in article [email hidden], MEow at
[email hidden] wrote on 1/10/04 5:39 PM:
Quoted message said:I used to love canned food, frozen ready-made meals and that kind of things, but after slowly
learning to cook (which I still think I'm in the process of), I wouldn't want to eat that kind of
food again. My motivation for beginning to learn how to cook was initially health and money, but
nothing else.
--
Everyone is still learning. The day you stop learning...well...once you know everything, why bother
living? I mean, how boring! :-)
I love chef boyardee ravioli. I add some grated parmegiano reggiano to it (Because that's what I
keep in the house), sprinkle with a bit of italian herbs, and bring it to work to nuke for myself
for lunch. I am also fond of hamburger helper type, one-pan casseroles, but I don't use the mixes I
do them on my own. These fill the belly inexpensively, make great leftovers, which is a requirement
for my "lifestyle", and to me, taste good.
But I also appreciate the finer things....what's better than a chateaubriand roast, Beef Wellington
style, with a mushroom/spinach pate between the beef and the crust? My friends rave about my roasted
turkey marinated in fruit juices and herbs, they beg me for it. I can do trailer trash cuisine, and
I can do haute cuisine. I appreciate both, and there's a time and place for both.
I work for Ebenezer Scrooge...everyone in my office is underpaid. You'd think most people would
bring their lunch from home, rather than ordering in or going out. But they are not cooks and they
weren't taught how to stretch a food dollar. I don't know how people spend $5 or more a day on
lunch, I really don't! If i don't bring leftovers, I will buy cans of soup, such as Progresso or
Chunky, when they go on sale for a dollar or so, stock up on them, and use that for lunch, with a
piece of fruit. Or chef boyardee, when it goes for about 75 cents a can. And it's not just lunch
that they don't bother with. they don't have leftovers, because they eat frozen dinners or take out
at home, too.
Last week, I made a beef stew that had too much liquid. I saved the excess liquid and made a pot of
barley mushroom soup, which I took for lunch 5 days in a row. Barley costs 45 cents a pound. I used
about 15 cents worth of barley, a dollar's worth of mushrooms (from the "old and tired looking, but
still a good value" rack in the back of the produce department), and stock that I recycled from a
previous meal....the entire pot of soup cost me less than $3 and I ate lunches from it for a week.
Several weeks ago, I bought a small roasting chicken for about $2. I roasted it with vegetables, and
had supper of roasted chicken 3 nights in a row. Then I put the remainder in a pot of hot water and
made stock, which I added noodles and veggies to and had enough chicken noodle soup for lunches for
almost a week. That's a lot of mileage out of a 2 dollar chicken! And I guarantee you, even with the
occasional can of soup or ravioli transgression, I eat healthier than people who live on frozen
dinners and takeout food. And I spend a helluva lot less on food than some of my coworkers.
My sister uses a lot of frozen dinners, because she's lazy. Her son grew up with that, but he also
grew up with the meals my mom and I would make them. The only home cooked meal he ever got growing
up was Sunday supper at our house. Now 26 years old, he came to visit me about 7 years ago....looked
in my fridge, freezer, pantry, whatever, and said "you have nothing to eat here". Mind you, I had
cans of tomatoes, broth, vegetables, loads of dried pasta, rice, beans...packages of meat and
chicken in the freezer, fresh veggies in the fridge. I was fully stocked, but to him, there was
nothing to eat. Because it all required preparation, nothing "instant" (except for mashed potatoes,
i admit it, i grew up on them and love them. But as a counterpoint, I also love real mashed
potatoes, they are two entirely different things!) I explained to him, I buy ingredients, and make
the food. He got it. Now, he does all the cooking and does not let his mom buy frozen dinners. They
both eat a lot better now that he does all the cooking. And I started him on Penzey's this
year...poor kid! he's now addicted to Sunny Paris. It must be a family trait or something!
Anyway, frugal eating means making the most of everything you buy. Making soup from what's left of
that chicken...cooking from scratch wherever possible.... Sure it takes time, but with modern
conveniences like crock pots, you can have dinner cooking while you're out running errands or at
work, so you can maximize your time. I think the most valuable skill anyone can ever possess is the
ability to cook for yourself, and frugally. No matter where you go in life, you will always need to
eat. And why spend more on food than you have to? You can use your savings to buy other things you
really want, and will have forever.
