Daddy's Cheap Eats

[Sparky12]

Careful with those pork rinds. My mother tried the Atkins diet and those are recommended as a snack. A few nibbles from a bag of 'em and the next day we were at the emergency room, she needed her gall bladder removed and that's what triggered the attack.

[josephga]

Careful with those pork rinds. My mother tried the Atkins diet and those are recommended as a snack. A few nibbles from a bag of 'em and the next day we were at the emergency room, she needed her gall bladder removed and that's what triggered the attack.

 

my gall bladders already gone lol When I had cancer in 02 they found a polyp on by gall bladder and I ended up having it removed.

[+ deej]

one thing I love to snack on that people give me a hard time over is those fried pork skins. I love those things

 

I just saw one of those "best thing ever" shows on food network about a restaurant that makes their own pork rinds. They boil the pork skin until it's falling apart, dehydrate it, and then deep fry it. It was all I could do to keep from licking the screen!

 

My father had very strange eating habits. He grew up on a farm they raised everything they ate. ... it was always a meat and 2 veggies type meal or just vegetables

 

My mother was raised on a post-depression farm in the midwest and could make a delicious meal for a family of four on a pittance. She didn't consider it a meal unless there was a meat, a veggie, and something starchy (potato, usually).

 

She taught me to cook with real ingredients and I enjoy it, when time permits.

 

While I do have a lovely chunk of Asiago cheese in the fridge to make a nice sauce, I'll admit there are a couple of boxes of Mac & Cheese in the cupboard for those days when I don't have the cheese on standby and don't have time to run to the store.

 

I have canned veggies in the cupboard as well though I'll admit they're more for earthquake preparedness than every day eating.

 

There is NOTHING wrong with eating canned veggies (though I prefer frozen) and prepared foods but like all things they must be taken in moderation. Food snobs (and rude jerks) who demand otherwise don't live in the real world.

[+ Oliver]

Mac & Cheese by Andrew D

 

... Some ... are more gifted and creative in the kitchen ...

 

There's no doubt that he's "gifted and creative in the kitchen" as well as other rooms in his home! And his mac & cheese is delectable. Of course, I may have been influenced by the "assistance" I gave the cook!

[JackTwist]

Most Healthy States: Not California and New York

 

I guess that you have to live in California or New York to eat healthy food.

I'm not sure which is more off-putting: your illogical remark, your unnecessary mean-spiritedness or your arrogance.

 

According to the American Public Health Association's 2008 Most Healthy State Rankings (which factors each state's prevalence of obesity)

the healthiest states are:

1. Vermont

2. Hawaii

3. New Hampshire

4. Minnesota

5. Utah

6. Massachusetts

7. Connecticut

8. Idaho

9. Maine.

 

Louisiana is 50th. California is ranked 24th and New York 25th.

 

Disclaimer: I live in Southern California, too.

[Lookin]

While I may have poked a little fun at the organic movement with the "home-schooled chickens" comment, I do take Lucky's comments to heart. There's a lot of stuff showing up in our food supply that wasn't there a few years ago, and it's not usually there for improved taste or nutrition. Rather, it's often put there to cut costs and give the seller higher profits. Sometimes it's put there to give a product a two-year shelf life, or keep it from forming clumps, or make it easier to flow through the manufacturing process without gumming up the machines. Sometimes it's put there to make a chicken breast look plumper, or to get a chicken to market a few weeks earlier without pecking up as much grain.

 

The FDA is supposed to protect us from egregious abuses in the food supply chain, but remember that these are the same folks that let melamine into baby formula and pet food a couple of years ago. My recollection of melamine is that it makes for colorful plastic dishes, but it's not the sort of stuff we should be eating. Manufacturers use it to fool the test equipment into thinking there's more protein in food than there really is. Fact is, not only is it nutritionally without value, it can also kill pets and babies. If we think enough of cats and dogs to click a link for them every day, shouldn't we also think enough of them to care about what we feed them? Not to mention what we feed ourselves?

 

I have a friend who works in a junior high school that her son attends. She's told me some pretty disturbing stories about kids starting puberty at the age of eight. Is it the added hormones in our food supply? I don't know, but I wouldn't mind seeing a graph that charts hormone consumption trends versus age at onset of puberty. Good luck finding one.

