7 ms·

And tbh, it really does take time to prepare a good meal, including washing dishes and all that. For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free

And tbh, it really does take time to prepare a good meal, including washing dishes and all that. For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free time after work.

ok123456 4y ago
Get instapot. Throw ingredients into instapot. Press button. Put contents into bowl. Rinse out instapot. Eat. Rinse out bowl.
- gruez 4y ago
  You don't even need to buy instapot. Roasting/baking is just as easy (especially if you have a thermometer), and most people probably already have a oven/toaster oven at home. The high temperatures that can be achieved with an oven is a plus as well, because that means you can get browning (maillard reaction) that you can't get with a pressure cooker.
cortesoft 4y ago
> For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free time after work. It takes even more time for people preparing food for a family. Throw in kids who are picky eaters, and it is even harder.
- kaesar14 4y ago
  You can make your kids not picky by putting a plate in front of them and providing the choice of either eating it or going to bed hungry. Kids aren't born only wanting to eat chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese.
  - nobody9999 4y ago
    >You can make your kids not picky by putting a plate in front of them and providing the choice of either eating it or going to bed hungry. Kids aren't born only wanting to eat chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese. Yep. I never understood the whole "my kids won't eat $x" thing. When I was a kid, i ate what was given to me (which was the same as everyone else got) or I didn't eat. And not because we were poor and couldn't afford to indulge me either. We were a family and ate the same food together. There was never any discussion or expectation of anything different.
  - cortesoft 4y ago
    I thought this, too, until I had kids. I tried this... they didn't eat, then couldn't fall asleep because they were hungry, so stayed up all night crying because they were hungry. Tried again, they took a few bites then threw it all up. Maybe they would have broken after a few more days of starvation, but I didn't have it in me to do it.
    - sudden_dystopia 4y ago
      What were you trying to feed your kids that they wouldn’t eat anything at all for days? I let my son choose breakfast and lunch, within reason. And then mommy and I choose dinner. If he doesn’t like dinner he can have some fruit or sometimes he makes a pb&j if he is hungrier. If he eats dinner we made, he can have a treat. No dinner, no treat. There is no fight or arguing, that’s just the established rules now and he is aware of them.
      - cortesoft 4y ago
        I didn't make it multiple days, and it wasn't just a single food she wouldn't eat.. it was multiple options, but she refused them all. We have gotten to a better place now. She still will rarely eat what we eat (unless it is on one of her 3-4 meals that she will eat), but there are some healthy (enough) staples that she will eat when we eat our meal... strangely, she likes plain, uncooked, beans from a can with plain rice. She eats berries, and likes to eat plain, uncooked, spinach. She is also more open to trying new foods now, although she almost always dislikes them; our only ask of her is that she at least tries something before refusing it. If it was up to her, she would eat nothing but pizza or chicken nuggets for dinner. She is 6, and it is an ongoing process to get her to eat more things. She complains that most food is too 'spicy', even if it isn't spicy at all. I don't think there is some magic cure that would make her eat a wider variety of foods. Her grandfather is similar, he only eats the most bland food possible.
      - frumper 4y ago
        Saying either he can eat what we eat or have a safe alternative sounds like the exact opposite of eat or go hungry that the thread is about. Your dinner time routine sounds very reasonable. I'm a new parent and our methods are growing into something similar.
  - jjulius 4y ago
    It's not as easy as "going to bed hungry". It requires work by parents to provide a positive environment when it comes to food - never giving certain foods a stigma, not putting pressure on them to "eat their vegetables", never reminding them what they like or don't like, always making meals positive, letting them choose what to eat, etc.. The concept is, I believe, called "baby-led weaning"; my wife discovered it and both of our kids are phenomenal eaters as a result. But yeah, it's absolutely not as simple or easy as, "Well, if ya don't eat you'll be hungry" - because congratulations, now they will carry that hatred towards that food with them and it'll come out the next time you serve it to them. And even then, if they're not picky, cooking still takes time because there's a kid running around who often doesn't give a shit about the fact that you have to tend to whatever's cooking at the moment, or they're too little so you need to modify your food prep in order to eliminate/reduce choking hazards.
    - cortesoft 4y ago
      While your suggestions about how to treat food as to not create issues down the road are correct, I still think you are attributing too much power to parents. Everyone wants to believe that if you just do these certain things, then your kids will turn out a certain way. That just isn't true; while a parent can help shift some things, a lot of things are just about how a particular kid is. Some kids are just more picky than others, no matter what parenting techniques you use.
      - jjulius 4y ago
        I never said that any kind of parenting method is guaranteed to achieve the results you want. My kids still aren't into certain foods and won't eat them, but it's not like they actively hate those foods, and I'm not setting thems up for avoiding those foods entirely in the future. It's a general concept that I am sure we will find ourselves employing throughout their lives, even as adults - build and maintain a strong foundation upon which they can grow on their terms. The crux of my point was to highlight that parenting is never as simplistic as the previous comment ("All ya have to do is tell them to eat or go hungry!") may have made it sound, not to suggest that you can mold your children exactly as you would like. Edit: And your point about some kids being pickier than others is actually exactly my point. That's why I said it's not easy - it has taken a lot of time and patience for us to get our children to this point. I've heard stories of parents struggling for over a year or more to get a kid to break certain eating habits. It's not just picky eating, though - correcting various aspects of a child's personality requires a LOT of time and attention, often over the course of years. That's why I took an issue with OP brushing it off so casually.
