this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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Dude it's insane. I don't understand how the hell these places stay in business anymore when the quality still sucks ass and it's all so expensive now. Like even taco bell, who used to be the king of cheap, costs a fuckton these days.
It’s become a habit for many people. Cooking is a really difficult habit to (re)learn. It’s possible though and good meal prep is very convenient on long days at work.
I just hate cooking. I cannot stand it. It takes so much effort and you have to clean all the mess you made (even cleaning as you go sucks). And then you end up with something that may or may not pan out. And if you're trying to meal prep then you have to eat the same meal for the whole week which I hate also.
If this was the only thing you'd ever have to do, fine. But the majority of the rest of our time is spent at work or sleeping. We have few precious hours where these things aren't the case. I hope this doesn't make me sound too much like an asshole, but I'm fortunate enough to purchase things like pre-prepared foods and get takeout a couple of times per week. So I take advantage of that because I don't want to spend my few moments of free time slaving away over a stove or cleaning the mess of pots and pans and cooking utensils.
Another this about cooking when you live alone...a lot of perishable foods can only be bought in somewhat larger quantities and then they go bad before you use them all up. I tried to make a recipe out of a cookbook several months ago and I was frustrated at how many things I had to buy a large thing of when I only needed a very small amount for the recipe. Ended up with a lot of food waste.
I'm gonna agree that cleaning sucks ass, as does the time of it.
I made do by usually having to have something stimulating my dopamine-addicted ADHD ass while I'm washing dishes. Youtube documentary video, podcast, whatever is at least 30 minutes so I can just grind thru. Upgrade the dish tools as well, I really like these ikea dish brushes so much more than a sponge because I feel like I can actually clean with it and not constantly go through sponges, and replaced the flip top dish soap with one of those squeeze bottle ones. Big secret is you can refill those with whatever you want, you don't have to buy a new one when you run out.
Yes there is still the time factor with cooking, but I like to cook enough that I can make 2-4 servings so it's more like cook once and minimal work for the reheating. Also as for the time, idk how it is in your area, but where I'm at ever since COVID drive thru and in store times suck ass now for ordering. If you're on an hour lunch break or on the way home where I'm at it always takes them 30 minutes or even longer to get my order ready from ordering to out the lot. At that point, I might as well just go home and cook the damn thing myself, that's what set it for me.
Lastly for food waste, a few things learning to change how much you make so that you "use up" the materials is helpful. Same with freezing things, turns out most things can be frozen and thawed with minimal change to the item. For example I now buy bacon in a bulk pack but split it up into bags of 4 slices, keep all in freezer except one. Now I would only have four slices going bad instead of the whole package. A few other things I do is sometimes dried herbs / seasonings in a shaker are better than fresh ones that will go bad, learn what you use less of so you buy less (like I only buy eggs in a six pack because I don't go through enough), etc.
Stick with easy meals. I really want to make a cajun red beans and rice sometime, but I looked at the list of what I need and said fuuuuck that. I've got a few easy to make items that I like to rotate through: homemade pizza, mac and cheese and hot dogs, got frozen burger patties and a george foreman, burritos with ground beef beans and canned hatch green chile, etc. I also get my groceries delivered, it helps me time and money wise because I'm not shopping in the moment and only buying what I need, and now the whole process of grocery store shopping that I hate is gone. No more traffic to the store, no parking lot spot searching, no walking around the whole store and dodging slow people stopping in the middle of the aisle to have a conversation, no bullshit line for checkout or receipt checks and packing / leaving. Now it's literally just order only what I need and it shows up at my door.
I do like the idea of "take home meals" though, sometimes that just hits the spot I get it. For me sometimes I'll do that and just get some store made chips and queso and fuck it I'm eating that while being a couch potato that night. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good enough :)