So basically my whole life Ive eaten pre-packaged food except for a couple years in college where I had a meal plan. Stuff like Hamburger Helper, Suddenly Salad, things of that nature. Frozen perogies, even frozen meatballs for spaghetti. Its unhealthy. So unhealthy that even eating taco bell and a meal hall feast routinely, I actually lost weight in college since till then veggies and salads were an afterthought.
Now Im back at home and my dads disabled and old, so he still struggles to cook for himself. Id like to start cooking meals for the household. The problem is I have no idea how to shop for weekly meal plans. How do you decide? Like….what kinds of things do you keep stocked/on hand in the house vs what you buy as needed? Im totally lost. The only time I ever cooked ingredients meal prepping was when I lived alone for a bit without a meal plan and I ate the same thing all week till it was gone and was eating off like 30 bucks a week. Thats not ideal for my dad/sister who also lives here.
So I guess Im asking how to become an ingredients household?
Edit: Thanks everyone! Its scary, Ill admit that. But I think everyone in this house is going to be better off if I take the L and take over cooking and shopping despite also doing a lot of the cleaning and also working. My dads retired which is why he was the cook and shopper – he was always available. But sometimes you gotta step up when needed and thanks to your advice I think I can.
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Start with deciding what you want to make, and buy what you need for that. Buy in bulk when it’s cheaper.
You’re going to have some things left over, which you need to store properly. Like say, flour lasts indefinitely in an airtight container, but you’ll get no more than a week out of meat in the fridge so you need to portion and freeze it if you won’t use it up. Vegetables can last a while but it varies a lot, usually the dryer something is the longer it keeps. Climate plays a role as well, for the things you keep at room temperature. This will be a bit less of an issue if you’re cooking for 3 since you’ll have fewer leftovers.
Then the next time you’re deciding what to make, start with what you already have: what can I make with this, what else do I need to buy for that? You want to use it up so you rotate through your old inventory and don’t run out of storage space. You’ll find there are some things you keep in stock all the time because you use it in many things (and some things you’d rather avoid because it’s hard to use up in time), but it’s up to your own habits what exactly that will be.
Not to plug a product but I’ve been a big fan of the Sidekick app
It basically gives you weekly menus with shopping lists that are designed to use all of the ingredients over the course of the week. It also has recipes and narrated step by step instructions.
If you’re just starting out, it’s a great tool to lean on until you have a better feel for the types of things you like to cook and the ingredients you like to work with
I would start with a meal plan for the week and go from
There.
When you buy everything at once it can be really expensive, even though cost effective over time. If you’re not making your own bread tomorrow, you don’t need all those ingredients. How doing it all are you into this? If you make spaghetti for example, are you okay with dried noodles and making your own sauce? Do you want to make it all from scratch?
So think about what you want to make for a week.
And get those ingredients. It will be a lot as you start, but as you accrue ingredients, you will only need to pick up a few things.
It’s tough, especially in the US. We’re practically raised to eat garbage, so it’s hard to learn how to stop eating it. I haven’t been able to kick it completely, but I’ve got a few ideas.
First, identify some of your favorite meals. Look online for recipes and start small. Hamburger Helper for example can be pretty simple to replicate with pre-made pasta and jarred sauces. Then start to look into what goes into making the sauce. Something like alfredo sauce is easy to buy a jar, but it’s also super easy to make from scratch.
Ideally you get to a point where you spend most of your shopping in the perimeter of the grocery store, buying fresh veggies, meat, and maybe a few jaunts into the spice isle or for stuff like flour or cooking oil.
The frozen section isn’t the worst place, as you can get a lot of frozen veggies that are frozen at the peak of freshness and have a very long shelf life. Good for stuff like green beans, broccoli, etc., not so so good for leafy stuff like lettuce.
Depends what you like to cook, but I’ll give you a rundown of what my pantry/fridge look like.
Shelf-stable staples: this is stuff that lasts forever. Rice, beans, lentils, pasta, some canned goods (canned veggies, broth, soups, etc)
Frozen meat: I keep a few pounds of chicken and pork (and sometimes beef or salmon) in the freezer, separated into single-portion bags, labeled with the purchase date. Cuts vary based on what I’m in the mood for
Frozen veggies: I keep 5-10 bags of a variety of veggies.
Fresh fruit/veggies: every week or two I pick up some things like apples, strawberries, carrots, and so on. Good for a healthy snack.
