Best bachelor dishes

Cafe Society
1

Sorry if this has been done before but a cursory search only brought this thread which focuses more on general tips and tricks more than specific dishes.

For background, I’m a mostly low-maintenance male student and I live with one roommate who is equally low-maintenance as far as I can tell. Neither of us can cook very well, if at all. Consequently, I’ve been eating out a lot which is taking its toll on my budget.

I skimmed through the websites that purported lists bachelor dishes and while some of it seems doable, a lot of them are pretty fancy, or require fancy ingredients.

So I guess the qualities I’m looking for my “bachelor dishes” are (in this order):

  1. Ease of preparation
  2. Not too many necessary ingredients
  3. Tends to use ingredients that are widely available and you can buy in mass quantities
  4. Acceptable taste

Any help is appreciated.

2

One of my standbys used to be spaghetti, made from the dry pasta in a box (as it’s shelf stable and you can just keep some on hand). I ate it with jarred pasta sauce. So I’d add a handful of spaghetti to a pot of boiling water and set the timer for nine minutes (which I’d found was the right amount of time). But I had a microwave oven that could be programmed to count down for seven minutes and then cook for two minutes. So I’d put some sauce in a bowl, cover it, and then put it in the microwave. So when the sauce was finished heating, the pasta would be done at the same time. In the meantime, I could go back to watching TV or whatever.

You do have to be careful, as the spaghetti comes in a one-pound box and at least for me, only a quarter of that was enough for my dinner.

In the refrigerator section of the supermarket, they sell fresh pastas, so sometimes I bought some sort of tortellini to eat instead of spaghetti.

3

Knorr rice and pasta sides. These cook up in about 7-10 minutes in a microwave and while it’s possible to fuck them up, if you follow the destructions, it’s not easy.

All you have to do is stir in some pre-cooked lean ground beef or maybe sliced hot dogs I guess if you’re desperate, and it’s not half bad.

By the way, if you think you might want to go vegetarian, Morningstar has a lot of really good meat substitutes including a frozen ground beef substitute that surprisingly good. I love their buffalo wings.

4

I spent a lot of time exploring the frozen foods section of the supermarket. Much of that stuff is terrible. But some of it is OK. I thought that the Stouffer’s lasagna was quite decent. And there’s a whole section of frozen “meals for two” in foil bags. In my supermarket, they’re from Bertolli (for Italian dishes) and PF Changs (for Asian meals). That might work well if you want to eat with your roommate.

5

A lot of the lean cuisine stuff is pretty good, but not as consistent as I would like. One perennial favorite is Healthy Choice’s turkey dinner. I think that’s definitely worth a look.

Amy’s Kitchen is a brand that you can find in both health food stores and a lot of supermarkets like Stop and Shop here in the NE. I tend to favor the Mexican entrees but the couple Indian dishes are pretty good too. It’s all vegetarian fare though.

6

You might consider investing in a crock pot and looking up some crock pot recipes. They tend to be pretty easy and require little attention, and are accommodating for mismatched and irregular schedules. Keep a little bread of some kind on hand to go with a soup or stew, and you’ve got easy meals for several days at a time.

7

Glop. I make up a batch of Sloppy Joe-like filling, then use as needed over a week. Eat it with tortillas, on a bun, mixed with macaroni, whatever. Mix in vegetation as desired. One pot, eat for days.

But get a crock pot too.

8

Eggs are your friend, especially if you remove the yolks here and there to reduce cholesterol. Fold in cheese or veggies or Canadian bacon and omelet it up.

Or English muffin, bagel or tortilla “pizzas” under the broiler.

If you are concerned with getting veggies, the bags that you make in the microwave make two good portions, no fuss or timing a pot on the stove.

Also there are a billion things you can do with Pillsbury doughs, like Grands biscuit dough with filling like tuna and cheese, hamburger and cheese, chicken and alfredo sauce… Stuff it, bake it, done.

And ETA echoing the crock pot/sloppy Joe, there’s an easy way to crock pot a pork butt with cola and barbecue sauce until it pulls apart and makes an excellent sandwich on hamburger rolls.

9

Most supermarkets sell whole roasted chickens, of various flavorings. They’re relatively cheap compared to eating out (still cheaper to roast one yourself), and usually pretty good. One will easily feed two, plus leftovers. Serve with easy vegetable (frozen corn/peas/beans/whatever) and/or simple carbs.

Strip the meat off the carcass, and make chicken salad with the leftovers. I usually go with halved grapes, diced celery, and whatever herbs I have at hand (tarragon or parsley), plus mayo or mayo + greek yogurt, salt & pepper. Maybe some lemon juice or minced peel, too. If you don’t have enough meat left over, buy two chickens at a time. Chicken salad will last a week in the fridge; eat on bread as a sandwich, or with lettuce as a salad.

I also keep tuna salad in the fridge: 2 cans chunk light tuna, diced midget pickles or pickle relish, minced dill, salt + pepper. Again, eat on bread or with lettuce.

Crock pots are awesome; ask for one as a holiday gift. Then, at least once a week, make soup, pot roast, pasta sauce, etc. Freeze any leftovers (if making soup, don’t freeze with potatoes). And there will be leftovers.

If you have a crockpot and bought a roasted chicken, toss the carcass in with a couple onions, carrots, and celery all roughly chopped, cover with water, cook on high 8+ hours. Strain and discard the solids, chill in fridge overnight, skim off fat on surface, and use as delicious (and cheap) chicken stock for more soups.

