Wow, what a thread! Took me a long time to read all that. I don’t see anything wrong with quick and easy if you can manage to do it while making good choices for your health. That being said, I have a book called “Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet” and by the time I’m done making one of those recipes it’s more like the 10, 15 or 20 ingredient gourmet. I can’t leave well enough alone, I always think, “oh this would be good in here too!” I love to cook, but I don’t always have time for elaborate stuff so I have some sort of halfway meals that can be thrown together with minimal time/effort. I make my falafel from a box mix, I use canned pasta sauce, I eat frozen faux meat products a couple times a week. But I add vegetables, whole grains, etc to round out the meals, and a lot of those things don’t take a lot of time or complicated preparation. I must say eating healthier and getting into vegan cooking really expanded my cooking repertoire. I can cook without a recipe (I make “leftover soup” too, someone else mentioned it in this thread), and I can modify recipes to make them more to my taste. In fact, I prefer my own cooking to just about anything else. Might sound arrogant, but what can I say, I know what I like.
Wow, Nightengale - you put more effort into a day's worth of bike riding than I do in a year's worth of cooking!
One more thing I want to add is that, (not talking about apples here) with prepared fast foods is that they are almost always too salty or too sweet for my tastes. I just plain don't like them, even if it were shown that sugar and other sweeteners and salt were the healtiest things on the planet, I wouldn't like 'em. Prepared yogurts with fruit (and sweetener) added -- too sweet for me. Canned sauces and frozen entrees -- too salty. Again, I am sure there are exceptions, but this is just an overall assessment.
LOL! Prioritizing, I guess! Like you said in your initial post, it's amazing how much effort we're willing to put into some things but not others. I'm a lazy cook!
I do agree that fresh things taste so, so much better, but I'm too lazy to put the time into making them (most of the time) ...except raw fruits and veggies with dip, but I'm talking about preparing meals here, not grabbing food or eating snacks. Perhaps I've adapted my taste buds to like these pre-made things because I still have to eat and all, yanno?
The funny thing about homemade soup is that it takes a long time to make, but it's one of the "easiest" recipes I use because I can put anything I want in it, and there's no time crunch. I make soup on laundry days or lazy days when we'll be home all day, but don't want to work too hard. The pot simmers and whenever I feel like it, I add an ingredient or two, and more water as I need to. I've literally had soup that has taken three days to make.
Wow, that sounds like you're slaving all day in the kitchen doesn't it. But it's like this
Day 1
Pot of water - add chicken carcass one quartered onion, one unpeeded carrot, and several leafy stems of celery (also rinsed, but not cut up) and maybe a cabbage core. Add a bouillon cube or two, or a couple teaspoons of powdered soup base. Simmer on low until about an hour before bedtime. Take soup of heat, cover with lid. In 30 minutes put in fridge pot and all.
Day 2 Skim fat, strain soup. Pick meat off chicken carcass and toss the bones and all the soup solids. Put broth back in fridge or simmer some more, and start adding ingredients from a can, or fresh. Cool as in day 1 if you're not finished with the soup by the end of the day.
Day 2 or 3 Every once in a while chop some veggies and add to the pot. If adding pasta, add about 15 minutes before serving.
Now this can also end up 4 day or even 7 day soup or soups. Because we often add ingredients to make different soups along the way. So we might have say chicken noodle soup on day 1, and then add tomatoes and veggies for chicken noodle vegetable the next..
Yep, soup is my favorite slow, but easy cooking. You can throw just about anything in it and it tastes good. Leftovers whether meats, or spaghetti or casseroles can often be just thrown into one big mystery pot. About the only thing I haven't thrown into the mystery pot is pizza or fish leftovers. The only problem is that if it turns out fabulous, you'll probably never be able to recreate it again.
I have a beat up copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette (the three original books put together as one). Some of her ideas are ridiculous to me (I am NOT going to wash out ziploc bags), but there were alot of tips that even when I was working, I could put into practice to save money.
The only problem is that if it turns out fabulous, you'll probably never be able to recreate it again.
I have this problem a lot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaplods
I have a beat up copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette (the three original books put together as one). Some of her ideas are ridiculous to me (I am NOT going to wash out ziploc bags), but there were alot of tips that even when I was working, I could put into practice to save money.
