in praise of food

Matt and I made some spectacular chili a couple of weeks ago.

We've found several meals that we can make consistently that use a small number of ingredients, but feed us for several days. (Chili is just one of them, but it's the best example) We started out with prepackaged things, like Hamburger Helper, and then found ways to reproduce what we like without the prepackaged stuff. (And we get to spice them the way we want to, not the way some corporate cook thinks Americans will like their food.) The most recent discovery takes this a step further. Instead of using prepackaged mixes, we switched to getting canned ingredients (canned beans, canned corn, etc.), but we've recently discovered that dried bulk foods work even better. It takes considerably more preparation, but the results are far, far tastier and feel healthier. And the best part about this shift in our cooking? Each step we've taken means that our food has cost less to create, but we end up with more food.

In conclusion: Buying food in bulk and putting just a little more effort into making a meal means that you pay less and end up with more, tastier food.