.

Just from a cost-savings standpoint I would definitely recommend cooking at home for as many meals as possible. Once you have a pantry stocked well, it's pretty easy to average around $2 per meal per person (or less if you are ruthless using up leftovers). If you eat out a lot, track the cost for a time and compare it to an average of $2 per meal. There is literally thousands of dollars per year to be saved per person.
 
I cook as much as I can. I love it! My father used to work long hours so it was my brother and I fending for ourselves most of the time in Middle School/High School. Lots of hamburger helper, then we started adding peppers and onions etc. Then it just grew from there.

I am a big believer in what made humans the most successful species in history was the ability to cook. We're the only species that cooks. Cooking is in our DNA. Without cooking, we aren't human. (Credit to Michael Pollan and his great book on the subject that is now a Netflix Documentary!)

If you're into reddit I would recommend these subreddits:

Eat Cheap and Healthy
(This thread is how to feed a family of 4 on ~$26/week with grocery list and meal plans)
$7 Dinners
Slowcooking
Meal Prep Sunday

Here's a free PDF on how to feed people for $4/day per person on the SNAP program.

Some beginner books I would recommend:
How to Cook Everything Basics
How to Cook Everything
What the F**K should I make for dinner
The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook
The Food Lab - Cooking Through Science
Kitchen Matrix

Some advanced ones I enjoy:
The Flavor Bible
Skinnytaste
The Professional Chef
Gordon Ramsey's Home Cooking


Here are some blogs I like:
Serious Eats
Host The Toast
Food Wishes
Smitten Kitchen
FXCuisine
The Kitchn
Simply Recipes

Hope this helps! Just take it slow and expand your horizons each week. You'll be a great cook in no time
 
2 x 5oz pork chops $2
1 romaine heart, tomatoes, mushrooms, croutons salad for 2 $1
garlic bread $ 1

you might want to rethink eating out. This is easily $20-$30 at a restaurant. And I can go further: Grilled smoked sausage, a Jimmy Johns day old loaf and 2 can eat for about $3.
 
I do almost all the cooking in our house. The biggest problem I have is my wife and kids are very picky, and I like big/bold/spicy food. I really enjoy cooking but I'm limited to about a dozen things that my whole family will eat reliably. That, and my wife is totally freaked out about food-born pathogens, so she'll only eat overcooked meat. I've finally gotten decent at making her a well-done but not too tough steak, but if I leave her in charge of the chicken or roast it always comes out super dry even in the crock pot. I'll ask her how she cooked it (she's a SAHM) and she'd put it in the crock pot on hi for 6 hours, then on low for 2-3 more hours.

I also love to do fish and seafood (love living in the Pacific Northwest for that). One of my daughters will eat mild fish with me - catfish, trout, cod, even salmon - but nobody else likes tuna or shellfish. Which is too bad for them because we have the most amazing local clams, oysters, shrimp and dungeoness crab (not to mention the salmon, trout, halibut and lingcod).

The past couple weeks, cooking for myself I've had sauteed Brussels sprouts and sauteed asparagus - toss in some onions and mushrooms, with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder and they were super sides.

Typically on weekends I'll make eggs for myself and the girls for breakfast while my wife sleeps in. Scrambled or fried, or sometimes even an omelet. They like to help as much as they can - cracking eggs and beating them, grating cheese, etc. They been showing more of an interest in helping me in the kitchen which I usually appreciate, as long as I'm not trying to stay on top of too many things so I can focus on helping them. And they're always so proud to tell their sisters and mom about how they helped make dinner.
 
OK. Letting you in on one of my favorite crock pot recipes. Seriously, its really good:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16995/charleys-slow-cooker-mexican-style-meat/

Cook this when we have an onion and lettuce to use up. For the 1 1/4 cups of chiles, I use 2 of those tiny cans. For the 5 oz of hot sauce, I buy a humongous bottle from Aldi that is under $2 and I get 6 uses out of it.

It's one of my favorite meals. Also, there isn't much cleanup, which is a huge bonus.
 
