Eating While Single
by
Ted Slater
on Aug 20, 2007 at 4:52 PM
Jill wrote an e-mail to us today, referencing a meal she had last night of "lentils, carrots, and pepperoni." She then went on to ask what kinds of meals we ate during our "hungry years" -- the time in our 20s when we're growing more independent from our folks.
I was 18 years old when a friend and I moved from our parents' homes in Michigan to an apartment in Texas, taking a year off from college to figure out what we'd be doing with our lives. I had never really learned how to cook, so when I went to the grocery store I bought what I figured every kitchen should have: a bag of flour.
I remember standing in my kitchen, pondering what to do with that flour. I mixed it with some water and fried it up with some vegetable oil, another kitchen staple. I think I even ate it.
I didn't know how to boil spaghetti noodles, so instead I would pour some spaghetti sauce over a couple of slices of bread and put that in the microwave for 30 seconds.
I was shopping one day, and as I passed the spice shelves, on a whim I bought some tapioca. It made for some fun experiments, but I never did use it in food.
I was fortunate enough to have a job as an assistant manager at a Burger King up on Westheimer Street, so I didn't starve.
Once I was in college, I began experimenting with Ramen noodles, Campbell's soup, various off-brand cereals (eaten with water, since I couldn't store milk in my dorm room) and bullion cubes. My meal plan enabled me to eat in the cafeteria once a day, so again, I didn't starve.
Years have passed, and while I remember those days fondly (maybe that's not the right word), I'm more likely to make chicken marsala, lamb saag, homemade chili, chicken fried steak or spaghetti a la carbonara in my kitchen nowadays.
What are some of the crazier meals you've prepared for yourself (or, heaven forbid, your friends) during your "hungry years"?
1. Steve Watters had the following to say on Aug 20 at 4:53 PM:
Military rations came in handy for me. I wrote about that in the first of a series on the hungry years we ran a few years ago called "How to make the most of the hungry years."
2. Ted Slater had the following to say on Aug 20 at 4:55 PM:
Let me commend the following food-related articles to you:
Step Away from the Pot Pie
What I Don't Understand about Men and Food
Making the Most of the Hungry Years
3. k. had the following to say on Aug 20 at 5:10 PM:
Ack! I didn't really have any hungry years...I learned to cook when I was still at home. So, while I had a lot of frozen meals and cereal for convenience's sake, I never had to eat flour mixed with vegetable oil. :)
4. BDB had the following to say on Aug 20 at 5:27 PM:
Gosh...you should still be able to cook from ingredients if you're single...perhaps I'm showing my age.
Anyway, the REAL challenge is to be able to cook a variety of dishes when the only kitchen items you own are:
1) One plate
2) One spoon
3) Swiss Army Knife
4) One Cup
5) One WOK pot
That's where the creativity comes in!
I made chilli in a WOK pot once!
5. John had the following to say on Aug 20 at 5:40 PM:
One time on the last leg of a backpacking trip nobody wanted to carry the portable stove, so we didn't bring it. We had eaten all the good stuff already, and dinner ended up being cold, unseasoned tuna wrapped in corn tortillas. I don't recommend it.
6. Carrie had the following to say on Aug 20 at 5:45 PM:
Simplicity is some times good. Recently, my favorite "single meal" is a soft boiled egg, two slices of toast w/ jelly, and a glass of juice or milk.
I've outgrown my Ramen noodle days (PRAISE THE LORD!!). For a couple of years my "poor person's meal" was pasta (the cheapest pasta I could find), sautéed with frozen veggies and chicken. It would make much on a very tight budget.
Eating healthy is difficult, but one must prioritize.
7. Samuel PG had the following to say on Aug 20 at 5:50 PM:
My parents are both outstanding cooks, especially with common ingredients, and made an effort my last two years before going off to college to teach me how to cook some of the family favorites. With some basic lessons in cooking, it really is not at all difficult to make good meals for a little money. For example, a bag of frozen chicken costs about $8 and can provide the meat for 10-16 meals. Dry pasta is very cheap and can be made into a healthy and tasty meal with small additions of ingredients like olive oil, balsamic vinegar, string cheese, spinach and spices. All of those things come in bulk. If you are willing to experiment, there are so many good options, but if you need lessons almost any person who enjoys cooking would be honored to have you ask them offer a few lessons.
8. Samuel PG had the following to say on Aug 20 at 6:01 PM:
I guess I forgot to read the question at the end of the blog, oops. I'm sorry IF that bothers you.
