Comment on "Between raising two young boys and putting in long hours at a marketing job, Kevin Caldwell can almost never find the time to make dinner. So he and his husband spend about $700 a week to order in"

remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• Squirrelsdrivemenuts@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The quality if the food you eat is such a big determiner for quality of life though… I would rather spent a few hours every weekend mealprepping and living an extra ten years of healthy active life. Plus, if you can save 600 dollars on food you might be able to just work less.

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  • Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It really depends on the restaurant. Eating Chick-fil-A every day certainly isn’t healthy. But there are plenty of proper restaurants that are.

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    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The problem is that in almost every case, restaurants’ only objectives are to make food that tastes good and make customers think they’re getting a good value. Hence, tons of high-caloric additives and huge portions.

      When you cook at home, even if you use oils and other high-caloric ingredients, you still use way less than restaurants do. I promise you, take a “healthy” meal from a restaurant and compare its nutritional content to the same thing you would make at home; the difference will be drastic.

      A couple examples:

      1. Broccoli side dish. Cooked at home in a pan; some oil and salt and pepper. In a restaurant? Drowning in butter and tons of salt.
      2. baked potato. At home, some cheese and sour cream. In a restaurant? Bigger potato with tons of butter, sour cream, gobs of cheese, bacon.

      In these examples, both taste good. But the restaurant versions are tons of empty calories that contribute to a very unhealthy lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong, I like that shit too. But it’s rare for me, I’d rather make it myself and control what goes in.

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      • Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Considering that I am struggling not to loose weight, I don’t mind a lot of calories.

        When I make baked potatoes at home I usually use 2 of the biggest potatoes I can find. Per person that is. Then I use Quark with 40% fat, mix in some cream, at least a teaspoon of salt, green onion and some frozen herbs.

        I don’t think restaurants make it any less healthily.

        Your point about using oil instead of butter is valid enough. Rapeseed oil has a lot of alpha-linolenic acid. Butter a lot of saturated fatty acids. But oil is the cheaper ingredient. Butter is important to archive the traditional tase. If restaurants use butter I won’t hold it against them.

        For dishes where you can choose your own carb-rich sides I would appreciate some whole-grain options though. For example cooked spelt. It pairs wonderfully with many traditional German dishes. Far-eastern and Indian restaurants could offer whole grain rice.

        White grain is the worst offender when in comes to empty calories. Saturated fats at least still fill you up as much as unsaturated fats. You need twice as much white grain to feel as full as you would with whole grain. And you’ll be hungry an hour later.

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      • NABDad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        When you cook at home, even if you use oils and other high-caloric ingredients, you still use way less than restaurants do.

        How much do you want to bet?

        One example:

        I’m concerned that I didn’t get butter when I went to the store on Friday because after I came home my wife told me she moved the last four pounds of butter out of the freezer.

        I also have heavy cream in the fridge to make ice cream. If there’s not a layer of lard on your spoon after you’re done eating your ice cream, you aren’t really trying.

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    • starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You don’t live in Germany, obvs. It’s schnitzel and Maultaschen all the way down.

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      • Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I do, actually. Our local restaurant of local cuisine makes an awesome salad with game meat. It’s big enough to really fill you up.

        Also, Maultaschen are hardly unhealthy

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    • Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It doesn’t have to be unhealthy. They do have salads and grilled chicken, and even grilled chicken salads. Of course, the healthy items are quite a bit more expensive than the unhealthy items ($3 for large fries vs $4.20 for kale salad).

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’d rather work an hour than spend an hour cooking.

    Also if you’re spending $700 it’s probably not just fast food, put proper restaurant take-out.

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    • Ashwo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      This is penny wise and pound foolish.

      Eating ultra-processed food

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      • Perspectivist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        There’s a bit more nuance to it than home cooked meals being healthy and eating out being unhealthy.

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        You don’t have to spend one hour cooking. You can’t cook in 20 minutes.

        I’d rather not cook at all. And what ever money I’m saving I could get more by just working the same time.

        So don’t eat ultra processed food then. Order proper food from a proper restaurant.

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    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Ordering fast food to be delivered for 3 people 7 days a week can easily total up to $700.

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      • False@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        $100 a day, $33 per person per day?

        Seems a little high, even delivered

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• uienia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Cooking rules. It can be an excellent anti-stress ritual as well.

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m sure it is if you enjoy it in the first place.

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• Naich@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Cooking is great if you have the time. It’s a good way to relieve stress, and it’s cheaper and better in every way than bought in food.

