(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best choppers & mincers

Veggies unlock a world of choices you wouldn't normally try when opting for the basic 4/5 meat options. This is going to be so much fun for you.

(edit- this one requires cooking) My favorite meat sandwich alternative is portobello mushroom. They soak up flavor and have a meat-like consistency. You can bake a portobello cap in the toaster for 15 minutes with some bbq sauce, balsamic, or simply oil/salt/pepper/lemon juice. Then add your toppings like a regular burger. Usually though, when I want a true sandwich I just pan-fry a veggie burger pattie from my local grocery store. We have a great selection of veggie burgers here in the US, even at regular, not-fancy grocery stores.

(no cooking required) Something different and interesting to try is Jackfruit. It has the consistency of pulled chicken/pork/beef. You can make a jackfruit sloppy joe with bbq sauce and it will be hard to tell it's not pork.

However, MY PERSONAL FAVORITE super quick, super cheap, super versatile vegetarian to-go meal is tortilla wraps. Here's the structure for the perfect wraps:

• Get a brand of tortillas you like. I personally like flour tortillas from Trader Joes but any wraps will do.
  
• Start with mayo. I use a Just mayo and add some lemon juice to kick up the flavor. You can even use hummus, pesto, peanut sauce, just something with a mayo-like consistency. Spread it on the tortilla.
  
• Add a handful of lettuce. I use arugula, spinach, whatever I have.
  
• Add veggie toppings you like, such as red onions, cherry tomatoes, basil/cilantro/fresh herbs, pickles, olives, shredded carrots, sprouts, cabbage, whatever floats your boat.
  
• Add your meat substitution vegetable. Some good examples are artichokes (canned or fresh), mushrooms (raw or roasted), zuchinni/squash, eggplant, potatoes, beans, eggs, falafel, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, tofu/vegan meat/whatever...
  
• Finally, add your toppings and crunchies. You can add all kinds of toppings like crispy onions, sesame seeds, croutons, raisins, etc.
  
  It's awesome because with the same base "tortilla template" you can mix and match different veggies and spices/sauces to come up with variations and keep your meals eternally exciting. Some variations I like to make:
  
  
• Breakfast wraps with black beans, scrambled eggs, and hot sauce
  
• BBQ mushrooms and spinach
  
• Cauliflower Masala with peas and potatoes
  
• Artichokes with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and Caesar dressing
  
• Falafel with pickled onions and tatziki
  
• Scrambled tofu with carrots, bean sprouts, thai basil, and peanut sauce
  
• And the list goes on. Different food cultures have great examples of veggie options. One week you can be inspired by Thai, another week it's Indian, it's all about what ingredients you have and how creative you want to get.
  
  In regards to prepping, just spend 1-2 hours once a week and slice all your veggies ahead, cook whatever needs to be cooked, and store ingredients in a fridge. Then when you're ready to head out for the day, just assemble the ingredients in a tortilla and roll em up. Personally, I just put all the ingredients in a glass container with tortillas separate, and I make the tortilla when I'm ready to eat.
  
  The key is just going for it. You'll learn what you like when you start trying different things. Good luck and enjoy!!
  
  Edit: I realized after excitedly writing this that you don't have access to a kitchen. Lots of these ideas can be done without cooking. If you can't bring a knife and small cutting board, I recommend this beast for shredding veggies in seconds.. It's hands down the best device I have in my kitchen for saving time and space. - https://www.amazon.com/TOPULORS-Chopper-Hand-Powered-Handheld-Squeezer/dp/B01N1OVGWM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1537508075&sr=8-7&keywords=pull+veggie+slicer

1. As mentioned, you really shouldn't leave anything that was hot (food you've cooked, or bought hot) or cold (dairy, some vegetables (although that's more to do with wilting than safety), meat) to reach room temperature, or at least you should really try to minimise the time it sits there.
   
