Money is so tight, I'm struggling to make it to payday. Looking for extremely cheap meal ideas that can hopefully stretch and last me until then.

Hello! I have a GE Cafe oven that is 36” wide and gas. It is taking 45 min to an hour to heat to 450. The guy who came to look at it said that is normal for a large capacity oven. But this feels wild to me. I’ve seen others on reddit getting to 350 in 10 minutes and his response was that those are standard sizedovens. Can you guys give me perspective on how hard I should fight this thing?
ETA: My food wasn’t cooking- salmon and chicken raw unless I cranked it up high. Then it would sometimes be overcooked and dry. I just couldn’t get things right and I’m a fairly decent cook. I promise I’m not just a nerd for the numbers (a lot seem to think I can just put up with it or only care about accuracy for the sake of it. I do get ovens fluctuate) High temps needed because I bake sourdough. Also it’s not even a year old so I don’t want to put up with a lemon just for it to get worse and have to replace it once out of warranty.

Sounds dumb but even after I explained it to my partner she understood. I'm left handed and hold the wok handle in my right hand and whatever utensil in my left so whenever I pour things out of said wok I turn it so the left side lowers. Because of the universal law of lefty loosey righty tighty that means the wok handle tends to untighten whenever I turn the wok

just a silly thought I had and I doubt there is a ned flanders style store catering to me in my area though haha.

Hi, so I'm looking for some advice. Basically, no matter what I cook it is fairly bland. There may be a hint of flavour, but it's generally pretty bland and one-note. I put in the seasonings and stuff but I don't know if it's just not enough or what. I've tried for a little while now to actually make food that tastes of stuff but it's just not happening. Any advice would be really appreciated :)

To add a bit of context I grew up with my mums cooking which is incredibly bland coz that's how she likes it and doesn't actually like cooking, so I guess I never learned the basics maybe.

Thanks for your help :)

Edit: thanks everyone :) I obviously need to get on it with the salt... I'm currently a student so not sure how feasible things like hello fresh are atm. I had to google blooming so I'll definitely get on that too. :)

Currently I’m mostly doing chicken egg fried rice with frozen stir fried vegetables mix or rotisserie chicken with baked potatoes.

What’s your fav thing to make for lunch at work for those of you on a budget?

50/50 ground beef and pork. We get it at Smiths(Kroger) - $8 for 2 lbs. Much tastier grilled burgers, great for meatloaf, and perfectly “substitute-able” in any ground beef recipes. Shepherd’s pie (ok, traditionally ground lamb), American goulash, casseroles, taco night, meatballs…

Pretty much the only ground protein we buy anymore. But we do home-grind chicken, 50/50 B&S breasts & thighs.

I have just defrosted some beef short ribs (1.5kg). I've never cooked ribs before and was intending to do them in my Dutch oven. Any advice on how to cook them or nice sticky recipes?

I have some left over beef stock and red wine thT if hope to use in them also.

Im doing some Christmas shopping for my brother and he has always been cutting his own meats (buying whole chickens/big cuts of beef) he has been going through cheaper store bought knifes and doesn’t have a solid, reliable knife set.

What are some knife sets/brands that have sharpness V and unbreaking IV?

In all seriousness, I want to find a knife set that has a knife that can handle heavy duty cutting and one for some regular day to day use. No need for $2000+ knife sets

I am visually impaired and no longer drive, so I have been having my groceries delivered. It is wonderful to have this option. However, I have noticed that it is not unusual that if I have canned food, at least one of the cans is dented when it gets to me. My mom always acted like a dented can was dangerous to eat from so I never know what to do. It’s very likely that the person doing the delivery was just not careful and knocked it against something else and dented it themselves. Is there something I should be worried about?

This is my first time buying Zaatar and I was overwhelmed by all the varieties. Below are the ones available in my local store in Canada:

• Tamam Zaatar
• Green Thyme Mix by Alahlam
• Green Zaatar by fourseasons
• Zaatar Lebanese Extra by Daaboul Sons
• Mixed Lebanese Thyme by Ossraty

Also, thyme is listed as an ingredient. Is this thyme same as the one Canadian supermarkets sell or different one from middle east?

