Ground Beef Recipes For Dinner

... time. I don’t typically use recipes, though. For young adults I... tacos. You guys can have ground beef or chicken if you want... good vegetarian and vegan recipes to browse. Vegan Dinner Recipes - Love and...

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... we were having the other’s dinner when we do that. Home... with jalapenos, beans and spiced ground beef were a Sunday staple. Sometimes... folks put out some awful recipes.

...: Proteins: Eggs, chicken, turkey, lean beef, salmon, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese..., and a handful of almonds. Dinner (500 cals): Baked salmon with... rice for complete proteins. Want recipes? Try a high-calorie smoothie: Blend... hearty pasta: Whole-wheat noodles with ground turkey, marinara, cheese, and olive...

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... look at the temps until dinner time.  Today it will be... didn't know the ingredients. At dinner, I learned it contained pork... vision! @dfish Thanks for the recipes. Hugs as you celebrate Ellamary ....  It has chicken, pork and beef in it.  I changed it ... all the meats Thursday, pancetta, ground beef, ground pork, ground veal; three pounds worth. I ...

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Lasagna is one of those dinners I love eating but rarely feel like actually making. The layering, the baking, the waiting, the giant pan in the sink afterward — it always feels like a weekend project pretending to be dinner. Then I started messing around with a crockpot lasagna soup version and realized the only thing standing between me and that cozy lasagna flavor was some browned ground beef, a jar of marinara, beef broth, and broken lasagna noodles added at the right time. The broth is what makes it. I tried a very basic version first with just marinara and broth, and it was okay. Then I added tomato paste, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, ricotta, Parmesan, and spinach at the end. The difference was huge. It went from “tomato soup with noodles” to something that actually tasted like lasagna in a bowl. Things I learned that actually matter: Brown the ground beef first. I know slow cooker recipes are nicer when you can dump everything in, but this is one of those times where browning really matters. It gives the broth a deeper flavor and keeps the soup from tasting flat or greasy. Don’t add the lasagna noodles at the beginning. I almost made this mistake. They soak up way too much liquid if they cook for hours and turn soft in a bad way. Stir them in near the end once the soup is hot, then check them often. A good marinara makes a big difference. Since the sauce is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, this is not the time for a bland jar. Use one you already like, because that flavor becomes the base of the whole soup. Ricotta makes it feel like actual lasagna. Without it, the soup is still good, but it tastes more like tomato beef noodle soup. The ricotta and Parmesan are what give it that creamy, cheesy lasagna thing. Spinach goes in at the end. It wilts quickly and keeps the soup from feeling too heavy. If you add it too early, it disappears into the broth. Leftovers get thicker. The noodles keep drinking up the broth in the fridge, so the next day it becomes almost stew-like. Not a bad thing, but you’ll probably want to add a splash of broth or water when reheating. Served it with garlic bread the first time. Tried it with a simple salad the second time to pretend I was being balanced. Garlic bread still wins for me. What do people serve with lasagna soup? Garlic bread, salad, roasted vegetables, or is a big bowl of cheesy pasta soup already enough? Full recipe in the comments! submitted by /u/Epsiom6757 to r/slowcooking [link] [comments]

This recipe is especially ideal for those times when you're on time but you want a delicious dinner. 🛒 List of Ingredients For the Meatball: 500 grams of beef mince 1 piece of dry onion A pinch of fresh parsley Spices: salt, black pepper, red pepper, cumin For the garnish and sauce: Tomatoes and peppers (any amount) olive oil and a pinch of salt Preparation of 👨 🍳 Prep: Remove onions and parsley from the kitchen robot. The most important trick; make sure to squeeze the water of this mixture with your hands that you have drained from the robot to prevent it from spoiling the meatball. Yogurt: Get a coarse ground beef, juiced onion-parsley mix, and spices. Knead nicely until the ingredients have fully identified. Shaping: Cool greased paper on an oven tray. Spread the minced meat you have prepared by pressing it on a tray with your hands. Cut the mince meat into long strips with a knife or spatula and open them slightly so that they do not stick together while cooking. Garnish: Arrange sliced tomatoes and peppers around the edges of the tray. Lather olive oil over them and sprinkle salt. Cooking (2 Steps): Step: Bake in a preheated 220°C under-top setting oven for about 15 minutes. Step: Set the oven setting to upper grill mode when the meatballs are cooking. Wait for the meatballs until they are slightly fried. (Warning: Do not dry the meat for too long! ) A Little Tip: If the vegetables are not frying enough at the same time with the meat, after removing the meat from the oven, you can bake the vegetables in a separate tray for a few more minutes to bring them exactly to the desired curve. Enjoy your meal. submitted by /u/Critical_Growth4564 to r/VeryGoodRecipes [link] [comments]

I always end up making spaghetti or burgers with ground beef, I need some new recipes or suggestions to spice things up! What do you guys suggest? submitted by /u/nsimone__ to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

The title sounds bad, I know. I'll try to keep this sort. I(29M) love to cook. It's my love language - I cook for my family members and friends and I love trying out new recipes. When my gf and I first started dating I would often cook for her, and she likes what I cook. She didn't cook meals for me, in that time, but I guess I didn't really notice because I didn't see her every day, and when we did see each other it wasn't always food-related (like we would go for movies and stuff and not dinner always), or if it was a "food date" we would often go out, or I would cook. We recently moved in together, about a month ago, and I realized pretty quickly that she never cooked anything for me. I would make enough dinner for both of us most nights, but when I didn't, she would make her own dinner. I initially thought maybe she didn't know how to cook, but she makes real dinners for herself when she does cook - salmon with rice and brocolli, Korean ground beef, chili crisp pasta, etc. I finally sat down with her a week ago and asked why she never made me dinner. She said she doesn't like cooking for others. I asked her why couldn't she just make some extra alongside her own dinner - it's not like I'm asking for her to make me a completely different dinner. She said it's not about the extra work, she just doesn't like cooking for others. I got a little upset here and reminded her that I cook for her all the time, and that if she wasn't going to cook for me then I wouldn't cook for her either. She simply looked and me and said okay and ended the conversation. So it's been about a week and I'm sticking to what I said. I'm only cooking for myself, but I have to admit I'm really frustrated and upset with the whole situation. I love to cook for her and it does feel like I'm punishing myself. She, on the other hand, seems unaffected. She's just cycling through her favorite recipies and occassionally getting takeout. I don't know what to do here - AITAH for thinking that she should be cooking for me? submitted by /u/ThrowRA_gfcooking to r/AITAH [link] [comments]

So, I decided to conduct some research using an Epstein files tool known as Webb, focusing specifically on Epstein's dietary preferences, and I found some interesting information. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01733626.pdf https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01083625.pdf I happened upon two "Estate Manuals" written for the staff. In these manuals is a detailed description of Epstien's diet. Breakfast: "Special flax muffin, Fiji water cold, French pressed illy medium roast coffee (freshly ground)" Lunch: "Often skips, but does like snacks throughout the day" Snacks: "Finger sandwiches, sushi, and freshly baked Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies" Tea: "Teavana Earl Grey Crème preferred" Special drink: "Sometimes likes special ginger drink (existing recipe to be attached)" Dinner: "Steak, hamburgers, chicken parmesan, seafood, fresh vegetables steamed, and Sheppard's pie" They even do us the service of listing restaurants he liked. You know what sticks out? No mention of beef jerky or pizza. Why wouldn't he tell his personal chefs and staff about his special pizza and jerky obsession? Why is the diet outlined in instructions given to staff contrary to his supposed diet of pizza and jerky which seems to be referenced in his personal communications to other wealthy and powerful folks? So odd that the emails seem to indicate he's into jerky and pizza, and yet we can't corroborate this detail anywhere else. It's almost like they weren't actually talking about jerky and pizza but were rather using coded language to hide something. What do you guys think they are hiding? submitted by /u/TrueOdontoceti to r/Epstein [link] [comments]

I am NOT the Original Poster. That is moonrabbit368. She posted in r/mildlyinfuriating Thanks to u/L_RaspberryCrochet for the rec! Do NOT Comment on Original Posts. Latest update is 7 days old. This has not been posted to this sub before Mood Spoiler: happy ending Original Post: January 1, 2026 My boyfriend is a very picky eater. We have been living together for a few months and it seems like I can never get his food right. It's honestly discouraging. I have kids, they happily eat my food. I cook for family gatherings and church events. I've never had a problem with people eating my food. It's like every day there are new rules. He can't eat chicken for dinner because he had chicken for lunch. He isn't really in the mood for porkchops. It's just "missing something". He doesn't eat onions, tomatoes, fish, any kind of asian food, he doesn't eat most vegetables with the exception of broccoli. He only eats vanilla ice cream. He doesn't like food heated in the microwave (so leftovers are out.) He doesn't like corn. It's just endless. I'm old school and trying to be a good partner. He can't really cook at all. His favorite meal is Hamburger Helper. I think a lot of it is how he grew up but damn is it frustrating. The first picture is tonight's dinner. I added more pictures of stuff I have cooked that he won't eat. Like he will door dash jack in the box. And he'll be apologetic but it just sucks really bad. Image 1: Tonight's dinner (broccoli, baked potato and porkchops) Image 2: Chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes and gravy Image 3: A roast of some sort with meat and veggies Image 4: A plated soft-shell taco Image 5: Broccoli, potatoes, carrots and beef Image 6: Pie Editor's note: All of these look delicious and if I weren't celiac I would totally eat every bit of each dish. ETA: I've been trying to keep up with the comments but it's overwhelming (in a very sweet and awesome way) 💗 A few notes: 1- I know the paper plates are very lazy on my part, I'm not proud of that and I need to do better. Between the kids, the job, the house and school (I'm going to school remotely) I have been cutting corners on things like dishes. not an excuse, just a reason and a commitment to do better. 2- My boyfriend does expect me to cook for him. I cook him dinner every night and lunch on the weekends. He doesn't eat breakfast and will not take a lunch to work. He buys fast food for lunch during the week. 3- He has not been diagnosed with ASD or ADHD or Arfid but I don't rule anything out. Mostly I just want to say thank you, I was not prepared for how incredibly kind, helpful and insightful people have been. It is deeply touching and it's given me both peace and guidance for my next steps. 🩷 Some of OOP's Comments: Creighton2023: Stop cooking for him. He can cook/order what he wants. You’re just wasting food otherwise. But what’s with the paper plates? You can get really cheap plates at goodwill or even new ones at target. OOP: It's very bad of me. I work full time, he and I commute together to the big city and it's an hour each way. I'm also going to school remotely too. Between that and the kids and the housekeeping... but those are excuses and I know. I'm just trying to stay afloat most days. The first picture: The first pic is boneless porkchops, it's the first time I have made him porkchops and we had a conversation when I was meal planning where he said he would be open to pork chops. I did a rub with seasoning salt and then dredged them in seasoned flour, pan fried them with oil and butter. The children enjoyed them very much. He wouldn't try them though. TrickInvite6296: does he expect you to make meals for him? OOP: (downvoted) Definitely yes. And I really don't mind at all, I just get frustrated because his food preferences are very narrow and so often I end up cooking a separate meal just for him because I don't think it's good for the kids to eat the same 4 things all the time. sophietheadventurer: Is this the same boyfriend who has wildly different political views to you? Maybe time to drop him to the curb Editor's note: That referenced post is here. I didn't include the text because it wasn't quite relevant to this post, but you can read it at the link OOP: Yes we had a lot of very heated conversations about it. I told him it was a deal breaker for me if he wasn't willing to talk about it with me and that it might be a deal breaker even if he did. He grew up in small town Texas, he was handed a lot of his beliefs and I pushed him to question them. We have come a long way in those conversations and he has genuinely changed his mind about some things. We talk about politics often now, it's not taboo anymore To another commenter: He had a lot of bad information. He was very defensive about the whole thing at first. I told him that I couldn't be with someone that isn't kind, compassionate and just. He was hurt that I thought that about him. I pointed out specific things that this administration has done, we looked at evidence together, did some deep dives on immigration etc. If everyone you know is a Trump supporter, if your whole family is Fox news viewers, then there are lots of "facts" you take for granted. RepostFrom4chan: Any kind of Asian food? Having traveled to 7 counties in Asia i have no idea what that means. They eat everything? OOP: Fair about the asian food. He won't eat sushi, won't eat dumplings, won't eat stirfry, won't eat fried rice or rice noodles, won't eat tofu or ... ok it'd probably be faster to list what he does eat: ground beef, potatoes, chicken without bones, rice to a degree, cheese, chili, pickles, sausage, green beans (only italian cut and only out of a can,) canned stew, fast food hamburgers with no vegetables on them, fast food tacos with only meat and cheese on them, vanilla ice cream, beef jerky... ArcticPoisoned: (one of the top comments) I’ll be your boyfriend!!!! (I am a 29 year old woman) OOP: This is my favorite comment thread, thank you 😊 thomasinanna: I say this with love OP but this relationship sounds exhausting. You're working very hard with your job, giving your children delicious meals, making informed decisions on what news you consume in this crazy world. You sound like a lovely human being! And I'll ask something that was once asked to me: Does this man make your life BETTER? Note I'm not asking if you love him, but does he improve your well-being, happiness etc etc like you do for him? What is he bringing to your life? OOP: (downvoted) I had to read this a few times and sit with it. He listens to me, he reminds me to take my medicine, he drives and I am such a nervous driver, he cares when I cry, he makes me laugh. If I am truthful it hasn't been good for my health. I do too much and neglect my health. But don't women do that? Don't we burn brightly for the people we love and it always has a cost, doesn't it? Isn't it always like that? To a longer comment: Hi, that was all very hard to read. I am a real person and this is really my life. I didn't mean for things to get this deep on this post but they have and I can't unring a bell now. Finding a therapist sounds like a do-able step. I just wanted a normal, stable, safe, predictable life. I don't think I've ever had that and it's looking like this is not it either maybe. I try really really hard to be a good mom and a good person. I'll talk to a therapist. Thank you Mini Update Comment: January 3, 2026 (2 days later) I think things are changing. Just me posting the post was a sign to myself that I am not happy with the status quo. I'm generally a pretty patient person. But like last night I made him chili dogs and fries because that is something he will consistently eat and I was cooking something for the kids that I knew he wouldn't eat. When I took it to him he said "You're not going to believe this but I had chili dogs for lunch." And I blurted out "I don't care." We were both shocked I think and I went back to the kitchen. Mini Update Comment: January 4, 2026 (Next Day, 3 days from OG post) This was tough love and I thank you for it. This post was just me venting from my kitchen into the void but turned into something very different. Apparently there are a lot of things that I thought or think are normal that are maybe not normal at all. I made a decision to start therapy, it's fully covered through my job and I think it's going to be helpful to have a sane adult that I can talk to about all of it. I know it might not be the big step people would like me to take but I just don't trust myself fully right now to be making big decisions. Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you and let you know that I did read your comment and that it did help me. Mini Update Post: January 6, 2026 (2 days later, 5 from OG post) Thank you, this was very thoughtfully written. I am still trying to sort out what to do, I want to make the right decision with a cool head. I think it's leaning very much in that direction. Tonight I set his plate in front of him and he looked at it for a minute, got up and took it back to the kitchen. He came back with some chips. I said "not good?" He said "no." And I didn't offer to make him anything else, didn't ask him what was wrong with it, I just said "Oh okay." And shrugged and went back to my dinner. That shook him up I think because he is not used to me being nonchalant about it. So I feel like something has changed, my mindset is changing. I'm grateful for the encouragement and all the good advice, I am continuing to read the comments and replying when I get breaks. It might be pathetic but I don't really have any grownup friends to talk to about this stuff so this has been helpful Update Post: January 31, 2026 (1 month from OG post, 25 days from last comment update) Title: He's not going to eat these porkchops. 😐 About a month ago I made a post here because my boyfriend didn't want to eat the porkchops I cooked for dinner. Well tonight I made porkchops again and he's not going to eat these either because we broke up and he moved out. I'm so much better off and I just wanted to thank you all for the kind words and advice, it was very eye opening to me. I wish that I could invite you all to dinner 🥰 Image: more yummy food ETA : Couple of notes: 1- The yellow stuff is smashed potatoes with cheese on top. 2- I swear that butter on the broccoli melted right after that picture LOL ETA part two: Some people have asked for recipes. I'm not a fancy cook and it isn't anything very special or original but here goes: For the porkchops, I take them out of the fridge 30 mins before I cook them so that they are room temperature. I salt them when I take them out too. Then I mix some flour with seasonings. This time I used salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder. I dredged the porkchops in the seasoned flour before frying them in a little oil over medium high heat. I do two or three minutes a side to get nice color then I drop the heat to low, put a lid on it and cook until my meat thermometer says they are 145 F inside. I remove them from the heat and let them rest three to five minutes, covered. For the smashed potatoes I boil the potatoes in salted water until they are fully cooked. Then I oil a sheet pan, smash the potatoes with a potato masher. You're not trying to make puree, it's not mashed potatoes, you are just smashing them once or twice each. Then I drizzle them with olive oil, add whatever seasonings I want and bake them in a very hot oven (425 or 450) until they are crispy (ten or fifteen minutes, watch them!) The kids wanted cheese on them so I put the cheese on two or three minutes before I took them out of the oven. Some of OOP's Comments: Fun_Button5835: (top comment) Were you the one where he would order Jack in the Box and eat it lukewarm instead of eating your home cooking? (Editor's note: Jack in the Box is a fast food restaurant mostly on the west coast.) OOP: Yes 😭 he would doordash jack in the box. VatoCornichone: Ngl you had me in the first half. OOP: Haha imagine I was coming back to post that I was still feeding that man?? I would've gotten run out of town! EPIC_NERD_HYPE: does your bf know that all of reddit detests him? your last post got 100k upvotes. OOP: I have heard through mutual friends that he has seen the original post about it 👀 OOP adds: It wasn't just the porkchops. He was critical about everything. And I spent a lot of my time and energy trying to make an unhappy man happy. He almost never had anything good to say about anything I did. He criticized Christmas presents I gave him, he dictated how I dressed and how I spent my time. He'd play video games all weekend while I cleaned the house, if I wanted to take a nap on a Saturday afternoon he would ask why I was being lazy. Nothing was ever good enough. There was a lot going on. I had just let it get worse and worse. I don't really talk to anyone in my offline life about my relationships so the reddit post was really the first time that I told anyone anything about what was happening. It was eye opening for me and I'm grateful. OOP clarifies: I broke up with him. It wasn't right after my last post, but after my last post I made an appointment with a therapist. During my second appointment I just blurted out that I was really unhappy and told the lady everyyyyything. Cried a bunch. Slept on it. Broke up with him the next day. He moved in with his brother that weekend. submitted by /u/LucyAriaRose to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

