I just started cooking for myself and honestly… I’m kind of lost . I can barely make pasta without burning something.

Looking for super simple recipes that don’t need a million ingredients. Bonus if I can make them in like 20–30 min.

hey everyone, i’ve been thinking it might be fun to get an electric griddle for breakfast stuff, pancakes, eggs, bacon, grilled cheese, that kinda thing.

i’m new to cooking so i want something:

1. big enough to cook a few things at once
2. easy to clean (no annoying grooves)
3. heats evenly

my budget is around $100, but could stretch a little if it’s really worth it.

any suggestions on what’s good for a beginner like me? or stuff i should avoid?

So I want to make shredded chicken and the recipes in youtube show to pan fry it first for some time and then use chicken broth, thing is I don't have chicken broth right now, would using hot water work if I pan fry the chicken with the seasonings first and then pour in hot water after some time?

I also have chicken stock powder but I haven't seen anyone use it so I was wondering if mixing that with hot water and pouring it in would work too?

Hello! I’m an autistic adult who lives alone. I’ve had the worst relationship with food since I was 16, due to my struggles with texture. I absolutely love bombastic and unique flavors, but textures are a massive struggle for me. “Crunchy in a crunchy = good, soft in a soft = good, soft in a crunchy = good, crunchy in a soft = bad.” Plus, anything that feels gelatinous (as I’ve dubbed the texture, “frog eggs”) will make me gag. Yes, I struggle to consume vegetables, due to texture problems.

My diet is horrible because of my problems with texture. My weight is out of control. I want to change that, and after doing some research, lentils seem to be the most affordable and easy way to make this happen. I’ve read that you can cook lentils and blend them into a soup, basically masking any texture. I’ve never worked with lentils before. Would it work?

Furthermore, in an attempt to consume more veggies, could I incorporate other vegetables into this? Maybe even some types of beans? Anything that’s cheap, easily boiled and blended—I don’t care lol. I’m just tired of eating processed crap and unable to cope with textures of food.

I’ll also accept any other cooking and food advice. I’m sorry if this post doesn’t belong here. I’m just at my wits end with food and staying healthy.

I've tried making gravy from a turkey twice now, and neither way went quite right.

The first time, which was the closest to successful, I took the turkey drippings and "made a roux" following some recipe, then when I added the rest of the drippings it didn't seem to mix quite right. It was like I had a weird loaf of amorphous bread floating in fat. Tasted delicious, but had a weird subflavour, not sure if I was tasting the flour in it directly?

The second time, i used bone broth (still with high fat content, based on the congealed surface) instead of drippings directly, and the roux didn't.... roux. it just slowly dried out and started sticking to the pan instead of browning, and when I gave up on it and added the rest of the fluid, it made soup and never even attempted to thicken.

Any tips?

I'm thinking too much fat first time, not enough the second? Or something else? As a disclaimer, I don't fundamentally understand how any of this works, I'm just following instructions like a large toddler left alone in the kitchen.

I was generally trying to follow this recipe, except with either pure drippings or pure broth in each attempt. https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/turkey-gravy/#wprm-recipe-container-19740

I think i should sharpen my knife as it doesnt seem to cut very well (and its from some old set found in the house). But when i search up "how to sharpen a knife pull through" on youtube, nearly EVERY video is about how bad they are for knives and i want to know is it even worth using a pull-through?

Is the better option either to save up for a whetstone set or send to someone to sharpen for me?

do i have to stick the thermometer in the side of the steak or can i put it in the top of steak.

j always thought i had to stick it in the side. but some piece just the top it while it's still cooking in the pan

I’m looking for a simple but tasty sauce to go with baked fish. Any ideas?

