I've been trying to cook for myself and be frugal about it...

I've been trying to cook for myself and be frugal about it, but I swear to god if I have to eat anything that mostly consists of fried or baked potatoes again I'm going to fucking kill myself.
Are there any other general-purpose foods I can make with a handful of ingredients? Rice is unfortunately out, I don't have a rice cooker yet and the only pot with a lid is a big ass saucepan, and I don't really want to fuck up 4 cups of rice and have to eat it

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Pasta. Here ya go: cooking.nytimes.com/topics/our-best-pasta-recipes

Just use less rice then. What, will the pot immediately self destruct if you don't use all its volume area?

You can cook a small amount of rice in a large saucepan OP.

Also: beans. Cheap, delicious, and nutritious. You can flavor them all sorts of ways.

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buy 10 lb bag of rice at local store for 5 to 15 dollars.

This.

Rice is easy to cook in a pot after a couple of tries.

You can infuse rice with just about any flavor and its filling.

Brown rice is one of the easiest fucking things to cook.

>2 cups of water in the pan, bring to boil
>turn heat down to lowest setting, throw in 1 cup of rice and put the lid on
>wait 45 minutes
>take off heat and rest 10 minutes

There ya go, fucking rice. Add a boullion cube when you put the rice in if you're a rich boy like me.

a decent pot/saucepan shouldn't be more than $10-15. throw coins into a jar if you have to.
Also rice and beans are literally two of, if not the best, culinary tools you have since a bullshit amount of the human population subsist off the stuff. What that mean to you?
RECIPES MOTHER FUCKER!

I keep trying to imagine how there is a human skeleton inside that thing somewhere. Look at the photo and try to picture. It makes me really uncomfortable.

Congealed, solidified fat is stronger than bone.
BEWARE THE HAMBEAST

Get a small Pyrex bowl and some foil.

You can make retard proof rice in the oven really easily.

You can get a long way with fried sandwitches... also, look into things like congee rice, and polenta s staples...

Volume is area in 3 dimensions senpai

But not as dumb as OP at least. You can't be to retarded to fuck up rice AND think you can't cook 1 serve in a big pot?

Explain that.

You can also cook rice in the microwave with a pyrex bowl and plastic wrap or a plate over the top.

Pasta is probably easier though.

It's fucking rice, if you've never cooked before which seems to be the case just taste tests every minute or two. Even if you do manage to fuck it up it's $2 a kilo.

There are also usually instructions on the back. I.e. boil for 5 mins.

Beans you fucking dope, it's the magical fruit.

They last for a long ass time dried, and they are delicious when you combine it with Chicken Stock and cheap meat.

Just search for a Red Beans recipe and get yourself a bottle of hot sauce. You'll be in poor boy's flavor heaven.

I highly suggest researching Creole/Cajun food. It's a blend of almost every culture and perfected by dirt poor white and black people in Louisiana. It's a terrific type of food when every penny counts.

You can literally get a pot suitable for rice at the thrift store for like $1.50. 2:1 ratio water to rice, add to boiling water, don't fuckin touch it for 20 minutes, then you have rice

Yeah, using a pan that is too large for the volume will fuck up your rice if you cook it in the traditional manner.

You could try this method:

1. rinse rice
2. add rice to pan of boiling water (any volume of water it doesn't matter)
3. boil rice for 10-15 minutes (varies by type)
4. strain rice from boiling water
5. place strained rice back in pan
6. cover and let sit 20 minutes on counter

Works pretty good. You can google more in-depth instructions.

Anyway. General purpose foods. You mean like simple recipes? There are tons of really simple pasta dishes, casseroles, soups, stews, chowders, pies, etc. that only require 3 or 4 ingredients.

did this and it burnt wtf

because you actually listened to this numbnuts suggesting 45 minutes when literally everywhere else says 10-25

Actual brown rice takes at least 35 minutes to cook, this isn't minute rice.

"actual brown rice"
Wtf are you trying to boil it in slowly though? Actual brown water?

yeah that guy gave bad advice.

and this guy must be talking about par-boiled rice or something.

boil lots of water in one pan. in a second pan, preferably with a heavy bottom, saute brown rice with oil until the rice is nice and hot. add 1.5 cups of the boiling water to the rice. cover and let sit completely off heat for a minimum of 45 minutes. It doesn't hurt to let it sit longer, but if you remove the lid too early and release steam and heat, you can fuck up the rice.

I've found cooking various volumes of rice from 1 cup to 100 lbs that there isn't actually a perfect ratio for water to rice or heating variations. For large batches of rice, if I used 1.5:1 water to rice ratio, it would turn to absolute mush, not to mention 2:1. I generally use 1.25:1 for anything over 10 cups of dry rice. How much heat is retained by the volume of rice and how much moisture is lost all effect the way the rice cooks in degrees that scale with volume of rice you're cooking. Cooking small batches like 1 or 2 cups of rice tends to be a bit difficult to retain heat reliably, and I strongly advise against steaming rice with a burner still on under the pan, even at a low temperature.

My best advice for cooking small batches of rice are:

1. use a heavy pan
2. measure water after it boils and not before
3. use 1.25:1 ration water/rice for dryer rice, 1.5:1 for wetter rice.
4. get a tight seal to prevent moisture from escaping (you can foil or plastic-wrap that shit)

Trust me I have cooked hundreds of thousands of pounds of rice.

You're a fucking idiot, I said "brown rice".

You cook rice totally differently from how I do I guess. I use far more water (2:1 water to rice) which is why I cook it on low for 45 minutes. I prefer a low-effort approach when I'm making brown rice and I don't really care if it turns out sticky.

Now if I'm making basmati or something, that's different.

For meat go for organs especially hearts I actually have a couple marinating for the grill tomorrow