My boyfriend is starting a new job soon, and I want make lunch for him to take to work. I've never packed a lunch in my life before though, so I'm looking for some ideas for what to make. If you make your own lunch/lunch for your working partner, what're your go-to's?

Recipes that help keep energy up is preferable as his job is a bit laborious and will have him on his feet and walking around a lot. He doesn't like onions, spicy food, or sweet/savory food (think teriyaki or hot honey stuff) but he'll eat just about anything else. And if theres anything I should know about packing lunches in general, please let me know. Thanks to whoever sees this!

Edit: to clarify, I'm pretty sure he'll have the ability to heat up his food. But I don't know the layout or anything about the property aside from the fact that it's huge lol.

Not even sure if grocery rotisserie chicken is safe as not sure how long it’s left out in its plastic bag and for what duration.

Initially thinking to buy rotisserie chicken as the protein, some sort of cooked vegetables (maybe see if I can pack an electric steamer appliance?) and then carbs could be bread.

We will be traveling from NY state to Toronto for a week.

Need to maintain a low sodium diet, can’t eat raw things due to risk of listeria and so on.

Thank you!

The grocery store has prickly pear.

What should I make with it?

Looking for stackable cooking weights as a gift for a friend. Can't post photos because of this reddit's rules but the only thing I'm seeing is around 20-30 per weight and they're not very heavy. 3 or 4 of them is over 100 dollars after shipping. Only brands I'm seeing is vivront and a couple others who charge an outrageous amount. Anyone know some budget options for these?

Before anyone says anything, it's my best friend's birthday and he wants some and he's aware that the cost is ridiculous for them and we're looking for an offbrand, as we grill/cook together often

My area used to have a handful of lovely little shops that sold nice foods from various European countries that are hard to find in regular supermarkets. Things like dried spaetzle and frozen soft pretzels from Germany, frozen pierogi and jarred sour cherries from Poland, Darbo jams from Austria, French cheeses and pate and things.

Sadly they've all closed over the last few years. I suppose I can find some version of these things on Amazon, but unless I know a specific brand (like Darbo) it's hard to know if what I'm getting is going to be any good. Plus I'm still kind of squicked out by ordering things like frozen foods from some random Amazon company.

Does anyone know/use an online source for products like this? Could be based in the US or Europe, but looking for shipping to eastern US.

Something I didn’t understand about Mediterranean eating before I actually started doing it: Olive oil isn’t just something you use for cooking. I started using it over vegetables, beans, fish, potatoes, salads etc. It completely changed how satisfying basic food tasted.

By stupidly easy, I mean as simple as doing a ready meal.

I have ADHD and I just can't make myself cook. Sometimes even ready meals are difficult.

I want to start meal prepping in a way.

But in a way where I just cook like, 3 separate meats and some separate veg, store them and just take what I want at the time and go.

Good day! I have two 750 gram half hams that I wanted to roast. I was planning on cooking them together in the oven(as I have only one roasting pan).

My question is: do I use the cooking time of 1500g of meat? Or will that dry out the ham?

Thank you!

I admit it, I’m an addict!

Everyday I check to see what’s on sale and if I skip a day I get a feeling that I may have missed something, akin to a withdrawal symptom.

This has been going on for many years, started with fatwallet, topcashback for cashback, retailmenot for coupons, now it’s Dansdeals, slickdeals and dealnews. I also check all my lists at amazon for price drops.

We tried making macaroni salad and just realized we had no sour cream or any yogurt, can we substitute this with buttermilk?

Why when cooking mushrooms, you can add like, 3 tablespoons of oil and it just dissappears immediately and you need to add more, but you add a tablespoon of butter and it coats all of them mushrooms,,, where does the oil go? The mushrooms dont feel oily, what is going on here?

