$28 lunches?

Now that Older Daughter is no longer living with us, I'm rediscovering my cooking skills. (For the duration of the time she was staying with us, Older Daughter's "rent" was cooking, and man was she good at it!) Recently I found a nice recipe online called "Sweet Chili Rice Bowls" and decided to give it a go. It was delicious, so the other day I made a much larger batch so Don and I would have several days' worth of meals.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1⁄4 cup sweet chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sesame seeds for garnish

I made a few changes to accommodate what ingredients we had on hand. I used canned chicken instead of uncooked chicken. I didn't have any red bell peppers, so I chopped up an onion. I used apple cider vinegar instead of rice vinegar.

However I would like to point out that every single ingredient (with the exception of the chopped garlic, which I canned last fall) is store-bought, not home-grown. I didn't make the vinegar, or the soy sauce, or the sweet chili sauce. I didn't grow the ground ginger or even the broccoli or onion (too early in the season). The chicken was also not home-grown. Yep, all store-bought. Keep that in mind for a bit.

Making the dish is easy. While the rice cooked, I drained the canned chicken...

...then added it to a pot with some olive oil (another store-bought ingredient). Then I chopped an onion and some broccoli...

...and added it to the chicken.

Since the chicken was already cooked, all I had to do was soften the broccoli and onions a bit. I covered the pot for a few minutes to let steam do its job, then uncovered and kinda stir-fried the mix.

Then I added all the spices and sauces.

This portion of the dish was ready before the rice was finished cooking, so when the rice was done, I dumped the stir-fry part into the rice and mixed everything up.

It's not fancy, but it's hearty, filling, and provides enough for at least six meals (three days for two people).

Now let's break down the costs a bit. Since I tend to buy some things in bulk (notably chicken breasts which I can up, as well as rice in 50-lb. bags), let's bring the prices up to reflect current grocery-store costs for the triple batch I made. For convenience's sake, I'll use the Walmart check-a-price website, even though I don't shop at Walmart since it's so far away:

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (about $8)
• 4 cups jasmine rice (about $3.22)
• 6 tablespoons olive oil (about $2)
• 2 cup broccoli florets (about $1.25)
• 1 onion, chopped (about $0.75)
• 1 cup sweet chili sauce (about $1.81)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (about $1)
• 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar ($0.07)
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic ($0.19)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger ($0.05)
• Salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)
• Sesame seeds for garnish ($0.05)

These ingredients add up to $18.44. From this enormous batch I made, I estimate we'll get at least six meals (three meals apiece) for Don and I, which comes out to about $3.07 per meal. Understand, however, that since we buy so many things in bulk, the actual cost is a whole lot less.

Now why, you may ask, did I go through all the trouble to break down this particular meal? Two reasons. One, it consists of store-bought (as opposed to farm-grown) ingredients). Not everyone has the benefit of a homestead to supplement their diet, so realistically most people get their food from the grocery store. And two, it illustrates how inexpensive it is to create meals at home, even for people (like me) who are less-than-enthusiastic cooks.

This whole exercise came about because of an opinion piece I read recently by someone named Ward Clark entitled "Young People Drowning in Food Costs? Try Boomer-Style Frugality."

Mr. Clark wrote, "It's a bit frustrating, and not just for us aging Boomers, to see young people whining about the cost of eating, and then to learn that they are getting much of their food from Uber Eats or DoorDash."

He then profiled a Twitter (X) post in which a young person complained, "Lunch just costs $28 now. Are they not supposed to eat?" To this, a Boomer named Joel Berry jumped in and broke down the cost of a healthy homemade lunch made with store-bought ingredients (wheat bread, deli turkey, cheddar, condiment of choice, apple, hard-boiled egg, carrot sticks, tap water) for a grand total of $2.05 and concluded by saying, "You can do this."

As of the publication of Mr. Clark's opinion piece, Joel Berry's X post had received 9.3 million views, most of which presumably applauded his Boomer frugality. Conclusion: Don't gripe about $28 lunches when there are far more inexpensive alternatives, none of which take much by way of kitchen skills.

Does it seems a lot of younger people are deliberately sabotaging their own finances beyond repair through spectacularly bad decisions and behaviors, like regularly having $28 lunches instead of $2 lunches? Maybe it's because, as journalist and technology columnist Taylor Lorenz pointed out, DoorDash has become a "necessity" because Zoomers lack the "capacity" to cook. But are Zoomers incapable of making a sandwich? For some people, that $28 is a week's worth of groceries.

It took me about fifteen minutes to throw together those rice bowls, which provided enough food to last both of us for three meals. And don't forget that turkey sandwich and veggies lunch recipe. If you're incapable of pulling together a lunch that simple, then you have more serious problems than you realize.

My "Boomer" advice to young people is this: Learn to cook. Or at least, learn to make a sandwich. Your future self will thank you.