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In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

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Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#51

Post by jefftk »

ghaff wrote: post #30
Semaphor wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can really see that, $5 gets you a LOT at Taco Bell (funnily enough, they refused to load any images till I switched my IP to a USA one O.o). I’m actually shocked how much you get. Here in Germany, McDonalds / Burger King (not sure what other fast food places we have) are disgusting AND expensive :D

Cheap (and even not so cheap) "Mexican" food in particular is a great opportunity for the restaurant to bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans. With a burger, you have a floor set by a certain weight of ground beef. And, yes, while I very rarely go into a McDonald's or Burger King, my sense is that they're not a particularly cheap meal. And the better "fast casual" burger chains certai…

> bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans

Rice and beans make a complete protein. You're writing as if people are getting less protein than they expected, but the inclusion of beans means they're probably not.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#52

Post by knicholes »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #45
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Exhibit A, found on this very site [0]: Cooking for one in the US with ingredients that aren’t laced with preservatives is incredibly expensive, especially if you live in a city. I found it to be the case even 6-7 years ago that it was cheaper to eat out every night than it was to cook. I was scratching my head at how so many people in the thread could possibly believe this, until I realized that they’re probabl…

This is not true, I’ve never been to a city in the US where cooking is more expensive.

I've been buying fresh ingredients for two years to make the recipes in my Clean Simple Eats recipe book. The shopping would sometimes take an hour, and preparing the food would take about 30 minutes a meal.

They started a prepared meal service for $12 a meal, which was really pushing my limits on what I'd be willing to spend to avoid having to do all of that work and spend all of that time. Then I found the "double portion +$2" button. The food tastes similar to how I made it. But now instead of spending 30 minutes a meal, I spend 90 seconds and spend almost the same amount of $$. I don't have random scraps to fashion into meals for my kids anymore (they won't eat the diet food I make), but for now this seems like the best choice.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#53

Post by lettergram »

ip26 wrote: post #46
lettergram wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this has more to do with the breakdown of family. My family growing up (and now as the parent) ensure we sit down and eat together for breakfast and dinner. Home cooked from scratch 3-4 times a week fresh and left overs the other nights. I eat totally different foods than my parents cooked, but the community is key. My Wife and I got really good at making a few dishes from various cultures (Greek, Mexican, Ir…

More broadly I point to the disappearing stay at home parent. It turns out young kids need to be in bed between 7:30-8:00 for enough sleep. Good luck cooking from scratch when neither parent is home before 6:00. (Ask me how I know)

Yeah, I agree. My wife and I stay home, switching who watches the kids at home every other day.

Before when we both worked out of the house we lived close to work (did so intentionally, gave up better opportunities).

We tend to use a crock pot, put it in before work in the morning. We also will prepare the food the night before and put it in the oven at 4pm so we can eat at 5pm. It’s a lot of work and you have to give stuff up, but we think its worth it.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#54

Post by ghaff »

jefftk wrote: post #51
ghaff wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheap (and even not so cheap) "Mexican" food in particular is a great opportunity for the restaurant to bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans. With a burger, you have a floor set by a certain weight of ground beef. And, yes, while I very rarely go into a McDonald's or Burger King, my sense is that they're not a particularly cheap meal. And the better "fast casual" burger chains certai…

> bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans Rice and beans make a complete protein. You're writing as if people are getting less protein than they expected, but the inclusion of beans means they're probably not.

You're right of course. I'm just using protein in the sense that restaurants often do to mean x grams/ounces of meat, chicken, pork, or fish. But there are obviously other sources of protein.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#55

Post by granshaw »

ghaff wrote: post #23
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Exhibit A, found on this very site [0]: Cooking for one in the US with ingredients that aren’t laced with preservatives is incredibly expensive, especially if you live in a city. I found it to be the case even 6-7 years ago that it was cheaper to eat out every night than it was to cook. I was scratching my head at how so many people in the thread could possibly believe this, until I realized that they’re probabl…

If your sole metric is price, there is some very cheap takeout out there. And, yes, it may well be as cheap or cheaper than meals in the supermarket freezer section. But while some planning and a little work is needed, stick to cheaper proteins (chicken/pork), vegetables, and things like rice/beans and home cooking, even for one, can be pretty inexpensive and doesn't need to mean eating the same leftover stew for a w…

> I do think a lot of "cooking at home is too expensive" is actually "I don't want to cook at home and would rather just get takeout."

