He can do what we did before we had a baby who needed diapers and stuff in bulk and get a membership with a couple of other people and split the cost if that is a problem. I don’t think the product size thing is an issue though since almost every post here has been about making a big portion of food and eating it over the course of the week. This is the same but with almost zero cleanup and the potential to get your entire year’s toilet paper supply while you are there.
Take boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips.
Take a box of Stove Top stuffing and grind it into powder; you can use a blender or just crush it inside the bag that it comes in.
Mix that powder 50/50 with Parmesan cheese.
Dunk the chicken strips in melted butter and roll them in the Parmesan/ Stuffing mix.
Bake uncovered at 375 for 45 mins.
Canned Chicken or roast beef, & instant rice.
A few large spoonfuls of mild salsa adds flavor.
Pita bread, pasta sauce and shredded cheese = instant pizza (nuke, roast or broil first of course)
Lots of super-easy 3 ingredient recipes are out there; they’re perfect for bachelors. Pillsbury has some good ones, especially the ones using their crescent rolls.
[ul]
[li]Mac & cheese with a pouch of tuna + lemon pepper on top[/li]
[li]Old El Paso spicy shredded chicken (microwaved) + cheese melted on a tortilla[/li]
[li]Frozen chicken cordon bleu ($1 each) + Sister Schubert’s rolls[/li]
[li]chunks of smoked ham + foil pouch risotto[/li]
[li]steak taquitos and mole sauce[/li]
[li]salmon portion (skin off*) liberally sprinkled with lemon pepper and broiled about 5 minutes each side[/li][/ul]
*if it didn’t come that way, a couple minutes under the broiler will make the skin curl up so it can easily be pulled away with a fork
If I’m busy, this works for me:
Buy food for 1 week at a time. You’ll need to do a big shop to start if you don’t have basic condiments and some nonperishables.
Big shop:
-At least a dozen cans of soup
-Mayo
-Mustard
-Ketchup
-Hot sauce
-Pickles, if you like them
-Salt and pepper
-Bulk coffee (if you drink it)
-Bulk cereal
-Bulk nuts (almonds, peanuts, etc.)
-Big box of raisins or bulk dried fruit
-Peanut butter
-Honey, jam, or both
-Bags of snack foods (pretzels, crackers, chips, granola bars, whatever)
-Big log (ha) of cheddar cheese, plus one of another cheese you like
-2 loafs of bread and a big package of hamburger buns
-1 bottle brown liquor and 1 bottle clear liquor (if you drink)
Buy weekly:
-Sliced meat (or faux meat) for sandwiches
-Ground beef (about a pound) or veggie burgers
-At least 7 pieces of fresh fruit that requires no extensive prep (apples, bananas, berries)
-Lettuce, tomatoes, and whatever other veggies you can get yourself to put on sandwiches
-Baby carrots, plus hummus or another dip if you need it
-1 gallon of 100% juice
-Milk or milk replacement
-Sugar (if you have coffee and take sugar or may offer coffee to guests)
-Beer (if you drink)
-Mixers for drinks if you’ll be having company/drinking alone or with your roommate (sad face)
-Anything from the first list that you’re out of
Obviously it is cheaper not to drink, but let’s be realistic.
This is seriously everything you need. That’s one major shop and a quick 15 minutes in the store once a week afterwards.
Breakfast:
Make coffee, with milk and sugar if you want it (have both if you plan on having dates stay over!)
Cereal with milk
Piece of fruit, in cereal or on its own, or a glass of juice
+Toast with PB if you’re really hungry or bored of cereal
Lunch:
More coffee if you need it
Sandwich with condiments of choice, meat of choice, cheese, as many veggies as you can handle
+Snack food on the side if you feel like it (chips or whatever)
+Soup if you want something hot
+A piece of fruit if you’re still hungry or didn’t eat any at breakfast
Dinner:
Beer or a drink if you feel like it
Burger/veggie burger (cook in pan, Pam or similar spray is fine) -or- sandwich (see above)
+Snack food on the side if you feel like it (chips or whatever)
+Soup if you want something hot
If you get bored of the meat and cheese sandwiches, make PB&J. If you’re sick of burgers and sandwiches of all kinds, have some soup.
Snacks:
Nuts, with raisins or other dried fruit if you like
Whatever packaged snack foods you prefer
Baby carrots with hummus or dip
Sandwich
Fruit or juice
Cheese
I’ve eaten this same stuff and lost weight, gained weight, trained for a marathon… Just choose foods based on your dietary needs.
This is what I do now unless my boyfriend cooks for me. I’m stressed and/or busy a lot and sometimes I’m lazy and I really just want to get salad bar at Whole Foods (insanely expensive), eat out, and order in. It’s just too expensive. Drinking out is REALLY expensive. I buy whatever I’m going to eat, and I’m not going to eat something that takes too long to prepare. Even if I pay more for sliced cheese, canned soup, etc. than I would if I made everything from scratch, it costs less to eat at home and it certainly costs less than throwing out unsliced cheese and soup ingredients because I’m not interested in doing any work in the kitchen.
People will tell you–and have told you here–that things like roasting a chicken and cooking noodles are easy. Yeah, those aren’t difficult recipes, but sometimes (95% of the time for me) it’s just not going to happen. I want to take five minutes max to prepare my food, eat it quickly, and go. If I didn’t do this during undergrad, I skipped meals altogether.
Oh yeah… It’s a good idea to have Ensure or something similar around in case you really just can’t be bothered. I know it sounds depressing, but it’s really worked for me and prevented crashing out. It keeps forever. Put one pack in your fridge and drink it really fast if you just need to get going. It’s nutritionally balanced.