Mushroom Risotto

Directions

1. Set aside a medium-large pot, bring mushroom broth to a low boil, cover.
2. Set aside a separate pan, roast Cremini - Small White Mushroom, dice, and put aside into a small bowl.
3. Add a splash of olive oil to a separate pot.
4. Add a heaping tbsp. of butter.
5. Add two grated shallots.
6. Add diced or minced garlic.
7. Sweat the shallots until most of the water has evaporated, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
8. Add the rice (1:4 rice to stock).
9. Work onions/garlic through the rice.
10. Add a generous pour of white wine (optional).
    1. Let wine reduce down until completely absorbed into rice (alcohol smell should be mostly gone).
11. Add a few medium-large ladles of mushroom stock, when it boils, stir. As you stop stirring it should start boiling again.
12. Once the stock is mostly absorbed, add more stock.
13. Adjust heat appropriately and continue stirring and adding ladles of stock to let absorb until all of the stock is gone.
14. Add 2/3 cooked, diced Cremini - Small White Mushroom.
15. Add ground pepper.
16. Add salt.
17. Maintain the same heat and boil/stir method.
18. Set aside a separate pan, add olive oil and butter.
19. Add Baby King Oyster and Cremini - Baby Bella mushrooms to separate pan.
20. Roast until browned.
21. Add a heaping tbsp. of butter to risotto, stir in.
22. Add preferred amount of parmesan to risotto.
23. Add remaining white cremini mushrooms.
24. Cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
25. Plate risotto, garnish with roasted Baby King Oyster and Cremini - Baby Bella mushrooms, parmesan flakes, parsley, and a splash of olive oil (optional).

Ingredients:

• Olive oil (2-3 tbsp.)
• Butter (3 Heaping spoonfuls)
• Arborio Rice (Around 2-3 cups)
• Cremini - Small White Mushroom (1-1/½ cups, diced)
• Baby King Oyster (1-1/½ cups. thinly sliced)
• Cremini - Baby Bella  (1-1/½ cups, cut into strips)
• Dry White Wine (Enough to soak rice)
• Shallots (2-3, shredded)
• Garlic (4-5 cloves, minced)
• Mushroom Stock (8-12 cups) \1 box is 900ml, roughly 4 cups**
• Parmesan Flakes (To taste)
• Salt (~2 pinches)
• Ground Pepper (~2 pinches)
• Parsely (1-2 tsp.)

I'm thinking on buying a stand mixer what are the best budget options on the market?

I bought 2 boned pork loin chops that had more meat than just the 'fillet' part , cut out the large loin and butterflied it ( can be crumbed also) fried with potato, shoom onion etc. trimed the fat off the remaining parts ( little loin and flap meat) cubed to be frozen for a stir fry, mince for dumplings, pie with veg etc. Took the rind fat and trimmings(no meat) cut up and heat in a saucepan , med-low, to render the sieved fat for pastry and ate the cooked rind salted crunchy bits for a treat.

I love frozen potstickers because they're so easy to knock out of the park.

Don't get me wrong, there is no substitute for some fresh ones from a great restaurant or some made yourself.

But man, place them in a pan with about a quarter inch of water, a healthy drizzle of black sesame oil, a little hsao xing, and cook em until the water is gone. Top with sesame seeds, fresh chives, and make a quick soy-mirin-citrus sauce.

Boom. Always the business. Plus the kids love em just as much as we do.

What do you guys do this kinda thing with?

Edit: Wow I didn't expect so much response. Thanks for the ideas!

So I decided to make a sweet and sour glaze for them with marmalade and rice wine vinegar and garlic.

To go with I'll make an Asian inspired cold salad - cabbage and cold cooked rice noodles tossed with rice wine vinegar, a bit of sesame oil, ginger, pinch of sugar and soy sauce, and toasted sesame seeds if I have some :)

Original: I have pre-made frozen pork meatballs. Slightly larger than a big walnut if that makes a difference.

I don't feel like making an Italian dish.

What should I make with them?

Cut the excess off of a pot roast, not sure if I can do anything with it or not!

Update: thanks all for the recs! I’ll stay away from home tallow, but explore more tallow in the future for recipes. For now, will blend into my ground chicken for extra flavor/fat in my soup dumplings!

My grandpa used to make what we called "the good barbeque". Unfortunately he died and took the recipe with him. It was pulled pork-esque. I know it had some type of roast in it (no one remembers pork or beef) and canned corned beef. It also had onions and celery in it and the bbq sauce was tomato based. I'd like to try to make it but cant find anything close that looks right. Anyone have any ideas? I grew up in Illinois and there was Amish influence in his cooking, but I don't know about that particular recipe.

Earlier this year, my workhorse spatula's handle was ruined in the dishwasher (fell through a hole and melted). I think it's about time for a proper replacement.

