Praise the bell pepper!

      Thanks to the pandemic I have done a lot more home cooking. I consider myself incredibly lazy and preferred to just pick something up over dragging my bones to the store, actually doing prep work, and then slaving o'er the hot stove for an hour. However, the pandemic has taken all the fun out of stopping off at Subway, A&W, or McDonald's, and with the layoff, I need to batten down the hatches anyway. I started shopping for ingredients and the like and actually got some pretty good meals out of all the work. Who knew that cooking for oneself could be good?

     Yes, when I first moved out into my apartment, I tried my hand at cooking and it turned out okay. But I really was not that adventurous and lost interest in cooking at home. Convenience won out over elbow grease. If it couldn't be microwaved, what's the use? However, times change and I have begun the practice of putting meals together that usually guarantee leftovers and actually don't taste too bad.

      In the beginning, I worked with that economic favourite: ramen. However, I skipped the packet for actual broth as broth is not as expensive as... say... Chunky Soup.

Root veggie ramen - my first attempt.

   



















 I followed that up with what has become my new favourite vegetable: the bell pepper.

  





















      It turns out that the bell pepper is quite versatile. Ramen without broth, the way it's supposed to be, I imagine, is just great with bell pepper as well.

   













 Oh, and I tried my hand combining it with new yellow potatoes as a side for my smokies.

     Finally, see how well it plays with chicken patties. Yes, the patties are fully cooked and just need to be warmed up from their frozen state. I also recently discovered that fried onions are pretty good.

   So, this is my life thus far. Mom's ecstatic. She knows I'm not into cooking and this new mania is the best news she's ever gotten.

   Will I continue to cook stuff like this (or even better) once the pandemic has passed? Considering there's talk of a second wave, I guess cooking at home is going to be a thing for a while. Well, it was about time, eh?





BYE.