I’m going to try this one!
Target now has a 4 qt. crockpot for $8 or $10.
I think that this would take at least two packages of taco seasoning, as generally you need one package per pound of meat. Also note that this works with burrito or enchilada seasoning, though some of the packets call for a can of tomato sauce or paste, so be sure to check and pick up the sauce or paste while you’re at the store. Also, this works very well on tortilla chips. In the local grocery stores, there’s Mexican shredded cheese, which is a mix of Cheddar and some sort of white cheese.
I’ve been making this for years, though without the canned corn. It’s been very popular. If you keep canned sliced jalapenos around, you can add them on top, or pass them around if you have guests.
I keep seeing this thread and reading it as “Best bachelor dies.”
But mine was a can of Hormel chili, no beans, mixed with a can of crushed pineapple and some sliced up Velveeta cheese and heated up. Very good.
Oh Sam, that sounds…interesting.
Here’s my husbands old standby:
Ingredients:
Ramen Noodles
Butter
Eggs
Cheese
Boil ramen noodles. Add the spice if you want, don’t if you don’t. Drain and place in a frying pan with a little bit of butter. Cook til you get a little brown on the noodles, then top with two eggs cooked over medium and add some cheese to the top of that. He liked pepper jack cheese, but lots of others would work.
Mac and cheese in a box and the milk and butter that goes with it. 4 hot dogs. A can of cut green beans. Boil macaroni, meanwhile cut up hot dogs and drain the can of beans by running the can opener around the can lid and with the lid still in place, set the can upside down in the sink. 4 minutes into the boiling of the macaroni add the cut up hot dogs to the pot. Finish boiling the macaroni and hot dogs and drain by holding the pot lid a little askew and tipping over the sink. Toss in the drained beans, the cheeze packet, a little more than usual milk and the butter. Stir it till it’s all in there real good. Eat it right out of the pot you heathen.
Makes 3 meals for one person. It’ll feed both of you once. Add a little more milk to any leftovers before nuking.
Scramble some eggs. Throw in a bunch of cheese (whatever you have) and meat (whatever you have) and whatever else you want. Instant meal.
I buy the ‘Mexican blend’ pre-shredded cheese for burritos, topping chili and stuff like that, so I’ll throw in a hand full of that. Then I usually only make this if I’ve recently bought some sliced deli mesquite smoked turkey breast. I’ll tear a couple of slices up and throw them in. I can’t eat onions and peppers in anything but small doses, but if I could, I would totally throw in some of them too.
Really doesn’t take any pre-planning. Got eggs? Got cheese? Got leftover meat and/or other stuff? You’re good to go.
Hell, was just thinking I have less than a bowl of chili frozen in my freezer. I could probably scramble a couple of eggs and throw that in it.
Bachelor coffee. It’s very simple: Before you go to bed, leave a cup containing a teaspoon of instant coffee in the shower stall. When you get up . . .
BTW, how long do you have to cook spaghetti before it turns red?!
I like eating, but not cooking.
So my two staple meals:
- satisfy all the above
- take 10 minutes or less (including all preparation)
- have little washing up
a. Omelette (ingredients for one)
1 bowl (to crack eggs into); 1 frying pan
3 eggs, olive oil
Fillings e.g. ham / cheese (you can also add at serving time stuff like olives / cooked bacon / heated baked beans)
Crack eggs into bowl. Break yolks.
Prepare fillings (e.g. chop ham or grate cheese.)
Oil into pan, start to heat.
Pour eggs into pan, add fillings and fry on full heat for a couple of minutes.
Serve.
b. Stir fry (ingredients for one)
1 Wok
Olive oil
1 packet noodles or stir-fry vegetables, 1 packet pre-cooked meat (e.g. barbecued chicken pieces)
Oil into pan, start to heat.
Add meat to pan; cook for a bit; add noodles or vegetables; stir
Serve.
Unless I missed it I can’t believe this hasn’t been posted already.
One box of Kraft Mac and Cheese prepared per package instructions.
1/4 lb or more Ground Beef fried until brown.
One can Rotel or similar brand tomatoes with peppers.
Make the Mac and Cheese and brown the beef at the same time. Toss the Mac and Cheese, beef and tomatoes together and heat a little to warm up the tomatoes and you have classic bachelor fare.
BACHELOR: Pardon me, what aisle is the toast on?
Really? Let’s review.
Ingredients:
[ul]
[li]1 chicken[/li][li]Salt[/li][/ul]
Prep:
[ul]
[li]Take stuff out of chicken (if there)[/li][li]Dry chicken[/li][li]Truss chicken[/li][li]Salt chicken[/li][li]Roast chicken[/li][/ul]
It really doesn’t get much simpler than that. It’s more economical than store-bought pre-roasted chicken, and the skin will be crispy and salty in a way the store-bought stuff can never be. You don’t even need a rack; let the chicken rest on a bed of potatoes, and roast them along with the chicken.
I will probably come off as “that guy”, but, honestly, if you can’t roast a chicken then you should just not bother with anything in the kitchen beside using the microwave to cook frozen dinners.
kinda surprised nobody has said it yet but chicken breasts/cutlets/tenderloins/any cut up boneless chicken is super healthy and simple. A little oil in the pan, any seasoning you like whatsoever, 5 minutes, flip it and cook another 5 minutes. Seriously, you can season chicken with anything! Buy on sale and freeze individual portions.
If you can swing it, make the Knorr rice or pasta mix too and you’ve got a real dinner on your hands.
Also when they are on sale I like the “steamer” bags of veggies for filling, healthy, and cheap lunches. 5 minutes in the microwave, cannot be screwed up.