  - sudden_dystopia 4y ago
    This is the way. I also gave them the extra option to eat fruit instead of what I made. Also works wonders in the morning when he gets dressed slowly. “Oh you aren’t ready,bummer, looks like we are going to school in your pj’s”. Only needs to happen once and they get ready real quick.
  - collaborative 4y ago
    Best method that works until they are 7: make up an imaginary friend (like a fairy, gnome, etc) that visits you once a year and brings you toys IF you eat the being's favorite foods, which happen to coincide with what the child detests Works. 100% guaranteed. They will eat everything with a smile In my case, I use the Tio de Nadal, which makes for a fun time when he visits (Kids have to hit the Tio with a stick and sing songs, then he shits sweets and toys)
garettmd 4y ago
Not arguing with you that it takes a considerable amount of time to prepare and clean-up a home cooked meal. But as someone who is not living alone (have a wife and kids), I'd say you probably have a lot more free time than you think you do, and I'm not sure that cooking just for yourself takes up any more time than it would cooking more food, for more people with varying tastes, allergies, etc. Add to the fact that most of the people being cooked for (kids) are basically freeloaders, I think that people living alone really have less excuse to eat healthy.
- cj 4y ago
  I live alone and occasionally invite friends over to make + eat dinner together. An extra set of hands prepping food and cleaning up afterwards is definitely faster than doing it solo.
- sudden_dystopia 4y ago
  Totally. But I make one meal each night, if you don’t like it, you are on your own. I don’t mind cooking but I am not a short order cook! My son was making peanut butter and jelly at on his own 4 when he didn’t like what I made.
- sotajensede 4y ago
  > I'd say you probably have a lot more free time than you think you do Not to sound harsh, this is just how I frame these sorts of things for my own benefit: If you have free time and are getting takeout or eating hot pockets, you're just borrowing that time from the end of your lifespan to use between work and sleep. It's like borrowing from a 401k on a fixed income. Speaking of, the same goes for finances. We feel like certain essentials are disproportionately expensive because we can otherwise afford previously unheard of luxuries on average incomes, but we are actually just much less wealthy than consumerism makes us feel. So if we live wisely and with discipline, it is quickly obvious that time and money are in much shorter supply than most realize. That isn't necessarily grim, but this framing is much more useful in good habit forming in my experience. The value culture in the West has so quickly changed in only a generation or two depending on the specific region, that I'm more suspicious over time of the perceived unobtainability of certain ways of living that we frequently romanticize.
sudden_dystopia 4y ago
No doubt. But how much time and money could obesity and cognitive decline cost you? There are plenty of less complicated, one pot meal recipes littering the internet. Have you tried an Instapot or a nice air fryer?
- justsomehnguy 4y ago
  I find it is quite troublesome to: find a recipe get the ingredients make the meal So most of the time I just substitute on pasta with a tomato/cucumber/whatelseIgrabbedintheshop salad. ~20 mins to shop for a two-three days worth of food, ~20 mins to make, even less if I'm lazy and bouggt frozen dumplings.
antisthenes 4y ago
Having a sharp knife and preparing food in bulk for at least 3-4 meals is key to time savings. Most single men that I know like to prep food for the entire work week in advance. If you're making a single serving (e.g. single dinner for yourself), then the overhead of cleaning dishes and pans makes it uneconomical to do so. Also, certain things in cooking don't need supervision and you can perform other chores during that time (e.g. making beef/chicken stock in a pot, baking a roast, etc.)
- EricE 4y ago
  Yup - when I was at my most organized I would make a normal family sized meal, eat one portion then portion up the leftovers on a plate, slip the whole thing in a bag and seal with a vacuum sealer and toss 'em in the freezer. Home made TV dinners! Now I'm spoiled with services like Blue Apron, but I still will occasionally make my favorite meals and portion them up into my own frozen dinners :)
Claudus 4y ago
Depends on how efficient you are, I prepare 18/21 meals a week at home, and have been doing this for years). I spend 1 hour every two weeks getting groceries for ~$120. I spend 1.5 hours every two weeks (5 minutes a day + 20 minutes to prep 14 “containers”) preparing breakfast and rinsing dishes from the previous day for the dishwasher). My breakfast is cooked oat bran with walnuts, flax seed, wheat germ, Ceylon cinnamon, cacao, blueberries, raisins, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, 4oz orange juice, fish oil, vitamins d3, k2. I spend 2.5 hours a week (5 to 15 minutes a day) preparing lunch, typically steamed vegetables + 150 grams chicken + 1 cup dry instant brown rice cooked OR salmon + simple salad + sweet potatoes OR 8oz unsalted black beans with fresh guacamole OR lentils OR potato and egg tacos with homemade salsa OR “fried” rice, etc. I spend the same preparing dinner with same / similar dishes as lunch. I also snack on fresh fruit / vegetables between meals sometimes. Roughly $240 and 15 hours a month (30 minutes a day) for all food prep + cleanup, and yes, the numbers are accurate as I have timed myself over a two week period in the past, if anything I’m probably faster now. I’m sure there are other factors that can add extra time, but for me, a single guy in the US, I spend less time and money cooking healthy delicious meals at home than I did going out to eat, and only slightly more time than heating up frozen dinners, which I think is more than compensated for by the resulting health benefits.

