The wife and I were talking today and she told me something that had me scratching my head. You see, she does all the shopping for food so she is the one that always checks out. Well she was asked what she eats while she was checking out because she never purchases pre-packaged food or "prepared meals". She told the cashier that we cook. She advised that she and I do the cooking, with myself doing most of the cooking. This astounded the cashier who I can only assume lives on hot dogs and blue box mac & cheese (stupid high in sodium by the way).
This got me to thinking, why do people think it is so hard to cook a meal? I don't follow any kind of food group, I don't care what is on my plate, as long as it is fresh and moderately healthy. To me, preparing a meal is not hard and only takes a short time, and in most cases, very little dishes. Granted, it is just the wife and I at home now, but still, we used to prepare for a family of 4 (back then, the wife did the cooking lol).
Lets take the meal I prepared for the 4th of July, an amazing Ribeye steak with an herb roasted baked potato and some sautéed Asparagus and zucchini (zucchini was from our garden). You start with laying some butter on some aluminum foil, sprinkle with salt and herbs of your choice, and wrap that around a potato. Stick the potato in the oven (or in my case the toaster oven) at 350ºF for about 1 hour. With about 30 minutes to go until dinner time, you will preheat your cast iron pan for the steaks. Don't add anything to it, just preheat it. I preheated over a 4 heat. Slice (and seed if too mature) the zucchini and sprinkle with salt and let sit while you preheat another pan (could be cast iron, but I used my 12" non stick pan) with a little oil. Add the veggies and sauté'.
The hardest part is the steak. You want a ripping hot pan, although not as hot as my pan was (about 620ºF). Because of the hot pan (shoot for about 500 lol) you do not want to use anything like garlic on the steak, it will burn and destroy the taste of the steak. So things like McCormick Steak Seasoning is out for a pan fry like this because it contains a lot of garlic. I seasoned my steak with simple salt and pepper (fresh cracked, always) and just a light dusting of chipotle powder. This chipotle powder will add a little smokie flavor to the steak while adding just a hint of heat, and it will give the outside of the steak a darker look after cooked.
So with about 10 minutes until dinner time, pour some oil in your cast iron pan and very quickly place the steaks in the pan. I use avocado oil in my cooking for most things, but you use what oil you like. And if your pan was as hot as mine, have a lid ready because that oil can ignite and I was ready for it. While you are cooking the steak, toss the veggies and check on the potato's. If you did everything correctly, you should have everything ready at the same time. Of course the steak time will depend on how you like your steak done. For a Ribeye steak, I like a M-Rare to Medium only because of all the fat that I want to render out within the steak. Any other cut of steak (for the most part) I want Rare to M-Rare.
After eating, I had two plates, two forks, two knives, two pans and the drip tray from my toaster oven (the butter will drip out of the aluminum foil) to wash. So dishes take all of about 5 minutes. Dry the dishes and put away, another 5 minutes, and while you are drying the dishes, place the cast iron pan over the burner on low to medium heat and when you are done putting everything away, put a little oil in your cast iron pan, wipe it all over (including handle and bottom) and kill the heat. It's ready for the next use and will never rust by doing this.
So an hour of my time and 9 dishes to make an amazing meal that you would have paid $50 minimum for at a steak house. Our cost on this was somewhere around $25 as they were Angus Ripeye steaks. It does not cost much money (relatively speaking), doesn't take too much time and there are not that many dishes.
What about an every day meal for a family. I actually talked about this to my wife. A few weeks ago, my daughter didn't want to cook anything next door and my grandmother next door didn't want to cook either. So the wife took a FROZEN roast and placed it inside our pressure cooker with a little water and set it to high pressure for 35 minutes. Once that timer went off, opened up and placed carrots, onions and potatoes in there (she did add seasoning to the meat) and went for another 10 minutes and we had an outstanding beef roast meal with potatoes and veggies. The roast was $9.00 I think, potatoes are cheap as beans as are the carrots and onions. And we had just the bowls, spoons and pot to clean. Took less than an hour to make an amazing meal.
I can hear it now "not everyone has a pressure cooker" and you are right. However they are more accessible and cheap as ever. I am not one to jump on this bandwagon, but just to use a brand name you have heard of, the Instant Pot is a pressure cooker. Simple and easy to use. How do I know, because that is what the above was cooked in. Only reason we got it was because of the stainless steel pot inside it and it is also an air fryer (not much of a fan of the air fryer, would rather have an oven style air fryer personally).
