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The Single Man's Guide To TV Dinners 252

Posted by timothy from the between-ramen-and-alton-brown dept.
yokimbo writes "The Food Network had a show about TV dinners and how they're prepared, their history, etc... But, what about the useful information, like how they taste? Ray Cole has your solution at The Single Man's Guide to TV Dinners. Although, I think he needs to visit Web Pages That Suck." (Of course, TV dinners don't scream out the way ramen does for improvement and improvisation.)
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The Single Man's Guide To TV Dinners More

The Single Man's Guide To TV Dinners

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  • The amount of time guys waste on this stuff ..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phoxix ( 161744 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:46AM (#9288970)
    .... could be used in learning how to make real food.

    Cooking is like UNIX, invest the right amount of time and you'll be thanking yourself for the next few lifetimes.

    Sunny Dubey

    • Re:The amount of time guys waste on this stuff ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by velo_mike ( 666386 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:54AM (#9288993)
      .... could be used in learning how to make real food. Cooking is like UNIX, invest the right amount of time and you'll be thanking yourself for the next few lifetimes.

      Exactly, repeat after me "Life is too short to eat crap". Anyone who can follow basic directions can learn to cook. Cooks Illustrated [cooksillustrated.com] was a huge help in this process for me.

      • Totally agree. I didn't cook much until my girlfriend started to encourage me... Then I found this very funny book which has been a great help - Cooking for blokes: Duncan Anderson and Marian Walls [amazon.co.uk]. Note: It even includes a detailed section dedicated to explaining all those weird "gas mark" settings and spoon sizes!! Now I just wish they would write "ironing for blokes" :-)
      • I dunno, my fiance and I eat TV dinners often enough. It's not that we don't know how to cook, it's that we don't care to waste the money, prep time, and worst of all, cleaning dishes. To make most decent meals, you end up buying all sorts of different groceries (expensive). Then you get home and have to cook it (we usually don't mind this part a whole lot). Then the best part - you eat it. Then the worse part - cleaning dishes.

        We both absolutely hate doing dishes. You say life is too short to eat cr

        • I say it's just food, and life is too short to spend hours a day on shopping, preparing, and cleaning for a single meal that only feeds two people.

          Sadly this statement is the way the majority of the population thinks about eating. Food is what goes into your body, and eventually becomes the stuff you're made of. You may not value the taste, but you certainly should value the nutritional value of it. Most processed food like TV dinners contains a huge of amount of saturated fat and/or trans-fat, both
          • Of course, cooking your own meals doesn't necessarily address your health concerns.

            The most important investment in your own health is "your own health". Cooking your own meals isn't necessarily required to accomplish that but a good understanding of diet is. Eating well is possible while eating out just as eating poorly is possible while eating in.

          • Re:The amount of time guys waste on this stuff ... (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Doomdark ( 136619 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:00PM (#9290080) Homepage Journal
            Not to mention all the preservatives and other crap that's likely not very good for you.

            While I agree with the sentiment that people should really not consider food just as "whatever fills my stomach attitude" (and I wouldn't consider taste less important than nutritional value, actually), this I have beef with.

            Your statement is plain old FUD. "Hey, they are, like, chemicals, and thus they are BAD unless proven not to be, and even then they may be". I'm not biggest fan of all the techniques industry uses to shortchange us (injecting water, faking taste with MSG, garlic, salt, adding too much sugar [high-glucose corn syrup] in places it doesn't belong to), but many of additives -- especially preservatives -- are GOOD for us. Why?

            Without preservatives (including ones with some unfortunate problematic effects like nitrates), thousands of people would die in food poisoning each year in US alone. Without preservatives, much more food would be lost, meaning that current world population could not be fed (at this point it's more about distribution and economics; not a hard physical limitation). Likewise, many chemical compounds that help create or maintain proper food texture allow reducing amount of salt used (more salt is otherwise needed to preserve moisture etc.), as well as extend lifespan of products. As nice as it is to get truly fresh products, that's not always possible, esp. if you don't want your local super-dooper walmart to be the only store in town (they can have freshest produce due to huge turnover), and preservation techniques help in getting decent balance between low spoilage and fresh products.

