August 10, 2006

View Comments | Post Comment

Tips/Rant: Pita Chips and Cooking for One

I have eaten out every night this week. When you only have to feed one person, I find that it's often far better to just go out and get something than to cook for yourself. It's usually way easier, and ends up costing you about the same both ways if you want to make anything half decent. Every time I go into Publix "just to get shit to make dinner," it usually ends up costing me 10 bucks. Why? Well for one, I usually have to buy more than one serving's worth of ingredients. Furthermore, I usually also have to buy some kind of odd ingredient (like olive oil or dill) to make whatever suits my mood that day, and it's usually not a cheap ingredient. Yeah, you have residual ingredients left over, and over time you have everything you need more or less, but it still ends up costing you about the same and taking 4 times as much time as if you had just gone out to get some damn chinese food.

Then there's the issue of leftovers. You can't cook a meal just for yourself, you have to cook for four and eat the leftovers for the next three days. The main thing I hate about that is that I want to eat something different almost every day. And if, for that one meal, I want more variety than that one dish, I also have to make a side item. Again, this drives up the cost to the point where I might as well just go out and get something.

There are definitely benefits to cooking for yourself despite the aggregate mountain of cons. First and foremost, it's fun. If I didn't think cooking was fun, I probably wouldn't be a part of the EatFoo community. Secondly, when you cook for yourself you can eat exactly what you wanted and make it taste exactly how you want to as well. Also if you shop smart and make the right things, it will definitely save you money in the long run. Oh, and last but not least, it's wayyy healthier to prepare your own meals, in general.

You can also impress girls with cooking, even if you're ugly. Most girls nowadays (that I know) don't even know how to cook, or flat out have no interest. The times they are a changin'.

So anyway, getting to the food. Tonight I wanted to cook and I wanted it to be cheap. Spaghetti is a pretty awesome, easy, cheap meal, but I didn't want to eat just spaghetti. I needed something to go with it, and I wasn't in the mood for garlic bread. I thought about it for a while and then fondly remembered all the spaghetti lunches I'd eaten from the Hare Krishnas that serve Krishna Lunch on the University of Florida campus. Kirshna Lunch is technically free, but they ask for a $3.00 "donation." Social pressure pretty much makes everyone donate every time, but if you ask for it for free they'll give it to you. They actually have to, or else they'd have to pay vendors fees. They serve these great fried pita chips with their spaghetti. The spaghetti sauce has cream in it and it's a little sweet, perfectly offset by the salty pita chips. That's what I wanted tonight to go with my spaghetti, and damnit, thats what I made.

To make your own great Krishna-Lunch-style spaghetti and pita chips at home, get your favorite premade spaghetti sauce (I use Newman's Own) and add a little bit of cream and olive oil to it. This will make the sauce a lot richer. For the pita chips, get a bag of pita bread and cut it into triangles. Brush with a mixture of olive oil, basil, salt and pepper, and bake for about 7 minutes at 400 degrees, being careful not to let them burn. If you have a fryer, fry the chips. The salty, crunchy chips should compliment the creamy spaghetti sauce well. The best part about this meal though, is that you can make enough spaghetti and chips just for yourself, saving all of the leftover ingredients until the next time you want to make this.

Posted by Chris Santoro at August 10, 2006 10:10 PM | Comments (12) | EatFoo 1.0 Posts


Comments

Post a new comment


good call on the sauce. Newman's is the only bottled spaghetti sauce I can even stand. All the other ones are trash can quality.

As far as the pita chips go, I always bake them. I much prefer the hardened crust with the softer interior pita chip to the crunchy-all-the-way-through krishna style.

Posted by: Adam Rugg at August 10, 2006 11:39 PM


I've never tried Newman's Own, but I have great success with other brands, though not right out of the bottle. Ragu and Classico have turned out nicely with the following method (which basically means it has nothing to do with the sauce, it just saves you time dealing with the actual tomatoes).

I usually chop some onion, garlic, and olives, then saute that with a bit of ground beef. Add various spices (red pepper, dash of cinnamon, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, parsley, etc.). Then dump in a big jar of the purchased sauce. Add a bit of sugar to counteract the acidity. Then simmer for at least an hour. Turns out as good as if you made it from tomato paste and sauce.

