A hacker's easy dinner: Vegetarian Tacos

Let's raise the level of abstraction a bit.<p>1. Heat oil in pan (until oil is hot; should flow like water)<p>2. Add vegetables (almost always including onion); cook, while stirring, until soft.<p>3. Add seasonings (salt, pepper, spices, garlic, etc.)<p>4. Add in a protein; continue stirring, until everything is cooked through.<p>5. Optionally, add a liquid and simmer.<p>This process is the basis for cooking a lot of foods, and it pays to get it down really well. Consider:<p>- Protein is ground meat; liquid is a can of tomatoes. This is pasta bolognese sauce.<p>- Lots of vegetables; liquid is soy sauce and optionally a slurry of cold water and cornstarch. This is a basic Chinese stir fry.<p>- Protein is ground meat; liquid is mixture of beef stock, crushed tomatoes, and a can of beans. This is chili.<p>- Vegetables are bell peppers and onions; meat is andouille sausage; season heavily with Cajun spices; liquid is chicken stock and long-grain rice. This is jambalaya.<p>Sure, these aren't real recipes, but once you have the above procedure down, it's just a matter of developing an intuition for taste and some knowledge of how ingredients work (e.g., 2.5 cups liquid per cup rice), and most basic cooking is pretty simple.

Needs more cumin. Seriously, it's <i>the</i> taco spice. It aint a taco without cumin. Go to your spice rack, and take a sniff of the cumin jar. Yep, smells like tacos.

As long as people are submitting easy hacker recipes, here's one of my staples:<p>-Fill a saucepan with water and boil<p>-While you're waiting, chop up one small onion and heat some oil in a pan<p>-Brown the onion in the pan with some garlic and spices (I prefer red pepper flakes, cayenne, and Chipotle Tobasco)<p>-Once the water's boiling, toss in a packet of your standard cheap-ass ramen and the spice packet (or just random cheap noodles and some bouillon)<p>-Crack an egg (or two if you want it thicker) into the mix and stir vigorously (it's easier if you scramble the egg first, but it dirties more dishes)<p>-Dump the onion pan into the ramen mix and add more spices to taste<p>Boom, you've got yourself some startup stew. Depending on the ramen seasoning you use, this can be vegetarian and eggs are a good source of protein.<p>Basically the single most important rule for making cheap food at home is learning to love your spice rack. I have Sam's Club jars of red pepper flakes, onion powder, and garlic powder, plus a big tub of minced garlic and an arsenal of dried peppers and hot sauces. These things can make a $.50 meal taste bearable enough to eat all the time. Plus the different mixes of spices give the illusion of being a different meal... if you use your imagination a little bit.<p>I see cooking a lot like hacking; once you understand how a dish works, you can take it apart and rebuild it to suit your tastes.

You could also, you know, grab a couple bags of ground beef and keep them in the freezer. Ground beef freezes really well.

Not a strictly "hacker" recipe, but hard to beat for simplicity: Hainan Chicken Rice<p>Boil a really big pot of water.<p>Put a chicken in it. Add a few slices of ginger and some scallions.<p>Keep the heat on low and poach until the chicken is cooked (about 30 mins).<p>Take the chicken out (if you're ambitious you can douse it in an ice bath), saving the broth.<p>Measure N cups of broth and N/2 cups of rice (rinse the rice until the water runs clear). Stick it in your rice cooker.<p>Serve chicken over the rice. The leftover broth goes in the freezer to start the broth next time. Over time it will intensify.

Here's one of my carefully developed hacker easy dinners, refined over a number of years, optimized for minimal prep and cleanup time, cost, and healthiness:<p><pre><code> * Family-size package of bone-in chicken thighs with skin * 4 cups white rice * Bag of frozen vegetables 1. Preheat oven to 400°. 2. Salt and pepper chicken. 3. Place chicken on half sheet pan. 4. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until the juices run completely clear, with no trace of pink, when a fork is inserted. While the chicken's cooking: 1. Place rice in saucepan. 2. Add 2 cups water (or as much as the package instructions say). 3. Bring to boil. 4. Turn heat down as low as it goes, stir, and cover pot. 5. Cook for approximately 15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed. Do not lift the lid until the end, to check whether the water's been absorbed. 5 minutes before the chicken and rice are done: 1. Place frozen vegetables in a microwave-safe container. 2. Add a few tablespoons of water. 3. Microwave for 5 minutes. 4. Salt and pepper. </code></pre> Upsides: It takes 20 minutes, it will all be ready at the same time, there are only two pieces of cookware to clean, it makes enough for dinner for a week, and it costs about $10 total.<p>Downsides: It doesn't taste very phenomenal. But, hey — cooking food that tastes good is what makes cooking time-consuming.<p>The chicken will taste better if you brown both sides in some butter and vegetable oil in a frying pan first, but that takes more time. If you don't want the carbs in the rice, you can switch in some black beans.

What exactly are 'crumbles'. Googled it and no easy joy there. Are they the same as what goes in apple crumble?<p>Actually it seems to be a feature of american recipes to list branded ingredients, they don't translate easily (and its kinda wrong anyway).<p>Sorry, english (and a bit anti-capitilist).

I agree with the cumin sentiment. I'm also a big fan of cutting up any leftover meats: sausage, bacon, cooked ham/steak; and throwing it in a pan with some onions and leftover veggies. Then, after they're all heated up and the onions are soft, I throw in a bunch of scrambled eggs and cheese and serve it on a tortilla with salsa. It's not necessarily the healthiest meal ever but you can do the same with tofu instead of meat to make it a little less caloric. In that case you'll probably need a little oil or butter though.

1. Go to chinatown<p>2. Find the busiest dumpling shop (chowhound will help)<p>3. Buy a bag of frozen dumplings. Buy two.<p>4. Buy some "chunkiang" vinegar while you're in the neighborhood.<p>5. Boil water.<p>6. Put frozen dumplings in water. Stir for a minute so they don't stick to the pot.<p>7. When the water boils again, set a timer for 8 mins (depends on the size of the dumpling)<p>9. Drain and serve with a little bowl of the vinegar.

This is where a slow cooker is HUGE. Every Sunday I throw a bag of lentils, some veggies, and spices into a crock pot for 9 hours. Total prep is 20 minutes and I have a week's worth of lunches. The most expensive ingredient is the olive oil, which I buy in jugs from the warehouse store.