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March 29, 2024, 07:19:22 AM

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Recipe Boxes

Started by Chedney Honks, April 12, 2021, 09:28:26 AM

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paruses

Quote from: Blue Jam on April 12, 2021, 06:40:55 PM
There's an episode of Corporate where one employee is such a workaholic he doesn't even stop for lunch, just sticks a straw in a bottle of something called "Pseudofooooood" and keeps going. I imagine Huel is not unlike that.

I do use protein powder myself but I put it in smoothies along with actual food. Made one this morning with frozen strawberries, oat milk, almond butter, two scoops of chocolate protein powder and two scoops of vanilla protein powder. Neopolitan smoothie. Nice.

I caught up with a friend last summer and had forgotten that he is odd in an obsessive way. He had lost loads of weight and his secret was living largely on meal replacement stuff - that's Huel isn't it?

Your neopolitan shakes sound good. I don't want to be quite as nuts as my friend and his regimes but would happily do it for a bit of a kick-start to cut out snacking and stuff. Is that how you use them blue jam?

mothman

We got Hello Fresh for a while. It was OK. Some nice recipes in there. But... it got so tedious. Five meals a week, using mostly fresh ingredients that would need using by the end of the week. Box would arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, and off you'd go. But after a while it'd be maddening, you'd want a takeaway on Friday or Saturday, but you couldn't because you had a meal that needed to be used sooner and wouldn't be any good by Sunday or Monday. I'm occasionally nostalgic for some of the meals we had - but I don't miss it.

Dex Sawash

I like the Soylent meal in a bottle but they cost too much.

Blue Jam

Quote from: paruses on April 12, 2021, 06:54:01 PM
Your neopolitan shakes sound good. I don't want to be quite as nuts as my friend and his regimes but would happily do it for a bit of a kick-start to cut out snacking and stuff. Is that how you use them blue jam?

I've got a Breville Blendactive blender which is essentially a Nutribullet but at a fraction of the price:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breville-Personal-Blender-50Hz-White-plastic/dp/B00DGLUW4E/

£20 now, b@rgain. I got mine nearly four years ago now and use it almost every day. I just find it really handy for making quick, cheap, healthy breakfasts and lunches, mainly using frozen fruit with plant milk, fruit juice or water. I decided to get one partly because I like smoothies but can't stand the taste of bananas and almost all ready-made smoothies have banana in them. Also they're really expensive. Now I can choose my own fruit- and frozen fruit is dead cheap.

I add the protein powder because protein is satiating and keeps you going a bit longer, and it doesn't give you the "carb crash" you get from sandwiches. I also just like the flavours- add chocolate protein powder to frozen cherries and plant milk and you've got a healthy drinkable black forest gateau, then there's the aforementioned Neopolitan smoothie. It keeps things varied.

Also as a bonus this kind of blender is much easier to clean than a jug blender and takes up much less space. I wouldn't be without one now.

Paul Calf

Quote from: mothman on April 12, 2021, 07:29:33 PM
We got Hello Fresh for a while. It was OK. Some nice recipes in there. But... it got so tedious. Five meals a week, using mostly fresh ingredients that would need using by the end of the week. Box would arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, and off you'd go. But after a while it'd be maddening, you'd want a takeaway on Friday or Saturday, but you couldn't because you had a meal that needed to be used sooner and wouldn't be any good by Sunday or Monday. I'm occasionally nostalgic for some of the meals we had - but I don't miss it.

We only get three meals a week, and that seems to be enough.

thugler

Shit for cunts I'm afraid. The meals look pretty mediocre as well.

4 scoops of protein powder is overkill guy!

mothman

Quote from: Paul Calf on April 13, 2021, 12:27:49 PM
We only get three meals a week, and that seems to be enough.

Yeah, I'm not sure we even considered dropping the number of meals! Just stopped altogether.

Sheffield Wednesday

Had a Korean prawn noodle soup thing last night, really nice.

mothman

Quote from: thugler on April 13, 2021, 02:02:33 PM
Shit for cunts I'm afraid. The meals look pretty mediocre as well. 