            There's balance between being tin-foil food paranoid, and being ignoramus that blindly accepts all additives industry comes up with. It's good to know basic food microbiology and chemisty to know essential additives that make world a better place (when appropriately used) from the ones that only enrichen corporations and allow sub-standard food to be sold.

        • If you look at it the 2 most expensive ways to eat are fast food and preprocessed.

          You can either spend $15 on a fast food meal, or buy a couple of steaks, some veggies, potato etc. and have money left over for dessert.

          If you are worried about clean up, as a bachelor I got good at one pot or one pan meals.

          Woks are great. throw the protein of your choice and some veggies in it and sopice to taste. for carbos use quick pasta, rice or even microwaved potatos (trust me, it can work!).

          Crok pots are great. Thr
        • Lets do some math..

          I'm single and lazy so I cook in large batches and freeze the result.

          A real example:

          I spend an hour cooking 20 days worth of curry chicken. That meal plus rice comes down to $1.90 CDN per serving and I'm full for this amount. Then I spend 15 minutes cleaning the kitchen.

          Or I can spend $4.00 CDN on the cheapest frozen dinner and still not be full!

          Of course I don't eat that every day but I can rotate what batch of food I eat that day.

          I find that since I got into cooking for myself th

        • TV dinners are a false economy.

          Expenses? Look up the ingredients in a standard pre-prepared meal, then do the math to see what fresh ingredients would have cost you. I guarantee you will find that you come out 10 to 50% cheaper.

          Washing up? I suspect you're not eating with your fingers, so you have to wash up after a pre-prepared dinner as well. Let's be charitable and say you eat the stuff from its packaging. You have now saved the time in washing up 2 plates and 3 pans (about what you need for a 2 person dinner). Trust me, that's about 1 minute of washing up and toweling off.

          About the only thing I can say against buying fresh is that fresh ingredients come in bulk (e.g. a single head of lettuce will give 4-6 servings), and therefore you will generally have to buy for several days at once. That can be solved with a good freezer, but it is a chore.

          I found out myself that cooking with fresh ingredients is an enormous saving. I have more money to spend even though I generally have to spend about 15 minutes on a meal, and I eat like a king.

          Also, although I am not a health nut, I do find that I feel better after several days of fresh food. It appears that the methods of conservation do destroy nutrient value, to say nothing of additives.

          Lastly, pre-prepared food is often salted heavily. A month of eating fresh will cure you of your salt habit, and you'll suddenly find your taste has improved, you're now able to discriminate more flavours, and whenever you do use salt you will find that in moderation it tends to strengthen other flavours, instead of obliterating them, making for a richer experience.

          So do yourself a favour, try eating fresh for a month. You will not go back except occasionally.

          Mart
      • I would like to recommend:

        The Joy of Cooking [amazon.com]

        if you only have ONE cookbook - this is it....

    • Re:The amount of time guys waste on this stuff ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tx_kanuck ( 667833 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:06AM (#9289017)
      I'm a good cook. I throw dinner parties for my friends every once in a while. But a lot of time, I just don't want to be bothered cooking a meal for one. All the prep work, the cooking time, then the clean up involved. Sometimes I just want to nuke it , eat it, and toss it. So sites like that are kinda useful for me.

      Plus, those meals are a great last resort when you screw up the main meal. :)
      • a lot of time, I just don't want to be bothered cooking a meal for one. All the prep work, the cooking time, then the clean up involved. Sometimes I just want to nuke it , eat it, and toss it.

        One word "freezer"!

        Prepare extra food in advance, freeze, decide what you are eating the night before, thaw overnight, place in fridge whilst before going to work, return, zap, eat. Decent food at the speed of a microwave meal.

