Home Cooking Solutions

Carenath

Morning all!

I've been working on getting my diet more in shape and one of the biggest things I was looking at is cooking/dining at home vs going out. Due to how busy my life stays its difficult to really trim this much, but I was curious if anyone would have online solutions they would recommend in the way of websites, etc, geared towards meal planning and recipes. I haven't had much luck finding a good one, and haven't seen a thread on here regarding this. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.


Thanks,

Kevin

wkwebby

I use Allrecipes.com which you can search by ingredient or type of cuisine. Skinnytaste.com is another one that I've heard of but haven't used too much (allrecipes.com takes care of my needs).

Good luck!

Kalikel

Watch Alton Brown. His show, "Good Eats" ran for 13 years and was only stopped because he got sick of doing it. If he decided he wanted to do it again, they'd put him back on the air tomorrow because the show was wildly popular. It was so popular because it was such a good show. It really will teach you how to cook and it's entertaining, too.

It still reruns on the Cooking Channel and may be available on Netflix or Amazon.

Learning to cook can take time, but it's worth learning. Absolutely anyone can cook. It requires little talent and is more just a matter of experience. You learn by doing.

The best part of learning to cook is that you get to make the food exactly the way YOU like it. So, every meal is as yummy as it can be.

DeguelloTex

There's quite a bit you can cook that will take less time than going out.

Food.com is pretty good and they have nutrition info for most, if not all, of the recipes.

SimoneBee12

DeguelloTex is right, there are so many things you can make that are faster than going out to eat, especially if you're going to a restaurant, not fast food.

I only cook for myself, so I can make a protein and a side (like pasta and vege) in less than 30 minutes. I also like making a 4 serving batch of things and freezing it, or eating it for a few days, so sometimes it only takes me 5 minutes to heat it in the microwave, and basically no clean up. I've found risotto, stir-fry, soup, lasagna, pastas, etc all freeze really well, and I can make it exactly how I want it, and I can weigh everything so I know the calories are pretty close, rather than guessing how much butter someone put on my steak at a restaurant.

If you really want to turn your diet around, you'll find a way to make time to cook.

LastingChanges

Kalikel wrote: »

Watch Alton Brown. His show, "Good Eats" ran for 13 years and was only stopped because he got sick of doing it. If he decided he wanted to do it again, they'd put him back on the air tomorrow because the show was wildly popular. It was so popular because it was such a good show. It really will teach you how to cook and it's entertaining, too.

It still reruns on the Cooking Channel and may be available on Netflix or Amazon.

Learning to cook can take time, but it's worth learning. Absolutely anyone can cook. It requires little talent and is more just a matter of experience. You learn by doing.

The best part of learning to cook is that you get to make the food exactly the way YOU like it. So, every meal is as yummy as it can be.

Really one of the best cooking shows ever.

MommyL2015

Campbell's website has some really quick and tasty things that throw together easily, especially for chicken. I'm all about throwing stuff together in a pan and then throwing it in the oven.

Crockpots are great too. Throw a roast in one with some carrots, potato and onion, fill it with water turn it on and walk away until dinner.

auddii

There are lots of cooking ideas and recipe websites. It seems like you're more interested in "meal planning", which is a little different. Here's an article with several reader suggestions; some are free and some are paid services:
http://lifehacker.com/five-best-meal-planning-apps-1533809184

maidentl

Some that I use often:

diethood.com/

skinnymom.com/recipe-index/

skinnytaste.com/

skinnykitchen.com/

NewMeSM75

I found that going to websites for inspiration is great. For most part, I try to take meals that I enjoy and lighten them up or make them more healthy meaning good carbs, good fats, etc.

lemurcat12

For me, the trick to cooking was figuring out a way to work with what I had at home (or have at home at all times things I can whip up a meal from). Once you learn to do this (and to cook without messing with recipes), cooking at home takes no time.

The vegetables are easy -- just have on hand vegetables you will eat and make sure you use them. I got really good at this from getting a CSA box and forcing myself to use up what was in there, but the same principle can work by buying vegetables at the beginning of the week and just deciding those are what you will be eating. Generally vegetables take very little time to prepare, also.

