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Comment by geddy | Hacker News Reader

Funny thing about those people is they constantly complain about how expensive everything is, yet they spend frivolous amounts of money on what's probably the highest marked up item: food. Meal prep for a week for ~$75 and you're set. It would cost probably 4 times that (at least, depending on where you eat) to eat out, not to mention you don't know how it was prepared, and it's probably wildly unhealthy compared to if you just cooked it at home.

Take 2-3 hours on Sundays and cook some food. It's not hard.

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Totally agree. It's so easy to overthink cooking. Take off the exec-chef-in-restaurant apron and focus on the simple stuff:

- Add salt/pepper/spices by hand if you can. Shakers/larger-volume canisters lead to over-application, but it's so easy to grab a little bit of salt, apply, taste, and do it over again until you hit the right mark

- Learn how to cook in a single pot - stews/soups/etc. Saves on cleaning, and broths packed full of nutrients

- Use a crock-pot/slow-cooker. Dead simple, very low risk, produces significant quantities of food

- Learn about portion sizing. So much of over or under cooking is applying the same technique and timing to two different quantities of food. 16 oz of steak cooks differently than 8, same for veggies. Buying the right portions consistently solves so many problems

- Given the point above, learn about an oven -- convection vs. radiant heat. Convection cooking is fast, easy, and awesome.

- Learn how to store stuff properly. You'll spend a fortune if you regularly trap your veggies in air-tight containers. Many of them don't need and are worse-off in those containers. Learn what stuff should be near or away from other vegetables. Good example: if you put your avocados and tomatoes next to your cucumbers, kiss the latter good-bye -- they'll go bad way faster due to the gas emitted by the two others

- Finally, it goes without saying -- not everyone likes what you do, so it's ok if your most exquisite dish doesn't go over perfectly with everyone.

Easy to overthink you say, yet you’ve listed a lot of quite complicated aspects, many of which aren’t directly related to cooking.

Spend a bit of time on all of them and you'll find them easy and intuitive!

Like many things!

Funny, I was just thinking how helpful these tips are compared to a lot of the advice on cooking which is repetitive.

Was not aware of the differences in veggie storage. You do have a lot more seasoning control not in a shaker and that's how it is done in a professor kitchen. Thanks!

Glad you found them helpful.

Overall, there can be nuance in all of these things, but you don't need to stress yourself with that nuance in so many cases.

A lot of this stuff can get pretty nuanced especially seasoning, and to me that makes or breaks any dish even if you're just using salt and pepper. I usually just go with what's recommended for a particular recipe... After trying a recipe a few times, I MIGHT tweak the seasoning based my or the wife's preferences. When I'm not sure what seasonings to use outside of salt/pepper, I usually just use seasoned salt.

$75 is even an exaggeration. It might be more bland, but eggs, chicken breasts, some veggies should get you through a week for < $30.

And lentils with bread -most people look down on them for some reason, unless it's a side of some sort, but I find them just beautiful as proper dinner!

People with glucose issues will probably want to avoid the bread and go for something like brown rice (a slower carb) or a veg, but it's a good suggestions nonetheless!

With a little toasted cumin seed, turmeric, onion, garlic, and maybe some fenugreek boiled lentils are heavenly. :)

Sorry it just occurred to me that I was using a more specific word to refer to the family of edibles that I meant, the correct one would be "legumes" -I'd never leave things like beans or chickpeas out on purpose!

I'd love to cook and eat more lentils. They taste pretty good to me, are cheap and fairly easy to cook. My problem is, they tend (for me at least) produce a lot of undesired gas.

Try soaking overnight and rinsing thoroughly before cooking (if you don't already do).

I have found two things improve this: the first is ensuring they are well cooked to the point of full softness. The second is freezing and rethawing seems to eliminate a lot of this issue. I've no idea why, chemically that works, but it does.

Lentil soup, man. I've got a family recipe, and I've decided that if I could eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be that.

$120/month for food? Sorry, but no. That is the exaggeration.

Maybe if you're scraping the bottom of the barrel in ingredient quality and buying a lot of rice and beans.

It depends what you eat. Most of my home cooked meals are just seasoned vegetables with the occasional chicken on the side, or pasta. They don't have to be bottom of the barrel ingredients, just a higher ratio of vegetables to meats.

One of the reasons people get so flustered over food is that they don't organize correctly and end up getting frustrated over the lack of ability to follow recipes easily.

Restaurant chefs have known about 'mise en place' for years. Cutting and measuring most of your ingredients before cooking makes cooking simple and easy. Yeah, there are more dishes to wash, but it makes up for the eventual headaches.

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