Thursday, August 20, 2009

cooking crisis

goal for the new school year (or should i say semester since i am graduating in december!):
make nice meals for myself.

so...i am a little sick of crappy meals. i enjoy cooking, but it can be a little difficult because if i get home at 5:00 i am ravenously hungry and need to eat immediately, so i just eat the quickest thing which is usually top ramen and honestly, that 3 minutes really takes forever.

i also have a problem because i am only cooking for one person, how do you cook for just one person? i could make a big meal and then eat it throughout the week, but what if i get sick of it by wednesday and i have all this extra food that i have to throw out.

and healthy food is expensive and i'm a little monetarily challenged.

this is kind of a big dilemma.

methods for achieving this goal:
1. plan and prepare ahead of time
2. recruit roommates to do meals together
3. make a menu/list of ideas for meals and all the things i know how to make

my other question: where do you get recipes? i feel like i can only trust recipes that my mom uses, but i know there have to be other good recipes out there. are recipes on the internet trustworthy? please give me some of your favorite recipes. you can email me at paigerthomas87@gmail.com (no, that's not paige r. thomas, it's definitely paiger thomas, gotta love 14 year old email addresses)

and my last question: how do i find low prices on good food? is coupon clipping really beneficial?

how do i do all this? what are your tips?

1 comment:

Jessica said...

dearest paige-

i know it's been awhile, but i love your blog and am a passionate foodie, so i HAD to comment. don't think i'm weird. okay. first things first.
- buy all your produce at sunflower farmer's market across from university mall - it is always cheaper than smith's and others, and make sure to go on wednesdays when it's double deal day
- then take the produce and prepare it in baggies that you can grab when you're in a hurry (like a bag of strawberries)
- i ate tons of stir fry during school. it takes 5 minutes, a bag of frozen or some of your pre-cut and bagged veggies, frozen chicken, teriyaki sauce. bam. healthy
- i get recipes from rachael ray on foodnetwork.com, allrecipes.com, and my mama, but i usually simplified them.
- get an herb plant for like $2 (at sunflower) and grow it at your house. ta-da. fresh herbs anytime you want (i do basil. it goes well with everything)
- rice and pasta are cheap. start with one of them, then make something to go with or on top of them. you can cook rice the night before then throw it in the fridge for later when you get home starving and heat it up

good luck. eating well on a student budget is tricky, but doable.

p.s. i'm also glad you found your cardigan. i hate losing my favorite things.