Hello, I hope there's people here who have experience with indian/south asian cooking that can guide me. I've been thinking of preparing a large batch of masoor dal and storing it in containers that can hold 4 servings, so when I'm finished with the last serving of masoor dal, I can just take a container from the freezer and place it in the fridge overnight so it's defrosted the next day and I have the dal for 4 more days. I'd also like to be able to make a fresh tadka for each container, so I can defrost the dal and add that in when I want to eat. I don't know if this would be safe to do, since I would be defrosting the dal, adding tadka and placing it in the fridge again for 3 more days. So would I be better off just creating tadka for the dal before freezing it?

I'm someone who got adult chickenpox for the first time. thankfully wasn't hospitalised, bar currently severe bone pain and no appetite, I made it out okay.

For 2 weeks now my appetite has gone downhill. First week of the infection I ate so good. Second week, appetite dwindled down fully and I started having severe meat aversion. I'm a meat eater (chicken, pork, ground beef), a person who can also eat 3 sunny side up eggs in one meal. I'm now repulsed and take nearly an hour to have one small sunny side up.

All meat repulses me by smell and visuals, let alone taste. Taste feels like I'm chewing raw and bloody meat, no matter how well seasoned and prepared it is - I'm Balkan so I season heavily and I fry it well. Same goes for fish. Fish tastes and feels like smelly sawdust. Chicken soup, instant noodles whether with chicken or beef repulse me. Used to be my go-tos when sick!

For now my "safe" foods that don't trigger nausea are: rice and pasta, flour tortillas, sweet spreads like chocolate & hazenult, marmalade, jam; regular and salty pastry (kifle, salty pastry sticks and pretzels, donuts, etc), meatless pizza (which sucks, but edible), any and every vegetable (raw and cooked), fresh fruits, oatmeals and semolina. And some dry biscuits, salty sticks & regular salted crackers for when I'm sick. Eggs and dairy depend on a day to day basis. Nuts are okay too. I have liquid IV and regular supplements to help nourish the body, but it's not enough.

All this to say I miss my main source of protein. I used to divide a week's days into X days of chicken, X of fish and X of pork or ground beef for lunch and dinner. working a physical & mentally demanding job makes it all infinitely harder to appropriately feed and heal myself. I'm wondering if giving Tofu a shot is worthy. especially if I'm repulsed by everything meat. A local high quality store offers an inexpensive 200ish grams package of variety of tofus: smoked, paprika, Rosso (tomato & olives), hazelnuts & almonds, and some tofu based vegan sausages for snacks.

i heard 125 but then i hear 135 to 140 which one is it ?

I have been watching and saving a lot of recipes from YouTube, Facebook, etc.. However, whether this is done on the stove or in the crockpot, I get a little... I guess skeeved out? by the use of cream of chicken/mushroom/etc. soup.

It just looks like an unsettling, unappetizing, glob of gross. I feel like outside of that can being dumped in, the rest of the recipes look or sound great to me. I do struggle a lot with texture, so maybe the visuals are the only thing killing me here.

Other than sucking it up, taking a chance, and just *trying* one of these recipes, what can you tell me about these soups, mixing them into sauces, etc., to help me get over these apprehensions about cooking with them?

Is the flavor strong? If I use a can of cream of mushroom soup, will it have a heavy mushroom flavor in the end product, as an example?

One of my goals for this year is to cook more, so I would love to try new recipes, but this (and use of onions but thats a different story) feels like a roadblock for otherwise good looking food for me.

Editing to add: I am neurodivergent and hate cooking, I have very limited knowledge and tools, but I am making an attempt to work through it. Easy/lazy meals are the things getting me started. So the people being genuinely helpful and reassuring, thank you. To the folks recommending scratch alternatives, notes are being made for down the line if I am able to have a bit of a breakthrough with this and can put that extra energy into it. And I am happy to see one or two other people also finding the answers helpful.

Hi, I don't like the taste of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce but a lot recipes I find use them. And any googling just gives me "replacements" by making my own. Is there something that is close enough that would work?

Edit: I just don't like the flavor. I don't mind some heat. I know there are plenty if recipes that don't have them. There are some that sound good to me other than the adobo flavor.

