Your favorite recipes?

I never use a recipe. I just know all the basic techniques, buy what I like/is on sale, and put it together however I feel. If you're trying to look like you know how to cook fancy for a girl though, just go to TJ's beforehand, buy some shit, remove it from the packaging and read the back before you throw it out so you know how to cook it, put it in tinfoil, and just do what the back said when homegirl comes over.

On the off chance I use a recipe though, I'll just google whatever I want + paleo.

Anything served in a black plastic container, preferably ordered through seamless and sprinkled with just the right amount of "eat at your desk sadness" imported from Bulgaria

Not that much inclined to good cooking. Just do some stuffs that is edible.

I actually cook a lot and here are a couple recipes that are easy enough to do quickly on a week night but also taste great and would be good enough to cook if you have a girl over for dinner:

Sautéed Chicken Breasts With Tarragon

Black Cod Broiled With Miso

Italian Roast Potatoes

Pasta With White Sausage Sauce

If you like those at all then I can post a few more, or you can also just do a search on the NYT Recipes site and check the "easy" box to find some very simple dishes.

I have some very simple suggestions (basically adapted from recipes for beginners who are time poor).

Lime and Chili Salmon - pan fry two salmon fillets (one per person). Make a sauce using ~2 limes, and mix in about a tablespoon of sriracha. Pour half over the fillets while they're finishing cooking, and let it caramelize. Serve and pour over remaining sauce - goes well with brown rice and broccolini.

Curry Salmon - cut salmon fillets into strips and coat all sides with store-bought tandoori paste (can use back of a spoon). Add cucumber and lemon juice to yoghurt. Serve on warmed naan or wraps. You can add lettuce and tomatoes if you'd like to bulk up vegetables.

Chia puddings and bircher muesli are also good because you take 5 minutes to make them, and you chuck them in the fridge overnight. If you eat breakfast on the go you can also take them to work for a healthy snack.

We live near a Chinese grocery and have been buying frozen dumplings. They take less than five minutes to cook and while they do have carbs, they have a good amount of protein and vegetables in the filling. Something we also do is sometimes buy Chinese BBQ meat from the local BBQ shop, and make all of the sides ourselves (brown rice, egg dishes, steamed vegetables, mushroom and gluten, bean sprouts... not all of them each time but usually rice, vegetables and sometimes another side).

Eggs and pancakes are cheap and filling breakfasts for weekends that cost a fraction of what you would pay at brunch. Boyfriend seems to like eggs with hashbrowns, sautéed mushrooms, bacon, spinach and hollandaise sauce when we have time to make it. Omelets are also good with spinach, mushroom, tomato and cheese and are really quick to make.

One fun thing I like is going to markets, spending a bit more and getting good quality, interesting stuff. Recently we found a fresh pasta store, and ended up buying beetroot, goats cheese and horseradish ravioli. Surprisingly good.

My favorites are two pasta dishes that are incredibly easy to make -- carbonara and spaghetti aglio e olio. Both recipes take less than 10 minutes to make and have maybe 5 or 6 ingredients tops.

These are the recipes I follow:

https://youtu.be/3AAdKl1UYZs

For the carbonara, I have no idea where in NYC to find that specific cut of pork that he mentions in the video ('Guanciale'), so I just use pancetta or regular bacon.

Opinion -

There are three vastly different categories for personal cooking. The category you choose to focus on will drastically effect the ingredients and process. 99% of the time, I stick to number 2 because I " just hate spending more time preparing a meal for myself when it takes longer to make it than to eat it" and number 4 because I'd like to be alive for the full implementation of Elon Musk's Neurolink.

1. Flavor
2. Speed of preparation
3. Cost Control
4. Health

Flavor - Unless you're a pro and/or don't enjoy a buttery medium rare steak from Ruth's Chris, this category will break all the rules of number 4. Usually, the flavorful category will entail preparation of multiple items with multiple steps to each process - i.e. sauces, battering, frying, etc. This will require lots of utensils and pots and pans with major cleanup.

Speed of preparation - I cook all but about 5 of my meals per week (which is still too low in my opinion) on Sunday or Monday. Some people call it "meal-prep" which is what it is, but I absolutely hate the term so that's the last time you'll see it here. Although it takes a decent time allotment at the time of cooking, it insures no more time needs to be spent cooking for the rest of the week unless you do a number 1 for your friends or female on Saturday night. To properly execute this method, one should cook meal items requiring different cooking methods (broccoli - microwave, chicken - oven, eggs - stove top). Simple seasonings are also necessary to reduce cook time.

Cost Control - If you track spending in any sense, as I would desperately hope anyone frequenting this website would, you know that food makes up a massive portion of your spending. Thus, why not go for the less expensive options? Unfortunately, most of these more cost effective items are much less healthy. However, you may see a decrease in cook time with this item as many less costly food items tend to be somewhat pre-prepared.

Health - This category will be more time intensive and acquiring great flavor will take time, trial and error. Plus, there are many different versions and definitions of "health" food out there. I see it as food with low fat, low sodium, slow digesting carbs, and high protein. Most easy flavor is achieved by using the opposite of what I just listed, so it gets tricky. Normally, people tend to use creative spices and tenderizing techniques in order to trick the pallet with these health foods. Through my experience, there are a very limited number of truly healthy foods sold in stores and the ones that can be found tend to be a little more costly. This reduced demand is undoubtedly due to the unappealing nature of these healthy foods in our short term gratification oriented world.

Disclaimer - there are exceptions to all of these

Nice piece of steak. Salt, Pepper (optional sprig of fresh herbs) Step 1: Season steak Step2: Eat steak

Optional: Cook steak.

Banana pancakes and cheese red velvet cake.

Lemon pepper chicken and fried avocado. So many calories but so good.

Better question for my girlfriend.

Fried Chicken, with hot sauce, and Purple drank, none of that juice bull shit. Keeps me on samurai mode all day.

Buzzfeed itself can die a slow and painful death, but ill be damned if i don't waste an ungodly amount of time finding new stuff through their Tasty Channel. Some of the ratios they use are suspect, but overall if I'm looking to try and make something for the first time it's a good place to check out. Nashville hot chicken and korean fried chicken are solid go-to's.

I also was lucky enough to take possession of my great-grandmother's old spiral cookbook (it was one of the few possessions she brought over from Germany when she immigrated here) which has been worth its weight in gold when it comes to impressing the ladies on a date night.

https://www.youtube.com/user/gordonramsay/videos

I follow this. Not his random snippets from his TV shows, but he has this really great show where he shares tips and techniques for a quick meal. Combine this with practice and you can impress the skirts off any woman.

I fucking love it when sous vide ing (sous viding? sous vide-ing? sous videing?) everything. Steak. Chicken. Fish. It just makes everything come out so damned evenly cooked and perfect. Quick sear on the pan or grill afterwards and it's flavor heaven. For anyone who cooks on a regular basis and hasn't yet heard of sous vide, look it up right now.

Easy recipe boil 1 ripe banana for 1.35-2.00 minutes in microwave. Try it.