I hate my own cooking

teaandtalk · 2020-05-07T20:52:02+00:00

Start simple. Try basic meals. Learn to fry eggs and season them so they're tasty. Butter and salt makes everything better.

moog1130 · 2020-05-07T21:14:33+00:00

YouTube is the best for recipes, always follow the instructions too a tee

morganKxoxo · 2020-05-07T21:19:44+00:00

Just look up ‘easy’ recipes on Pinterest. Like literally just type the word easy before recipes and follow them to a T. Pasta sauces are really easy, there’s plenty of great one pan meals, just start small, find a recipe that looks manageable to you and try it

RLGrinds · 2020-05-07T22:54:35+00:00

I took a look at your Reddit history to get some context. Based on that, my tips are:

FOLLOW THE RECIPE!*
Pick simple recipes.
Before you start cooking, read the recipe all the way through. Then read it again. THEN start following it.

Do not try to multi-task. Do not follow a recipe if it asks you to multi-task. (Ex. If a recipe says, "Boil pasta. While pasta is cooking, begin to make the sauce...") Do one step at a time to completion before beginning anything else.

If you're inexperienced, multi-tasking while cooking is a bad idea. That's how you end up with overcooked pasta or burn something you left on the stove because you forgot to watch it. It's also a good idea to prep all ingredients before assembling. This means premeasuring spices, washing and chopping produce, trimming fat off meat, etc BEFORE touching the stove. This helps reduce the multi-tasking component from recipes.

People new to cooking often forget steps (or think they can skip them). As a beginner, you can't do this and expect good results. Follow the recipe*. You can experiment once you have a better handle on cooking.

ProgmusicHans · 2020-05-07T21:54:16+00:00

You need to develope a feeling for the basics. Potatoes, rice, lentils, pasta. Those can be used in different meals, therefore getting familiar with their cooking times is important. Watch videos, follow instructions. You will learn abovementioned cooking times, basic sauces and how to stir fry vegetables and roast meat.
Taste is individual, seasoning is something you can figure out according to your palate later on, just follow the recommended amounts of seasoning in recipes for now.

gimmeglitterpls · 2020-05-07T21:29:00+00:00

One of my favorite super easy (and cheap) recipes I learned from my dad is cheater’s red beans and rice. 1 box of red beans and rice mix Half an onion (we use sweet onions but yellow works too. I’ve also tried green onions which is good) 2 cans of any kind of red beans Extra cup or two of rice and additional water to cook it Kielbasa sausage (hot dogs work too but the sausage is so yummy. My husband is pure carnivore so I use two packages of sausage but one works just fine.)

Step one: get a large pot and put water in it Step 2: cut the sausage and onions up Step 3: throw that stuff and the cans of beans, extra rice, and the mix in the pot. Step 4: mix it all up and heat to boiling Step 5: reduce to medium and keep stirring occasionally (really scrape the sides and bottom cause it likes to stick) Step 6: continue this until rice is cooked through and it’s not super runny. (About 15 minutes) Step 7: enjoy and have awesome leftovers for days. It microwaves really well.

Let me know if you try it. Even at my pickiest eater stage I gobbled this up.

Suck-Less · 2020-05-07T22:17:20+00:00

Best cooking book ever: “The Silver Spoon” - Italian and it’s covers just about everything.

Hardest part of cooking, getting the temperature right on your stove, oven. Every stove and often each burner, is different. Ovens are different too even when the numbers are the same.

Best tips:

When cooking on a stove top, unless the recipe calls for it; ALWAYS PRE HEAT THE PAN to temperature.
Better to undercook when learning... you can always sneak it into the microwave in an emergency.
Start with one dish, start with small servings, and have a plan B so if you screw it up you can trash it, then work on perfecting that dish.

PS, often stores that specialize in cooking equipment have free classes. Look for them.

pixiemaybe · 2020-05-08T02:22:52+00:00

CROCKPOTS!!! crockpot recipes are the easiest meals to make ever. it's literally cut some stuff up, huck it into the crockpot, then you don't touch it. it's incredible, really. i literally will put a small whole chicken, sprinkle with maybe a tablespoon and a half of seasoned salt, a couple shakes of garlic powder, and maybe 1/4th c lemon juice. put it on low and about 4 hours later, it literally falls off the bone. freeze it in weekly portions and you are set for a hot minute. it's cheap and there's so many things you can make with chicken.

