"phaeton" wrote
>
> Starting the end of July, I will be returning to school. I've abandoned
> my original plan of working full-time and schooling full-time, as I'm no
> longer in my 20s.
> I'm still learning to cook,

By your mid 20s you already know all the cooking you will ever know.

> The problem is that I don't want to eat crap.
> So I ask, what are some simple yet effective meal ideas that you enjoy or
> have enjoyed, or employed when time was scarce? Thanks for any input.
>
>
You'd be surprized at how often one can eat meat loaf. Once a week prepare
like a 5-6 pound meat loaf, it freezes well too. Then all you need to cook
is a big pot of pasta... you get your veggies in the meat loaf. Meat loaf,
pasta, and a supply of jarred sauce is all you need, oh, and beer.

If you don't have a meat grinder get one, you will save a lot of money on
ground meat, you won't need to waste time chopping veggies, and naturally
you'll eat more wholesome food... mystery meat is awful... won't need to
waste money on costly mystery bread crumbs ever again either. Other than
like two hours cooking time it's easy to prepare a giant meat loaf plus do
all the clean up in under an hour.