You could try separating the leafy part from the stem. Cook the stem with everything else but donāt throw the leafy part in until the very end when youāve turned off the heat. The residual heat from everything else should be enough to wilt the greens.
When are you adding the bok choy to your stir fry? Iād wager youāre over cooking it; try adding it much later to the cooking process. It should only take a minute or two at most to cook.
The greens are also quite bitter, so possibly donāt use all of the leaf.
As far as cheap quick and easy itās hard to beat Midwestern style āsaladsā. Egg salad is something I eat fairly often. Mix hard boiled eggs, mayo or miracle whip (I use light), and sweet pickle relish in whatever proportions you prefer. I generally add some frozen peas and top mine with Tajin powder but you can add veggies, nuts, seeds, cheese, seasonings or saucesā¦ whatever you want to customize it. To make a different kind of āsaladā replace the eggs with ground, chopped, or shredded meat (home cooked, deli, or canned) of whatever type you prefer or a can of beans with the liquid drained. It can be made into sandwiches, wrapped in a tortilla, used as a dip, served over rice, noodles, cooked or fresh veggies, it can be eaten cold or hot, if you add a lot of veggies, pasta, or rice and some liquid it can be baked off as a casserole maybe topped with cheese. The meat/eggs/beans should be cooked before they go in so all you have to do is dump it in a bowl and mix it up.
For a dessert āsaladā there is cottage cheese salad. Mix a tub of cottage cheese, a can of fruit (pineapple is the norm but I use oranges because I donāt like pineapple and itās suppose to be drained but I donāt), and a small package of flavored gelatin (sugar free store brand works fine) in a large bowl then fold in a tub of whipped cream. Sometimes I add some cherries and/or walnuts. Any fruits, nuts, or seeds can be added. It has to be refrigerated for a couple hours so the gelatin can set up.
Just dropping in to thank everyone for the ideas, encouragement etc, and a bit of an update.
I bought some onions and added them to my edible-but-not-very-tasty rice, and fried them together, and it tastes a million times better. I have pasta and tuna as backups, and will keep referring back to this thread every time I shop. The positivity in the thread also got me to clean my fridge, which was absolutely filthy (I donāt even know how it got like that) to mark the beginning of new kitchen habits. The fridge is still depressingly bare, but itās clean and that makes it less depressing haha. Itās nice having more bench space where the microwave wasā¦ it almost looks like a kitchen now.
Lots of good ideas. I havenāt seen the basics such as Mac and cheese and even hamburger helper. They arenāt great for you but if you donāt have a lot of money or are just feeling lazy that day, itās an option. Grilled cheese/sandwiches and Soups also come to mind.
Assuming you have an oven, you can bake a lot of the things you would normally put in a microwave. Pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, chicken patties, whatever. Usually there is baking instructions next to the microwave instructions and even air fryer now. Browse through the frozen section and see what catches your eye. Might find something new to try. You can find frozen ravioli in the freezer section you just need to boil in water and add sauce (when they float, theyāre done.)
Itās been mentioned but pasta and a sauce and protein of your choice is a winner. You can buy canned or take the opportunity to learn how to make some. Usually, the more from scrap you can make it the cheaper it will be. A lot of times recipes do go nuts and have some ingredients I donāt have on hand, usually itās not a big deal to skip one as long as it isnāt like a main one. Like for spaghetti sauce you probably want oregano and wouldnāt want to skip it. Sometimes trying new stuff is trial and error. Very rarely is it inedible if you screw up, itāll just be āoff.ā itās just part of the learning process. You can also look into substituting an ingredient if you donāt have that exact one. Iāve learned how to make due with milk if I donāt have something like half and half which is something I donāt just have sitting around in my refrigerator.
Nof sure what country you are in but in the US, there are stores like Ross and Ollieās that buy good from other stores at a discount because that other store wants it gone. If you have something like that itās worth a look. I got an 80$ hand mixer for 20$ and a coffee maker for half off. My mother in law has bought several air fryers as gifts for like 20$. Browse through one of these from time to time and you might find a good deal on a microwave. They usually have lots of pots and pans too either as sets or single pans if you need one. If youāre not sure what a good pan looks like then do a little research. I think Alton Brown had a Good Eats episode just on pans that was very informative.
Last thing that comes to mind is while youāre cooking on your stove, keep an eye on Facebook marketplace to see if someone is selling a microwave if that is something you are willing to do.
I survived on fruit growing in my neighborhood and a potato a day for a while. I was extremely broke. During this time, I walked between two grocery stores logging prices for basics between the two and buying the cheaper items to stretch my budget. I know what it means to be desperate to make it work on low or no funds. Keep your head up cause life can improve. I wish you the best.
Russet potatoes are filling and cheap. They can be seasoned for flavor with whatever you might have. Pour oil over one and sprinkle whatever seasoning you have, wrap it in aluminum foil and bake for 63 minutes at 425Ā°. Or do the cheaper version without spices and aluminum foil. Itās still a large portion of food.