   
   
2. I'd recommend just dabbing a finger in each herb and spice and tasting it. Lick a bay leaf, chew on some oregano. While you're doing it, read about that what that herb or spice is usually used for, and what it's meant to bring to the dish. Also bear in mind that cooking can fundamentally change the nature and therefore flavour of things, even herbs and spices. Some things are even removed from the dish once it's cooked, like ham bones from soup, or Bay leaves, and their only purpose was to leech flavour into the dish. Just reading about these things is only going to help you in the abstract, experiencing the flavours and experimenting is the only way to properly expand your knowledge and skills.
   
   
3. As mentioned, evenly sized pieces cook evenly, and smooth cuts with a sharp knife are much safer than slamming a knife into a chopping board over and over. For things like onion and garlic, potato, really anything relatively firm, I recommend getting something like this because it makes things much easier. Get one that you can get different attachments for, because then you can have parts to dice to different sizes.
   
   On top of that, though, I find there's a lot of Zen to be found in chopping vegetables. Trying to make smooth cuts, and let the knife do the work while your hand merely guides it, and trying to keep the pieces as even as you can... I find it rather soothing. Maybe I'm just weird.
   
   
   It's good for those of us who've been cooking daily for years, even if it's just for ourselves or our families, to read stories like this now and then. We forget how magical cooking really can be.

First of all, more power to you. Working 12 hour shifts, and then having the energy and motivation to cook meals and eat/live healthy is just awesome and inspiring.

I would strongly urge you to embrace pressure cooking. Look at the Instant Pot for example. For many Americans, pressure cooking is something unfamiliar - but its strength is that it will cook most foods, even tough cuts of meats or bone-in meats - in half hour! And the way it cooks, it keeps the meat moist and juicy and you still get fall off the bone meat in a very short amount of cooking time.

Look up Instant Pot recipes online. Stews, soups, brothy stuff, beans, rice, meat sauces - all can be cooked very well with pressure cooking. See this serious eats set of recipes for example.

Another nice thing about electronic pressure cookers is that they are really good at one-pot meals. You can start in saute mode, heat oil or butter, add onions and garlic and/or celery/carrots, add your meat and brown it, add other herbs and spices like bay leaf, thyme, cumin powder, paprika etc, add stock or water, and then shut the lid and turn on the pressure cooking mode and leave it alone for 15 minutes or half hour.

And you don't even need to watch over the cooking. It will automatically turn itself off and switch over to warm mode. So if you have the ingredients chopped up and ready, you're literally done with the process of cooking after 15-20 minutes of initial sauteing, then you can carry on with your evening, and half hour later, food is ready.

And the you only have 1-2 utensils to clean up. And the IP inner container is stainless steel and not non-stick, so you can just shove it in the dishwasher after you move the leftovers to fridge.

Which brings up the other part. The biggest roadblock to cooking every day is actually the before and after. The prep-work, the chopping and slicing - and the cleanup after.

Consider doing weekend prepping. Get a small food processor or a manual food chopper - perhaps like this one. I use this chopper for onions, peppers, etc. - for anything non-squishy. Or not - just use a knife. But plan your menu for the week, get all your veggies and meats chopped and diced and cleaned and cut, put them in ziplocs or (separate) containers, and keep them in the fridge. And there's nothing wrong with frozen veggies or frozen meats either. Frozen veggies tend to lose their texture a bit but otherwise, they are just fine.

I'd recommend this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2930PY1480

Small fans like that are never BIFL though, they use cheap bearings.
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Something like this might be the better solution to your problem. There are definitely BIFL variants out there, the one I inherited has been going strong since '73 or so.

• http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Chrome-Vegetable-Onion-Chopper/dp/B001U0O37A/
  
  Industrial strength variants exist:
  
  
• http://www.nemcofoodequip.com/products/food-preparation-equipment/easy-chopper-ii
  
• http://www.nemcofoodequip.com/products/food-preparation-equipment/easy-onion-slicer-ii

Looks lovely. You can get a gnocchetti sardi attachment for pasta machines if you ever want to make the gnocchetti sardi yourself :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GDS-3TYPEATT-Imperia-Italian-Attachment/dp/B0001IXA2Q

I have one, it's good fun to make, and the fresh gnocchetti sardi pasta is yummy.

