In a recent discussion on nutrition and cooking, P Ray offered to write a guest post on how to get started with cooking. This is his second guest post, after his piece on the advantages of lady boys two years ago. His take on cooking is not quite as controversial. I think he provides a very good summary, which should be particularly helpful for any man who lives on its own. There are plenty of guys who never use their kitchen but with P Ray’s guide below, you can eaily get started.

I am not a pro chef by any means, but I think I have some shortcuts to help bachelor men save time, money, and eat healthier. I was the king for eating processed, sugary and fatty food. I did sometimes cook ready made pizza and ate tons of Ramen noodles. When I was abroad (the time I began my encounters with Ladyboys) I began eating more variety but most of it was street foods. The street foods were very tasty so I left my small kitchenette mostly unused. But this got me more interested in food. Since I drank a bit, I didn’t see much weight loss. And after my time abroad I went from skinny fat to fat fat. I am slowly going back to skinny fat.

The street foods I loved so much often included noodles, thin slices of beef and many vegetables, Sometimes sea food or sometimes chicken. For the sake of this article, I will create three categories: carbs, proteins and veggies. These are not strict categories and I will ignore carbs. My reasoning is that this will be healthier but if you are a runner or cyclist, you may need those carbs. I will also consider things like beans or chili proteins though some may put legumes in the veggies category and I won’t sweat it that some consider sweet peppers fruits rather than veggies.

I began with pan frying in a cast-iron skillet. One can easily find a skillet or pan even at thrift stores or other discount store. Ask a friend or family as they often have things they don’t need in storage. I work from a small stove in a kitchenette but one could work from a single electric burner if that is all they have available. One can start quite modestly. A mini refrigerator should be able to keep enough food for a few good meals. In desperate circumstances, one could use a cooler.

Lets start with the proteins. Safety first, too build some guardrails, one could start with pre-cooked meats. That is if it is undercooked, one will not get sick. Try American hot dogs. It isn’t well known but if they are not cooked, most brands are still safe too eat. My guess is this is for liability reasons so if someone tries too cook a hot dog under a camp fire and fails, they still won’t get sick. One could pan fry this. I would recommend coating the pan with butter. Then cut it up and eat it. If carbs are required, maybe try pita bread in place of the traditional hot dog bread. After this, if you have access to a grill, try grilling the hot dogs. Notice the difference in taste. Part of learning to cook any maybe the best part is noticing how the same foods taste different when prepared differently.

Now go a step further and add bacon to the mix. Wrap the hotdog in bacon. Pan fry it until the bacon is crisp. The bacon will add grease so you may use a little less butter. This isn’t the healthiest and probably something you should not eat daily or weekly but enjoy the taste and notice how the bacon has made this entirely different. And again, if possible now try grilling the bacon wrapped hot dog. If you want sinful delight and to hell with the carbs, add cream cheese on your pita bread (or since you are sinning already) regular hot dog bread.

Next try cooking eggs. (Many who say they don’t know how too cook already know how to cook eggs.) Try frying the egg in a pan. You may like your egg a little runny or more cooked. If you have a spatula you can even flip the egg. Now, if you have a pan you can boil the egg in it. You will soon find if you like it “hard boiled” with the yellow inside very solid or a little runny. And if you want too keep going, you can break the raw eggs, mix in a bowl and add some milk. Then fry in a pan. This is the famous scrambled eggs. If you have never done this and then do this, you may be surprised that when you eat at a restaurant, eggs were mixed into your food but you didn’t realize it before. Now you will notice little pieces of fried egg that you previously ignored.

Next onto the advanced stuff…

You can bake meats if you like. I still like to pan fry them. I visually inspect “when it is done” and cook to taste but if you feel safer, you can look up correct cooking temperatures and invest in a thermometer. First, try buying sliced chicken. (You can cut up the chicken yourself but for me the time saved is worth it.) Throw one layer of chicken on the pan. You can definitely add seasoning or even marinate it but that is out of the scope of this article. (Even simply throwing on the crushed peepers for pizza will enhance the flavor.) The chickens juices will mix with the butter. And if you are not careful, some of the grease could get on you (ouch!) it will sting a bit. Carefully turn the chicken over with a utensil. And then take a piece out too taste. It should not be pinkish nor should it be dry. If it is a bit too chewy, it is still undercooked and if it is dry, over cooked. It may take a few tries but eventually you will get it “just right.”

Onto beef. If you live in an area with Hispanics, you can find beef made for tacos. This can bee a good starting point as there is seasoning added and it is chopped up or ground beef. You will see the meat go from a reddish to a brownish as it cooks. Very similar too chicken but a little easier to see. You may have to cut into a few larger pieces too make sure it is cooked thoroughly.

And then there was fish…

(Read up on mercury and decide what your comfort levels are…)

Many on Youtube say it is really good for you and I find it is more affordable than beef and sometimes chicken. I like Salmon. Again, I will cook it in butter and similar to chicken at medium, high heat. Sometimes I will pour a strong ale on it too add too the flavor! You will know it is done when you can easily push your fork through it. And it won’t smell very fishy (Please no jokes about Amanda Marcottes vagina!)

There is much more to talk about with seasonings and spices but I will leave it too the smart commenters here!

The next thing is veggies! Talking about guard rails, the easiest way to get started is find a salad bar where it is safe to eat uncooked. If you undercook it, it will be no big deal. And you may experiment. I still prefer butter but you can try cooking veggies in olive oil. After that, you can find veggies too cut up and also stir fry.

And onto frozen veggies. Contrary to popular belief, these do not lose many nutrients. And they are often affordable. What I like to do is put lots of butter on the pan, heat until it is sizzling and dump on layer of frozen veggies on the pan. Then as they start steaming up, I put a lid on it. Leave just a tiny portion for some of the steam to escape. Check every few minutes. Ideally the bottoms will be browned but not burnt and the tops will still be crunchy. Hopefully most of the water escapes so it isn’t soggy. This is a way to get some things like cauliflower and broccoli.

Now that you have a method to get a few proteins and a few different veggies you can see that you can easily have a few different meals a few nights a week with maybe two meats and some frozen veggies and some fresh veggies. Of course there are other ways to prepare both the proteins and the veggies but I hope this is a good starting point. And of course you can cheat a little and say microwave a can of chili and mix it with veggies on a day you don’t feel like preparing a protein.

Thanks again Aaron for being open minded and letting me present something different than the usual!