Introduction: How to Bring Down McDonalds While Eating Healthy and Cheaper at Home

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How to make a delicious meal of burgers and fries at home that:

  • Tastes better
  • Costs less
  • Is better for you (if you use home-grown ingredients)
  • Doesn't give all your hard earned money to McDonalds

Let's get started.

Step 1: A Word on Ingredients

Before we discuss the actual preparation of this meal, I'd like to start by saying that most of the ingredients used can be grown at home. I used as many home-made things as possible, and you can too.

This recipe took:

  • Oil

To fry the food in. This will most likely have to be purchased at the store, as while you can grow crops (such as corn and soybeans) that are used to make vegetable oil, you cannot actually grow the oil.

Having said that, if you discover a way of growing oil, do let me know.

  • Hamburger meat

You could use store-bought patties or meat.

I used two pounds of beef from our cows (slaughtered last fall) and shaped them into patties. We gave them no chemicals or medicines, and used diatomaceous earth to worm them, so the meat is very healthy. Friends of ours who normally cannot eat beef (because they are allergic to all the chemicals cattle yards pump into their cows, such as penicillin) can eat it because of this.

  • Onion

Mixed into the hamburger. We do grow our own onions, but they didn't do so well this year, so I used a store-bought one (shhh!).

  • Pepper

Also mixed into the hamburger. IIRC, the pepper I used was a smallish bell pepper.

  • Garlic

Goes into hamburger mix too. It can be grown at home, I just used some out of a jar though.

  • Worcestershire sauce

Yep, this goes into the hamburger mix also. This is rather difficult to grow, so I cheated and bought mine. Perhaps it is the climate. However, it might be worth it to plant an empty bottle and see what comes up.

  • Potatoes

I used Yukon gold potatoes. Here's a tip to save you a loooooot of disgusting grossness-if you're going to store potatoes you have grown, for goodness sakes store them in the refridgerator or another cool place, or else they will rot and spawn maggots.

Step 2: Mix Hamburger, Et Al

First, chop up the onion, pepper and garlic and sautee.

Take the hamburger (thaw it first if it's frozen) and mix all of that together, along with about a tablespoon of worcestershire, and a pinch of salt and pepper. I like to use my hands for this step, although the real Adrian Monk (and perhaps some people who will be joining you for dinner!) would die. So we won't tell them.

Step 3: Cook the Patties

Shape the hamburger into patties (or whatever other shape you want-see https://www.instructables.com/id/Instructables-Robot-Burger-RoboBurger) and cook in a skillet over medium heat.

Place on paper towels to drain.

Step 4: Preparing the Fries

First, throughly wash the potatoes-especially if you won't be peeling them, but even if you are, this will keep dirt and bugs and nasties out of your food.

Then cut them up into the shapes you want your fries to be. I went for the traditional fries shape, kind of a long, thing rectangle with slanty edges, but you can use wedges, triangles, chunks-whatever floats your boat.

You may want to cut up more fries than you think will possibly be consumed-these are very popular, and their popularity will likely exceed your expectations.

Step 5: Frying the Fries

First off, I'd like to say that contrary to popular notion, we do NOT fry everything in the south. Having said that, I will now show you how to fry things.

This step isn't that complicated. Pour a few tablespoons of oil into your dish-I used a skillet, but a large pot would have been much better. Carefully put in your chopped up 'taters in and fry. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Salt to taste. Mine turned brown, but I probably left them in too long-it's hard to get them all done without browning them. They were still delicious.

Hot grease spits. Thus the saying, "faster than a pan of hot grease can spit". I learned this fast, and got wise quickly. You may want to wrap your arm in a towel like I did. I was also glad I was wearing glasses, I've heard horror stories from people who fry fries at McDonalds who have gotten hot grease in their eyes...

Step 6: Eat!

Yes, eat! Eat your home cooked, healthy, cheap(ish) meal and revel in the knowledge that you are sticking it to the man!