And tbh, it really does take time to prepare a good meal, including washing dishes and all that. For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free time after work.

ok123456 4y ago

Get instapot. Throw ingredients into instapot. Press button. Put contents into bowl. Rinse out instapot. Eat. Rinse out bowl.

gruez 4y ago
You don't even need to buy instapot. Roasting/baking is just as easy (especially if you have a thermometer), and most people probably already have a oven/toaster oven at home. The high temperatures that can be achieved with an oven is a plus as well, because that means you can get browning (maillard reaction) that you can't get with a pressure cooker.

cortesoft 4y ago

> For those of us living alone it takes a good chunk of our free time after work. It takes even more time for people preparing food for a family. Throw in kids who are picky eaters, and it is even harder.

kaesar14 4y ago
You can make your kids not picky by putting a plate in front of them and providing the choice of either eating it or going to bed hungry. Kids aren't born only wanting to eat chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese.
- nobody9999 4y ago
  >You can make your kids not picky by putting a plate in front of them and providing the choice of either eating it or going to bed hungry. Kids aren't born only wanting to eat chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese. Yep. I never understood the whole "my kids won't eat $x" thing. When I was a kid, i ate what was given to me (which was the same as everyone else got) or I didn't eat. And not because we were poor and couldn't afford to indulge me either. We were a family and ate the same food together. There was never any discussion or expectation of anything different.
- cortesoft 4y ago
  I thought this, too, until I had kids. I tried this... they didn't eat, then couldn't fall asleep because they were hungry, so stayed up all night crying because they were hungry. Tried again, they took a few bites then threw it all up. Maybe they would have broken after a few more days of starvation, but I didn't have it in me to do it.
  - sudden_dystopia 4y ago
    What were you trying to feed your kids that they wouldn’t eat anything at all for days? I let my son choose breakfast and lunch, within reason. And then mommy and I choose dinner. If he doesn’t like dinner he can have some fruit or sometimes he makes a pb&j if he is hungrier. If he eats dinner we made, he can have a treat. No dinner, no treat. There is no fight or arguing, that’s just the established rules now and he is aware of them.
    - cortesoft 4y ago
      I didn't make it multiple days, and it wasn't just a single food she wouldn't eat.. it was multiple options, but she refused them all. We have gotten to a better place now. She still will rarely eat what we eat (unless it is on one of her 3-4 meals that she will eat), but there are some healthy (enough) staples that she will eat when we eat our meal... strangely, she likes plain, uncooked, beans from a can with plain rice. She eats berries, and likes to eat plain, uncooked, spinach. She is also more open to trying new foods now, although she almost always dislikes them; our only ask of her is that she at least tries something before refusing it. If it was up to her, she would eat nothing but pizza or chicken nuggets for dinner. She is 6, and it is an ongoing process to get her to eat more things. She complains that most food is too 'spicy', even if it isn't spicy at all. I don't think there is some magic cure that would make her eat a wider variety of foods. Her grandfather is similar, he only eats the most bland food possible.
    - frumper 4y ago
      Saying either he can eat what we eat or have a safe alternative sounds like the exact opposite of eat or go hungry that the thread is about. Your dinner time routine sounds very reasonable. I'm a new parent and our methods are growing into something similar.
- jjulius 4y ago
  It's not as easy as "going to bed hungry". It requires work by parents to provide a positive environment when it comes to food - never giving certain foods a stigma, not putting pressure on them to "eat their vegetables", never reminding them what they like or don't like, always making meals positive, letting them choose what to eat, etc.. The concept is, I believe, called "baby-led weaning"; my wife discovered it and both of our kids are phenomenal eaters as a result. But yeah, it's absolutely not as simple or easy as, "Well, if ya don't eat you'll be hungry" - because congratulations, now they will carry that hatred towards that food with them and it'll come out the next time you serve it to them. And even then, if they're not picky, cooking still takes time because there's a kid running around who often doesn't give a shit about the fact that you have to tend to whatever's cooking at the moment, or they're too little so you need to modify your food prep in order to eliminate/reduce choking hazards.
  - cortesoft 4y ago
    While your suggestions about how to treat food as to not create issues down the road are correct, I still think you are attributing too much power to parents. Everyone wants to believe that if you just do these certain things, then your kids will turn out a certain way. That just isn't true; while a parent can help shift some things, a lot of things are just about how a particular kid is. Some kids are just more picky than others, no matter what parenting techniques you use.
    - jjulius 4y ago
      I never said that any kind of parenting method is guaranteed to achieve the results you want. My kids still aren't into certain foods and won't eat them, but it's not like they actively hate those foods, and I'm not setting thems up for avoiding those foods entirely in the future. It's a general concept that I am sure we will find ourselves employing throughout their lives, even as adults - build and maintain a strong foundation upon which they can grow on their terms. The crux of my point was to highlight that parenting is never as simplistic as the previous comment ("All ya have to do is tell them to eat or go hungry!") may have made it sound, not to suggest that you can mold your children exactly as you would like. Edit: And your point about some kids being pickier than others is actually exactly my point. That's why I said it's not easy - it has taken a lot of time and patience for us to get our children to this point. I've heard stories of parents struggling for over a year or more to get a kid to break certain eating habits. It's not just picky eating, though - correcting various aspects of a child's personality requires a LOT of time and attention, often over the course of years. That's why I took an issue with OP brushing it off so casually.
- sudden_dystopia 4y ago
  This is the way. I also gave them the extra option to eat fruit instead of what I made. Also works wonders in the morning when he gets dressed slowly. “Oh you aren’t ready,bummer, looks like we are going to school in your pj’s”. Only needs to happen once and they get ready real quick.
- collaborative 4y ago
  Best method that works until they are 7: make up an imaginary friend (like a fairy, gnome, etc) that visits you once a year and brings you toys IF you eat the being's favorite foods, which happen to coincide with what the child detests Works. 100% guaranteed. They will eat everything with a smile In my case, I use the Tio de Nadal, which makes for a fun time when he visits (Kids have to hit the Tio with a stick and sing songs, then he shits sweets and toys)

garettmd 4y ago

Not arguing with you that it takes a considerable amount of time to prepare and clean-up a home cooked meal. But as someone who is not living alone (have a wife and kids), I'd say you probably have a lot more free time than you think you do, and I'm not sure that cooking just for yourself takes up any more time than it would cooking more food, for more people with varying tastes, allergies, etc. Add to the fact that most of the people being cooked for (kids) are basically freeloaders, I think that people living alone really have less excuse to eat healthy.