JadedByEntropy · 2020-05-07T23:16:47+00:00

Find recipies with few ingredients. Learn what goes in and why it tastes like that. Taste or sniff your ingredients when it's safe to do so-before you dump it in because a recipe said so. You're in charge. Dont follow the rules if you dont like the rules. Figure out what part you dont like and dont add that spice or add more of certain spices you do. Best advice::::Start a recipe book and ONLY add recipes You have already cooked and like and will make again. A book full of unproven papers is daunting.

Pasta+ a can of pesto. Presto! Dinner!

Cans are your friends. Box mixes are your friends. Dont from-scratch anything you dont have to, until you get good at this.

Chicken stock + pasta. Now you have soup. Add to that what spices you know belong in soup that you like. Dont cook for 4. Stop making so much food. Or, make something bland and add something to each portion when you're ready to eat it. Everyone hates leftovers.

Nutella/nut butter and apples. No cooking involved!

Sandwiches are always a win.

Salad starts with green stuff. The greens you like. Not 3 kinds and not with fancy stuff piled on. Find what base you like. Add slowly over time.

Or Use premade foods for singles.

bahnahnahnah · 2020-05-07T21:29:13+00:00

If you like Italian-American cooking I can give you a lot of my personal recipes, they’re all generally very cheap and very easy to make.

2020-05-08T00:00:28+00:00

My favourite YouTube channel for cooking is Laura in the Kitchen. She does wonderful easy recipes and shows you everything step by step. :)

i_cri_evry_tim · 2020-05-08T00:31:31+00:00

Start with the basics.

Learn how to boil pasta and rice before anything else. Start by using cheap, basic, jarred sauces to add flavor.

Eggs are your friend. No way to screw scrambled eggs or an omelette other than a pan that is not in good shape or you forgetting to stir.

Balance your diet with plain grilled/roast meats. Use vegetables as sides for the meat. A simple chopped lettuce with salt, oil and vinegar goes well with almost anything.

If you feel your diet is lacking in something, source it via frozen foods/cans. It’s more expensive, but it helps the process.

Once you have the basic procedures for cooking simple foods you will have inadvertently picked up a sense of what goes well with what and how food behaves when being boiled/fried/roasted. You will also develop a sense for seasoning amounts and what spices work for your types of food.

Really, cooking is just knowing the handful of “don’t do this ever’s” and simply following instructions.

In no time you will be cooking a wide variety of foods in the simplest forms, and eventually you will feel confident enough to start experimenting.

Cooking is a wonderful skill to have, very rewarding and dead useful when trying to operate a budget. Don’t give up.

ShootingDanks · 2020-05-08T03:39:52+00:00

My question is- is there a way I can improve my cooking game FAST, so that the time I have to spend eating my own horrendous meals is minimal?

Sure, but more information is needed about what foods you actually like and why you don't like what you've cooked. There's a disconnect there, I mean, it seems simple enough to 1) pick something you like, 2) find a recipe for making it and 3) cooking it and enjoying it. Where in this process are you struggling?

If it's at step 1, the answer is simple. Only cook food you like to eat.

If it's step 2, it's best to find recipes from reliable websites with a lot of reviews. Forgive me for being too lazy to link, but I enjoy Serious Eats and Bon Appetit for extremely reliable recipes.

If you're failing at step 3, simplify. Aim low. Get the proper equipment and do your mise en place. Read the recipe carefully before you start cooking. Look up anything that doesn't make sense to you, for example, if you don't know how to blanch vegetables, watch a video on how to do it before you start cooking. Once you know exactly what the recipes require you to do, do it step by step.

When I cook extremely complex recipes, I like to print out the recipes and stick them to my kitchen cabinets, at eye level. I tick off each item as I prepare it for my mise, then I tick off each step as I complete it. I draw a line through the recipe once I complete that component. Having a similar system might help you, but then again, I don't know exactly what the problem is here. Picking bad recipes, poor technique, disorganisation or a combination of all three?

Noressa · 2020-05-07T21:29:08+00:00

Learn how to make 1-2 good things. Practice the recipe over and over. Then, always keep the ingredients to make those things on hand. This way, you can work with other recipes and branch out, and if you feel you failed to the point of not being able to eat what you just cooked? Use one of your backup meals. As the other people have stated, find "easy". If you have questions, feel free to join /r/cookingforbeginners. They'll offer tips and hints on how to learn how to create easy meals.

