I eat the same thing for lunch every day

[Buelligan]

Yes I know - I said this before you "told me" hence why you then shoe horning it back into the conversation earned you a picture of your life coach Laurence Fox.

Sorry, I wasn't talking to you.

[TrenterPercenter]

Sorry, I wasn't talking to you.

Oh don't worry I wasn't talking to you either.

[Buelligan]

Thanks for clarifying.

[TrenterPercenter]

I think whilst you continue to prioritise showing everyone you have the mindset of a narcissistic 5 year old over dying from croissant poisoning, I might prioritise having some breakfast.

[checkoutgirl]

Please get a room and fuck you two.

[Cloud]

Oh it's much more impressive than that; I work a full-time job and I'm on a full-time PhD course (as I've mentioned of which large part is investigating "how to get shit done"); I manage a team of 8 people, I'm on currently about 4 city wide steering groups and support two other big international RCTs, I care and look after an old man with CKD, play football twice a week, go to the gym twice a week, clean a house daily and find time to cut hedges, lawns all the rest of that stuff and I even sometimes go to the pub with some friends, last week I climbed two mountains in two different countries (beat that!)............and still I somehow manage to find time to cook me and my other half (occasionally others) some nice food most days.

That is how I know it is bullshit when people say they don't have time to do things; they do, they just choose to prioritise other things (as croissant breath says). I explained that the "I've got no time" is a ploy of Huel marketing designed to invoke the same irrational thought in peoples head, you do have time you just can't be arsed or you prioritise other things over cooking.

I've mentioned; I'm really interested to know what it is people prioritise so much of their time on that they see drinking their meals as a worthwhile and good solution.  I've got a mate that likes to play computer games, a lot, he eats takeaway pizzas and drinks massive cans of green shit to facilitate and prioritise this; is that the kind of thing we are talking about?

Definitely a case of wanting to prioritise other things.  Like going to the pub, sleeping, or hanging out with some friends.  Every minute counts and the minutes and hours absolutely fly past.  Up at 7, shower, sort hair out, get stuff together, it's 7:35 and time to go to work.  (Breakfast?  Don't have time for that now, luckily I don't get hungry until 10ish).  Wolf down sarnie at 12:00, go for a walk on 12:30-13:00 lunch break because exercise is important too.  Finish 17:30, home from work not long after, quick check on the world, tea on, bit of telly and internet at same time, eat, it's now 18:30-19:00.  Post some shit on here or whatever, it's now 19:30, am also completely fucked and need a nap.  Oops it's now 20:00 already, wake up, freshen up, grab a couple of things, aa how did it get to 20:30 already, pub.  Socialise for a couple of hours, come home, shit it's 23:00 where did the day go. Try to do my own thing for a little bit (at the moment, currently, catch up with a couple of VR friends).  Oh shit I blinked and it's now 00:20, better get off.  Sort out tomorrow's lunch, breathe for a second, spend a few moments with the people I live with, brush teeth, put everything on charge, settle into bed, how did it get to 01:20 already... zonk out.  Repeat. 

Replace video games with pub and VR and yes, I suppose so.

No idea how anyone finds the time or energy to do all that, well done, I'm in awe - but then this comes from barely having the time or energy to function as it is (before you come at me with "that's because you drink non-food hurr hurr" I've never actually tried the stuff that's the whole point that was brought up of "oo wouldn't mind trying that" which got jumped on)

No idea how anyone finds the time to have kids and shoo them off to school etc, it's ridiculous.  I suppose they'd shuffle things around and prioritise them over having a life of their own, quite rightly, but just one more reason (including environmental factors and cost factors) why I'd never want kids.  And by the time they're on their feet they too are off on their 7:45-5:30s also trying to earn money so they can better enjoy the couple of hours in between going to work, eating, preparing for work, and sleeping.

[thenoise]

Soup snobbery is a new one on me. You can make soup out of almost anything, the bits/things you usually throw away. Boil the shit out of it then blend. That's pretty much the point of soup.

No wonder you idiots eat nothing but sandwiches.

[AllisonSays]

It's amazing you've time to do all that and also fulfill your paternal duties on the Cook'd and Bomb'd comedy forum, TP.

[Zetetic]

You can make soup out of almost anything, the bits/things you usually throw away.

But could I make a soup out of me?