I’m 16 years old and don’t know how to cook(ik it’s bad) my parents are leaving me home alone for 4 days to go vegas and i need some easy foods to cook(not oven pizzas or chicken bites etc) like actual nutritious food to cook can some please put easy recipes and ingredients with instructions for me would be much appreciated🙏 Ps i have to go to school breakfast will not be added and neither will lunch i eat them both at school this post is only for dinners.Also i will be food shopping tommorow hence why i asked for ingredients.(thanks everyone for the support). They leave in 2 days fyi so no ordering hello fresh. No Crockpot No slow cooker. Only oven stove microwave and Airfryer. UPDATE: I just made steak and eggs i used the same pan that o used for my steak to cook the eggs for extra flavour and used butter for my steak and it tasted amazing thanks everyone for the support ima prolly j keep it up with the steaks i bought some grass fed ground beef that im going to try to cook on the weekend too ill update on how it goes. submitted by /u/Cute-Literature-4462 to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

Title. Got home yesterday and had no desire to start cutting/preparing stuff. My go to is burger patties but I feel like I have to try something else Edits: Thanks everyone. It seems I should be getting some BBQ sauce. I absolutely refuse to allow ketchup anywhere near my food🤣 submitted by /u/Historical-Hat2040 to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

We are a family of 5 (3 adults & 2 teens). We live in a large urban area in the Midwest. Our grocery budget is around $500 a month, so I average about $125 a week for groceries. We have no major food allergies. This is the fourth menu plan I’ve shared. You can find the other weeks in my profile. Some notes about this week’s menu…. It’s been hot, hot, hot weather in much of the USA. Definitely in the midwest where we are. So this meal plan does not use the oven at all, and you can mostly avoid using the stove top if you have a few small appliances. In fact, the majority of the meals can either be prepared using a grill, pressure cooker, crockpot, and/or rice cooker to minimize heating up your home. There is premade cornbread in this week’s shopping list. Again, to avoid turning on the oven. I normally bake my own cornbread, and if you’d prefer to make it from scratch instead of purchase it here are a couple of bonus recipes for cornbread. One made in a bread machine & one made in the regular oven. Please keep in mind that the ingredients for these recipes are not in the shopping list below! Oven recipe: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cornbread-recipe Bread Maker recipe: https://makethebread.com/bread-machine-cornbread/ If you’d rather have Chicken Fried Rice instead of Vegetable Fried Rice make sure to set aside 2-3 of your grilled drumsticks. Remove the meat from the bone and store in a tightly lidded container to use in the fried rice later in the week. You can choose dried or canned beans for these recipes. Dried beans cost less per serving. Canned beans are more convenient. If you choose to use dried beans just make sure you remember to put them to soak the night before you want to cook them. For help with converting dried and canned beans when cooking you can refer to this: (source: https://www.beansbeansbeans.com/dried-beans-to-canned-conversion-table) Dried Beans to Canned Conversion Table All measurements are approximate. The exact amount of beans you receive from a can or a bag of dried beans depends on the size of bean. Large beans will be on the low side of these measurements while small beans will have a slightly higher yield. 1 cup dried beans = 2-3 cups cooked beans = 1 ½ 15.5 ounce cans One 15.5 ounce can of beans = 1 ½ cups cooked = ¾-to-1 cup dried 1 lbs. of dried beans = 2-2 ½ cups dried = 4-5 cups cooked = 3-4 15.5 oz. cans Menu Planning Tips: Don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel for every meal when making your own menu plan. Start by sitting down and making a list of what meals your family likes to eat. Then reverse menu plan. Look over your fridge/freezer/pantry and see which meals on your list you have the most ingredients on hand for. Plan those as your meals for the week and make your shopping list based off what is missing. Make sure to add any other items you know you are low on, and whatever loss leaders the stores have that week in your area (you can find these by checking the store’s website for their weekly sales flyer). If you look over the few weeks of menus I’ve shared you’ll see that breakfast, lunch, & snacks are pretty much the same from week to week. I do try to prep cook one different “hot” breakfast option each week (usually something egg based like breakfast wraps). The majority of my time and planning goes into our dinners. Which are often lunch the next day as well. For our family, the kids will normally request one or two special items each week. As long as they’re not expensive I’m happy to pick them up. It’s important to fit small treats into the budget as well! The last couple weeks they’ve been on a bagel & cream cheese kick, but they know that once what I bought is gone it’s gone until I go shopping again in a week. Treats are treats because they’re not limitless. ;-) Always keep something quick and easy on hand for dinner in case you just CAN’T cook that evening. Life happens! For our family this is usually a box of pasta and a jar of sauce with some fruits & veggies on the side. I almost always have pasta & sauce in the pantry. It’s also the kids go to on the nights we are out and they have to make dinner for themselves. Pasta and sauce is always cheaper, and usually healthier, than take out! This week’s menu Breakfast Options: Loaded Scrambled Eggs Eggs (any style) & toast Oatmeal - brown sugar, apple & cinnamon, fruit, strawberry jam Fresh Fruit Strawberry Yogurt Cottage Cheese Lunch Options: Leftovers Egg salad sandwich or lettuce wrap Eggs (any style) & toast Omlet Tomato sandwich PB&J or PB & banana Salad Suppers: Sun: Grilled BBQ Chicken drumsticks, Grilled Hashbrowns, Salad Mon: Chili, Cornbread, Salad Tues: Easy Chickpea Curry, Jasmine Rice, Steamed Broccoli Wed: Cheeseburger In A Bowl, Sweet Potato Fries Thurs: Grilled Veggie Burgers, Microwave Potato Salad, Tomato & Cucumber Slices Fri: Fried Rice, Tai Pei Vegetable Egg Rolls Sat: BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters, Microwave Baked Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, Salad Dessert Rice Crispy Treats Snacks: Apples - whole, or sliced with PB or cinnamon sugar Bananas Carrot sticks w/ PB or ranch Celery sticks w/ PB or ranch Popcorn (salty or kettle) Toast w/ butter, peanut butter, jam, or cinnamon sugar Strawberry Greek Yogurt Cottage Cheese Salad Drinks: Milk Coffee w/cream & sugar Tea w/cream & sugar Water Southern Sweet Tea Unsweetened Refrigerator Tea After looking over the recipes I’ve decided on, and shopping my kitchen, then checking the weekly sales for any loss leaders we need to stock up on I’m left with…… My Shopping List This Week Walmart: 6 ct Plain Bagels - $2.08 12 oz whipped cream cheese - $3.26 Family Pack Tyson Chicken Drumsticks - $4.65 (clearance) 8 ct Tai Pei Vegetable Egg Rolls - $6.38 Grocery Outlet: 2 - seedless watermelon - $2.08 2 - 6 oz blackberries - $1.04 1 cucumber - $1.04 1 cauliflower - $2.07 3 lb bag mandarin oranges - $4.15 4.12 lb cherries - $6.49 Bananas - $1.16 5 tomatoes-on-the-vine - $1.40 5 Nectarines - $1.40 (minus an $0.80 discount for paying cash at the outlet store) Total: $36.40 Complete Shopping List This shopping list will cover the basic ingredients that are needed to make the meals on this week’s menu. Based off of Walmart’s site, if you had to buy every single thing on the list - full price at Walmart without sales, coupons, or price comparing between stores - your total would be $204.00. All prices are for Great Value brand items unless mentioned. Because of how I menu plan & shop I already have the majority of these ingredients on hand, so I am able to direct our grocery dollars towards stocking up on sale items & buying extra produce for the week in addition to what we need to complete the menu plan. Bread - 2 loaves sandwich bread - $2.84 8 ct hamburger buns - $1.46 8 ct mini corn breads - $4.42 (bakery section) Produce - 10 Bananas - $2.24 3 lb gala apples - $3.72 2 - 3 pk Romaine - $6.84 8 roma tomatoes - $2.00 3 pk fresh garlic - $1.68 1 bunch scallions - $0.96 3 lb onions - $3.18 1 celery - $1.88 5 lb whole carrots - $4.46 2 fresh limes - $0.50 2-3 jalapenos - $1 1 fresh bunch kale - $1.48 1 bunch parsley - $1.07 5 lb russet potatoes - $3.68 3 lb bag sweet potatoes - $3.60 1 lb mini cucumbers - $1.97 Freezer - 32 oz Broccoli florets - $2.74 10 ct hashbrown patties - $3.42 Grains - 2 lb jasmine rice - $3.28 2 lb popcorn kernels - $2.38 42 oz old fashioned oats - $4.12 Meat - 3 lb Festive ground turkey - $5.94 (1 lb chili, 2 lb Cheeseburgers In A Bowl) 10 lb Tyson Chicken Drumsticks - $9.84 (grilled drumsticks) 10 lb Tyson Chicken Leg Quarters - $6.72 (BBQ chicken dinner) Dairy - 1 gal whole milk - $2.54 24 oz cottage cheese - $2.94 32 oz strawberry Greek yogurt - $3.54 16 oz sour cream - $1.97 2 lbs butter - $7.64 Case 60 ct large eggs - $14.36 32 oz half & half - $2.97 8 oz shredded or brick cheese (to use in vegetable quiche; topping taco soup & fajitas)- $1.97 Baking - 5 lb unbleached all purpose flour - $2.43 32 oz light brown sugar - $2.22 2.5 oz cinnamon - $1.29 3 oz chili powder - $1.24 2 oz smoked paprika - $1.98 3.25 oz onion powder - $1.28 3.4 oz garlic powder - $1.24 2.5 oz cumin - $1.28 Condiments - 16 oz peanut butter - $1.94 30 oz mayo - $3.38 18 oz strawberry preserves - $2.48 16 oz ranch dressing - $1.97 40 oz Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ sauce - $3.47 10 oz worcestershire sauce - $1.12 12 oz Dijon Mustard - $1.52 9 oz Panda brand oyster sauce - $3.12 Dry Goods - 22.6 oz French Dark roast coffee - $8.88 100 Tea Bags - $2.12 16 oz Pompeian EVOO - $7.38 15 oz can Red Gold crushed tomatoes - $1.12 15 oz can diced tomatoes - $0.96 15 oz can tomato sauce - $0.96 15.5 oz can light red kidney beans - $0.86 13.5 oz full fat coconut milk - $2.12 1 lb dry chickpeas - $1.46 4 oz Thai Kitchen red curry paste - $3.98 32 oz hamburger dill chip pickles - $2.58 6 oz Wonderful pistachios - $5.88 12 oz Rice Crisps cereal - $1.97 10 oz marshmallows - $1.17 Recipes Loaded Scrambled Eggs 1 dozen eggs, whisked 4 Tbsp melted butter ½ cup half & half ½ cup shredded cheese ½ onion, finely chopped 1 jalapeno, seeded & chopped (optional) ¼ tsp turmeric (optional) 2 scallions, chopped ½ cup chopped kale or spinach ½ a large tomato, chopped ¼ tsp garlic powder 1 tsp salt ½-1 tsp black pepper Crack eggs into a mixing bowl & whisk well. Add in milk, salt, pepper, & garlic powder. Whisk to combine. Melt your butter in a large skillet. Add your chopped onion & jalapeno into the skillet & sautee over medium for about 5-10 min until they begin to soften. Carefully pour in your egg mixture, lid tightly, and let cook for about 5-10 minutes then stiir to start scrambling your eggs. Replace the lid and cook for an additional 5 min, stir to scramble, and repeat the cooking & stirring steps until your eggs about ¾ of the way cooked. When eggs are about ¾ of the way done add your chopped tomatoes and kale or spinach. Stir well, lid tightly, and cook for a final 10 minutes. Once eggs are done to your liking stir in the shredded cheese & turmeric (optional) as your final step. If you do not have a large skillet these can be made as two batches in a smaller skillet instead or baked in a 9x13 pan in a 350 oven. Serve hot, or store in an air tight container in the fridge to be heated up as breakfast during the week. Serve with toast & fruit, or it also makes an excellent filling for a breakfast burrito if you have tortillas. Chili 1 lb ground beef or turkey, browned 1 lb bag kidney beans, soaked OR 1 - 15 oz can kidney beans, drained 1 large onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 2 jalapenos, seeded & chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 15 oz can tomato sauce 15 oz can diced tomatoes ½-1 15 oz can of water ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped 3 Tbsp chili powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 2 Tbsp brown sugar 2 Tbsp worcester sauce 1 tsp dijon mustard Salt & Pepper, to taste 1) Rinse & pick over your kidney beans. Place them in a large bowl & cover with about 1-2 quarts of water. Soak overnight. 2) Brown ground meat in your pot or using the sear setting on your pressure cooker. 3) Once the meat is browned, drain off excess fat, and add chopped celery, jalapenos, onion & garlic. Contiue to sautee until vegetables begin to brown. 4) Add 1 ½ cups of your soaked & drained kidney beans, canned tomatoes & spices. Stir well. Fill one of your tomato cans with water (swish water around inside both cans to get the last of the sauce) & add into your chili. If using a pressure cooker set for 40 min on high pressure. If cooking on the stove top bring to a boil stirring well, then reduce the temperature to a simmer, lid tightly, and cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. 5) Serve chili hot with corn bread, cheese, and whatever toppings you prefer. Chickpea Curry 1 lb dried chickpeas, soaked overnight OR 2 - 15 oz can chickpeas 1 Tbsp oil 1 large onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tbsp mild curry paste 15 oz can crushed tomatoes 13.5 oz can full fat coconut milk 1 tsp sugar (optional) ½-1 tsp salt, or to taste 1 cup chopped kale 4 Tbsp parsley, chopped (garnish) 1 lime, juiced (garnish) 1) Rinse your dried chickpeas & check them over for bad ones or small pebbles. Place in a large bowl and cover with 2 quarts of water & let soak overnight. 2) Drain your soaked chickpeas. Measure about 2 cups or 30 oz of soaked chickpeas and set aside. Store remaining soaked chickpeas in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer to use in veggie burgers later this week. 3) Prepare curry in a pressure cooker or in a pot on the stove. If using a pressure cooker use the “sear” setting for 10 min to sautee vegetables or sautee in the bottom of your cooking pot. 4) Add oil & chopped onion. Stir regularly until onion begins to become translucent & brown in spots. Add garlic. Sautee another 1-2 min. Add curry paste and stir 1 min. Pour in crushed tomatoes, coconut milk. Add salt, sugar, and chopped kale. Stir well, place on the lid, and pressure cook on high for about 40 min. 5) If preparing on the stove top add all ingredients, bring to a light boil stirring regularly, then reduce to a simmer. Lid tightly and simmer for about 1 hour. 6) While the curry is cooking prepare jasmine rice in a rice cooker according to the directions on your machine OR prepare on the stove top according to the package. To serve, add hot jasmine rice to one side of a bowl. Add curry to the other side. Sprinkle with lime juice & fresh parsley or cilantro. Serve hot. Store leftovers in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Cheeseburger In A Bowl https://chefsavvy.com/burger-in-a-bowl/#recipe *** Use 1 lb ground beef or turkey. Turkey is included in the shopping list. I also just use white onion, so plan to purchase 1 red onion if you’d prefer that. Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries https://thebigmansworld.com/air-fryer-sweet-potato-fries/#wprm-recipe-container-67247 Grilled Veggie Burgers https://www.acouplecooks.com/ultimate-grilled-veggie-burger/#tasty-recipes-19718-jump-target *** We prefer to make these with pistachios instead of walnuts, but choose whatever type of nut you prefer. Microwave Potato Salad 4-5 large potatoes, peeled & cubed 3 eggs, hardboiled & chopped 1 stalk celery, chopped fine ½ - 1 cup mayonnaise 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard sprinkle of paprika salt & pepper 1) Large, microwave safe bowl 2) Peel & cube your potatoes. Place cubed potatoes into your microwave safe bowl. Fully cover the potatoes with water. Cover loosely with a lid or a damp piece of paper towel. Microwave on high for 12-15 min or until potatoes are tender and easily poked with a fork. Drain cooking water. Allow potatoes to cool to almost room temp, then refrigerate for about an hour until potatoes are cool. 3) While your potatoes are cooling make your hard boiled eggs. I use an electric egg cooker, but to avoid boiling water during how weather you can also make them in the microwave following these directions: https://foodess.com/article/how-to-boil-eggs-in-the-microwave-quick-foolproof-method/ 4) Once hardboiled, submerge in cold water to cool them down, peel & chop. 5) Take your bowl of chilled potatoes. Add your eggs, celery, mayo, mustard, s&p. Stir well. Taste and adjust seasonings are needed. Smooth the top of your potato salad and sprinkle lightly with paprika. Chill until serving. Vegetable Fried Rice https://aaronandclaire.com/5-minute-easy-fried-rice/ *** Follow directions in the first video for Egg Fried Rice. Scale the number of cups of rice you use for the number of people you are serving. I usually do about 6 cups of cooked rice for 5 people & cook it in a large chicken fryer skillet or wok. Feel free to add in whatever other vegetables you have around. We like to add a couple of finely grated carrots & about ½ cup of frozen peas towards the end of the cooking time. Microwave Baked Potatoes 1 baked potato per person Toppings: sour cream, butter, s&p, shredded cheese, chopped scallions, etc Scrub your potatoes well & poke each potato several times with a shark knife. This will prevent the potato from exploding in the microwave. Place your potatoes on a microwave safe plate and cook on high power for 5-20 minutes depending on how many potatoes you are “baking”. Potatoes are done when you can easily poke them with a fork. Use oven mitts to carefully remove the hot plate from the microwave. Let cool for a couple minutes & serve with toppings. Rice Crispy Treats 5 cups crisp rice cereal 1 - 10 oz bag marshmallows 1 stick butter Large nonstick pot Silicone spatula 9x13 baking pan 1) In a large nonstick pot, over medium heat, melt the stick of butter. Measure your cereal out into a mixing bowl so you can quickly pour it into your melted marshmallow mixture when it’s time. 2) Once the butter is fully melted pour in the bag of marshmallows. Stir the marshmallows continuously with a silicone spatula, scraping down the sides of the pot as you stir. 3) Once the marshmallows are fully melted QUICKLY add all your crispy rice cereal. Stir quickly until well mixed and immediately pour into a 9x13 baking dish. 4) If you like softer crispy treats try not to compress your crispy treats as you spread them around the pan. Or, if you prefer harder, crunchier crispy treats do press them down a bit with the back of your spatula. Let sit until fully cooled then serve. Store in a tightly lidded container. Southern Sweet Tea https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/how-to-make-sweet-tea submitted by /u/Travel_Junkie5791 to r/Frugal [link] [comments]