Other people have been recommending slowcookers, maybe invest in some slow cooker liners http://www.amazon.com/Reynolds-Slow-Cooker-Liners-4-Count/dp/B002U0KKK8


and maybe one of these bad boys that helps you chop and/or slice things. http://www.amazon.com/Freshware-KT-402-Chopper-Vegetable-Container/dp/B00FWLJOSG/ref=lp_289780_1_10?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1457687139&sr=1-10 I bought the 7 in 1 set when it was on sale, and I haven't done anything to it that didn't get cleaned off with a good wipe with a soapy scrubby.

I have a genuine hatred of slicing things. On occasion I have unsteady hands, and it happens the most often when I have a decent calorie deficit or around a certain time of the month. That chopper has cut... I'm going to say every onion I've used since we bought it. The only time I handle sharp objects anymore is when I peel veg.


Some questions to ask yourself when considering your path going forward:

Can I make myself clean as I go?


How often do I go out to eat?/How much do I spend on convenience food?


Would cooking at home but using disposable plates and cutlery be more or less expensive than how I eat now?


What kind of bad cooking experiences have I had? Are there tools on the market to help with those tasks? (kitchen timer, chopper, crockpot liners, etc)


What are some good food experiences? How did they stand apart from the usual blah?



IMO the most important thing you need to do right now is say that it's okay to eat the same thing like... all the time and set up a routine with that food choice. Say you want to have toast for breakfast. Get up every morning and stick some toast in the toaster. Grab it and put some butter or jam on it. Wash the knife RIGHT AWAY. Eat said toast. Rinse that plate RIGHT AWAY. Bam. Breakfast Survived.


For lunch, 2 pieces of bread, toasted. stick in there some slow cooker leftover, like pulled pork. Bam. Lunch. If you use slow cooker liners you might just be pulling a bag of food out of the slow cooker and putting the whole bag into the fridge in a really big tupperware. When you finish eating the leftovers just toss the bag and give the container a soapy wipe down just to be safe.


For dinner nuke a potato. Serve it with some nuked slowcooker leftovers.


Your biggest challenge will be figuring out what slow cooker recipe you want to put your time into.

Get a Mazzaluna Chopper i like this one Just throw all of your salad fixings in a bowl and chop it up with it. I used to hate having to chop up every ingredient of a salad but this makes salads super easy to make! Then just throw some protein on top like rotisserie chicken or leftover steak or something.

By the way, unless you really like chopping vegetables, this will be your best friend in the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Zyliss-10040-Food-Chopper-White/dp/B0017Y5LO8/ref=sr_1_100?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1454026490&sr=1-100&keywords=vegetable+chopper

My wife got me one for Christmas and it's changed my life. :)

Oh yes the flag fencing, which will deter wolves for a whole nine days. 14 at most. Not to mention the nearly $3,000 per km price tag to come along with that. Such a good investment. And sound fencing with its enormous cost is great as well which relies on the radio collard wolves only. But wait! Guard dogs! Who wouldn't want to use an animal that can be taken down by wolves as well! You do realize that ranchers also use donkeys as guard animals too right?

But none of those techniques will do anything for the average person who encounters a wolf. Why don't you take a look at the long list of attacks and casualties caused by wolves. Oh, and notice how the further back in time you get the more people there are that are eaten? That's a direct correlation with how many wolves there were. Children and the elderly were literally eaten by wolves back in the day, even in this century, not even that long ago, because we are food to wolves.

Best thing I found was one of these for like $2. They are great devices.

That's what I'm thinking. I've already done a cream of broccoli soup with potato masher, and I could see the benefit of one.