[Buelligan]

Absolutely, if you're not a fucking veganveggie.  Better if you don't wash for a bit though.

Please get a room and fuck you two.

I know that you mean well, checkoutgirl, but this thing between us, it's not about sex (I hope most sincerely), no, it's about trenter's butthurt ego.  Abnormally bruised, so it is.  His need to kill me and cure that itch's been going on for absolute months.  Don't think it will end until he feels like he's healed, we just have to wait patiently.


_{The problem here}

[Icehaven]

Definitely a case of wanting to prioritise other things.  Like going to the pub, sleeping, or hanging out with some friends.  Every minute counts and the minutes and hours absolutely fly past.  Up at 7, shower, sort hair out, get stuff together, it's 7:35 and time to go to work.  (Breakfast?  Don't have time for that now, luckily I don't get hungry until 10ish).  Wolf down sarnie at 12:00, go for a walk on 12:30-13:00 lunch break because exercise is important too.  Finish 17:30, home from work not long after, quick check on the world, tea on, bit of telly and internet at same time, eat, it's now 18:30-19:00.  Post some shit on here or whatever, it's now 19:30, am also completely fucked and need a nap.  Oops it's now 20:00 already, wake up, freshen up, grab a couple of things, aa how did it get to 20:30 already, pub.  Socialise for a couple of hours, come home, shit it's 23:00 where did the day go. Try to do my own thing for a little bit (at the moment, currently, catch up with a couple of VR friends).  Oh shit I blinked and it's now 00:20, better get off.  Sort out tomorrow's lunch, breathe for a second, spend a few moments with the people I live with, brush teeth, put everything on charge, settle into bed, how did it get to 01:20 already... zonk out.  Repeat. 

Replace video games with pub and VR and yes, I suppose so.

No idea how anyone finds the time or energy to do all that, well done, I'm in awe - but then this comes from barely having the time or energy to function as it is (before you come at me with "that's because you drink non-food hurr hurr" I've never actually tried the stuff that's the whole point that was brought up of "oo wouldn't mind trying that" which got jumped on)

No idea how anyone finds the time to have kids and shoo them off to school etc, it's ridiculous.  I suppose they'd shuffle things around and prioritise them over having a life of their own, quite rightly, but just one more reason (including environmental factors and cost factors) why I'd never want kids.  And by the time they're on their feet they too are off on their 7:45-5:30s also trying to earn money so they can better enjoy the couple of hours in between going to work, eating, preparing for work, and sleeping.

Yes I think my ability to cook a meal almost every day is massively enabled by the fact I get home from work at about 4.45pm and almost never socialise on weekdays (not intentionally, just don't seem to). I don't think even I could go to the pub every day (or even several times a week) though, it'd get tedious and expensive.   

[Cloud]

Yes I think my ability to cook a meal almost every day is massively enabled by the fact I get home from work at about 4.45pm and almost never socialise on weekdays (not intentionally, just don't seem to). I don't think even I could go to the pub every day (or even several times a week) though, it'd get tedious and expensive.

Indeed, and I'm sure that'll get jumped on as "thing you should not be doing" and become a matter of intense scrutiny, criticism and potentially another 7 pages of arguments, but you know, you live once, do the things you enjoy eh

[earl_sleek]

It's amazing you've time to do all that and also fulfill your paternal duties on the Cook'd and Bomb'd comedy forum, TP.

Trenter is a CaBDAD!

[Kankurette]

Why has no one questioned the fact that it's CELERY soup? Who the fuck makes that? What's next? Lettuce soup? Parsley soup? Fresh air soup?

Me. It's delicious.

[AllisonSays]

My partner makes cress soup, which i was initially a wee bit chary of but now i think it's delicious.

[Blue Jam]

It's a truly terrible name. Huel. It almost feels like they want to emphasise rather than play down the dystopic connotations

You think that's bad? Sainsbury's actually sell this:

Spoiler alert

Note no green edition

[close]

[Cuellar]

Hearing anyone enthuse about cooking is similar to hearing them enthuse about buying car insurance.

[TrenterPercenter]

It's amazing you've time to do all that and also fulfill your paternal duties on the Cook'd and Bomb'd comedy forum, TP.

It's because I love you all so dearly.  Well nearly all of you.

