Exactly what my old roommate did. Except he tried running a nursing home kitchen for a while and got sick of how boring baking pans of tasteless food got. So he went back to the corporate chain that paid a little less but offered more action so to speak. He hasn't got the bug in him yet to try for something bigger at a fancier place. Id like to see him do it though since it seems more rewarding with the shit hours every type of place has.
If you're patient and have the land, grow your own food. Seeds cost next to nothing, depending on your climate you don't need to spend much on water, and aside from the time investment there isn't much of a cost. The tools you need are a shovel and a trowel, and perhaps a book to teach you the basics of gardening. Anything else is just handy to have, but hardly essential. An added bonus is that it's good exercise, which will supplement the nutrition aspect you're going for. If you can't or won't grow your own, stick to the essentials like pasta and start making sauces from scratch. For the price you pay for a jar of tomato sauce you can make almost twice that and it'll taste better too. Rice is good on it's own in a variety of styles, my personal favorite being butter fried rice with salt and pepper. Just cook it like you normally would, let it cool and fry it in a non stick pan with butter and season to taste. Add some beef or chicken and some soya sauce and it's even better. Scour any flyers you get in the mail and buy things when they're cheap and use them to make things like large batches of vegetable soup and then freeze it in small buckets you can thaw whenever you need one. A simple veggie soup costs surprisingly little and can provide a month's worth of lunches. Bake a loaf of bread and eat it with the soup for an added boost. Never hurts to know how to bake a good loaf of bread. Potatoes are a good call, dirt cheap and easy to cook into something nice. Baked, mashed, oven-roasted, pan-fried, all are wonderful and require a minimum of oil and the like. Stuffed potatoes take some time, but are well worth the effort and you can make a batch of eight and hold the rest in the fridge for a couple of days ready to go into the oven for a reheat. Salad is the obvious choice, with infinite variety and after a small investment to get some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, you can make all manner of dressings. Strawberry vinaigrette is one of my all time favorites, and you don't need much to flavor a salad. If you need any recipes or more ideas, drop me a PM and tell me what your interested in and we'll go from there. As a general rule, any station that includes a deep-fryer. Good god, the greasy gooey feeling you get after working a couple hours in front of one is just horrific. I've worked in only one place that didn't have a deep fryer and it was one of my favorite kitchens to work in. Everything was just so clean and smelled nice, and I didn't carry that greasy stench home with me at night. I also don't much care for making salads. I need to feel heat or else I don't keep sharp and alert.
Speaking of the fryer... what is the key to making awesome crispy hand-cut french fries? I've always heard that double frying them in peanut oil is the way to go, but mine always seem to get soggy on me after they cool down a bit. I'm pretty sure it's just a time/temp issue, but I can't seem to get it down.
Soak the cut potatoes in water for 15 minutes or so beforehand. This will keep them from oxidixing and remove excess starch resulting in crispy fries.