Cooking for yourself

[DANEgerous]

Fried Rice is pretty fantastic as you can make it around 40 millions ways.

You only need 4 things rice (best leftover) Protein, a couple vegetables, and Soy Sauce. Take those things an put them in a pan along with what ever you want. Pasta is easy for sauce all you do is put herbs and tomatoes in a pot let it simmer on a fairly low heat and blend.

Tacos are the most simple thing in the entire universe to make just get taco seasoning and brown that with meat and put in a tortilla or a Taco shell.

Eggs are absurdly simple, you can literally add some spices crack an egg into a mug and bake it for 15 minutes, just make sure you can put the mug in the oven and not have it melt. scrambled are are so easy I made them at age 7, my favorite thing for them is Chorizo

I like everything this guy though a few recipes may be fairly difficult. makes https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes
I like everything this guy makes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3bz3gmePTs
I am making this to night, I replace the Mayo with Yogert and add Cayenne. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Artichoke-Chicken/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=artichoke%20chicken&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe&soid=sr_results_p1i2

 

[Risingblade]

Beef Stragonoff is always tasty and easy to make

 

[OneCatch]

Any suggestions? Anything in particular you guys like making or having made for you?

A few quick suggestions:

Cheese and Tomato Pasta:

Put a pot on the boil for pasta. (If dried pasta put in to boil at start, if fresh put in after adding cheese below)
Chop up a clove of garlic or three, fry till golden in pan.
(Add any other diced veg you want)
Add a tin of tomatoes.
Simmer, add basil and/or oregano
Add whatever cheese you like (Cheddar, mozzarella, goats cheese, etc)
Simmer for a few mins until cheese melted, maybe salt a bit.
Mix with pasta and serve.

Naan Bread Pizzas:

Put oven to about 200 Centigrade
Spread pizza sauce on naan bread, add mozzarella and cheddar
Add whatever other toppings you want, cook for about twice as long as the naan bread packet says.
You should end up with something very like a homemade pan pizza in about a quarter of the time and effort!

Fajitas:

Heat a pan quite hot with plenty of oil.
Add chicken (I'm veggie so I use quorn, or you can skip this completely if you just want veg). Should sizzle quite aggressively, make sure to stir continuously.
Fry whatever other veg you want under a reduced heat until done.
Add some spices of your choice or use one of those premade flavour packets.
(Either add half a tin of tomatoes at this point, or have some salsa handy for when you serve it up)
Warm some tortilla wraps in oven or under grill.
Stuff and serve wraps with salsa, sour cream, cheese

Spinach and Chili Pasta:

Put a pot on the boil for pasta. Use tagliatelle, linguine, or spaghetti for best results (If dried pasta put in to boil at start, if fresh put in when adding spinach below).
Finely dice a chili or two and enough garlic to match.
Lightly fry, being careful not to burn the garlic. Olive oil works best.
While frying, finely dice a 300-500g bag of fresh spinach (NOT frozen).
When garlic is turning golden, add the spinach and stir thoroughly. Add a pinch of parsley if you want.
Thoroughly mix the pasta into the spinach, serve with grated cheese (either strong cheddar or a parmesan-style hard cheese)

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Generally, just try to mix it up a bit. It's healthier, certainly compared to microwave meals, and might well be cheaper overall. Also, sticking to any one base (pasta, rice, bread) will probably result in you getting sick of it, and by extension, sick of cooking. Try to avoid that!
I wouldn't actually bother with cookery books because they tend to go with more... ostentatious recipes which can be a bit of a chore to make. Various websites collate easy or quick recipes which are a lot more suitable for quick pragmatic cooking at the end of a day's work or something.

I actually enjoy cooking - it's relaxing after work, but if you find it boring then listen to music or have the TV on in the background or something while you do, so you don't start to resent the amount of time it takes.

 

[SexyGarfield]

I've always been super intimidated by the thought of making Indian food at home until I tried making Baingan Bharta. It is great if you have been lacking vegetables from your diet lately because while it is almost 100% vegetables (including fruits and herbs) because of the roasted eggplant it has a meat like hardiness.