[Blue Jam]

Re: the whole Huel thing: I put on a bit of weight last year due to a combination of medication side effects and not being at my non-sedentary job so much. Then after coming off the medication and going back to my non-sedentary job it failed to just magically fall off, despite me doing all the "right" things like making nice healthy smoothies out of oats, protein powder, frozen fruit and plant milk (not a vegan, I just prefer the taste and texture) in my Nutribullet-style Breville blender. My asthma nurse referred me to a dietician who said that while the smoothies I made probably were nice and healthy, if you take oats and fruit and smash up all the cell walls you make them very quick and easy to digest, and that's why I was feeling hungry all the fucking time. And you can get an energy spike and a crash after eating protein too! Best to cut out the middleman and put the oats and whole fruit and whole protein directly into your face.

...so yeah, not keen on the idea of Huel. It might work for some but for me it almost certainly wouldn't. And remember, if a diet product actually worked people would stop needing diet products, and the diet product industry would make itself redundant.

I can recommend seeing a qualified dietician (as opposed to a nutritionist) too, because what worked for me won't work for everyone and it'd be best to get some tailored advice. They may even recommend that you try Huel, but they probably wouldn't.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Celery soup is very common and well known; as is lettuce soup; Parsley soup is also a thing but much less known (for those with a keen eye you might have noticed some fresh parsley and a couple of deep fried sage leaves on the top of my soup).

All very tasty and good; you should give it a go sometime.

There's nettle soup too. That's a strange one.

[TrenterPercenter]

if you take oats and fruit and smash up all the cell walls you make them very quick and easy to digest, and that's why I was feeling hungry all the fucking time.

I can recommend seeing a qualified dietician (as opposed to a nutritionist)

Good post and exactly what I was dad-ing CaB about earlier; you are paying more money for less calories that you then drink so then you are still hungry.  Great advice re dieticians; most dieticians because they are concerned with people eating healthily will not advise you to run massive calories deficits or fad diets but rather just eat sensibly; sensibly means having a chocolate bar if you want to and not feeling shame and guilt around food.  People in the health and beauty industry people unsurprisingly will tell you differently.  Dieticians are great and actually know what they are talking about with food; and it was the ones I worked with that advised me about why stuff like Huel isn't good for a variety of reasons (doesn't contain enough fibre, adult digestive systems are set up for solid food, digestive problems and disruption to gut bacteria, the practices lead to eating disorders of which drinking your "meals" is already a massive practice of the pro-ana communities, people get ill when the traverse back to solid food because you actually have to go through refeeding, loss of taste, loss of teeth, constant diarrhoea and potential bowel problems).

Indeed, and I'm sure that'll get jumped on as "thing you should not be doing" and become a matter of intense scrutiny, criticism and potentially another 7 pages of arguments, but you know, you live once, do the things you enjoy eh

This isn't remotely true I've been talking mainly about Huel you've been talking about yourself; aided and abetted by the croissant farter

I pulled up the idea that it is "optimal" because it is made up; a dietician will tell you that the optimal meal is a balanced and varied diet; you are not gaining anything from their optimal mixture of nutrients - this is Alex Jones grade nonsense and why nutritionists are generally seen as quacks.  It isn't optimal to you it is optimal to Huel because the inventor used to flog muscle powders and they are cheap and non-perishable.

That leaves us with the convenience factor; which is fine but if your concerned about the time equivalent of picking up and necking a bottle of overpriced oat slurry and picking up a sandwich then this appears to verge into the obsessive.  I won't say for the nth time that you can choose to do whatever you like but if you honestly believe that drinking Huel is....

a simple way to gain back time lost to the patriarchal structures.

or

like having a time machine that gives you back half an hour or more every day,"

Then you have my honest sympathies.

I pointed out sometime ago as to highlight the issue here that "not having enough time to feed yourself", is either a lie or a reason for concern; as is just not enjoying food or seeing it as simply a chore or "fuel" without any connection to anything else,  One of main attempts to try and reduce the development of eating problems and disorders in children has been to get them more involved with food, not less, and has been advocated by people like Jamie Oliver and lots of other people that actually study the area and are not just trying to make money out of peoples vulnerabilities. 

