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On the other hand, shopping without a list can lead to significant food waste, unappetizing meals, and more impulse purchases. In our home, we've learned to co
by mizzao 10y ago
On the other hand, shopping without a list can lead to significant food waste, unappetizing meals, and more impulse purchases.
In our home, we've learned to combine these approaches: use seasonal recipes as a general shopping list (you can "borrow" ones from Blue Apron, for example), then make substitutions as we're shopping based on what's fresh/available. Moreover, shopping for multiple meals at once allows for sharing ingredients between meals. Everything in the fridge "belongs" to a particular meal, so by the time we're done cooking them we usually have close to zero arbitrary perishables.
By cooking more and improving technique, you'll also get a sense of how to make sensible changes on the fly and be able to deviate further from recipes while still making a good meal, so there are further efficiency gains available.
- twblalock 10y ago> On the other hand, shopping without a list can lead to significant food waste, unappetizing meals, and more impulse purchases. As long as you don't buy anything really unusual, you can throw it all in a stir fry once a week.
- chc 10y agoThat sounds like an example of an unappetizing meal.
- cmurf 10y agoI think you're doing something wrong, or you just don't like vegetables.
- chc 10y agoWell, yes, I do imagine that somebody throwing everything that's about to go bad into a pan and calling it a stir-fry is doing something wrong. That was my point. I'd end up with lettuce, spinach, cilantro, banana and jalapeno stir-fries every week. I like all of those things as ingredients, but that sounds like an awful dish.
- maxander 10y agoThen buy less of things that don't lend themselves well to this sort of contingency. Lettuce does salad, and nothing else; bananas are for being bananas, and desserts; if you don't happen to be in the mood for it, they're useless. But things like mushrooms, kale, spinach, leeks, onions, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, collard greens, peas, brussels sprouts, dandelion greens, cauliflower, celery root, sunchokes, and green beans- to name a few from the produce aisle alone that I can speak to from recent experience- work perfectly fine in stir-fry, so you wouldn't be limiting yourself too much.
- tracker1 10y agoI agree greens don't need to be limited... I do soups over stir fry, but similar... heartier greens like kale, spinach, arugula, etc can handle being cooked in with a soup. I tend to also use them in place of pasta in pasta dishes. That is sometimes a miss though. I do make most of my own broths/stocks when I can... sometimes cravings for mushroom broth can be more expensive. There is definitely a taste difference between made at home and packaged broths... I'll use packaged, but not always a preference. I also tend to taste the differences in meats more than veggies though... what they're fed seems to make some serious differences in flavor (wish they'd label that on chicken eggs)... I happen to like grain fed cows more than grass fed. It's pretty subjective though. I do wish I was more of an early morning person, in order to hit up some of the farmers markets. Would be nice to find better connections for certain things I use more of.
- collyw 10y agoNow you are "buying by recipe" rather than "buying by ingredients", which is where the conversation started.
- smallnamespace 10y agoThat actually sounds like a decent pair of stir fries: Lettuce + jalapeno + banana Banana + spinach + jalapeno + cilantro Banana is a bit of an odd ingredient here, but the key would be to cook it separately and very lightly, so it's more like a plantain. A good technique while you're learning how to cook is if some combination of ingredients sounds dodgy, cook them separately first, then put small amounts together and see if it works as a dish. Sometimes it helps to adjust the ratio or add some seasoning.
- zem 10y agothere are tons of "dish that works with a variety of different ingredients" recipes from various cultures. if you don't like stir fries, you can try curries, casseroles, bakes, pilafs, thorans, frittatas, etc, etc.
- vic-traill 10y agoThis. Or close to this. Here's my followup to this approach: - make whatever meals - chuck leftovers in bucket, put in freezer as they occur - make soup once a week using bucket and mixing in whatever broth you bought on sale last week Sometimes it rocks, other times not so much. But it's always a good, hearty meal. Can you tell why I never got married (walked once, stood up once)? :-)
- user837387 10y ago>>Can you tell why I never got married (walked once, stood up once)? :-) Not really. But it sounds like an interesting story if you care to share the gist of it.
- imesh 10y agoYeah, I used to piss in a jug next to my computer and I'm married with a kid now. Though I suppose if I was passionate about it and stuck to my guns with something like that I wouldn't be.
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