Having chicken or tuna salad in the fridge and soups/meals frozen saves me from “eh, too much effort to make something; I’ll go get takeout.” It’s way cheaper. And, while you can live on takeout while you’re a bachelor mostly low-maintenance male student, those eating habits will overinflate your waistline in a few years. Better to break the habit now.

Note: if you’re not wild about chopping herbs or celery or whatever, some supermarkets have it available precut in the produce department. It’s expensive when compared to doing it yourself, but still way cheaper than eating out. Likewise, there’s prepared herbs-in-oil or paste that’re okay; look in the “organic” produce section, usually. Use dried herbs only as a last resort (they taste like dust).

10

Keep some frozen vegetables (of your prefered variety) to toss in before cooking, to make it Healthy.

11

Learn to roast a chicken. It’s dead simple, it’s only got a few ingredients (chicken and salt at it’s most basic), and one chicken will serve for one dinner and one lunch (1/4 chicken for each). If one of you likes light meat and the other dark, so much the better.

The most complicated part is trussing the bird but, as always, Alton Brown is your friend.

Steam a green vegetable to go with it (green beans would be a classic), season the veg with salt and pepper and maybe a squirt of lemon and you’re good to go. Also serves to impress a date if you get the little green beans and learn how to pronounce haricot verts.

12

Trussing must be a state secret since I can’t access that video in Canada.

13

Pancakes are easy.

Mix 1 egg, 1 cup wholemeal self rising flour, 1 cup milk with a fork. Then, uh, make pancakes. Powdered milk is fine if you don’t normally keep milk around.

Something basic that everybody who cooks should know is how to peel, chop, and saute fresh garlic and a yellow onion in some olive oil. They keep well and make your cooking smell and taste better. From there you can make sausage and peppers, fridge spaghetti*, fried vegetables, whatever.

I find a crockpot to be a pain in the ass. A steamer for the microwave, though, is quicker than roasting, doesn’t add fat like frying, and is easy to clean. Good for diced potatoes, chopped broccoli or carrots, stuff like that.

A big microwave container is good for lentils or rice**. I like to add powdered stock or soup (not the kind with noodles). Soup or stock powder can also be added to plain yogurt or sour cream to make a dip for raw vegetables or chips.

*Fridge spaghetti: saute garlic and onions. Chop up all the vegetables in the crisper because they’re going bad and add them to the garlic and onions. Add something that has tomatoes in it. Adjust flavor with any of the following: chili sauce, sugar, honey, salt, pepper, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and/or the dried up out of date crap in the spice rack. Throw out spice rack. Serve over pasta.

**Microwave lentils or rice. 1 cup lentils or rice, 2 cups water. Stir. Cook at full power 5 minutes. Cook at half power 15 minutes. We have a weak microwave, so yours might cook a lot faster.

14

Nothing against the list above at all but surely the primary criteria for any good “bachelor dishes” is to minimise the amount of washing up.

Any recipie that requires more than two pots/pans in it’s preparation must be rejected on the grounds it is bad for the environment and takes away too much drinking time.

By using the barbeque or the casserole or the crockpot I can prepare a more than adequate variety of wholesome & hearty meals for 4-8 people and have half the washing up done before the meal is served.

15

When you are ready for the slightly more advanced - Risotto.

Put oil in saucepan. Put risotto rice in saucepan. Heat. Add liquid (stock) a bit at a time. Keep stirring. Takes anywhere from 15-30 mins depending on the rice texture you want. Done.

The good thing is, you just add a few vegies into the mix along the way. Just check 'em in when appropriate. For example: mushrooms - about 10 mins from end. Frozen peas - about 6 mins from end. Chopped carrots - about 15 mins. Onions in at the start.

Ingredients are infinite - corn, tuna, celery, tomatoes. Cooked chicken, chorizo, last night’s leftovers. Just experiment. Chilies, tabasco, oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, - if you get adventurous.

Washing up - 1 board (chopping things) - one saucepan - one bowl (to eat out of). If making for 4 - use a big saucepan.

16

One piece of equipment you might consider (besides the crock pot) is a griddle with interchangeable plates – griddle, waffle iron, grill. You can grill panini really easily but it makes a difference in the taste – like grilled cheese versus a cold cheese sandwich. Veggies are easy to chop up and throw on the grill with chicken tenders – then wrap them in tortilla with cheese. Or layer in tortillas with cheese and microwave for quesadillas.

And use the griddle and waffle iron for pancakes and waffles, and bacon and eggs to put between the pancakes.

17

I admire this desire to cook real food, but honestly, that’s pretty much anathema to the true bachelor. I’m sorry but I have to be dogmatic about this. When the true bachelor wants real food he goes out - to a friend’s, relative’s or mom’s - or of course a good restaurant. Otherwise, bachelor food, if it doesn’t come from a can, pouch or the freezer has to be preparable(?) in no more than 1 microwavable bowl.

I’m sorry, but those are the rules.

18

Try using beer instead of milk in the pancakes. They come out ridiculously good.

19

I’m not a bachelor, and I’m actually a pretty accomplished cook that can make any number of complex and time-consuming dishes with lots of ingredients in them… but one of my favorite things to make is really super-easy. Find some packaged red beans and rice (Mahatma is one brand), cook according to directions, and add some smoked sausage or Polish sausage that you have browned in a pan, cut up. Mmmm, with some hot sauce and a big glass of milk.

20

Well, if they want to be bachelors forever, I suppose. :slight_smile: