I try to use disposable stuff when I can. I know it isn’t good for the environment but it just makes it difficult. I use non stick stuff so I can easily wipe it out and give an easy clean or silicon for the same reason.
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When I moved into my first apartment I lived for 2 years with 1 ceramic food dish - it was one of those deep salad plates that could hold soup or solid food. 1 cheap wok. 1 pyrex glass bread baking pan. 3 forks, knives, spoons. 1 large butcher knife.
That was it. There were never many dishes to do because there were never many dishes around. Everything got microwaved or baked in that pyrex pan. All other food got cooked in the wok. You had no choice but to do dishes immediately, otherwise you had nothing to prep food from. Being a broker than broke college student was… enlightening. I do miss the simplicity of it sometimes. The creativity of how do I make this dish with these limited items, was not my favorite exercise.
I purposely have gone down to 10 utensils minus knife block. I can’t have a sink full of dirty dishes if I don’t have a sink full of dishes period
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The best thing my family did for our mental health was subscribe to Hello Fresh. Everyone in the family cooks at least one night a week. We prep our dinner meals by selecting what we’re going to cook the next week. Everything comes portioned out with instructions and makes cooking so much more enjoyable.
Worrying about planning a menu, putting everything on a list, and then purchasing these items is all gone from our schedule. Though, “What do you want for dinner?” has been replaced with “Who’s cooking tonight?”
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I have been making that same transition myself. I’m encouraging my significant other to start using chopsticks more often with me. Silverware and utensils (except my favorite spatula) are the devil. I’ll gladly scrub ten cheese crusted pans over doing silverware/utensils. Chopsticks, swipe with soapy cloth, rinse, done - toss them in the chopstick jar on the counter.
Disposable stuff is one of those things when I’m in a funk that I struggle with too. Yes, it keeps my kitchen clean, but also yes in that it adds to my guilt about the environment. I definitely understand that internal battle. I do use paper plates semi-frequently, but I have a compost heap they go into, so that part I can manage to half forgive myself for. It’s plastics that always get me. Goodness we just drown and drown and drown in the stuff.
I really hope that stores in the US start using the refillable soaps and cleaners - where you take your bottle to the store and can just refill it in a dispenser at a per ounce cost. My aluminum and steel cans I recycle every 3 months, so that one has a financial kickback to reward me. I also give the pop tops to Ronald McDonald House.
There’s more to just cooking and cleaning that can bring on anxiety and deepen depression that’s for sure. The whole peripheral packaging and disposal thing is annoying.
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I’m more hopeful about Biodegradable utensils
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My partner and I always try to cook them together, though she has a more irregular work schedule so I’ll frequently wind up having most/all of it done by the time she gets home.
I’m definitely the more cooky of the two of us though so I don’t mind lol
Honestly that’s a really good point, I hadn’t thought of chopsticks that way before.
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I’m so-so on that right now. Unless they can make cellulose into stiff enough material that doesn’t splinter - then maybe I’ll buy into it. Right now biodegradable is pretty loose term in manufacturing sense. If not carefully reviewed it can mean just mixing smaller particles of plastic into a slurry that’ll dissolve faster so utensils are not floating around in the Pacific Garbage patch. While it looks appealing on the surface, it can also mean microplastics more fully get stirred into the ecosystem quicker. Then fish and animals consume it more readily. They need to shore up a more solid definition and parameter for “biodegradable” moving forward.
I’ve been introduced to some biodegradable straws as of late, which are truly tissue paper thin plastic. They shatter to bits if you try and push them through the top of a disposable drink cup from a restaurant. Will they break apart and ‘degrade’ faster? Absolutely. They can’t even hold up to regular use. But they’re still going to send microscopic plastic bits into the water and soil like crazy.
The meal worms and catepillers, along with the enzymes that can actually consume plastic and turn it back into innocus components needs to get rocket boosted in reseach. Things like the PETase enzyme is an interesting project right now, but I still don’t feel like it’s entirely a solution to the larger problem. The horse is out of the barn boy, oh boy, do we need to figure out how to harness it.