Well, yeah, it shouldn’t be a surprise that many don’t like the actual acts of planning, prepping, and cooking, and would rather eat takeout everyday if it was nutritious and affordable enough, or have their meals cooked for them

EDIT: I struggle with this too and am trying to change my mindset to cooking being just something you need to survive, like brushing your teeth, and trying to enjoy it more from that aspect

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#56

Post by MontyCarloHall »

jacksnipe wrote: post #40
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Exhibit A, found on this very site [0]: Cooking for one in the US with ingredients that aren’t laced with preservatives is incredibly expensive, especially if you live in a city. I found it to be the case even 6-7 years ago that it was cheaper to eat out every night than it was to cook. I was scratching my head at how so many people in the thread could possibly believe this, until I realized that they’re probabl…

I live in NYC and you’re wrong. If you are cooking with meat and you insist on buying organic, then it is cheaper to go to a food truck than to cook for one. Additionally, unless you meal plan very well, some of your ingredients are going to go bad; you can’t really purchase enough celery for just one meal.

Yeah, if you’re buying wagyu, sashimi-grade fish, and heirloom vegetables, it will be more expensive per meal than a Halal Guys truck.

I guarantee that it will be cheaper to cook a meal equivalent to what you get from a food truck yourself. I live in a area whose cost of living is on par with NYC, and have never seen a grocery bill to the contrary.

> Additionally, unless you meal plan very well, some of your ingredients are going to go bad; you can’t really purchase enough celery for just one meal.

Egg salad uses abundant amounts of celery and can last several days in the fridge. Stews and soups also use lots of celery and both freeze/defrost very well.

In my experience, the hardest thing to meal plan around is fresh aromatic herbs. Hard to figure out how to use a giant bunch of fresh tarragon or mint without getting sick of it.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#57

Post by jareklupinski »

coffeeblack wrote: post #16
NegativeLatency wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found an old associated press article about that: >Sam Krogstad of Bush Consolidators, which specializes in sending construction materials via the mail, says the Postal Service’s losses are partly self-inflicted because the postal system pays 10 times as much to send the building materials by air freight as it charges Krogstad to mail them. https://apnews.com/article/281d3e682569b2cc5edd890bf600d17e

This is a good example of the “tragedy of the commons”. How a public good is abused by a few egoists to make a profit and destroy it for everybody else. What’s even more depressing is that many here seem to find that totally okay.

Did this even happen? A quick Google doesn't show any of those people or places even exist...

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#58

Post by kritiko »

jacksnipe wrote: post #40
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Exhibit A, found on this very site [0]: Cooking for one in the US with ingredients that aren’t laced with preservatives is incredibly expensive, especially if you live in a city. I found it to be the case even 6-7 years ago that it was cheaper to eat out every night than it was to cook. I was scratching my head at how so many people in the thread could possibly believe this, until I realized that they’re probabl…

I live in NYC and you’re wrong. If you are cooking with meat and you insist on buying organic, then it is cheaper to go to a food truck than to cook for one. Additionally, unless you meal plan very well, some of your ingredients are going to go bad; you can’t really purchase enough celery for just one meal.

Is your food truck really using organic meat? The US has a very interesting food truck and street food culture. You get chefs who are saving money on rent, but the food ends up costing as much as a brick and mortar quick service restaurant. (~$15 in NYC these days, creeping up with inflation.)

There's some genuine cheap food targeting service and construction workers - dollar pizza, rice and meat places, Chinatown - but you also get, for example, somebody who went to Berlin, saw döner kebabs, and now are charging $15 to make them here...

I'm sympathetic to the issues of cooking for 1, but I'm skeptical that it's really cheaper to eat out and get the same quality and healthfulness that you could get from cooking.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#59

Post by joenot443 »

koheripbal wrote: post #4
walrus01 wrote: post #2

For comparison, food costs in Nunavut https://youtu.be/gbm8_m4txKY

That's the difference between living in the nations food basket, and a remote town 1500 km into the inaccessible and barren tundra. What's odd is anyone's expectation that they would pay similar prices.

Truly. Really though, the biggest difference is just matter of scale. The US has 10x the amount of people that Canada does. Nunavut has 40,000 residents, Alaska has 736,000.

I'm Canadian and know some people who've spent time in Nunavut and life there seemed cold, lonely, dark, and expensive. My understanding is that once you're in Iqaluit, you aren't even able to drive to any other towns, they're generally not connected by real roads, nor would you be able to bring enough gas. Life in Alaska, especially near the cities, seems much more like the rest of rural Canada by comparison.

Re: In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything

#60

Post by prometheus76 »

granshaw wrote: post #55
ghaff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your sole metric is price, there is some very cheap takeout out there. And, yes, it may well be as cheap or cheaper than meals in the supermarket freezer section. But while some planning and a little work is needed, stick to cheaper proteins (chicken/pork), vegetables, and things like rice/beans and home cooking, even for one, can be pretty inexpensive and doesn't need to mean eating the same leftover stew for a w…

> I do think a lot of "cooking at home is too expensive" is actually "I don't want to cook at home and would rather just get takeout." Well, yeah, it shouldn’t be a surprise that many don’t like the actual acts of planning, prepping, and cooking, and would rather eat takeout everyday if it was nutritious and affordable enough, or have their meals cooked for them EDIT: I struggle with this too and am trying to change…

Learn how to make a dish you really like. Expand from there.
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