Eating the proper amount is hard. Eating when you have low time, money, mental energy, or education on cooking is even harder.

This book assumes nothing. Do you know how to turn on your stove? You are properly prepared to use this cookbook.

Just want to share it with more folks!

  • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I really love Mexican food so sometimes my dinner is pulling a tortilla out of the bag and eating it.

    If you pass this recipe on please give me credit.

  • Maxnmy's@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’ll share my recipe since it isn’t in the book.

    Block of Smoked Tofu

    Preparation: cut open the packaging with a knife, put on a plate, and eat with your hands.

    Smoked tofu tastes good enough to eat it by itself, and it’s a great source of protein and fat.

    • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I tried tofu once. I didn’t super love it, but I’ll give it another shot

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        There are so many different types of tofu and different ways to prepare them that all taste vastly different. That stuff is basically a blank canvas.

      • maccentric@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I find it’s key to squeeze out the water with tofu so it can absorb the flavors you’ve adding. I place it between two plates with some weight on top (a pound or so is plenty) for like 10 minutes, then squish the plates together a bit over the sink to drain and that’s usually plenty. Fish sauce makes a nice flavoring if you’re into that.

      • benni@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah, tofu by itself can be very boring, but it really shines with the right spices or marinade. The simplest way to make tofu that still tastes great is to cut it up, put the pieces in a container with a tablespoon of soy sauce and some Sriracha (amount depending on your chili tolerance), and shake the container. Then you can use it in many ways, for example by placing it on something that is releasing a lot of steam, like rice that is almost done cooking.

        • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I’m in a motel with only a microwave and mini fridge at the moment (and for the foreseeable future) so unfortunately I can’t bake. Is grilled tofu a thing? They have some grills outside

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I also eat raw smoked tofu blocks sometimes, but try cutting it into strips and sautéing them if you really want to give it a shot. You can eat that with whatever you like your fries with. I tend to go for a sriracha mayo.

        Before you cut it up, drain any water from it, and wrap it in a clean dish towel, then press it under a cutting board or something flat for like 20 seconds on each side. If you get extra firm smoked tofu, that should be all you really need to do, but you can also toss it in seasoned flour (or a seasoned 1:1 mixture of flour and corn starch) first

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    In the Great Depression, it’s not like anyone was starving to death. Rather it was like they were eating flour paste and dying of malnutrition.

    That we are in an era that we need the SBC speaks to how bad things are. Here in the states, we don’t have food deserts, we have food swamps, where the only thing one can get is junk food.

      • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Which is great until you get heavy metal poisoning or pfas or whatever the latest one is. My local DNR recommends eating just ONE meal of freshwater fish a MONTH because of water pollution. We are so fucked.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        My doom and gloom is catalyzed by a lot of things including, yes, a novelty cookbook that appears to be made in recognition of desperate times. It isn’t the only thing that informs my doom and gloom, and this isn’t to say I don’t have hope. But it is a Goblins at the gates of Gondor kind of situation, in which a lot of things have to go simultaneously right before we’re out of the fine mess we’re in.

        • tee900@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I hear ya. But ive given up bearing the weight and just doing my best day by day while enjoying life.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            In my case enjoying life is not something that I can simply do. I manage mental illness which features chronic suicidality, but it’s been driven into me very hard that I am at fault for my grief and trauma. But having a sober understanding of why I feel the way I do, and the social forces that drove parents, teachers and authorities to treat me the way I did helps me counter those neural processes.

            This cartoon illustrates the dynamic I’ve encountered, and I hypothesize the mental illness epidemic in the US is intergenerational and compounding.

            That we’re also dealing with a couple of imminent great filters the human species is unprepared to navigate hits hard for me.

            • tee900@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Sorry to hear that. Nothing has to compound. I dont have a clean record of mental health. Ive personally improved my situation by not analyzing my position, and rather focusing on my direction. Forgive yourself as often as you need. Give up a little on the trajectory of humankind and take what makes you happy when you can.

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      2 months ago

      Accepting that’s is ok to sometimes eat a frozen meal has been absolutely instrumental in helping me reduce eating out.

      I got caught in the trap of perfect, trying to make tasty, healthy, low-cost meals, and then giving up when I couldn’t just do that every day with no experience.

      • KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Bertolli chicken parm and some garlic Texas toast is almost downright fancy, but it’s 100% dump, heat, eat.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        When I went back to college with a toddler and a baby on the way. I started feeling really bad about how I was feeding my kid. I’d do stuff like chicken nuggets with some frozen veggies on the side for example. I told someone about this and they were like “no you’re feeding your kid really well. They’re getting most of their food groups in every meal and getting consistent meals”

        • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Frozen veggies are said to be just as nutritious or sometimes even better than fresh, because they are flash frozen right after harvest and don’t have time to deteriorate. They’re almost certainly better than canned veggies anyway.

      • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 months ago

        Yeah I like mixing it personally!

        Like I have fresh sour dough bread I made this morning. I then like to use said bread to spoon in store bought curries, pasta sauces, peanut butter, and jelly. Or sometimes I’ll use it as bread for a frozen fish patty to make a sandwich. I also have a big things of rice and beans I made that I will sometimes just plop into a tortilla and call a meal.