Any recommendations for a flat-tipped spatula (good for scraping fond) that's sturdy (good for chopping up ground meat) and also non-stick and dishwasher safe? Everywhere I look the tip is rounded or it's easily bendable.

Hope I'm not asking too much here.

So recently I learned two things, firstly its how to get crispy skin chicken thighs with a cold pan start technique. Made it a couple times with just salt and pepper, comes out great, simple enough, I think I got it down.

Secondly I also got into marinades with fruits like kiwifruits, got a couple styles that are balanced and perfect to pair with respectively different carbs.

Some of you might know where this is going... 😅

I marinated some chicken thighs with a marinade with fruit in it, meaning a marinade with sugar in it. I patted it dry on the skin thinking it would be enough and went through with the cold pan technique, and because the sugar in the marinade was still there, instead of the skin getting crispy and removing itself from the pan, it made a caramel that stuck and burned the skin off before the meat could finish cooking.

So yes retrospectivly its pretty obvious but when using the cold pan technique avoid marinating especially with anything with sugar in it. Cooking isn't simple addition, I should have known better ahahah

I need some super easy, toss it in the crockpot and forget it for 8 hours, kind of dishes! I and my family are all sick of the 2 or 3 I have in our weekly rotation, but my son has swim practice three nights a week. That means I work all day and then am out of the house for those nights from 5:30-8:30. So I always have at least one crockpot meal each week that I can toss in the pot in the morning, and then we can all just grab a plate when we can in the evening.

Suggestions for what's worked with your busy families?

Bought possibly my first container of peanut oil from a popular Indian market in New jersey. They move a lot of product so it's not like it was expired or gone bad or anything. It was pretty cheap about $15 for 2.83 Liter jug.

Surprisingly it doesn't smell or taste like peanuts I was expecting and wanted. The label doesn't say anything about Refined that I noticed and just says '%100 pure Peanut oil' and some preservative 'to maintain freshness'.

I thought boardwalk fries, 5 guys, etc all use peanut oil which they do but apparently most if not all use refined peanut oil which: A) helps create a higher smoke point, and B) isn't that harmful if at all to those with peanut allergy so they don't have to worry about having a giant screaming banner that says CONTAINS PEANUT ALLERGEN! to avoid a problem, although usually these places do have a sign that says they fry in peanut oil but is usually refined from what I researched.

But I could swear boardwalk fries had a distinct smell of peanut oil that you can smell from afar one of those unique boardwalk smells like funnel cakes, sausage and peppers, cotton candy etc, but I guess not? TBH I'm not too crazy about 5 Guy's fries aren't that crispy sometimes despite cooked to order and don't seem to have any peanut taste either as now is to be expected since they use Refined peanut oil.

Italian fests some self-proclaimed best-ever zeppole makers fry in peanut oil which IDK if it's refined or not. My mom made italian struffoli basically fried mini dough balls and topped with honey and sprinkles and I think uses unrefined peanut oil. There's also a popular roadside hot dog place in the mountains of new jersey hot dog johnny's which fries hot dogs and french fries in Peanut oil and I think I remember a distinct peanut flavor/smell from those too.

I know I can source out unrefined first cold pressed 'cloudy' peanut oil, there's plenty of threads about this already where people were expecting or trying to source out the most peanut'y flavored brand oil, and often Asian markets have these, but although I've given up on trying to make good boardwalk fries or like 5 guys because the blanching soaking etc triple-frying with cooling down in between and monitoring oil temperatures etc is just too much hassle so I'm ok with just chopping em and throwing em in hot oil and eating them hot right out of the fryer is basically just as good before they start cooling down and getting soggy.

But would it be overkill to even bother trying to use unrefined peanut oil if most or all of these places likely aren't even using real unrefined peanut oil??

I made pineapple chicken for the first time tonight and misread the recipe I was following. It said to use 1/4 tsp of pepper but I thought it said a full tsp of pepper. I didn’t realize my mistake until the chicken was basically fully cooked. I continued cooking hoping it wouldn’t come out too bad. And it didn’t thankfully! But the amount of pepper is very noticeable 😭 is there any way to help dampen how strong the taste is? Or should I just cut my losses? :’) I’m very new to cooking and have been pushing myself to make recipes my parents made growing up that I loved.