Comment on This speaks for itself
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 days agoHow would making food at home be more expensive than McDonald’s ?
Time is money and if you can’t afford the time to cook and clean, you’re stuck brown-bagging it at a fast food restaurant.
Is this some sort of an American thing I’m too European to understand?
It’s a consequence of American suburban life. Transit time costs are enormous. If you’re throwing an hour+ into your commute, you often don’t have time to cook. Fast food lets you grab a meal and eat in the car on the way home.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Okay that’s an explanation with some logic in it, but like unless they have your order ready when you drive into the parking lot, there’s several dishes I could cook as fast as it takes for you to go pick up a brown bag.
Granted time is a luxury I find myself having too much of often so maybe I’m like one of those super rich guys who doesn’t understand the cost of a milk carton.
But nah, I don’t think I am here to be honest.
If you said “doesn’t have the energy to cook” I’d get it but time/energy, eh pretty interchangeable.
It isn’t faster but what it is, is more convenient and that I can see.
HiddenLychee@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I gave up fast food a few months ago after relying on it when my weeks got super busy. Now I meal prep and plan ahead, and I’ll be honest, while I’m much healthier and more full of energy, fast food absolutely saves time. If you know what you want you just walk in, say what you want, sit for 5 minutes while you work or decompress, get your food and leave. It’s like a 30 minute process including eating and cleaning. There is no meal I can make, eat, and clean in that amount of time. If you can, I think you’re exceptionally efficient and I would like some pointers lol
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Pasta water on the boil and the kettle on (because the combined effect is a large boiling pot of water a few min sooner), take pasta sauce out of freezer, pop it in the microwave. Take out your cutting board make something green like a few tomato’s and cucumbers and a piece of lettuce. Drop some sauce on. Takes literally less time than the kettle takes to boil. Spaghetti in, stir (I have a really good round pasta pot which makes spaghetti swirl really well by itself when it’s on a roiling boil).
Sit for five min.
Go back to the kitchen (also remember to defrost somewhat mild), put salad on plate, cutting board away, strain pasta, bit of salt&pepper, drop of oil. Plate it next to the salad, put sauce on it (and I’m talking more like ragu than marinara), and put the freezer box in the freezer. Pots away (I never wash my pasta pot as its boiling water and when poured empty the rest evaporates or maybe a bit of oil which is fine imo). Strainer away.
Eat. Put plate in washer.
Done.
I never order in anymore. Can’t trust the “gluten free” stuff and I’m also avoiding dairy so been cooking a fair bunch.
If you don’t want a frozen sauce, a basic marinara takes five min to make. A tuna thing I like is a can of chili tuna in oil on a skillet (whatever flat frying thing you want to call it), a large red onion I just take the outer layer off, make one or two large slices but not so it breaks the stem, then I mandoline (if you ever get one use the finger guard/veggie holder or lose the tip of a finger) it to the pan. You can do other veggies as well, I often add jalapeños. Bell peppers aren’t that good imo because they take longer to cook, but that’s prolly because I rarely chop them finely. A few min to get a nice browning in the chili oil for the onions. Garlic. Then cream of some sort (I use plant based creams now), maybe a bit of tomato paste for umami, flavour as you go. Takes less than 10 min to make and if you don’t make too much and serve it all at once the pan is just a rinse and a paper towel and it’s clean. For carbs I like going rice noodles, they’re really fast. Or if you like healthy, you could cook rice and freeze/refrigerate it. There’s some sort of crystallization that goes on when you cool rice that much and it improves the hypoglycemic index, so keeps blood sugar more stable longer. Good for diabetics and in general.
Anyway warm one of those and serve the sauces over that.
Dishes in washer, done.
But yeah, those are if you’ve prepped at least one part… Just microwaving is imo kinda meh often, but carbs or sauce reheated isn’t bad.
I also eat kinda fast maybe because I was in the army as a kid and it kinda stuck. I’ve grown out of it a bit now that I do have time.
Meal prep is what really takes a long time. For instance mirepoix/soffritto style long cooked veggies are a base for lots of doses but takes ages to cook. So I freeze boxes of those as well, so then making even a bit more complex food like a nice ragu (made one with reindeer a few weeks ago, delissshious), you can just quickly flash the meat, add the veggies, tomato base, some red wine. Boil pasta at the same time.
Not exactly a 30min thing but not hours long.
But yeah I don’t commute so I just really didn’t understand. I wasn’t making fun. Just trying to widen my empathy.
Although I have to mention my kitchen often isn’t the cleanest, I’m not too fussy about that.
Idk what sorts do you like making? Some things keep longer some not. Basically having just like boxes you put into microwave like a risotto or something would a few min in the micro and use one plate and the box that could even be disposable.
Idk.
I’m not trying to tell people what to do just felt interesting to me. I used to live further from the city as a kid in another town and yeah if I’d pick up a bag of Hesburger (shameless plug for the Finnish competitor for McD. Even international to some extent. From my city, I was once at the owners grandkids house, it was in the middle of the factories. Had a pool inside lol. Spoiled brat. They make great mayos though.) then I could just eat it on the drive back home and then I needn’t bother at home.
And one can’t really cook while driving, so…
Also I used to drive a taxi for years. So yeah, I think I’m starting to get it.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Sure. When you’ve got a stocked fridge and a clean kitchen and a working knowledge of home economics, its can work.
There’s also the simple addictive quality of high salt, high sugar, high fat foods made to order.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yeah.
Well, “well-stocked” is kinda subjective, but yes, it’s a valid point. I’m sort of talking about boiling pasta / making rice and you van either have some simple protein like tuna or fishsticks or meatballs with it, or you can take 20 minutes (and you need 10 anyway for the pasta to cook) to make some basic dish to go with it.
Mince, onions, garlic, stock/sauce of your choice. Doesn’t need to be fancy.
Add a few cucumbers/tomatoes to the plate and you’ve made a decently healthy meal in 10/20min.
But like yeah sure I understand the points I just, uh, accustomed to different things. Different isn’t wrong, it’s just different.
Doesn’t going to McD cost quite a lot compared to the amount of nutrition you get? Although they still make it up on calories with so much fat and sugar.
Ugh, I just made myself kebab and fries and haven’t had McD for ages because I can’t really anymore (celiac). I’d love a double QP with cheese and a large strawberry (or pear if available) milkshake.
The longest part of making this was waiting 15 min for the fries to cook in the airfryer.
Image
Fries in the airfryer, kebab from the freezer, toss it on a pan with some onions and jalapenos. That, fries, tomatoes and a buttload of cucumber mayo and garlic mayo. (But also a bit of this sort of aioli I make, olive oil, habanero loads of garlic cloves and blend with a machine. To me It’s to kebab what wasabi is to sushi)
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Heavy in calories, light in fiber and vitamins and the like. Also, the heavy sugar/salt content dehydrates you, leading to further food cravings. Its trash. Very bad for you for a whole host of reasons. But its a full meal that can go straight into the trash when you’re done. No cooking, no cleaning. You don’t even have to leave your car.
Hey, far be it for me to criticize the kebab shop. Definitely preferable to the crap McDs turns out, and arguably cheaper/faster to get your hands on while somehow being healthier to boot. I don’t think its a coincidence that kebab shops are all over the Houston downtown and underground, while the last McDs pulled out years ago.
Good street food is a blessing. But its also contingent on a dense walkable neighborhood. Far easier to find some good gyros in NYC, LA, or downtown Houston than out in the white boy 'burbs and exurbs.