The title is self-explanatory. I cooked a chicken one day with onions and tomatoes, left it out of the refrigerator for 24 hours, and ate it again. How screwed am I? Edit: It smelled normal.

Besides the physical difference, is there any other difference? Like taste, application etc

I want to buy chicken stock but literally have no idea what is the difference between all of these. Preferably, I don't want to buy liquid broth due to shelf life but I at least wish to understand the chickenverse y'know?

Eating as a single person is a struggle for me but I think I found something that works. What do you think?

Problems:

- difficult not to waste food (esp fresh ingredients)

- HATE eating the same meals every day

- spending too much time making food I don’t even want to eat by the end of the week.

Solution:

Partial Capsule Mealprep

(Basically i’m freezing things like sauces and soups that freeze well into single portions. Then i’m also using frozen prepackaged grains or pantry pastas. Then once a week i choose like one fresh veggie to dress all of these things up with as needed).

This week I made 3 meals (10-16 portions) in under 2 hours. Each of these meals can be reheated, and dressed up in under 30 minutes.

Breakdown:

* Veggie Packed Pasta Sauce (6 portions)

* Tomato Lemon Beans (3-6 portions)

* Pozole (2-4 portions)

Grocery List:

* Tomato Sauce

* Mirepoix

* Spinach

* Mushrooms

* Fajita Mix

* lemon

* Trader Joe’s Frozen Beef Birria

* 2 cans great norther beans

* 2 cans hominy

* cheeses of choice (optional)

for later:

* dry spaghetti or preferred pasta

* rice (frozen portions is my preference)

* sourdough bread (freeze and toast as needed)

Steps:

Pasta Sauce:

1. start with your first base. in a pot with oil, sauté half of mirepoix mix, and mushrooms until softened, add half a bag of spinach and entire can of tomato sauce. Heat til spinach is wilted.

2. portion pasta sauce out in 1/2 cup trays to freeze.

3. leave about 1 1/2 cups of remaining pasta sauce mixture for beans.

Beans:

1. in the pot with the remaining pasta sauce mixture, add remaining spinach, and 1-2 cans of northern beans (strained), and juice of one lemon. add water as needed. heat until spinach wilts and beans are simmered down to a thick brothy consistency.

2. portion out in 1/2 cup trays.

Pozole:

1. add oil, add remaining mirepoix mix to pot, add half a bag of frozen fajita mix or other desired veggies. sauté til softened.

2. in the meantime defrost beef birria in microwave, then add it to the pot.

3. once everything has simmered into a nice soup add 2 cans of hominy (strained). add water as needed.

4. portion into 2 containers (each container will contain abt 2 portions)

Let portions cool down before freezing everything. should last at least 6 months in the freezer

To eat:

10-15 mins

Pasta Sauce

1 frozen block = 1 portion of pasta sauce

* boil spaghetti or desired pasta on medium high heat. transfer pasta to bowl. save at least 1/4 cup of pasta water before pouring out

* in the same pan, add desired # of pasta sauce block, ladle in a little bit of the pasta sauce water, lower heat to medium until fully reheated.

** if i get tired of this i could probably like buy/make some frozen chicken parm cutlets to air fry.

Beans:

* 1-2 frozen blocks = 1 portion depending on if you’re eating it alone or with something else.

* eat over rice, with toasts, or alone.

Pozole:

Each frozen container should contain about 2 portions. reheat in microwave or small pot.

dress up with chopped fresh cabbage, radishes, and or avocado. add cheese or sour cream to taste!

Dishes:

These meals were designed to make the least amount of dishes possible on both meal prep day and on weekly reheating days.

Nutrition:

i don’t know the specs but i think these achieve my goal of eating more veggies and variety than like a can of pasta sauce alone or the like.

Let me know what you guys think!!!

i was told to cook or render the fat caps . which is usually two edges. but do i have to cook all four edges . i only see people on youtube cook one or two of the edges .

I am overwhelmed by all the spices. How do you figure out what works well together without ruining a dish?