Sandwich supplies: bread, bagels, cheese, cold cuts
Add-ons: spices, seasoning blends, sauces, condiments, lemon/lime juice… Anything you add to give things pizzazz.
From there, once you start learning what you like to cook, you can plan a meal in advance and pick up what you need. I don’t use onions often enough to always have one on-hand, for instance. I can take follow-ups if you like.
Definitely meal plan per week (set a budget). I stock up on non-negotiable’s when they’re on sale. Organic bulk flour, sugar etc. Costco is good for baking soda/powder! Weekly trips to the store for local eggs, milk & bread. Add in a new spice here & there on grocery trips, they stock up fast. Along with kitchen tools.
In terms of meals, I’d start by preparing safe/easy meals. For me that’s Shepards pie, spaghetti, broccoli cheddar soup, chilli & corn bread & pasta salads. All of those meals stretch too^
I used to have a chart that I made that listed ingredients across the top and cuisines/meals down the side — like, cabbage, rice, scallions, canned tomatoes, cheese, limes etc. And then lasagne or pasta or Mexican or stir-fry or whatever.
The lines between them made a grid, and I would put a check in the box for each ingredient in a given dish or cuisine. That way, I could see what I needed for what I felt like cooking, and check to make sure what I had before I started.
So I knew, if I kept a certain core list of ingredients in the house, I was covered for all my go-tos.
You could buy some fresh meat and just cook that. Nothing fancy. For example, like chicken? Buy chicken legs and throw them in the oven. They are really quick to make. If you want to be “fancy” you can bread them and/or add spices to them.
With beef, you could make meatloaf. A bit more involved, but still pretty easy to make. Sausages are also pretty easy to make too. Just throw them in the broiler for a bit.
Just start small and basic. Cooking does not need to be complicated. Just buy things you like that also are not to involved. For sides, you could buy frozen vegetables and microwave them. You could get mashed potato mix and make some mashed potatoes. You could buy rice and throw them in a pot.
Also don’t be afraid to make the same stuff over and over again. It’s okay if the stuff you cook is ‘boring’ as long as you all like it.
Best thing to do is to “wean” off the prepackaged food and slowly bring in the fresh produce/ingredients.
Canned/jarred food, instant noodles, quick fixes – keep as “backup” for low-energy days when you just don’t feel like cooking. They’re going to pop up every now and again.
Fresh produce (veggies, fruits, meats) – buy these every week (depending on how quickly you go through them based on the number of people in your household) or when you have enough to last you about 2 days remaining. Use the ones you bought FIRST, first – but also keep in mind the shelf life of different types of fruits/veggies.
– Alternatively, you can also buy meats in bulk and freeze them fresh, or freeze after you marinate them. This is helpful when the meat is on sale or you won’t be able to make a trip to the grocery store in the near future for whatever reason.
Bread – buy when you want, and portion them. Keep some out on the counter (or in the fridge) for when you KNOW you’re gonna want toast/sandwiches, and freeze the rest.
Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese, butter) – buy when you need them. Milk for coffee, cheese for quick fixes (like a sandwich). I personally always have a carton of milk since make coffee on the regular and for pasta sauce. Butter can be a flavouring agent or for greasing a pan – not necessary, but nice to have. You can also freeze butter, if a single brick is too much to use all at once.
– eggs (not dairy but still in the same section) – buy when you want them. They DO go bad, but if you know you’re gonna go through the eggs fast like I do, then get them when you’re low on supply.
Dry/dehydrated foods (Rice, pasta, noodles) – these will often last you a long time. Buy them when they’re on sale, when you need a restock, or when you want to eat a specific type of pasta and you don’t have it.
Baking goods (flour, baking soda + powder, sugar) – depending on if you bake at all, these might not even be necessary. However, all-purpose (AP) flour and baking soda come in handy for making sauces. Flour acts as a thickening agent (in a roux), and baking soda neutralizes any acidity in tomato sauces. Sugar for coffee or a dessert. All of these items are relatively shelf stable as long as you store them correctly, so there’s no harm in having them in your pantry.
I like to cook, and I have consistently cooked for myself and my family for about 4 years now, so I have a mental list of recipes/dishes that I can make. If you’re new to cooking from scratch, it might be worth looking up some simple recipes and shopping for those. You can tweak them to your taste, and if you like and make them enough, they will soon become part of your mental recipe catalogue.
