Cooking & Family Dinner - extinct? KFC Sucks!

[Abyss]

I had to teach a college room mate how to do laundry. He'd drive 3 hours back home to have his mom do it. Sad.

Same. He said laundry "was the woman's job." He also ate every meal at the dining hall, apparently because cooking your own food was the woman's job as well.

Did I mention he spent all his time in the gym and talking about how women are stupid bitches?

 

[maxandgrinch]

Real men cook and can use it to overcome stature, hair-loss, looks, income, an evil soul, shortcumming, that nasty looking harmless condition, bad future prospects, and other shortcomings.

People are lazy and addicted to corn sugar. Corn is in your food, it is in your gas - no wonder 'they,' want us to use it: your tax dollars at work.

 

[Yakoo752]

I cook almost every meal we consume and plan on doing so for the foreseeable future

 

[mike23w]

there was a marketing campaign decades ago to try and make coca cola part of breakfast - it was a failure. of the more successful campaigns, mcdonalds made huge money when they introduced breakfast. jack-in-the-box a few years ago started marketing late night munchie runs.

kfc is now trying to replace family dinner. selling convenience and low price to mom's with hectic schedules.

it has a chance to be moderately successful. there's a demand for quick cheap food and in return for clogging your kids and mates arteries you get "family dinner" - seems like a fair trade.

 

[panthera]

I don't understand the thought that fast food is cheaper than a good home cooked meal. Tonight I will be roasting a whole chicken, potatoes, and make a salad. Whole chicken at Safeway I got for $5, potatoes for a 10lb bag is $5, salad greens for a large pack is $5 and assorted vegetables is less than $5. So less than $20 and we have at least 2 meals and some left overs for a family of 4. Not to mention that we will have a ton of unused potatoes and salad greens to use later for other meals. It will take me 15 minutes to prepare and cook on the BBQ for an hour so you can't say it takes to long to cook.

Edit: I will add rosemary that I grow to the potatoes and chicken as well. Not hard to grow some of your edibles either.

 

[Yakoo752]

I don't understand the thought that fast food is cheaper than a good home cooked meal. Tonight I will be roasting a whole chicken, potatoes, and make a salad. Whole chicken at Safeway I got for $5, potatoes for a 10lb bag is $5, salad greens for a large pack is $5 and assorted vegetables is less than $5. So less than $20 and we have at least 2 meals and some left overs for a family of 4. Not to mention that we will have a ton of unused potatoes and salad greens to use later for other meals. It will take me 15 minutes to prepare and cook on the BBQ for an hour so you can't say it takes to long to cook.

Really depends on what you are preparing and the cost of good produce is rapidly going up.

We can afford the organics so we go that route but significant cost savings would be had if we didn't. For the 3 adults (myself, my wife, and my sister in law) our weekly grocery bill is about $175. This is at minimum 5 dinners for everyone, 3 lunches, and hot breakfast every morning.

last nights dinner was - leftover smoked chicken salads

tonight's dinner is greek (chicken pitas with roasted broccoli and rice pilaf, with hummus and tzatziki made from scratch) My goal is for each dinner to come out to under $12 a person. <--- way cheaper than going out...

I go above and beyond when it comes to cooking:

Our plum tree is going CRAZY right now, so I made 3 pints of Plum Jelly yesterday
we've been out of state for the last 2 weeks as well so the cherry tomatoes went crazy too and a bunch over ripened on the bushes --- those became either slow roasted and chilled to top salads with (concentrated flavor just bursts in your mouf) or into tomato paste (which I still have to run through a ricer for texture consistency)

 

[gnahc79]

Like others have posted, you can cook plenty healthy (doesn't have to be organic) and have it cheaper than frozen dinners. Definitely cheaper than fast food. If you don't have time during the week, you can do a massive prep on the weekend and prepare foods that can be reheated easily for the week.
That said, our food bill is quite chunky with all organic hippie food. We rarely go out so we trade that for eating quality food at home. Our food bill hits near $800-$1K/month for me, the mrs, and two boys that eat a lot even though they are underweight. Totally worth it if my boys inhale everything healthy like brussel sprouts, spinach, fish, quinoa etc and establish good eating habits for the rest of their life. We do let them eat sweets too, just not at a sugar coma level. That happened once at school with my older son...way too much ice cream and cookies, which resulted in him laying down on the ground and taking a nap

