AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Cooking with crockpots usually are simple. You cook whatever meat you're using in a pan so it's fully/mostly cooked beforehand, put everything in the crockpot, and mostly check on it every now and thenuntil you're ready to eat. There isn't much overcooking or undercooking, just your preference on the matter.

you can make goulash, spaghetti/meat sauce, stew, soup, chili, and in some crockpots, even a nice big roast beef. It's very versatile and really good for those who don't have the time or want to babysit their food constantly or have to cook when they're hungry.

Get a boneless pork roast of whatever size you like, slap it into a crockpot, pour a can of Coke or other soda you like over it and set it to Low heat. Let it go for eight hours. Afterwards just shred the pork and mix it with the juices to moisten it up. Add barbecue sauce if you want and put on rolls. And there you have an easy pulled pork sandwich with plenty of leftovers.

For extra deliciousness, get a bag of premade coleslaw and mix it with a bit of mayo and a moderate amount of your favorite hot sauce. Top the pulled pork sandwich with the coleslaw and enjoy. You don't even need barbecue sauce with this beauty.

Actually, probably should have asked a few questions first.

1. What do you have to work with? If you still live with your parents then you're set.
2. How much time do you have to make things? The stuff Madi and Kam mentioned takes a while but you don't need to keep looking at it.
3. What kinda food do you like to eat? No point suggesting recipes for things you don't like eating right?

I'm a college student, so I am buying my own groceries and stuff. There is a grocery store right next door, so that's not a problem, but I am mostly borrowing my roommate's cooking supplies (pots, pans, etc)

Yeah I usually don't have much time and I'm not used to setting aside time to cook when I do have downtime. Every so often I'll have an evening off, though.

Uhh I dunno I like lots of food. I'll look into pasta, I like pasta. I'm trying to get away from stews/chilis in general because I eat a lot of that already (Though, not really homemade kind), but anything goes, honestly. Really it's just a matter of getting myself to actually take the time to learn new stuff.

Awesome.
Well pasta is simple enough, just boil in water.
You can start off trying out different ready made sauces and then learn to make your own. A basic sauce is just a can of diced tomatoes, two big table spoons of tomato paste and whatever seasoning/herbs you want to add. I like to start most things off with half a diced onion, cooked till it starts to go translucent before I add other stuff.

I generally avoid white sauces from jars, such as cabonara and alfredo. They have to add a lot of acid to preserve the cream in the sauce or something, they don't taste good. A white sauce is pretty easy to make and again you just add whatever you like to it. It's just butter, flour and milk.

If you don't have time for that you can just buy a packet of cheese sauce mix. Cook your pasta and some steamed vegies, maybe some chicken or bacon and just mix up the sauce and pour over.

EDIT: Made a tasty cheese sauce today. Cooked some diced bacon and mushroom, mixed that with the cheese sauce for a tasty pasta sauce or in this case we ate it over rice since we had some left over.

I came across a recipe someone might appricate

About 100 years too late but YES YES YES. Potstickers are like my favorite food. My parents HATE the way they smell when cooking though so I can never have them sob.

EDIT: Now that I'm caught up with the thread, I have a recipe you could try, SaintCrazy! It's mega, mega easy, all you do is put a bunch of prepackaged ingredients into a pot or crock pot. It's for chicken tortilla soup.

It's made with broth, chopped frozen or fresh onion and green bell pepper, precooked or freshly cooked chicken, a can of chicken with rice, corn, diced tomato and chiles either canned or fresh, ranch style beans with jalapeno for a kick that's softened by adding in cream cheese until the whole thing is a chickeny, mildly spicy and cheesy thick soup or stew with vegetables. Then you ladle it over shredded cheese and tortilla chips (if you like it salty) or tortilla strips (the chips will soften but some don't like to wait).

The easiest form of the recipe is this:

1 package precooked chicken in any variety you like
1 box chicken broth
1 can chicken and rice condensed soup
1 can ranch style beans with jalapeno
1 can corn kernels, drained
1 can diced tomato with chiles, not drained (Ro-tel or whatever off brand)
1 package frozen mixed green bell pepper and onion, OR 1/2 package of each if a package with both isn't available. I use Pictsweet which is cheap at wal mart and in a good size.
1 package cream cheese
1 bag tortilla chips or 1 package tortillas
Shredded fiesta/mexican blend cheese

Toss all of that except the cream cheese, tortilla and shredded cheese into a pot or crock pot and let it get hot together, or in a pot, until it's simmering. Then, get your cream cheese and place it in a large bowl. Ladle hot broth from the cooking soup over it to soften, and use a spoon or whisk to blend it until it's as melted as you can get it, adding hot broth as needed to keep it melting. Pour the melted cheesy broth into the pot and mix. No more cooking is really needed at this point, but you can let it simmer longer if you choose.

Then ladle your desired portion over tortilla chips and cheese, or substitute the chips for strips of tortilla.

That looks tasty, Wry! I might pick up some ingedients next time I go grocery shopping, I've been craving some Mexican-style food.

Today I will share with you the secret of very cheap but very good tomato/paprika (bell pepper) soup.

This is what you need:



- 1 (red) paprika;
- 1 (medium sized) onion (I added 2 spring onions because I had those left);
- 2 cans of skinned tomatoes (diced if possible);
- flour (60 grams);
- butter (50 grams);
- bouillon (broth);
- mashed tomatoes (500 ml);

It's really easy to make and it's enough to eat 2 or 3 days with 2 people. It's still good if you don't have any fresh vegetables to eat, but it does tend to taste a bit better with.

Start with making about a liter of the bouillon and dicing your vegetables. Here's the easiest way to dice an onion, for those of you who don't know how:

- Peel;
- Cut in half, but keep the tip intact;


- Make three to four incisions almost to the tip;


- Dice;


- Bake your onion slowly in a frying pan for about 5 minutes before adding the paprika. I like to bake it in olive oil.

- The next thing you do is melt the butter, preferable in a pan with a thick bottom to prevent it from burning. Melt it slowly until it has a nice even golden colour.



- Then you add the flour to the butter bit by bit, stirring it through before adding more until it completely binds to the butter. For this and all the next steps, a beater is your friend.

- After all the flour is mixed up with the butter, you need to immediately add the mashed tomatoes. Stir it well until it's mixed up well. It should look like this:



- Now you add the bouillon to it in parts, stirring until it's all mixed up before adding more. Do this in 5 or 6 parts.

- Last, add the baked onion and paprika, as well as the canned tomatoes. You end up with this:



Let it simmer for about an hour before eating, stir every 10-15 minutes. It tends to taste even better the next day!

Quick food related question, is the casing on summer sausage supposed to be edible? Time's a factor.

Brand?

I didn't eat the casing, but it's funnier to act like I did. I don't know the brand. I peeled the sticker off the casing (first clue) and then bit into it. Ate the sausage like a freeze pop. Delicious. Funny you should respond Runes, you mentioning summer sausage was what made me grab it.

why

Well, the innards were squishy and the casing was tough. You bite it, and boom, meat in your mouth.

Wait, When did I say anything about Sausage?