(Photos are items I made while prep cooking for the upcoming week.) We are a family of 5 (2 adults & 3 teen kids) living in a large urban area in the Midwest. Our grocery budget is $500 a month, which breaks down to about $125 per week. We have no major food allergies and aren’t following any special diets. Our goal is to provide filling, reasonably healthy meals without breaking the bank. By shopping sales and stocking our pantry, I can keep our weekly grocery costs around $125. Even if you were to input all the ingredients needed for this week’s meals into the Walmart app (a store accessible to most in the US), it would only cost about $180 if you had absolutely **nothing** in your kitchen except salt and pepper. Keep in mind that many of the items from the $180 list can be used in future meals as well (e.g., cinnamon, ginger, soy sauce, flour, sugar, oil, etc.). Some strategies I use to keep our grocery bill reasonable: - **Know Price Points:** We track the prices of our most commonly used items and try to only buy when they are at or below that price. The lower the price, the more we stock up. - **Look for Clearance:** I keep an eye out for clearance meat, produce, and bakery items while shopping. - **Price Compare:** I shop between multiple stores to find the best deals. - **Stick to a List:** I shop with a plan in mind and stick to my list! - **Cook from Scratch:** We lean towards being an “ingredient household” and cook a lot from scratch. **This Week’s Menu:** **Breakfast Options:** - Egg & Cheese Cups - To Die For Blueberry Muffins - Egg & Cheese Breakfast Wraps - Oatmeal (brown sugar, apple & cinnamon) **Lunch Options:** - Leftovers - Egg Salad Sandwich - Eggs (any style) & Toast - Omelet - Tomato Sandwich - Chicken Salad Sandwich - PB&J or PB & Banana **Suppers:** - Sun: Korean Beef - Mon: Chicken Alfredo Broccoli Pasta - Tues: Breakfast Dinner - Wed: Veggie Fried Rice - Thurs: Tacos - Fri: Take & Bake Pizza x 2 - Sat: Chicken Vegetable Rice Soup **Available with Any Meal:** - Salad - Veggie Sticks - Bread & Butter - Cottage Cheese **Snacks:** - Apples (whole or sliced with PB or cinnamon sugar) - Bananas - Carrot Sticks w/ PB or Ranch - Celery Sticks w/ PB or Ranch - Popcorn (salty or kettle) - Toast w/ Butter, Peanut Butter, Jam, or Cinnamon Sugar - Strawberry Greek Yogurt - Cottage Cheese - Hard boiled egg **Drinks:** - Milk - Coffee w/ Cream & Sugar - Water --- **Shopping List:** (All prices are from Walmart & Great Value brand unless indicated.) **Bread:** - 10 pk Medium Flour Tortillas - $1.98 - 3 Loaves Sandwich Bread - $4.26 **Produce:** - 10 Bananas - $2.24 - 3 lb Gala Apples - $3.72 - 3 pk Romaine - $3.42 - 6 Roma Tomatoes - $1.50 - 3 pk Fresh Garlic - $1.68 - 1 Bunch Scallions - $0.96 - 3 lb Onions - $2.57 - 2 Celery - $3.76 - 5 lb Whole Carrots - $5.76 **Grains:** - 2 lb Rice - $1.77 - 2 lb Popcorn Kernels - $2.38 - 42 oz Old Fashioned Oats - $4.12 **Meat:** - 2.25 lb 80/20 Ground Beef - $12.96 - 12 oz Sausage Links - $2.94 - 2 Rotisserie Chickens - $11.94 **Dairy:** - 1 gal Whole Milk - $2.54 - 24 oz Cottage Cheese - $2.94 - 32 oz Strawberry Greek Yogurt - $3.54 - 8 oz Shredded Fiesta Blend Cheese - $1.97 - 16 oz Sour Cream - $1.97 - 2 lbs Butter - $7.64 - Case 60 ct Large Eggs - $14.36 - 16 oz Half & Half - $1.78 **Baking:** - 5 lb flour - $2.38 - 4 lb white sugar - $3.46 - 32 oz light brown sugar - $2.22 - 8.1 oz baking powder - $1.98 - 1.5 oz ground ginger - $2.24 - 2.5 oz cinnamon - $1.24 **Freezer:** - 16 oz blueberries - $2.86 - 12 oz broccoli florets - $1.16 - 12 oz peas - $0.98 **Condiments:** - 16 oz peanut butter - $1.94 - 30 oz mayo - $3.38 - 5 oz sesame oil - $3.22 - 15 oz reduced sodium soy sauce - $1.58 - 18 oz strawberry preserves - $2.48 - 16 oz ranch dressing - $1.97 - 16 oz mild taco sauce - $1.97 - Taco seasoning mix - $0.47 - 16 oz alfredo pasta sauce - $1.82 - 9.2 oz Heinz oyster sauce - $1.98 **Dry Goods:** - 22.6 oz French Dark roast coffee - $8.88 - 12 ct taco shells - $1.54 - 48 oz vegetable oil - $3.57 - 1 lb penne pasta - $0.98 **Deli:** - 46 oz take & bake pepperoni pizza - $9.98 - 48 oz take & bake supreme pizza - $10.97 --- **Recipes:** **Chicken Broccoli Alfredo** - Cook a pound of pasta al dente. - Steam your broccoli in the microwave. - In a large skillet, combine cooked pasta, steamed broccoli, a portion of rotisserie chicken, jar of alfredo, salt, and pepper. Stir well and heat through. **Korean Beef** - [Korean Ground Beef Rice Bowls](https://therecipecritic.com/korean-ground-beef-rice-bowls/) - Make a LARGE batch of plain rice to accompany this. The leftovers will be used in two other meals this week for quick meal prep. **Fried Rice** - [5-Minute Easy Fried Rice](https://aaronandclaire.com/5-minute-easy-fried-rice/) - Follow the recipe for Egg Fried Rice, but when the rice is about halfway cooked, add in 1 shredded carrot and ½ cup of frozen green peas. **Chicken Vegetable Rice Soup** - Dice 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1 medium onion, and 3 cloves of garlic. - In a skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil or butter. Add diced carrots and celery. - When they are about ¾ cooked, add onion and garlic. - Once all vegetables are tender, scrape into a large pot. - Add about 1 cup of rotisserie chicken meat and 1 cup of cooked rice from earlier in the week. **Tacos** - 1 lb cooked ground beef - Packet taco seasoning - Chopped tomatoes - Chopped lettuce - Shredded cheese - Sour cream - Taco sauce - Taco shells - Prepare cooked ground beef with taco seasoning according to the package. While the meat cooks, chop tomatoes and lettuce. Heat taco shells in the oven. Set out taco bar ingredients and let everyone make their own plate. **Breakfast Dinner** - Eggs (any style), sausage links, toast. **Egg & Cheese Cups** - 1 dozen eggs - ½ cup milk - ½ cup shredded cheese - Salt & pepper - Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray. Crack eggs into a bowl, add milk, salt, and pepper, and whisk. Divide evenly between muffin tins, sprinkle with cheese, and bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, or until tops are browned. Store in a container and reheat in the microwave. **Egg & Cheese Wraps** - 1 dozen eggs - ¼ cup butter - 1 ¼ cups milk - 1 tsp salt - ½ cup shredded cheese - Tortillas - Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt butter in a baking dish placed in the oven as it preheats. Whisk eggs, milk, and salt together. Pour egg mixture into the melted butter and bake for 15 minutes. Stir with a fork to scramble, and repeat cooking & stirring until eggs are your desired consistency. Divide scrambled eggs into tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, and wrap into burritos. Freeze individually wrapped in paper towels. **9. To Die For Blueberry Muffins** - [To Die For Blueberry Muffins](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for submitted by /u/Travel_Junkie5791 to r/Frugal [link] [comments]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/Aromatic-Ice-968 Originally posted to r/AITAH AITAH for Not Serving as Much Food as I Know My Dinner Guests Will Want to Eat? Thanks to u/queenlegolas for suggesting this BoRU Trigger Warnings: eating disorder, emotional manipulation, body shaming Original Post: February 17, 2025 First, I want to be clear that I do not believe in body-shaming or food policing. Having lost 100 lbs myself and working on another 50,, I have no place to judge anyone for what they eat. I pride myself on being a generous host who makes my guests comfortable and feeds them well. Nobody leaves my house hungry has always been my rule. The problem: I have a friend group who meets monthly at either my or "Joan's" home for dinner (nobody else has enough space to host). Recently, "Polly" announced she had a girlfriend, which made us all happy. Polly has been lonely for a long time. I was the first to host "Melissa." Melissa is 500-600 lbs. I've never met anyone that big, but I hid my surprise and was warm and welcoming. No problem; I have sturdy furniture. For dinner, I served bowls of salad, then soup. Melissa insisted on keeping her empty bowls at the table. I didn't think much of it; I'm not Emily Post. Then I brought out the main course, two 9X13 pans of 14-layer lasagna, cut into 8 pieces each. There were 10 of us altogether. I told people to dig in as I got the bread out of the oven. When I got back to the dining room, everyone looked so shocked I thought my cat had farted (his mouse farts could suffocate an elephant). Then I saw that Melissa had four pieces of lasagna heaped on her plate, two in her salad bowl, and two in her soup bowl. Polly was glaring like "don't you dare say a word." Melissa seemed utterly oblivious. I didn't know what to do. I just sat down. Joan and I shared one piece of lasagna, and everyone else got a full piece. I cut the cake into equal portions for dessert, but I had to make an extra batch of sauce and get an extra tub of ice cream out. Melissa ate at least a litre. The next month, on Joan's turn, she served every course pre-plated, and when Melissa asked for extra, Joan apologized and said there was none (truth; Joan is very organized and precise). Melissa and Polly left right after dinner, and Polly texted Joan, berating her for "controlling" Melissa's eating. Polly also texted me saying she trusted I'd be sensitive to Melissa's needs on my next turn. That turn is almost here. My plan was roast dinner (pork and beef). I can easily make lots of cheap veg and dessert, but meat is pricey right now, and I'd have to serve twice the norm to satisfy Melissa. I know I cannot just trust she'll take a tenth of what's there, considering she grabbed a whole lasagna last time.. So do I suck it up and just buy much larger roasts? Do I make a few big batches of cheap soup and biscuits and serve that rather than strain my budget? I don't want to upset Melissa or be a stingy host, but I have never dealt with someone like this before. I was obese, but I would have eaten maybe 2 pieces of lasagna. Not 8. Do I just serve a reasonable-sized meal and tell Polly and Melissa "sorry, that's all I have"? AITAH if I serve less food than I know my guests will want? Edited to add... everyone in the group who doesn't cook (so 7 people before Melissa joined) chips in $25 per meal to whoever hosts. That, until inflation got so bad, covered enough of the food cost to make it feasible. Joan and I have both been simplifying our menus a bit to deal with rising costs, but the idea is to give ourselves and our friends a night off from the humdrum world and pretend we live glamorous, elegant lives. We use fine china and dress nicely and play classical music. Right before Melissa, I was going to ask if we could increase the chip-in to $30 a plate. I have the most resources out of anyone in the group, and I can afford to go out-of-pocket a bit more than Joan. None of the rest have the money, space, or culinary skills to put this together. Joan and I can cook like Julia Child. We are a ragtag lot with a variety of neurodivergences and mental health issues. These meals give us something special to look forward to. AITAH has no consensus bot, OOP was NTA Relevant Comments OOP clarifies the details on how deep the 14 layer lasagna is OOP: About 6 inches. Beef sauce,, pasta, ricotta/parm old white cheddar, pasta, lamb sauce,, pasta, ricotta/parm old white cheddar, pasta, veal sauce, pasta, ricotta/parm/old white cheddar, pasta, a mix of the three meat sauces, then fresh and smoked mozzarella. It takes three days. First day, you make the sauces and let them sit overnight for flavours to mingle. You build the lasagnas the next day and let them sit overnight (wrapped in plastic so nothing dries out), which lets the flavours mingle, then bake them the next day. For the first hour and a half, you bake without the final cheese layer on, with the pans tightly covered in foil. Then you add the final cheese layer, tent the edges in foil so they don't dry or burn, and bake the second hour and a half. I found a convection oven works best to ensure it bakes all the way through. You want the full recipe? OOP needs to get a strong backbone and set up the boundaries OOP: Thank you. I really do lack a spine. In my defence, my cultural background dictates that you feed your guests all they want, and I do have some sympathy for Melissa. But this is an insanely extreme situation. I don't think even Dutch people would tolerate one person eating half of a meal for 10 and letting the other 9 split the second half. I'm messaging with Joan, and we have messaged the others in the group (not Polly or Melissa) for their opinions. I know that nobody is impressed with Melissa's eating. Most of them have more backbone than me. Commenter 1: NTA I’d absolutely pre-plate the meal. I’d also go one further tho and tell Polly straight out that Melissa’s behavior was rude and unacceptable at a dinner party. And if she did it again- I’d say something- YES, in front of everyone. Truly though…i wouldn’t invite Polly and Melissa anymore, and I’d be honest about why. OOP: Polly sees Melissa's issues as an illness/disability she cannot control, so we need to accept and accommodate. That's how I was seeing it, when I wrote the post. I have anxiety problems and people accommodate me. But what people are saying here is making me think that there is more premeditation and manipulation involved. Polly has been so lonely for so long I think she'll put up with anything now that she has someone. And Polly knows that I have compassion for obesity (she supported me through my struggles, helped take care of me during my recovery from bariatric surgery, etc.). She's usually a kindhearted person. But she's enabling Melissa into unacceptable behaviour like someone excuses an alcoholic drinking up all of someone else's booze. Yes, we have to do something. Joan and I are waiting on input from the rest of the group, and I want to discuss it with my parents because my mum is really good at etiquette and my dad is a semi-retired crisis counsellor. And, you know, they do help finance my parties. (I'm not a freeloader; I pay room and board, do the cleaning so my arthritic mum doesn't have to, and I help take care of my extremely elderly grandmother... the living situation works well, and I have the emotional support I need when my anxiety gets out of control). No judgment, please. I'm just not a person who does well living on my own. Several of my cousins are arguing over who gets to take me in when my parents get too old. They all want me to cook for them. OOP should consider about pre-plating to make it fair and square OOP: Everyone has different preferences and appetites, so pre-plating isn't ideal. Joan, who is so brilliant and organized, can usually get it right. I, who have had bariatric surgery, eat way less than most, but I stick to protein and veg and pass on most carbs except dessert and pasta. I love lots of sauce on anything. Jack is a big guy with a physical job, and he needs a big plateful to keep fuelled, but he hates sauces on anything but pasta. He eats about four times what I do. Polly prefers mostly carbs. Joan can keep it all straight. I can't. I don't think the others will keep coming unless Melissa agrees to eat reasonably. A tenth of what's on the table for ten people, not half. The others are too uncomfortable, even if Melissa were to pay for everything she ate. I found it weirdly interesting to watch a human eat so much, but I get why others couldn't handle it. It's an unnatural addiction behaviour, and that's hard for some to watch. I hate watching people get drunk. This is fundamentally the same, I think. OOP explains about her dinner group / guests and how she prepares the food for everyone OOP: There are two other long-term couples in the group of 9. Polly and Melissa are the third couple, and Melissa brought our number to 10. The rest of us are chronically single. We are... misfits. I very carefully cultivated this group, choosing people I genuinely liked and knew would get along. I invited Polly to bring Melissa once they were an established couple. Because it was her first time and her presence wasn't going to make a difference in how much I cooked, I didn't ask for her to chip in (she did chip in for the meal at Joan's).. I didn't imagine Melissa would be offensive because Polly is so painfully sweet usually. Before the meal, Melissa was very pleasant. She's intelligent and educated (advanced education and not living up to its potential is the commonality of the whole group). She obviously loves Polly and seemed considerate of her. It was like when the food got there, she turned into someone else. I didn't notice the change until she emptied a whole lasagna pan onto her plate and bowls. Balancing those heaps was an amazing feat of physics. I kept waiting for layers of pasta, sauce, and cheese to slide onto my beautiful lace tablecloth. If I didn't think about the reality of the situation, it was really ghoulishly fascinating to watch. I abhor food policing, so I always offer more food to my guests than the Canada Food Guide says is necessary. The rest of my life, I must cook according to the food guide because my parents are diabetic and I'm also on a weight loss journey. This party is my chance to get decadent. Dutch-Canadians might pre-plate snacks and dessert for guests, but never the main course. It's considered disrespectful to limit what a guest eats, and a lot of us are farmers so hearty appetites is normal. But normal has never included one person eating a whole lasagna. This meal gives my guests a bright spot in their struggles, of which they all have many, as do I. But watching a live mukbang performance puts a damper on the fun according to the rest of the group. If I'm being honest about how I feel, it was kind of like Melissa was stealing from me, eating such a crazy amount. And stealing from the other guests. They all had a sufficiency, but I know a few of them would have liked a second piece. I think that answers everything. Sorry if I missed something; getting tired. Does OOP host dinners often besides Joan? OOP: This is once a month. The rest of the time, I eat and cook very healthfully and am losing weight. Most of the group is not overweight. Our health conditions are things we were born with or mental health conditions. A vegetarian diet is not going to cure dwarfism or the damage done from a car accident. Point is, these once-a-month parties are a treat. This isn't how any of us (except maybe Melissa) eat every day. It's not my business what people "should" be eating o tor make them eat healthier. That's what food policing is, and I don't do that. I just offer a special experience once a month to people who have hard lives..   Update: February 18, 2025 (next day) Update 1: AITAH for Not Serving as Much Food as I Know My Dinner Guests Will Want to Eat? Excrement is hitting the fan right now. I thought I was safe because I knew Polly didn't use Reddit. But apparently Melissa told an online friend about 14-layer lasagna, and that friend saw the post and showed it to her. Stupid me, wanting to show off my culinary prowess! Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to. I was silly to think "Oh, it couldn't happen to me!" So, Melissa and Polly are at my house now, enraged, and my dad the semi-retired crisis counsellor is talking to them whilst I wait downstairs in my suite and cry. Yes, I am hiding behind my parents, but they are calmer and more objective, and I am too anxious have a rational conversation with Polly and Melissa. Update: it sounds like they've split them off. Dad is in one room talking to Melissa. Mum is in another, talking to Polly. I cannot get close enough to eavesdrop, and my damn cat won't tell me what he's hearing. Might as well take this time to answer some common questions: The chip-in has been $25 per person who doesn't cook. Joan and I never pay, regardless of who hosts. So we have been working off a budget of $175 because the group is nine people and seven pay. Last night and this morning we decided to increase the chip-in to $35. As of this moment, Melissa is only invited if she sticks to appropriate portions because no matter how much she pays, the rest of the group does not want to watch her eat like that. Is that mean? I don't know. But, given the yelling from upstairs, I don't know if she or Polly will ever return. For those who think I cannot have sturdy enough furniture... my dad is a very large man. My now-deceased Opa and my uncle custom-built most of the furniture in the house, least the stuff he would sit on. Dad has lost a lot, but everyone in the family has a good chair or two for him to sit on in their homes. Polly has helped me through a lot and has had a very difficult life, so I am loathe to upset her. I understand now that I need to grow a spine and that I don't need to be a doormat. I built this group and started the parties in part because restaurants aren't an option for all involved. We have a plethora of metal, physical, and neurospicy health issues going on. One of us has dwarfism and doesn't like being stared at. The parties are our escape from difficult lives. We dress up in vintage glam costumes we've found at thrift stores or made for ourselves and pretend that we are in Golden Age Hollywood or something. It's a big deal, and both Joan and I truly love to cook and host. I like cooking fancy food because I have to cook healthfully the rest of the time for my own weight loss and my diabetic parents. I do not want my parties to turn into salad and lentil fests. I eat that the rest of the time. For whoever suggested a crawded boil... we are landlocked in Canada. Beef is cheaper than crawdads around here. I haven't cooked much Southern Soul food, but it's a possibility if we don't include seafood because it costs the Earth. Polly sees Melissa's issues as a disability we should accommodate. She compared it to Dad building a wheelchair ramp onto the front porch for my granny and auntie. But I now understand that letting Melissa gorge is not a kindness. it's enabling very dangerous behaviour. She could keel over in my dining room, and we do not want to deal with all the paperwork that would create. I honestly did think that everyone who was morbidly obese and addicted to food got that way from trauma because my sister and I did. I wasn't actually deprived of lasagna. Joan and I often share a piece. I've had bariatric surgery and cannot eat much, and Joan prefers salad and bread and only a small portion of something as rich as lasagna. I'll post the recipe once I remember all of it. It's a combo of a few different ones and some right from my head. I'm extremely stressed right now, so remembering ingredients isn't working. I was wrong on Melissa's weight. She's 490 lbs. My bad; I am not good at estimating those things. I would be much calmer right now and not be having chest pain if this was rage-bait. I wish it was rage-bait. Sorry to disappoint. Please don't call Melissa derogatory names. This is not about hating on fat people. I was looking for advice on how to approach her obesity and food addiction behaviour with fairness and compassion. Also, thanks for all the kind and helpful things people said. Some of the douchey ones gave me a laugh, like the eejit who thought two enormous lasagnas doesn't feed 10 people. I'll write another post when things are resolved. Relevant Comments How old are the guys in the group including OOP? OOP: Early 40s. Before you judge me for hiding behind my parents, remember that I have significant neurodivergence and mental health issues. I'm still in therapy to learn to manage confrontation and the like. I used to be a very mean person (that's how I coped with the anxiety), but I hated that and have worked so hard to go in the other direction that I went too far and break down during emotional confrontation. I'm still recovering from a very dangerous bout of depression and a hospitalisation. I don't want to go back there, so I'm doing what I must. Even if it's letting my dad fight my battles. Did Polly and Melissa just showed up at OOP's house in order to yell at her? OOP: They know where I live. They've been here before. I didn't invite them in. They knocked, the cleaner let them in and called for me, and they started yelling. Once my parents figured out what was happening, they suggested I go calm down. Overbearing or not, they're trying to protect me. I thought I'd have a few days to figure this all out, but Melissa saw the Reddit post, and she recognized it. I hadn't changed many identifying details because I'd just been thinking about Polly not seeing it.   Update #2: February 24, 2025 (six days later) First off, thanks to everyone who responded kindly. I'm still working through all the private messages, and I'll get there. Also, I'm still working on remembering the whole lasagna recipe. I'll post it when I do. First, an apology. I knew Polly didn't use Reddit, but I was foolish and didn't think that Melissa might. I was out of line with some of what I said, like calling it a live mukbang show, and for that I apologize. This post was not supposed to be about fat-shaming, and I did, in my comments, fat-shame. That is on me, and I apologize. I do not hate Melissa for being obese. My problem has solely been about the etiquette and fairness of the food consumption. Update... That day they came to my house, I did eventually speak to Melissa and Polly after they calmed down. Melissa has always dreamed of having friends who would accept her as she is and be in a group where she can eat the way she does without judgment. Polly believed that I would provide that. I told them that I cannot, because I almost ate myself to death, and helping someone else do it is too much. Also, most of my other guests were uncomfortable. I said I would provide double portions to Melissa (which is a LOT of food), but no more. I did not mention the cost, because I didn't want them to offer to pay as a way around it. They said they'd think about it, but Polly messaged me a few days later and said that she could not forgive me humiliating her partner online unless I showed true remorse by "giving Melissa what she needs" (an unlimited buffet at my home). So our friendship is over. Another member of the group has sided with Polly, upset at the fact that I discussed this online. So that is where we're at. My group has shrunk. We'll grow again; there are a few people we are going to discuss who might make good additions. But we skipped this month's party because of the stress and drama. As to whether I should have discussed it online at all... I've decided that I'm not sorry for that. I changed enough details that someone outside the circle would not recognize it. Some genders, names, ages, medical conditions, who has what career, which relatives I live with, who has what career, have been altered to preserve anonymity. I needed advice, and I thought anonymously online would be better than asking a bunch of people I knew, because I did not want to tell people who knew Melissa what happened. Edited to add: Here is the lasagna recipe as well as I can remember it. No, I do not photograph my food. Too old for that trend. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/1ixpvma/14layer_i_must_be_crazy_lasagna_recipe_as/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button Edited to add... I remember now that Melissa did go to the bathroom I think twice during the meal. I'm wondering if she purged in those trips. That would make it easier to consume that much food. Relevant Comments Commenter 1: The fact that you and your friend normally share and there was no leftovers makes it seem like your friend informed their GF ahead of time how the portions are normally initially divided so they could "feel free" to take so much for their firsts. The both planned this ahead of time. OOP: I can see now that they did. I've been deeply conflicted about all this because I understand the food addiction side of it and don't want to make anyone's struggle worse in that regard. I mean, I needed to grow a spine and realize I had to protect my own health before someone else's, and I'm glad for people who told me to do it. But grasping how far their manipulation went has made it easier to let go of the friendship. Commenter 2: I think online like this is a perfect place to get some outside opinions, and I think you handled it better than I would have and probably better than most people would have. It sucks to lose a friend but I’d be willing to bet if they ever part ways she’ll be back, and you can choose whether or not to accept her back. Commenter 3: I wouldn’t accept her back. She’s shown OP that the price of her friendship is OP’s hard-won mental and physical health at risk of relapse because her girlfriend needs enough food for two linebackers served with a smile to feel emotionally secure. OOP: None of it makes sense. When I was bingeing, Polly never judged me. I ate a huge bag of her peanut M&Ms once, like a three-pound bag in one evening. I got so sick. She never said a word. She held my hair back when I puked. I apologized and replaced them once it sunk in what I'd done, and she just hugged me and said it was okay; she knew things were hard for me. For years, Polly gave me an acceptance I needed, and when I was ready to face my addiction and fight it, she was at my side all the way. I don't understand who she's become with Melissa. I mean, Polly has issues of her own; she isn't a saint, but I never doubted her care for my well-being before now. And the calculated manipulation... maybe she was more manipulative all along, but I never saw it. I just felt loved by her usually. But I guess it doesn't matter. Polly's made her choices, and you're right that they're dangerous for me. I've already gained weight from this, and I'm struggling to get my binge eating back under control. I know that I will; I have the tools and support, but this was rough. Commenter 4: Melissa and Polly are both awful people, and no one should ever bloody accommodate eating like that. It's disgusting, it's selfish, and it's horribly unhealthy. I'm glad you don't have to deal with that horrible crap any more, and the "friend" that sided with them is no loss either. OOP: I'm a former binge eater. So part of me understands Melissa, though I never could eat like that. When I'd go to someone else's place, I'd often eat first to make sure I wouldn't overeat there. But sometimes I did eat more than my share. It was wrong of me, but I don't want to consider myself disgusting, so I don't want to call Melissa that. I'd rather see her as someone with a horrible addiction/illness and hope that she sees her problem and seeks help. I do appreciate you standing in my corner, though. It feels very nice to have so many Internet strangers care about my well-being.   14-Layer "I Must Be Crazy" Lasagna Recipe - as Requested: February 25, 2025 (next day) 14-Layer Lasagna This is my “I must be crazy” lasagna recipe that a bunch of people have asked me to post. It’s incredibly decadent but quite delicious. It’s from a mix of other recipes, including some hints from Kenji and from my mum's recipe, and some from my head. You might find yourself adjusting measurements or seasonings to suit your own palate. I tend to cook by feel and instinct, so these measurements are about the closest I can come. But lasagna really is one of those foods that nobody uses exact recipes for, so see this as a guide. I usually make this over 2 or 3 days because it tastes better to let the sauces sit and then the assembled lasagnas sit to let the flavours mingle, but it’s still good if you have to do it all the same day. Warning… that will be one LONG day. Give yourself 8 hours from start till serving time. First off, you need a pan at least 6 inches deep, because this thing gets TALL. Mine end up somewhere between 4-6 inches tall, depending on how thick I make the layers. And this is 4-6 inches on a ruler, not what your last hookup told you was 4-6 inches. This recipe is for two 9X13 pans, because that’s usually how I make it. You have to cut everything in half if you're just doing one, but that's way too much work to just make one lasagna, so make two and put one in the freezer. They'll freeze well (just don't add the top cheese). Let it thaw for 2 days in the fridge before baking. It takes for freaking ever to thaw. A note about the meats: Veal and lamb tend to be fattier meats, so you’ll lose more volume to melted fat that you’ll need to drain out. So if you’re using lean ground beef, use more veal and lamb than you do beef if you want the meat amounts to be equal. Component Ingredients: Beef Sauce: -500-650 grams ground beef (around 1-1.5 lbs) -Salt and pepper to taste -250 grams chopped onion (about a cup) -250 grams finely chopped celery (about a cup) -4 tbsp olive oil -2 cloves minced garlic -A few sprigs basil leaves, chopped finely -A few sprigs oregano leaves, chopped finely -2 bay leaves -2 tbsp fish sauce -250 ml red wine -250 ml milk -750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) Lamb Sauce: -500-650 grams ground lamb (around 1.5 lbs) -Salt and pepper to taste -250 grams chopped onion (about 1 cup) -250 grams chopped carrot (about 1 cup) -4 tbsp olive oil -2 cloves minced garlic -A few sprigs of finely chopped rosemary leaves (at least 3 tbsp) -A few sprigs of finely chopped oregano (a bit less than the rosemary) -1 tbsp cumin -1 tbsp pureed anchovy paste -250 ml dry white wine -250 ml milk -750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) Veal Sauce: -500-650 grams ground veal (around 1.5 lb) -Salt and pepper to taste -250 grams chopped onion (about 1 cup) -250 grams chopped leek (about 1 cup) -4 tbsp olive oil -2 cloves minced garlic -A few sprigs of finely chopped basil leaves -A few sprigs of finely chopped parsley -A few sprigs of finely chopped marjoram -2 tbsp fish sauce -250 ml chicken stock -250 ml milk -750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) A note about sauces: If you don’t want to do three separate sauces, you can mix all three meats together. Basically, just throw all the ingredients of all of the sauces in the same pot, following the procedure I outline below. It will be tasty, with very layered, complex flavour. Ricotta Cheese Blend: -1.5 litres ricotta -750 gm grated parmigiano-reggiano or parmigiano… get the fresh stuff and grate... do not sully this beautiful piece of culinary artwork with powder, please. -500 gm grated old white cheddar -6 eggs -I cup finely chopped parsley Pasta: If you’re using premade noodles, you’ll need 18-30 PER LASAGNA, depending on how many you like to put on each layer. Minimum coverage is 3 noodles per layer, but I often do five to ensure max coverage, and my pans are a little bigger than 9X13. So, altogether you need 36-60. If you’re making your own pasta in sheets, remember each lasagna needs six layers of pasta. Top Cheese: 1000 grams grated mozzarella and 4 large balls of fresh mozzarella. I use the ones that are like the size of a small fist. You might want more or less. Sometimes I add in some old white cheddar here, too. Component Instructions: Meat Sauces (the procedure is the same for all three): Note: Have EVERYTHING chopped, measured, and ready to go, at least for the first time you make it. Goes much easier and you won't burn anything. The herbs, I always use fresh, and unless otherwise stated, I tend to use about 2 tbsp of each in each sauce. Some people might find this a bit overpowering, so you might wish to start with less and adjust to taste halfway through the cooking process. -Brown the meat. Drain the fat if there’s too much. -Add in salt and pepper to taste -Add vegetables, cook till onions soften some. The rest of the veg will soften nicely during the simmering, but onions don’t do that well. -Take meat and veg out of pan and set aside. -Heat olive oil in pan on medium to medium high. -Add garlic, cook for a minute or two until it starts to get a bit brown but don’t burn it -Add half the herbs and anchovy/fish sauce for those sauces, stir for just a minute to activate the flavour oils, but don’t brown or burn them -Add wine/stock immediately. Stir the pan with a wooden spoon to deglace and get the stuck bits off the bottom. -Add milk. -Add meat and veg back in. -Add tomatoes Cook on low for 1.5-3 hours, stirring every 20 mins. You want a bit of simmering, but not too much because the stuff on the bottom will burn. Add the other half of the herbs halfway through cooking, leaving some out if you think the taste will be too strong. The sauce volume will reduce because there is a lot of water in there, but remember that you’ll need about 1.5 litres of each in the end. You can get by with less, depending on how thick you like your layers. I like mine thick, so 1.5 litres works for me. Taste your sauces at the end. You might want to adjust for flavours, adding salt or something. Depends on how you like things to taste. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of salt. Take the bay leaves out of the beef sauce. Best to let the sauces sit overnight in the fridge if you have time, but it’s okay if you don’t. Ricotta Cheese Blend: Make this right before you assemble. Whisk the eggs, then add the ricotta and parsley, then fold in the other cheeses. It will be a bit runny, but the eggs will cook and firm it up in the oven. Pasta: Cook your noodles to al dente unless you’re using the kind that need no cooking. If you use cooked noodles, I advise you rinse them in cold water and throw in a bit of olive oil so they don’t stick together. Then have a huge bowlful of them ready for when it’s time to assemble. Top Cheese: don’t worry about that yet; it doesn’t go on until halfway through the baking. Assembly: GREASE YOUR PANS. I mean, it’s still gonna be a mess, but this helps a bit. If you’re not good at eyeballing measurements, divide your components into the right number of layers first. Put each meat sauce into two bowls with a bit more than a third in each, and then two bowls with the remaining sauces mixed together. So all together to make 2 lasagnas, you need 2 bowls of beef sauce, 2 bowls of veal sauce, 2 bowls of lamb sauce, and then 2 bowls of the remnants mixed up. I cannot do the math on how to divide that, so you’ll have to figure it out. All those bowls of sauce should be close to equal in amount. I like at least 500 ml for each meat sauce layer, but you can make do with a less. For the ricotta cheese mix, you need three bowls of sauce for each lasagna, so 6 altogether. I like at least 500 ml of mix per layer. The amount in the recipe should come close. Assemby Order: Each lasagna goes in this order: -Beef sauce -Pasta -Ricotta cheese mix -Pasta -Lamb sauce -Pasta -Ricotta cheese mix -Pasta -Veal sauce -Pasta -Ricotta cheese mix -Pasta -Mix of meat sauces Stop there. If you’re baking the next day, wrap them tight in plastic wrap, put them in the fridge overnight (the flavours mix better). But same-day baking is fine, too. If it's same-day baking, go to Baking Time and Temp. If you’re baking the next day, let the lasagnas sit on the counter a bit before you put them in the oven. This is super important if you’re using a glass dish, because sometimes those crack with sudden temperature changes. I live in a cold climate, so my house is usually cool. I would not advise leaving something with raw eggs on the counter for a long time in Florida summer heat. Baking Temp and Time: I use a convection over at about 300-325 degrees F. These puppies are THICK, so you don’t want the outside to cook too fast whilst the middle is raw. So don’t go too hot, even with a convection oven. It might take you a few tries to figure out what works best for you. Cover each lasagne with foil (SHINY SIDE DOWN) and bake for about an hour to a hour and a half. I do an hour if I'm making it all the same day and the sauces are warm, an hour and a half if I've chilled them overnight. Take them out. Leave oven on. Uncover and add the fresh and the grated mozzarella. I usually lay the fresh down in slices and then sprinkle the grated overtop. How much cheese you want is really up to you. Carefully tent the foil (SHINY SIDE DOWN) round the edge of each pan to prevent the edges from burning. Grease the foil if it might touch the cheese so it doesn't stick. Leave the middle open so steam can escape or the lasagna will be way too juicy. Put them back in and bake for another hour or hour and a half. Note on Temperature and Baking Time: Oven temperatures are really variable, so you have to pay attention. One to two hours into the baking process, cut into the middle of each lasagna, all the way down, and see if the layers are cooked through. Check again every 30 mins. The ricotta layers will be kind of firm, and of course everything’s piping hot. My oven takes almost 3 hours to bake them through after I've put them in the fridge overnight (I usually do that because I'm way too lazy to make everything the same day),, but others might be different. If you do all cooking and assembly on the same day and the sauces are hot when they go in the pan, that will reduce cooking time. Edited to add.... this is not a once-a-month recipe to add to the rotation. Also to add an ingredient I forgot. This is a special occasion, I want to show off/make someone feel incredibly special sort of recipe. I make it like twice a year for a particular group of people I love very much. I posted it because I mentioned it in another group and a bunch of people were asking.   DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7 THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP submitted by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