cj 4y ago
I live alone and occasionally invite friends over to make + eat dinner together. An extra set of hands prepping food and cleaning up afterwards is definitely faster than doing it solo.
sudden_dystopia 4y ago
Totally. But I make one meal each night, if you don’t like it, you are on your own. I don’t mind cooking but I am not a short order cook! My son was making peanut butter and jelly at on his own 4 when he didn’t like what I made.
sotajensede 4y ago
> I'd say you probably have a lot more free time than you think you do Not to sound harsh, this is just how I frame these sorts of things for my own benefit: If you have free time and are getting takeout or eating hot pockets, you're just borrowing that time from the end of your lifespan to use between work and sleep. It's like borrowing from a 401k on a fixed income. Speaking of, the same goes for finances. We feel like certain essentials are disproportionately expensive because we can otherwise afford previously unheard of luxuries on average incomes, but we are actually just much less wealthy than consumerism makes us feel. So if we live wisely and with discipline, it is quickly obvious that time and money are in much shorter supply than most realize. That isn't necessarily grim, but this framing is much more useful in good habit forming in my experience. The value culture in the West has so quickly changed in only a generation or two depending on the specific region, that I'm more suspicious over time of the perceived unobtainability of certain ways of living that we frequently romanticize.

sudden_dystopia 4y ago

No doubt. But how much time and money could obesity and cognitive decline cost you? There are plenty of less complicated, one pot meal recipes littering the internet. Have you tried an Instapot or a nice air fryer?

justsomehnguy 4y ago
I find it is quite troublesome to: find a recipe get the ingredients make the meal So most of the time I just substitute on pasta with a tomato/cucumber/whatelseIgrabbedintheshop salad. ~20 mins to shop for a two-three days worth of food, ~20 mins to make, even less if I'm lazy and bouggt frozen dumplings.

antisthenes 4y ago

Having a sharp knife and preparing food in bulk for at least 3-4 meals is key to time savings. Most single men that I know like to prep food for the entire work week in advance. If you're making a single serving (e.g. single dinner for yourself), then the overhead of cleaning dishes and pans makes it uneconomical to do so. Also, certain things in cooking don't need supervision and you can perform other chores during that time (e.g. making beef/chicken stock in a pot, baking a roast, etc.)

EricE 4y ago
Yup - when I was at my most organized I would make a normal family sized meal, eat one portion then portion up the leftovers on a plate, slip the whole thing in a bag and seal with a vacuum sealer and toss 'em in the freezer. Home made TV dinners! Now I'm spoiled with services like Blue Apron, but I still will occasionally make my favorite meals and portion them up into my own frozen dinners :)

Claudus 4y ago

Depends on how efficient you are, I prepare 18/21 meals a week at home, and have been doing this for years). I spend 1 hour every two weeks getting groceries for ~$120. I spend 1.5 hours every two weeks (5 minutes a day + 20 minutes to prep 14 “containers”) preparing breakfast and rinsing dishes from the previous day for the dishwasher). My breakfast is cooked oat bran with walnuts, flax seed, wheat germ, Ceylon cinnamon, cacao, blueberries, raisins, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, 4oz orange juice, fish oil, vitamins d3, k2. I spend 2.5 hours a week (5 to 15 minutes a day) preparing lunch, typically steamed vegetables + 150 grams chicken + 1 cup dry instant brown rice cooked OR salmon + simple salad + sweet potatoes OR 8oz unsalted black beans with fresh guacamole OR lentils OR potato and egg tacos with homemade salsa OR “fried” rice, etc. I spend the same preparing dinner with same / similar dishes as lunch. I also snack on fresh fruit / vegetables between meals sometimes. Roughly $240 and 15 hours a month (30 minutes a day) for all food prep + cleanup, and yes, the numbers are accurate as I have timed myself over a two week period in the past, if anything I’m probably faster now. I’m sure there are other factors that can add extra time, but for me, a single guy in the US, I spend less time and money cooking healthy delicious meals at home than I did going out to eat, and only slightly more time than heating up frozen dinners, which I think is more than compensated for by the resulting health benefits.