Tell us what you want to eat! (Calculating Food Cost)

[anon]

Alright, so if we're going to be doing communal food eating, we're gong to have to treat this kind of like a catering gig. Or I guess, treat it like they treated us in elementary school, I guess. Except I promise I'll give you guys tastier food.

So this is what's going to happen here. We need to know what all meals we'll be cooking (Breakfast, lunch and dinner? Just lunch and dinner?) and we need to know what all everyone wants to eat.

Basically, submit your suggestions of what you want to be eating, and we'll take them into considering and food costing. I'm trying to boost the food repertoire so we have enough recipes that really no one gets sick of eating the same shit over and over again.

Ideally, we're looking for ideas that are relatively simple to make and easily enjoyable (Sorry guys, no Pâté.).

Keep in mind that the addition of meat will jack the cost up.

That said, don't be afraid to submit ideas with meat in them--we're not asking anyone to become vegetarians.

Yet.

LOL JK

Things we're looking for:
Some actual nutrition here. I don't think many of us have especially expert knowledge in nutrition, but I want to make sure everyone gets what they need.

Fruit, vegetables, grains, proteins (beans, nuts & legumes moreso than meats, but we do want some meat, too.)

If you happen to have some winning recipes that are under roughly 700 calories a serving (give or take a few hundred, we can find ways to mix and match), go ahead and submit those too. If you have a recipe idea and don't know how many calories it is, just post it anyway and we can figure it out.

Food Costing is more than just figuring out what we can grow and what we can ship in at what costs, it's also costing out nutritionally the caloric intake.

[Patrick]

Shish kebabs, stir fry, salad, soup, stew,pick and choose selections of stuff.

[Mephisto893]

I'm not a very picky eater, at all. would potatoes be a viable option?

[MultiAnonymousG]

pizza since you can put almost any topping on them

[anon]

There will be a lot of potatoes. Safe to say potatoes in some way nearly every day. Hash browns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, potato salad, potato pancakes (maybe, might not be worth the effort and the oil), roasted herb potatoes, Lyonaise potatoes, shepard's pie and pretty much any other imaginable way to serve a potato. The only way I can think that I know to cook a potato that I will not serve is Duchess potatoes, and that's because they're all show, no substance.

Pizza is kind of hard to do in large amounts, without diverting to the square cafeteria sheet-pan style. But I think it might be possible. Pizza is kind of my thing.

Not so sure about shish-kabobs. Stir-fry is more likely. There will be soups, stews, and salads, but I was thinking more specific than that. French onion soup, vichyssoise, potato and leek (with bacon!), broccoli cream (with bacon and cheese), split pea, tomato puree, barszcz (beet soup)--YOU'LL EAT IT AND LIKE IT GODDAMNIT--etc. All hopefully will end up on the menu, with French onion being the one I'm not so sure about, but could hopefully make it work.

Stews as well, there aren't very many I can think of. Chile Verde, Beef stew, etc.

On a side note, most of the kind of recipes I'm looking for are easy, cheap, low maintenance/high enjoyability. For example:
Chile Verde (if you've never made this before at home, try it in the next few days. It's cheap, easy, delicious. Buy a 16oz can of salsa verde, a big hunk of pork shoulder, an onion, some garlic, and a 7oz (or two 4oz) can of green chiles. You absolutely want the cut of meat to be pork shoulder, it's the cheapest and mos perfect for braising. Ordinarily, pork shoulder is a tough, shitty cut of meat. But when you braise it for three hours, it will literally fall apart. If it's a big onion, use half. If the garlic is very fresh, use maybe a tablespoon and a half, minced. If it isn't fresh, use as much as you think you need to get the same effect. (1.5x?)

Dice/mince onion/garlic > saute onions (start cutting the shoulder into 1-2" chunks, or do this before you start if you're slow) > when onions are transparent, add garlic and give it a stir > when garlic starts to smell (about 15 seconds in) > add the salsa, add the chiles, add the meat. Cuts of meat with the bone in it are always more tender, throw the bone into the pot to make it taste better. Stir it every 15-20 minutes if it's a stainless pot, scraping the bottom to make sure NOTHING is sticking. Cook it for at least three hours on a low medium-low heat. If you have a non-stick pot, you don't really have to stir it (bu should a few times anyway, to ensure everything cooks evenly). Result: TASTIEST SHIT EVER. The best salsa verdes to use are the ones with Serano chiles. This is NOT a spicy dish, even the biggest pussies should be able to handle it. To make it spicy, you can add jalepenos.

If serving this to a lot of people, you could probably just have a big jar of nacho-cut jalepenos for people to add as desired if they want to make it spicier.

[mitebcool]

As long as it's good for me I'll eat it, it might take longer to eat but the nutrition will make it to my body.

[anon]

Haha. Would you still say that if you were looking at a bowl of hot pink liquid?

Beet Soup for dinner when I was a child often came along with the tagline, "Barszcz, YOU'LL EAT IT AND LIKE IT GODDAMN IT.".

And it's delicious. It just looks frightening, and initially everyone thinks beets are gross.

So after a while the name of barszcz became "BarszczYOU'LLEATITANDLIKEITGODDAMNIT."

"What's for dinner?"
"BarszczYOU'LLEATITANDLIKEITGODDAMNIT"
"SWEET! I love BarszczYOU'LLEATITANDLIKEITGODDAMNIT"

[calthephenom]

I like greasy fucking food. sure we'll have some health food to appease the healthnuts anyone who isn't a fatass, but I want greasy pizza more than anything else in the world.

[Data_f10w]

Well I will eat about anything, but we should go the cheapest route at first then gradually add what people want. Also if everyone had their own garden for organic foods that would help cost greatly. If we want to be a model for how a town could function I think going the healthy route would gain some attention, not saying no meat or anything cause fuck that I love steak.

[calthephenom]

Maybe we could require people to bring a months worth of food when they come? or maybe two months? just until we get on our feet.

[Moxi]

I think this is a good place to also mention what we can make ourselves

I can make from scratch, that means from gutting and or harvesting from the yard (well ok dome stuff i harvest from the grocery store... like flour and milk and such)

meatloaf, lasagna, pizza, bread
katsup, tomato sauce
jams and jellies
apple (anything?) cider, sauce, butter, jelly
I can can fruits and veggies, as well as make pickles
and anything like pies or cakes, cupcakes, even ice cream I can do mostly by memory
also Im a jr sushi chef ^^
and can make my own recipe of teriyaki sauce and im not sharing that, but will make it for you ^_^

[SPACE NAVY]

inb4 McDonalds puts a restaurant near us..

[Moxi]

you know, we can vote out any places in the city limits.... just tell um gtfo

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