Well you say that, but there was one that was one of the most delicious meals I've ever made. It was a hot-smoked salmon & creme fraiche pasta sauce. None of my attempts to recreate it have come close.

I also really wish I'd kept the menu cards now (you can look the recipes up online but it's a faff) but I think I ceremonially burned them in the chimnea.

popcorn

Quote from: mothman on April 12, 2021, 07:29:33 PM
We got Hello Fresh for a while. It was OK. Some nice recipes in there. But... it got so tedious. Five meals a week, using mostly fresh ingredients that would need using by the end of the week. Box would arrive Tuesday or Wednesday, and off you'd go. But after a while it'd be maddening, you'd want a takeaway on Friday or Saturday, but you couldn't because you had a meal that needed to be used sooner and wouldn't be any good by Sunday or Monday.

One week into Hello Fresh and I'm in the same boat. I started doing it because all the discount codes make it cheap to start and I thought it would make calorie-counting easier, but it does become a bit of a burden (turns out I liked my bachelor lifestyle of only eating stuff I can prepare within 2 minutes) and what's more I've apparently gained weight in the last week.

Kankurette

I always get ads for Huel and it pisses me off. I like proper food, not powder.

mothman

Quote from: popcorn on April 13, 2021, 02:30:52 PM
One week into Hello Fresh and I'm in the same boat. I started doing it because all the discount codes make it cheap to start and I thought it would make calorie-counting easier, but it does become a bit of a burden (turns out I liked my bachelor lifestyle of only eating stuff I can prepare within 2 minutes) and what's more I've apparently gained weight in the last week.
Get out, man! While you still can!

If you enjoy cooking, it can be a great way to broaden your horizons. But ultimately there's nothing in there you couldn't do from scratch.

Kankurette

I can understand the appeal of boxes if you're just learning to cook or don't have a lot of time, but tbh I'd rather cook from scratch. I know what I like and I'm used to it anyway. Closest I've come to this sort of thing is this present my auntie gave me last year, which is a set of Indian spice mixes and a cookbook of various curries using said mixes. You've got your spice mixes ready made. But you still have to chop vegetables and so on.

Blue Jam

Quote from: thugler on April 13, 2021, 02:02:33 PM
4 scoops of protein powder is overkill guy!

I should add: these are dainty little Slimfast scoops, not great big BEEFCAKE ones. Think four scoops is about 20 grams here. Any more than that and I'd have to eat the smoothies with a spoon.

thugler

Quote from: mothman on April 13, 2021, 02:29:18 PM
Well you say that, but there was one that was one of the most delicious meals I've ever made. It was a hot-smoked salmon & creme fraiche pasta sauce. None of my attempts to recreate it have come close.


Just get better at cooking instead. With a bit of practice you can easily get good enough that most visits to restaurants/takeaways become disappointing.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: Kankurette on April 13, 2021, 02:43:41 PM
I know what I like and I'm used to it anyway.

That's partly what I have enjoyed about these boxes. I'm too stuck in my ways with cooking so it's made me do stuff I never would, not simply because of effort or knowledge but because I have shrunk my parameters over time due to preference. I've become too much of a creature of habit with food which is weird because I'm not like that with anything else.

Quote from: thugler on April 13, 2021, 02:53:35 PM
Just get better at cooking instead. With a bit of practice you can easily get good enough that most visits to restaurants/takeaways become disappointing.

This is ludicrous bravado or go to better restaurants.

thugler

Quote from: Chedney Honks on April 13, 2021, 02:55:48 PM
This is ludicrous bravado or go to better restaurants.

I might be exaggerating a bit, but not much. Expensive ones or ones that specialise in a cuisine that's not my specialty are better sure. But anything else is usually a weak version of something I could make at home much better, and I live in a city. Partly that's just for time reasons I think, a restaurant or takeaway aren't going to put 2-3 hours into preparing a meal just for me.

thugler

Quote from: Blue Jam on April 13, 2021, 02:46:18 PM
I should add: these are dainty little Slimfast scoops, not great big BEEFCAKE ones. Think four scoops is about 20 grams here. Any more than that and I'd have to eat the smoothies with a spoon.

