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Hey TLers, I need some ideas for decent, inexpensive, filling food that's simple to prepare...
For the past year I've been mostly eating pasta, rice and potatoes with some salad/eggs/beans/chicken/hotdogs and I'm looking to get some more variety and need TL's expert advice  .
The one thing that's really important for me is the ability to cook in bulk, I'm not going to cook everyday and I do not want to cook something for 30 minutes and eat it in 10 minutes. I need something that will last a few days and not too complicated.
Don't need tons of ingredients and all the fancy stuff. When I cook chicken I just put some salt, throw it in the oven and it's done. That's more along the lines of what I'm looking for, just more variety.
Some stuff I'm considering: Toretellinis, Perogies with meat/potatoes, ground beef patties, what else would you suggest?
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You've pretty much covered all the cheap bulk foods. Try different types of sandwiches maybe? Those are very easy. Eggs for scramble/omelettes, tortillas. Lasagna takes a bit longer to cook but you'll probably make enough to last a few days.
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Like Newbistic said Lasagna is actually a great choice, especially if you're content with just using jarred sauce. They even sell Lasagna noodles that you don't need to boil beforehand so you can throw together a whole tray of Lasagna in a few minutes, pop it in the oven, and then eat it for days.
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How bout burritos? You can make beans and rice in bulk and add whatever meat (chicken is good) and fillings interest you (sauted onions and peppers are easy) and you can roll up a week's worth of burritos for very little $$. For even more variety you can make breakfast burritos also. Some eggs, potatoes, and chorizo can all be made in one pan and make a kickass breakfast burrito.
Mmmmmm, I think I'm going to do this tomorrow. My mouth is watering just writing this... 
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Oh I like this thread! I've always wanted to do bulk cooking, being too lazy to plan a menu for the week since I live alone at school, but I end up eating frozen food which I wish I didn't do.
One thing I have done before is cooking a bunch of fried rice/stir fry deal. Pretty simple, but can be hard to make a large amount (I only ever was able to make 2 or 3 meals worth because my wok wasn't big enough. Also it can be healthy since it's mostly veggies and you can put in whatever you like, and the quality doesn't matter because it can be drenched in Sriracha sauce!
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Crock pot. Meat + veggies + spices + minimal work = days of food. Alternatively, you can just fry meat and veggies in a pan with some spices. Shepperd's pie is really easy and really good too.
For meat, look for stuff on sale. I usually buy ~1kg packages of beef/pork/chicken for about $6.
I don't really make this anymore, but baked perogies are one of my all time favourite recipes. I suggest substituting sausage for bacon
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Some good suggestions thus far! I need to get some extra cookware though, that's for sure heh.
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stews soups and casseroles seem to fit your description best. for a beef stew you basically brown the beef then take it out, fry some chopped onion then pour stock in, get to boil, put veg in to cook, season, put beef back in, wait a bit then eat for the next few days.
casseroles can be done really simply too, my favourite recipe is a spicy tomatoey chicken casserole. i just brown the chicken with a little onion then put in a dish with the sauce and whatever veg you want, i usually just have sliced peppers and some kind of beans. for the sauce i do something thats like half tomato half chicken stock but then with a few fresh tomatoes/tomato paste as well but if you want to keep it simple you can do without. i usually flavour this with a bunch of chilli, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, parsley, garlic and a little thyme but basically just mess around with how you want it to taste or find a better recipe somewhere on the internet
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Perogies would be pretty sick. Personally I love cooking Mr.Noodles packets or ramen... but I try not to eat it too much because its loooooaded with sodium.
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EPT
