Seewalds 30: No new baby, but with more recipe thread-drift

[samurai_sarah]

Carry on from here:

 

[TheMustardCardigan]

I saw the old thread had the "Hot!" label and figured she'd announced. Nope? I'm guessing we have a week or two longer. 

[singsingsing]

I want to preface this by saying that I'm not judging. I'm genuinely curious. I was never really taught to cook, I kind of just started doing it on my own, and I do enjoy cooking but the stuff I make is very basic. What I'm curious about is how an independent adult couldn't/wouldn't cook at all. I understand if it's a situation where two or more adults are living together, and one of them hates cooking and the other one doesn't mind it, but surely someone has to do the cooking?

What really perplexes me is hearing from people my age who are single and live on their own and say they can't/don't cook at all. How? What do you eat? It seems like a necessary chore that just has to get done, even if you hate it, like doing the dishes or vacuuming. I understand that there's takeout and ready made meals from the grocery store and so on, but is that really feasible/affordable for every single meal? (Like I said, I'm genuinely asking. I'm really curious as to how not cooking at all actually works on a day-to-day basis.)

[JesSky03]

10 minutes ago, singsingsing said:

I want to preface this by saying that I'm not judging. I'm genuinely curious. I was never really taught to cook, I kind of just started doing it on my own, and I do enjoy cooking but the stuff I make is very basic. What I'm curious about is how an independent adult couldn't/wouldn't cook at all. I understand if it's a situation where two or more adults are living together, and one of them hates cooking and the other one doesn't mind it, but surely someone has to do the cooking?

What really perplexes me is hearing from people my age who are single and live on their own and say they can't/don't cook at all. How? What do you eat? It seems like a necessary chore that just has to get done, even if you hate it, like doing the dishes or vacuuming. I understand that there's takeout and ready made meals from the grocery store and so on, but is that really feasible/affordable for every single meal? (Like I said, I'm genuinely asking. I'm really curious as to how not cooking at all actually works on a day-to-day basis.)

We let a friend live with us for several months while he was getting back on his feet. He cooked maybe 3 times the whole time he lived with us. He ordered pizza/takeout probably 3-4x a week and ate out for most other meals. Sometimes he would go out and buy a bunch of frozen meals when he was getting low on cash. For a while he was surviving off unemployment so I have no idea how he did it. It still baffles me...he lives on his own now and I doubt he even owns a pan. 

[Markie]

Anyone else wonder how Jessa and the other sheltered Duggars reacted when they encountered more secular forms of entertainment? I'm sure by now most of the married couples have watched tv, listened to music and read different kinds of books. Do the Seewald kids have Dr. Seuss books? How about the M kids or the little Dills? How about Fairy Tales, cartoons, tv shows? Has Jessa sat back and binge watched shows she heard of from extended family and acquaintances? I could see Ben getting excited showing her The Green Lantern, Spider-Man, Iron Man...

[SassyPants]

8 minutes ago, JesSky03 said:

We let a friend live with us for several months while he was getting back on his feet. He cooked maybe 3 times the whole time he lived with us. He ordered pizza/takeout probably 3-4x a week and ate out for most other meals. Sometimes he would go out and buy a bunch of frozen meals when he was getting low on cash. For a while he was surviving off unemployment so I have no idea how he did it. It still baffles me...he lives on his own now and I doubt he even owns a pan. 

Perhaps you could have suggested that beans and rice are cheaper than pizza, and time for an unemployed person is not as big a constraint as for those who need to work 40 hrs/week-

[Carm_88]

29 minutes ago, singsingsing said:

What really perplexes me is hearing from people my age who are single and live on their own and say they can't/don't cook at all. How? What do you eat?

I hate cooking, but I do it. I like to eat a lot more then I hate cooking. I think that people who don't cook at all, maybe it depends on what they consider cooking. If they live on those frozen dinners and chicken nuggets; would that be considered cooking? Because I know guys who lived on that and then they would go out for a big meal every couple of days. (I guess I should have said earlier, I do cook but I hate it. I grumble my way through the kitchen talking to the cats the whole time!)

Wouldn't work for me personally but...whatever floats their boats. 

 

[justmy2cents]

I don't enjoy cooking dinner. If you consider making pancakes from scratch and making my own whipped cream cooking then I am a good cook, but otherwise nope. I am in charge of breakfast on the weekends. I also make omelets and French toast.  If I'm forced to make dinner then my family has to be satisfied with a prepared roasted chicken from Shop Rite or Stop and Shop and a side of spaghetti, rice, cous cous, quinoa, gnocchi etc. I do make a big salad almost nightly and sometimes cooked peas, broccoli or baked asparagus, but I really don't enjoy the process. I do enjoy making Birthday cake though.

ETA most everything I make requires a recipe. No matter how often I make something I can't remember from one time to the next. Omelets and salads are the exception here.

