to oatmeal and rice now. I bet Grandpa Jed could figure out a way to make that work. I've got a can of tomato soup, too, if that's any help.

Sounds like the "Stone Soup" story.

[Sparko]

Made Shrimp Kabobs on my griddler this weekend.

Shrimp, onions, red bell peppers, zucchini, and fresh jalpenos.

Came out great.

[Teallaura]

Well, that makes sense. A grain's a grain, right? I use butter on my rice, too.

But looking again in the cupboard, lo and behold but there's three cans of Bush's Best vegetarian baked beans. And over on the counter there's some Smucker's all-natural peanut butter. Looks like a complete protein in the making to me: Grains, legumes, and nuts.

I've got a few pounds of dried milk, too, and with butter, a bit of flour, and plenty of parmesan, I could whip up some alfredo sauce without breaking a sweat.

Dairy, grains, legumes, and nuts ... that's the whole hog on essential amino acids.

A last lonely 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes is in there, too. And the last can of hearty tomato soup, too, if I like, for a wider range of veggies.

Now, how do I put all that together into a meal ... thinking, thinking ...

Drain the tomatoes and refrigerate. Make the alfredo. If there are other veggies lurking in the fridge, slice them up and add to the tomatoes.

On the stove, add a tablespoon of PB to the tomato soup. Simmer. Add milk and butter, bring to a low boil (simmer).

Plate the veggies and smother with alfredo. Tada, soup and salad.

[Sparko]

Made this yesterday. I was shown how to make grilled salsa by a mexican friend of mine who used to work in a restaurant.

Grilled Low-Sodium Salsa

Prep Time: 10 Servings: 20
Cook Time: 25


Ingredients:
6 Roma Tomatoes cut in half.
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Medium Vidalia Onion
3 Jalepeno Peppers
1 Tsp olive oil
1 Garlic bulb
1/2 Tsp Louisiana Hot Sauce
1 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Chipotle Chili powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp lime juice
Directions:
1. Fire up gas grill to very hot. Brush olive oil on tomatoes and peppers, Grill tomatoes and peppers until charred on all sides. Roast garlic until outside paper blackens. Grill onion until soft.
2. Remove from grill and let cool then peel peppers and tomatoes (does not have to be perfect.) Put tomatoes and red pepper and onion in food processor and mix to chunky consistency.
3. dice up jalepenos (leaving in seeds if you like it hot. Peel garlic down to gloves (will be mushy)
4. In a large bowl mix in the processed tomatoes, peppers, onions with the jalepenos and add in garlic (more or less to taste)
5. Add in Red Wine vinegar, lime juice and chipotle chili powder, salt and pepper (can leave salt out altogether if you wish.
6. If you like it hot, add in the Louisiana hot sauce to taste.
7. Let mixture sit at least overnight.

If you wish to thin it out, add in some no-salt-added tomato sauce. If the resultant salsa is too mushy for you, add in some uncooked diced tomatoes and onion.

[Darth Executor]

^too many ingredients for bachelor cooking

I just mixed up some chicken drumsticks and potato wedges with salt and olive oil and threw them in the toaster oven. I think I still have some wrinkled month old cherry tomatoes to make a salad of sorts out of. If your bachelor diet consists of ramen and oatmeal you're doing it wrong.

[One Bad Pig]

^too many ingredients for bachelor cooking

I just mixed up some chicken drumsticks and potato wedges with salt and olive oil and threw them in the toaster oven. I think I still have some wrinkled month old cherry tomatoes to make a salad of sorts out of. If your bachelor diet consists of ramen and oatmeal you're doing it wrong.

Ramen is about the cheapest lunch I can do at work, so that's what I'm doing until I can afford better. I bought some dried vegetables to add to it, though.

[Juvenal]

But looking again in the cupboard, lo and behold but there's three cans of Bush's Best vegetarian baked beans. And over on the counter there's some Smucker's all-natural peanut butter. Looks like a complete protein in the making to me: Grains, legumes, and nuts.

I've got a few pounds of dried milk, too, and with butter, a bit of flour, and plenty of parmesan, I could whip up some alfredo sauce without breaking a sweat.

Dairy, grains, legumes, and nuts ... that's the whole hog on essential amino acids.

