Lazy Bachelor Tips
First, don't be confused; "laziness" comes in various forms... Maybe "Busy" is a better term... certainly too busy for dish-washing.
Actually, these are kinda hard to sort; e.g. Dishes and Meals often go hand-in-hand...
Remember: Reduce *Reuse* Recycle
Dishes
Put tonight's dishes in the fridge for tomorrow
Got a half-cut tomato? Throw that knife in the fridge with the tomato)
Pan full of several days' worth of spaghetti? Fork and plate in the fridge.
Make sure all the noodles are outta that ramen-bowl/cup and just let it dehydrate 'till next time.
Save those lidded peanut-jars... they're handy for storing half-used cans of olives, chopped onions, etc. No need to wash 'em first (or after, just throw 'em in the recyc afterwards).
Meals
Spaghetti: sauce doesn't need to be heated in a separate pan, just open the jar and throw it on the hot noodles right in the pot. (Dump out that water first!) Pot + Lid = Good for storage, too.
Ramen: save those otherwise-scraped-clean jars of salsa, tubs of cottage cheese, jars of peanut-salt, skins, and little chunks, even jars of peanut-butter,.. Boil the noodles right in a mug in the microwave. When the noodles are soft, pour a bit of the water in one of those otherwise-empty food containers (careful, it's hot! it's never happened to me, but the heat-shock could shatter glass, whatnot). Put the lid on, loosely, shake lightly in a towel, releasing the hot air as necessary, until all that dried-up salsa at the rim or all that peanut-butter lining the jar has released... pour back in with the noodles, add the flavor-packet, enjoy. (Peanut-Chicken Soup, Spicy-Chicken Soup, Cream of Chicken Soup... the list goes on.) And those jars/tubs are darn-near spotless for recycling.
Cottage Cheese goes great with a tomato, chop that tomato right into the tub, salt and pepper it, eat-up. (Remember to save the "empty" container for Ramen!
Toaster-Oven hot-dogs and Fries: Line that drip-pan with fries (seasoned-salt?), two dogs on the rack above, turn it to "Dark", When it's done, rotate the dogs a quarter turn, repeat until sufficiently blackened. (I like it when they're black on all sides and they split down the middle). Somehow it seems the timing works just-right for the fries, as well (no need to flip 'em in the process).
Fried Onions go great with dang-near everything, and mushrooms as well
Rice (because I always forget): 2 parts water, 1 part dry rice, boil, then turn down to the lowest temperature setting and let sit until the water's absorbed. (maybe a little butter or oil)
Boiled Eggs: I kinda prefer the yolks soft, if not a tiny bit runny (like sunny-side-up, but contained in the shell). Cover eggs by about 1inch of water, bring to a boil, let boil for a couple minutes, turn off the stove, let 'em sit on the cooling burner for a while. If you're *really hungry* and I know you are, run one under cold water for a bit, smash it on the pointy-end to make pealing easier (I used to smash-then-roll, but all those tiny fragments seem to get everywhere).
Runny Fried Eggs: butter, lower temp than you'd think, lid, salsa of some sort, salt, pepper... put a lid on it.
Burritos: Advanced put all your cooking-skills together in a single evening, and have meals for a week (unless you're hungry and especially lazy, in which case 12 large burritos may last two days). Fried eggs, Fried onions, Rice, refried-beans from a can, Salsa, lettuce, a tomato, an avocado, can of olives, anything else that sounds good (taco meat?)... Cook 'em all up, think of ways to do it to reuse pans without having to wash 'em between... and prepare to spend an hour filling and wrapping. (Aluminum was my de-facto but cling-wrap works surprisingly well). As you make 'em, throw 'em in the fridge, stack 'em as you go... as the supplies start to run out, those'll be at the top, you're *really* hungry by the time you're done, so when you grab the skimpy burritos off the top first they're pretty dang awesome. Then as they day(s) go by the shrinking pile gets progressively better in content (more meat, more beans...)
Mom says "Everything goes in a wrap!" Untested. "...including any leftovers from the past week"... Sounds great, in concept, but the truly lazy bachelor only has time to make a leftover-worthy meal about once every two weeks, so... spaghetti in a tortilla just doesn't quite sound right, and ham's good as ham alone, and also only exists in my home during the holiday-season... so my tortilla supply usually only exists when I'm planning (for two+ weeks) for burrito-night... It's complicated,. Maybe some day I'll be so sophisticated as to buy ham on my own... Sandwitches, Breakfast, Stew, Split-Pea Soup, etc. etc... could make for some awesome variety, including awesome breakfast burritos...
(Is it just me, or is this getting progressively more bloggy? This was supposed to be a list)
Those things...
Things I was once too good for:
Powdered Cream: Coffee is a nice treat for any occasion... I used to be a 4+ latte a day person, but times have changed and now coffee enters my bloodstream only a few times a year. But, it's nice to have around to offer company, etc. Black is great, but I do like the cream... Preferably half-n-half... but there's no other use for half-n-half, and it goes bad pretty quick. Enter powdered. It sounds crazy from my old (elite?) perspective, but next time those food-stamps come in, I'm getting me some powdered cream; ready for any (typically sparse) occasion that always seem to crop-up when I'm especially broke.
Powdered-Milk: I never woulda thought to buy it, but it ended up in my cupboard... Again, milk goes bad... powdered does not (this expired two years ago, still seems OK). I ain't gonna drink a glass of it, but milk seems a necessary ingredient for my more sophisticated adventures trying to piece together something from the cupboard (what am I supposed to do with cake-flour, dangit? Or all this cornbread mix? Fritters, coming soon).
Powdered-Eggs? Do they exist? I never seem to have eggs when I need 'em... (when I'm broke and trying to do something with that dang cake-flour, or looking forward to those powdered "blueberry" cup-cakes...)
Heh, they call these things "Staples" which I thought was just another use for the same word, definition #2, entirely different from #1--like "Bob" the person vs "Bob" the hairstyle. "Things that should be in every kitchen"--Staples. But yahknow, now that I think about it, they seem to be more like metal-staples than I'd imagined... well, more like glue, anyhow.
Oh, and Rule Number One: Beer is a meal in a bottle; (or "bread in a bottle") grains, yeast.... Don't skimp, those cheaper beers aren't nearly as hearty, meal-wise.
Rule Number Two: Calories are to be counted... If you're only eating one meal a day, go for the highest calorie-content per dollar... Just think about it from a chemistry-standpoint; calories == energy.
Later to be entered:
"Sink Sandwitches"
-----------
In the voice of Michael Weston:
When you're a bachellor, making any meal is a pain in the ass.
You want to make sure that there will be plenty of leftovers and that it will be as filling as possible.
When making soup, throw in a bunch of rice to thicken it up. Besides extending the meal for leftovers, if done right it also sticks like glue to the bottom of the bowl when you discover the hard way the bowl wasn't microwave-safe. If you're lucky, the bowl was just unbearably hot but didn't shatter in the microwave. If you're really lucky, despite flipping numerous times on the way to the floor, the bowl will land upright and only a tiny spatter will be lost to the walls.
That's one less meal to cook, and a comical visual you won't soon forget.