Um, I wash out ziplocs. Does that make me crazy? It's more of an environmental "recycle/reduce/reuse" policy I have more than a cost saving measure. You should see my "tupperware" collection.
Made a lovely squash soup yesterday out of veggie odds and ends in the fridge, took an hour start to finish, including roasting the squash. I don't think I've ever made anything that took several days! Unless you count letting things marinate in the fridge.
No, not crazy, just much more dedicated and environmentally conscious than I. When I first got the book, I thought I should at least give it a try, but I buy super cheap ziplocs, and they just collapse onto themselves, almost like trying to wash cling wrap. So I use mostly gladware type disposable dishes (that I do wash instead of throw away). I do use bags to marinate meat and store fruits and veggies. While I'll rinse and reuse the fruit and veggie bags. I pitch any that I used for marinades, cheese, meat or anything with a greasy residue.
Oh and as for the soup taking several days, it's not because it HAS to, it's just because I often think of starting soup during chore days, when we're doing laundry, cleaning the fridge.... The soup is on the back burner, simmering slowly, and I lose track of time. I usually do try to make it at least a two day soup, because it's the easiest way I've found to skim fat. Since I often use fatty bits like wings to make the soup, I wan't the flavor, but not the fat. Skimming while the soup is hot, never seems to remove enough of the fat, so cooling in the fridge is the easiest way. In the morning, the fat has risen to the top and solidified, so it's easy to remove.
My all- or nearly-all-veggie soup is always a 1 day soup (well, except that it also can end up a perpetual pot with new stuff added to keep the pot going). Basically I start with tomato soup, vegetable or chicken broth powder and throw in all of the veggies I want, and just simmer til the veggies are soft.
Um, I wash out ziplocs. Does that make me crazy? It's more of an environmental "recycle/reduce/reuse" policy I have more than a cost saving measure. You should see my "tupperware" collection.
I do this too, for the same reasons, but not all the time. Only if I had something like nuts, cereal, etc in the bag. If anything was in the bag that needed to be refrigerated, then I usually don't re-use it.
As for meals, though, I do a lot of 5-ingredient type stuff but I NEVER user recipes! In the summer, I will grill lean meat with BBQ sauce or marinade it first (store-bought marinade), and grill veggies with it. I'll usually make a side-dish as well - baked beans, rice, etc. I've been big on vegetarian baked beans lately.
I do a lot more cooking with more ingredients in the winter. It is a comfort thing for me. I'll spend lots of time making soups, cooking whole turkeys or turkey breasts and freezing the extra meat or using for soups, and take out a recipe or two. I don't make my own broth though, that would take way too much time for it to be worth it to me.
I guess in the summer I have a few things that make me want to cook less:
1. Its hot!
2. Its not winter, so I want to take advantage of the weather and go on long walks or do more exercise.
3. I actually tend to work more in the summer, and if I'm not working then I am usually working on my house and don't have a ton of free time.
Guess I never stopped to think about these things before
I do tend to follow a mostly whole foods lifestyle, though. I let a few things through (need my Fiber One bars!) but I usually make all my food. It may be quick and easy, but its still made by me and not McDonald's or something like that, so I don't really care. My hubby will eat anything I make, and never complains. He likes my cooking, so I don't bother changing it What surprises me the most is that he ALSO likes steamed or grilled veggies with NOTHING on them - no butter, no spices, nothing. Just like nature intended and that's my favorite way to eat them too!
I can’t leave well enough alone, I always think, “oh this would be good in here too!” I love to cook, but I don’t always have time for elaborate stuff so I have some sort of halfway meals that can be thrown together with minimal time/effort. I make my falafel from a box mix, I use canned pasta sauce, I eat frozen faux meat products a couple times a week. But I add vegetables, whole grains, etc to round out the meals, and a lot of those things don’t take a lot of time or complicated preparation. I must say eating healthier and getting into vegan cooking really expanded my cooking repertoire. I can cook without a recipe (I make “leftover soup” too, someone else mentioned it in this thread), and I can modify recipes to make them more to my taste. In fact, I prefer my own cooking to just about anything else. Might sound arrogant, but what can I say, I know what I like. 
Like you said in your initial post, it's amazing how much effort we're willing to put into some things but not others. I'm a lazy cook! 
My hubby will eat anything I make, and never complains. He likes my cooking, so I don't bother changing it 