 

[panthera]

I agree. That's why I grow as much as I can. Then I know it is truly organic. And I want to show my boys where food comes from and how it is supposed to taste. It's not that hard to do all you need is a small space that gets good sun. My back yard is really shady and won't grow much except maybe ferns. My oldest ( a little over 3) helped me build some large planters on casters and we have a bunch of Vegs growing in the front. A little bit of labor goes a long way in getting the food bill down. That being said my bill is the same as yours but could be worse. Most people are just plain lazy. Especially here in California.

 

[maxandgrinch]

I've never understood why the basics of child care, nutrition and cooking are not mandatory subjects in high school.

Catsup/Ketchup is a vegetable. Not sure the schools have the knowledge we want imparted on the next generation.

I never understood why parents couldn't teach their damn kids how to so super basic shit like simple cooking, doing laundry, etc.

I thought that is the whole/hole reason for having kids? Parents can sit back and let them learn how to live/life; while kids learned valuable/invaluable laundry, cooking, home maintenance, master gardener skills, and oil change methods.

Part of college entrance exams should be a collage test of washing clothes (multiple colors including red), filling out a rental application, bank account application, creating a budget based on CL and Safeway ads, and cooking a three course meal - appetizer, main with veg and starch, and dessert.

Dubs is in the school stuff - he should be fixing this. Why are his professional challenges left up for BARF to solve?

 

[mikev]

I don't understand the thought that fast food is cheaper than a good home cooked meal. Tonight I will be roasting a whole chicken, potatoes, and make a salad. Whole chicken at Safeway I got for $5, potatoes for a 10lb bag is $5, salad greens for a large pack is $5 and assorted vegetables is less than $5. So less than $20 and we have at least 2 meals and some left overs for a family of 4. Not to mention that we will have a ton of unused potatoes and salad greens to use later for other meals. It will take me 15 minutes to prepare and cook on the BBQ for an hour so you can't say it takes to long to cook.

Edit: I will add rosemary that I grow to the potatoes and chicken as well. Not hard to grow some of your edibles either.

Now look at it from the point of view of a poor person. Maybe they don't work 9-to-5 and don't have time to prepare a meal. Maybe they work two jobs so you have to hit the dollar menu and get a McDouble and a Soda for 2 dollars. Maybe there isn't a Safeway nearby (and generally whole chickens there are only $5 when they have the friday deals, they are usually 8.99). Maybe they live in a shitty little apartment like poor people are supposed to do and can't grow their own herbs/spices.

Just some perspective.

 

[panthera]

Shop when they have the deals. Herbs can grow in a window sil. Cook for the whole week when you have the time. I would say a very small portion of people work so much that they cannot do this. People make excuses why they cannot do a little work.

 

[gnahc79]

Now look at it from the point of view of a poor person. Maybe they don't work 9-to-5 and don't have time to prepare a meal. Maybe they work two jobs so you have to hit the dollar menu and get a McDouble and a Soda for 2 dollars. Maybe there isn't a Safeway nearby (and generally whole chickens there are only $5 when they have the friday deals, they are usually 8.99). Maybe they live in a shitty little apartment like poor people are supposed to do and can't grow their own herbs/spices.

Just some perspective.

It's possible if only if someone really wants to put some time in the kitchen.
We have close friends where several years ago their income was just above the public assistance level (dad is a public school teacher). They budgeted like crazy and never went out to eat. Everything was cooked at home with healthy ingredients.

 

[Yakoo752]

Now look at it from the point of view of a poor person. Maybe they don't work 9-to-5 and don't have time to prepare a meal. Maybe they work two jobs so you have to hit the dollar menu and get a McDouble and a Soda for 2 dollars. Maybe there isn't a Safeway nearby (and generally whole chickens there are only $5 when they have the friday deals, they are usually 8.99). Maybe they live in a shitty little apartment like poor people are supposed to do and can't grow their own herbs/spices.