A last lonely 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes is in there, too. And the last can of hearty tomato soup, too, if I like, for a wider range of veggies.

Now, how do I put all that together into a meal ... thinking, thinking ...

Drain the tomatoes and refrigerate. Make the alfredo. If there are other veggies lurking in the fridge, slice them up and add to the tomatoes.

On the stove, add a tablespoon of PB to the tomato soup. Simmer. Add milk and butter, bring to a low boil (simmer).

Plate the veggies and smother with alfredo. Tada, soup and salad.

In the event, I ended up putting peanut butter on top of the rice, and then ladling baked beans on top. I tried adding peanut butter to the baked beans first, too, but nah, that wasn't as good. I'm surprised nobody busted me on calling peanut butter a legume. I never did make the alfredo sauce.

But you know, my alfredo sauce from dry milk is pretty hit and miss. Well, I went looking on the internet, and found there's a pretty standard recipe for white sauce mix: two cups dry milk, one cup flour, and one cup butter, which conveniently enough is just about what I have in the way of flour and butter right now.

What I don't have is a mixer, and while I could do the two knives trick ...

Back in another cupboard, untainted by the light of sun or press of countertop, for years, was an old Cuisinart. Being bachelor lazy, I dumped it all in and hoped for the best. Yes, I cleaned it all up first. I'm a bachelor, not a barbarian. It's supposed to end up with a texture like corn meal, but it looks like I went past that a touch cause the cuisinart was overfull, so I'm chilling it down in the fridge right now before I bust it in half and try to cut it again. This could be a bad idea, which is all the more reason to go for it, I'm thinking. I forgot to add salt, too, so that needs to be fixed on this go 'round.

The really weird thing I'm seeing in the videos is these folks add their white sauce mix to water in the pan, instead of the other way around. I'm gonna go with the standard, adding liquid to the roux, and hope nothing awful comes from having dry milk in there, too.

The only other "veggies" in my fridge right now are a jar each of banana peppers and pepperoncini. That should work with the tomatoes, without any further cooking, though I'd never thought of putting alfredo sauce on veggies before. Pasta obviously, and rice, sure, but never veggies for some reason. I'm going to use the reserve from draining the tomatoes to make my next batch of rice.

The worst that could come of this leaves me with the ultimate bachelor fallback: Domino's delivery.

That's pretty awful, but I've survived worse.

[Juvenal]

Bachlor cooking is all about using what you have on hand.

I know some of you fancier types, especially women, like to use actual glasses for their glassware, but there's nothing a glass can do that an empty jar of Smucker's creamy peanut butter won't do better, and bonus, there's a lid, like for storing liquids, like reserve from a can of crushed tomatoes. Not to mention they haven't modified that jar in ten years, so there's a ready source of replacements when one busts, which doesn't happen as often as with regular glasses, anyway. I've got a really clean-cutting bladeless can opener, too, which makes any can its own storage container, just by pushing the lid back on.

[Juvenal]

... like reserve from a can of crushed tomatoes ...

Y'all can stop laughing now. In my defense, I never buy it crushed, and my only excuse is the same one used by every woman with more than two pairs of shoes: It was on sale. Since I'd already cut open the cans (there were two in the cupboard), I mixed them half and half with water ready to make a heavily ersatz spanish rice for the alfredo. On the plus side, chilling the white sauce mix worked. It's sitting pretty in my fridge now, with a texture like corn meal, per spec. I expect to be trying it out whenever I get around to fixing dinner tonight.

[Darth Executor]

Ramen is about the cheapest lunch I can do at work, so that's what I'm doing until I can afford better. I bought some dried vegetables to add to it, though.

Cost/meal?

[Cow Poke]

Cost/meal?

You can get a whole pallet of it at Sam's Club for about $5.00. (OK, slight exaggeration)

I think the cheapest I can remember them was about 19 cents per meal when bought in bulk. But there's all kinds of stuff on the web about how bad they are for you.

[Teallaura]

Ya know, we might have been better off when y'all were still discussing cooking bachelors....

[Juvenal]

White sauce mix: two cups dry milk, one cup flour, and one cup butter

This.

We're talking about 2-minute alfredo sauce. I've never seen a sauce thicken that fast. It was almost instant. Faster than I could pull the parmesan out of the fridge fast. Works fine on Spanish rice, too.