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The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

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Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#41

Post by elorant »

ploxiln wrote: post #27
Mikeb85 wrote: post #24

I cook everyday, often 2 meals, while going to university and working. I used to be a chef, and while it's much different cooking at home, I now feel I have a pretty good handle on it. My advice: - Buy a pressure-cooker and learn to use it - Salads are great - no cooking, healthy, tasty (for dressing use just lemon/balsamic/flavoured vinegar and olive oil) - Eat more vegetables (healthy, and easier/quicker to cook th…

I like to manage all my computers, configure linux distros, keep them up to date and clean. I use Arch Linux, which is a rather "manual" distro where major packages have major updates on a rolling basis, and I even have a slightly customized kernel because I'm particular about things. Anyway, for my personal machines, it doesn't take much time, amortized over a month, maybe 30 minutes a week. But I hate cooking, it's…

The thing is that if you keep eating out eventually it will take a toll on your health. And I’m not talking in thirty of forty years down the road. Once you hit your forties various health problems will start to emerge that would originate from a bad diet.

You can start simple. Pastas and a basic tomato sauce. It’s just three ingredients, pasta, tomatoes either fresh or already crushed in a tin and some olive oil. Grilling a stake will only take you ten minutes. Try salads too. You just buy three or four of your favorite vegetables, chop them and mix them. Surely it won’t taste worse than the shit they’re serving out. Recipes like these will cover the basics. From there on you decide whether you want more complicated recipes and how much time you’ll spend daily on cooking. But even if you cut in half the times you’re eating out it would make a huge difference to your well being.

As for cleaning, we all hate it that’s why we buy a dishwasher :)

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#42

Post by moistgorilla »

joesmo wrote: post #40

These prices are ridiculous for something you still have to cook. In many parts of the country they are easily as much if not more than an equivalent meal at a diner or similar establishment, even including tip, and of course much more than any fast food joint. I could see this as a complement to one's regular eating strategies (whatever they may be) but not a replacement, which is apparently what is being sold but n…

Seriously, in Atlanta there is a delivery service called zifty and I got really excited when they announced these meal plates. Well guess what? The cost of a meal for 2 that I still needed to cook myself was 34 dollars. Who in their right mind would think that is a good price point?

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#43

Post by pkaeding »

billybofh wrote: post #34
Mikeb85 wrote: post #24

I cook everyday, often 2 meals, while going to university and working. I used to be a chef, and while it's much different cooking at home, I now feel I have a pretty good handle on it. My advice: - Buy a pressure-cooker and learn to use it - Salads are great - no cooking, healthy, tasty (for dressing use just lemon/balsamic/flavoured vinegar and olive oil) - Eat more vegetables (healthy, and easier/quicker to cook th…

Like you, I cook fresh pretty much every day. I find it quite relaxing (but then I find housework quite relaxing, so I may be broken!). One thing I'd add to the list is a slow cooker. I don't use it very much in summer, but in winter it can be great (the winters here are fairly bleak. Actually, so are the summers - but let's not go there...). Keep an eye on your local supermarket for special offers on cuts of meat -…

I love my slow cooker too, but I just want to dispel the myth that a slow cooker saves much time-- it just shifts the prep time from early evening to morning. Often mornings are just as hectic :).

At least, that has been my experience, though I may make more of an effort than most to use fresh ingredients rather than canned/prepared foods (based on the slow cooker recipes online, which seem to disproportionately call for canned ingredients).

That said, I love the output of the slow cooker, and I agree it is a great tool to have. It helps to mix things up and have a different meal this week than last week.

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#44

Post by edc117 »

elorant wrote: post #41
ploxiln wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to manage all my computers, configure linux distros, keep them up to date and clean. I use Arch Linux, which is a rather "manual" distro where major packages have major updates on a rolling basis, and I even have a slightly customized kernel because I'm particular about things. Anyway, for my personal machines, it doesn't take much time, amortized over a month, maybe 30 minutes a week. But I hate cooking, it's…

The thing is that if you keep eating out eventually it will take a toll on your health. And I’m not talking in thirty of forty years down the road. Once you hit your forties various health problems will start to emerge that would originate from a bad diet. You can start simple. Pastas and a basic tomato sauce. It’s just three ingredients, pasta, tomatoes either fresh or already crushed in a tin and some olive oil. Gr…

Agree with this; the reason Chipotle and such taste fantastic is because they're loaded with garbage. There are very, very few places (at least near me) where you can get a healthy, filling meal for a reasonable price, at a reasonable speed.