This is a repost. The original was posted in /r/AITAH by User Aromatic-Ice-968. I'm not the original poster. Status: Concluded. Mood: bummed but hopeful Trigger Warning: Disordered Eating Original February 18, 2025 First, I want to be clear that I do not believe in body-shaming or food policing. Having lost 100 lbs myself and working on another 50,, I have no place to judge anyone for what they eat. I pride myself on being a generous host who makes my guests comfortable and feeds them well. Nobody leaves my house hungry has always been my rule. The problem: I have a friend group who meets monthly at either my or "Joan's" home for dinner (nobody else has enough space to host). Recently, "Polly" announced she had a girlfriend, which made us all happy. Polly has been lonely for a long time. I was the first to host "Melissa." Melissa is 500-600 lbs. I've never met anyone that big, but I hid my surprise and was warm and welcoming. No problem; I have sturdy furniture. For dinner, I served bowls of salad, then soup. Melissa insisted on keeping her empty bowls at the table. I didn't think much of it; I'm not Emily Post. Then I brought out the main course, two 9X13 pans of 14-layer lasagna, cut into 8 pieces each. There were 10 of us altogether. I told people to dig in as I got the bread out of the oven. When I got back to the dining room, everyone looked so shocked I thought my cat had farted (his mouse farts could suffocate an elephant). Then I saw that Melissa had four pieces of lasagna heaped on her plate, two in her salad bowl, and two in her soup bowl. Polly was glaring like "don't you dare say a word." Melissa seemed utterly oblivious. I didn't know what to do. I just sat down. Joan and I shared one piece of lasagna, and everyone else got a full piece. I cut the cake into equal portions for dessert, but I had to make an extra batch of sauce and get an extra tub of ice cream out. Melissa ate at least a litre. The next month, on Joan's turn, she served every course pre-plated, and when Melissa asked for extra, Joan apologized and said there was none (truth; Joan is very organized and precise). Melissa and Polly left right after dinner, and Polly texted Joan, berating her for "controlling" Melissa's eating. Polly also texted me saying she trusted I'd be sensitive to Melissa's needs on my next turn. That turn is almost here. My plan was roast dinner (pork and beef). I can easily make lots of cheap veg and dessert, but meat is pricey right now, and I'd have to serve twice the norm to satisfy Melissa. I know I cannot just trust she'll take a tenth of what's there, considering she grabbed a whole lasagna last time.. So do I suck it up and just buy much larger roasts? Do I make a few big batches of cheap soup and biscuits and serve that rather than strain my budget? I don't want to upset Melissa or be a stingy host, but I have never dealt with someone like this before. I was obese, but I would have eaten maybe 2 pieces of lasagna. Not 8. Do I just serve a reasonable-sized meal and tell Polly and Melissa "sorry, that's all I have"? AITAH if I serve less food than I know my guests will want? Edited to add... everyone in the group who doesn't cook (so 7 people before Melissa joined) chips in $25 per meal to whoever hosts. That, until inflation got so bad, covered enough of the food cost to make it feasible. Joan and I have both been simplifying our menus a bit to deal with rising costs, but the idea is to give ourselves and our friends a night off from the humdrum world and pretend we live glamorous, elegant lives. We use fine china and dress nicely and play classical music. Right before Melissa, I was going to ask if we could increase the chip-in to $30 a plate. I have the most resources out of anyone in the group, and I can afford to go out-of-pocket a bit more than Joan. None of the rest have the money, space, or culinary skills to put this together. Joan and I can cook like Julia Child. We are a ragtag lot with a variety of neurodivergences and mental health issues. These meals give us something special to look forward to. Consensus: NTA. Commenters say it's not about Melissa's weight, it's about her not having any damn manners. Update February 19, 2025, 1 day later Excrement is hitting the fan right now. I thought I was safe because I knew Polly didn't use Reddit. But apparently Melissa told an online friend about 14-layer lasagna, and that friend saw the post and showed it to her. Stupid me, wanting to show off my culinary prowess! Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to. I was silly to think "Oh, it couldn't happen to me!" So, Melissa and Polly are at my house now, enraged, and my dad the semi-retired crisis counsellor is talking to them whilst I wait downstairs in my suite and cry. Yes, I am hiding behind my parents, but they are calmer and more objective, and I am too anxious have a rational conversation with Polly and Melissa. Update:, it sounds like they've split them off. Dad is in one room talking to Melissa. Mum is in another, talking to Polly. I cannot get close enough to eavesdrop, and my damn cat won't tell me what he's hearing. Might as well take this time to answer some common questions: The chip-in has been $25 per person who doesn't cook. Joan and I never pay, regardless of who hosts. So we have been working off a budget of $175 because the group is nine people and seven pay. Last night and this morning we decided to increase the chip-in to $35. As of this moment, Melissa is only invited if she sticks to appropriate portions because no matter how much she pays, the rest of the group does not want to watch her eat like that. Is that mean? I don't know. But, given the yelling from upstairs, I don't know if she or Polly will ever return. For those who think I cannot have sturdy enough furniture... my dad is a very large man. My now-deceased Opa and my uncle custom-built most of the furniture in the house, least the stuff he would sit on. Dad has lost a lot, but everyone in the family has a good chair or two for him to sit on in their homes. Polly has helped me through a lot and has had a very difficult life, so I am loathe to upset her. I understand now that I need to grow a spine and that I don't need to be a doormat. I built this group and started the parties in part because restaurants aren't an option for all involved. We have a plethora of metal, physical, and neurospicy health issues going on. One of us has dwarfism and doesn't like being stared at. The parties are our escape from difficult lives. We dress up in vintage glam costumes we've found at thrift stores or made for ourselves and pretend that we are in Golden Age Hollywood or something. It's a big deal, and both Joan and I truly love to cook and host. I like cooking fancy food because I have to cook healthfully the rest of the time for my own weight loss and my diabetic parents. I do not want my parties to turn into salad and lentil fests. I eat that the rest of the time. For whoever suggested a crawded boil... we are landlocked in Canada. Beef is cheaper than crawdads around here. I haven't cooked much Southern Soul food, but it's a possibility if we don't include seafood because it costs the Earth. Polly sees Melissa's issues as a disability we should accommodate. She compared it to Dad building a wheelchair ramp onto the front porch for my granny and auntie. But I now understand that letting Melissa gorge is not a kindness. it's enabling very dangerous behaviour. She could keel over in my dining room, and we do not want to deal with all the paperwork that would create. I honestly did think that everyone who was morbidly obese and addicted to food got that way from trauma because my sister and I did. I wasn't actually deprived of lasagna. Joan and I often share a piece. I've had bariatric surgery and cannot eat much, and Joan prefers salad and bread and only a small portion of something as rich as lasagna. I'll post the recipe once I remember all of it. It's a combo of a few different ones and some right from my head. I'm extremely stressed right now, so remembering ingredients isn't working. I was wrong on Melissa's weight. She's 490 lbs. My bad; I am not good at estimating those things. I would be much calmer right now and not be having chest pain if this was rage-bait. I wish it was rage-bait. Sorry to disappoint. Please don't call Melissa derogatory names. This is not about hating on fat people. I was looking for advice on how to approach her obesity and food addiction behaviour with fairness and compassion. Also, thanks for all the kind and helpful things people said. Some of the douchey ones gave me a laugh, like the eejit who thought two enormous lasagnas doesn't feed 10 people. I'll write another post when things are resolved. Update 2 February 25, 2025, 1 week later First off, thanks to everyone who responded kindly. I'm still working through all the private messages, and I'll get there. Also, I'm still working on remembering the whole lasagna recipe. I'll post it when I do. First, an apology. I knew Polly didn't use Reddit, but I was foolish and didn't think that Melissa might. I was out of line with some of what I said, like calling it a live mukbang show, and for that I apologize. This post was not supposed to be about fat-shaming, and I did, in my comments, fat-shame. That is on me, and I apologize. I do not hate Melissa for being obese. My problem has solely been about the etiquette and fairness of the food consumption and the stress it puts on me to see someone binge-eat so severely when I battle that disorder. Update... That day they came to my house, I did eventually speak to Melissa and Polly after they calmed down. Melissa has always dreamed of having friends who would accept her as she is and be in a group where she can eat the way she does without judgment. Polly believed that I would provide that. I told them that I cannot, because I almost ate myself to death, and helping someone else do it is too much. Also, most of my other guests were uncomfortable. I said I would provide double portions to Melissa (which is a LOT of food), but no more. I did not mention the cost, because I didn't want them to offer to pay as a way around it. They said they'd think about it, but Polly messaged me a few days later and said that she could not forgive me humiliating her partner online unless I showed true remorse by "giving Melissa what she needs" (an unlimited buffet at my home). So our friendship is over. Another member of the group has sided with Polly, upset at the fact that I discussed this online. So that is where we're at. My group has shrunk. We'll grow again; there are a few people we are going to discuss who might make good additions. But we skipped this month's party because of the stress and drama. As to whether I should have discussed it online at all... I've decided that I'm not sorry for that. I changed enough details that someone outside the circle would not recognize it. Some genders, names, ages, medical conditions, who has what career, which relatives I live with, who has what career, have been altered to preserve anonymity. I needed advice, and I thought anonymously online would be better than asking a bunch of people I knew, because I did not want to tell people who knew Melissa what happened. Comments by OOP: I never brought up the possibility of Melissa and Polly paying for the excess because I didn't want that to be a pathway to this happening again. Everyone who doesn't cook does chip in for food. It's possible that Melissa might have been willing to pay for what she ate. It felt like.... she wanted to her wants to come first no matter the consequences. She wanted everyone to put their discomfort aside for her enjoyment, and that included me with my BED being triggered. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I said some pretty foul things in my comments on the first post, like "live mukbang show." I do understand why Polly wanted to end the friendship. That was very wrong of me, especially because I did NOT want to present this as hateful toward fat people. I wanted to present it with compassion and help people understand how horrific food addiction is so they'd have more empathy for those plagued with it. Polly's demand wasn't so much about creating the unlimited buffet as it was prioritizing Melissa's wishes to eat all she wanted in spite of the discomfort of other guests and allowing my own food addiction issues to be triggered. I did explain to Polly about how much it triggered me, and I think the demand was deliberate in that I should put myself in such discomfort to atone. I was wrong for the rude things I said, but I won't put myself in that danger to atone. I've been stress-eating since it happened, worse since things blew up, and I need to get it under control. We didn't consent to it. I did not consider there could be a sexual component. I mean, I like sex, but I've never linked it with food beyond whipped cream and chocolate sauce, you know? And to me, sex is a private, two-person activity, not a spectator sport. We skipped this month's party because of all the drama. Next month, I will do a roast dinner. Usually I like to serve numerous courses, but roast dinner kind of works better when it's served together, so the only starter will be a simple consomme or, if I have slightly wilting veggies, a pureed vegetable soup. I make consomme a few times a year and pressure-can it (I love to do everything possible from scratch), and it makes it easier for dealing with my parents' diabetes because I know what's in everything. I buy my meat from a local butcher who only works with a handful of farms that practise humane livestock raising, so I can custom-order the cuts I want. Yes, I know this is privilege because my family can afford it. We aren't taking European vacations or anything, but the food is good and we have a cleaner once a week. I'd be living on rice and beans if I had to buy my own food. Two days before the meal, I'll stud the beef roast with rosemary and garlic and the pork with sprigs of thyme and thin slices of onion. I rub some sea salt, white pepper and garlic powder on the beef and sea salt, white pepper and sage powder on the pork. Let those sit, wrapped tightly in plastic, in the fridge, for two days before roasting. Just before roasting, I'll stud the pork with thin slices of apple (slide those in beside the onion). I'll put apple juice in with the pork and red wine in with the beef. During roasting, I turn each roast several times so all sides have a chance to sit in the liquid. I favour lean meats with little marbling, so I have to make extra effort to ensure they're moist and tender. After the roasting, I'll make two different gravies, a beef one and a pork one. There will also be Yorkshire pudding, roasted carrots, applesauce, and a bacon/apple/brussel sprout dish. Roast dinner doesn't really serve well in courses, so we'll have a simple consomme soup starter and then straight to the main course, which we will likely eat very slowly. I keep the serving dishes covered so the food stays hot. Then a break where everyone who is able helps clean up, and then we sit around and listen to music and chat, and eventually dessert, which will be sticky toffee pudding with whisky sauce and whipped cream. If I do it right, I'll have leftover everything. Then the next day, my mother will make fried potato cakes for breakfast (parents get up earlier than me). And she'll eat the brussel sprouts during the day because she loves them. For supper, I'll chop the leftover meat and carrots and add some peas to make a simple stew (the gravies mix nicely) and my family will eat that with bread. Sorry if that's more info than you wanted, but I hate food waste so I wanted to show how I cook deliberately to prevent it. There's a cookbook called More with Less that is really good for showing cheap, healthy ways to cook that also avoid waste. I didn't even offer them the option to pay for her excess. It's possible she might have agreed to do so, but I think part of the fantasy is someone else just providing the food and pretending like what she's doing is normal and socially acceptable. I've been deeply conflicted about all this because I understand the food addiction side of it and don't want to make anyone's struggle worse in that regard. I mean, I needed to grow a spine and realize I had to protect my own health before someone else's, and I'm glad for people who told me to do it. But grasping how far their manipulation went has made it easier to let go of the friendship. I think Polly is taking advantage of the fact that I don't want to upset someone for being obese and she told Melissa that I wouldn't object to her eating all she wanted. I think she sees me as a safe space for Melissa to live out her compulsions unopposed. Polly might have more of a manipulative side than I thought. Early 40s. Before you judge me for hiding behind my parents, remember that I have significant neurodivergence and mental health issues. I'm still in therapy to learn to manage confrontation and the like. I used to be a very mean person (that's how I coped with the anxiety), but I hated that and have worked so hard to go in the other direction that I went too far and break down during emotional confrontation. I'm still recovering from a very dangerous bout of depression and a hospitalisation. I don't want to go back there, so I'm doing what I must. Even if it's letting my dad fight my battles. They know where I live. They've been here before. I didn't invite them in. They knocked, the cleaner let them in and called for me, and they started yelling. Once my parents figured out what was happening, they suggested I go calm down. Overbearing or not, they're trying to protect me. I thought I'd have a few days to figure this all out, but Melissa saw the Reddit post, and she recognized it. I hadn't changed many identifying details because I'd just been thinking about Polly not seeing it. I think that's what it is. Our city is not large, and I doubt there's an actual feeder community. So they're looking for people who will support them in their lifestyle, but I just can't do it. It's triggering my own food addiction issues and upsetting to most of the other friends. Even if money wasn't a concern, I cannot do this. To be fair, nobody went hungry. I've had bariatric surgery, so I cannot eat a full piece of lasagna. Joan prefers to fill up on lighter food like salad. She and I often share one piece, which Polly knew. I think now that she told Melissa precisely how much she'd be able to load. As I look back, I see more and more how much pre-planning went into this. I always thought I did provide all-you-can-eat. I want my guests to be stuffed and satisfied. It's part of my cultural background to feed people as a gesture of love. That's why I made two lasagnas when I could have gotten by with one, cutting pieces smaller. But I've never met someone whose food addiction was that extensive. I want to be clear that I see her as sick, not an evil, greedy person. Bonus Lasagna Recipe 14-Layer "I Must Be Crazy" Lasagna Recipe - as Requested this is not a once-a-month recipe to add to the rotation. Also to add an ingredient I forgot. This is a special occasion, I want to show off/make someone feel incredibly special sort of recipe. I make it like twice a year for a particular group of people I love very much. I posted it because I mentioned it in another group and a bunch of people were asking. 14-Layer Lasagna This is my “I must be crazy” lasagna recipe that a bunch of people have asked me to post. It’s incredibly decadent but quite delicious. It’s from a mix of other recipes, including some hints from Kenji and from my mum's recipe, and some from my head. You might find yourself adjusting measurements or seasonings to suit your own palate. I tend to cook by feel and instinct, so these measurements are about the closest I can come. But lasagna really is one of those foods that nobody uses exact recipes for, so see this as a guide. I usually make this over 2 or 3 days because it tastes better to let the sauces sit and then the assembled lasagnas sit to let the flavours mingle, but it’s still good if you have to do it all the same day. Warning… that will be one LONG day. Give yourself 8 hours from start till serving time. First off, you need a pan at least 6 inches deep, because this thing gets TALL. Mine end up somewhere between 4-6 inches tall, depending on how thick I make the layers. And this is 4-6 inches on a ruler, not what your last hookup told you was 4-6 inches. This recipe is for two 9X13 pans, because that’s usually how I make it. You have to cut everything in half if you're just doing one, but that's way too much work to just make one lasagna, so make two and put one in the freezer. They'll freeze well (just don't add the top cheese). Let it thaw for 2 days in the fridge before baking. It takes for freaking ever to thaw. A note about the meats: Veal and lamb tend to be fattier meats, so you’ll lose more volume to melted fat that you’ll need to drain out. So if you’re using lean ground beef, use more veal and lamb than you do beef if you want the meat amounts to be equal. Component Ingredients: Beef Sauce: 500-650 grams ground beef (around 1-1.5 lbs) Salt and pepper to taste 250 grams chopped onion (about a cup) 250 grams finely chopped celery (about a cup) 4 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves minced garlic A few sprigs basil leaves, chopped finely A few sprigs oregano leaves, chopped finely 2 bay leaves 2 tbsp fish sauce 250 ml red wine 250 ml milk 750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) Lamb Sauce: 500-650 grams ground lamb (around 1.5 lbs) Salt and pepper to taste 250 grams chopped onion (about 1 cup) 250 grams chopped carrot (about 1 cup) 4 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves minced garlic A few sprigs of finely chopped rosemary leaves (at least 3 tbsp) A few sprigs of finely chopped oregano (a bit less than the rosemary) 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp pureed anchovy paste 250 ml dry white wine 250 ml milk 750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) Veal Sauce: 500-650 grams ground veal (around 1.5 lb) Salt and pepper to taste 250 grams chopped onion (about 1 cup) 250 grams chopped leek (about 1 cup) 4 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves minced garlic A few sprigs of finely chopped basil leaves A few sprigs of finely chopped parsley A few sprigs of finely chopped marjoram 2 tbsp fish sauce 250 ml chicken stock 250 ml milk 750-1000 ml pureed tomatoes (Use the higher amount if the tomatoes are fresh; you can do the lower amount if they’re canned because they’ve already reduced some) A note about sauces: If you don’t want to do three separate sauces, you can mix all three meats together. Basically, just throw all the ingredients of all of the sauces in the same pot, following the procedure I outline below. It will be tasty, with very layered, complex flavour. Ricotta Cheese Blend: 1.5 litres ricotta 750 gm grated parmigiano-reggiano or parmigiano… get the fresh stuff and grate... do not sully this beautiful piece of culinary artwork with powder, please. 500 gm grated old white cheddar 6 eggs I cup finely chopped parsley Pasta: If you’re using premade noodles, you’ll need 18-30 PER LASAGNA, depending on how many you like to put on each layer. Minimum coverage is 3 noodles per layer, but I often do five to ensure max coverage, and my pans are a little bigger than 9X13. So, altogether you need 36-60. If you’re making your own pasta in sheets, remember each lasagna needs six layers of pasta. Top Cheese: 1000 grams grated mozzarella and 4 large balls of fresh mozzarella. I use the ones that are like the size of a small fist. You might want more or less. Sometimes I add in some old white cheddar here, too. Component Instructions: Meat Sauces (the procedure is the same for all three): Note: Have EVERYTHING chopped, measured, and ready to go, at least for the first time you make it. Goes much easier and you won't burn anything. The herbs, I always use fresh, and unless otherwise stated, I tend to use about 2 tbsp of each in each sauce. Some people might find this a bit overpowering, so you might wish to start with less and adjust to taste halfway through the cooking process. Brown the meat. Drain the fat if there’s too much. Add in salt and pepper to taste Add vegetables, cook till onions soften some. The rest of the veg will soften nicely during the simmering, but onions don’t do that well. Take meat and veg out of pan and set aside. Heat olive oil in pan on medium to medium high. Add garlic, cook for a minute or two until it starts to get a bit brown but don’t burn it Add half the herbs and anchovy/fish sauce for those sauces, stir for just a minute to activate the flavour oils, but don’t brown or burn them Add wine/stock immediately. Stir the pan with a wooden spoon to deglace and get the stuck bits off the bottom. Add milk. Add meat and veg back in. Add tomatoes Cook on low for 1.5-3 hours, stirring every 20 mins. You want a bit of simmering, but not too much because the stuff on the bottom will burn. Add the other half of the herbs halfway through cooking, leaving some out if you think the taste will be too strong. The sauce volume will reduce because there is a lot of water in there, but remember that you’ll need about 1.5 litres of each in the end. You can get by with less, depending on how thick you like your layers. I like mine thick, so 1.5 litres works for me. Taste your sauces at the end. You might want to adjust for flavours, adding salt or something. Depends on how you like things to taste. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of salt. Take the bay leaves out of the beef sauce. Best to let the sauces sit overnight in the fridge if you have time, but it’s okay if you don’t. Ricotta Cheese Blend: Make this right before you assemble. Whisk the eggs, then add the ricotta and parsley, then fold in the other cheeses. It will be a bit runny, but the eggs will cook and firm it up in the oven. Pasta: Cook your noodles to al dente unless you’re using the kind that need no cooking. If you use cooked noodles, I advise you rinse them in cold water and throw in a bit of olive oil so they don’t stick together. Then have a huge bowlful of them ready for when it’s time to assemble. Top Cheese: don’t worry about that yet; it doesn’t go on until halfway through the baking. Assembly: GREASE YOUR PANS. I mean, it’s still gonna be a mess, but this helps a bit. If you’re not good at eyeballing measurements, divide your components into the right number of layers first. Put each meat sauce into two bowls with a bit more than a third in each, and then two bowls with the remaining sauces mixed together. So all together to make 2 lasagnas, you need 2 bowls of beef sauce, 2 bowls of veal sauce, 2 bowls of lamb sauce, and then 2 bowls of the remnants mixed up. I cannot do the math on how to divide that, so you’ll have to figure it out. All those bowls of sauce should be close to equal in amount. I like at least 500 ml for each meat sauce layer, but you can make do with a less. For the ricotta cheese mix, you need three bowls of sauce for each lasagna, so 6 altogether. I like at least 500 ml of mix per layer. The amount in the recipe should come close. Assemby Order: Each lasagna goes in this order: Beef sauce Pasta Ricotta cheese mix Pasta Lamb sauce Pasta Ricotta cheese mix Pasta Veal sauce Pasta Ricotta cheese mix Pasta Mix of meat sauces Stop there. If you’re baking the next day, wrap them tight in plastic wrap, put them in the fridge overnight (the flavours mix better). But same-day baking is fine, too. If it's same-day baking, go to Baking Time and Temp. If you’re baking the next day, let the lasagnas sit on the counter a bit before you put them in the oven. This is super important if you’re using a glass dish, because sometimes those crack with sudden temperature changes. I live in a cold climate, so my house is usually cool. I would not advise leaving something with raw eggs on the counter for a long time in Florida summer heat. Baking Temp and Time: I use a convection over at about 300-325 degrees F. These puppies are THICK, so you don’t want the outside to cook too fast whilst the middle is raw. So don’t go too hot, even with a convection oven. It might take you a few tries to figure out what works best for you. Cover each lasagne with foil (SHINY SIDE DOWN) and bake for about an hour to a hour and a half. I do an hour if I'm making it all the same day and the sauces are warm, an hour and a half if I've chilled them overnight. Take them out. Leave oven on. Uncover and add the fresh and the grated mozzarella. I usually lay the fresh down in slices and then sprinkle the grated overtop. How much cheese you want is really up to you. Carefully tent the foil (SHINY SIDE DOWN) round the edge of each pan to prevent the edges from burning. Grease the foil if it might touch the cheese so it doesn't stick. Leave the middle open so steam can escape or the lasagna will be way too juicy. Put them back in and bake for another hour or hour and a half. Note on Temperature and Baking Time: Oven temperatures are really variable, so you have to pay attention. One to two hours into the baking process, cut into the middle of each lasagna, all the way down, and see if the layers are cooked through. Check again every 30 mins. The ricotta layers will be kind of firm, and of course everything’s piping hot. My oven takes almost 3 hours to bake them through after I've put them in the fridge overnight (I usually do that because I'm way too lazy to make everything the same day),, but others might be different. If you do all cooking and assembly on the same day and the sauces are hot when they go in the pan, that will reduce cooking time. I'm not the original poster. submitted by /u/Schattenspringer to r/BORUpdates [link] [comments]

