Update:

I cooked a batch of lentils, just to show myself I could, and experimented with adding spices etc. I ended up spraying them with mayonnaise and eating them semi-cold. Not great, not terrible.

So today I was a little bit more ambitious: I made rice (a little slooshy but it’s the best rice I’ve ever cooked!), cooked some lentils and used them as a meat substitute for spaghetti bolognaise (with rice being the substitute for pasta). To the lentils I added frozen vegetables with fried onion, garlic and a can of tomatoes. I need to fine-tune the recipe a bit, but it tastes pretty good! This bowl I’m eating now is filling me up very quickly, and I still have a lot for tomorrow.

Here’s a photo of what I’m eating now. It doesn’t look great, but I’m just happy it turned out edible!

Thanks for all the suggestions and well-wishes! 🙏

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I just found a great cheap meal that’s tasty, healthy, easy to cook, and ridiculously cheap. I thought I’d share it as so many people have shared theirs.

I bought a bag of dried peas, added to cups of cold water, bring to boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. You now have a pan full of peas to use any way you wish. I decided to make a pea soup. So I added a bunch of stuff I had in my kitchen already: garlic, sugar, ginger powder, a dollop of margarine to make it taste not so watery, and cornflour to thicken it a tiny bit. It cost almost nothing to make, and I’ll get 3 small meals out of it (all accompanied with bread). I might try a similar thing with lentils, to build my confidence cooking with them.

I don’t have a microwave. Sounds good, though.

That sounds amazing! And really simple, and even affordable. Some chunks of cheese would make it even better, if there’s cheap cheese to be had. Will definitely try this, maybe try adding some lentils as a meat substitute. Thanks for the suggestion!

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I’m growing potatoes, carrots, shallots, parsley and dill - and something called “mother of herbs” that I don’t really know how to cook with yet.

I’ll check those apps out, cheers.

Yeah I’ll have to get creative with pasta. I can’t just eat rice, dried beans and lentils forever haha. Cheers.

I had a similar (but much more primitive) dish:

I’d pour a can of tomatoes onto sausages as they cooked. It sort of braised them. Then I’d add basil for a European touch, or curry for something more exotic. Not sure how dried beans and lentils will go, but I’ll have to try it. Cheers.

Seems like I need to educate myself on lentils and dry beans. Any EASY recipes welcome!

There are always people like that in these threads. Lemmy, Reddit, same thing. “Dirt broke and need to eat? Buy some kitchenware! It’s quite cheap if you have the money for it!” Don’t let them get to you!

CONstructed LANGuages. Languages built/created by a person or team of people, as opposed to a language that evolves naturally. Some famous conlangs are Esperanto, Toki Pona and Klingon.

Music theory and conlangs. There are several conlang communities - but they’re all on life support (or worse).

I tried it at r*ddit briefly. Oh boy. Never again.

I find petty, superficial people intolerable.

Most of the time you don’t even have to do that. I choose stations with no banter at all. Just music and the occasional mention of the station’s name. It’s spoilt me - I can’t tolerate my local FM radio any more.

Radio Garden has thousands of radio stations in one app, from around the world. I’ve found a lot of great music that way.

I’d like to see at least one of the music theory communities take off. The subreddit had a lot going for it, but it was extremely toxic in some ways. I’d like to see a nicer version of it here.