Just some perspective.

BUT there is some BS in that spin as well

some perspective

My dad worked 4am - 7pm, my mom worked while we were in school and held a night job, where she was home by 6am. (Yes, there were 2 hours every morning where we were left home alone at very young ages...)

I grew up incredibly poor - where it wasn't uncommon, if BK was having whoppers for $1, that would be our dinner.

I also grew up with dinner on the table every night - it might have been hot dogs, mac and cheese, and mixed vegetables... but it was a dinner ever night. (this is literally the cheapest meal you can make, which includes some resemblance of healthiness imho)

To me it goes back to education and knowledge and the desire to feed your kids appropriate meals.

 

[AbsolutEnduser]

Shop when they have the deals. Herbs can grow in a window sil. Cook for the whole week when you have the time. I would say a very small portion of people work so much that they cannot do this. People make excuses why they cannot do a little work.

you are beyond wrong really. There's tons of people that work 9 to 6 and with the commute it's what, 8:5x to 6:5x?
Herbs on the window sill is not enough. Go ahead, you grow them! Just a window sill matters fuckall since you can buy the same amount/quality of herbs actually. They are not the biggest necessary food ingredients.

What people with apartments and window sills need is close-by markets and/or farmers markets. Without this... which frankly doesn't exist much.. many people are "doomed"

(sorry I think those comments above of yours make you sound a bit aloof--who knows maybe all your people do really work much less)

 

[auntiebling]

I give KFC a pass because without KFC there would be no buckethead

 

[sanjuro]

But if you can get 30k if your family-inflicted injury is sad enough...

KFC donated $30,000 to the family of three-year-old Victoria Wilcher after they claimed an employee at a store in Jackson, Miss. asked them to leave because Victoria's scars—leftover from an attack by her grandfather's pit bulls—were scaring customers. But according to a new report in the Laurel Leader-Call, the whole thing was a hoax and never happened.

http://gawker.com/little-girl-getting-kicked-out-of-kfc-was-reportedly-a-1595066434

 

[TylerW]

I'm allergic to onions, my wife is allergic to high fructose corn syrup. We're both busy and we don't have wide budgetary margins. But eating processed food simply isn't possible for us, not on any time or financial budget.

You make it work if you want to. And sometimes you need to.

 

[aminalmutha]

I thought that is the whole/hole reason for having kids? Parents can sit back and let them learn how to live/life; while kids learned valuable/invaluable laundry, cooking, home maintenance, master gardener skills, and oil change methods.

No shit. About 8 y/o, I was shown how to do laundry, including ironing. If I didn't want to look like a bum, I had to do it myself, and I was not allowed to look like a bum.

Mow lawn, pull weeds, paint fence... 10 or so. Change oil.... 13-ish? This is basic shit, mang. And I was not paid for it. One should not expect payment for being a contributing member of the household.

 

[TheRobSJ]

Dubs is in the school stuff - he should be fixing this. Why are his professional challenges left up for BARF to solve?

I dunno. He seems to like having us scrutinize his personal challenges just fine. I guess we can all tell him how to do his job now too.

 

[Godsdarling]

My husband and I both cook, most times together. Taught my kids to cook, teaching my soon to be daughter in law how to cook as her mom only makes tv dinners for them. They do their chores and they don't get paid to do it, they do their own laundry have been since they were 10.

We have a home cooked meal every night except for pizza night. My girlfriends cook. Not sure where you are getting the women aren't cooking. We .99cent it at Jack once in awhile but mostly for lunch.

Out of all my friends maybe one or two of them don't cook and that is mostly because they are rich and go out to eat every night for expensive weird food

I think people do what they can afford, if eating out is cheaper then they do that. Me, I make a lot of food from scratch, heck I even do the hunting so I generally have a freezer full of food. It is cheaper for me to cook and that is the norm for my family and friends.

KFC is just trying to make it seem it is simple and easy and they will love. Good marketing. But realistically who can pay $30 for a single meal? I feed 8 every night.

Tonight I'm making breakfast for dinner, elk sausage, eggs, homemade biscuits and country style gravy that I will make from the sausage. We were all craving breakfast for dinner today