Hey y’all,
Let’s start off with a simple fact. I cook a lot.
I soak beans and pressure cook them. I buy whole chickens and 10 lb roasts and break them down, boil/braise them, and shred them. I save the broth for future meals. I buy bulk spices to make my own spice blends. I make bread and tortillas from scratch often. I cook a meal for dinner almost every night.
But here’s another fact. I don’t like to make anything that’s not “easy.”
I don’t have kids or even a full-time job (although I do work several part-time jobs), but at the end of the day, I don’t want to make food that requires me to read a recipe super closely, pull out gadgets, or dirty up too many dishes. If I make something dirty, I have to wash it, and I’d almost always rather not. If a dish is only for me, I’ll generally eat out of the pot to avoid having to wash another plate or bowl.
But, on the other hand…
I can’t eat gluten, dairy, eggs, or tomatoes, and I prefer not to eat a lot of meat. On top of that, I don’t have all the money to spend on specific ingredients, and certain ingredients aren’t available in my area.
Luckily, there are recipes I’ve found that do satisfy all my food intolerances, but they usually include the phrase “in the food processor, grind together…” or “in a separate skillet…” or “in a separate bowl…”
That’s all well and good for some people. And I’m sure that whipping out an extra dish isn’t difficult for someone who’s used to it (or has an older child to do the dishes?), but I can’t stand doing that.
I saw a recipe today that (I think) was only one bowl, but the ingredient list was over 20 ingredients long. I didn’t even read through the whole recipe. That was too much for me.
I like recipes that I can nearly make on auto-pilot. And I don’t want something filled with fresh produce. As nice as that sounds, I don’t want to chop everything up, and I don’t really want carrots or spinach in my mac n’ cheese.
When I want a recipe, I want an easy recipe. And by easy, I mean EASY. Who agrees with me?
Frugal Treehugger 