In terms of running a kitchen, and how to think about food, I really liked the book The Everlasting Meal [1]

It was a bit fluffy, but gets at the heart of how to run a kitchen as an ongoing concern, rather than as a place you dive into as a one-off recipe, and leave when done.

[1] http://smile.amazon.com/An-Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-Economy/...

Thank you for the recommendation. This looks great. This excerpt from a review sold me on it:

"Tonight I had a few (lovely, organic) chicken breasts in the fridge that were getting perilously close to the date. As it is the end of the weekend, I haven't shopped in days and I don't have the ingredients to make any of my glossy paged cookbook recipes. There was some stuff in the fridge, yet I would have thought "nothing to make". Thanks to Tamar Adler, I pulled out my trusty pot, boiled some very salty water and starting by boiling the chicken (who does that???) with a handful of Tuscan spice blend. Then I sauteed a diced onion with some leftover mushrooms (that also would have gone bad), chopped celery ends my kids didn't eat from their Ants on a Log, then made a little roux. I created a sauce with a couple of cups of the broth from the chicken breasts and a cup of milk and random cheese bits. Then I tossed some random leftover cooked veggies and the diced chicken breasts in my lovely mushroom sauce. I also found some too-stale-for-salad croutons in the pantry, so I threw them in the rest of my seasoned broth, making a kind of stuffing, and put it on top of my mushroom saucey chicken concoction and baked for a few minutes. My family declared this makeshift casserole the best thing ever. And there was enough to put another one in the freezer, so I have solved "what's for dinner" twice, never having touched a single recipe. Everything except the chicken, onion, and cup of milk was what Tamar calls "ends", most of which would likely have been in the garbage."

> create a home-cooked complete meal each evening with < 1 hour of work per day

My mother did this but routinely spent an hour and a half, two hours or even more cooking daily. More if we had more than a sandwich or leftovers for lunch, and that's also not including the 20-30 minutes to prep breakfast.

I am convinced if you front-load the work on the weekend you can prepare something quickly on weekdays. I mean restaurants do it, even gourmet places. I've watched them cook. They have the sauces made, the meats thawed, the veggies chopped, and it's all organized and labeled in the fridge. They just take the stuff out and cook it and it takes about 20 minutes. I don't know how to do something like this for a small amount of food, but I'm convinced it has to be possible.

It's common in the keto dieters.

The trick seems to be finding yourself a loose weekly meal plan (5 meals you would be happy eating every weekday for a season) and freeze portioned sauces - my mother in law uses zip lock bags as they freeze flat and are quick to thaw in warm water, skipping the need to thaw in the fridge.

So basically you pick your meat for the evening and have that thawed, then you might have a choice of 3 sauces or seasonings that you can quickly thaw and mix in.

My biggest problem with prepared food is not feeling like it at the end of the day, it just makes you miserable and prone to getting take out.

What is it about being a westerner that limits you from making food like this? And if you have an intense desire why don't you act on it? As you pointed out, just plan ahead a bit.

There's no special guide needed, just a knife, cutting board, spatula and a couple pots and pans. You can make a great meal in one cast iron pan (maybe a couple if you're feeding a family) in half an hour. Make sure there's more green/other colors than beige and you're good to go.

I could do this, but without following a recipe I think it would turn out bland or bad. But you know, that's a temporary problem. I will try this.

So follow a couple simple recipes at first. You'll learn from experience about what fits your tastes, what goes into a dish, how heat interacts with food in different ways, what you prefer, which techniques work for YOU, what fit into your budget, preferences, time, diet, etc. is something you just learn from experience and it is unique to the individual.

Then after you mastered some recipes you;ll have some standby recipes (either written down or in your head) that are yours that you are comfortable with. But you'll probably keep experimenting too.

You will mess up. Probably a lot. You'll make some crappy food once in a while. You'll learn the hard way, but instead of feeling like a failure, look at what you learned from it. Try again.

I also suggest trying some stirfry first. It is extremely simple to stirfry, pretty healthy, and there is a real lot you can do with it - different flavors of sauce, different veggies, meats, etc., and you can buy the veggies frozen so there is very little prep.

I find that a lot of children don't get that kitchen experience while they are young so they grow up clueless in the kitchen about how to even start to prepare meals. I really can't understand this too much. I was in the kitchen since I was old enough to stand upright and hold a spoon helping out, standing on a chair to reach the counter or stove. As a result I'm extremely comfortable in the kitchen. I'm far from a "good cook," I'm average, but having that comfort I think is key.

Yeah, a bland meal or five isn't going to kill you. You learn as you go. Salt and pepper goes a long way, and experimenting is a big part of cooking. And there are lots of recipes a quick google away to use as a starting point.

I heard this segment on NPR recently:

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/30/352808184/how-to-cook-everythi...

It was about the book "How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food"

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Fast-Better/dp/047...

Personally, buying a slow cooker was an awesome investment. In under 30 mins I can easily put things into it and leave them cooking over night and have excellent meals for the rest of the week.

Try signing up to a service like HelloFresh. They deliver a box of groceries to your door every week with 3-5 dinners for 2-4 people (you choose), complete with instructions, and virtually all meals can be cooked in under 30 minutes. You get to cook, it's all fresh, and no planning or thinking ahead needed.

Disclaimer: No relationship except as a satisfied customer.

I would recommend learning to cook quiona. It's faster and healthier than rice.

1. Rinse the quiona off with water until there is no more foam.

2. Bring water (with a bouillon flavoring cube, or instead use vegetable broth) to a boil (about 4 parts water to 3 parts quiona)

3. add rinsed quiona to boiling water, lightly boil for about 7 minutes.

4. enjoy!

Quinoa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa

If you are both capable enough cooks, what are you cooking regularly at the moment that takes a lot of time, > 1 hour? I cook most of my own meals and have over time found dishes that are enjoyable, healthy, cheap, and don't take too long to prepare or clean up afterwards. I usually revolve around pastas, meats with sides of vegtables, curries and a few others.

look at the paleo food movement. Not for the diet itself, but they've got a lot of good information about having real foods on hand, being able to cook it in a reasonable amount of time, minimal ingredients and prep, etc.

Look at slow cookers, they're really fantastic for the cooler months and are about the simplest way to get started eating home cooked food without much fuss or cost.

There are lots of ways/reasons to cook - for appearance, for health, for workout efficiency, for PC reasons. I like this one: for flavor. I only have about 10,000 dinners in my adult life, I want to make the most of them. Getting 2,000 more by making the other 10,000 taste bad is not in the plan.

Did I say something about tasting bad? Did you reply to wrong comment?

Since we've got too deep and I can't reply. If you're getting anything out of a slow cooker thats raw/hardly cooked then your power must have went out along the way.

There's a huge gulf between tasting ok, and tasting great. Eating raw/hardly cooked vegetables is not the recognized route to fine food.

You missed a reason (my main reason): for cost while maintaining adequate quality.

While food is like sex (even when its bad, its good) I don't like to skimp on money there.