 

I don't go nuts worrying about this stuff every day, and I like convenience as much as the next guy, but I have been looking at ingredients lists for the past few years. I don't expect anyone to start listing "melamine" in the ingredients list, but I do tend to shy away from products with a lot of chemicals and artificial this and that. I've come to learn that they don't taste very good, and I sure as hell can't think of any reason that I want to turn my rickety old body into some kind of chemistry lab.

 

And if I do get a sudden craving for cellulose or titanium dioxide, I'll pop outside and nosh on some dirt. http://media.bigoo.ws/content/smile/tongue/tongue_2.gif

[Guy Fawkes]

And if I do get a sudden craving for cellulose or titanium dioxide, I'll pop outside and nosh on some dirt. http://media.bigoo.ws/content/smile/tongue/tongue_2.gif

 

Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You

By JANE E. BRODY

 

Ask mothers why babies are constantly picking things up from the floor or ground and putting them in their mouths, and chances are they’ll say that it’s instinctive — that that’s how babies explore the world. But why the mouth, when sight, hearing, touch and even scent are far better at identifying things? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html

[Guest greatness]

oh

 

I eat light. I can cook mean steamed rice. Everybody loves it. I loved when they served Lobster tails and shrimp cocktail. The line to the mess hall was very long whenever they served those. I miss my military days. I used to have a nice tea break with my co-workers in my shop.

 

what kind of foods do you like to cook. That was my job in the army the cook and running the kitchen. allot of the foods there came out of a can lol

[Orson Kane]

My understanding of the point Daddy was making....

 

I think something that got lost in the discussion here was that it is often forgotten that cheapest way of eating is to do the food preparation yourself. Whether or not you like Daddy's particular menu or think it could have been done better with other ingredients (fresh peas vs. canned peas, etc.), the point is that was that it was a lot cheaper than any restaurant version and would likely have been so even if made with pricier ingredients (i.e., say organics bought at Whole Foods). I suspect Daddy's dish was better nutritionally than what is served up for double/triple the price at local restaurants.

 

I think for most people food preparation at home means putting something assembled by a food manufacturer like Kraft into a microwave and not a lot of "real" cooking however defined. I do like to cook and have been surprised when I make a quantity of soup, baked chicken breasts, my own guacamole or whatever how reasonably priced things work out to be relative to a restaurant or store-bought version. The nice thing of preparing your own food is you can make it to your own taste and also have some control over the ingredients (e.g., use beef of a desired fat content if you are making chili).

 

Maybe you feel that you can't cook, but there are plenty of good recipes out there -- try some of the recipes in Men's Health for example.... Try the book "Cook this, not that!" by Men's Health. Lot's of quick, easy-to-make recipes that are generally going to be better for you healthwise and cheaper than a restaurant or convenience food version. See

http://www.amazon.com/Cook-This-Not-That-Survival/dp/160529442X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263952182&sr=1-1

 

 

Bon Appetit!

[+ Lucky]

Thanks Lookin and Dan. Maybe I could have been more diplomatic, but this is just a message center, and I am unable to take away your right to eat what ever you want, so why the vitriol I don't know. I feel like I attacked someone's favorite escort and am getting the slings from his fans!

 

Everyday doctors tell people to eat right, exercise, and quit smoking, and everyday people ignore that.

So, eat your boxed macaroni and cheese and your pork rinds. Ignore healthy eating suggestions. You won't be the only ones.

 

The people I know are interested in a healthy diet. I was surprised to find that so many here are not. But the thread got some 60 replies, so all was not lost.

[+ purplekow]

Lucky, after some investigative work, I found out where the vitriol started. The second post. The one with people gagging. You probably recall it as that less than optimally diplomatic post you wrote. Many saw it as condescending and insulting.

Take the "maybe" out of your quote: "Maybe I could have been more diplomatic" and grab a clue.

As an aside, this thread brings to mind a Cosby show that I saw 25 years or so ago and for some reason the rather basic message stuck with me. Cosby's daughter, Vanessa, brings home an older man who works as a custodian at her college and introduces him to her parents and much later lets it be known they are engaged. Bill Cosby and his wife are quite angry with their daughter. Cosby says to the fiance (and I paraphrase): "Do you like steak. A fine cut of meat with all the extras, cooked to perfection. Now imagine that someone takes your steak and takes and old garbage can cover and serves the steak on the garbage can cover. It is all in the presentation. She presented you to us like that." I was not a regular Cosby viewer, but this stuck with me.

I hope my pop culture reference doesn't have the non-TV watchers out there gagging.

