The "food stamp fridge"

[whoviana]

I didn't know you had cameras inside my house.

And I also didn't know that this was some sort of a deathmatch. Or that you get to decide who is and who isn't capable of managing their household. Or that you get to be a judge of ANY aspect of my life.

I checked and guess what. You DON'T. Maybe minding your own business would help? winkie wink wink

ETA we don't eat sodium-filled canned food. We have takeouts from fairly decent restaurants and hawker centers. But that's still OUR business and OUR business only, none of yours, still. And it will never be any of your business.

[utter solitude]

You're the one starting a pissing match, not me. You literally let us all know you feel making food at home is soooooooooo much work. It really isn't, but you can have whatever opinion you like.

Don't put your business on a snark site, ffs, and then cry when someone offers a dissenting opinion.

Just because your food doesn't come from a can doesn't make it a sparkling healthy meal, and doesn't mean it's not full of excess sodium (or anything else. Sodium is a concern for me, so I'm happy to make food at home and ensure I know what's going into it) I also can't afford to eat takeout, so I don't. It's not that serious :D

[Trynn]

If I've been standing at work all day, the last thin I want to so is stand for 15 whole minutes to cook, and he. Another 10 minutes afterward to clean. After 10 hours of doing nothing but standing with only one 15 min break allowed, I am not doing anything hat requires more standing.

Most people who work min wage have the same issue.

[utter solitude]

If I've been standing at work all day, the last thin I want to so is stand for 15 whole minutes to cook, and he. Another 10 minutes afterward to clean. After 10 hours of doing nothing but standing with only one 15 min break allowed, I am not doing anything hat requires more standing.

Most people who work min wage have the same issue.

You get one 15 minute break? That sucks! :( The last time I had a job with that kind of set up, I got another one XD Luckily I was able to.

[alba]

I made tuna noodle casserole earlier this week and it took a (shock!) whooping 15 minutes to assemble to put in the oven. This includes chopping onions/garlic/celery and making bechamel sauce (I can't stand cream of ___ soups in my food)

It took about 10 minutes to clean up afterward, including the dishes.

Either I'm some kind of genie, people grossly overestimate how long it takes to cook from scratch, or they're making some horrifically complicated food.

It takes me at least an hour to cook most things from scratch, when you factor in the time spent simmering/baking (not an issue if I cook ahead of time, but it makes cooking dinner every evening difficult). I get around it by cooking most of my stuff on the weekend and just reheating during the week, but I am damn slow at chopping veg :P

[whoviana]

If I've been standing at work all day, the last thin I want to so is stand for 15 whole minutes to cook, and he. Another 10 minutes afterward to clean. After 10 hours of doing nothing but standing with only one 15 min break allowed, I am not doing anything hat requires more standing.

Most people who work min wage have the same issue.

You must leave your job! You not wanting to slave away over a hot stove will make you a horrible homemaker, wife, mother, woman, everything! Your husband will leave you etc, don't you see?!

ETA Also, as you see here, it is your wifely or womanly duty to COOK FROM SCRATCH, if you don't you are worthless as a woman, you are a horrible housewife, a bad parent and you TOTALLY suck at bed too, just ask the cockoo monster!

[utter solitude]

It takes me at least an hour to cook most things from scratch, when you factor in the time spent simmering/baking (not an issue if I cook ahead of time, but it makes cooking dinner every evening difficult). I get around it by cooking most of my stuff on the weekend and just reheating during the week, but I am damn slow at chopping veg :P

I will say, I couldn't imagine doing it every single day. Even if it's a fairly uncomplicated dish (like a casserole) it's still extra energy being spent after work, like Trynn's pov. That's why I cook in batches that'll last a few days :)

[louisa05]

I made tuna noodle casserole earlier this week and it took a (shock!) whooping 15 minutes to assemble to put in the oven. This includes chopping onions/garlic/celery and making bechamel sauce (I can't stand cream of ___ soups in my food)

It took about 10 minutes to clean up afterward, including the dishes.