Noodles are cheap. I have an adequate budget now, but I still eat noodles for breakfast almost every day (M-F) cause I like them and theyāre easy. Distinguish between rice noodles and pasta noodles (wheat). They arenāt the same and probably provide different nutrients. Eggs are also fairly cheap (except when they werenāt) and can be cooked a bunch of ways. Rice is cheap, though a westenerās diet might find it bland over time. Beans are supposed to be a top protein source. If you eat red meat, probably look for hamburger and find ways to work that in.
The biggest take away is that once you have the skills, you can work with any tools. Better tools just make it easier. Work on learning how to cook, it sounds like you have some basic cookware that can probably work for many things.
For example, I have extensive cookware, in cast iron and stainless. A few inexpensive non-stick aluminum too. Iāve had anodized aluminum.
They all cook a little different, but I could probably make most of my 300+ recipes in any of them (stuff with rubber handles canāt go in the oven). It would just take a little re-thinking to work around how each pan/pot works.
I can brown on non-stick, and even develop fond (which is tricky).
As other have said, your best bang-for-the-buck will be inexpensive sets or cast iron. Keep in mind that inexpensive non-stick is trickier to work with (mostly because the pans are thin, so controlling heat is harder), and they wear out faster than better cookware. Iāve replaced quite a few over the years.
After decades of cooking and trying the ālatest fadā, I lean heavily toward stainless, but only a few brands. Thereās a lot of crap stainless out there, selling cheapā¦ And in this case you get what you pay for.
These folks did some good research on stainless, and explain the difference more concisely than I can. Their research comports with a lot of other reviews and docs Iāve read over the years - Iāve even cooked with some of these brands, like the Cuisinart (which I own), the Tramontina (which Iāve gifted), and also a brand not listed - Heston (which is quite expensive, but really nice). My experience is they all cooked the same, which is to say they heat surprisingly quickly, hold heat well (similar to cast iron, though not as much thermal mass), make browning a snap, and require surprisingly lower burner settings than even good anodized aluminum.
Plus stainless is a breeze to clean - a quick deglaze and everything comes right out. Iād even argue it can run through the dishwasher (though it may dull a little, itāll cook the same).
To come full circle, look for easy, one-dish recipes as a great place to start.
I think both Americaās Test Kitchen/Cooks Country and Good Eats are great places to start to learn how to cook. ATK/Cooks Country has a bunch of recipes, and they design them to be simpler than what youād find in something like The Joy of Cooking, while explaining how they changed a recipe or process. Good Eats is great for learning howās and whyās, whatās going on when doing certain things - Alton is big on visualizing the chemistry and process of cooking.
One downside to no microwave for a single person is reheating leftovers becomes more challenging. Lots of dishes, especially casserole/stews, etc, reheat very readily in a microwave. Which reduces your cooking effort - you can make a pot of stuff, throw it in the fridge and have it for dinner tomorrow too. I do this, even freezing portions so I can have it next week (so I donāt get bored eating the same thing 3 days in a row).
Edit: find an inexpensive 4 quart pot to add to your collection. Itās a very useful size - great for boiling water for pasta, potatoes, etc.
The ones here donāt accept electrical appliances, because theyāre not able to vouch for their safety (for example, if it spazzes out like my microwave did).
Do you have a kettle? Either electric or stovetop. There are plenty of just add hot boiling water foods our there for when you are too tired to really cook. Ramen, oatmeal, freeze dried soups. Iām not much of a cook, but I love my kettle.
I love making easy upgraded Ramen especially for lunch. Dry noodles, various Asian style sauces with whatever vegetable I have on hand? Pour some boiling water over it and you got a great lunch or dinner.
My household makes pasta ala pomodoro once a week which is delicious and cheap. You cook whatever pasta you want al dente (still a little hard). While that's happening you cook tomatoes in a pan with salt until it's mostly sauce. Add in a ladle or two of the pasta water and cook the pasta down in the sauce. Add fresh basil at the end with pepper and cheese (we use burrata).
It takes almost 30 minutes and it's cheap. You can use fresh romas which we usually do but canned san marzanos as well. With this as a base you can add anything you want to your sauce to change it up.
I love fancying up basic meals like Kraft Mac and cheese. We sometimes throw in leftover cooked sausage in with it and broccoli which I blanched in the pasta water. Cook them all down in the same liquids as the package to make fancy Mac and cheese.
Yeah. Really anything can be added. I love using pre-made bases as the backbone of a meal. We fancy up a Rice Pilaf mix every couple of weeks by throwing in sausage (we use a lot of sausage), mushrooms and any green vegetable into the mix. The meat and mushrooms are cooked and then let simmer with the rice. The green vegetables either go in for the last few minutes if its broccoli, green beans or anything that needs a little steaming. If its baby spinach or something very delicate we just mix it just before serving. Its an easy add on, fairly healthy and delicious.
Iāve been eating a lot of sausages lately too, theyāre the cheapest source of (reasonably decent) meat I can find. Sometimes I braise sausages in a tin of tomatoes, and sprinkle with basil and curry powder. Itās a really satisfying meal for how cheap it is. But itās always good to have ideas on how to change it up.
We open up sausage links often and break it up to get different textures. We usually cook a whole pound at a time and use half for each meal. We have been doing stuffed peppers using rice as a base filling it with tomatoes, onions, sausage or anything else we have. Its pretty much the only meat we purchase regularly.
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