[MsGuy]

I get most of my recipes from google. Last week I tried out this one by Alton Brown, the Good Eats guy on Food Network. Pot roast: simple to make and tolerant of cooking errors. Serve with OreIda instant mashed potatoes and a can of French cut green beans for sides. Mmm mmm good, cheap and you can turn the leftovers into soup (but that's a different recipe). Don't under-cook.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pot-roast-recipe/index.html

 

Substitute a dutch oven or heavy pot w/ tight lid for all that tinfoil. It's easier w/less potential for a mess and you can toss in some carrots about halfway through cooking for an extra side.

[+ deej]

I get most of my recipes from google. Last week I tried out this one by Alton Brown, the Good Eats guy on Food Network. Pot roast: simple to make and tolerant of cooking errors.

 

::chuckle::

 

Wow. There's a recipe for pot roast? I usually just start with a pot and a roast and go from there....

[+ deej]

Thanks Lookin and Dan. Maybe I could have been more diplomatic, but this is just a message center, and I am unable to take away your right to eat what ever you want, so why the vitriol I don't know. I feel like I attacked someone's favorite escort and am getting the slings from his fans!

 

In other words, you're completely unaware you attacked, continued the attack when questioned, and never once considered you were being a complete prick.

 

Typical lawyer.

 

[Lookin]

Lucky, after some investigative work, I found out where the vitriol started. The second post. The one with people gagging.

A regular Miss Marple! I bet you're right.

 

http://www.beruehmte-detektive.de/detektei/miss-marple.jpg

 

Not that anybody asked, but I see Lucky as one of the good guys. I also believe that if he really meant to give offense, he wouldn't leave much doubt about his intentions. So I read his post as basically well-intentioned, if perhaps a bit artless. I thought of it as a gag of encouragement rather than a wretch of condescension. So I was a little surprised by some of the harsher comments. Got me thinking about how tricky it can be sometimes to assign intention to a post.

 

Not all posts. Some are downright nasty. And some are as loving as a cashmere jockstrap. It's all the ones in the middle that are open to misinterpretation. A liability of the medium I think. I tend to believe the best about a poster, until proven wrong. And, to be on the safe side, and with apologies to those offended by them, I tend to use a lot of smilies in my posts.

 

Can't be too careful around here. http://th266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/theogrit/th_1sm187sneak.gif

[josephga]

I normally cook my pot roast in a crock pot. Ill rub some salt and pepper over the roast then toss it in a crock pot with about a half a cup of water and 1 onion peeled and quartered maybe 2 potato peeled and quartered and some carrots cut into thirds Ill cook it on low over night. it smells great the next day..

[MsGuy]

::chuckle::

 

Wow. There's a recipe for pot roast? I usually just start with a pot and a roast and go from there....

 

I can't boil water w/o a cook book and a thermometer. Did I mention that I like recipes that allow a reasonable margin of error to the cook?

[JoeyBryant]

I normally cook my pot roast in a crock pot. Ill rub some salt and pepper over the roast then toss it in a crock pot with about a half a cup of water and 1 onion peeled and quartered maybe 2 potato peeled and quartered and some carrots cut into thirds Ill cook it on low over night. it smells great the next day..

 

Can I come over

[+ deej]

I can't boil water w/o a cook book and a thermometer. Did I mention that I like recipes that allow a reasonable margin of error to the cook?

 

You might actually enjoy Ted Allen's cookbook, "The Food You Want To Eat".

 

It's a pretty good "bachelor basics" cookbook, and every recipe says something to the effect of you don't really need this, try a little of that, if you've got something else you like toss it in....

 

Cooking for everyday eating really isn't difficult. And I suspect that was Daddy's original message.

[raulgmanzo]

I'm with Lucky for the most part.

It amazes me how little attention people pay to what they eat. People are concerned about weight, cancer or diabetes and and yet they still consume white bread, soda pop and Kraft Macaroni in a box. Now thats questionably penny wise but undoubtedly pound foolish. But I'd avoid buying Kraft products (owned by Phillip Morris) even if they weren't so unhealthy. I don't like supporting huge monopolistic conglomerates at the expense of local variety.

 

It doesn't so much matter if you occasionally eat junk, but it does matter when the junk REPLACES good whole nutrient, fiber, and protein rich food. In my opinion softdrinks, pasta, white bread, sweetened cereals have no place in a sensible diet except as an occasional treat. And fat seems to not be the problem people thought it was. Actually it turns out that the type of fat and the way it is processed, handled and consumed might be far more important. Its not the fat in pork rinds (which I enjoy btw) but the cooking process which creates all kinds of nasty advanced glycation products. Especially silly would be to forgo eating fresh nuts or anything olive for fear of the fat or calories.