I try and keep mine gadget-free as well, but now and then there are some really neat ones like this: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-Red-Food-Chopper/dp/B00193BIZS/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1228690753&sr=1-23

Won't peel garlic, but this made my life so much more easy.
Wonderchef Turbo Dual Speed Food Processor with Free Knife and Peeler (Black) https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00N1RL7L0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9fMuybH0NZWKC

As cheesy as it looks, I love my Vidalia Chop Wizard when I am feeling lazy or need to chop uniform sizes fast. It doesn’t work great for tomatoes, but all other veggies it’s perfect.


Vidalia Chop Wizard Pro Max https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G5LVLW5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_PA9YCbJ5QCZFS

My GF and I have been really happy with our Benriner Spiral Slicer. It gets used about once a week and after 3+ years we're close to needing to sharpen the blade on it. I'm more than a little temped to see if I cant rig up a single-edged razor blade into the stand when the original blade finally dies (but it's easily removable for sharpening and cleaning).

Only complaint is that it is a little flexy if you are really wrenching on it, and it's larger than some of the handheld models. Size is great for spiralizing larger veggies than cucumbers or carrots and the little plugs at the end are around the same size as a thickly sliced pickle so not much waste compared to other models.

I cant say for sure whether it's BIFL but with the blades so easily replaceable and removable for sharpening, it seems like it'll last a lot longer than some other models.

uh... a vast majority of americans I know (I am american) don't or can't cook really. I cook quite a bit, and I also use butter.

Like literally I know a guy who doesn't seem to understand the basic operations of how to boil water and cook ramen on the stove.

There's a reason that gimmick meals and kitchen gadgets are hugely popular in america, because people are like "wow, breaking up hamburger and cooking it in a pan is kind of difficult, but if I had a special Betty Crocker Brand Hamberger Helper Hamberger Chopper, I might be able to do it!"

I don't know about your place but here it was for like $5. :P

I have something like this for finely chopping onion and something like this for thinly chopped onion.

Please tell me more about this mythical sounding gizmo!

Edit: alright, it seems this is one of the better ones:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Benriner-Cooks-Vegetable-Slicer-Professional/dp/B000BI6CZ8

I was just in a store that would probably have had a few of these for sale, if only I learned about this a few hours earlier...

Starfrit 093413 Onion Chopper (2 Dicing Blades) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00OBS5K4S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NfbWDbDZCTVA2
This is such a great tool to have when cooking. Speeds up cutting vegetables and isn't too hard to clean.
(Not dishwasher friendly)

I got myself one of these rolling mincers. I thought it was a bit gimmicky, but I ended up really liking it. It's faster than using a garlic press, and you end up with little chunks instead of a paste.

It's hard to get every last bit of garlic out, but I don't care too much since garlic is so cheap I just toss an additional small clove in. It rinses out easy, as long as you don't let the garlic dry.

This has been a God-send in my kitchen! No more dicing or chopping, I can just put it in here, give it a squeeze and it's done! I LOVE this thing!

You're welcome! As far as cutting the butter, first we dice it by hand as small as we can. Then we put it into the flour and use two zig zag cutters in one hand and chop like crazy. In a pinch, I've put some flour and the butter into a food processor and cut it down like that.

I can't figure out how to link properly on mobile, but this is the type of cutter we use.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000THCXZO/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_tbqIxbJMJHK1S

Garlic Zoom:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMQ922W/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1457630072&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=garlic+zoom&dpPl=1&dpID=41SQ01bNGgL&ref=plSrch

I love this thing. No garlic fingers!

I never thought I would say something like this. What about one of these? Or something similar.

I would get this style for safer handling...

I decided a few weeks ago to break down and actually get a yolk separator. Looked on Amazon, and realized that one of the little dohickeys that came with this (which I've had for years) was indeed a separator. <facepalm>

http://amzn.com/B000BI6CZ8

Just get a couple of these

And maybe one of these

Here