4 ms·

You put lentils in salted water and simmer for ~30 minutes, is the basic recipe. Unclear how this could be lower effort, its similar to boiling dried pasta. Ev

by vsef 6y ago

You put lentils in salted water and simmer for ~30 minutes, is the basic recipe. Unclear how this could be lower effort, its similar to boiling dried pasta. Even seasoning doesn't have to require chopping, smash a piece of garlic, don't even dice, throw it in, delish. I only ever make a full 1 lb bag of dried lentils or beans at a time, what you don't eat immediately stores well in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and keeps for longer than a week. Dish out half cup at a time and hit briefly in microwave. Lentils (and split peas) are the easiest legumes since they don't even require thinking ahead. But beans with a $60 slow cooker are arguably even lower effort.

gavinray 6y ago
My problem is that cooking requires you to wait between 30-70 minutes for the food, disregarding any actual work you have to put in. I don't even eat oven-cooked premade meals because pre-heating the oven and cooking it takes so long by the time it finishes I could have driven somewhere and bought + ate food already. This might sound terrible, but since I was 16 and living on my own I've never eaten food that required cooking. Came up with entire mealplans of stuff you can buy that's pretty much ready to eat. Okay, ready to get grossed out? ---------- Breakfast (~$3.00, 600kcal, 50g protein) ---------- - Eggs, cracked on a plate/bowl and put in the microwave to cook over-medium, with salsa and cheese - Greek yogurt/Cottage cheese - Oats with milk and some sort of fake sugar and flavor extract (vanilla, almond, pumpkin)/cinnamon, etc, sometimes with whey - Fresh cucumber with no/lowfat italian vinagrette ---------- Lunch/Dinner ($4.00, 500-800kcal, 60-80g protein): ---------- - 12oz Canned chicken breast + turkey chili + cheese + tortilla chips (OR) - 12oz Canned chicken breast + canned field peas & snaps + green beans For years I also only owned a single plate/bowl and spoon and eat every meal with it, then washed it and put it back when I was done to avoid having to do dishes.
- sp332 6y ago
  Well that is a bit impatient :) But you can get close to this by picking one day a week to make a bunch of meals ahead of time. Since there's not much to do while waiting for lentils to cook, you can prep and cook other things in parallel. Should take about an hour once you get the hang of it. Stash the meals in the fridge and then you just have to warm them up when you want to eat.
  - gavinray 6y ago
    Yeah meal prep is great, for a while I did that by making utterly obscene quantities of the dirt cheap ground turkey and rice + beans you can buy in bulk. But getting into pre-cooked food is like a bad habit, so easy to fall out of the practice, because "just tonight I'll go grab some pre-made stuff instead, and tomorrow I'll make more meals." Friendship over with other appliances, microwave is my new best friend again ;^)
- iagovar 6y ago
  Dude, cook one day and use tuppers. I don't cook meals every day. Lentils, by the way, with enough water, are still tasty after fridge and microwave. It's pretty convenient. I also do a salad with lettuce, tomato, boiled chicken dices, onion cut in small pieces, vinegar, olive oil and soy sauce (Kikkoman is good and cheap enough). You mix everything very well so that the sauce impregnates everything. After it's been in the fridge it tastes even better. It's just a little imagination, you can make tasty dishes with very little money. And if you're a lazy guy in the kitchen like me, tupperware's a given.
  - gavinray 6y ago
    I dig the salad ingredients, huge fan of chicken-related salads. And yeah haha, it's just sheer laziness and lack of discipline. I've eaten what my coworkers often affectionately refer to as "cat food" (bowl of canned meats and peas/carrots or chili) for most of my adult life so my bar for taste is pretty low lmao. I would say it's a "price I pay for the convenience" but I know damn well I could buy an Instantpot and throw a bunch of food in it + push a button and have meals for days, in the heat of the moment it always just seems easier to go "welp, I'm hungry _now_, and this garbage food is r-e-a-d-y-t-o-e-a-t so we've got ourselves a plan." haha.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  Unless you are determined to scientifically answer the question "is it possible to never cook and still survive," I have to ask -- why? Canned chicken breast, I mean come on. You can buy fresh chicken breasts already sliced in thin strips; all you have to do with these is throw them in a hot pan, add some salt, and flip once. They will be ready in 5 minutes, not 30-70.
  - gavinray 6y ago
    I agree with how absurd it probably sounds. An honest response to your question though: - The pre-sliced chicken breasts are more expensive than the canned by weight - You have to get out a pan, do the whole process, and then clean the pan and put it back, plus clean whatever mess you made during. - And then the chicken will go bad if you don't end up eating it after a few days, unless you freeze it - At which point, if you want to un-freeze it, now you have to wait for the damn thing to thaw again =/ Canned chicken breast also isn't that bad to be honest. If you've never tried it, it goes really well with burritos, tacos, salads, chilis, etc. (Just don't try to eat it by itself, with no condiments. Really bland.)