Anyway, I've been on a big grilling kick, trying everything over the grill. Some fruits (like peaches and bananas) are great grilled, buttered and seasoned with cinnamon, while served over vanilla ice cream. My worst attempt, though, was with oranges. "Peaches grilled while skewered with soaked cinnamon sticks worked out great," I thought, "so why not oranges?" I will save you all some trouble. When grilled, oranges lose their sweet and sour flavors leaving only the bitter. Gross.
9. xeres had the following to say on Aug 20 at 6:10 PM:
I'm going to move in with a lot of girls who are already in their fourth year of college (I'm going to be in my second year), so it's not going to be too bad. However, learning how to cook is something worth learning, especially if I want to be more healthly and a better keeper of the home in the future. After reading this, it gave me relief that I'm not as nearly as bad starting out ;D.
10. Mike Theemling had the following to say on Aug 20 at 6:11 PM:
Hamburger Helper is the Bachelor's staple diet.
No really, I can cook too. I actually enjoy it. But the problem is it's usually just myself eating so it's usually not worth all of the effort (and days of leftovers).
11. Anna had the following to say on Aug 20 at 6:21 PM:
I used one jar of salsa for pretty much everything in the kitchen: on french fries, on pasta, as a dipping sauce for wings, on rice, etc. I'd just get one gigantic jar at a bulk store and use it in as many dishes as I could. Now, I still can't have a kitchen without salsa in it...I'll put it on just about anything.
12. Shayna had the following to say on Aug 20 at 6:46 PM:
Cereal with water? Wow. That's desperation. I think I'd prefer to eat my cereal dry :-p
At the moment I'm never home so I have little time or energy to cook... I rely on a lot of less perishable foods like canned tuna, beef jerky, applesauce, granola, dried fruits and nuts, etc.
Though when I do cook, I am the master of "good-but-not-great" dishes. For example - I tried to make feijoada, a Brazilian bean stew that I ate every day in Brazil. The stew came out great, perfectly spiced and everything... aaaand I overcooked the rice (of all things) into a mush.
Today I got ambitious and tried a seafood stirfry. Tasted good, but I was so paranoid about cooking the scallops enough that the shrimp got overcooked :-/
13. Dennis Howe had the following to say on Aug 20 at 7:04 PM:
Guys, this is way too funny!! As an older single (mid 50's) I worked at making sure that all 6 of my kids knew how to cook ! They may end up single, but they won't starve. It also is one of those life skills that helps with a lot of areas, you can help a future wife, you won't be lost with the kids if mom is gone, it's a lot cheaper than eating out, and the creativity can be really fun! Anyone can cook nowdays, just watch the Food channel, or go on line, even many of the old Julia Childs programs are on line.... http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/
So here you go, expand your horizons, if your single, increase your catchablilty, or at least eat well while your waiting for that "right one"!!
Bon Apettit
14. Elisabeth had the following to say on Aug 20 at 7:31 PM:
A peanut butter and jelly and cheese and dorito sandwich is common fare for me at school.
15. Joy W. had the following to say on Aug 20 at 7:50 PM:
Here's a recommendation, if it would work for you:
Find a roommate! I lived alone for nearly three years until acquiring a roommate recently. I hardly ever cooked when I was living alone, because it didn't seem worth the trouble. Now that there's two people eating, I'm cooking nearly every day, and we're eating a lot of very healthful foods!
I've rediscovered lots of other benefits to having a roommate, not the least of which is reigning in the selfishness I've developed after having three years of no one to consider at home but myself!
16. Kathryn had the following to say on Aug 20 at 8:26 PM:
I remember I ate migoreng noodles for a whole week because I was so low on money. Made me feel ill for that entire week, but a box of noodles was only $9(AU).
I also ate damper (plain flour, salt and water) for a few days with my lone jar of boysenberry jam in my fridge until I was paid.
17. Ashley had the following to say on Aug 20 at 8:45 PM:
See, I never understood the concept of college cooking. I moved from my Mom's down-home southern influenced cooking into an apartment where my roommate was a chef at a gourmet tea room. ;) We shopped at Whole Foods and Trader Joes and made dishes with curry and couscous. We'd have friends over for stir fry and be amused as they tried to eat with chop sticks and experimented with different kinds of fish and all kinds of ethnic foods and recipe tweakings.
