# Can't cook? Really? What do you eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 28, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289 "2005-10-28T08:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/21 "2005-10-29T03:37:28Z")
> [@lorinada](#): > > When we were growing up, while my mom was preparing dinner, I was there chopping the onions, dredging the chicken with flour, or draining the macaroni. My sister was on the phone jabbering with her friends. > > So now, 30 years later, all the holidays are spent at my house because I’m “so good in the kitchen”. Meanwhile, my sister eats frozen dinners and take-out. > > Oh, and, my grocery bill is about $200/month, whereas hers (including the take-out) is about $800/month. Plus, she’s about 100 pounds heavier than me. > > I’m _really_ glad I spent all those evenings in the kitchen, learning to cook from my mom. What she said. I don’t recall my sister being on the phone, so much as just being not in the kitchen. I’ve been to her house and seen her heating a can of corn on the stove burner. She DID take the lid off, though. I have no idea how my youngest brother eats, but the brother between us suffers from the delusion that all edibles can be successfully combined to make more edibles. And he only owns two pots, so dinner made by him is likely to consist of stir-fried bologna with spaghetti sauce and green beans over egg noodles. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/22 "2005-10-29T11:04:45Z")
I can cook, but I don’t enjoy it, don’t do it very often, and I’m not very good at it. I do have a couple of failsafe recipes that I know I can make in the event we’re having company. I am/was actually very fond of baking, and good at it too, so it’s more typical for me to bake something like, say, a chocolate marble cheesecake, and while it’s cooking, eat a PB&J for dinner. To be honest, I switched to a low-carb diet a few years ago, so if I’m baking these days, it’s because I need to bring something to a potluck or something like that. So, in addition to desserts, other things I eat are: Cereal Fruit Raw vegetables (even when faced with people who can cook, I have always preferred raw vegetables to cooked), either on their own or in salad format Tuna salad Egg salad (I can boil the eggs myself) Olives Cheese Things like chicken breasts purchased prepared from the deli, and heated up at home, or not heated up if I’m not in the mood. If I have to, I can cook the chicken myself, but I’d prefer not. Hamburgers or steak made on the grill I’ve never felt like I’m eating too much processed or chemical food. The low carb thing cuts out a lot of convenience foods. I think I eat quite well, given the all the veggies. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/23 "2005-10-29T16:06:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **LifeOnWry** > the brother between us suffers from the delusion that all edibles can be successfully combined to make more edibles. Oh, lord. The one thing besides hamburgers that Mr. Lissar ate (and which he did cook) went like this: Dump pound of hamburger into pan. Add frozen mixed veggies. Add tomato sauce. Add cheese. Add eggs. Add rice. Add soya sauce, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, and anything else on the spice rack that wasn’t cinnamon. Boil it. Eat it for a couple of days. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/24 "2005-10-29T18:02:12Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > We eat when we are hungry and never sit down to eat together unless we have food delivered. Even then, we eat in front of the TV. The dining room table is used for sorting mail, beading, and paying bills. > > We eat take-out food, microwavable dinners, sandwiches, chips, dips, cheese, prepared food from the market, snacks, cereal, and sweets. Sometimes we get salads in a bag. They taste strange and wonderful. You never told me you got an account on the SDMB, honey. Actually, my wife is quite the good cook, but she doesn’t really have the energy for it due to illness. I _like_ to cook; I just suck at it. Things I can handle that actually involve the stove or oven: [ul] [li]Grilling chicken.[/li][li]Steaming broccoli.[/li][li]Roasted red potatos.[/li][li]Frying eggs.[/li][li]Vegetarian hot & sour soup.[/li][li]Grilled cheese.[/li][li]Boiling spaghetti, and heating the sauce.[/li][/ul] Unfortunately, I’m more than a little overconfident in that I tend to see recipes as mere guidelines. For some reason, I get suprised that the vegetarian chili I just made tends to burn one’s digestive tract with the fire of a thousand suns _every time I make it_, thanks to me throwing in a half pound of serranos in lieu of the single green bell pepper that the recipe called for. I mean, a drop of sesame oil is good, so a tablespoon should be better, right? ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/25 "2005-10-29T22:36:20Z")