I tend to be the same; a bit minimalistic about the effort involving my cooking, but research and good tools (steam/pressure cooker) and practice (you can get really good at minimizing time spent on it) pay off.

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#45

Post by kepano »

A lot of negativity in this thread but Blue Apron and co. are clearly doing something right.

As someone who subscribed to Blue Apron for a few months last year, the value to me was less about convenience and more about entertainment and education. For the cost of a movie ticket you get a shared experience cooking with someone else, you learn a new cooking technique, maybe discover a new recipe and get a darn tasty meal at the end. That's a pretty good deal.

These services don't replace grocery shopping, they're a fun way to spend time with people. If they can convince Americans that cooking can be fun, that's an extra bonus.

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#46

Post by obstinate »

Swizec wrote: post #23
obstinate wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with my relatively slacker-ish schedule of up at 7, work by 730, leave at 430, pick up son at daycare, home by 515, it can be fairly challenging to cook some days. Especially if you haven't planned things out in advance. That said, it's crazy expensive to eat out all the time. We probably cut our yearly budget by a healthy $2500 just by cutting down on takeout. And there is some true joy that comes from knowing…

> Especially if you haven't planned things out in advance. That's why on non-special days I have a limited set of things that I will cook. Or a limited set of combinations, if you will. I don't come home thinking "Oh what do I have, what can I make with this, let's find a recipe". I look at the fridge and it's like "Ah, I have ingredients for X, I'll make X". Then on another day it's "Ah yes, today it's going to be Y…

This is solid advice. One thing I have to work on is expanding my wheelhouse of common-day recipes.

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#47

Post by devdas »

keithpeter wrote: post #29
Mikeb85 wrote: post #24

I cook everyday, often 2 meals, while going to university and working. I used to be a chef, and while it's much different cooking at home, I now feel I have a pretty good handle on it. My advice: - Buy a pressure-cooker and learn to use it - Salads are great - no cooking, healthy, tasty (for dressing use just lemon/balsamic/flavoured vinegar and olive oil) - Eat more vegetables (healthy, and easier/quicker to cook th…

UK: Birmingham food market has a good range and is fairly cheap (not organic stuff, its commercial grower stuff trucked in from Poland/Holand/Warwickshire). Part of the fun is seeing everyone else (real slice of life stuff). I like to support this market and I like cooking, so box of ingredients would not be something I'd pay for. Some local organic growers have £5 boxes or £10 boxes they deliver to your house each w…

Pressure cookers are for pretty much anything you want to steam.

Rice, legumes, vegetables, meat (stews, pilafs, biryani, etc). It saves a lot of cooking time.

Re: The $5B Battle for the American Dinner Plate

#49

Post by Mikeb85 »

jasode wrote: post #37
Mikeb85 wrote: post #24

I cook everyday, often 2 meals, while going to university and working. I used to be a chef, and while it's much different cooking at home, I now feel I have a pretty good handle on it. My advice: - Buy a pressure-cooker and learn to use it - Salads are great - no cooking, healthy, tasty (for dressing use just lemon/balsamic/flavoured vinegar and olive oil) - Eat more vegetables (healthy, and easier/quicker to cook th…

>Total time from start to finish - 20 minutes. Probably only 10 minutes of my actual time, [...] > It saves what, 5-10 minutes at most, Well, you are committing the same miscalculation that books and magazine articles about " healthy meals in 30-minutes or less " make. You leave out... 1) meal planning, 2) shopping for fresh vegetables & other ingredients 3) prep work (washing, cutting vegetables, etc), 4) clean up H…

My time includes prep work (takes all of 2 minutes) and cleaning (1 pan if I don't grill the fish, 1 bowl - everything can go in the dishwasher).

Meal planning well, that takes experience. If you cook for yourself, it means you buy some vegetables, and pick up whatever looks good at the butcher/fishmonger on the way home. Rice/potatoes are something I always have at home.

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