18. KJ had the following to say on Aug 20 at 9:32 PM:
I never really had hungry years that were caused by a lack of finances, but I cooked a lot of things that left me hungry afterward because they were too awful to eat! For this reason I am SO THANKFUL for my single years during which I got to practice cooking with only myself as guinea pig, so that by the time I met my boyfriend, I could comfortably cook a meal for us (and my whole family too, while we're at it) without panicking about it or having a disaster. Along the way I learned that a crock pot is a single professional's best friend (it cooks for you while you're gone, and you come home to a prepared meal) the cook book wasn't lying when it said that thin-cut pork chops invariably burn, when making soup, put in the hard veggies like carrots and potatoes first, and the pasta last, and one should beware of any internet recipe involving rice, black beans, and Veg-all. Additionally, food forgotten in the oven will burn, and that will probably set the smoke detector off, and potatoes do not last indefinitely and will, at some inopportune time, rot and turn into a smelly liquid in your cupboard.
I'm glad the ignorant years are behind me now...
19. Michael had the following to say on Aug 20 at 10:06 PM:
I love to eat good food and was fortunate to learn basic cooking skills as a child. However, when I got to college and realized that most of the girls didn't know how to cook my survival instincts took over and I really learned how. Thanks to a few great cookbooks, some tutelage from a couple chefs, and my mom's approach to grocery shopping the hungry years haven't been all that hungry. And for all you "poor" people out there, it is possible to eat well for less than $30 a week. I've been doing it all summer so you can too.
20. Rabenstrange had the following to say on Aug 21 at 1:35 AM:
Living alone in Japan means eating a lot of rice. Thankfully rice cookers are cheap and easy to find here otherwise I would probably starve.
21. t. r. taylor had the following to say on Aug 21 at 4:33 AM:
As a cultural student in SE Asia, one of the most unusual suppers I've taken has consisted of peanut butter and jelly... on rice.
22. Adam Sloope had the following to say on Aug 21 at 6:50 AM:
Ramen was my friend! Then I got fancy and started putting chicken in it. I remeber the one thing I used to do all the time though, I would just cook a pound of hamburger meat and eat a can of green beans. Ah, the good ol' days! Because I was a helpless and hungry college student I would watch the food network in desperation and eventually started trying to cok what I saw on TV. I'm now in my 5th year as a single man and my meals look much better now. I think something they should require in high school is single survival skills, like cooking though.
23. Anna had the following to say on Aug 21 at 7:19 AM:
In case anyone else out there is as talented a cook as my friends and I were in school (i.e. no skills), there's one thing that might help. In grad school, a pal of mine bought one of the American Heart Association cookbooks called Quick and Easy. It has recipes that don't have 5000 ingredients and that really are easy to make and taste pretty good (and of course, are healthier!). Since we started dabbling with that book, we've also picked up their One Dish cookbook and their big red main cookbook too and both are very good, but that Quick and Easy is my go to, especially now that I've moved out on my own and am working long hours at a new job.
To whoever said a crock pot was the best invention ever, I agree. Get a roast, some carrots and potatoes, and a can of Coke and throw it in there. Yum!
24. Julia had the following to say on Aug 21 at 7:41 AM:
Probably my favorite meal from university was a microwaved potato with salsa cheese and sour cream. It provides three of the food groups and potatoes actually have lots of vitamins (plus they are cheap and easy to make.)
The worst was when my money ran out in 2nd year and I spent a month eating nothing but icheban noodles and the jars of canned beets my grandma sent me in a care package. I definitely don't recommend that!
25. Dawn had the following to say on Aug 21 at 8:14 AM:
Michael,
Try making it on $25 for 2 weeks. :) Thankfully that isn't how I typically have to live, but I've been there and happen to be there now.
Anna,
I agree with the salsa cooking. It goes with almost everything. I think my favorite "hungry years" meal made with salsa is mac & cheese. Add a cup of salsa and there's no need for butter or milk.
26. JMarie had the following to say on Aug 21 at 8:33 AM:
My college required students living in the dorm to have a meal plan with the cafeteria, but my roommate and I decided most of the food was inedible, so we subsisted on frozen burritos, rice & beans, ramen noodles off-brand pop-tarts, & those Philadelphia cheesecake squares (amazing we didn't double in size, isn't it?). A friend down the hall offered me some cheesey tuna helper once, but that wasn't an experience I cared to repeat.