    • Re:The amount of time guys waste on this stuff ... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LarsWestergren ( 9033 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:25AM (#9289045) Homepage Journal
      Agreed. Once you are getting a bit better it is great fun. For me, it has ceased to be a chore, and feels more like a time to relax, be a bit creative.

      Also, this topic is a great opportunity to copy and paste some fun links.

      The worst breakfast ever: "Swanson, producers of some of the world's fattiest TV dinners, is seeking to take over the breakfast market with a new line of microwaveable morning meals. It's called the 'Hungry Man All Day Breakfast,' [x-entertainment.com] and it's threatening to turn people into manatees."

      For those who like Mystery Science Theatre 3000, here is a similar take on edibles; The Gallery of Regrettable Food [lileks.com]
    • Cheap, quick, nutritious meals:

      Ensure you have foodstuffs representing the following categories on hand:

      • Fresh veggies - broccoli is best, keeps well. Also consider carrots, tomatoes, greens (spinach, etc.). At a pinch, frozen veggies will do
      • Some sort of quick prepare starch - potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous
      • Protein - fish, chicken, tofu, frozen shrimp. If needed, cook in advance for the week.
      • Sauces - salsa, curry, soy, etc, Spicy is good

      start cooking the starch (steam or boil as case may be).

  • Over the years, I've gone from making ramen a meal to making it a carbohydrate base in the occasional meal. I use it similarly to a base of rice for my favorite stir-fry recipe.

    Sliced squash and zuchinni, with eggplant, stir-fried with soy sauce and optional sesame seeds. It's a basic ingredient for several dishes. Use it atop ramen or rice. Add drained black beans and rice and roll it in a burrito.

    Squash season is here. Yum.

    You gotta WORK that ramen. Make it work for you.

    • not to pile on, but yes, pasta is just as quick (think angel hair pasta as an example) and if you go for the whole wheat variety much more nurtrious. Try it, you may like it!

      And for fat, use about a a tablespoon of olive. Very good for you and makes one feel full. Better than the lard they use in ramen.

    • For a change of pace:

      take a package or two of ramen

      throw the boullion as far away as humanly possible

      cook the ramen al dente (don't laugh)

      add a dollop of spaghetti sauce according to preference

      hey presto - ramen-ghetti

      I know real spaghetti noodles aren't terribly expensive, but ramen can be significantly cheaper (important when every dollar counts). Ramen is also easier to cook (where "cook" == "make pliable").

      Sometimes I think of these meals - 10+ years in the past - when I'm putting a very th

    • Alton Brown [altonbrown.com] has a recipe in his "I'm just here for the food" [amazon.com]cookbook that makes use of a couple of ramen bricks.

      Basically, you use the ramen to suspend some fish above a soy-sauce/vege-broth mix, so that the fish gets steamed, not poached. As a side-benefit, you get some yummy ramen to slurp down. It's one of his most complex recipies (a ton of chopping), but very worthwhile.

      Chip h.

  • fav tv/ at the computer meals and approx cooking t (Score:4, Interesting)

    by shione ( 666388 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:49AM (#9288985) Journal
    hot dog + cheese (2 minutes nuked)

    Ramen noodle (cooking time 2 minutes nuked)

    frozen lasagne (10 minutes nuked)

    grated cheese on bread (5 minutes toasted)

    pasta mix (12 minutes nuked)

    potato salad straight out of the tub (instant!)

    and of course the chips and biscuits
    • I use a bit of a different method on the ramen.

      I generally fill the bowl with water and then nuke for about five minutes. It usually sits in the microwave for about five more minutes.

      After that, I drain the water and pour generous amounts of whatever cheap hot sauce I've come by.

      This last batch has been Texas Pete's hot sauce.

