(1) the bacteria issue – the CDC has a warning about it – I’m not sure it really matters since I think we are all too paranoid about bacteria most of the time, but still… gross…

(2) there is no reason to put it out in the sun for eight hours instead of your fridge, or even just on your countertop… tea + water + time = beverage… the sun element is not necessary at all…

I’ve been idly keeping an eye open for a good sun tea container for months now, since my previous one (a Martha Stewart K-Mart special) started leaking out the spigot.

My only other comment is: Yellow dye-added cheddar? Ewww.

If you’re right, and he’s deliberately using cheap cheeses for the sake of this series (or if he’s only showing us the times he uses cheap cheeses), he could mention something to that effect. “I’m using ordinary Swiss cheese here, but often I’ll splurge and use Emmental.” Or vice-versa: “I’m using Emmental here, but if that’s outside your budget, any old Swiss cheese will do.”

Same goes for the beans. It’s easy enough to say “I’m using beans that I soaked last night and cooked from dried, but you can use canned beans if you want to.” But we don’t see him using any beans at all, canned or dried.

On the meatless issue, you’re probably right – I think when he said “eat like a vegan most of the time,” he was just telling other people to do that, not saying that that’s what he does. But I think that anyone who eats like a vegan any of the time would have some more respect for vegetables than Trent’s been showing here when he drops them around the edges of the plate as interchangeable unseasoned “side dishes.”

I get what Johanna is saying in 39 about the disconnect but here would be my “rebuttal.” He says he’s trying to do “low-cost, tasty and easy-to-prepare meals.” We’ll leave out “tasty” since that’s obviously an individual opinion. Adding in expensive cheeses would impact the low-cost part of the equation. More complex preparations (which for some, at least, the dried beans might be) would impact the “easy-to-prepare” side. And as far as the choice of ingredients, I could be thinking of another blogger, but I thought Trent said that he mostly keeps meats to dinner time and — except for this one — I think all of the prior items were intended to be for dinners. The one other thing is that it seems very skewed to his family’s tastes — I saw broccoli three to five times going back through the meals just now. That’s great for me — it’s one of my favorite veggies. But for someone who doesn’t like broccoli, it would blow a big hole in the series.

It *would* be neat to see some sort of veggie chili or something like that in the series, if he could make it quick and cheap enough. I’m not saying you’re completely wrong; there *is* some monotony to what he’s offered so far. But I think on the whole he’s been faithful to what he “promised” in the series. (If there was an intro post which went into more detail and I missed in a quick scan back, and I’m totally all wet about what he advertised it as then never mind!)

Maybe next he could try to do a series of “15 meatless meals which you can prepare in under 30 minutes.” That would certainly be interesting and might allow for more branching out from what we saw here.

I agree with you on your second point, though. That disconnect has been particularly glaring, and I would love it if Trent could address this in a future post. I find it really hard to believe he eats like a vegan most of the time, though, judging from all the meals we have seen in this series and in other posts as well. There’s a trend with those and it certainly is not vegan!

What bugs me about this series, though, is the disconnect between the meals Trent showcases here and what he says elsewhere about the foods he likes to cook and eat. He’s talked about “eating like a vegan most of the time” as a way to improve his diet, but almost all of these meals have been centered on meat and/or dairy. He talks about splurging on expensive cheeses, but we see no evidence of that here. Just the other day he wrote a post about how he loves dried beans, but only one of these meals has included beans at all – as a “side dish” – and they were from cans.

I have a suggestion. Instead of deli turkey, try cooking up good quality chicken (or turkey) from Whole Foods or a local farmer in advance. I keep several pounds cooked in the fridge each week. Then you can throw that on a tortilla or use the small flour/corn tortillas and make tacos instead. Also, the cheese used is important- cheap is good, but ‘real cheese’ like a good cheddar is much better if you grate it yourself. And w/ good stuff you can use less. I’d also add fresh greens, a couple of chopped cherry tomatoes and maybe some fresh tomatillo salsa-which is super easy to make and full of fresh herbs/veg- w/ no sodium or salt.