  The modern economy is designed to keep everyone working long hours and exhausted, so not many ordinary people have the time.

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I have the time, I just choose not to spent it on a cooking. There are much better things to relieve stress.

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    • uienia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It depends on the type of person you are. There are better things to relieve stress for you. For others cooking can be very effective at that.

      We are all different, try to imagine that. No really, you should be aware of that.

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Yeah, tell that to the people that keep telling me how cool of a stress relief cooking is after I already said I don’t enjoy it. Seems they need the awareness more than I do.

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• JayleneSlide@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Why does cooking suck for you?

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  • Perspectivist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I don’t like grocery shopping, cooking, eating or doing the dishes. I’d even hire someone to eat for me if I could.

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    How does it not? It’s just a boring activity. What’s so great about cutting stuff into pieces, stirring and watching stuff get warm?

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    • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      How does it not? It’s just a boring activity.

      I sincerely asked, and I assume you are similarly sincere in asking.

      For me, it’s an absolutely quotidian task, every aspect of which I approach mindfully and joyfully. Using a good knife, decent pans, a halfway decent grill/range/oven… the joy of using good tools skillfully cannot be overstated. I mean… where else in our days do we get to play with knives around people and they love the results? :D Woodworking, I guess, but you can’t eat those results.

      I love everything about cooking:

      • sourcing good local and seasonal ingredients
      • prepping the ingredients properly and with the least waste
      • layering flavor profiles
      • creating a full sensory experience for myself and my circle
      • understanding the underlying physics and chemistry at every step
      • creating even a simple dish that appeals to all senses
      • did I mention playing with knives?
      • then getting to feed, nourish, and sate people with my craft… The experience of cooking takes the necessary and workaday task of sustaining ourselves and elevates it to an alchemical and spiritual level.

      From a holistic, connected-to-the-land, tree-hugging hippie context, cooking takes the alchemy from Shit Wizards (AKA farmers) and transmutates those inputs into magical energy. Food nourishes the body; good cooking nourishes the soul. Gathering tribe around a meal that I made is even more fulfilling than the literal billions of people who, directly or indirectly, use the software I built.

      From a biological context, knowing the provenance of my food is the culinary equivalent of using open source software. From an ethical living context, knowing that my food providers are using fair labor practices, compassionate animal welfare, and good land stewardship enables me to make food that I eat and share in good conscience. Also, garbage in, garbage out on every level. This is stuff you’re putting in your body. The body that carries around your brain, both of which ya kinda need to do other things you enjoy. Food is medicine, and so many ills I see, physical and otherwise, stem from poor food sourcing and prep.

      From an efficiency, conservation, and creativity context:

      • turning “waste” material into an amazing stock
      • turning leftovers into an entirely new dish that utterly slaps
      • that on-the-knife-edge, tuned-up feeling of bringing a meal together… it rivals playing live to a sold-out crowd
      • doing more with the least amount of everything… give me a good knife, good cutting board, good produce stand, a saute pan, and a shitty butane burner, and I will crank out a meal for you that will get YOU laid :D
      • the mind-body connection of skillfully wielding my tools in pursuit of an explicit and relatively immediate goal; it might take me years to build software, but it takes just an evening to make something that feeds my tribe

      In the grand scheme of human experience, there are few things that everyone can do that fire on all sensory cylinders while delivering the spiritual high of creativity manifested. Cooking is something everyone can do.

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I sincerely asked, and I assume you are similarly sincere in asking.

        Right, but I don’t really know how to explain why you don’t like something. It doesn’t doesn’t appeal to me. It’s not fun. I don’t care about playing with knives (I hated woodworking in school, btw).

        understanding the underlying physics and chemistry at every step

        Yeah, that aspect is somewhat interesting, I would definitely consider reading a book about it. Trying to learn by own practical experience in this day and age seems like a bit late to the party, though.

        In the end, cooking is just an ends to a means of eating.

        Also, garbage in, garbage out on every level. This is stuff you’re putting in your body.

        So tired of hearing this dumb fuck argument. Ordering food =/= fastfood. The amount of people that seem to think their little bit of homecooking can compete with professional chef’s is laughable.

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      • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Thanks for distilling how I feel about cooking. It’s an ancient art made better by good science and engineering.

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    • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      What makes you happy on an average day?

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        A bit of a broad question. But I can assure that almost any activity makes me happier than cooking. It’s one of my least favourite chores.