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We have to start the technology somewhere. Refillable things outside of water are gonna take up too much space for places to provide. Especially with all the different flavors or scents
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When we go grocery shopping we try to evaluate the price of the meal we are cooking and that’s the hard part of ‘coming up with what to eat’. That’s why we rarely cook those recipes on the cooking shows with 20/30 ingredients . Tip: Currently a new trend of a service is lifting off around the world - boxes with ingredients for particular recipe (HelloFresh for example). So when you don’t know what to cook, just go in one of those sites and get a free recipe + ingredients needed to buy + pricing per portion/s.
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If you’ve ever had the joy of working in the restaurant industry, you’ll know that soda comes in bags of concentrated syrup and is mixed with water as it goes through the soda fountain. You normally get 150 16oz drinks out of a bag of syrup. A lot (not all) of our soaps and snuffly stuff are actually water based - particularly laundry detergent. They can load up bags of concentrate and feed it through an emulsifying metal mesh sleeve while adding in water. All you need is a water line and your concentrate in the dispensers. Think about how much shelf space you see taken up at an average store for shampoo. Those 36 bottles of shampoo, gone and all the bottle trash reduced. Likely, output can be doubled to 150. Out of one easy dispenser.
Not every product will work, but a lot will. You pay a lot of money for water and a few fancy ingredients. Go have a look at some of your soaps and shampoo bottles. Usually the first ingredient on the list is water/aqua/eau.
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Right and we’ve been doing that for decades. We moved toward More reusable shopping bags.
Plastic has changed the world but it also has a huge downside. We need to invest in technology in how to biodegrate it. They are messing with enzymes that can break it down and bacteria… That’s a good start but we need to invest in replacing it with hybrid or nonplastic disposables.
There’s no reason we can’t do both
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Unga bunga carbs 'n fat
1 cup rice
1 1/2 cup wa’er
? spinach
? olive oil (or something idk)
step 1 make rice
step 2 put spinach in bowl, put rice on top
step three olive oil or something
step for don’t forget to portion it into smaller bowls
step 5 lid
step eat
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I feel like the real solution is to put our arcane mages to use and use their sparkly explosion spell to rupture everything back into their cosmic sub-atomic particles. However, barring that idea, yes - we need solutions burning at both ends of the candle. Both on the manufacturer’s end and the consumers as well.
What do you usually make as quick go to meals Sasarai?
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Air fry steak/burgers and rice with chicken seasoning and I have perfected the art of microwave steaming broccoli with garlic salt
2 tablespoons of water in a bowl with another bowl on top to keep steam in. 2 mins
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Ooooooooo, a good/non-fluff thread on the front-page 
Following and quick bump
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I cannot eat the same meal every day, I’d get so bored.
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i’ve eaten the same meal for both meals for a week… But it’s usually something like chili
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BLT or Grilled Cheese.
I have no idea how I forget the two god send of god sends when I need food fast.
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato on Toast, with mayo.
Add in avocado and sprinkle with a bit of cayenne if you want to get fancy.
Bacon can be microwaved 4 min- cooked between damp paper towels to keep fat from spattering.
Grilled Cheese
2 Slices of bread
2 Slices Cheese
Room temperature butter
Spread thin amount of butter on one side of sammich bread, put cheese on unbuttered side. Butter your second piece of bread, put it on top with butter facing out. (Yes, this might be self explanatory, but as I watched a number of my cousins try making it with butter side in… well… it just covers the basics).
You can also skip the butter and brush bread with olive oil. The fat soaks in and makes the bread turn golden while cooking.
Cook 3 min per side on medium high heat.
I always toss a slice of ham in with my grilled cheese. My mom used to make them with super thin sliced tomatoes and swiss or cheddar. They were really good too. The trick was you need the tomato to be room temp otherwise the cheese takes forever to melt and the bread gets too soggy from tomato.
Quesadillas which are another fun fav can be made on stove or microwaved. Cheese and whatever chopped or cooked meat you have on hand. Make the sourcream/chili powder sauce for dipping (see enchilada recipe).