I recently went to Costco business center and got 10 lbs of ground beef for a great price. Now I’m looking for some good and easy recipes (other than hamburger helper) I can make my family of 4. Please let me know what you know and what is a good and easy dinner I can make them. Edit: I froze each individual pound in flat freezer bags submitted by /u/Bone_Breaker0 to r/cookingforbeginners [link] [comments]

SOS: My burgers have gone from family favorite to something no one wants. Two boys, 13 and 25, used to devour my burgers like they hadn't seen a meal in ages. Now? They're leaving sad, barely-touched meat discs on their plates. My boys have opinions, and they're brutal: 'weird,' 'too dry,' 'too oily,' 'too greasy,' and the soul-crushing 'it doesn't have any taste.' To me, they've always been rather plain, but that seemingly was never a problem before. Something has changed, though I'm not sure what. I'm using 80/20 ground beef, fresh as can be, from a decent grocery store in Massachusetts (Shaw's). My wife likes hers still mooing, but the boys want theirs perma-charred - no pink allowed. Current recipe (use at your own risk): 7 oz of beef, manhandled into submission, flattened, and sacrificed to a medium-high skillet for 4 minutes per side. Cheese gets a 60-second cameo at the end. Brioche buns because I really do try to make my fam happy. I've never had to season ground beef before, but maybe that's where I've gone wrong? Is there a secret burger society I'm not privy to? A bovine illuminati? I could use some help. How do YOU make your burgers taste like actual food and not sad cow discs? EDIT: Wow, something like 80 comments in about 8 minutes. I'm doing it wrong. :) 90+ minutes in, and now 500+ comments, I certainly hit a nerve with tasteless burgers. I'm really sorry and I won't do it again. Promise! :( Smash Burger Success! Just finished dinner. There’s grease everywhere, I’m still cleaning up, I didn’t expect that much grease to come out on my griddle, and all over the kitchen floor - I usually have a grease catcher over my frying pan. Regardless, everyone is happy! My wife gave it props too so all in all, excellent work everyone, you all made it happen! TY Reddit!! submitted by /u/jbezorg76 to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

I am not the Original Poster. That is u/Marrowshard. She posted in r/AmItheAsshole. Mood Spoiler: Overall looking positive Original Post: March 17, 2023 I (41F) live with my husband (41M) and daughters (10, 17). Husband is a picky eater, which I've known about for 20 years. I'm used to making food and having husband and/or kids making faces, gagging, taking an hour to pick at a single serving, or just outright refusing to eat. My husband is notorious for coming home from work, taking one look at the dinner I've made, and opting for a frozen pizza. Most of the meals I make cater to their specific wants. Like spaghetti: 10F only eats the plain noodles. 17F eats the noodles with a scrambled egg on top, no sauce. Husband only eats noodles with a specific brand of tomato sauce with ground beef in it. If I use any other sauce (even homemade) I'm going to be eating leftovers for a week. So it's just the one recipe of spaghetti. These days, husband complains that we have a lot of the same meals, over and over. It's true, but when I've explained WHY that's true, it doesn't seem to sink in. I can only make a few things that everyone in the family will reliably eat and those get old. A couple of nights ago I made a shepherd's pie. I used a new recipe with seasoned ground beef (3/3 like), peas (2/3 like), and tomatoes (1/3 like, 1/3 tolerate) with a turmeric-mashed potato top layer (2/3 will eat mashed potato). Predictably, 10F ate a single bite then gagged and ended up throwing hers away. 17F ate part of a single bowl then put hers in the trash. Husband came home late and "wasn't hungry". I was so tired of reactions to my food and putting in the effort for YEARS and it all finally came down on me at once. I burst into tears and cried all night and the next morning. So I told my husband that I was done cooking. From here on out, HE would be responsible for evening meals. I would still do breakfast for the girls, and lunch when they weren't in school but otherwise it was up to him. He said "what about when I work late?". I told him he needed to figure it out. I told him that between him and the girls, I no longer found any joy in cooking and baking, that I hated the way he and the girls made me feel when they reacted to my food, that I was tired of the "yuck faces" and refusals to eat when I made something new and that it broke my heart EVERY time. This morning, he had to work, so he got up early to do some meal prep. He was clearly angry. He said he doesn't understand why "[I] said I hated him". He said he "doesn't know what to do" and thinks I'm being unfair and punishing him. He said I make things that "don't appeal to kids" sometimes and I can't expect them to like it when I make Greek-style lemon-chicken soup (17F enjoyed it, 10F and husband hated it). I countered that I make PLENTY of chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, grilled cheese, etc but that picky or not, there's such a thing as respect for a person's efforts. So, Reddit: AITA? Relevant Comments: What does your husband do/splitting chores: "He works as a retail manager every day except Wednesday and Thursday. I WFH on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays (afternoon-evening shift) We live on a hobby farm, so farm chores fall to me (unless it's plowing the driveway, because the tractor is old and fickle). We typically share large outdoor projects like firewood stacking, coop cleaning, and yard cleanup. Daily chores are mine. I also do all the housecleaning, laundry, paperwork/bill paying, school events, pet care/vet appts, medical appointments, child care, gift shopping/shipping, and errands. Husband is usually good about picking up some groceries on his way home from work, and has recently stepped up to making some of the meals on nights when I work (if I didn't already have something in the crock pot)." Wasting food: "Most of our scraps go to the chickens, ducks, or dog. This time I was out of the room (crying) when they threw the stuff away in the trash." What exactly is your policy when they don't eat the food? "The policy has always been "try it first" and then (especially with the 10F) to ask WHY they don't like it. So if it's a texture thing, or flavor, or ketchup would help, I work with that. Like I KNOW the youngest doesn't like sauce/gravy, so I'll usually keep some of whatever it is reserved to the side so it doesn't get sauced. The family likes over-baked fish, but 10F said she doesn't like the "black stuff" (pepper) so hers is lightly salted and done. If she picks at a meal without eating a reasonable amount, she's allowed to be done IF she agrees there will be no snacking/dessert afterwards. If she (or any of them) puts in the effort and it's just not their favorite but they TRIED, that's good enough for me. It's the facial expressions and complaints that do me in. They don't have to love it, but if you're going to pick at it and then dump the plate and grab a bag of chips, I'm going to be hurt and upset, you know?" Any allergies or food issues? "Husband has a mild food allergy to onions, so those are not used in the house (unless it's something solely for someone else like salsa - he has to ingest it or handle peeled onions to get a reaction). He's been to a doc for stomach/digestive stuff and aside from a recommendation for more fiber, there was nothing wrong with him. 10F's regular pediatrician says she seems healthy and isn't malnourished so they're not concerned much over her pickiness as a medical problem." Have you ever expressed your dislike of their reactions before and/or tried to figure out what they like? "Many, many times. I sat down with my husband when we first got together and worked out a list of things he WOULD NOT eat, so I could develop workarounds. To his credit, he's made progress over the years in trying things before he rejects them, and has learned to like, for example, sour cream in his mashed potatoes, even though he hates sour cream by itself. Most of the things he DOES like are isolated flavors in a particular style. He eats exactly two kinds of pie: Raspberry and French Silk. But the Silk has to be on a Graham cracker crust with no whipped cream or chocolate curls, and the raspberry has to be a classic double-crust (no tart-style, crumble-top, or other cobbler-adjacent types). Using apples is a mortal sin." Update Post: April 15, 2023 (1 month later) I spoke with each family member individually about their behavior. 10F apologized profusely and said that "sometimes [she] doesn't like my cooking". 17F (who has only been with us since she was 16 and didn't grow up with us. It was a bit too long and off-topic for the original post) said she appreciated that I make varied recipes, even if she didn't always like them. She also said that she WANTED to cook, but had seen Husband and 10F's reactions to mine and was put off it. Husband accepted the TA judgement from the sub and to his credit, he planned and executed every evening meal. The kids ate his meals, but husband's lack of finesse (overboiled vegetables, untrimmed meat, soggy pasta, etc) caused some picked-over meals from the kids. Everything was edible, though, and he very politely asked for some tips on things (like how long to cook rice) but I did not physically help. I reassured him that I wasn't trying to watch him fail but that I needed him to learn a lesson. After a couple of weeks, both kids were tired of husband's oft-repeated recipes (homemade pizza, Korean beef/veg bowls, and nuggets/fries) and he was stressed trying to get home from work in time to get meals done. The very first night, 10F cried over her "dry, gross" pizza crust. Husband fought her over it and BOTH OF THEM looked to me to solve the issue. I redirected 10F to Husband, saying it's his call since it's his dinner. With several meals, he made WAY too much mediocre food and had to eat leftovers for DAYS, which was cathartic. Eventually, I sat down with Husband and we evaluated the fallout. Husband said it hurt when the girls didn't like his food, and it was hard to plan things ahead on night he worked late. He also admitted he was in a rut for recipes and that it was hard to modify for people's preferences. There is now a posted schedule and rule set that ALL family members are expected to adhere to. Each kid picked a night to cook (10F has Sunday, 17F has Saturday). Husband and I split the weekdays according to work schedule. Since he works late on Monday and Friday, I took those. I work Tuesday and Thursday nights, so those belong to him. Wednesday is a flex day. Anyone can cook, or we might go out, and group projects are encouraged. The rules are: NO gagging, "faces", or complaining Cook chooses the meal, period Assistance may be requested by anyone Special ingredient requests must be made a minimum of two days in advance So far so good. 17F has been learning a lot of technique, 10F is thrilled to be addressed as "Chef" by whoever is assisting her, and no one has yet broken any of the Rules. Husband more easily asks for my advice when he's cooking (how to season, how long to cook things) which is a huge improvement. It's too early to declare victory, and it takes a long time to make permanent changes, but it's encouraging progress. Thanks everyone for the advice and the support! Here's to continued positive change. Relevant Comment: Did your husband actually apologize? "Yes, he did!" Marking as concluded because the original issue has been solved (for now). submitted by /u/LucyAriaRose to r/BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]

