Oooh, I could DEFINITELY get him on board for something for coffee snobbery. That’s our specialty haha. I’ll look into that!
Unfortunately, any “we” type discussion won’t work here I don’t think. We’ve had enough conversations in the past that established that I’m the “expert” at it, and he’s just continually frustrated by his inability to do it. 
Would writing “check seal”, “remove air” on the bags be helpful? If it’s something that he never used to do and he is on board with the concept, maybe he just needs a visual reminder of that extra step?
Can you get the kind that you pull the zipper across the top instead of where you squeeze it all the way across? Those are hard for me to get caught sometimes.
ETA google tells me that “slider” bags are made by ziploc brand, but also at least Walmart great value brand. I assume other generics exist too. I’m sure they cost more, but less than wasting food.
I second using the zipper types of bag.
Also: Can you switch him to a water displacement method for sealing? I know it’s an extra step, but you can actually see the amount of air that way AND let science do the work.
Kitchen gadgets question:
I’m at the point where food is going bad again (but not nearly to the extent it was six months ago). I don’t have a lot of freezer space, so continuing to freeze food for later isn’t working well for me. Cooking in smaller batches would be more ideal, as would having less to clean up as I seem to be struggling with basic upkeep.
It’s been in the back of my mind for a while now to purchase one or both of the following:
For those who have either appliance, is it worth it? Do/did you get daily/weekly use out of either?
I’m primarily looking to cook veggies, tofu and occasionally chicken.
No, he simply can’t do it. He’ll try, and then often just come get me to do it. But like the pancakes, he thought it sealed and it just… didn’t. 
I’ll try those. I was under the impression they fail a lot more, but I’ve never tried name brand ones I don’t think.
That’s a good reminder. I showed him that before and he did it a couple times and it worked well. Got lost in the shuffle though. Doesn’t help that we’re often sealing while madly dashing after a turbo-infant right now.
used a george foreman grill for about 8 years and really liked it. I mean, a charcoal grill is great, but not when you can’t have one because there’s no place to put it. I’m a fan of the ones with removable plates, makes cleanup way easier. I would use it maybe 3x a week?
We borrowed an air fryer from my BIL. Honestly, I was not impressed. It was a highly rated one, too (by ATK). I just don’t think you get anywhere near the results as you do with a real convection oven.
Eta We gave it back after month. We tried broccoli, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes, all several time with different recipes and setting. Never yielded adequate results to rival using the oven.
We have the Cuiseinart version of the foreman grill, it has removable plates. We could use it more than we do. Usually we pull it out for “grilled” chicken or paninis. We usually do dinners with one or two pans/pots on the stove top so using the grill would just take longer due to having to cook whatever in batches. Even when we do paninis we will have rice pilaf or something on the side so we end up dirtying a pot anyway (salad would probably be a better option but Mr. Meer is not a huge salad person). We’re also cooking for two adults and a child and dinner is our biggest meal, so if you’re wanting to do smaller batches it’s probably what you’re wanting. I kind of wish ours would break so we could get a new one, the newer models have waffle plates available but those plates don’t fit our older model, sadly. 
To brute’s point, we do have a charcoal grill and I love it when we use it, but we almost never use it for just us. Only when we’re having people over.
I don’t have a convection oven, but this is good to know. I can just keep roasting veggies and baking tofu without having to clean some kind of basket or drip tray.
These are definitely what I was looking at. The 2-serving without removable plates is $17 locally, 4-serving with removable plates is $40. If it can/will adequately cook chicken and tofu in less time than the oven and produce less heat in the house, then I think it might be worth the additional item.
Outdoor grills aren’t an option in terms of time, space and money, and I’m usually just cooking for myself, sometimes for my partner (just with less leftovers, which is good, because lately there have been too many leftovers).
Okay I was thinking about this and my husband can’t really tie his shoes either! Is this a thing? Is it like, an engineer brain thing? Or a childhood neglect thing? (He had a moderately shitty childhood, running on the insufficient parental involvement side of that spectrum) or a left handed, never taught to accommodate that sort of thing?
I’m voting engineer and neglect, but that’s assuming it stems from the same stuff mine does. I didn’t have the dexterity for any kind of knots until I was maybe 10, and by then my shoe tying was set in stone to be terrible.
My day care would punish kids who didn’t get it right away and my parents weren’t interested in teaching me anything that wasn’t technical/math/language or from the Bible
It’s incredibly fascinating to find someone very similar to my husband. Thank you for answering my 7 million odd questions. I’ve known him most of my life, been in a relationship with him a decade, and I’m constantly still learning and understanding more about him as time goes on.
I’m just glad it’s helpful. I sometimes wonder if I’m actually doing more than just exposing my weirdness to the world!
Have you checked Goodwill or othe 2nd hand / consignment shop?
I’m another “didn’t learn to properly tie shoes” person.
I was able to do the “double bunny ear” method in the way that doesn’t lead to the secure knot. I couldn’t do it the “other” way (which is actually tying the knot correctly).
My Mom deemed that good enough. And then I got a lot of velcro (for sneakers) or loafer/slip-on shoes (for not sneakers) anyway. I’m one of those people who can’t be bothered with untying shoes before taking them off, so it prevented me from destroying the backs of shoes quite as fast. [Narrator: Today, we call that ADHD.]
A few years ago, I learned to tie a shoe correctly via youtube and a bunch of practice. I still have to think about it and mostly avoid laces. At least now I understand that having to re-tie your shoes ever 5-10 minutes is not normal if you actually tie a proper knot.
To add to the anecdata - my family is populated with math/science/engineering types and left-handedness. I am right-handed, but both my father and older brother (who actually probably would have learned shoe tying from) are left-handed.
Yep, husband wears boat shoes and flip flops when he can. And leaves shoes tied when he can. He even bought tennis shoe height steel toed boots so that he can do that for work at some sites. 
He can do the bunny ears moderately OK, but I don’t think he can double knot.
I had a countertop grill (different brand but same idea). I eventually got rid of it after using it once or twice a year for 10 years.
Do you have a small individual frying pan? I love our Heritage “The Rock” non stick 8". It makes cooking for just me seem much more reasonable, and somehow leftovers are better when reheated in a frying pan. And it’s a very durable non-stick, so cleanup doesn’t feel overwhelming either.
question - my partner is also very bad at ziplocs, but that is mostly genetic dexterity/hand shaking issues.
However, it’s maybe less that the shadowy one doesn’t do a good job with zipping, as they don’t have the check at the end that I always do of seeing if the zip took. So the thing isn’t that I’m all that much better at sealing, but that I’m more likely to a. notice that it isn’t sealed, and b. to think that I just need to adjust for bad technology rather than think I am bad at the skill.
Does that make sense? And is the baby batch food recoverable with a reblitz after defrosting?
I have not, the one I usually go to is closed and I haven’t had much luck with masks/distancing on the side of town that has them open. That’s a good idea, though, might contact my Buy Nothing group and see if anyone has one no longer being used.
@plainjane I do have a couple of non-stick pans that will honestly probably do the job just fine. I’m going to sit on my hands on this one for the moment, I’m probably just antsy and redirecting my energy towards acquiring things that I really don’t need.