Want to be super lazy? Do breakfast burrito's. Simple.
So don't rely on premade, or boxed meals! Granted, those Homestyle Bakes are pretty great lol. You can make fresh meals for you and your family quite easily!
This got me to thinking, why do people think it is so hard to cook a meal? I don't follow any kind of food group, I don't care what is on my plate, as long as it is fresh and moderately healthy. To me, preparing a meal is not hard and only takes a short time, and in most cases, very little dishes. Granted, it is just the wife and I at home now, but still, we used to prepare for a family of 4 (back then, the wife did the cooking lol).
Lets take the meal I prepared for the 4th of July, an amazing Ribeye steak with an herb roasted baked potato and some sautéed Asparagus and zucchini (zucchini was from our garden). You start with laying some butter on some aluminum foil, sprinkle with salt and herbs of your choice, and wrap that around a potato. Stick the potato in the oven (or in my case the toaster oven) at 350ºF for about 1 hour. With about 30 minutes to go until dinner time, you will preheat your cast iron pan for the steaks. Don't add anything to it, just preheat it. I preheated over a 4 heat. Slice (and seed if too mature) the zucchini and sprinkle with salt and let sit while you preheat another pan (could be cast iron, but I used my 12" non stick pan) with a little oil. Add the veggies and sauté'.
The hardest part is the steak. You want a ripping hot pan, although not as hot as my pan was (about 620ºF). Because of the hot pan (shoot for about 500 lol) you do not want to use anything like garlic on the steak, it will burn and destroy the taste of the steak. So things like McCormick Steak Seasoning is out for a pan fry like this because it contains a lot of garlic. I seasoned my steak with simple salt and pepper (fresh cracked, always) and just a light dusting of chipotle powder. This chipotle powder will add a little smokie flavor to the steak while adding just a hint of heat, and it will give the outside of the steak a darker look after cooked.
So with about 10 minutes until dinner time, pour some oil in your cast iron pan and very quickly place the steaks in the pan. I use avocado oil in my cooking for most things, but you use what oil you like. And if your pan was as hot as mine, have a lid ready because that oil can ignite and I was ready for it. While you are cooking the steak, toss the veggies and check on the potato's. If you did everything correctly, you should have everything ready at the same time. Of course the steak time will depend on how you like your steak done. For a Ribeye steak, I like a M-Rare to Medium only because of all the fat that I want to render out within the steak. Any other cut of steak (for the most part) I want Rare to M-Rare.
After eating, I had two plates, two forks, two knives, two pans and the drip tray from my toaster oven (the butter will drip out of the aluminum foil) to wash. So dishes take all of about 5 minutes. Dry the dishes and put away, another 5 minutes, and while you are drying the dishes, place the cast iron pan over the burner on low to medium heat and when you are done putting everything away, put a little oil in your cast iron pan, wipe it all over (including handle and bottom) and kill the heat. It's ready for the next use and will never rust by doing this.
So an hour of my time and 9 dishes to make an amazing meal that you would have paid $50 minimum for at a steak house. Our cost on this was somewhere around $25 as they were Angus Ripeye steaks. It does not cost much money (relatively speaking), doesn't take too much time and there are not that many dishes.
What about an every day meal for a family. I actually talked about this to my wife. A few weeks ago, my daughter didn't want to cook anything next door and my grandmother next door didn't want to cook either. So the wife took a FROZEN roast and placed it inside our pressure cooker with a little water and set it to high pressure for 35 minutes. Once that timer went off, opened up and placed carrots, onions and potatoes in there (she did add seasoning to the meat) and went for another 10 minutes and we had an outstanding beef roast meal with potatoes and veggies. The roast was $9.00 I think, potatoes are cheap as beans as are the carrots and onions. And we had just the bowls, spoons and pot to clean. Took less than an hour to make an amazing meal.
I can hear it now "not everyone has a pressure cooker" and you are right. However they are more accessible and cheap as ever. I am not one to jump on this bandwagon, but just to use a brand name you have heard of, the Instant Pot is a pressure cooker. Simple and easy to use. How do I know, because that is what the above was cooked in. Only reason we got it was because of the stainless steel pot inside it and it is also an air fryer (not much of a fan of the air fryer, would rather have an oven style air fryer personally).
Want to be super lazy? Do breakfast burrito's. Simple.
So don't rely on premade, or boxed meals! Granted, those Homestyle Bakes are pretty great lol. You can make fresh meals for you and your family quite easily!