[SweetJuly]

When I was living alone, I am embarrassed to admit that I lived off a mix of frozen pizza, frozen vegetables I would stir-fry, pasta plus pre-made sauce, and a variety of cheap bread and bread rolls. Some evenings I just ate the equivalent of half a jar of Nutella.

I know how to cook. My husband and I share the cooking at home nowadays, and whenever I visit my parents I am usually the one running the kitchen every day. However, when I was on my own and came home after work in the evenings, it just didn't feel like it was worth the effort.

Fortunately this was ever only something I did for a few months. I knew it was unhealthy, and I craved proper food whenever I was visiting friends or family.

[EmmieJ]

If you hate cooking, here is a simple recipe:  Buy a whole chicken.  Remove the innards and dispose of them.  Rinse the chicken with water, pat dry. Chop up a small onion and 2 celery stalks and put inside the chicken.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.  Bake at 250 for 5 hours if you have the time.  Comes out tender, falling off the bone.  Super basic, but super easy.

[SapphireSlytherin]

I cook if I have to. DH mostly cooks for us. I help prep.

We also meal-prep every Sunday for the week, so Sunday afternoons/evenings, we hang out in the kitchen and make a bunch of food for lunches/dinners. We rarely cook in the evenings - we don't eat much for dinner because we're older and have less calorie needs. We rarely eat out. Maybe once every two weeks, and generally for breakfast or lunch.

 

[Jellybean]

In the UK they recommend not rinsing the chicken because it’s likely to spread bacteria, but otherwise I would do pretty much the same! So easy!

[EmmieJ]

Not finding the chicken?  I'm not sure what that means.

[Nargus]

Before I got ‘into’ cooking I ate a lot of ramen noodles, rice, kraft dinner and frozen pre-made meal items (not like hungry man or michelinas, I mean the broccoli and cheese chicken breasts, pizzas, lasagnas) 

Then I moved on to doing stir fries, then casseroles. Now I’m game to try almost any recipe I find. 

I’m actually struggling to remember what I would make when I was living on my own for the first time 10 years ago. How did I live? Lol. 

 

[Jellybean]

I over-catered horribly my first year away from home at 18 because I was used to cooking for 7+ people! Hard to believe that one person doesn’t need an entire packet of pasta

[elliha]

If I was a SAHM the most appealing part of that would be to cook dinner. I am the type that usually eats more or less nothing for breakfast, very simple lunch and then a pretty hearty dinner. Today I made paneer with a tomato, onion and almond sauce and a meat and vegetable curry with rice. I cheated and bought pre-mixed spices from a box which I sometimes do. They are bought by a lot of people from India and Pakistan too so I don't really feel bad about it. I love making food from different parts of the world and more typical Swedish and European food too. If I have time I like baking my own bread also. I am not the type to make pretty food, I make more typical home cooking food that tastes good but doesn't necessarily look good on instagram. I can improvise a dish easily from just ingredients and I rarely use recipes other than as a general idea. However, as I work full time I so there is not always time to cook so I cheat a bit or buy something premade sometimes. 

[HermioneSparrow]

I love cooking! Always do.. Used to cooked for my family and now that I live alone I cook simple stuff.. Last night I put chicken breasts in the oven with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, green onions, garlic, parsley, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper.. Two hours roasting and it came out really yummy!!

[LilMissMetaphor]

For some reason it's cheaper to buy a fully cooked roast chicken here than to buy a raw one and do it yourself.

[Nargus]

8 minutes ago, LilMissMetaphor said:

For some reason it's cheaper to buy a fully cooked roast chicken here than to buy a raw one and do it yourself.

Depends a lot on the size of the chicken and where you get it. My mother in law found a farmer outside the city and we get chickens from him, 10 5-6lb chickens for $100-120

[AlwaysExcited]

Kinda hated cooking when I lived with my mother. Then I moved out and I fell in love with it. Apparently, we just have very different tastes. 

[mango_fandango]

I like cooking, but when I do it’s usually pasta or cakes/muffins/biscuits (cookies) of some kind  I make too much of a mess in the kitchen. 

[Stormy]

I'm planning to move out of my parent's house soon and I was doing some research on what an average single person would need to spend on groceries/food for a week; my initial search revealed that some people spend an upwards of $200/wk... Then I did a mock grocery order on Harris Teeter and came out at around $60-$80 for me. Cooking takes you far!

[VineHeart137]

Speaking of sweets, Jessa talks dessert day at the Seewald house.

 

[brusselsgriffon]

Good to know there’s something they’re not religious about 

[Bugaboo]

I have been living with my boyfriend for 8 months now and neither of us knew how to cook! We survived on a lot of burnt meals, and frozen foods. We are both now trying to work at it and we are actually getting pretty good at cooking! I still don't enjoy doing it at all, but at least the food isn't awful anymore lol. I credit Pinterest for all the recipes and inspiration for different dishes.