Mandaj92 · 2020-05-07T22:18:37+00:00

Pasta. You can't go wrong with pasta

2020-05-07T22:37:57+00:00

Pasta. Once you learn how easy it is just to make sauces to go with it - and get a GOOD cookbook such as The Silver Spoon - pasta is the easiest thing you can do for yourself. And so rewarding. Start with this sauce: garlic, olive oil, and cherry tomatoes chopped in half. Cook on low until the cherry tomatoes are almost melting with the olive oil (the sauce turns a dark orange color), and the tomatoes should turn from slightly sour tasting to slightly sweet. Boil the water while the sauce is cooking and add salt to the pot once it comes to a boil. Put in the pasta (handful should be enough), and cook until “al dente”, meaning it shouldn’t be soft but has a slight “bite” without being raw in the middle - if spaghetti, cook until the noodle wraps around itself when lifted from the pot. Drain the pasta and mix in with the sauce in the sauce pan. Voila! An easy, delicious dish :) dm me if you want more sauce recipes!

CRGRO · 2020-05-07T23:31:16+00:00

I can give you my spaghetti recipe -

Everyone that’s had it has liked it.

Put a little less than 1 tblespoon of oil in the frying pan (I use colvita)
Turn your burner on medium to medium/hi (make sure burner you turn on is same size as bottom of pan)
Wait until it’s hot
Put in ground chicken - you can buy this from any store, doesn’t matter what kind, it’s probably like 1lb and cook it / break and separate chicken with a spatula / flip it until it goes from pink to cooked (should take about 10 min and you’ll be able to smell it cooked.
Drain any fat / gunk into the sink by just easing the pan at an angle and holding back the chicken.
Pour Raos tomato sauce on top (3/4ths jar) or however much you like. If it’s bubbling it’s too hot.
Add a healthy amount of garpepano (can’t order this online atm sadly cuz of covid) it’s essentially a blend of oregano, garlic, chili peppers, and Romano cheese. 8: add some brown sugar
Boil pasta (boil water first then put in pasta, add salt, stir occasionally for up to 9 min)

Violetta311 · 2020-05-08T01:45:57+00:00

Are you using recipes and following the instructions?

Greenveins · 2020-05-08T06:14:08+00:00

Seasoning, and cook with passion. You can taste the sad in a meal when you’re cooking and not in the right frame of mind.

Also, TAKE YOUR TIME! cook one thing at a Time until you’re alright with multi tasking.

Third, find cheap recipes that will last you a couple of days. That way if it’s a flop at least it was cheap and you have it to eat on for the following day

HereKittyKittyyyy · 2020-05-08T12:03:42+00:00

Have a look at some mediterranean meals you could make. Many of these are simple and at the same time very tasty and healthy. The only "elaborate" part is cutting different veggies in little pieces.

howmanydingas · 2020-05-11T03:26:16+00:00

Budgetbytes recipes! Sorry about your family btw.

putonthespotlight · 2020-05-15T01:55:33+00:00

Hey- I'm NOT (NOT!) here with cooking tips. My cooking tips would somehow make the food worse, lol.

But I did want to reach out and say that what you had to say about being codependent and living with abusive family really resonated with me. It sounds like we're in very similar boats, down to having dads who have passed away. I wanted to commend you for being honest with yourself, recognizing the situation for what it is, and now taking steps to change it. Even admitting to yourself that you've been codependent, or that your own family members have been abusive to you, is a difficult challenge to face. Familial bad blood is such a heartbreaking topic that isn't discussed enough. I'm rooting for you! It'll make you stronger. And if you ever, ever need someone to talk to, feel free to reach out. <3

2020-05-07T21:59:23+00:00

Have a watch of these to start with.

https://www.deliaonline.com/learn-to-cook

Patient-Guava · 2020-05-07T22:08:55+00:00

I use the google home smart thing.

Hey google, show me a recipe for ''X' and follow it exactly.

Between that and a pressure cooker... I have gotten pretty good over the years.