I can cook and bake really well, and I enjoy doing it. Unfortunately the bf is a really picky eater – getting him to have any kind of vegetable other than maybe corn or french fries is pretty much impossible. So I don’t really cook all that much in the grand scheme of things. I like cooking for other people. I really miss the kind of cooking I used to do with my ex; we’d get cookbooks and make something different every week, but ah, whatever. Since the bf won’t eat most of the things I’d like to fix, I usually end up eating a sandwich, eggs, soup, or making myself some frozen-stir fry. Simple things like that. I use a lot of frozen mixed veggies, and live close to a grocery store so I just buy meat when I need it. I like the frozen vegetables because if you want a mixed variety, buying a floret of brocolli, bag of carrots, bunch of mushrooms… well you end up with a LOT left over. Everyone always says it’s cheaper to buy fresh, but it’s not really if you end up throwing a ton of it away. My microwave recently crapped out, and I’ve found I don’t really miss it. The few things I used it to make taste better in the oven or on the stove, anyway. I think I’m going to get a George Foreman grill for xmas so I can cook meat with that. My kitchen is tiny and if I can cook meat quickly and separate from the stove or oven, it’s going to make fixing a lot more dishes possible (and faster.) I don’t know what the bf would eat if he was on his own. I had to show him how to cook ground beef recently. I imagine he’d just eat fast food and Hot Pockets or frozen pizza. His mom can’t cook her way out of a wet paper bag, so it’s inherited – I was over there one morning and she fixed us some scrambled eggs. I’ve never seen scrambled eggs with scorch marks on them before, and they had the texture of rubber cement. What gets me with eggs is that you have to stand there and /watch/ them being overcooked like that. Words defy. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/26 "2005-10-30T05:08:28Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I am/was actually very fond of baking, and good at it too, so it’s more typical for me to bake something like, say, a chocolate marble cheesecake, and while it’s cooking, eat a PB&J for dinner. To be honest, I switched to a low-carb diet a few years ago, so if I’m baking these days, it’s because I need to bring something to a potluck or something like that. I’ve heard that people who cook fall in to 2 categories - bakers & cookers. (And yes - I know baking is cooking, but you know what I mean). I love to bake. I am slowly training myself to love to cook. Susan ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/27 "2005-10-30T07:21:24Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I am, however, fairly well proficient with a coffee maker. I also can use a microwave, and when I do cook for myself, it’s pretty much, “Open box, nuke, consume.” Honestly, I see no reason to ever learn how to cook further. You can eat just fine with a microwave and a pot of pasta - why go through the stress and trouble of ‘real’ cooking? Because always eating microwaved pasta isn’t good for you and it tastes like shit. Packaged foods are a good way to waste money, end up fat, and never have a genuinely enjoyable meal. You asked. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/28 "2005-10-30T07:50:41Z")
My mum is a fantastic cook. Otherwise I can make tuna casserole, omelettes, boiled eggs, um…that’s it. Mum is sporadically giving me cooking lessons, but she thinks I’m pretty dumb when it comes to cooking, and I have to agree. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/29 "2005-10-31T01:30:17Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > My husband can prepare the following (I hesitate to say “cook”): > > Meat on the grill - steak, hamburgers, chicken etc. If he’s careful not to burn it. > Toasted PB&J sammiches. > Instant potatoes. > Tuna fish with Miracle Whip. > Canned peas. > Fried eggs. That’s just… unnecessary. Seriously people, if we all work together, we can eradicate Miracle Whip _in our lifetimes._ ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/30 "2005-10-31T01:39:38Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > I’ve heard that people who cook fall in to 2 categories - bakers & cookers. (And yes - I know baking is cooking, but you know what I mean). I love to bake. I am slowly training myself to love to cook. > > Susan I bake and cook with an equal amount of zest, having been taught both from a young age. I learned both from my mother who both bakes and cooks. My husband does both too. My grandmother-in-law is a master of both. The data points I have don’t lead me to believe that this is true 😉 (My OWN grandmothers on the other hand were both terrible cooks and terrible bakers.) ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/31 "2005-10-31T03:00:52Z")
I eat lots of cereal. Sometimes that will be my dinner also. A huge honkin bowl of Captain Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch. For lunch, I usually just eat a store bought sandwich and a yogurt. It’s not that I can’t cook. I just lose patience if it takes more than a couple minutes to prepare. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/32 "2005-10-31T03:12:41Z")