by vsef 6y ago

gavinray 6y ago

My problem is that cooking requires you to wait between 30-70 minutes for the food, disregarding any actual work you have to put in. I don't even eat oven-cooked premade meals because pre-heating the oven and cooking it takes so long by the time it finishes I could have driven somewhere and bought + ate food already. This might sound terrible, but since I was 16 and living on my own I've never eaten food that required cooking. Came up with entire mealplans of stuff you can buy that's pretty much ready to eat. Okay, ready to get grossed out? ---------- Breakfast (~$3.00, 600kcal, 50g protein) ---------- - Eggs, cracked on a plate/bowl and put in the microwave to cook over-medium, with salsa and cheese - Greek yogurt/Cottage cheese - Oats with milk and some sort of fake sugar and flavor extract (vanilla, almond, pumpkin)/cinnamon, etc, sometimes with whey - Fresh cucumber with no/lowfat italian vinagrette ---------- Lunch/Dinner ($4.00, 500-800kcal, 60-80g protein): ---------- - 12oz Canned chicken breast + turkey chili + cheese + tortilla chips (OR) - 12oz Canned chicken breast + canned field peas & snaps + green beans For years I also only owned a single plate/bowl and spoon and eat every meal with it, then washed it and put it back when I was done to avoid having to do dishes.

sp332 6y ago
Well that is a bit impatient :) But you can get close to this by picking one day a week to make a bunch of meals ahead of time. Since there's not much to do while waiting for lentils to cook, you can prep and cook other things in parallel. Should take about an hour once you get the hang of it. Stash the meals in the fridge and then you just have to warm them up when you want to eat.
- gavinray 6y ago
  Yeah meal prep is great, for a while I did that by making utterly obscene quantities of the dirt cheap ground turkey and rice + beans you can buy in bulk. But getting into pre-cooked food is like a bad habit, so easy to fall out of the practice, because "just tonight I'll go grab some pre-made stuff instead, and tomorrow I'll make more meals." Friendship over with other appliances, microwave is my new best friend again ;^)
iagovar 6y ago
Dude, cook one day and use tuppers. I don't cook meals every day. Lentils, by the way, with enough water, are still tasty after fridge and microwave. It's pretty convenient. I also do a salad with lettuce, tomato, boiled chicken dices, onion cut in small pieces, vinegar, olive oil and soy sauce (Kikkoman is good and cheap enough). You mix everything very well so that the sauce impregnates everything. After it's been in the fridge it tastes even better. It's just a little imagination, you can make tasty dishes with very little money. And if you're a lazy guy in the kitchen like me, tupperware's a given.
- gavinray 6y ago
  I dig the salad ingredients, huge fan of chicken-related salads. And yeah haha, it's just sheer laziness and lack of discipline. I've eaten what my coworkers often affectionately refer to as "cat food" (bowl of canned meats and peas/carrots or chili) for most of my adult life so my bar for taste is pretty low lmao. I would say it's a "price I pay for the convenience" but I know damn well I could buy an Instantpot and throw a bunch of food in it + push a button and have meals for days, in the heat of the moment it always just seems easier to go "welp, I'm hungry _now_, and this garbage food is r-e-a-d-y-t-o-e-a-t so we've got ourselves a plan." haha.
boring_twenties 6y ago
Unless you are determined to scientifically answer the question "is it possible to never cook and still survive," I have to ask -- why? Canned chicken breast, I mean come on. You can buy fresh chicken breasts already sliced in thin strips; all you have to do with these is throw them in a hot pan, add some salt, and flip once. They will be ready in 5 minutes, not 30-70.
- gavinray 6y ago
  I agree with how absurd it probably sounds. An honest response to your question though: - The pre-sliced chicken breasts are more expensive than the canned by weight - You have to get out a pan, do the whole process, and then clean the pan and put it back, plus clean whatever mess you made during. - And then the chicken will go bad if you don't end up eating it after a few days, unless you freeze it - At which point, if you want to un-freeze it, now you have to wait for the damn thing to thaw again =/ Canned chicken breast also isn't that bad to be honest. If you've never tried it, it goes really well with burritos, tacos, salads, chilis, etc. (Just don't try to eat it by itself, with no condiments. Really bland.)