Magicallypeanut · 2020-05-08T05:00:26+00:00

Budgetbytes.com

Princess_Medusa · 2020-05-08T07:31:55+00:00

Some other wonderful people have already shared very good advice about how to pick and follow a simple recipe and learn to season, however, there's one thing that I think wasn't really mentioned, yet:

Taste everything and find out what you like! Taste the raw ingredients the ones that are edible raw), maybe just steam or roast small amounts of vegetables to try what they taste like without any seasoning and how they change when cooked. Specficially try out individual spices and find out what they do for a dish. If you've never cooked before and only had fully prepared meals, I can imagine that it's hard to know which flavor component in a meal really comes from which ingredient. You can definitely just follow recipes, but if you find out which ingredients you like, you are not completely tied to the recipe to make something that you (might) enjoy.

I don't know what your family's cooking is like, but a lot of people are generally way too used to overseasoned food and sometimes it's nice to enjoy the simplicity of a steaming hot boiled potato with maybe just a little bit of salt or some steamed green beans. I've been cooking since I can remember (at 10, I alread cooked christmas dinner) and love to host dinner parties, but when I'm alone, I often just steam a pound of green beans to munch on while studying or cook a sweet potato in the microwave and eat it with honey and walnuts. (I also like to eat tubs of cottage cheese, but that's besides the point.) If you find ingredients that you like, cooking really doesn't involve much and you can be sure that you will like what you make.

myromunya · 2020-05-08T11:54:26+00:00

i would suggest getting some cook books, they can be simple and don't have to be fancy. if you have a library they usually offer free books from their site, at least mine does.

what i mostly do is watch youtubes videos, you can type something like "simple meal ideas" stuff like that.

itsjustathrowaway147 · 2020-05-08T13:37:07+00:00

Great advice above! Starting simple is huge.

Make knock-offs of food you already love from eating out or recipes you’ve had from other people and liked. For example: I love chik fil a so I google a lot of chic fil a knock off recipes, buy some frozen waffle fries and love it. I also always love Italian comfort food from growing up so tend to borrow a lot of seasoning and inspiration from there.

Lastly try to make it fun! I may be a bit loony but I swear when I love making a food it tastes even better.

A great series to get an understanding of flavors in food and maybe inspire more passion for cooking as well as imparting some fun basics is on Netflix called “salt fat acid heat” or even just read some articles online by Samin Nosrat who wrote the book/stars in the series and she is so infectiously in love with food you can’t help but to be more passionate about cooking after seeing/reading her stuff.

acertainbella · 2020-05-12T01:22:04+00:00

HAHAA. Find a friend who can cook well and ask her to help you!

DependentLaw · 2020-06-02T18:49:13+00:00

I understand where your coming from, an abusive home was the reason I learned to cook start with something dead simple like scrambled eggs, slow heat, and seasoning is the trick with them. Then learn how to boil them, Next fry them, then you can make an omelette, then poach them

After scrambled eggs try something like minute rice with some soup broth for seasoning

In my home I ate a lot of soup, I would buy 6lb of pork neck bones for $5 and throw them in a pot of boiling water for 8 hours, season that up and you have soup broth, then add vegetables, noodles, anything and you've got soup

Beans are really easy to make, just soak them and throw them in a slow cooker with molases and tomato paste and forget about them

Pasta sauce is pretty easy, buy pasta sauce, tomato paste and stewing meat and simmer

I love fish, every once and a while I will either buy a smoked fish for morning omlettes and bagels or a cut of salmon and bake in the oven with maple syrup

Pizza from scratch is a little more difficult but easy if you know how to work with dough, flour, yeast, oil and water for the dough, let it ride, press it out, put pizza sauce and cheese on it, bake

Lasagna is great to, cook the noodles and layer with ragu and racotta cheese and shredded cheese and you can freeze it or cook it then

None of those meals are bad for you, and most are cheap and simple to make and usually taste excellent I bake a lot, a ton, usually breads which take a little skill but after you master they are awesome and cheap and healthier for you than store bread (taste great too)

When it comes to cooking on the stove, cook low and slow when your learning, when baking keep a watchful eye on the oven don't be afraid of seasoning either

Title	I hate my own cooking
Author	fucknans
Upvotes	63
Comments	50
Date	May 7, 2020 8:47 PM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RedPillWomen
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/gfeve5/i_hate_my_own_cooking/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RedPillWomen/i-hate-my-own-cooking.660943 https://theredarchive.com/post/660943