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• IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  cooking is a basic survival skill. and what that can you spend an hour a day to make up those 700$?

  get your shit together and learn to cook. just because whoever raised you failed as a parent doesn’t mean you don’t get to have responsibility over your own life and learn to cook.

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    cooking is a basic survival skill.

    So was hunting and gathering for food … but than we had a civilisation with division of labour an all.

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    • ekky@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      And now we have those who’d rather work for recreation, and those who’d rather work as recreation. I can find better things to spend my money on than food.

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        That’s fair enough. I have better things to spend my time on than cooking. To each their own.

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    • IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Do you need a delivery app to get someone to help you whipe your ass?

      Some people are broke and spend as much on rent as on delivery. those idiots don’t get to complain.

      delivery is a once in a while luxury. not a living necessity.

      even if you live in a food desert, there are much cheaper ways to eat than ordering incredibly overpriced food because you rather spend your time doomscrolling

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• hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The world is a funny place with lots of varying opinions.

  Your opinion is valid.

  Do you enjoy the taste of food? Because my co-worker takes it to the extreme. Food is just a necessary part of life to him. He eats the same meal for lunch every single day, a Tim Hortons sandwich of some sort. It never changes. When we walk into the gas station where they Tim Hortons is? The staff greet him, and tell him his total so he can pay, because they know without a doubt, that’s what he’s ordering. The guy doesn’t like salt or pepper or ketchup or any type of sauce. His words “too flavorful”.

  My opinion, is that I love the taste of delicious food, and generally dislike cooking. Now, I know how to cook, I help my wife cook often, and sometimes I make the whole meal myself. We make delicious things, a wide variety, lots of flavor and spice and zest.

  But when she’s out of town? I make bachelor-chow. Carb heavy and easy. Ramen, Mac n cheese, freezer pizza, hotdogs, you get the idea. Tastes good enough to me, quick and easy, cheap. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked a proper meal while she’s away.

  BUT, I usually start to feel like crap after a few days of this. And one of the many reasons I miss her when she’s gone, is that she’ll force us to make good food again when she’s back.

  I really do love good food. I’m just supremely cheap and lazy, and won’t do it myself. Maybe if she’s ever gone forever, I would eventually start eating right? Hard to say.

  But everyone’s relationship with food is different. My wife will eat “girl dinner” on occasion. But would much rather spend the time and make a proper meal from scratch. Tastes better.

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I would say I do enjoy food, but I probably don’t have the broadest palate there is. I very much prefer cooked food over frozen or other read-to-eat stuff … hence the regular ordering of food.

    It is only when I’m actually cooking that I’ll eat the same food for several days. Usually I just cook something easy like a bunch of pasta and my dad’s custom sauce. Takes like 40 minutes and I’ll have food for 3 days, that kind of justifies it. But more fancy meals only very rarely make it over my effort/taste ratio.

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    • hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      To be fair, when my wife and I cook, it’s ALWAYS a huge meal. We take whatever recipe we find and double it at a minimum, and then eat it for lunch and dinner for the next few days. But we still prefer it to be a delicious meal.

      One thing to note, a lot of fast food, and restaurants of the faster variety, aren’t cooking food either. It’s the same precooked frozen stuff we’re decrying, just the commercial variety.

      I’m definitely in the camp of “eating out is expensive and unhealthy”. I still do it, socially. And I’ll agree that if you go to a fancy enough restaurant, it probably tips back towards wholesome and healthy, albeit way too expensive.

      It’s funny, I’m not bragging, but, friends of mine will try to reference where things are in my town like “oh it’s across the street from the Wendy’s”, and I’m like, where? And in one case, I think it was a burger king? I didn’t even realize we had one.

      I’ll eat fast food, sure, I do it often enough to know what I like at certain places. But in my own town? 10-15 minutes from home? Nope, pretty much never do it. If I’m that close to home, I’m not wasting my money, I’ll go home and either eat leftovers, make bachelor-chow, or if the timing is right and the wife is home, make a whole meal of something proper.

      It’s funny, we never had a Chick-fil-A by us, closest one was how away. And I LOVE Chick-fil-A. They put one in down the street one year.

      I hit it up several times in that first year, delicious. But now? It’s too close to home. It never crosses my mind, and if it does? I usually wave it away unless the circumstances are just right. But they haven’t been just right in… IDK, years? Probably 3 or 4 years?

      Life is wild.

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• Bakkoda@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’m gonna go out on a limb and day probably not. I get the jam they are in though and it sucks.

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