      • scutiger@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If you’re looking for a fun Youtube channel to folliw, check out Sorted Food. They do a lot of silly food challenge videos, but a lot of them have some really good lessons for the average know-nothing cook.

    • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      just pointing out that the russian supermarkets have these for like $2-$3 per pound, basically ravioli. you can dump a serving into a pot of boiling water and then you’re done in a couple of minutes. can top with pasta sauce or even ranch dressing. feeds a while family for the cost of a single fast food meal.

    • shoresy@lemmings.world
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      2 months ago

      For any sweet pierogi, sprinkle some sugar on top of the sour cream or mix it up properly if you want to be fancy. So damn good.

    • wrekone@lemmyf.uk
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      2 months ago

      I don’t even boil it. Just put it in a frying pan with some butter, put a lid on it, and cook it at a low temp for 20 minutes.

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    2 months ago

    I don’t get this one, surely you can just buy pasta sauce instead and it’s exactly the same steps but better 🤔

    • aramis87@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      This is for people who might not have pasta sauce in their pantry, but most people will have ketchup in the fridge.

        • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          i once had a long article in a pre-internet punk 'zine about the different meals you can make with free food like condiments… salt pepper water ketchup mustard relish honey etc. it also taught how to use toothpaste as hair gel.

          it was eye opening.

      • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 months ago

        100%, some of these recipes are “scavenge for food with things in the back of your fridge/pantry”

    • ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Ahh this is not a “go buy” something recipe.

      This is a “If you are thinking of not eating because you feel like you have nothing to eat, eat this instead”

    • Cadeillac@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I don’t like ketchup like that. Fries, sure. Burger? A little. This? This is fucking gross. I also knew someone that put it on their pizza. On the inverse, I can eat yellow mustard straight

    • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Pasta and ketchup is a common meal in Paris according to the one French Netflix show I watched where they ate it and never commented about how absurd it is.

    • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Grandma’s wartime recipe is this, but instead of ketchup you add canned concentrated tomato and equal amounts of water (just full the can once with water again, helps to get the last bit out) and that’s it. We call it red spaghetti, I make it for my kids from time to time, but this variation:

      Grandma also added meatballs. Bake the small meatballs in a saucepan and when they’re done, do the tomato thing in that pan, stir well, then add to spaghetti. Can’t lose the grease, amirite…

    • illi@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I actually prefer to eat spaghetti this way instead of the sauce

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    2 months ago

    Instant Noodles Carbonara

    Cook instant noodles in a pan. Chuck an egg in and mash it about a bit.

    When the water is nearly all gone, chuck in a load of cheese (I use strong cheddar and grated mozzarella) and a couple of chopped up Peperamis. Mix it all about until the cheese starts burning.

    Eat that shit.

  • tektite@slrpnk.net
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    2 months ago

    When I discovered this cookbook, I printed it out on regular printer paper and spent an hour or two hardcover binding it with a bookcloth spine and fancy foreign cover papers with gold foil and flocking. It looks so nice!

    Then I immediately had to use it because I can manage professionally binding a shitty printout of the Sad Bastard Cookbook, but I cannot adequately feed myself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This cookbook is great!

    • Kuragi2@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      Quite possibly the most glowing review/recommendation for the book. Clearly a motivated and talented individual, but they STILL need help cooking!

  • benni@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I love the concept of this book but was pretty disappointed by the actual recipes tbh.

    • nednobbins@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You might not be the target audience. I’m not currently the target audience either.

      My wife and I are really into cooking. We have a whole bookshelf of cookbooks, a metrowire rack full of “kitchen stuff” and we use it daily.

      There was definitely a time when this book would have been perfect. This book seems to cover a lot of stuff that’s obvious to me now but wasn’t always.

      If you’re food plan is a bulk package of Ramen, any help on how to make it not the same as every other day is culinary gold.

    • sverit@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      The title is quite literal. It’s not “some simple tasty recipes”, it’s depression-level-bare-minimum-effort-food ;)

    • AlolanYoda@mander.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Same here. Last time this was shared I found a single recipe kind of interesting, but not enough for me to actually memorize what it was.

      Thinking back, it was probably the Mac and Cheese one, and I had already wanted to try to make it anyway (it’s not a very common dish in my country, or at least my circle)

  • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    Thank you for sharing this. Not only am I finding useful depression cooking ideas here but it also seems like a great “intro to cooking” book and just a “fuck I’m out of everything but don’t feel like going to the store” kind of cookbook

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    2 months ago

    Thanks for sharing! I feel like I know some folks who need this in case of emergency. Will be passing it along to several friends…

  • MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub
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    2 months ago

    I expected less cooking tbh. I’m usually at the Eat a Dill Pickle Out of the Jar While Standing in Front of the Fridge mood.

  • Pazuzu@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    my favorite depression meal is an easy rice and beans. buy those flavored rice sides that come in a bag, chicken flavor is a good default option. cook it per instructions, then throw in a drained can of black beans and whatever frozen veggies sound good. don’t even bother heating up the beans or veggies, there’s enough heat in the rice that everything ends up nice and warm. just give it all a stir and you’re done.

    the rice sides have enough flavor to make everything taste good as is, but there’s definitely room to toss in whatever spices are within arms reach that sound good.