Either I'm some kind of genie, people grossly overestimate how long it takes to cook from scratch, or they're making some horrifically complicated food.

Yesterday, I was woke by the phone at 7:30 to be at a job at 8--giving me all of 15 minutes to get ready. Spent the day corralling primary kids in music class, opening milk cartons on lunch duty and ended helping with this school district's utterly insane micromanagement of dismissal. I got home at 3:30, took some pork chops out of the freezer and finally sat down for the first time all day. Got called at 3:45 that I was needed at same job today. No food for lunches or breakfast left in the house. Hightailed it to the grocery store to stock up. Got back home. At 4:55 I slapped the pork chops on the Foreman Grill with a little garlic powder on them, put frozen broccoli in the microwave, heated up leftover rice from two days ago in the microwave. All on the table in LESS than fifteen minutes. And you can actually SIT DOWN while meat is on the Foreman. Threw the dishes in the sink, could not wash them because I forgot we were out of dish soap. Put wet paper towels on the Foreman (it works!) and closed it. Finished religious ed lesson prep, left for church, taught. Stopped for dish soap on the way home and husband dried while I washed. Dishes done in about five minutes. Husband wiped off the Foreman while I took a shower.

Not every meal requires slicing, dicing, simmering or marinating. Sometimes, I feel like the foodie movement is doing a great disservice by convincing people that every meal must be complicated.

[Firiel]

You must leave your job! You not wanting to slave away over a hot stove will make you a horrible homemaker, wife, mother, woman, everything! Your husband will leave you etc, don't you see?!

ETA Also, as you see here, it is your wifely or womanly duty to COOK FROM SCRATCH, if you don't you are worthless as a woman, you are a horrible housewife, a bad parent and you TOTALLY suck at bed too, just ask the cockoo monster!

Ummm... no one said that. People just called you out when you said it was cheaper to get take-out than to cook.

Anyway, yesterday I totally didn't feel like cooking (not unusual), so I ate two cookies and melted a couple of slices of cheese. Oh, I had chocolate milk (home-mixed!) too. :dance:

[whoviana]

What is there to "call out" on a statement which is entirely true for us? You know nothing about our lives and I know nothing about yours. I think the calling out thing was rather dedicated to my low post count than to the content of my post here, and that's about it. We never eat processed meat, processed cheese products or processed anything. If we were to buy our steaks, free-range stuff, quality vegetables - we splurge on food but it is our business - it wouldn't be cheaper at all.

Cooking sliced hot dogs with pasta at home, smothered in ketchup and calling it bolognese, yes, that's cheaper, I admit that much. Question is, how much of a housewife does that make you, and what does it tell about the rest of your household, since some individuals here would like to predict the entire outcome of my life based on the fact that I don't waste my time hunting for food, preparing it and cleaning up after it everyday, and I'm not forced to do that either. We have better things to do - in fact, anything is better than grocery shopping, peeling stuff or cleaning the kitchen, which is a neverending labor. And, it's none of my business if some people can't get over this :lol:

[Firiel]

What is there to "call out" on a statement which is entirely true for us? You know nothing about our lives and I know nothing about yours. I think the calling out thing was rather dedicated to my low post count than to the content of my post here, and that's about it. We never eat processed meat, processed cheese products or processed anything. If we were to buy our steaks, free-range stuff, quality vegetables - we splurge on food but it is our business - it wouldn't be cheaper at all.

Cooking sliced hot dogs with pasta at home, smothered in ketchup and calling it bolognese, yes, that's cheaper, I admit that much. Question is, how much of a housewife does that make you, and what does it tell about the rest of your household, since some individuals here would like to predict the entire outcome of my life based on the fact that I don't waste my time hunting for food, preparing it and cleaning up after it everyday, and I'm not forced to do that either. We have better things to do - in fact, anything is better than grocery shopping, peeling stuff or cleaning the kitchen, which is a neverending labor. And, it's none of my business if some people can't get over this :lol:

Good thing I'm not a house-wife 'cause I love me some Ramen.

