What to learn to cook? (as a software engineer)

Glad you asked this question. For years I used to live an unhealthy lifestyle where I would eat greasy food or not anything at all because I never felt hungry. Two of my resolutions this year were to

1. Adopt a healthier diet that does not involve eating processed food
2. Consistently eat three meals a day/snacks + get in the gym to get to a healthy BMI

Some of the recipes I make are as follows

Breakfast rotation

• Eggs
• Oatmeal w/ milk and peanut butter

Lunch and dinner rotation

• Rice w/ meat and vegetables and homemade white sauce
• Pasta w/ different sauces and meat
• Burritos with meat, vegetables, and cheese
• Burgers with cheese, onions, tomato, and various sauces (ketchup/mayo)
• Curries (Don't make this too often but I have a coconut curry recipe that I like)
• Noodles (Also don't make this too often but I have a peanut noodle recipe I like)

Snack rotation

• Peanuts (or just about any nuts really)
• Greek yogurt
• Protein bars

You can buy all of the items above in bulk from Costco. Also, if you are like me and do not want to spend 1 hr+ cooking every day then buying an air fryer (to avoid a mess in the kitchen) and prepping your meals ahead of time is absolutely necessary.

Also, when starting try to avoid making certain recipes of different types/cuisines because the recipes themselves are ingredient and time-intensive. A few examples include

• Anything that is deep-fried
• Many Indian curries
• Pizza
• Pad Thai/Ramen/Pho

Hope I gave you a few ideas on how you can live a healthier (and hopefully tastier!) life.

The Instapot is magical -- you can make literally 100s of dishes, often with a single pan.

My go-to is to cook simple, healthy Indian food, e.g. Khichdi. I grew up eating things like this, and I want to practice it anyway.

This is a fun question! I feel like it's also unnecessarily tricky as a lot of the big food YouTubers are more focused on recipes that look nice but aren't super practical (10+ ingredients, tons of prep/cleanup, etc). Similar to you, I'm crunched for time (and I'm also a bit lazy hehe), so I optimize hard for simplicity and efficiency (i.e. can I make a big batch and store leftovers).

For a dead simple recipe (which is also super cheap!), check this out: Great Depression Cooking - The Poorman's Meal - Higher Resolution

I have made this recipe 100+ times over the past 10 years for my wife and I:

• You can eat it on its own or throw it into rice/pasta
• It keeps well, and you'll have leftovers if you fill up the pan
• Instead of hot dogs, I level it up by using kielbasa. I throw in some cut up bell peppers as well

In general, my approach is to make things that taste good, are reasonably healthy, are affordable, can be made in batches, and are simple.

When it comes to the healthiness and affordability, you're mainly competing against eating out, so that's a super low bar to clear.

The main things I make on top of The Poorman's Meal are:

• Pasta
  • Meat: Chicken, meatballs, sausage
  • Fruit & Veggies: Onions, broccoli, bell peppers (these are a fruit!)
• Fried rice
  • Meat: Cut up sausage, spam, chicken
  • Veggies: Peas, carrots, onions, edamame, corn, string beans

Carbs are a blank canvas to do whatever you want, so you can easily adjust healthiness/nutrition by dialing back the oil, using different produce, etc.

Here's a list of recipes that I cook that optimize for saving time, being nutritious, being able to cook in large batches to last the week, and being low-cost:

• Chipotle burrito bowls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChZDrivjJw)
• Egg omelette with potato hash (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqrV-OOM_QU)
• Harissa honey chicken + rice (https://boldappetite.com/harissa-honey-chicken/)
• Balsamic chicken thighs + rice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNr0IRTXJPc)
• Quesadillas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIBCFVCQqfs), I actually haven't made this yet, but it's on my recipe queue

I’m actually quite a bit of a foodie but it conflicts with efficiency most of the time.

Prized meals:

Onigiri

When I first moved I had to optimise my budget and onigiri (w/ a rice cooker) is a super afk and cost effective method with super high versatility.

Tuna with Japanese (kewpie) mayo and even some egg based rice seasoning if you’re fancy

I got too obsessed with them to the point where I probably ate 600 in a year. So I’ve gone cold turkey.

Cold soba, eggs & miso

This is my current everyday lunch strat. Soba can be cooked in minutes if you have a kettle. Miso is done in seconds with already boiled water. For the eggs I have a strange egg boiling device from Kmart (amazing purchase)

To complete the meal I top it off with soba sauce and some water.

🤌🤌🤌🤌

I would share my perspective as a vegetarian.