I (41F) live with my husband (41M) and daughters (10, 17). Husband is a picky eater, which I've known about for 20 years. I'm used to making food and having husband and/or kids making faces, gagging, taking an hour to pick at a single serving, or just outright refusing to eat. My husband is notorious for coming home from work, taking one look at the dinner I've made, and opting for a frozen pizza. Most of the meals I make cater to their specific wants. Like spaghetti: 10F only eats the plain noodles. 17F eats the noodles with a scrambled egg on top, no sauce. Husband only eats noodles with a specific brand of tomato sauce with ground beef in it. If I use any other sauce (even homemade) I'm going to be eating leftovers for a week. So it's just the one recipe of spaghetti. These days, husband complains that we have a lot of the same meals, over and over. It's true, but when I've explained WHY that's true, it doesn't seem to sink in. I can only make a few things that everyone in the family will reliably eat and those get old. A couple of nights ago I made a shepherd's pie. I used a new recipe with seasoned ground beef (3/3 like), peas (2/3 like), and tomatoes (1/3 like, 1/3 tolerate) with a turmeric-mashed potato top layer (2/3 will eat mashed potato). Predictably, 10F ate a single bite then gagged and ended up throwing hers away. 17F ate part of a single bowl then put hers in the trash. Husband came home late and "wasn't hungry". I was so tired of reactions to my food and putting in the effort for YEARS and it all finally came down on me at once. I burst into tears and cried all night and the next morning. So I told my husband that I was done cooking. From here on out, HE would be responsible for evening meals. I would still do breakfast for the girls, and lunch when they weren't in school but otherwise it was up to him. He said "what about when I work late?". I told him he needed to figure it out. I told him that between him and the girls, I no longer found any joy in cooking and baking, that I hated the way he and the girls made me feel when they reacted to my food, that I was tired of the "yuck faces" and refusals to eat when I made something new and that it broke my heart EVERY time. This morning, he had to work, so he got up early to do some meal prep. He was clearly angry. He said he doesn't understand why "[I] said I hated him". He said he "doesn't know what to do" and thinks I'm being unfair and punishing him. He said I make things that "don't appeal to kids" sometimes and I can't expect them to like it when I make Greek-style lemon-chicken soup (17F enjoyed it, 10F and husband hated it). I countered that I make PLENTY of chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, grilled cheese, etc but that picky or not, there's such a thing as respect for a person's efforts. So, Reddit: AITA? submitted by /u/Marrowshard to r/AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/IrritatingJewishLady to r/shittyfoodporn [link] [comments]

I wager everyone here knows some of these things, but I’m gonna list everything I can think of in regards to eating healthy and well. I’m gonna make this a list with sections, so hopefully it’s easy enough to parse. —————-LEGUMES——————— -Buy these dried as often as possible. Keep a stock of beans, lentils, and dried chickpeas around if you can. They’re cheap, almost always available, and virtually imperishable. As such, assuming you don’t throw them out and keep them properly stored, buying these is a 100% return on your investment. -Legumes are one of the most versatile options in your kitchen. As long as you soak them and put them in the fridge before you go to bed they’ll be available the next day to cook quickly. These are the best thing to have if you’re looking to stretch a meal because of their nutrient density and the fact that they’re just damn delicious on their own. -Look into middle-eastern and African cuisine for creative ways to use these ingredients. Some really common examples are lentil curry, hummus, falafels, and putting chickpeas in a shakshuka. This isn’t a recipe post, so look up how to make them yourself - some grandma has a better (and probably even cheaper) recipe than I do. ————-GRAINS AND CEREALS ———— -Like legumes, these are very versatile. However, I find most people know very little about them outside of wheat and maybe oats. I highly recommend learning what the most commonly eaten grans and cereals in your locality are, and then finding the affordable ones. There will be at least one. I guarantee it. -FLOUR is an essential staple, unless you’re celiac or gluten free - a topic on which I won’t speak because I’m confident anyone who has to deal with those issues knows more than I do. I recommend grabbing all-purpose flour due to its gluten content being a middle ground between low-gluten pastry flour and high-gluten bread flour. You can still use it to make bread, and it has a myriad other uses as a binder or thickener for sauces. -RICE is amazing, as most know already, but seriously - it’s one of the most important crops in the world. It’s kept civilizations alive on its back for all of recorded history, and it’ll keep you alive, too. There is no better “fill me up” food I can think of. Wait for those huge sacks of rice to go on sale (it happens pretty frequently), then buy 2. They last forever. Ideally grab long-grain rice if you’re just looking for a side-dish or fried rice base, but in a pinch short grain’ll do; it’s just less forgiving and the starches don’t retrograde as fully so when you cool it it doesn’t keep as nicely. -KEEP IN MIND that rice is pure carbs. It’s a good base, but you need other stuff to go with it or else you’ll be deficient in nutrients and feel awful all the time. Trust me from experience - college me went through a raw-egg-on-rice phase, and it wasn’t pretty. -BARLEY, also, is amazing, but for other reasons. It’s high in protein and iron, and can help dramatically improve your nutrient intake for very little cost. In soups, roasted in tea (thanks Korea), and used in tandem with rice, it can go a very, very long way in making your diet a more sustainable one in times of austerity and plenty, alike. -AVOID “SUPERFOODS”. Not because they’re bad for you - just because of their jacked prices. Not to mention oftentimes the industries surrounding them are ethical nightmares. Don’t get me started on avocado cartels and the impact of quinoa farming on low-income South American communities. In reality, most grains and cereals have a lot of nutrients and minerals, and they’re often overlooked. Learn the nutrition facts, and make decisions accordingly. Google and online databases are your friends, here. ———FRUITS AND VEGETABLES——— -ONIONS: buy them fresh and store them in dry, enclosed spaces, and buy tomatoes canned and without salt added. Use onions in almost everything, they’re delicious, cheap, and nutritious. -TOMATOES: Good fresh and better canned. Use fresh tomatoes raw for whatever you want and use canned tomatoes for sauces. Buy canned tomatoes with as little added salt and sugar as possible. POTATOES: Treat these as a starch option similar to grains or cereals. Buy them unprocessed, in a sack. Store them in dry, enclosed spaces. -BASICALLY EVERY FRUIT: go for it, these things are nutrient bombs and they’re delicious. Buy them seasonally for the best value and if you have a day to do so, preserve them if you ever see a huge sale. I’m still enjoying lacto-fermented blueberries from last year’s insane blueberry harvest where I could buy a pint for a dollar. -FOR SHOPPING: Generally when you buy produce you should go, in order, to the discount rack, then the sales, and then everything else. Someone out there has a recipe for literally everything, and some of them are even good. A pepper with a blemish or tiny spot of mold is still fine, assuming you cut away the blemish or tiny spot of mold. -I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH; FIND THE UNDER-APPRECIATED AND OVER-SUPPLIED PRODUCE. There’s always a bin of some forgotten veggie no-one eats for some reason. In the west, at least, it seems to often be rutabagas/turnips. I’ve also seen apples in the fall, corn, and cabbages fall into this category. This is because of a good harvest, or because of a lack of consumer interest - any time this happens, capitalize on it. Everything is delicious if you cook it properly. Buy seasonally, and learn how to use the things you buy. You’ll eat like a king and pay like a pauper. -CANNED STUFF - I generally have a personal aversion to all canned veggies and fruits except tomatoes, but that’s just my privilege speaking. If you want to buy them or if fresh produce is hard to come by, avoid getting anything with added salt or sugar. Cross-reference the nutrient info on the can with info from a fresh counterpart to avoid buying filler garbage, and try to find somewhere to live with better food accessibility. Alternatively, save up and make a killing by opening a fruit and vegetable market to remove the need to read this very ling post any further. (This is a joke and I recognize the struggle of those in impoverished communities with awful food accessibility.) -FROZEN STUFF - frozen fruit and veg is great, mostly. Maybe dodge the chopped carrots and corn a lot of us ate growing up or find in bad takeout Chinese food, but hey - grab that bag of frozen berries or peas and throw ‘em in anything that warrants it. Technology for frozen produce has improved dramatically in the last few decades, and we should capitalize on that. ——-PROTEINS——- -IF YOU EAT MEAT, buy the least processed cuts you can. Whole chickens, meat on the bone, and ground meats are your best friends. Go to butcher shops, if you can. Freezing meat is fine, but try to avoid buying pre-made frozen protein options. Get raw product and do the work yourself to save a LOT of cash and get better food out of it. -MEAT IS A LUXURY, NOT AN ESSENTIAL. I say this because in modern western culture eating meat everyday is seen as normal. This is an oddity when we examine all of human history, and this notion should be abandoned if we’re trying to live more affordably. Meat is grossly overrepresented in most diets, and you should always ask if you could cut your portion of meat down in exchange for more vegetables and grains. -LEARN HOW TO BREAK DOWN YOUR PROTEINS. A chicken isn’t just 8 portions of meat - it’s also bones and carcass for a stock or soup, fat to be rendered out and used as a cooking oil (thanks, jewish folks!), and skin to be cooked down into delicious little chips. This same list can be used for pork, beef, and any other mammal you eat. -FISH IS IFFY. Like, as an industry. Not many people know their fish, and fish processing companies know that and capitalize on it. I always tell people who like fish to buy fresh and whole, and to learn how to pick good fish. Buying cheap processed fish products is akin to asking to be ripped off, to harm the environment, and to accumulate toxins in your body, all at the same time. To not get completely F-ed over by what is maybe the worst food industry in the world you need to know your fish, know the company you’re buying from, and know who’s doing the fishing. Good luck, and please try not to contribute to the death of our water ecosystems. (A good trick is that if you can afford fish when you’re poor and you don’t live beside a large body of water, you almost certainly DON’T WANT IT.) -IF YOU DO BUY FISH OR SEAFOOD, all the rules for proteins apply. Fish bones and crustacean shells for stock, fat deposits on the occasional salmonid for whatever you want, and fish skin, if it’s your cup of tea, for a lovely snack. Hell, fish organs and salt make up the base for a fermented fish sauce, if you really want to go the extra mile. Rome survived off of fish sauce and bread for longer than our society has been around. The one big difference between fish and meat is that frozen fish tends to suck relative to fresh in a much bigger way - both in terms of quality and retained nutrients. Put frozen fish in soups or curries, to avoid nutrient drain from the water that inevitably will leak out of your fish. FOR VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS: You know more about your protein options than I do, and honestly they would require a lot of research I haven’t done to fully discuss. Clearly I have more to learn on the subject, and intend to do so. I only encourage you all to do the same ✌️ ——-EVERYTHING ELSE——- -STAY AWAY FROM THE INSTANT RAMEN. I know it’s cheap. I KNOW you like how easy it is. I don’t give one flying fuck. It’s awful for you, it isn’t cheaper than a bowl of rice with soy sauce, a fried egg, and some frozen peas, and it’ll kill you slowly. Just don’t, and ignore anyone’s advice about how it got them through college. Hell, if anyone’s advice involves doing what they did in college, take it with a grain of salt. There’s good advice sometimes, and a LOT of bad. -AVOID THE JUNK FOOD AISLES. Chips, sugar cereals, premade salad dressings, sweet juice/pop, and processed foods like KD or tv dinners are not the way to go if you’re looking to get the most out of your dollar at the grocery store. They’re bad for you, they’re expensive relative to the cost of production, and they put a burden on your body that you’ll pay for down the line. Exceptions to this are staple sauces like a good soy sauce and fish sauce, grains and legumes, and canned veggies. -CHEESE IS A LUXURY, SO TREAT IT LIKE ONE. If you’re gonna buy it I recommend buying less of it less often, and buying the good stuff when you do. Kraft block cheese only costs as little as it does because it’s the by-product of the real money-maker: whey protein production. If you’re gonna buy cheese, please support a real cheesemaker. The cheese lover in you will be happier for it. -ALCOHOL IS ALSO A LUXURY. If you want a drink, I recommend doing it less often and drinking the good stuff. If you like the cheap stuff that’s fine, “good stuff” is all relative anyway. Just drink less and focus on quality over quantity, whatever your preferences are. -MAKE YOUR OWN COFFEE, AND BUY A THERMOS. I know Starbucks is delicious. Guess what? You can find a recipe for every drink they make online, and then make it better. Some restaurants literally survive because they can sell coffee at a nearly 2000% markup. Truck stop diners and high-end coffee shops do this. I recommend making cold brew the night before, since you literally just have to strain it in the morning rather than brewing a pot. -FINALLY, LEARN TO COOK. All of this information is fundamentally more useful if you know how to cook. Not knowing how to cook is a luxury afforded to those with the means to afford living in ignorance of this most basic human skill. You are living outside your means if you live in a well-off country, don’t make a least $60k a year, and can’t cook. Best of luck to you all. Stay safe out there. EDIT: A number of folks pointed out lots of things to me which I wasn’t aware of in regard to beekeeping, so I cut that section out as it was misrepresentative of the industry and failed to highlight key problems in it. Others felt I was being mean to vegans and vegetarians and regardless as to my intentions, I can see evidence that that whole section detracts from this list as a whole and isn’t informative enough to keep. I’ve removed it accordingly. Thanks for the feedback, positive or negative - keep doing good work ✌️ EDIT: Someone made a good point that grocery stores are all laid out different, and not everyone knows the “centre aisles” mantra. So I changed it to “Junk food aisles” for clarity. EDIT: I somehow mistakenly said South African communities were effected by Quinoa production when in fact it’s primarily South American. Sorry ‘bout that. submitted by /u/aichliss to r/EatCheapAndHealthy [link] [comments]