Honestly, the main thing when it comes to being an ingredient household is to know how to portion things. You go from an ingredient household to a from-scratch food household, which could be easier for beginners since it saves you from decision fatigue about what to buy/cook.
You can cook a whole pot of food, and eat it for the week, or freeze it in Tupperware for when you want it later, and eat different foods throughout the week, whether that’s eating out or making other things from scratch. I live alone, so I usually make like one huge pot of pasta that lasts me about 3-5 days. I portion it into Tupperware and stick it in the fridge, then reheat it (microwave or on the stove) when I need to. I have two meals a day, and sometimes I switch it up if I want something else with a one-pot meal.
I would start buy building up a good stock of herbs and spices, things like – salt, pepper, paprika, chilli powder, cumin, etc….
Build them up over time becase they can be expensive. And as others have said, find simple recipes and buy the ingredients, anything non-perishable you’ll add to your store. For example, if you wanna make a stir fry you’re probably gonna need soy sauce, fish sauce, rice, etc…. But you’ll have loads left over and now you’ve got lots of new things in your store.
I started with Americas Test Kitchen. They do a great job of teaching you how to cook, showing you all the steps and how to screw it up. They got a little more commercial in the later days, but I still find them a fantastic resource for cooking.
One thing I do is just flip through the recipes until I find something I want to eat and then watch the video. Their website is worth the subscription
>Like….what kinds of things do you keep stocked/on hand in the house vs what you buy as needed?
You always buy as needed. Some things store well and typically come in larger quantities than a single meal so you end up storing them thus keeping them stocked, like dry beans or pasta and, to a degree, dry spices.
Eventually you’ll find things that store reasonably well that you use in a lot of different meals so you might end up buying them with the intent to use them even if you don’t know exactly what for yet. But that’s eventually. Don’t try to do that to begin with.
As for how to go from being a food household to an ingredients household, how to transition from largely pre-packaged to ingredient based?
Find those meals you like to make prepackaged and find a recipe that makes them from ingredients.
Personally I found the hardest part about learning how to properly cook was meat temps and spices.
It’s super easy to tell when ground meat is fully cooked, but larger cuts? Get a thermometer, it will help. I recommend splurging and getting a digital thermometer with an oven-proof lead. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-TP-16-Thermometer-Stainless-Standard/dp/B017613C3C (example, not endorsement), so you can just stick it in the cut of meat you’re roasting and leave it in. That way you can check the temp without ever opening the oven and they usually even have an alarm that goes off when it reaches the target temperature!
You should also get a leave-in oven thermometer like this: https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-00620A2-Stainless-Steel-Thermometer/dp/B01CF39C4Y (again, example, not endorsement) because you’d be amazed at the sort of variance you get between the set temperature and the actual temperature. Just keep in mind that unless you have a convection oven with convection on it’s going to be hotter higher up in the oven.
As for spices… go with the recipe until you start to get a feel for it and you’ll probably be using a higher quantity of spices than you might expect. And don’t feel like spice mixes are cheating.
And lastly, learn how to make a roux. The very basics are that you put some butter in a pan and melt it down, then mix in an equal amount of flour and cook the mixture until it no longer smells like flour. Roux is like the cornerstone of sauces. It’s not used for every sauce but it’s used for a lot of them. It took me a while to be able to reliably make a roux but once it clicked it clicked. Roux helps thicken the sauces and binds the fats to the water, making a nice homogeneous sauce. The starches in pasta water are also useful for making creamy sauces.
So really, just keep plugging away. Find something you want to make, find a recipe for it on sites like allrecipes, and just try it. For most things cooking is way more forgiving than it seems, as long as you don’t burn things.
Oh, and if you guys aren’t lactose intolerant but also don’t really consume milk, consider getting shelf-stable milk. Horizon makes little juice-box things to pack into kids lunches, each one is 1 cup of milk and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It’s expensive for milk, but most things that need milk don’t use more than a cup of milk and it’s cheaper to use 12 one-cup boxes of milk than 12 quarts of milk bought separately and mostly thrown out because it’s gone bad before you used it again. That’s one of the things I stock up on.
I made the switch after a few rounds with a meal kit delivery service. They really dumb it down (eg heat these 3 ingredients)… once that was a habit, ingredient shopping made so much sense.
