• LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
    ·
    3 months ago

    We love to see it

    I used to be a Taco Bell and Little Caesars schlub, and getting a rice cooker and pressure cooker to prepare homemade beans and rice and learning how to make pizza dough and make it in a home oven occasionally has cut down my "damn I'm eating garbage" ratio a lot

    Best of luck rat-salute-2

    • Hexbear2 [any]
      ·
      3 months ago

      Oh yeah! Take-out pizza was a weekly regular thing for me too! 30 bucks for the pizza meant it was costing 15 bucks for a single meal, half a large pizza, not only was it thousands of calories, but I got to thinking what else I could buy and cook for $15 bucks, and it always ate me up inside, that's enough for a luxury meal if buying the ingredients and cooking it myself, something like a 6-8 oz steak or salmon and 4 oz shrimp dinner with 2 healthy sides like asparagus and basmati rice. Not to mention how much less something like tofu, beans, lentils, or even chicken or pork would cost!

      • LocalOaf [they/them, ze/hir]
        ·
        3 months ago

        Big blocks of cheese from Costco and bulk tomato sauce and diced tomatoes are a huge saver in bulk versus shredded cheese packs at supermarkets. Costco have variety packs of pretty high quality pastas sometimes too that are great deals. Other than that, I normally rotate discount pasta varieties from Kroger, but if you have the time and means to build up a collection of seasonings and spices and learn some cooking skills, you can save a lot versus the equivalent eating out, and can watch calories easier when you measure stuff yourself. I was shocked how much added salt and fat are in a lot of chain restaurant meals. I really like adding dried TVP to sauces sometimes for extra texture and protein, that kinda works for Italian and Mexican style cooking the way tofu does for a lot of Asian recipes. Bulk dried beans, barley and garbanzos are relatively cheap at places like WinCo and store well and you can get a lot of mileage out of, and if you have a Korean grocery chain nearby, they often have the best prices on bulk rice and a great selection of seasonings and frozen seafood.

        For your health! chefs-kiss