I also always have a batch of ancho/chili sauce that I make in advance in the fridge. It’s very easy- buy peppers, seed, simmer for 20 min, then blitz in the blender and you have star quality sauce for ANYthing. You can make it as hot or not as you like. You can put it on any meat/bean combination to give TONS of flavor and no salt. Adding lettuce and some red onion (which i keep chopped in a diluted vinegar solution)adds more fresh veg, crunch, and flavor.

One other note of caution: I love tortillas, but they also can have high sodium content if you aren’t careful.

Other people are right when they say a large part of a meal’s appeal is in its presentation. You don’t have to go all fancy and buy expensive photography gear to improve in that area.

You always take pics of the plate from above, very far away (yes, I know you are very tall). It’s be better to go for closer shots, and from a low angle view. The food should be closer, as if we could smell and taste it already. You don’t need to show the entire plate either. Look at pics in some food blogs to see what I mean. SimplyRecipes, for example.

More colour: some of your plates look monochromatic. Look at the one above: white flour quesadillas, orange baby carrots and cantaloupe, on a white plate, set against a wooden table background. Salad greens, with tomatoes would have provided some extra colour. Non-white plates could help in some cases… in others, just a colourful table towel or napkin would be enough.

And then there is the small details, that might not matter much in the context of a family meal, but probably shouldn’t be ignored when taking pics to share with thousands of people…wiping any extra sauce or food from the edges of the plate would help tons with presentation.

I don’t know if you are still considering that food blog you kept teasing us with for *years*. In any case, I think the suggestions above shouldn’t take a lot of work and would improve the quality of your pics quite a bit.

Also…this is another recipe to which I say yuck, but it’s personal preference. I only eat turkey deli meat if it’s shaved or sliced really, really thinly. And it has to be straight from the deli. Prepackaged = not fit for consumption.

They types of food featured seems pretty familiar to me, having grown up in the midwest. A lot of it doesn’t appeal to me, but I do really appreciate the posts and the ideas. Modify his recipes to take out what you hate (sodium?) and replace with whatever you want, or move on.

Anyone interested in easy salads (including trent!) google “101 summer salads bitman” (no link for faster comment approval, but you’ll find it)

Trent – there IS something to be said for “plate appeal”, especially on food blogs. I know you aren’t a food blog, but… consider it.

When I think of summery meals, I think of all sorts of salads (all this produce!), grilled fish, delicious sandwiches, seafood and so on.

I am sorry, but I find this series to be a bit lackluster. You talk often about your homemade meals, how healthy and delicious they are and so on, and this is what we are getting instead. :/ I found the series from last year to be more interesting and varied — perhaps because the recipes weren’t yours in the first place — even if I disagreed with many of your substitutions.

Between the flour tortilla, deli meat, salsa and cheese, I’d be surprised if this one quesadilla didn’t have over 800mg of sodium in it. How’s your blood pressure these days, Trent?

My suggestions, green beans are wonderfully in season right now! Save root vegetables for the fall and winter. Throw some spinach in the tortilla, and I think a substitute for deli smoked turkey slices could be found with less sodium and other processing. Cooked chicken breast slices?

Unsweatened tea is one of the best things you can drink outside of water, but I too would question throwing honey in a jar of water and sticking it out in the hot sun for hours at a time then drinking it…surely not the best thing to inhibit bacterial growth. Maybe if you added the honey after it had brewed tho it would be better, I’ve never made sun tea so pardon my ignorance on that.

That isn’t canned peaches on the side, it’s cantelope.

And the salsa inside qualifies as a vegetable too. Or a fruit. Or a berry. Depending on what you read. lol

People are so missing the point of this post. The point that Trent is trying to make is that you can throw together simple meals out of what is in your fridge INSTEAD of just running out for a burger or junk food. His quesadilla is still healthier than your average fast food meal and cheaper, too.