Maybe get in the habit of stocking staples/ingredients. potaters, onion, carrot, celery… chocolate
I know what I want to make a head of time and buy accordingly. I have a few convenient meals for easy eating, but I know my staples. Your staples could look different.
Start with one recipe and slowly build up. Also look for one pot meals and easy meals to put together. Sandwiches are a great first start its easy to do.
Examples of my staples are: wheat, sugar, salt, baking powder/soda, yeast, apple cider vinegar, canned black, red, white, and chickpea beans. Pasta, sauce, rice, almond milk, nutritional yeast, spices, olive oil, dried fruits, canned fruits, frozen fruit and vegetables, bread, plain quick oats, and pie crusts frozen. When making a recipe I note what I have and pick up what I don’t. Don’t run out and buy this list. Build it up to what you eat. Some people buy bulk meat and freeze it, boxed milk that’s shelf stable, bulk cereal, etc.
Start cooking simple meals from online recipes (“simple” is good recipe keyword), and give yourself a doable goal. Like you will make dinner from scratch 2X week. At first it will take a super long time to shop and cook as you follow unfamiliar recipes, your skills are still basic, and shop to fill your pantry and fridge with basics that most cooks always have on hand.
Once cooking 2X/week is getting easy/quick, add more meals, start thinking about meal planning, and prepping ahead.
Another idea is to sign up for one of those “meal kit” services that send you some pre-portioned ingredients and recipes. They can be a great idea for building up cooking skills and recipe ideas. Don’t get one where it is just “heat and serve” get one that sends the raw unprocessed ingredients for you to cook.
Good luck! Cooking yourself will save you money and improve your health. It’s also a great bonding time with kids or partners, and the pride of making a really good dinner is real.
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice here, most of which I won’t repeat, but my favorites are two-for-one meals. If you make teriyaki glazed pork chops or pork tenderloin one night you can make just 1-2 extra chops, and then plan on making fried rice next week with the extra meat, just cut it small and freeze it. You could start with bottled teriyaki marinade (Soy Vey is a good brand) and then branch out to making your own. I often make double the amount of glaze I want and freeze the rest in a ziplock, then you would have a head start on glazed salmon for next week. A roasted chicken is super simple, but you can start by using store-bought rotisserie chicken and with the bones and extra meat from two of them you can make a good chicken soup. Try to be sure you have a plan when you buy ingredients; buttermilk is cheap and you can freeze or throw out extra, but heavy cream is expensive, don’t buy a whole quart without a plan to use it soon. I often make Alfredo sauce one week and quiche the next to use it fast.
It’s hard to do unless you’re single/living alone. Other people in your household will get upset if you take away their prepackaged foods from them.
Other than that, just learn to cook and keep ingredients in your house and cook with them.
Let’s start with Hamburger Helper. There are recipes online to make it from scratch. Find one and get the ingredients. But instead of 1 lb of meat, you buy 3.
The other 2 lb of meat are used in another meal. Say pasta with meat sauce. Buy a jar of sauce(it’s ok to not make all from scratch), make the beef and now you have a pasta dish.
Other good uses for ground beef: tacos, bulgogi, dirty rice. Have the ingredients for one of those. You’ll often end up with extra, like rice. So then you have rice and you can make stir fry one night. Buy extra chicken when you get it for stir fry. Then use the extra chicken and veggies for another meal.
Another way to do it is to make a dish that can become something else. I make beans and rice. Later in the week this becomes quesadillas. Or a roast can become used in soup, or quesadillas.
Eventually you have your staple meals and you remember to keep ingredients on hand. At my house, it’s pesto pasta, beans and rice, with tortillas and cheese for quesadillas, pasta with broccoli in peanut sauce, and haluski. All simple foods we can readily make.
I barely keep anything ‘stocked’ (we have flour, sugar, rice, and bouillon and that’s about it) and just buy what I need for the week.
On Saturday night I’ll pick 3 recipes i want to make that week, put the ingredients on a list and just buy those ingredients.
Even tho there are only two of us I cook for 4 so there are always leftovers and I don’t have to cook everyday. For example we will make meal 1 on Sunday and have the leftovers on Monday , meal 2 on Tuesday and have the leftovers on Wednesday, etc. I don’t know who these people are who are cooking a full meal everyday but I don’t have time for that!