    • Re:fav tv/ at the computer meals and approx cookin (Score:5, Insightful)

      by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:20AM (#9289189)
      • hot dog + cheese (2 minutes nuked)
      • Ramen noodle (cooking time 2 minutes nuked)
      • frozen lasagne (10 minutes nuked)
      • grated cheese on bread (5 minutes toasted)
      • pasta mix (12 minutes nuked)
      • potato salad straight out of the tub (instant!)
      • and of course the chips and biscuits
      • doctor's appointment to get high blood pressure medication for all of the sodium you ate( 2 hours off work )
      • going to drug store to get high blood pressure medication( 1 hour every few weeks )
      • recovering from the stroke/heart attach you may eventually get from the transfats and salt(6 months - 1 year)
      • Not one healthy suggestion in the bunch. I wouldn't touch one of these things.

        And to think this is offered in the context of healthy alternatives to TV dinners!
      • What's really strange is that it takes about 8 minutes to broil chicken or fish, a cut of which probably costs less than most of his frozen meals, about 3 minutes to cook rice or thin pasta, which you can do at the same time, and it's (instant!) to take the salad out of the little pre-package baggie it comes in and toss it in a bowl.

        If you're taking a few minutes to cook yourself dinner, why not cook yourself a decent one?

  • Most Important Single Guy Food Tip (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:54AM (#9288996)

    Don't whack off after handling hot peppers.

  • Learn how to cook properly... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:55AM (#9289002) Journal
    You'll eat better, more healthy and more tasty food plus you'll acquire a social skill that might - note: might - help you get and hold onto a girlfriend.

    I've yet to meet a woman who's impressed by a man who can work a microwave. However, women do go for a guy who really can cook.

  • Needs an O'Reilly book (Score:2, Insightful)

    by gavri ( 663286 )
    I'm serious. How tough can cooking be? One definitive resource for the basics is all we need.
    A "Learning Cooking" book from O'Reilly would rock.

  • Actually, a pretty good way to lose weight (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ahertz ( 68721 ) <ahertz@yahoo.com> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:02AM (#9289011)
    Over last summer, instead of going out or cooking food for myself, I had a TV dinner almost every night, and it helped me lose a lot of weight. Why? Portion control. If you're counting calories, it's dead easy with these - just read the label. Plus, if you're like me, you always feel like you have to clean your plate. With one of the low-calorie tv dinners (Lean Cuisine is especially good tasting, compared to the others), you can - and still not overeat.

    So, if you're looking to lose a few pounds, I highly reccommend them.
    • I bought a plastic measuring cup for about $1.5 and a food scale for about $5 that let me do the same thing.

      Counting calories is a lot easier then people think.

      Most people don't vary their diets beyond more then a few things.

      After a week or two you know what the portions.

      Steve

  • No TV dinners (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:08AM (#9289020)
    I'm a guy, I live alone, I have never purchased a TV dinner or package of ramen. When I was getting my place set up, I did have a few frozen pizzas, but not any more.

    It's really easy to cook. Pasta's easy, hamburgers are easy, even homemade pizza is easy. The crock pot and bread machine are great time savers. Pork chops are easy: be sure to brine them before cooking (put them in water with some sugar and salt; osmosis does the rest). Just throw them in a pan and brown them, then add some chopped onions and other vegetables. Goes well with rice.

    Jalapeno poppers are pretty good to make once in a while, too. Pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns are 100 times better when made at home, compared to fast-food or frozen variants. The best thing about cooking at home is the leftovers: you're making a meal not only for today, but you're rescuing yourself from pulling a mystery-meat burrito from the vending machine at work tomorrow.

    Initially it takes some time, but you'll grow much more efficient. It's a good life skill to have, and you'll eat cheaper and healthier. Just make sure to buy small portions of food that perish quickly, and use them up before they go bad. You need some good tools, too. Sharp knives are a must. The first and only thing I've ever considered buying from Ronco is this huge knife set [ronco.com], and I'd have to say that for the price, they're a good deal and decently made.

  • TV Dinners are So 1950s (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Schlemphfer ( 556732 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:10AM (#9289022) Homepage
    Here's my advice on purchasing TV Dinners: Don't.