I think it's fine that cooking isn't worth the time and effort for you. It's usually not worth it for me, either. I don't hate cooking so much, but I haaaaaaate cleaning the kitchen, an unfortunate side-effect cooking.

It's cool that your community has cheap take-out paces that use free-range meat and eggs and don't use any processed foods! Are there a lot in your area or are you limited to 2-3?

[utter solitude]

Actually, I didn't realize you had a low post count until you mentioned it just now XD

You're reading waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into a simple discussion. I'm not judging you, and you opened yourself up to have your statements interpreted, just as I have. Frankly, I find the insinuation that it takes so much time to cook that you're somehow better off since you don't do it to be laughable. It's just that simple. You gotta realize, when you say something here, people are going to read and comment, and they're not all going to agree with you. ;)

What's funny is you bitched and moaned claiming I was making assumptions about you, and now you're clearly doing it about me XD That said, I'm not interested in measuring dicks, and am trying to figure out if you're trolling or not :shifty-kitty:

[Rescinded and Mended]

I'll admit to blocking off one day a month and standing in front of the stove for hours to cook several pots of stew or dishes of casserole. But that's because I also take forever to chop veggies (wish I was faster), and I hate cleaning the kitchen all the time. It seriously starts to get to me. So I make up a bunch of tasty meals at once and then eat off of them for awhile. I try to make things I can pair with fruit or a veggie (or both).

[whoviana]

We live and work in a relatively nice residential area where there is a large selection of restaurants, but to be honest we don't mind popping by street vendors and pick up some masala with handmade flatbreads. I can't imagine messing up the kitchen with those delicious flatbreads, and the process also makes the house reek of oil and bread for a day. I gave it a try, even tho' we don't even have a large flat surface for those breads. Whatevs. I like to chat about food, and I was happy to find out that people here in general, think that what the Duggars eat is outrageously bad, and then whoomp, I get called a lousy HOUSEKEEPER (= bad wuman) for not willing to cook. Kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. Whatevs.

[utter solitude]

We live and work in a relatively nice residential area where there is a large selection of restaurants, but to be honest we don't mind popping by street vendors and pick up some masala with handmade flatbreads. I can't imagine messing up the kitchen with those delicious flatbreads, and the process also makes the house reek of oil and bread for a day. I gave it a try, even tho' we don't even have a large flat surface for those breads. Whatevs. I like to chat about food, and I was happy to find out that people here in general, think that what the Duggars eat is outrageously bad, and then whoomp, I get called a lousy HOUSEKEEPER (= bad wuman) for not willing to cook. Kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. Whatevs.

What the Duggars eat IS bad. All those cans!!!! It's not so much cooking as heating shit up. I'm always secretly hoping that what we see them cook when the cameras are there aren't what they usually eat, but I'm not gonna hold my breath on it.

Nobody called you a bad "housekeeper", a couple people just disagreed with some of your comments. It's not that serious or personal on you.

[happy atheist]

We live and work in a relatively nice residential area where there is a large selection of restaurants, but to be honest we don't mind popping by street vendors and pick up some masala with handmade flatbreads. I can't imagine messing up the kitchen with those delicious flatbreads, and the process also makes the house reek of oil and bread for a day. I gave it a try, even tho' we don't even have a large flat surface for those breads. Whatevs. I like to chat about food, and I was happy to find out that people here in general, think that what the Duggars eat is outrageously bad, and then whoomp, I get called a lousy HOUSEKEEPER (= bad wuman) for not willing to cook. Kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. Whatevs.

Please show me where someone called you a lousy housekeeper, and where on FJ anyone equates housekeeping with being a good woman.

[keen23]

It's easy to cook at home, just marry a chef, and make him do the chopping parts. (being flip here, but yeah, I totally make my chef husband do the crappy prep work because he's so much better at it than me)

[whoviana]

Clearly you don't, if you can't be bothered to make food yourself.

THERE YOU ARE. You asked me to point it out, there.