I have a list of 17 different meals I make. Every week, we choose 5. I only cook 5 days a week. Otherwise, leftovers don’t get eaten as quickly. When I shop, I try to buy club packs of meat so I can split them and freeze until I need them. I always have a bag of rice, potatoes, pasta, and frozen veggies. Seasonings like salt, pepper, and so much more. Sauces, dressings, and gravy. Most of my sauces are homemade, but I buy ranch dressing or ceasar. Gravy is made from meat drippings, seasoning, and cornstarch. Different sugars, yellow, brown, white. Butter. Oils, olive, vegetable, etc. I like cooking. I am not a professional.
My 2 cents:
Before buying a bunch of bulk food and spices, I would dedicate at least a month to figure out what type of meal prep works for you. For example, I like to prep ingredients that I put together into meals with minimum effort. My best friend does not like this approach and she prefers to create full and portioned out meals for the week.
Illustrating the difference:
My best friend will do something like making a big batch of chili. Then she will portion it out into Tupperware containers. So she will know that her family to eat chili for dinner three times.
What I do is I will buy dry beans and make a batch of beans in my slow cooker. I will also pre-make a big tray of roasted vegetables. Then during the week I will use these ingredients to make a variety of meals. For example, a healthy bowl with beans, roasted vegetables, and a grain and protein.
I can also use the beans to make a one-night portion of bean soup or I could use it for part of a Mexican meal.
It just depends on what you like and what works for your family.
One online ‘cookbook’ that I swore by while learning how to cook was BudgetBytes.com . This site keeps things very simple and cheap, and doesn’t relay on a bunch of really niche ingredients, even doing ‘one pot’ recipes if you dont want to do dishes lol. This site does a good job of telling you exactly how to cook something or what to keep in the pantry, or allowing you to find recipes based on an ingredient.
Also, download the app for your nearby grocery stores. Most stores will release coupons Tuesday or Wednesday each week, which you can ‘clip’ electronically. This is the best way to shop on the cheap, especially for fruit, produce, etc…After a while it kind of feels like a game, like you’re waiting to see what new goodies you can get for 99 cents a lb that week!
My first tip is to start slow. It’s a big change and it takes more time and energy to make your own food, so you don’t want to get overwhelmed and give up. I highly recommend a Costco membership if you don’t already have one because they have a lot of pre-made or semi-prepared options that can help a lot, that are made in-house and very similar to home cooking. Salad kits, taco kits, chicken pot pies, pasta bakes, etc.
You will learn your staples overtime as you find recipes you enjoy. I find it hard to meal plan much in advance so my strategy is usually to just keep my pantry and freezer stocked with staples so I can make what I like on a whim. My staples are based on the things my family likes to eat most, and it often changes. Things like rice, flour, sugar, cornmeal, pasta, canned soup, canned tomatoes, spices, plus meat, veggies, and bread in the freezer.
It can also be less overwhelming to make a shopping list if you keep an ongoing list of things you need. I have a mini magnetic whiteboard on my fridge and anytime I run out of something I write it down.
My best advice is start with a cookbook or 2 of dishes that you like, then stock up on the ingredients mentioned in the individual recipes. You also don’t have to spend lots of money on the cookbooks. Just go to your local thrift store or used book shop.
Also, if you’ve never cooked from scratch before, just did heat-and-eat, maybe look into taking cooking classes from your local Recreation District, Adult School or community/junior college.
If you eat meat, look for sales and discounted meats that will go bad that day or the next unless you freeze or make them right away. You can also buy full price meats, that’s not for me to say how you spend money.
Get also freezer bags and Saran Wrap etc, to divide large packages of meat into portions you think you’d eat at one time. Don’t freeze the whole package unless it’s a one meal amount of meat. This is key. If you freeze a value pack of 8 chicken breasts all together, it’s harder to take the amount you can use one time and leave the rest in the freezer.
Anyway, build some recipes around the main, if you don’t know how to cook meat actually, take your time and also get a good meat thermometer. Watch some YouTube videos.
Sides are easy. Potatoes, rice, pasta. If you want to start with something easy, get instant mashed potatoes and maybe some rice that is already flavored like yellow rice or rice pilaf. Comes in a box with instructions. You can learn to add your own spices later to save money and just get white rice.
I don’t know what vegetables you like. Don’t try any weird vegetables, just make what you might like, for example, green beans or carrots. There are some good options in the frozen food aisle.