Once I got my own apartment, I made a lot of from-scratch pancakes and chicken alfredo pasta with veggies (using packet sauce and dry skim milk). I remember once my mom sent me rice krispy treats, which I ate with peanut butter to get me through to pay day, and another time I survived on home-made baking powder biscuits because I couldn't afford to go to the store and I had the ingredients on hand (I think I ate those with peanut butter, too). If nothing else, desperation can lead to creativity!
27. Maggi had the following to say on Aug 21 at 8:55 AM:
Yes, men, please do learn how to cook. Your wives will love you even more. We have pizza night when my husband makes homemade pizza (his mom's crust recipe), and it's so nice (for me) to have a break from "What to fix for supper tonight?" I wish he'd cooked more while I had morning sickness. I hate frozen meals--after three months, it never felt so good to cook again! It would have been handy if he'd cooked after our girl was born, too, but thankfully, we had quite a few friends who made supper for us. What a blessing! So be a blessing and when you make a lot of something, share it with an elderly friend or a family with a new baby. ;)
And if you're single and don't like cooking for yourself (it's hard even for two!) and don't have a roommate, make a cooking co-op with several other friends. Take turns cooking supper enough for each of you.
My best friend lived with me while she was between jobs, and she was a restaurant-trained chef. She was a GREAT blessing cooking and cleaning during my first year of teaching.
28. Michelle Myers had the following to say on Aug 21 at 10:06 AM:
I love quesadillas (who doesn't?!) and pepperonis. So, I thought, "Why not put them together?" So, I layered a tortilla with Taco Bell sauce (they always gave me so many extras), cheese, pepperonis, and threw another tortilla on top. It was good, I must say.
29. Esther had the following to say on Aug 21 at 10:22 AM:
I've always enjoyed cooking and baking, and my mom would have considered herself a failure if I left home without knowing how to cook. Still, my tendency to experiment, and my total lack of respect for following recipe directions to the letter have led to some interesting creations. I love foreign/exotic foods, but sometimes it can be hard to tell whether I did them right or not (is a cold squash bisque supposed to be gritty?). I think the hardest thing about cooking for myself is getting motivated when it's just me eating. There are times when I've subsisted pretty much on fruit and crackers (a job as a fruit buyer helps with the fact that fruit can be expensive). Now that I share an apartment with my brother, we have a lot of fun making creative meals, though stir-fry is a perennial favorite. It's amazing how varied stir-fry can be- just choose a meat (or tofu), add whatever vegetables, have some fun with spices and flavors (grape juice is actually quite good), and put it over some type of rice, pasta or other starch. Complete nutrition, and usually only a few dishes!
30. Bo had the following to say on Aug 21 at 10:26 AM:
I had a lot of strange eating habits when I lived alone.
I practically lived off bagged salad, but sometimes I would get ambitious and cook a big meal for 4 or 6. Then I would freeze what I didn't eat and heat it up when I wanted a real meal.
One weird thing I loved to eat was Starbursts dipped in peanut butter. :)
31. J.T. had the following to say on Aug 21 at 11:28 AM:
I did my best friend's wedding cake for him and his wife. (I'm a guy, and I bake; get over it.) Now my dad is a different story. He made fried balogna sandwiches (and still makes them). Quite frankly, if we want the terrorists to talk, we should force-feed them my dad's favorite sandwich.
32. Sam had the following to say on Aug 21 at 11:36 AM:
I was doing fusion before celebrity chefs started claiming it as the next big thing in the food scene. Try making a meal out of condensed milk, instant noodles, cheese crackers and sesame oil. Believe me, it tasted pretty good. :) Sweet and savory and it didn't give me any tummy upsets either.
33. Bo had the following to say on Aug 21 at 12:33 PM:
By the way, singles aren't the only people who eat interesting things. I have a girlfriend who has been married for several years, and the other day she just decided to fry up a big pan of bacon for supper for her and her husband! That was their meal!
34. Bethany had the following to say on Aug 21 at 1:14 PM:
I learned to cook at a very early age, a fact for which I am extremely thankful! However, there was one time in college when I hadn't been to the grocery in a while, the cafeteria was closed, and an ice storm had messed up the roads. Let's just say that canned cranberry sauce is a rather acidic dinner.
Side note: Cooks.com, tasteofhome.com, and epicurious.com are great sites to find recipes!
35. Karissa had the following to say on Aug 21 at 1:50 PM:
I've been living on my own for two years now (post college) and I usually subsist on one or two food groups/meal. Seriously--what are some easy meals that don't require fresh produce, and ideally things that store forever??? Here's what I HAVE been eating...
