Should think about parallellizing cooking a bit more. Buy a second instant pot, more pots & pans…
It’s really hard to justify the amount of time I’m putting into making meals for frankly middling savings, unless I really lean into. I’ve spent most of today cooking, doing chores etc. I could be buying ready-made meals with this amount of time.
Also, need to think about scaling things way up. Like how soup kitchens run, with a gigantic pot
“big batch” seems to be a good search term.
“Stock pot” is the instrument I need. my mealprep containers are about 1 qt each, so a 16 qt stock pot would fill … a lot of them. for reference, my instant pot is an 8-quart. Maybe getting a larger pressure cooker would be a better idea. Looks like various brands go up to 12 quarts.
need to look into chillis,
mom mentioned ham and pea soup a while back - instructions were:
Split pea soup with ham and potatoes - bag of dried split peas - broth cube - enough water, 2x layer- first cycle cook dried peas for 10 or 15 minutes
think she mentioned that frozen split peas work the same way
Was concerned about calcium, but actually beans have plenty.
Very useful to bring two or more days’ meals to work and put in the fridge ahead of time. Good if I need to stay late and need dinner, or if I forgot my lunchbag.
A big bag of potatoes is pretty inexpensive - $1 per lb. I have a hard time scarfing down a potato on its own, however Jack’s cookbook has a nice coriander soup.
By the way, immersion blender = perfection. Very little wetted area that needs to be cleaned compared to a food processor.
Way too much sugar in cranberries
Made quick oats with the ratio on the back; 1/3 cup oats, 2/3 cup water, added a generous pinch of salt. Microwave for 2 minutes. Then added about half a cup of applesauce. This did the trick, tastes good!
Made a potato and carrot soup, pureed with the immersion blender. Not quite enough calories to keep me alive in 2 meals, but very quick and satisfactory. Should have added some chickpeas.
Tried adding 2 teaspoons of knorr powdered chicken broth to a 4-cup batch of rice. Forgot the turmeric.
Don’t notice a difference. Will try turmeric.
Opened a can of Independent 6-bean blend and chickpeas. $1.88 * 2. Plus 6 beano tablets, $1.6. 975 calories total, lots of protein as well. Total $5.46, $327/month.
Actually a pretty good meal, fits my goal pretty well. Takes no prepwork, almost instant, and cheap.
epazote beans?
However, both of these colors of kidney beans can be toxic when prepared in a slow cooker. All of you chili champions and stockpilers of beans, especially, need to hear this.
According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Bad Bug Book, dried red kidney beans and cannellini beans contain toxic levels of lectin—proteins that bind to carbohydrates—and can cause vomiting, diarrhea and gastrointestinal illness for several hours when not cooked properly. Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) is the lectin in the beans that causes people to become sick. PHA protects legumes from pests and pathogens, but when humans consume as few as four improperly cooked dried beans, they may suffer these symptoms, says the FDA. Lectins are found in all plants, including legumes, but dried red kidney beans and cannellini beans are the only ones that contain a high enough concentration of PHA to temporarily sicken humans.
The good news? Eliminating the toxic level of lectin in the beans is super easy. When preparing dried red kidney beans, the FDA recommends soaking them overnight, then boiling them for a 30 minutes. Since most slow cookers do not reach the boiling point (212°F), beans prepared in them without soaking and cooking them first will carry the toxic lectin. (And no need to worry about canned beans; they’ve already been prepared properly.) Luckily cooking these dried beans safely is as easy as 1-2-3.
It’s clear that what I’m doing is not working. Still spending large amounts of time and money, get poor-quality food. Not ultimately cheaper than some takeout. I don’t feel very full, I often end up poking around the kitchen multiple times.
Going to look into dutch-oven / broiler based dishes.
For example, 1 cup (227 grams) of butter contains only 0.1 grams of lactose ( 1 ). For this reason, butter is well tolerated in most lactose-free diets. Only those who are highly sensitive to lactose may experience symptoms.
One Pot
ground Turkey Chilli - page 84
black bean chilli
turkey meatballs with coconut rice bell peppers and peas
Chicken with freekeh cilantro and lemon - looks good
OK, so the central thesis of this project is moot. I enjoy cutting fresh onion, and it’s so cheap it’s definitely worth my time. Frozen onion is really bland, too.
Only onion though. It’s so crisp and layered. Peppers are right out.
Sweet potato