Spoiler: The New York Times has an excellent recipe

Ingredients

2 pounds eggplant
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I use butter or ghee just because I hate the taste and smell of vegetable oil)
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 fresh hot green chile like a jalapeno, or more to taste (discard seeds for less heat) (Porblanos are good too, or any local hot pepper really)
1 pound fresh tomatoes, chopped (Canned are almost as good, less work, and much cheaper)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, thin stems included (I just twist and rip the whole bunch into pieces to save time)
2 teaspoons garam masala

Preparation

1) Prick the eggplant with a thin-blade knife. Grill over or next to very high heat, turning as necessary until the skin is blackened and the eggplant collapses. Or broil, or roast on a heated cast-iron pan in the hottest possible oven. It will take about 20 minutes. (I throw the chopped peppers and sometimes the chopped onion after tossing in butter or oil at this stage to save cook time)

2) When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, peel (this will be easy) and trim away the hard stem. Chop or mash in a bowl, with lime juice. (The eggplant will be so soft that simply stirring with a fork for a bit will mash it)

3) Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat; add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and chiles and cook for another minute. Add the tomato, turmeric and salt. Cook until the tomato is soft, 5 minutes or so. (if you roasted the onion in the oven it might need some sauteing before it softens up. If so, do it and when it is done skip added the peppers until after the tomato)

4) Stir in the eggplant puree and cook, stirring, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and garam masala and turn off the heat. Serve hot with warm chapati bread or pita, or over rice.

It probably only takes about 20-25 minuets of actual work. If you want to go the extra mile as far as something to serve it on goes you could make your own chickpea flour crepes.

Spoiler: Socca recipe

1 cup (130g) chickpea flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (280ml) water
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

freshly-ground black pepper, plus additional sea salt and olive oil for serving

1. Mix together the flour, water, salt, cumin, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Let batter rest at least 2 hours, covered, at room temperature.

2. To cook, heat the broiler in your oven. Oil a 9- or 10-inch (23cm) pan with the remaining olive oil and heat the pan in the oven.

3. Once the pan and the oven are blazing-hot, pour enough batter into the pan to cover the bottom, swirl it around, then pop it back in the oven.

4. Bake until the socca is firm and beginning to blister and burn. The exact time will depend on your broiler.

5. Slide the socca out of the pan onto a cutting board, slice into pieces, then shower it with coarse salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

6. Cook the remaining socca batter the same way, adding a touch more oil to the pan between each one.

 

[shogunblade]

I love to make an omelet, those are amazing, especially if you like veggies in your food, you can have fun with them, and a little hot sauce with some aren't too bad.

I also love making Potatoes O'Brian. Potatoes are cheap, a little bit of butter or olive oil, plus throw some bell peppers or something else with that, if you can operate an oven top and a knife, it's rather easy and a lot of fun to make. I make them probably 1-2 times a month, especially if I am in the apartment by myself.

 

[CaptainMidlands]

Stews and Caseroles are all ways a good option for me, I like to once a month make a big batch and then simply put 5-6 plastic containers of it in the freezer, simply take them out when you fancy one and reheat it in the oven in a oven dish and your good to go.

Best thing about Stew is it's easy to make and keeps for a month or two easy and the ingredients can be whatever you have left over. Find you have some corned beef in the cupboard, throw it in. Find a couple of Onions and potatoes, you have the makings of a stew right there

 

[Gorrath]

My advice? BUY A SLOW COOKER! A nice sized crockpot works wonders. I make dozens of totally different dishes in it. Most of them involve just a few steps and you leave it to cook all day. Once home, wham-o, dinner's already ready. I make killer chili in mine all the time. Caribbean pepper pot is amazing, especially with a a nice kahlua cocktail to drink. Beef stew? Crockpot. Curried chicken? Crockpot. Salsa con queso? Crockpot. Honey-garlic chicken thighs? Crockpot. It never ends!

Ditch your microwave and replace it with a toaster oven, I implore you! There's many wonderful things you can make fast in a toaster oven, like endless toasted sandwiches (tuna being my favorite.) I ditched my microwave a decade ago, got a toaster oven and never looked back. Believe me, almost anything you'd normally microwave can be done almost as fast in a toaster oven and does not taste like crap.

quick edit: Sorry for any disasterous use of grammar. I am quite deep into a bottle of Tempranillo.