Loaded baked potatoes
Bake 5 medium potatoes at 400 for 40 minutes. Poke with fork to see if tender. When ready remove and let cool 1 hour. Cut lengthwise in half, scoop out 3/4 of potato insides. Mash together with 4tbsp of melted butter, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1cup finely shredded sharp cheddar. Refill potato shells with mixture, cover and refrigerate. Take out and microwave 2 minutes on high for meal. You can also add crumbled bacon and chives. I do this afterwards, but some people add the bacon in with the milk and sour cream. To me, it makes the bacon rubbery, even if it started off super crisp.
Microwaved scramble
2 eggs (ravager or raptor may be substituted for chicken)
2 tbsp milk or water
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup cubed Blackrock ham
Dalaran Sharp shredded cheddar
Crack eggs into microwave safe bowl, add 2 tbsp milk, whisk with fork 20 seconds until well mixed. Microwave on high 40 seconds. Remove, whisk again to break up/fluff cooking egg. Microwave 40 seconds. Remove, stir in cubed ham. Top with cheese. Microwave 1 minute, check to see if cheese is adequately melted. Microwave in 30 second intervals as needed to melt cheese. Let stand at least 2 minutes before eating. This is another one of those dishes that does lava damage to your mouth if you eat too soon.
Easy 1 pan Baked Lemon Pepper* Chicken & Veggies
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 Chicken Breast
- Lemon Pepper seasoning (store bought) (*See notes on other seasoning options)
- Frozen Veggies (frozen Broccoli, brussel sprouts, or California Blend)
- 2 TBSP of butter.
- 1 Cookie sheet
- Aluminum Foil
- Preheat oven to 410°F
- Line cookie sheet with aluminium foil.
- Cut another piece of aluminum foil about half the size of the piece used to cover the cookie sheet, set aside.
Prepare Chicken:
- Melt 1TBSP of butter in a microwave safe bowl (about 30 seconds in the microwave should do).
- Coat both sides of the chicken breast with melted butter.
- Coat both sides of the chicken breast with lemon pepper seasoning.
- Place chicken breast on one half of the cookie sheet.
Prepare Vegetables
- Lay the piece of foil you set aside flat, and pour about 1 to 1 1/2 cups (about a half of a 30oz bag or 1/4 of a 60 oz bag frozen) of frozen vegetables into it.
- Place 1TBSP of butter on top of vegetables.
- Season to taste (I put pepper and garlic powder on mine, but you do you).
- Fold the foil up from the corners to the middle, and seal by twisting the corners together making a steam pack for the vegetables.
- Place on the cookie sheet next to the chicken breast.
Place cookie sheet with chicken and vegetables in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
While cooking: After 15 minutes:
- Remove the chicken and vegetables from the oven.
- Flip chicken breast and add more lemon pepper seasoning. Place back in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes.
After 30 minutes:
- Check the chicken for doneness by cutting into the breast at its thickest point. If it’s pink in the middle, it is not done.
When the chicken is done, let rest for 3-5 minutes on the cookie sheet.
Notes:
- If the chicken is thick (some store bought chicken breasts can be thick) you can cut it in half horizontally with a sharp chef’s knife. This should give you 2 thinner pieces that will cook more evenly.
- Never eat undercooked chicken. Baking the chicken in this manner retains its moisture so it is ok to leave it in the oven longer if you need to.
- Wash your hands after handling uncooked chicken before handling other ingredients or food.
- Vegetables can come out of the oven after about 25 minutes, but I typically leave them in until the chicken is done unless I cook brussel sprouts, then you want them out sooner (they get squishy when overcooked.)
- You can use any seasoning you want on the chicken besides lemon pepper with this recipe. I use cajun seasoning, salt/pepper/garlic, BBQ sauce (apply twice, once pre-cook, once post cook), etc.
- If you like potatoes with your meat, you can bake a potato in the microwave or make some instant mashed potatoes to go with this meal. The Idahoan brand is decent, costs ~$1 and takes about as long to cook as it takes to cook ramen noodles.
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