Cooking with Jennifer
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@Jennifer said in any downside to having cooked shiitake mushrooms frequently?:
@Mossy, I bet your potato soup is delicious! The bacon is a splurge I only get periodically, but I found ways to stretch it. The fat from 1 lb of it is enough to roast 4 lb of potatoes or kabocha squash, for example, then I just chop up the bacon, add it to the (seasoned) roasted veggies, add cheese, top it with some sour cream, and my dad gets at least 6 meals out of it. I get the woodland over conventional for purely ethical reasons. I’m a bad Peater—I’m not concerned about PUFA in whole foods, especially when the food is as nutritious as animal proteins.
I thought I would transfer this over to a new cooking thread. I hope you don't mind the title, as it's more creative than just "Cooking Talk".
I do think the potato soup is pretty good, but I have nothing to really judge it against. I've just started cooking with any serious schedule about a year or so ago, and that was out of necessity. So while I enjoy food, and the idea of many various dishes, the reality of daily cooking has me wanting to be as efficient as I can get away with. My lens into what, and how, I should cook is always first from an efficiency perspective, which I've adopted into a one pot only perspective...haha. (If I can get away with it.) So I use an Instant Pot as much as I can. Just recently, though, I have branched out into using the oven a tiny bit. Your roasted veggies with bacon sounds good, which mimics a classic frozen dinner my dad used to really like. Basically, a gloried baked potato. Even beyond the ethical reasons, woodland pork would definitely be better than conventional: I see they purposely do not feed the pigs corn or soy. I tend to follow your PUFA in whole foods perspective, as budget and availability limit many of my options. The more processed and refined foods get, the more cautious I am about PUFA and other negatives. As a general rule, whole food, cooking from scratch seems to be best. I don't think I'd call you a bad Peater!
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I don’t mind, @Mossy.
Making a separate cooking thread was a great idea. I like talking about food almost as much as I like eating it. 
I’m all for efficiency. I’m not about perfection, but what is practical and practicable (IMHO, this includes enjoyable if specific eating habits are to be practiced long-term), and I think efficiency is especially important for caregivers who need to allocate time for their own care if they are to continue caring for others—for the sake of my mental health, I need time on the trail regularly—which is virtually impossible to do if spending all day in the kitchen making complicated meals, something I see no reason for. There are so many deliciously simple recipes, healthy and affordable, i.e., no more costly than made from scratch, shortcuts and most of my meals are one pot, pan or casserole dish like the bacon and roasted veggies. I even use parchment paper for easier cleanup. I also have a modest food budget, and even though he mistakes himself for Daddy Warbucks, my dad has a modest food budget too because I do his meal planning and shopping for him. Haha!
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Potato is really underrated
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@heyman, it really is, and yet I just read that it’s the most consumed vegetable in the world. I went so many years unable to have starch due to SIBO that I’m making up for lost time. I currently average almost a kilo of baby potatoes daily.