    TV dinners are industrialized, mass produced slop made from the cheapest ingredients. Even school lunches are gourmet by comparison. And the oddest part about TV dinners is that, even though they are billed as being convenient, since they are frozen food it takes forever until they are ready.

    It's Sunday morning and I'm feeling cranky, and I'd like to write several more paragraphs about how awful TV dinners are. But instead, I'm going to rise to the occasion and try to write something genuinely helpful. Below, I'll offer some suggestions on what to eat instead of TV dinners, which are always your worst choice. Everything below is tastier and healthier than TV dinners -- while being just as convenient.

    Spaghetti & Tomato sauce -- in the time it takes to boil water and heat up a jar of sauce, you're in business. Usually, I'll take a couple more minutes to mince up some garlic, and saute it in my pan with some olive oil before adding sauce. You can also buy pre-minced garlic in jars in any grocery store.

    Most of the time, I'll also grill some fresh peppers in my George Foreman grill to add to the sauce. You can start the peppers as you heat up the water to boil, and they'll be ready to cut up and add to the sauce well before the rest of the meal is ready. Anaheim or bell peppers are great choices.

    Grilled Veggies speaking of the George Foreman grill, which you can buy for less than $30 on Amazon, I use this thing all the time for ultra-healthy snacks. You can grill up just about any type of vegetable. My favorites are broccoli and cauliflower. I'll usually break them into pieces, then grill them give minutes or so. Then flip them around in the grill, turn off the power, and keep the grill on them for another five minutes or so. I'll then top with some non-transfatty acid margarine and some flax oil in a serving bowl.

    Bread Machine.Amazon.com offers a West Bend bread machine that makes a small loaf suitable for one or two people in less than an hour. You can modify the recipes so that the breads are nearly all whole grain. And it takes only about five minutes to measure out the ingredients. Then, just go away for 45 minutes, and when you get back you've got a piping hot loaf of bread, that costs something like 30 cents even if you've used organic flour.

    I hope some of this is helpful. If this inspires you, you can also try some cookbooks geared to convenient and healthy eating. There's one called _The Everyday Vegan_ which I think is especially good as a source of convenient recipes to replace TV dinners. I have no financial interest in the sale of this book; I just think it's great.

    • Re:TV Dinners are So 1950s (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yep, good tips there. However, my main problem is cleanup. Everything single thing you're doing requires cleanup. Clean the grill, clean the pans, clean the bread machine.

      Ugh, too much time. That's why a lot of people choose pre-made meals. Pop, eat, and go. No mess, nothing to clean up.
      • Cleanup after dinner only takes 15 minutes, and I cook and clean for myself and three kids.

        Clean as you go. If you chop something up, wipe up the cutting board as soon as you are done. Cooking sauce and it spatters? Clean up the mess before it has a chance to get cooked onto the stove. Give most dishes a quick rinse as soon as possible. When doing the dishes, let them air dry. Its less work and healthier (the average dish rag is a great home for bacteria). When I do the dishes I let the dishes soak for a f

    • Apropos spaghetti and tomato sauce - the time it takes to boil the water and cook the spaghetti is the time it takes to make a good simple tomato sauce. Forget about the crap in a jar (which usually contains more sugar and other crap than your body needs).

      Apropos bread machines, boyfriend of tuxette makes a wonderful wholegrain bread in his machine, using beer as the liquid.

    • you forgot the crock pot and the wok. Quick easy one pot or pan cooking. Minimal clean up.

  • Partial Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by phoxix ( 161744 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @07:16AM (#9289031)
    http://opencurve.org/~sunny/misc/tv_dinners/ [opencurve.org]

    Some images are missing, but all the text is there.

    Sunny Dubey
  • Of course, TV dinners don't scream out the way ramen does for improvement and improvisation.

    The operative word here is scream. I've known people who lived for months on ramen noodles but I still haven't figured out how they didn't get rickets or scurvy or something similar. There isn't much in the way of nutrition in those things.

  • Not for dinner, tv, or single men anymore (Score:3, Funny)

    by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:02AM (#9289122)
    At work I see almost everyone eating something from a little black plastic tray that came out of the microwave.