I've NEVER made spaghetti sauce from the actual tomatoes. I should do that some time.

Posted by: Barzelay at August 11, 2006 3:43 AM


I also use the other brands (mainly hunts plain tomato sauce) as a shortcut around using actual tomatoes. Newman's own is the only sauce that I can actually eat on its own though.

Your method of making sauce is extremely similar to mind except I don't use cinnamon and I add some white wine.

Posted by: Adam Rugg at August 11, 2006 5:27 AM


I'm ok with any brand pasta sauce so long as it's not store brand. I usually purchase whatever's on sale--typically Classico. In any case, I always end up "improving" the sauce in my own way. Much like David, I saute onions and garlic in olive oil, then add some dried parsley and red pepper flakes, maybe chopped vegetables if I want them to cook up extra tender, and then a couple of splashes of whatever wine I have on end. I let it reduce in the pan and then add the sauce to the reduction. I didn't know that the addition of sugar would counter the acidity. I don't even know if I have that fine an "acidity" gauge, to be able to tell.

You know, I use mayonnaise instead of cream sometimes to add creaminess to any tomato based mixture. It has always surprised anyone who eats the final dish because they always ask how I made the sauce and they're completely amazed that mayo was involved.

I am intrigued that the Hare Krishnas offer this combo on campus. Considering their desire to promulgate their take on Hinduism, they typically offer dal, raita, and basmati rice. At least, that's what they did at UNC. Maybe the Hare Krishnas who usually occupy the main street corner in Georgetown should start offering meals. Shopping can be awfully hunger-inducing.

Also one can impress girls with one's cooking prowess if one's "ugly", but probably not impress them enough to get some.

Posted by: Natasha D'Souza at August 11, 2006 7:49 AM


Haha. The Krishnas here only serve the spaghetti on wednesdays and it's easily the most popular day. Every other day it's some kind of traditional Indian (I guess) curried vegetables or bean stuff on rice. We call those other days "stuff on rice" days, because we can't really tell exactly what it's supposed to be, except that it tastes good. Once school starts I'll have pictures from the 25 year-old Kirshna Lunch program here.

Posted by: Chris Santoro at August 11, 2006 8:02 AM


The cinnamon adds an interesting bit of flavor. It is important not to add too much. I forgot to mention that I also often add a bit of red wine (never white) and/or red balsamic vinegar.

Posted by: Barzelay at August 11, 2006 3:52 PM


Id like to add that I have made my own sauce straight from tomatoes before and it turns out really, really good. Everyone should give it a try. You can use the sauce in tons of different dishes and its cheap to make. Look up any recipe on the net and make it your own.

Posted by: Chris Santoro at August 11, 2006 4:35 PM


David, is it an unwritten rule that only red wine be used and not white? I just like having that reduced wine flavour in the sauce.

Chris, the fact that you are willing to take the effort to make all that tomato sauce (which you cannot really eat on its own) seems an anomaly compared to the "why I hate having to cook for one" spiel. You can always freeze leftovers and have them a few weeks later.

Posted by: Natasha D'Souza at August 11, 2006 5:48 PM


You know, I have actually never thought about freezing leftovers. Thanks for reminding me!

Posted by: Chris Santoro at August 11, 2006 6:20 PM


Are you trying to be sarcastic? D'oh :)

Posted by: Natasha D'Souza at August 11, 2006 6:32 PM


No, I should have also said that I was not being sarcastic. It really never crossed my mind.

Oh, also, I wanted to say that despite my complaints about cooking for one being contrary to making my own sauce, I did underscore all of that by saying that I think cooking is fun, all of the complaints were kind of asides.

Also, if youre making something like a sauce in a giant quantity, you can use it in a variety of things, defeating the aspect of having to eat the same thing over and over. You just have to eat the same sauce over and over I guess.

Posted by: Chris Santoro at August 11, 2006 7:36 PM


Well, if you're going to have a creamy sauce, then I guess white would work, otherwise, for my money, a tangy spaghetti sauce needs red wine to bring out its flavors. White wine won't hurt anything, I just think red wine goes better.

Posted by: Barzelay at August 12, 2006 12:35 AM

Post a new comment