As to the 2nd question: I wasn't generalizing FJ people. *steps out and wipes feet

[utter solitude]

You have cut the quote from me to remove the context, so allow me to refresh your memory:

Clearly you don't, if you can't be bothered to make food yourself. :wink-kitty:

Nothing wrong with buying premade food, of course. I just don't think I could do all that extra sodium that tends to come in prepackaged/precooked food.

You were talking about what a chore it is to cook, listing a ton of steps as if every single one is required for a homecooked meal, and I made a sarcastic comment about making less complicated meals :D Then, you claim you love your complicated meals, (that you claim you don't cook because they're complicated) so of course I responded by pointing out that hypocrisy.

Even the way you quoted it, I was not insulting you. In fact, you even left out the part where I said "Nothing wrong with buying premade food, of course" but then that doesn't feed your "I was insulted!" bullshit ;)

ETA: I will say, that I find this discussion interesting, as your opinion is pretty much the opposite of mine :sick: it's interesting to hear it from the other side.

[whoviana]

It is none of your business what we eat.

You DID state that our household can't be smoothly running and organized since I can't be bothered to cook.

You can't and won't stop so I will.

PS: someone makes a living of preparing our "complicated food" and we pay for it, it is a business exchange between us and the ones making a living doing it. How do you get in the picture? You just don't. Who are you to judge us and our household? Absolutely no one. Will you stop? You probably won't, you don't look like that to me. What do we eat? Well, what is it to you? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now keep on spinning if you please. It's like one big, empty ring for you now, it's all yours, enjoy. And, enjoy your "bolognese". ; )))))))))) piece out :fsm: :fsm: :fsm: happy cooking :stir-pot:

[utter solitude]

It is none of your business what we eat.

You DID state that our household can't be smoothly running and organized since I can't be bothered to cook.

You can't and won't stop so I will.

PS: someone makes a living of preparing our "complicated food" and we pay for it, it is a business exchange between us and the ones making a living doing it. How do you get in the picture? You just don't. Who are you to judge us and our household? Absolutely no one. Will you stop? You probably won't, you don't look like that to me. What do we eat? Well, what is it to you? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Now keep on spinning if you please. It's like one big, empty ring for you now, it's all yours, enjoy. And, enjoy your "bolognese". ; )))))))))) piece out :fsm: :fsm: :fsm: happy cooking :stir-pot:

I said nothing about your household. I already explained my comment, and will not explain it further.

I've commented on your comments because you've posted them online, on a snark board. When you do that, you will get dissenting opinions. You don't want people to comment about what you eat? Don't post about it.

I'm not responding to your little insults. :dance:

Back on topic:

I was at Walmart yesterday and, for the first time in a long time, found someone I judged over their foodstamp usage. This lady had a cart full of chips, pop, and other snacks, as well as some beer and other alcohol. It looked like party supplies. When it was all rang up, she swiped a card, and the cashier gave her a second total (this is how I knew she was even using SNAP) and she went off. Apparently, the total was more than she expected. The reason? Her and bitters are not covered by SNAP. She would not calm down, and had to be threatened with the police just to get her to leave (without her alcohol)

Now, I don't know this woman and I try not to judge, but it really felt like she was using assistance to pay for a party, and that doesn't sit well with me. Unless she just eats snack cakes and chips every day?

[Ivycoveredtower]

I said nothing about your household. I already explained my comment, and will not explain it further.

I've commented on your comments because you've posted them online, on a snark board. When you do that, you will get dissenting opinions. You don't want people to comment about what you eat? Don't post about it.

I'm not responding to your little insults. :dance:

Back on topic:

I was at Walmart yesterday and, for the first time in a long time, found someone I judged over their foodstamp usage. This lady had a cart full of chips, pop, and other snacks, as well as some beer and other alcohol. It looked like party supplies. When it was all rang up, she swiped a card, and the cashier gave her a second total (this is how I knew she was even using SNAP) and she went off. Apparently, the total was more than she expected. The reason? Her and bitters are not covered by SNAP. She would not calm down, and had to be threatened with the police just to get her to leave (without her alcohol)

Now, I don't know this woman and I try not to judge, but it really felt like she was using assistance to pay for a party, and that doesn't sit well with me. Unless she just eats snack cakes and chips every day?

