Eating the proper amount is hard. Eating when you have low time, money, mental energy, or education on cooking is even harder.
This book assumes nothing. Do you know how to turn on your stove? You are properly prepared to use this cookbook.
Just want to share it with more folks!
Frozen pierogi boiled then fried with a little butter & eaten with sour cream is a classic
That’s the depression due doctors don’t want you to know about.
For any sweet pierogi, sprinkle some sugar on top of the sour cream or mix it up properly if you want to be fancy. So damn good.
I don’t even boil it. Just put it in a frying pan with some butter, put a lid on it, and cook it at a low temp for 20 minutes.
Accepting that’s is ok to sometimes eat a frozen meal has been absolutely instrumental in helping me reduce eating out.
I got caught in the trap of perfect, trying to make tasty, healthy, low-cost meals, and then giving up when I couldn’t just do that every day with no experience.
Yeah I like mixing it personally!
Like I have fresh sour dough bread I made this morning. I then like to use said bread to spoon in store bought curries, pasta sauces, peanut butter, and jelly. Or sometimes I’ll use it as bread for a frozen fish patty to make a sandwich. I also have a big things of rice and beans I made that I will sometimes just plop into a tortilla and call a meal.
Bertolli chicken parm and some garlic Texas toast is almost downright fancy, but it’s 100% dump, heat, eat.
When I went back to college with a toddler and a baby on the way. I started feeling really bad about how I was feeding my kid. I’d do stuff like chicken nuggets with some frozen veggies on the side for example. I told someone about this and they were like “no you’re feeding your kid really well. They’re getting most of their food groups in every meal and getting consistent meals”
If you’re looking for a fun Youtube channel to folliw, check out Sorted Food. They do a lot of silly food challenge videos, but a lot of them have some really good lessons for the average know-nothing cook.
just pointing out that the russian supermarkets have these for like $2-$3 per pound, basically ravioli. you can dump a serving into a pot of boiling water and then you’re done in a couple of minutes. can top with pasta sauce or even ranch dressing. feeds a while family for the cost of a single fast food meal.
Before I had access to the internet; These were basically my, ‘Don’t die, eat something easy’ list of relatively quick foods back in the darkest, deepest depression days (turns out my brain chemistry reacts horribly to antidepressants and antipsychotics). I was just an anxious dude that didn’t know it due to being heavily medicated.
Page 19.
"Kinda Like Pad Thai
Peanut butter and sweet chili sauce mix together to make something which tastes kinda like you’d imagine Pad Thai sauce would taste if you’ve never had Pad Thai before. It’s delicious. Real Pad Thai is even more so."
This is actually a great book! I don’t like cooking so this is right up my alley.
I expected less cooking tbh. I’m usually at the Eat a Dill Pickle Out of the Jar While Standing in Front of the Fridge mood.
But are we talking in underwear, or in pajamas? Totally different levels there
Depends on the day, might even manage half dressed
underwear, or in pajamas
What’s the difference
Leg length. Or total lack of cloth
Well maybe you can sometimes stretch your wings into “Open can of black beans, drain it, and mix in ranch” territory sometimes!
PBnJ. 3 ingredients.No cooking. Get lost with any cook book.
Incoming: peanut allergy
Nutella?
Do I look like I’m made of money?
Skip the PB.
I love the concept of this book but was pretty disappointed by the actual recipes tbh.
The title is quite literal. It’s not “some simple tasty recipes”, it’s depression-level-bare-minimum-effort-food ;)
You might not be the target audience. I’m not currently the target audience either.
My wife and I are really into cooking. We have a whole bookshelf of cookbooks, a metrowire rack full of “kitchen stuff” and we use it daily.
There was definitely a time when this book would have been perfect. This book seems to cover a lot of stuff that’s obvious to me now but wasn’t always.
If you’re food plan is a bulk package of Ramen, any help on how to make it not the same as every other day is culinary gold.
Same here. Last time this was shared I found a single recipe kind of interesting, but not enough for me to actually memorize what it was.
Thinking back, it was probably the Mac and Cheese one, and I had already wanted to try to make it anyway (it’s not a very common dish in my country, or at least my circle)
my favorite depression meal is an easy rice and beans. buy those flavored rice sides that come in a bag, chicken flavor is a good default option. cook it per instructions, then throw in a drained can of black beans and whatever frozen veggies sound good. don’t even bother heating up the beans or veggies, there’s enough heat in the rice that everything ends up nice and warm. just give it all a stir and you’re done.
the rice sides have enough flavor to make everything taste good as is, but there’s definitely room to toss in whatever spices are within arms reach that sound good.
My favorite depression meal is drugs and sleep.
Sometimes I have this just for fun, as a treat.
And my absolute fave depression breakfast is waking up on the sofa still drunk, just in time to get ready for work
Thank you for sharing this. Not only am I finding useful depression cooking ideas here but it also seems like a great “intro to cooking” book and just a “fuck I’m out of everything but don’t feel like going to the store” kind of cookbook
I can make a pasta meal under $6 that’s generally made to last. The only determining factors is what additives you can add to it. My poor man’s meal consist of the pasta (those $1 ones at wal-mart), tomato sauce (my choice has always been Tomato/Basil/Onion kinds) now the fun part is the additives themselves.
I’ve gotten imitation crab legs ($1 for the snack kind), croutons, chopped turkey franks .etc anything. You can just add damn near anything to the pasta that’ll get you through a bit. I’ve only recently been adding frozen chopped spinach to the dishes, boil them up, dump them in.
All for a reasonable price. I don’t usually pay anymore than $8 for a complete meal.