I live in a dorm so I eat at dining halls (yuck) but when at home I can prepare the following: bowl of cereal pop tart or eggo waffle in toaster toast bagel sandwich mac n cheese soup (can or bag) bagel bites microwave dinner (though sometimes it comes out really hot on one end and slighty warm on the other) cheese, summer sausage and crackers pierogies (frozen ones) So nothing that requires half a brain. I don’t even know how to cook an egg, any style. So when I don’t go out or Mom doesn’t cook, this is about the extent of what I consume. Mom’s meals aren’t varied anyways, I’m pretty picky and my dad is even worse. Our dinners ususally consist of steak/hamburgers/toasted ravioli/barbeque/roast and fries/garlic bread/corn for me and my mom. All the man eats is meat and potatoes. And donut holes. And he is skinny as crap. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/33 "2005-10-31T04:00:47Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > I’ve heard that people who cook fall in to 2 categories - bakers & cookers. (And yes - I know baking is cooking, but you know what I mean). I love to bake. I am slowly training myself to love to cook. I can see this. I do both, but I am at heart a _baker_. Luckily, my wife is a _cook_, so we play off each others strengths. She makes the meal, I bake the breads, pies, cakes, etc. It’s all good. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/34 "2005-10-31T04:15:41Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > I’ve heard that people who cook fall in to 2 categories - bakers & cookers. (And yes - I know baking is cooking, but you know what I mean). I love to bake. I am slowly training myself to love to cook. I’m the opposite. I love to cook, though my repertoire is thus far limited, but I’m a little afraid of baking. I can bake certain kinds of cookies well, and the cheesecake I make occasionally on holidays is well received, but baking, for the most part, seems to me a strange and wonderful art. I can hardly conceive that I might be able to produce such items myself. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/35 "2005-10-31T04:25:25Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > > [@NinjaChick](#): > > > > I am, however, fairly well proficient with a coffee maker. I also can use a microwave, and when I do cook for myself, it’s pretty much, “Open box, nuke, consume.” Honestly, I see no reason to ever learn how to cook further. You can eat just fine with a microwave and a pot of pasta - why go through the stress and trouble of ‘real’ cooking? > > Because always eating microwaved pasta isn’t good for you and it tastes like shit. Packaged foods are a good way to waste money, end up fat, and never have a genuinely enjoyable meal. > > You asked. I humbly disagree. It may not be the healthiest way to eat, but eating premade food isn’t going to make you get fat, or be more expensive than someone who’s always cooking “real” meals (i.e., my ten-cent packs of ramen mean that I can have dinner for a couple months for the cost of the ingredients of a pot of homemade soup.) Different tastes and whatnot. Some people find cooking stressful and just not worth it. It doesn’t mean we have no taste and are fat, lazy slobs, nor wasteful. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/36 "2005-10-31T07:06:28Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > I’ve heard that people who cook fall in to 2 categories - bakers & cookers. (And yes - I know baking is cooking, but you know what I mean). I love to bake. I am slowly training myself to love to cook. > > Susan Some people fall into this, not all. It’s not a hard and fast rule by any means. I do prefer to cook more than I bake, but when I do either I do fairly well. Nothing fancy most of the time, but it turns out good. My Mom likes to do both, but she is a _much_ better baker than she is a cook. (Even she tells me I’m a better cook than she is). > [@sleeepy2](#): > > That’s just… unnecessary. > > Seriously people, if we all work together, we can eradicate Miracle Whip _in our lifetimes._ Why would I want to do that? I like miracle whip! ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/37 "2005-10-31T07:37:04Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > I bake and cook with an equal amount of zest, having been taught both from a young age. I learned both from my mother who both bakes and cooks. My husband does both too. My grandmother-in-law is a master of both. The data points I have don’t lead me to believe that this is true 😉 (My OWN grandmothers on the other hand were both terrible cooks and terrible bakers.) Both my grandmothers could cook and bake, and my mother can cook anything but probably couldn’t bake much more than a pan of cookies or a cake from a mix. She’s been cooking for so long, and says she’s not used to not being able to futz around with the ingredients too much, or just omit something when she’s out of it. I luuurve both baking and cooking. So, grandmothers and I = bake and cook, mummy = just cooks. So, I’d also disagree with the statement. Now my former roommate could not cook. She’d ask the oddest questions too - “So, how do you make mashed potatoes?”, “What goes in french toast again?”, “How do you make scrambled eggs?”, and even “How long should I microwave this frozen bread for?” that led me to believe her parents just did not let her in the kitchen as a child. Not that any one of these questions on its