-spaghetti with parmasen cheese (no sauce)
-black beans, cheese and ranch dressing in a tortilla shell
-green beans and fried hamburger (like Adam Sloope)
-can of creamed corn and bread
-my favourite sandwich is probably jam and cheese--both of any variety
-boiled eggs
-green beans and black beans
After working a 8 hour day, I don't want to stand in a kitchen while I could be eating a microwaved dinner and reading a book or watching Jeopardy.
36. Carrie had the following to say on Aug 21 at 2:09 PM:
"After working a 8 hour day, I don't want to stand in a kitchen . . ."
Amen!
There are evenings that I just don't want to cook because I'm so tired. Its just me and I think "who else is here that cares? . . . Nobody!"
37. Jade had the following to say on Aug 21 at 2:30 PM:
Oh my, only one other person mentioned Trader Joes?!?! I know this is more of a west coast thing and Boundless readers are all over the world, but I absolutely LOVE TJ's and think everyone should shop there. Why? Because I hate to cook and TJ's has so many semi prepared but healthy meals that I can make up in a hurry (and feel like I'm actually cooking). Simmer sauces, frozen meals, boxed pastas, chicken salad in their deli, yum. But seriously, I'm lucky because my husband does most of our cooking and has since we were in college so we usually eat pretty good. We have a little herb garden out back and we like to shop locally for fresh, organic produce and free range meat. For any of you who want to learn more about cooking, one cookbook my husband and I have really enjoyed is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. These recipes are quick, easy, healthy, and actually fun to make.
38. BDB had the following to say on Aug 21 at 4:21 PM:
Here's a fun web site for those of you who would like to cook in metric:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
Church potlucks are a great time to try new recipes. Though, I find that when I'm around a new group of people, I need to re-train them to understand I can do more than bring drinks and rolls. In my family, cooking from ingredients was Expected, just like college.
39. Curtis had the following to say on Aug 21 at 4:42 PM:
The Imitation said "Many come to His feast, but few to His fast." This troubles me greatly - the almost wholesale abandonment of the spirit of asceticism and self-denial that characterized the Church in each of Her golden eras. Food may seem like a trivial area but it is emphatically not in the Bible nor in the Church since then. Jesus fasted, and although he did feast occasionally, he also warned that there would be fasting again when he left.
I'm reminded of an anecdote of St.Therese's. The novices in the convent said that they could not tell what food she preferred because she displayed such an indifference to it. St.Bernard is said to have drank cooking oil instead of wine at dinner and not even noticed. Such extremes, of course, aren't required of everyone, but surely we need to "beat the flesh and bring it under control" as St.Paul puts it, and denying oneself food, in quality and quantity, has historically been the first step in this.
40. kaj had the following to say on Aug 21 at 6:08 PM:
I once was in a missionary teaching post in the Pacific Islands. Before that, I could do a few things involving boiling in a pot (pasta, ramen) and anything that could be heated in a microwave.
However, I did not have a microwave oven in the islands. My housemates and I taught ourselves and each other to cook. We really honed our cooking and baking skills (which the male teachers really appreciated!).
Sometimes, when we were between stipends to afford a trip to the grocery store, we would have ranch dressing (or sometimes spaghetti sauce) on white rice. That could be a definition of a "hungry day."
Now, as a 30-something single, I still enjoy cooking and baking. In fact, when I apartment hunt, good kitchen facilities are an absolute must!
After a long day at work, I can be too tired to cook a full meal; it seems time-consuming. I like to make a bunch of food ahead of time so I have plenty of tasty, healthy lunches ready in the fridge or freezer to reheat.
Ever notice that when it comes to perishable items, they are usually too large a portion for someone who lives alone?
For example, I could never go through an entire 5-pound bag of onions or a dozen eggs before they go bad. I always feel lucky when I find a few bachelorette-sized onions, or eggs in half-dozen cartons.
41. Kelly had the following to say on Aug 21 at 7:47 PM:
Me... cook? After an 8-10 hour day at work and no one to come home to? And endless social/church activities after hours? There's no way I would waste time on cooking!
I live on fruit, it's healthy and no preparation work required. ;) Canned soup is my other favourite.
42. Michelle had the following to say on Aug 21 at 9:59 PM:
A steak grilled in a pan on the stove.
Lots and lots of raw vegetables.