    I am considered to "cook" because I usually reheat something I boiled the night before.

    Steve

  • Do you know how this stuff is made? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xyote ( 598794 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:12AM (#9289150)
    Nobody I know who has ever worked in a processed food plant will ever eat the stuff. When pressed for a reason they just say "You don't want to know". I suppose it's somewhat analogous to restaurants where you don't want to know what goes on in the kitchen. But with restaurants you can at least select on the external quality of the place. With processed food the same places that make the upscale stuff also make the cheap crap you wouldn't feed to your dog. Dogs will eat anything and come to think of it, so will geeks, so maybe this really isn't an issue.
    • In some countries the food prepared for dogs and cats must be fit for human consumption. Some argue that in some cases it may be of a higher standard than that intended for humans. I met at least one person who ate a can of dog food when he was unemployed. Its not something he would do again out of choice but it was edible...

      There have been disturbing rumours and first hand accounts from people working or visiting food processing plants.

      Apparantly margarine starts of as a green cloured substance. I prefer

  • The Ramen Recipe That Got Me Through Hard Times (Score:3, Informative)

    by FauxReal ( 653820 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:17AM (#9289171)
    Yeah, I'm making this for breakfast today...

    Poor Man's Egg-Foo-Yung 1 packet ramen 1 1/2 cups of cheap frozen mixed veggies 1 egg Some water Put about a 1/2" of water in a frying pan and turn it on high. Once the water starts boiling throw the whole brick on top and reduce heat to medium and let it cook. Turn it occasionally so it sucks up all the water evenly. When the pan getting close to dry but the noodles are still a bit firm but soft, dump in the frozen veggies (you can put in half a seasoning packet and/or a tsp. sesame oil for flavor at this point) and stir cooking off the water from the frozen veggies. Once they appear thawed, dump in a scrambled egg adding salt and pepper for taste. Let this cook either stirring it up or flipping it omlette style for a filling but cheap entree.

    *Bonus tip, adding a bit of milk to the crambled egg (or two) makes it fluff up nicely. You might have to experiment wtih the water amounts a bit... I kinda freestyle my cooking without any measurements.

    • Egg drop soup (Score:3, Informative)

      by xyote ( 598794 )
      I use a slightly altered technique. Put the veggies in first and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and drop in ramen noodles and set set for 3 min and add in seasoning. Less pot watching when you do the heating this way.

      If you want egg drop soup bring back to a near boil and stir in one raw egg making sure it gets cooked properly. What I do is actually mix the egg and some lemon juice together (shake in a small closed jar is easiest technique) and stir that into headed soup mixture. You get a creamier s

  • Travels Through Asia (Score:3, Informative)

    by Deliveranc3 ( 629997 ) <<deliverance> <at> <level4.org>> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:42AM (#9289254) Journal
    On my travels through asia I have had a chance to try many of the Ramen of diffrent Asian countries. So far China has made an Excellent showing as has Japan.

    Unfortunatly some Japanese ramen tends towards the $3 soup that eats like a meal mark which is so much crap.

    It's important that ramen coniseurs get their hands on some Shin-Ramen comming out of Korea as it is definitly a staple.
    • Shin Ramyeon is about the spiciest ramyeon commonly available in the US. If you find yourself in Korea, I recommend (man I hate romanizing!) Balgaemyeon- much spicier than Shin-- even the noodles are red! Also, if you like Deokbokgi, try RaBokgi!

      Damn, I am totally jonesing for some decent Korean food-- Damn you, San Antonio!
    • The only way to make ramen noodles healthy is to remove the noodles. Talk about eating crap...

  • What is in the carrots? (Score:3, Funny)

    by thogard ( 43403 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:44AM (#9289259) Homepage
    A pet cat the knew well enough to stay away from anything veggie based, loved the cooked carrots found in TV dinners. That makes me wonder just what they made them out of and how they were made.
  • Here in Australia frozen meals really had a late start, they certainly don't have the cultural identity they seem to in the States.