This made my night. What a well-written and kind product
When I discovered this cookbook, I printed it out on regular printer paper and spent an hour or two hardcover binding it with a bookcloth spine and fancy foreign cover papers with gold foil and flocking. It looks so nice!
Then I immediately had to use it because I can manage professionally binding a shitty printout of the Sad Bastard Cookbook, but I cannot adequately feed myself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This cookbook is great!
Quite possibly the most glowing review/recommendation for the book. Clearly a motivated and talented individual, but they STILL need help cooking!
In the Great Depression, it’s not like anyone was starving to death. Rather it was like they were eating flour paste and dying of malnutrition.
That we are in an era that we need the SBC speaks to how bad things are. Here in the states, we don’t have food deserts, we have food swamps, where the only thing one can get is junk food.
Your doom and gloom is catalyzed by the existence of a novelty cookbook?
My doom and gloom is catalyzed by a lot of things including, yes, a novelty cookbook that appears to be made in recognition of desperate times. It isn’t the only thing that informs my doom and gloom, and this isn’t to say I don’t have hope. But it is a Goblins at the gates of Gondor kind of situation, in which a lot of things have to go simultaneously right before we’re out of the fine mess we’re in.
I hear ya. But ive given up bearing the weight and just doing my best day by day while enjoying life.
In my case enjoying life is not something that I can simply do. I manage mental illness which features chronic suicidality, but it’s been driven into me very hard that I am at fault for my grief and trauma. But having a sober understanding of why I feel the way I do, and the social forces that drove parents, teachers and authorities to treat me the way I did helps me counter those neural processes.
This cartoon illustrates the dynamic I’ve encountered, and I hypothesize the mental illness epidemic in the US is intergenerational and compounding.
That we’re also dealing with a couple of imminent great filters the human species is unprepared to navigate hits hard for me.
Sorry to hear that. Nothing has to compound. I dont have a clean record of mental health. Ive personally improved my situation by not analyzing my position, and rather focusing on my direction. Forgive yourself as often as you need. Give up a little on the trajectory of humankind and take what makes you happy when you can.
There are definitely food deserts in the US.
All this talk about food desserts is making me hungry.
Seriously. In Canada too. Our countries are huge but even in populated areas like LA there are well documented food deserts.
Well Louisiana sucks for all sorts of reasons. Oh, wait. You mean the city that us anglophones abbreviated twice.
Flour paste makes for great bait. You can catch a mess of small fish with dough bait.
Which is great until you get heavy metal poisoning or pfas or whatever the latest one is. My local DNR recommends eating just ONE meal of freshwater fish a MONTH because of water pollution. We are so fucked.
Mmm, heavy metals, just like Grandma ate!
First glance of the thumbnail had me thinking this was a D&D sourcebook.
Replace the vase of flowers with a tub of Vaseline or moisturizer.
For a D&D cooking show, check out Delicious in Dungeon!
Best one: pasta in a rice cooker. Game changer
Tell me more!
Me too!
Guys it’s literally in the completely free to download book linked in this post, called exactly what it’s called here.
Okay so what can’t be cooked in a rice cooker? I do oatmeal in it too.
I don’t recommend making ice Cream in a Rice Cooker.
Challenge accepted!
Rice cookers the microwave of the 21th century
Missed opportunity to send them a link to this post.
Wat. How?? I need this hack
Some heavy hitters here
Have you been reading my diary?
Warning: do NOT overdo peanut butter on a spoon if you have a dry mouth
I need this book.
Click download! PDF is free.
I want PAY
There is a link to buy a physical copy if you like.
Some days, you need a reminder that eating anything is better than eating nothing.
Seeing this post prompted me to cook for myself, thank you for sharing this valuable resource 😊
Pros: high protein food
Cons: makes a spoon dirty
Suggested improvements to recipe: note to thoroughly lick spoon clean, or use a finger to swipe up the peanut butter.
For me, I’m more concerned about getting bacteria into the highly nutritious PB. If you’re only eating one spoonful then fine. I wouldn’t stick a spoon that’s been in my mouth back into the container though. I have done this “meal” though, but I scoop how much I want into a bowl first. Maybe drizzle some honey or something onto it.
Mix up your PB&J in a bowl. That shit is fire. Raspberry preserves are very good
Butter knife it onto some crackers. (I prefer Ritz.) The knife never goes into the mouth so I can keep using it. Does make a mess on the counter or table if you don’t use a paper towel or plate(or bowl) to catch most of the crumbs. Guess you could eat over the sink…
Why is the spoon dirty? Just lick it until it’s clean of peanut butter and put it back in the drawer. /s
Nah, let your dog lick it clean since they have cleaner mouths than us filthy humans. Whenever I’m done eating I just let my dog lick the plate/bowl/whatever clean and then it’s good to go back in the cupboard.
/s
This was the premise of one of those ‘that really happened’ reddit stories.
Use napkin for remaining peanut butter before you put it in the sink. Then it will make the spoon less intimidating to wash.
Ah, I’ve been making these recipes for decades. It tracks with my cooking skills.
I had no idea I was qualified to be a cookbook author.
I substituted a knife for the spoon and I feel like it still came out ok.
As long as it’s not a fork you’re good.
Works for crunchy. Any thick peanut butter really
Best is when you’re at the end and you bring out the spatula. It’s like a mini Christmas.
That is the most important tool in my kitchen.
You know you were gonna have a second serving anyway, may as well just skip the trouble and have both at once.
★☆☆☆☆
Substituted a knife for the spoon and caulk for peanut butter. Awful taste, horrible recipe. Do not recommend. Would put zero stars but it won’t let me.
Karen, MO
Tastes like it has a little extra iron in it
That’s the blood from the cuts in your tongue.
It’s not as funny when you point out the joke
I’m so guilty of both