There I was thinking you were scoffing down 80g of protein for breakfast like Triple H or something. My scoop is 20g

Chedney Honks

I suppose if I go out to eat, I'm generally talking about Chinatown in Manchester, Wing's, S-rank shit, or a curry in Rusholme, or some proper street food stuff. I could never recreate that.

Cracker food, yeah, maybe.

Paul Calf

Quote from: Kankurette on April 13, 2021, 02:40:33 PM
I always get ads for Huel and it pisses me off. I like proper food, not powder.

Hipster Gruel.

I used to amuse myself by winding them up on Facebook (their strapline The Future OF Food genuinely irritated the bollocks off me though) until I stopped seeing the ads.

Paul Calf

Quote from: Chedney Honks on April 13, 2021, 03:11:43 PM
I suppose if I go out to eat, I'm generally talking about Chinatown in Manchester, Wing's, S-rank shit, or a curry in Rusholme, or some proper street food stuff. I could never recreate that.

Cracker food, yeah, maybe.

The curry chute is fantastic. Unlike Brick Lane, Wilmslow Road hasn't been beiged-out too much by its popularity with non-cuisine-native palates and you can get some astounding stuff from there, including proper Goan-style vindaloos with actual flavour and the only korma I've ever enjoyed past the first mouthful.

mothman

Quote from: thugler on April 13, 2021, 02:53:35 PM
Just get better at cooking instead. With a bit of practice you can easily get good enough that most visits to restaurants/takeaways become disappointing.

I feel a bit offended by this! I'm a perfectly good cook, thank you very much.

Paul Calf

I have to say though, that having lived in or near a lot of the famous curry capitals in Britain, Bradford is still the one that stands out for me.

Chedney Honks

Quote from: Paul Calf on April 13, 2021, 03:16:32 PM
The curry chute is fantastic. Unlike Brick Lane, Wilmslow Road hasn't been beiged-out too much by its popularity with non-cuisine-native palates and you can get some astounding stuff from there, including proper Goan-style vindaloos with actual flavour and the only korma I've ever enjoyed past the first mouthful.

I actually have to stop talking about this because I cannot wait to go. Pretty much any time my wife and I get pissed we end up talking about it. Wish I could do a curry crawl but I'd explode.

Never been to Bradford and unlikely I ever will but maybe that's reason enough.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Kankurette on April 13, 2021, 02:43:41 PM
I can understand the appeal of boxes if you're just learning to cook
That's about the only reason I can think of to bother with these. I don't consider myself to be a particularly amazing cook, having only a fairly small number of recipes that I make regularly (variations on stir fry, curry, chilli, an acceptable pasta sauce) but a shockingly large number of people I know seem to think that makes me Fanny Cradock[nb]at least I think that's what they called me[/nb]. I mostly learned by observing my parents making dinner, but I guess they didn't have that growing up and making stuff from scratch seems a bit daunting.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Chedney Honks on April 13, 2021, 03:22:03 PM
Never been to Bradford and unlikely I ever will but maybe that's reason enough.

Is the TV museum still in Bradford? A trip there and then a delicious cheap curry sounds like a grand day out.

popcorn

I consider myself a decent cook and when I'm living with people I used to love cookin up a storm for the household. But now I live a lonely pandemic life. The whole appeal for me was being able to know exactly how many calories are in the thing I'm cooking (as opposed to weighing ingredients etc, tedious).

Buelligan

What if they were lying to you though, eh, popcorn.  What if those capitalist recipe box cunts were laughing, kicking back with a few sherbets as they count their filthy lucre, writing any old numbers on the box, have you worried about that at all?

popcorn

Well considering the fact that I've apparently gained weight over the last week despite (going by the numbers on the box) I've stayed below my calorie budget I'd say you are bang on.

Chedney Honks

Lot of people are like ohhh what about the waaaassssttte and I'm like just burn the shit problem solved son