I would have judged her not so much because of what she got but the way she handled the situation. I mean That's just horrible it's not the cashier's fault that something isn't covered and it sounds like she was not very nice at all if they had to threaten to call the cops.

[louisa05]

ETA: I will say, that I find this discussion interesting, as your opinion is pretty much the opposite of mine :sick: it's interesting to hear it from the other side.

Between this and the article on Slate about ten days ago which equated cooking dinner with imposing "tyranny" on people, I am just fascinated that so many people in the world consider making food at home to be such an extreme chore and/or optional.

In my mind, preparing food (and shopping for it and cleaning up) is just part of life. We are human. We require food. So we have to acquire it, prepare it and clean up the mess. How do people come to a point where they so bitterly and loudly resent seeing to their own basic needs? How do you consider meeting your own basic needs a "waste of time"?

And, never mind, someone declaring eating out three meals a day to be a routine rather than an indication of incredible privilege...I can't even . I can make enough spaghetti and meat sauce to feed two adults for three meals and spend $7 on it. Less than that in summer when I get free tomatoes from my mother's garden. There is a very well loved spaghetti restaurant in the city closest to us. A plate of spaghetti and meat sauce there is $10.99 per person.

[utter solitude]

Between this and the article on Slate about ten days ago which equated cooking dinner with imposing "tyranny" on people, I am just fascinated that so many people in the world consider making food at home to be such an extreme chore and/or optional.

In my mind, preparing food (and shopping for it and cleaning up) is just part of life. We are human. We require food. So we have to acquire it, prepare it and clean up the mess. How do people come to a point where they so bitterly and loudly resent seeing to their own basic needs? How do you consider meeting your own basic needs a "waste of time"?

And, never mind, someone declaring eating out three meals a day to be a routine rather than an indication of incredible privilege...I can't even . I can make enough spaghetti and meat sauce to feed two adults for three meals and spend $7 on it. Less than that in summer when I get free tomatoes from my mother's garden. There is a very well loved spaghetti restaurant in the city closest to us. A plate of spaghetti and meat sauce there is $10.99 per person.

I'm going to look for this article, it sounds interesting!

To me, eating out is a treat. I'm sitting here eating a burrito from Chipotle right now, and that's a treat. (Especially since it was brought to me and I didn't have to pay for it!) I really can't imagine a situation where eating out for all/most meals would be cheaper than buying the ingredients and spending a little time to make meals. I don't cook every day. Sometimes I'm tired and microwave left overs. (I also enjoy cooking and cleaning, tho, so I try to set aside time for it. I'm lucky to be able to do so)

[Firiel]

In my mind, preparing food (and shopping for it and cleaning up) is just part of life. We are human. We require food. So we have to acquire it, prepare it and clean up the mess. How do people come to a point where they so bitterly and loudly resent seeing to their own basic needs? How do you consider meeting your own basic needs a "waste of time"?

And, never mind, someone declaring eating out three meals a day to be a routine rather than an indication of incredible privilege...I can't even . I can make enough spaghetti and meat sauce to feed two adults for three meals and spend $7 on it. Less than that in summer when I get free tomatoes from my mother's garden. There is a very well loved spaghetti restaurant in the city closest to us. A plate of spaghetti and meat sauce there is $10.99 per person.

I can understand the reticence to cook, though I do sometimes enjoy it. It's a bit like exercise is for folks who don't like exercising. It's a basic human need, but many people really struggle to enjoy it, as much as they might try. Exercise is a way of life for me (and a necessary anxiety management tool), so I don't understand how people can hate it so much. But the fact that I like it doesn't make me any better-- it just means my hobby lines garners more respect.

I still wonder what city has gourmet food trucks that only sell free-range beef and don't use ANY processed foods. And apparently still manages to be cheaper than cooking at home.