I usually have a starch, like potato, sweet potato, corn, lentils. Depending on what that is, it may take more time, so it's good to have a plan for that.

And then I do some kind of meat or other protein (like tofu). Some (like fish) take very little time, whereas roasting a chicken (or a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast, which is more common for me), will take more time. Some cuts will of course take much more, so you'd have to slow cook or do it ahead on the weekends. If I don't work ahead on the weekends, I usually make sure I have a rotating selection of meat/protein options that are faster cooking and if I keep them frozen I make sure I take them out soon enough that they will be defrosted when I want to use them. This is really the part that takes the most planning.

Some good recipe sites are 101cookbooks.com and epicurious.com

What I would strongly recommend, though, is to focus on teaching yourself to cook rather than cooking from recipes. I read recipes all the time for ideas and just because I enjoy reading cookbooks and about food, but I never follow a recipe (well, not for weekday quick cooking). I'd spend some time when you have it reading through a basic cookbook, understanding how to cook some basic quick dishes, put together a plan for the week (maybe with just 2 days of cooking but make extras for leftovers and pick up food on other days) and then increase the next week and so on.

auddii

lemurcat12 wrote: »

For me, the trick to cooking was figuring out a way to work with what I had at home (or have at home at all times things I can whip up a meal from). Once you learn to do this (and to cook without messing with recipes), cooking at home takes no time.

The vegetables are easy -- just have on hand vegetables you will eat and make sure you use them. I got really good at this from getting a CSA box and forcing myself to use up what was in there, but the same principle can work by buying vegetables at the beginning of the week and just deciding those are what you will be eating. Generally vegetables take very little time to prepare, also.

I usually have a starch, like potato, sweet potato, corn, lentils. Depending on what that is, it may take more time, so it's good to have a plan for that.

And then I do some kind of meat or other protein (like tofu). Some (like fish) take very little time, whereas roasting a chicken (or a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast, which is more common for me), will take more time. Some cuts will of course take much more, so you'd have to slow cook or do it ahead on the weekends. If I don't work ahead on the weekends, I usually make sure I have a rotating selection of meat/protein options that are faster cooking and if I keep them frozen I make sure I take them out soon enough that they will be defrosted when I want to use them. This is really the part that takes the most planning.

Some good recipe sites are 101cookbooks.com and epicurious.com

What I would strongly recommend, though, is to focus on teaching yourself to cook rather than cooking from recipes. I read recipes all the time for ideas and just because I enjoy reading cookbooks and about food, but I never follow a recipe (well, not for weekday quick cooking). I'd spend some time when you have it reading through a basic cookbook, understanding how to cook some basic quick dishes, put together a plan for the week (maybe with just 2 days of cooking but make extras for leftovers and pick up food on other days) and then increase the next week and so on.

Seriously, there are times I feel like we're the same person. I usually aim for a protein, a veggie, and a starch. I also suck at following recipes, but I also love to adapt recipes for my tastes. And there are times I just make stuff up (this becomes difficult when the fiance asks what we're having because then I have to come up with a name for it...).

Years of cooking have made it easier to adapt recipes and to just whip stuff up. But, I also tend to suck at baking because of my ineptitude when it comes to actually following a recipe.

morkiemama

Freezer cooking will be your best friend.

Also, crockpot and pressure cookers = Best things ever for a busy person who lacks cooking skills (aka me).

missblondi2u

You could do what I did and marry a chef

Seriously though, some good tips for fast meals at home are to cook in batches on the weekend (or whenever you have the most time) so you can reheat meals during the week quickly and to prep your fruits and veggies ahead of time so they are easy to grab/cook on the fly. Also, keep things simple. Not every meal has to be an event.

For example, we buy large packs of chicken breast from Costco and grill them off on Sunday. We also buy a bag of baby gold potatoes and roast them all in the oven. Our lunch today will be a grilled chicken breast reheated in the oven, a few pre-roasted potatoes cut in half and seared in a pan with a tiny bit of butter, and probably a little store-bought spinach and artichoke dip to top the chicken breast (it's delicious, trust me). We're talking 20 minutes tops!