I live on my own
(left my parents home because they were very strict Muslims and wouldn’t let me finish my education) so I so far have
plates, knives, forks, pots, pans (every utensil you can imagine even baking items).
Now for food I’m confused as to cooking.
I have pasta, sauce, cereal, rice, milk, bagels, etc.
But what do I need to cook real dinners? Things that I can make and then store in the fridge for a week and eat. I don’t know how to make those kinds of things and what I need to buy to do it.
I don’t drink alcohol!
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It sounds like you are looking for recipes where you would cook a lot of food and then be able to eat off the leftovers for a period of time.
One of the best tools to accomplish this as a college student is a slow cooker, aka a crock pot. You don’t need a fancy slow cooker. Grab the least expensive one that has a removal crock. An oval shaped 4-quart capacity slow cooker is an excellent size.
Establish a routine where you get your preparations done either the night before or in the morning. Get the slow cooker started before you leave for classes in the morning. When you get home later that day and are tired and don’t feel like cooking, you’ll be greeted with the wonderful smell of whatever has been cooking all day. This is one of the main benefits of the slow cooker. You get the prep work done earlier in the day when you have more energy. The challenge for a college student is waking up in enough time to get the prep work done before needing to leave for class.
Another benefit of the slow cooker is that it is an excellent way to cook budget friendly foods, including lesser cuts of meat that need to be cooked over long periods of time and also things like dried beans, which are inexpensive to purchase and generally will store very well.
Using the slow cooker, you should easily be able to cook many servings of food at once. You can easily eat off the leftovers during the week. To expand on the eating off of leftovers idea, plan to freeze some of the servings you make. Freezer quality bags or containers really complement slow cooker cooking. You can portion out servings and freeze them so that the food will not go bad before you can eat it. This will also create a stock of easy meals for those times when you just don’t feel like cooking.
My favorite slow cooker book is called Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook. The authors of the book studied different cultures methods of slow, wet cooking (as opposed to slow and dry, which would be like roasting) and adapted many recipes for the American slow cooker. These recipes are usually very healthy too, because they don’t rely on processed foods.
Also check out online sources for slow cooker recipes, including sites like http://www.recipezaar.com.
Jello shots and beer. Nothing more
As said: Jello shots n beer, but I recommend adding Pot Noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner too.
It sounds like your kitchen is well-outfitted. The most important thing you can have is a good Chef’s knife and a good utility knife; they will serve for anything you need. Keep an edge on them and they’ll be worth the money; expect to spend about a hundred for the big knife and 50 or so for the utility knife (also known as a sandwich knife).
As far as stocking your kitchen so that you can cook, you’ve got a head start. Have your ready made breakfast items on hand-cereals, bagels, fruits, juices, milk, etc. Have staples such as eggs, butter, bread, peanut butter/jam, and lunch items you like – lunchmeats, cheeses, salad ingredients that will carry over to dinner as well.
This is just a general idea, for one-two people for one week. You said Muslim, so no pork, right?And no seafood?
Buy two individually-wrapped pkgs. lean ground beef
1 small whole chicken
1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 lb. boneless sirloin steak
2 fillets mild fish (hake, haddock, whatever)
Jarred pasta sauce
pasta
parmesan cheese
beef broth
sour cream
rice
chicken broth
vegetables and fruits: lemon, onion, bean sprouts, bell peppers, mushrooms, celery, canned water chestnuts and baby corn, zucchini, baby potatoes or new potatoes, whatever fruits you care to have on hand for munching, salad vegetables
pkg. meat marinade, flavor of choice
curry powder
raisins
almonds
So: first meal is pasta and meat sauce, second is beef strogonoff (made w/ onions, mushrooms, ground beef, beef broth, sour cream, salt and pepper, served w/ steamed rice or noodles of choice.
Stuff the chicken w/ halved lemon and onion and bake at 350, twenty minutes per pound. Serve w/ steamed new potatoes and pan juices and the onion; applesauce is nice with this. Next, put together a stir-fry of chicken thighs, onion, celery, zucchini, bean sprouts, chestnuts and baby corn with soy, powdered ginger, garlic and serve w/ rice or chow mein noodles. Marinate the steak in marinade of choice; roast vegies (potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini and carrots) in oven after tossing w/ a little olive oil and Italian seasoning. Bake fish fillets w/ butter and curry powder and onion, serve with rice cooked off in chicken broth w/ raisins and almonds and a steamed green vegie and a salad. You can play with variations on this theme as you build your repertoire, and this will make leftovers also, so depending on storage space you may be able to stretch this out over more than a week, e.g. if you end up eating the roast chicken over 2-3 nights. Don’t overbuy; econo-sized items are only a good deal if you’ll actually use the stuff before it rots….
Meal supplements are good! You can buy a six pack, and you’ve automatically got six days’ worth of tasty meals ready to go.
well chutzpahoney said alot.
but as for sauces and powders. better off doing it home made. cheper too.
so for any basic sauce you want tamatoes or you can buy a can of chopped tamatoes.
if u dont want the can of chopped tamatoes, just chop the normal ones and then add some water into the pot with it.
then as i said u dont need powders. so if u want a curry.
get some chillies then chop them up small and put in with the tamatoes and stir around.
oh befor theis, its always nice to put in one part of a garlic chopped up and maybe half of a normal sized onion.
if you dont want tamatoes in there, thats ok too, just do as i said before with water and then add some flour. while mixing it around in the pot. if u want a sweet and sour sauce just add put some corn in the pot.
really you can put anything in – peas, milk, cream, coconut, anything. and after its done (you dont need a time just till its soft and smells and tastes ok) find a blender and blend it all together. its ok if u dont, but the blending helps if u want a sauce like ketchup – a bit think or for chips.
also if u are going with tamatoes you can still always add flour – it helps thicken it.
as for bistos and sauces like that, thats just boiling the bones of a chicken or some beef to get the stock flavouring.
also just because you dont drink alcohol, dont let it put you off buying a bottle of wine and using it to cook with – alcohol cooks off. can taste really nice
"Staples" (foods, spices, etc. you’ll probably always want to have in your "pantry") will vary some depending on the kinds of foods you want to cook, but there are sites that have lists of fairly general ones (see below).
In addition to the staples, you’ll want foods that may last only a few days or so. Or you can do as you said and cook up a bunch of stuff to refrigerate or freeze and eat later (that’s sometimes called "weekend cooking" but may also be a part of "budget cooking)".
Check out some of these links for lots of tips, recipes, and more links for all those things (sorry, easier than trying to retype it all here, and you’ll get lots more info that way too)… links not in any particular order though:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=kitchen+staples
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Asf6Fv_Mk1Mvkq0kA9hQMAcjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20091002122730AAPcN2U
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au2YmupEPXR6TjYaOxqQl8UAAAAA;_ylv=3?qid=20091002154306AA8rItq
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlxqkmNMJegxvEb.0E.zNSbsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070308082631AAdDxjt
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av1GkG_Wba_5Zx_VdOOYxXIjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20100422003920AAfHARw
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al13R6zNPKu8YHFxAubcnuMjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20100208072651AA0D7cI
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjYpzhMog8.7R7CS.tyd5WPsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070306102835AA1Y29H
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AonFqpn7Fl0DYOB._ZNYdzYAAAAA;_ylv=3?qid=20091017124004AASe3jT
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100612085445AAlrKw9
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&q=weekend+cooking+for+the+week
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+learn+to+cook+learning+beginner
Congratulations too on your initiative and goals, and very best of luck!
Diane B.