own would have made me wonder too much, but all together it was weird. She also had no comprehension of what went into her food. I remember making pizza one time and she was just stunned that all I needed was flour, water, yeast and salt for the dough. I suppose she could have figured out there was flour in there, but not much else. Seriously, she just did not know food basics. As for what she ate? Lots of ramen noodles. Lots of Kraft Dinner (I think that’s American “Kraft Mac 'n Cheese”) with bacon bits. Tuna sandwiches on white bread. PBJ’s, again on white bread. Very few vegetables, except maybe carrot sticks dipped in ranch dressing. French fries. Onion rings. Pasta with sauce from a jar. And she had what my friends and I call a “Kraft dinner body” as well - certainly thin, but with a little pot belly and dull skin. When I’d offer to cook for the both of us, she’d turn down all sorts of things that were weird to her, like the apparently exotic vegetables known as red bell peppers and yams. 😕 She seemed suprised you could make a pasta sauce with tomatoes and vegetables all by yourself. Burritos with soy “ground beef” went over well with her, so I taught her how to make those, and she’d make up a tortilla with a tonne of cheese and sour cream, a bit of iceberg lettuce (she claimed the veins on the lettuce freaked her out), and a bit of soy beef. Well, it was better than Kraft Dinner, right?. I would have felt sorry for her, but she seemed perfectly content not trying too many new things and sticking with her regular items, so to each her own, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/38 "2005-10-31T07:46:56Z")
I like cooking, but I don’t do it all the time because, living alone, it is easy to turn it into false economy - wasting stuff/buying too much is the biggest enemy of the single person. Still, I cook every other day, and I enjoy it. I don’t draw any distinction between different ‘levels’ of cooking; a full banquet or a fried egg are both cooking to me. I probably cook every other evening. On days where I don’t, I’ll pick up something on the way home, or dig into the emergency supply of tinned or prepared food. These don’t normally include “microwave meals” as such (I don’t like those - they’re expensive and bland), but I might open a tin of Irish stew and have it on toast, or something like that. I cook for various reasons: - I like it - It’s relaxing - It’s insurance against falling too far into bachelor slobness (I force myself to set the table and eat there rather than in front of the TV, for the same reason). - Women like a bloke who can cook, I’ve found. I snared my last g/f by doing lots of baking (she can’t bake) and making impressive looking meals (just regular ones on oversized plates and with a spring of parsley 😃 Shhh. ), but doing it with AC/DC playing, and a beer in my hand. So she knew I wasn’t a metrosexual, but on the other hand, I wasn’t a slob… It seemed to work. And also the best thing about baking is the smell. Makes a house a home, and people don’t expect that in a bachelor apartment. I’d make my own Italian sauces for similar effect. Then again, sometimes I _don’t_ cook, for other reasons: - Couldn’t be arsed - Tired, home late, etc - Just feel like something preprepared and greasy to pick up on the way home - The supermarket is miles away - I don’t want to waste food Not cooking as such, isn’t the end of the world either. If you don’t want to/can’t cook, you can still do better than microwaved macaroni and cheese. Buy some good quality bread from a bakery (no white sliced stuff from the supermarket), and pick up some interesting fillings at the deli. What you get is _really_ still just a sandwich, but it’ll be tasty, and you’ll feel better about it. Decent ingredients are even more important in simple snack food, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/39 "2005-10-31T14:54:49Z")
For those who don’t cook and don’t see the point of cooking, I wish someone could show you what you can do with one chicken breast, and a little salt, pepper, and olive oil, and a covered skillet. It takes hardly any time at all to grill it, and no matter what you do, you will almost certainly come up with something that tastes better and is better for you than restaurant or frozen food. Just add your favourite bottled sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289/40 "2005-10-31T16:00:29Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > I bake and cook with an equal amount of zest, having been taught both from a young age. I learned both from my mother who both bakes and cooks. Likewise. I was taught to cook and to a lesser extent bake by my mother, and it was mainly a process of osmosis by dint of being in the kitchen whilst she was cooking, and being roped into help. The little brother on the other hand, was (is) a lazy so and so, who never really helped unless he was forced into it. Guess who’s better in the kitchen now? Fortunately for me, the SO’s a really good cook too, although he’s mainly self-taught from cookery books, but hey, he knows his way round a kitchen, which is the main thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-cook-really-what-do-you-eat/328289.md?page=3)