The Very Best of Casual Kitchen 2016

It's hard to believe another year is about to wrap up, and it's even harder to believe this is Casual Kitchen's tenth anniversary.

When I started this site back in late 2006, I had no clue what I was doing: I just had some ideas I wanted to share about how to cook healthy food efficiently--and for very little money. Little did I know this humble little site would take me in all kinds of directions, and I'd address all kinds of topics: from understanding the tricks and tactics of the consumer products industry, to addressing various facets of consumerism, to addressing cognitive fallacies and excuse-making scripts, even sharing insights from my professional domain: stock market investing. This humble little site turned out to be a significant growth experience for me on many different levels.

So, readers, let me thank you for coming along with me on this journey (and, of course, for generously supporting my work with your kind purchases at Amazon via the links at this site)!

With that, let's share the best posts of CK 2016. Enjoy!
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10) How to Use Grocery Store Circulars To YOUR Advantage, Not Theirs
Your grocery store's weekly circular is the most underappreciated tool in an empowered food shopper's toolbox. Here's a quick and easy two-step method to capture maximum value from it.

9) Raw Milk: The Irony
The controversy over raw milk illustrates an irony about food regulation: sometimes a more heavily-regulated food industry brings us precisely the foods we don't want.

8) The REAL Story of the Bumblebee Tuna Recall Controversy: What it (Subtly) Teaches Us About Branding, Product Differentiation and Third-Party Manufacturing
Not my most concise headline. But Bumblebee's tuna recall earlier this year gave consumers a deafening reason to ignore branding--completely.

7) Money Sundays: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
A popular post about a (hypothetical) conversation... that went sideways in a hurry.

6) Where Can I Find Low-Cost Sources of Protein and Fat?
If you're not careful, a low-carb diet can cost a lot more. Here's a useful collection of the most cost-effective proteins and fats money can buy.

5) Psychological Hunger... Compared to the Real Thing
How to really understand the "feeling" of hunger, how to feel around its edges, and how to differentiate it from true hunger (the two are most definitely not the same). Includes free bonus humor from Louis C.K.

4) "Nobody Listens to Me in Real Life, But on the Internet Everyone Does"
Why your friends and peers cannot be experts, and why we denigrate and ignore them when we should be emulating them.

3) Virtue Signalling
Is virtue-signalling the same as practicing actual virtue? Your answer says a lot about what kind of person you are. Also: after reading this post, you'll never think about political statements the same way again.

2) The Old Lie: Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day
How often have you eaten breakfast only to be hungry again just an hour or two later? This post explains why, and offers two surprisingly easy dietary tweaks that will change your life for the better. Casual Kitchen's most widely-read post of the year.

1) What Underwear Teaches You About Saving Time AND Money
Don't worry! This post isn't really about my underwear. It's about how we assume there's an unavoidable trade-off between saving time and saving money--that in order to save money, you have to waste time, and vice-versa. Back when I was young and broke, however, I made a discovery that proved quite the opposite.


[Honorable Mention!] "Learn to Live on Lentils…"
How a beautiful little story about Diogenes (and a staggeringly condescending remark from a food "journalist") turned lentils into a metaphor for solution-minded thinking. See also the unexpectedly popular follow-up post Subservience.

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Last of all: If you're a new reader and you'd like to look over Casual Kitchen's best work over the years, a great place to start is the "Best Of" posts from each year:

Best of Casual Kitchen 2015

Best of Casual Kitchen 2014

Best of Casual Kitchen 2013

Best of Casual Kitchen 2012


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