I’ve been seeing lots of posts asking how to best shop and cook when the cash isn’t there. As someone who’s spent nearly the entirety of his professional career learning tips and tricks from some of the best chefs out there on how to keep a restaurant afloat when profit margins are so thin you have to choose between keeping half the kitchen’s lights on and buying dishwashing detergent, I think I know a thing or two about cooking as affordably as possible. I’m going to collate this post into a list separated into types of foods (legumes, grains, vegetables, and proteins), with tips on how to buy them and how to prepare them. I use all these tricks myself in my professional life and day-to-day. I hope this can help, and to all my fellow poor cooks out there: hang in there. The world’s a mess; we only have each-other to rely on. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I’ll try to respond as often as I can. —————-LEGUMES——————— -Buy these dried as often as possible. Keep a stock of beans, lentils, and dried chickpeas around if you can. They’re cheap, almost always available, and virtually imperishable. As such, assuming you don’t throw them out and keep them properly stored, buying these is a 100% return on your investment. -Legumes are one of the most versatile options in your kitchen. As long as you soak them and put them in the fridge before you go to bed they’ll be available the next day to cook quickly. These are the best thing to have if you’re looking to stretch a meal because of their nutrient density and the fact that they’re just damn delicious on their own. -Look into middle-eastern and African cuisine for creative ways to use these ingredients. Some really common examples are lentil curry, hummus, falafels, and putting chickpeas in a shakshuka. This isn’t a recipe post, so look up how to make them yourself - some grandma has a better (and probably even cheaper) recipe than I do. ————-GRAINS AND CEREALS ———— -Like legumes, these are very versatile. However, I find most people know very little about them outside of wheat and maybe oats. I highly recommend learning what the most commonly eaten grans and cereals in your locality are, and then finding the affordable ones. There will be at least one. I guarantee it. -FLOUR is an essential staple, unless you’re celiac or gluten free - a topic on which I won’t speak because I’m confident anyone who has to deal with those issues knows more than I do. I recommend grabbing all-purpose flour due to its gluten content being a middle ground between low-gluten pastry flour and high-gluten bread flour. You can still use it to make bread, and it has a myriad other uses as a binder or thickener for sauces. -RICE is amazing, as most know already, but seriously - it’s one of the most important crops in the world. It’s kept civilizations alive on its back for all of recorded history, and it’ll keep you alive, too. There is no better “fill me up” food I can think of. Wait for those huge sacks of rice to go on sale (it happens pretty frequently), then buy 2. They last forever. Ideally grab long-grain rice if you’re just looking for a side-dish or fried rice base, but in a pinch short grain’ll do; it’s just less forgiving and the starches don’t retrograde as fully so when you cool it it doesn’t keep as nicely. -KEEP IN MIND that rice is pure carbs. It’s a good base, but you need other stuff to go with it or else you’ll be deficient in nutrients and feel awful all the time. Trust me from experience - college me went through a raw-egg-on-rice phase, and it wasn’t pretty. -BARLEY, also, is amazing, but for other reasons. It’s high in protein and iron, and can help dramatically improve your nutrient intake for very little cost. In soups, roasted in tea (thanks Korea), and used in tandem with rice, it can go a very, very long way in making your diet a more sustainable one in times of austerity and plenty, alike. -AVOID “SUPERFOODS”. Not because they’re bad for you - just because of their jacked prices. Not to mention oftentimes the industries surrounding them are ethical nightmares. Don’t get me started on avocado cartels and the impact of quinoa farming on low-income african communities. In reality, most grains and cereals have a lot of nutrients and minerals, and they’re often overlooked. Learn the nutrition facts, and make decisions accordingly. Google and online databases are your friends, here. ———FRUITS AND VEGETABLES——— -ONIONS: buy them fresh and store them in dry, enclosed spaces, and buy tomatoes canned and without salt added. Use onions in almost everything, they’re delicious, cheap, and nutritious. -TOMATOES: Good fresh and better canned. Use fresh tomatoes raw for whatever you want and use canned tomatoes for sauces. Buy canned tomatoes with as little added salt and sugar as possible. POTATOES: Treat these as a starch option similar to grains or cereals. Buy them unprocessed, in a sack. Store them in dry, enclosed spaces. -BASICALLY EVERY FRUIT: go for it, these things are nutrient bombs and they’re delicious. Buy them seasonally for the best value and if you have a day to do so, preserve them if you ever see a huge sale. I’m still enjoying lacto-fermented blueberries from last year’s insane blueberry harvest where I could buy a pint for a dollar. -FOR SHOPPING: Generally when you buy produce you should go, in order, to the discount rack, then the sales, and then everything else. Someone out there has a recipe for literally everything, and some of them are even good. A pepper with a blemish or tiny spot of mold is still fine, assuming you cut away the blemish or tiny spot of mold. -I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH; FIND THE UNDER-APPRECIATED AND OVER-SUPPLIED PRODUCE. There’s always a bin of some forgotten veggie no-one eats for some reason. In the west, at least, it seems to often be rutabagas/turnips. I’ve also seen apples in the fall, corn, and cabbages fall into this category. This is because of a good harvest, or because of a lack of consumer interest - any time this happens, capitalize on it. Everything is delicious if you cook it properly. Buy seasonally, and learn how to use the things you buy. You’ll eat like a king and pay like a pauper. -CANNED STUFF - I generally have a personal aversion to all canned veggies and fruits except tomatoes, but that’s just my privilege speaking. If you want to buy them or if fresh produce is hard to come by, avoid getting anything with added salt or sugar. Cross-reference the nutrient info on the can with info from a fresh counterpart to avoid buying filler garbage, and try to find somewhere to live with better food accessibility. Alternatively, save up and make a killing by opening a fruit and vegetable market to remove the need to read this very ling post any further. (This is a joke and I recognize the struggle of those in impoverished communities with awful food accessibility.) -FROZEN STUFF - frozen fruit and veg is great, mostly. Maybe dodge the chopped carrots and corn a lot of us ate growing up or find in bad takeout Chinese food, but hey - grab that bag of frozen berries or peas and throw ‘em in anything that warrants it. Technology for frozen produce has improved dramatically in the last few decades, and we should capitalize on that. ——-PROTEINS——- -IF YOU EAT MEAT, buy the least processed cuts you can. Whole chickens, meat on the bone, and ground meats are your best friends. Go to butcher shops, if you can. Freezing meat is fine, but try to avoid buying pre-made frozen protein options. Get raw product and do the work yourself to save a LOT of cash and get better food out of it. -MEAT IS A LUXURY, NOT AN ESSENTIAL. I say this because in modern western culture eating meat everyday is seen as normal. This is an oddity when we examine all of human history, and this notion should be abandoned if we’re trying to live more affordably. Meat is grossly overrepresented in most diets, and you should always ask if you could cut your portion of meat down in exchange for more vegetables and grains. -LEARN HOW TO BREAK DOWN YOUR PROTEINS. A chicken isn’t just 8 portions of meat - it’s also bones and carcass for a stock or soup, fat to be rendered out and used as a cooking oil (thanks, jewish folks!), and skin to be cooked down into delicious little chips. This same list can be used for pork, beef, and any other mammal you eat. -FISH IS IFFY. Like, as an industry. Not many people know their fish, and fish processing companies know that and capitalize on it. I always tell people who like fish to buy fresh and whole, and to learn how to pick good fish. Buying cheap processed fish products is akin to asking to be ripped off, to harm the environment, and to accumulate toxins in your body, all at the same time. To not get completely F-ed over by what is maybe the worst food industry in the world you need to know your fish, know the company you’re buying from, and know who’s doing the fishing. Good luck, and please try not to contribute to the death of our water ecosystems. (A good trick is that if you can afford fish when you’re poor and you don’t live beside a large body of water, you almost certainly DON’T WANT IT.) -IF YOU DO BUY FISH OR SEAFOOD, all the rules for proteins apply. Fish bones and crustacean shells for stock, fat deposits on the occasional salmonid for whatever you want, and fish skin, if it’s your cup of tea, for a lovely snack. Hell, fish organs and salt make up the base for a fermented fish sauce, if you really want to go the extra mile. Rome survived off of fish sauce and bread for longer than our society has been around. The one big difference between fish and meat is that frozen fish tends to suck relative to fresh in a much bigger way - both in terms of quality and retained nutrients. Put frozen fish in soups or curries, to avoid nutrient drain from the water that inevitably will leak out of your fish. FOR VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS: I’m not vegetarian or vegan, and while I think there’s great habits to be learned from the lifestyle after getting boatloads of comments I just don’t feel I should even touch the subject. Just do you, and do your research. Best of luck. ——-EVERYTHING ELSE——- -STAY AWAY FROM THE INSTANT RAMEN. I know it’s cheap. I KNOW you like how easy it is. I don’t give one flying fuck. It’s awful for you, it isn’t cheaper than a bowl of rice with soy sauce, a fried egg, and some frozen peas, and it’ll kill you slowly. Just don’t, and ignore anyone’s advice about how it got them through college. Hell, if anyone’s advice involves doing what they did in college, take it with a grain of salt. There’s good advice sometimes, and a LOT of bad. -AVOID THE CENTRE AISLES IN GROCERY STORES. Chips, sugar cereals, premade salad dressings, sweet juice/pop, and processed foods like KD or tv dinners are not the way to go if you’re looking to get the most out of your dollar at the grocery store. They’re bad for you, they’re expensive relative to the cost of production, and they put a burden on your body that you’ll pay for down the line. Exceptions to this are staple sauces like a good soy sauce and fish sauce, grains and legumes, and canned veggies. -CHEESE IS A LUXURY, SO TREAT IT LIKE ONE. If you’re gonna buy it I recommend buying less of it less often, and buying the good stuff when you do. Kraft block cheese only costs as little as it does because it’s the by-product of the real money-maker: whey protein production. If you’re gonna buy cheese, please support a real cheesemaker. The cheese lover in you will be happier for it. -ALCOHOL IS ALSO A LUXURY. If you want a drink, I recommend doing it less often and drinking the good stuff. If you like the cheap stuff that’s fine, “good stuff” is all relative anyway. Just drink less and focus on quality over quantity, whatever your preferences are. -MAKE YOUR OWN COFFEE, AND BUY A THERMOS. I know Starbucks is delicious. Guess what? You can find a recipe for every drink they make online, and then make it better. Some restaurants literally survive because they can sell coffee at a nearly 2000% markup. Truck stop diners and high-end coffee shops do this. I recommend making cold brew the night before, since you literally just have to strain it in the morning rather than brewing a pot. -FINALLY, LEARN TO COOK. All of this information is fundamentally more useful if you know how to cook. Not knowing how to cook is a luxury afforded to those with the means to afford living in ignorance of this most basic human skill. You are living outside your means if you live in a well-off country, don’t make a least $60k a year, and can’t cook. Best of luck to you all. Stay safe out there. submitted by /u/aichliss to r/Cooking [link] [comments]

Lately I have been having a pretty fun time playing quarantine recipe roulette and just using up all the little random things that have been in my cupboards forever. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at making something from nothing and all the tummies I have to feed have been happy and full. So what do you have? Let me help you make your pantry stretch a bit! Here was last nights dinner creation: Last ditch effort soppy joe casserole: 1 to 1.5# ground meat (turkey, pork, or beef. I had pork) A least a half can of manwich but no more than a full can A can of bushes baked beans A little bit of bbq sauce Any kind of frozen, chopped potatoes. Can be hash browns, O’Brien potatoes, tater tots.... Any kind of shredded cheese Brown meat till done and drain fat. Add in manwich and baked beans. Add bbq sauce in order to give the mix a bit more liquid. Grease the bottom of a glass casserole dish with shortening or pam or whatever you want so potatoes don’t stick. Add frozen potatoes to casserole and spread evenly. Pour meat mix on top of that. Bake at 400 for roughly 25 to 35 min until heated through and potatoes are cooked. Sprinkle cheese on top and throw back in the oven till melted then enjoy! This will feed at least 2 or 3 people depending on the quantities of ingredients. I doubled the meat, used a full can of manwich and probably one bag of O’Brien potatoes and fed 5 with some leftovers. So what do you have laying around that you can use to make dinner? Let’s see how far we can stretch your food budget! Edit: I am about to start cooking Easter dinner for my family so I will send recipes as soon as I can! I promise I’m not abandoning you! Keep sending your ingredients! submitted by /u/rniscior to r/Frugal [link] [comments]

submitted by /u/Helmetshell to r/MealPrepSunday [link] [comments]

Holy shit at the money people spend on food! And I was the exact same way when I landed my first job out of college. You know what I'm talking about--biscuit and Starbucks on the way to work, lunch out with coworkers and pizza and beer at the local tavern for dinner! Every night! All week! Professional money spender! And more beers and dinners on the weekends! Woohoo! Wait. Where did all my money go? And how the hell did I gain 40 pounds in six months? If you're nodding your head you've fallen into the brand-new-job-big-salary-eat-out-because-I-can trap. And you have to stop it. It's killing your bank account, it's killing your financial freedom and it's killing you. (Literally--I was on the edge of type 2 diabetes and had hyperglycemia during routine physicals.) What you know you need to do: *STOP EATING OUT* But how??? How do I stop eating out??? Fast food is soooo good! And cooking is soooo hard! Well, first off, not really--you're just attuned to that garbage 'food'. You're going to break free of both these stereotypes and someone has already invented it..... Crockpot. It's the crockpot. Crockpot. Crockpot. Maybe you call it a slow cooker, but I'm from Georgia and here it's a crockpot. !STOP!--If you do not own a crockpot I highly recommend you go buy one from Amazon and buy the biggest one you can afford! Get one with a timer that switches to warm after the cook settings: JUST GOOGLE IT CAUSE MODS DONT LIKE LINKS! BOOM! $39 investment. We're going to make that back in.... three days. Are you ready? We're going to make enough food for dinner AND left overs for lunch. I'm going to give you some of my super-secret-I-eat-this-every-week-crockpot-meals that are delicious, cheap, filling and easy. Yes. The crockpot makes all of those possible. MEAL 1: Thick Cut Porkchop with Potatoes and Carrots Servings: 4 Ingredients: 1 Can Beef Broth (50 cents) 1 Packet Brown Gravy Mix (50 cents) 1 Packet Onion Soup Mix (50 cents) 1 Package of 4 Thick Cut Porkchops ($7) 6 Carrots (50 cents) 4 Large Gold Yukon Potatoes ($2) Sack o' Salad ($2) Total cost for lunch and dinner: $13/4 about $3 each. Spray or wipe crockpot with cooking oil. Add beef broth, gravy mix and onion soup mix and stir. Place porkchops in broth. Chop carrots and potatoes and add to top of porkchops. That's it. PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home make your salad and dig in. Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week. MEAL 2: Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup Servings: 4 1 Pound Italian Sausage ($4) 1 White Onion ($1) 1 32 Oz Box of Chicken Stock ($1.50) 1 Bag of Prewashed Kale ($3) 3/4 Cup Heavy Cream ($1) 5 Large Gold Yukon Potatoes ($2) 1 Head of Garlic ($1) Total cost: About $14/4 = 3.50 a serving Brown italian sausage with chopped garlic and chopped onion. While meat is browning add to crockpot the 3/4 cup of heavy cream, chicken stock, and chopped yukon potatoes. Add browned sausage and top with half the bag of kale. (I get two recipes per bag of kale). PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home dig in! Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week. MEAL 3: Super Awesome Easy Chili Servings: A Lot (6-8?) -- I eat this all the time and it's delicious. Stores really well in the refrigerator (and chili gets better over time!) 3 Cans of Black Beans ($2) 2 Cans of Hot Chili Beans ($1) 2 Cans of Red Kidney Beans ($1) 8 Cans of Diced Tomatoes ($6) 1 Pound of Ground Beef ($4) 1/2 Cup of Chili Powder ($1) 1/4 Cup of Garlic Powder ($1) 1/4 Cup of Onion Powder ($1) 3 Tablespoons of Cumin ($1) 3 Tablespoons Black Pepper ($1) Edit: The spice proportions are correct! This makes nearly two gallons of good (about 7L). Edit: Salt to Taste($1) Total cost = $20/8 = About $2.50 per serving Drain the tomatoes and kidney beans but don't drain the black or chili beans. Brown the ground beef. Add everything to the crockpot and stir like crazy.... and that's it! PREPARE THIS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED FOR THE NEXT DAY! Put it in the refrigerator and pull it out in the morning. Cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home dig in! Use the left overs for lunches and/or dinner for during the week. It's easy guys. It's really easy. You spend 15 minutes a night and you make tons of food for lunch and dinner and you save a LOT of money! AND ITS GOOD FOR YOU! (better than Wendy's--that's for sure!) AND ITS EASY! Stop spending your money on eating out and go full crockpot! I am much happier and much wealthier! EDIT: For our vegetarian friends. You can't get any more simple than this! MEAL 4: Baked Potato Servings: As many potatoes as you bake 1 Potato Cover in tin foil and place directly in crockpot. Cook on low 4-6 hours or keep on warm all day. MEAL 5: Vegetable Soup Servings: However much you want to make Tomatoes, Potatoes, Green Beans, Zucchini, Carrots, Peas, or Onions Vegetable Stock Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Salt and Black Pepper Add vegetables in any proportion you desire to crockpot and add vegetable stock until covered. Season to taste. Cook on low until vegetables are tender. EDIT 2: I live in Georgia and shop at Kroger--prices may vary. If you live in Canadia or buy organic free range vegetables harvested by hipsters with a minimum of a master's degree you will obviously pay more. EDIT 3: "Just learn to cook!"--Yeah, okay guys. I agree. I cook more than just in a crockpot. This post was inspired after I read a /r/personalfinance about a single guy who spends $1300 a month on food because "he didn't have enough time to cook with work". I wrote a very long comment and just made it into a post. The point was you can eat decent food in a short amount of time and save money by planning one day ahead. EDIT 4: I agree fresh vegetables are better and these aren't the healthiest recipes. This post was just to encourage those that eat all the time to transition to something healthier... and then they can transition to something even healthier... and on and on until they've become a raw vegan, growing their own vegetables, saving the whales and composting regularly. EDIT 5: Electricity costs: Crockpots seem to consume between 200W and 700W per hour. That's between 2 and 6 kWhs for 8 hours of cooking. That's about 15 to 60 cents. It seems insignificant relative to the overall cost of food. EDIT 6: I'm not a shill or marketing person for crockpot. I'm a mechanical engineer. Don't believe me? My first post on reddit ever was about bolt failures: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/3e20vs/bolt_failure_modes/ctatj1y/ Take off your tin foil hat..... and use it to wrap a baked potato to put in your new crockpot!!! submitted by /u/bplturner to r/personalfinance [link] [comments]