Sandwich meat slices, plain. And entire bag works as a whole meal.
Fried cabbage with pepper (actually still like this one).
A butter coated broiled fish with eyes that turn white after cooking. :)
A loaf of just-cooked King Soopers french bread and a bottle of Odwalla juice (the green kind) for lunch or dinner.
43. Leah had the following to say on Aug 21 at 10:56 PM:
"Here's a fun web site for those of you who would like to cook in metric"
Just remember that these days, "those of you who would like to cook in metric" constitutes most of the world.
I never really understood guys who can't cook something basic. (I mean, totally not expecting them to cook a roast or whatever). Just buy a recipe book!
As for my own experiences, well I'm a 19 year old girl living at home, but I do cook for the family sometimes, and I think the worst I've ever done is forgotten to put salt in the beans, or left the scrambled eggs a little too long so they've gone a tad rubbery. Otherwise, I'm completely capable of cooking shepherd's pie, spaghetti bolognaise, cheesy pasta (hooray for packet foods), boiled veggies, stir-fry, chilli con carne, scrambled eggs, and of course anything fried in a pan. Oh, and baking things like biscuits or cakes or desserts etc.
All my college friends are happy with the college food, but one girl simply misses cooking so she sometimes offers to cook for friends who live in a house together.
44. BDB had the following to say on Aug 22 at 12:26 AM:
Hmmm...here's a good critical incident.
Back when I was a boy scout, we always went back packing. That meant oatmeal breakfast, Top Ramen dinner, snacks for lunch.
But by the time I was a senior in high school, I was strong enough to carry a lot more. So one trip, I took steak and steak sauce for dinner and real eggs for breakfast. I even had a little portable non-stick pan with a folding handle. I carried them myself.
You should have seen the looks on the other guys faces when they were eating the standard, awful dry food and I was frying up a steak on my white gas stove. I reminded them that I carried up the hill myself. But boy, did real food taste good after working so hard to get there.
There's not time to cook every day. And cooking from ingredients gets so many pans and containers dirty regardless of the number of people being cooked for. That seems kind of wasteful. But it's very satisfying to make some real food.
And we're finally getting a Trader Joe's in town here - about two miles from me. Next to McDonald's, even!
45. Alison had the following to say on Aug 22 at 1:13 AM:
To Michael and others who condemn others for not being able to eat healthfully on $30 a week:
Some of us have these things called food allergies, and that means we actually *cannot* eat many of those common, cheap ingredients. Living with just a gluten allergy wreaks havoc on one's budget. When all wheat, barley, rye, and oats are excluded from the diet, cheap grains are hard to come by. Oh, and let's not forget corn and dairy sensitivities, and allergies to oranges, peanuts, almonds, and sesame too. Sorry, folks, but it's just not that easy for everybody.
46. Natasha had the following to say on Aug 22 at 11:45 AM:
Well, probably the worst 'single student' meal I've eaten would be cold pork & beans from a can. Then there's the other 'can only' meal: tuna (add a little salt & pepper), green beans (not actually bad cold), and pop (that's soda for all you americans). ;)
Some decent 'recipes' I've discovered:
1 chicken breast cooked with salsa & sharp cheddar cheese on top
cooked noodles, can of cream of mushroom/chicken soup, & tuna- lazy man's tuna casserole, just heat & serve.
Grilled veggie salad: whatever veggies you like cooked (I like red peppers, onion, mushroom), lettuce, maybe some kind of cheese. Cook the veggies & put on top of lettuce. You can make a decent (and kinda healthy) dressing w/ balsamic vinegar, olive oil, & spices.
To make the traditional "oriental noodles" a little better: add carrot or peas & one beaten egg to the soup. The carrot should be added right away, but the peas & egg can be added right at the end of cooking.
:)
47. Chrysti had the following to say on Aug 22 at 12:11 PM:
Thankfully, my mom taught me to cook before I moved out of the house. However, I still had quite a few doozies for dinners in my time. During my college days EasyMac, scrambled eggs, and ramen were all a staple food in my diet. My biggest mistake was cooking up a bunch of left-over rice and putting chicken boullion in it. Yes, it made a meal, but not a very good one. Turned out to be very salty, and (un?)fortunately, I had a stomach virus not long after that so I actually did eat most of it. Since then, I have learned a little more about feeding myself and I do give myself a little bit of variety. More or less... Right now it's boxed pasta, chicken, and veggies :o)