Rules of Lazy Cooking

I like to eat well, but I really don’t like to cook very much. After a lifetime of eating out and cooking a handful of staples, I’m broke and bored. It’s time to try another approach.

Rules so far, in no logical order, to be improved over time

1. There will be leftovers: cooking once and eating thrice is always a win for the lazy man, but I’m tired of eating the exact same thing four nights in a row, so creative use of leftovers (a currently under-developed skill for me) is key.
2. Cheat: don’t be afraid of garlic or butter. Both make hot food taste great and require no skill of any kind to use. Despite its rep, a tablespoon of butter is only 120 calories, no different than any other fat.
3. When you buy fresh, buy good: get fish from a fishmonger, find the tastiest meat available for your price (try the coarse stuff–make roasts and stews), get Cascioppo sausage, avoid Fred Meyer chicken, get fruit and veggies from the fruit stand or the farmers’ market or the fancy supermarket. A peach or a pear that you don’t need to eat over the sink isn’t food.
4. Soups and stews: these reheat very well (almost all are better the second day), and mess up only three things during cooking–the pot, the knife, and the cutting board. Also, other than the occasional stir, they require no attention after the first 20 minutes.
5. Salad instead of plated veggies: cooked veggies pretty universally suck when reheated, but a salad with a bit of good dressing (never from a plastic bottle) and some cheese and black pepper always tastes fresh and good.
6. Rice: 2 cups dry is 3 or 4 meals of starch for me. Rice reheats fine if it’s folded into something wet.
7. Bakery bread: sure, good fresh bread costs more and doesn’t last as long as the packaged stuff, but that’s why it tastes like food, rather than tasting like edible packaging for food.
8. No elaborate prep: if it takes more than 5 or 6 steps to prep it, it’s not for me. With rare exception, 30 minutes of real work at dinner and 15 for breakfast and lunch are my upper bounds. Factor in 5 minutes of dish washing and eating, and meals take 30 – 60 minutes each. Lazy men don’t like to work for more than two hours a day guaranteed, every day.
9. Canned tomatoes: other than the occasional carton of grape tomatoes for a salad, there is no reason to buy a crappy supermarket tomato. If you can get one from a garden or the farmers’ market, then great. Otherwise, canned tomatoes are good. Chef-cut for cooking, whole for eating, never pre-seasoned.
10. Canned beans, broth, artichokes: taste good, no work.
11. Frozen peas, carrots, pearl onions, stew veggie mix, corn: taste good, no work.
12. Sausage (Da Bears!): reheats well, tastes great.