Hi, in the past year and a half I've became a little bit obssesed over roses, I really like the smell, and the flavour, I'm thinking of making some rose-flavoured ice cream, is this to difficult? Should I start with something less ambicious?

Hi there. I’m hosting a family dinner Friday and am smoking pork tenderloin. I’ll likely to a berry chipotle jelly coating. What two sides would you do with it? It needs to be something I can prep early morning then heat up at dinner.

Thank you!!

Hey y'all! Exactly what the title says. My birthday is coming up and I think my husband wants to cook for me. Now we don't have an oven currently but I do have a crockpot so yes it does unfortunately have to be made in there.

Thank you in advance :)

Forgot greek yogurt in my grocery order, thinking of using light mayo instead, and adding extra lemon juice to make up for the lost acidity. Thoughts?

I know the classic Julia Child recipe calls for blanching your bacon, but I've seen people saying that modern bacon has less salty/smokiness so there is no need to blanch it. What do you recommend?

I was preparing a dinner of Annie's Shells & White Cheddar, and when I opened the box, I discovered not one, but two packets of powder for the cheese sauce mix.

Obviously I could just cook some regular boxed pasta, mix up the extra packet of powder, and add it to that, but it feels like I should do something more interesting/unconventional with this unexpected surprise. Any suggestions?

(Keep in mind that I'm the kind of person who prepares and consumes an unadorned pot of Annie's Shells & White Cheddar for dinner, so my culinary tastes are not particularly refined. There's a high possibility I'll have to purchase any necessary extra ingredients specifically for this, so I don't want to go too crazy.)

You know those single serving cups of HH? I love them. I would very much like to make my own, using freeze dried ground beef, elbow macaroni, cheese powder, and tomato powder, etc. I figure it should work nicely in a 1 cup mason jar, vacuum sealed. Anybody have any input on how to go about doing this, and proportions?

I tried making my own sausage rolls using puff pastry, but it’s a lot flakier than the ready made sausage rolls you can get at supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, even though the ingredients say they use puff pastry. I do like the flaky type of puff pastry but I also like the texture of the supermarket ones.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated!! :)

It's one of the most memorable parts of the movie, they are going through the jungle and Chef wants to stop to find some Mangos to make 'Mango Cream Pudding'

Anyone ever made anything like that?

Hey so I made some pickles two weeks ago (cucumber & carrot) by putting them in a water-vinegar-sugar-salt mix (found the recipe online)

And I stored it in the fridge after a day bc i was worried it would go bad.

I tried using it for the first time last night but when i opened the jar the liquid was sizzling and it didn't smell like pickles just wet bad vegetables.

Is that the pickles going back or just a step in the fermentation?

Just as the title says; looking for the best desserts you've had for fall to give myself some more inspiration to make something.

I found a recipe for black bean burgers that I really like. However, they end up falling apart when heating them up. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? (Im pretty novice at cooking.)

Recipe is
- 2 cans of black beans
- 1 onion minced
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 carrots shredded
- 1/2 cup of quick oats
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste

Combine onions and garlic. Cook. Add carrots and spices. Cook.

Drain and rinse beans and mash in a bowl. Add oats and contents of previous step. Mix and form into patties. Place in freezer for 30 minutes then cook.

Edit: thanks for the input. I think I will make labneh-free enchiladas.

I have a potluck to go to this weekend. I also have a big stack of corn tortillas and a container of labneh with za’atar and olive oil (it’s really good! Vaguely reminiscent of French onion dip). I was thinking of making enchiladas with a filling of labneh and maybe onions, tofu, roasted cauliflower, black beans, mushrooms, cheese, or something like that. With some tomato-based sauce on top? Looking to stay vegetarian. My issue is that I’ll eat anything and so I’m not a good judge of whether something is interesting fusion cuisine or just a weird mishmash. What do you guys think?

Does anyone have a recipe that is like the now discontinued McCormick slow cooker stroganoff?

We miss it something fierce.