The Joy of Cooking

You know, ever since I injured my left hand about three weeks ago, I’ve been slowly going back to my old ways. A few cookies here. A bag of M&Ms there. Two weeks ago, however, I went full asshole on food.

On that Sunday I was lazy getting up for work, still getting used to having a nice bed to sleep on rather than a dirty used futon sold to me by hillbillies. I only had enough time to buy Tupperware and other items for my refrigerator, and then go to work. So I was forced to order food, and foolishly decided to order a large pizza pie with 20 wings. I ate it in one sitting. It tasted great, but I felt like crap because that’s about as low as I’ve gone as far as eating bad foods ever since I started DDP Yoga. And this is coming as I slowly stock my refrigerator with healthy foods. You know what I think? I think this is all a part of my transition from buying and eating outside food to buying and cooking food at home. I haven’t had a kitchen or a chance to cook ever since I came to Smalltown in 2008. That’s 6 and a half years of eating outside food… of trusting a minimum waged mongrel with the preparation of my food. As I lay in bed that Sunday morning, I knew I had a fail-safe of eating outside food. I knew that I could stay in bed and get to work just in time, and then order outside food like I’ve done so many times before. This cooking at home thing was gonna take some getting used to. Ordering outside food can’t be an option. And with that, I present the solution to my problem:

George Foreman Grill, Rice Cooker, and a skillet

White Rice, mixed vegetables, and chicken breast

Completely useless items I bought for no reason at all. To make fried rice, all I needed was olive oil with a light amount of sea salt for the rice and BBQ (or teriyaki) seasoning for the chicken.

Mixed vegetables and chicken put in first

Then comes the undercooked rice from the rice cooker

There... my first attempt and chicken fried rice

After my pizza debacle, I decided it was time to start cooking seriously. My first attempt at chicken fried rice was okay, but I used too much oil, the rice was undercooked, and the chicken was grilled too long to the point where it was very dry. I also bought a lot of useless items that ended up making the rice taste worse, not better. Nino advised me to no longer purchase oils that are specific for certain foods. It's a big scam, like that "Stir Fry Oil" I bought. Anyway, my next attempt came just this past weekend:

As one can see, it came out much better. I used much less oil and the chicken tasted much juicier since I actually paid attention to the grill time instead of playing Civilization 5 until I smelled burning. The food was enough for the entire weekend, and I no longer have to spend money on Subway sandwiches and Hibachi chicken. For someone who enjoys being removed from society like I so, it's surprising I didn't embrace cooking at home sooner. No more small talk with store employees ("Wow, you've got a lot of Subway points!"), and no more waiting in line for anything. I go to a supermarket (currently BJs), buy enough food for two weeks, and then I'm all done.

On Labor Day I spent $60 on the next two weeks of food. I bought cereal (Cheerios Multi-Grain), wheat buns, turkey burgers, and a big thing of chicken breasts for $12. For the next two weeks I can now have turkey burger sandwiches, rice and chicken, and I can even make my favorite chicken wrap that I used to buy from that store for $7.01 every day. If I can keep my food intake at this budget, I'll be saving well over $300 on food every month! I can actually quit working Tuesdays at the shipping depot and make up the lost income by simply not eating like an asshole! Crazy...


P.S,: I can feel myself becoming slightly addicted to making my own food. I especially love the way my mind wanders through all the possibilities as I roam through the supermarket. Besides the monthly dinner with Damon and the occasional lunch with my former co-worker Konner, I really don't see myself going out for food much anymore. From eating out every day to eating out once or twice a month? Really crazy...