    Because eating out has traditionally been an expensive way to eat in Australia everyone knew how to cook. The growth of fast food chains through the 80s and 90s into smaller and smaller towns has eroded this a little, but not to the point that the microwave is the cooking appliance of choice.

    Having cheap access to good quality ingredients also helps to encourage decent cooking

  • The more I think about it.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MtViewGuy ( 197597 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @09:16AM (#9289354)
    There is a REAL need for high-school and adult-education classes to teach how to do basic real cooking and more importantly, how to store multiple portions for later eating!

    Kitchen appliances should be your friend, not your enemy. You'll be amazed how just with basic knowledge of cooking skills you could create quite an amazing variety of decent meals. For example, go to the Campbell Soup Company website and there are a huge number of delicious recipes you can make using Campbell's Condensed Soups as a base.

    Also, you may want to invest the time and money on decent food storage; when I was living away from my parents I would make a huge pot of chicken a la king, store the portions in small Tupperware bowls, and put them in the freezer for later use over rice and/or toasted bread. You can nowadays do the same with pasta sauce, especially with the new generation of Tupperware containers that are tolerant of the acidic nature of tomato-based pasta sauces.

    It's just an extension of the old proverb "Teach a man how to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime."
    • ...and once your cooking skills become more advanced, you won't even want to touch the Campbell's soup because your homemade soups and sauces are superior.
      • ...and once your cooking skills become more advanced, you won't even want to touch the Campbell's soup because your homemade soups and sauces are superior.

        That's very true, but then you run into a situation of where preparation time can get quite long, to say the least. :-(

        But the very fact you can do some pretty amazing (yet still simple to make) dishes using Campbell's condensed soups tells me you can still do a lot more than just eating TV dinners. :-)
    • There is a REAL need for high-school and adult-education classes to teach how to do basic real cooking and more importantly, how to store multiple portions for later eating!

      I couldn't agree more. I remember in my highschool you had your choice between home economics or auto mechanics, but NOT both. When asking about the schedualing, the logic was that anyone interested in one wouldn't be at all interested in the other.
  • I can pop it in the microwave, wait 10 minutes, and have a reasonably nutritious meal. Cleanup involves throwing the box and tray in the trash.

    Cooking a similar meal from scratch is much more time consuming and messy, plus the portions are way too big for a single person.

    Looking at the prices in the supermarket, buying fresh meat and vegetables is more expensive than buying the frozen dinners. It only makes sense if you are preparing food for a group of people.

  • This guy's got a second website coming.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by telstar ( 236404 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @10:01AM (#9289522)
    "The Single Man's Guide to Bandwidth Bills - Post Slashdotting"
  • Voila! meals in a bag are a mainstay in my diet. Whether it is chicken or beef variety it is always very easy to fix and store. Just grab a pan with a lid and apply to a hot stove top with half a cup of water and in 15-20 minutes you have an adequate dinner for two. As for taste - mild to lite depending on how well you cook it. You can usually taste the veggies and the meat and pasta usually do their own thing. I usually fix 2 or 3 bags of this stuff and freeze it for quick meals through the week.

  • Opportunity (Score:3, Funny)

    by lildogie ( 54998 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @10:26AM (#9289621)
    When I was single, I had the ability to eat things that were too strange for other people, but that worked for me.

    For example, for a low-fat meal that had the prescribed amount of protein & carbs, I would mix dry curd cottage cheese into canned spaghetti sauce, over whole-wheat pasta. Also, storebought burritos with cottage cheese on the side. Grits. Ground turkey.

    Now I'm married and eating more traditional foods, and back to being overweight again.
  • In Japan, you will often find a ramen shop that is literally the back of some tiny little pickup truck. Usually outside of a train station.

    Some of the best damn ramen and coldest beers around!

    Cheap, too. See, guys *do* like quality food. We just like CHEAP food too. :)

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