 

Of course free range chicken USUALLY tastes better than regular chicken, I say this not just based on well demonstrated theory but from taste tests as I cook a lot of chicken. But just about any thigh or leg with it's skin is better than a skinless breast which just have less flavor AND cost more.

It is a well known that most vegetables are far healthier fresh or frozen than from a can. Why wouldn't that be the case? The very act of cooking and canning causes a loss and degradation of so many nutrients, enzymes and anti-oxidants. Of course there are exceptions but I see no shortage of studies confirming this.

 

I cook most days and discovered that healthy cooking can be inexpensive and needn't be difficult. The secret to cooking is to experiment and not have rigid expectations as to how something should taste. Most herbs are good as a small accent or piled on as one of the primary ingredients, and honestly once you get over your bias of how your mother cooked or the way "your people" always did things you will find that most herbs can be good with almost any dish, so why not try it. Also most things are healthier with less cooking.

 

And a magic ingredient is olive oil, which is good in almost anything and is very cheap in middle eastern groceries. Also things taste great and are healthier with lots of varied herbs and vegetables, you'll find you need less salt. In summer I grow vegetables and mostly herbs in over a hundred containers in my rooftop garden and so have become a bit of a spice zealot.

 

Prices for food are NOT necessarily higher in cities. The AVERAGE price may be higher because there are so many more luxury, specialized and convenience items available, but one doesn't have to shop on Fifth avenue, or Michigan ave.

 

I'm fortunate to be able to walk a half block to a corner store where I do most of my shopping couple days getting what I'm in the mood for or what looks fresh. To me food is worth spending money but still as a matter of politics and interest I compare prices. People would be surprised how cheap staples are at my neighborhood tiny tiny grocery store. But even if it did cost more I'd still appreciate a place where the owner lives in the neighborhood, listens to any suggestions, and NEVER gives me a "thats our policy" or "I just work here" crap.

 

Here in Chicago great bargains are found in various ethnic stores. Corner stores regularly sell a dozen still warm tortillas (they get them daily) a dozen for 35 cents. Up the road is a cluster of middle eastern places selling cheap nuts and a DOZEN loaves of fresh baked pita (white or whole wheat!) for as cheap as a $1. Down the other street the Polish delis have ridiculously cheap prices on sausage, herring, apples, butter, and cabbage. And the great thing is that much of the ethnic food is made locally.

 

Mmmmmm, I think it's time to finish todays bargain dinner of rainbow trout, brown rice, mixed greens and beets.

[JoeyBryant]

Mmmmmm, I think it's time to finish todays bargain dinner of rainbow trout, brown rice, mixed greens and beets.

 

You're a late eater too? But lately though I've been doing the 7-8 dinners...

[Guest greatness]

yum

 

That sounds delicious!

 

I normally cook my pot roast in a crock pot. Ill rub some salt and pepper over the roast then toss it in a crock pot with about a half a cup of water and 1 onion peeled and quartered maybe 2 potato peeled and quartered and some carrots cut into thirds Ill cook it on low over night. it smells great the next day..

[+ Lucky]

In other words, you're completely unaware you attacked, continued the attack when questioned, and never once considered you were being a complete prick.

 

Typical lawyer.

 

 

 

Ah, deej, when a model of kindness like you talks, I had best listen.

 

What would the MC have done today had it not been for this thread?

[Guest greatness]

mmh

 

When can I come over and try your food. I'm free 24/7 for you~~~

I get most of my recipes from google. Last week I tried out this one by Alton Brown, the Good Eats guy on Food Network. Pot roast: simple to make and tolerant of cooking errors. Serve with OreIda instant mashed potatoes and a can of French cut green beans for sides. Mmm mmm good, cheap and you can turn the leftovers into soup (but that's a different recipe). Don't under-cook.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pot-roast-recipe/index.html

 

Substitute a dutch oven or heavy pot w/ tight lid for all that tinfoil. It's easier w/less potential for a mess and you can toss in some carrots about halfway through cooking for an extra side.

[Guest greatness]

aww

 

You mother is so sweet.

 

I normally buy the frozen peas as well as most veggies except for green beans. my mother has a garden and she cans those and gives me those when needed