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The amount of cooking we do is pretty dependent on what we have going on. I prefer cooking, but it's not always realistic for us.

There are times when weeks go by and we cook every meal. Then, there are weekends that are filled with soccer tournaments, errands, family and friends, etc. where we may not be home outside of sleeping and changing clothes.

Cooking can be cheaper than eating out, but if you have a lot of fresh fruits and veggies it will usually balance out, depending on where you eat out of course.

The real savings comes in play during the work week with lunches. I have eaten out for lunch maybe twice this whole year. Meanwhile, nearly everyone else that I work with is spending $8-10/day. It doesn't take long for that to add up.
 
Chili Verde (pork) is great in a slow cooker. I use country style ribs, tomatillos, garlic and garlic/lime green salsa. Good with chips or soft shell tacos. I would like to try chile colorado sometime.
 
I make an amazing Sriracha carne asada. It's seriously so good. But the meat makes it expensive. Lots of leftovers, though.

Hummus crusted chicken is another staple that we've developed.

Last night we made an italian sausage stir fry that literally cost 4 bucks for what will probably be 6 servings. The prepackaged frozen stir fry veggies are clutch.

I am an expert at an orange chicken recipe that is a thousand times better than Panda Express (and doesn't give you diarrhea)

I love cooking.
 
OH GOD and don't get me started on breakfast food

Breakfast is my forte. I eat it for dinner quite often.....

Cook some hot ground sausage in a cast iron pan, then add onions, mushrooms, eggs, jack cheese. Throw under the broiler for ~2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Serve with some tortillas (warmed under the broiler), avocado slices, salsa.

French toast, waffles, home made cinnamon rolls....the list goes one.

For those of us who love green beans I would suggest trying out this recipe for honey mustard beans: http://www.food.com/recipe/honey-mustard-green-beans-409382. Very simple and they taste like candy. We have some picky nieces and nephews but they gobble these right up.
 
Breakfast is my forte. I eat it for dinner quite often.....

Cook some hot ground sausage in a cast iron pan, then add onions, mushrooms, eggs, jack cheese. Throw under the broiler for ~2-3 minutes to brown the cheese. Serve with some tortillas (warmed under the broiler), avocado slices, salsa.

French toast, waffles, home made cinnamon rolls....the list goes one.

For those of us who love green beans I would suggest trying out this recipe for honey mustard beans: http://www.food.com/recipe/honey-mustard-green-beans-409382. Very simple and they taste like candy. We have some picky nieces and nephews but they gobble these right up.


oooo I have all these ingredients. Though I much prefer sauteeing the beans vs. boiling. I might try this tonight.
 
I do almost all the cooking in our house. The biggest problem I have is my wife and kids are very picky, and I like big/bold/spicy food. I really enjoy cooking but I'm limited to about a dozen things that my whole family will eat reliably. That, and my wife is totally freaked out about food-born pathogens, so she'll only eat overcooked meat. I've finally gotten decent at making her a well-done but not too tough steak, but if I leave her in charge of the chicken or roast it always comes out super dry even in the crock pot. I'll ask her how she cooked it (she's a SAHM) and she'd put it in the crock pot on hi for 6 hours, then on low for 2-3 more hours.

I also love to do fish and seafood (love living in the Pacific Northwest for that). One of my daughters will eat mild fish with me - catfish, trout, cod, even salmon - but nobody else likes tuna or shellfish. Which is too bad for them because we have the most amazing local clams, oysters, shrimp and dungeoness crab (not to mention the salmon, trout, halibut and lingcod).

The past couple weeks, cooking for myself I've had sauteed Brussels sprouts and sauteed asparagus - toss in some onions and mushrooms, with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder and they were super sides.

Typically on weekends I'll make eggs for myself and the girls for breakfast while my wife sleeps in. Scrambled or fried, or sometimes even an omelet. They like to help as much as they can - cracking eggs and beating them, grating cheese, etc. They been showing more of an interest in helping me in the kitchen which I usually appreciate, as long as I'm not trying to stay on top of too many things so I can focus on helping them. And they're always so proud to tell their sisters and mom about how they helped make dinner.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were married to my wife. Stay away from my wife besser!
 
I make an amazing Sriracha carne asada. It's seriously so good. But the meat makes it expensive. Lots of leftovers, though.

Hummus crusted chicken is another staple that we've developed.

Last night we made an italian sausage stir fry that literally cost 4 bucks for what will probably be 6 servings. The prepackaged frozen stir fry veggies are clutch.

I am an expert at an orange chicken recipe that is a thousand times better than Panda Express (and doesn't give you diarrhea)

I love cooking.

Do share.
 
Read a couple of pages and noticed nobody said anything about planning.

THIS HAS MADE OUR LIVES SOOOOO MUCH BETTER!

Every Saturday we plan out the weeks meals not just what we are going to eat but when. It can be a pain at first, but once you get into a rhythm of doing it, you will never go back! That way we know what we need from the store to make our list. Then when we get home from work, we don't have to bicker about what we want to eat, it has already been decided. Typically the wife has her meals she can cook well and I have mine (anything that involves a grill is my game). Pretty sure my wife wouldn't even know how to start a grill and likewise I would have no idea on how to make a rue for gravy.

A couple other benefits:
-You could also combine that with what is on sale by looking at fliers (admittedly we don't do this).
-We put all of our meals on a calendar so we also know when was the last time we ate a certain meal so we don't end up repeating meals and it is a menu of sorts.
 
Also, a good helper on meal planning is sitting down and make a 'menu' of things you know how to cook, then you can just pick what you want to eat. Every once in a while try to add to the menu so it doesn't get stale.
 
Also, a good helper on meal planning is sitting down and make a 'menu' of things you know how to cook, then you can just pick what you want to eat. Every once in a while try to add to the menu so it doesn't get stale.

Yes. This works two ways - I'm not so worried about shopping for the unknown and, if I decide I dont want tacos on Monday I can just switch it out with my tuesday meal with very little effort.

Usually we grab a paper on Sunday AM, read the ads, make our list, then go late on Sunday night to pick stuff up.
 
Quick Look at cydline's menu. I am not a very good cook and as you can see there are quite a few options that are pretty cheap meals.

Main: Sides:
Pizza Rice
BLT's Frozen Veg
Meatloaf Instant Potato
BELT (Bacon, EGG, Tomato) Twice Baked Potato
Minute Steaks (mushroom soup) Mashed Potato
Sloppy Joes (Red or White) Corn on the Cob
Grilled Chicken Wraps Asparagus
Stir Fry Salad


Crockpot:
Pot Roast
Pulled Pork

Grill:
Marinated Steak
Marinated Chicken
Pork Chops
Hamburgers
Brats/Hot Dogs
Smoked Chicken
Smoked Pork Shoulder
Smoked Pork Loin
Cowboy Griller



Mexican:
Tacos
Fajitas
Burritos (Red Sauce)
Burritos (White Sauce)
Treibers Taps

Italian:
Lasagna
Grilled Chicken Fettuccini
Spaghetti

Breakfast: Breakfast Sides:
Waffles Sausage Links
French Toast Bacon
Pancakes Country Style Potatoes
Breakfast Casserole
California Burritos

Soups:
Chili
Vegetable Beef Stew
Chicken Tortilla
 
I used to do a lot better at cooking instead of eating out, but after becoming newly single again and now living by myself, it has become so hard to get back into that rhythm I had when I lived with my girlfriend.

We both had our schedules, had a tentative plan on which meals we wanted for the week, and picked up everything at the store on Sunday. I usually got home before her so I would get things going and since we didn't have a real crazy assortment of things we made, I usually could time it pretty well to when she got home.

Now that it is just me, I feel that I am just lacking the motivation to make real meals for myself and have a bad habit of just making some premade frozen meal. Add in the fact that I moved to Chicago and no longer have a grill, and I have lost a major cooking source.
 

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