I am saying this, you’re just starting out to cook, get comfortable with doing some things the easy way at first until you feel like doing a fresh produce version. Don’t get discouraged that you can’t make fresh spinach or whatever. It’s still a good source of nutrition and isn’t hot pockets or frozen burritos, so it’s better than that. You’ll get some routine dishes down and expand your repertoire and feel more confident. It’s hard when you come from different habits but you can do it simple ways, buy what you want to eat, plan around stuff that’s on sale, stock things in the freezer and pantry, you don’t have to transform the whole kitchen at once, and sometimes, just order a pizza or something.
I really like Mark Bittman’s books (how to cook everything) as basic start from scratch explainers on cooking. It really explains at a pretty basic level how to approach cooking, what to have on hand, etc. good luck!
also it is so easy to elevate basic meals! like I looove a charred caesar salad – all the same ingredients but I just grill the romaine. or a roast chicken with citrus mix and not just lemon
definitely do not be afraid to experiment!!
Try Blue Apron or a similar service
It’s easier when you can break down a meal into parts. I’d start with a starch, a protein, and a fruit/vegetable.
Starches could be pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, etc. Protein could be any meat, tofu, eggs, etc. I hope I don’t have to explain fruits and vegetables.
Breakfast could be an egg, toast, and a glass of orange juice. Lunch could be pasta and salad (or pasta salad) and a slice of fish. Dinner could be rice and frozen vegetables and a side of chicken.
Go to your local library and check out cook books! It is free and there will be thousands to choose from! It’s what my family did and I love dinner time cooking
my partner usually just plans dinner ideas around coupons and sales for each week at our local grocery, but it’s hard work to come up with dinner ideas. In cases we can’t figure out ideas I like using the supercook .com website and plugging in the ingredient list from sales and try to see whats most appealing.
Just go to the groceries section and buy 3-4 vegetables that look fresh and tasty, plus staples like garlic, onions, lettuce, etc. It’s really easy to make a quick salad from lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrot, cabbage, whatever you like. It’s also easy to pick a vegetable or two and cook them to eat with your main course. Sautee, roast, steam, etc. with your choice of flavors and seasonings.
Example: I go to the store and broccoli looks good, as well as the mushrooms. I pick up some fresh herbs like thyme, some garlic, and some onions. That night I dice an onion and the mushrooms and sautee with herbs. The next night I finely mince garlic and sautee with the broccoli. Or maybe I steam the broccoli and finish with a hoisin-based sauce. Or maybe I dice the mushrooms and onions really fine and use the leftovers to stuff some bell peppers. Get comfortable with basic cooking techniques (sautee, roast, steam, boil) and start preparing vegetables in a basic way. Each time you cook you’ll learn something: maybe a technique, maybe a flavor pairing, maybe what order to prepare the dishes so it all comes out done at the same time.
Pick a couple easy things to start and work your way up.
Each meal should have a protein, a carb and a vegetable.
Some are easy to cook together… like if you’re boiling pasta, you can put broccoli or carrots in a steamer basket over the pot and cook them at the same time!
Most meats you can heat up a little fat of your choice in a pan (butter, oil, or grease) to keep it from sticking and leave on medium heat until it’s changed color on the edges before you flip. Double check with a thermometer for bigger pieces.
Salt and pepper taste good on everything. Sprinkle just enough that you can see it, to start. You can always add a little more after that first taste, but you can’t un-season food. Go gently.
What helped me was buying cookbooks. I’d find one at random, flip through to see if there was enough stuff I like, and buy it.
Then, I meal plan. Find as many recipes as I need and like, figure out what nights I’ll have them, write down the ingredients, and then buy them.
If you don’t have things like spices and whatnot stocked, don’t worry – just buy them as you need. They last forever! Also, if you have Indian or Hispanic markets nearby, you can get a lot for very cheap.
And because groceries are a nightmare right now, if you make a recipe that says it serves six, boom, you have 3 nights of meals for you and your dad! Freeze a few servings and save them for later!
Cookbooks can be pricey, but you can get them for super cheap at used book stores and ebook versions online. Personally, if I go looking online for a recipe when I don’t know exactly what I want, I get decision paralysis. Cookbooks forcibly limit me to what they offer, and because I bought it I know it will have a ton of things I like in a range of cook times and complexities. Happy to give recommendations if you want!
Lastly, invest in a crockpot. Incredibly easy and time-friendly meals, and they’re not particularly expensive either. InstantPot is great too!