Breakfast (rotation):

• Overnight Oats or Muesli topped with different fruits.
• Whole Wheat Bread with chocolate peanut butter and fruits.
• Milk or Indian Tea with biscuits and dry fruits as starter.

Lunch/Dinner:

• Frozen parantha (Indian bread) and curd.
• Any vegetable/dal + roti (Indian bread) and curd.

Snacks:

• Tofu/Paneer with sauce.
• Instant Coffee or milkshake using premix.
• Lots of fruits.

Similar to others here I try to keep my meals where I cook once and it lasts a few batches. I try to do the following:

Breakfast: oats w/ strawberries + nutella/unsweetened almond butter

Lunch: sandwiches (good bread, deli meat, sauce, veggies)

Dinner: Usually

• Dal (lentil stew)
• a dense bean salad - cannelini beans, onion, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomato, deli meat/rotissierie chicken + dressing (olive oil+lemon juice) + chickpea pasta/quinoa
• veggie south indian curry

Snacks: Youghurt cups/plain greek yoghurt/granola or protein bars/fruits

Cool, thanks everyone for the amazing ideas!

The first thing I would learn to cook would be EGGS. To start, I would make brunch every Saturday and Sunday, beginning with simple recipes and gradually moving to more complex ones.

Week 1: Basics

I would start with hard-boiled eggs, then progress to fried eggs.

Week 2: Adding Variety

Next, I would learn to make omelettes and scrambled eggs, adding some vegetables on the side. Initially, I would use frozen vegetables from the supermarket, and later, I could try buying organic produce from the farmers market. My favorite vegetables include:

- Onions

- Bell peppers

- Mushrooms

- Tomatoes

Week 3: Introducing Carbs

At this point, I could introduce carbs like tortillas, tostadas, or rice, served with hot sauce or salsa on the side.

Week 4: Adding Protein

Next, I would start adding meats or sausages. There are many options available, but some of my favorites are:

- Chicken sausage

- Chorizo

- Beef or pork sausage

Every grocery store offers a variety of choices, so pick the ones with the most appealing packaging and enjoy.

In about four weeks, you will be quite skilled at making brunch!

I am doing a program focusing on health, mostly weight loss but also building muscle and lifestyle change.

If I am making the choice, I am making the same things every day. It isn’t perfect but I can do it, and it is working for me. Autism probably has a lot to do with the comfort of routine.

Breakfast: Baby Carrots (I don’t track calories from vegetables) Skyr + Blueberries, sometimes with sugar free vanilla syrup (100 calories of skyr, 30-40 calories of blueberries, 7g carbs in skyr, 19g protein) 2x Starbucks Bacon Gruyère egg bites, made in air fryer (280 calories, 9g carbs, 17g protein)

I don’t super carefully measure the skyr, so it could go up 33 calories if I take 1/3 a tub instead of 1/4, but that means 6 or so more grams of protein. 410-450 calories, 16-18g carbs, 36-42g protein (plus vegetable calories)

Lunch and dinner are the same. I do eat other things sometimes, but this is staple: Immi ramen (spicy “beef” or Tom yum “shrimp”, it’s all plant-based, hence the quotes) (300-310 calories, 5g net carbs, 21-22g protein) 2-3oz of Realgood Chicken strips in air fryer (65-100 calories, 1.5-2g net carbs, 12-18g protein) 2 vegetables chosen from: Baby carrots, coleslaw “super” mix (shredded vegetables) with lemon juice to cut bitterness, celery 365-410 calories, 6.5-7g net carbs, 33-40g protein (plus vegetable calories)

I don’t always eat this for all 4 meals but try to do something similar (low or no carbs, chicken or fish, occasional beef or bison, extra vegetables). Per day if I do these 3: 1150-1280 calories, 19-32g net carbs, 102-122g protein

I haven’t actually looked at the calories before, but figured it would be interesting to see. I can’t attest that this is like… the healthiest, but leaning more on chicken and fish, eating 5+ servings of vegetables per day to get full, and cutting snacking has made a huge difference. I can get full eating this way and don’t feel hungry between meals. Prep takes about 15 minutes of air fryer time, with the rest all fitting in that time. I clean the kitchen, do dishes, etc while that’s happening.

Because I feel guilty saying it, I tend to avoid it, but I am also taking Zepbound. I established the eating habits first, but for the first time in my life I learned what feeling full, but not way over full, felt like. I am on the fence about how long I will keep using it due to side effects, but if it can support what I’m doing already (and stop eating when I’m full, which happens now), I am willing to try. I’ve yoyo’d for years and was up to a fairly unhealthy weight, so this is a health-based action plan.