On the otherhand this has all been part of the marketing ploy used by Huel from the get go; there are loads of meal replacement "systems" (Soylent being the other major one) but Huel stands out.  The reason is as mentioned the inventor is from bodybuilding health beauty industry so he knew how to lure people into the Huel lifestyle and "community".  A community of people liquidising their food, sharing instagram photos and obsessing about calories and "nutrients", sounds great! The community is run via a forum of which I'll wager has a large number of people with eating disorders and body image problems existing on it.

choosing not to feed yourself properly because you see cooking as time spent when you could be doing something else is different; I would say liquidising your food so you can get an extra 15 minutes (less if you are weighing up a grabbing a sandwich versus a bottle of gunk) doing "X" is a drastic measure and would suggest probably some underlying issues with food beyond simple convenience, I' go further and say presenting the problem as having to "think" about food sounds concerningly pathological; but of course I'm not suggesting that is the case for everyone; some people just really do value doing X more than they value cooking (or can't/won't cook and find this a more palatable excuse) and feeding themselves; to these people I've said "fine live your life bro-sisters"; enjoy drinking your meals and I hope it brings you much happiness. 

I just tend to think about the bigger picture here; hence why I've been trying to move the conversation on from this personal choice-free speech drivel for about 4 pages now and whilst you might see the need take what I'm saying as some kind of criticism of your choices there might be other people out there reading this that might just stop and think about some of the issues presented in a wider conversation about these things perhaps before walking themselves into bigger problems.

[Icehaven]

There's nettle soup too. That's a strange one.

I've often wondered how that came to be, if someone trod in it and went "Oww, fucking hell that stings. I know, let's eat it!"

[TrenterPercenter]

There's nettle soup too. That's a strange one.

It's actually quite a well known traditional soup eaten across the world.

It's really nice too if you've not tried it btw.

[touchingcloth]

Do a big batch cook. Big fucking cauldron of chilli, portioned up and into the freezer, lovely old job. Then you've always a meal to hand if you can't be arsed.

I've got into cooking batch meals every night for a week, that way you have different food each night that week, and end up with 5 weeks' worth of food without ever needing to eat the same meal multiple nights in a row.

[TrenterPercenter]

I've got into cooking batch meals every night for a week, that way you have different food each night that week, and end up with 5 weeks' worth of food without ever needing to eat the same meal multiple nights in a row.

Skillz (don't tell Cuellar though)

[JaDanketies]

Do you not really think that food tastes significantly worse when it's been frozen and then reheated? I mean it's not terrible and I'm not opposed to the concept but I usually only freeze a portion when I've made too much. But usually I just leave it in the pan / in tupperware in the fridge and eat the leftovers the next day.

I had all the leftover stir fry rice thing today because I just left it uncovered in the pan, which means my fiancee wouldn't eat it because of the "dog shit fly eggs".

[touchingcloth]

Do you not really think that food tastes significantly worse when it's been frozen and then reheated?

Not really. Some things are barely any different, though you have to pay some attention to which things you do and don't freeze. I'd freeze bolognese sauce rather than complete portions of spaghetti bolognese, for instance.

[TrenterPercenter]

Do you not really think that food tastes significantly worse when it's been frozen and then reheated? I mean it's not terrible and I'm not opposed to the concept but I usually only freeze a portion when I've made too much. But usually I just leave it in the pan / in tupperware in the fridge and eat the leftovers the next day.

Depends what it is; freezing can actually improve food in some cases.  Soup and Chilli absolutely fine to freeze and reheat with zero-hardly noticeable impact on anything.  Some foods don't freeze well; if I'm making something like this then I make smaller portions.

good example by TC there; yeah freeze sauce make pasta fresh (even though you will lose 10 minutes of wanking time)

[Icehaven]

Do you not really think that food tastes significantly worse when it's been frozen and then reheated? I mean it's not terrible and I'm not opposed to the concept but I usually only freeze a portion when I've made too much. But usually I just leave it in the pan / in tupperware in the fridge and eat the leftovers the next day.

I had all the leftover stir fry rice thing today because I just left it uncovered in the pan, which means my fiancee wouldn't eat it because of the "dog shit fly eggs".

I've read a few things saying you shouldn't leave food (particularly if it contains meat) at room temperature for too long as bacteria starts to grow on it, however I've eaten leftover chilli, lasagne, pizza etc. that's been sat out overnight and it's never made me ill so fuck knows. Ditto not defrosting things at room temp either, but again I've done it and it's been fine. Maybe it's bacteria roulette, mostly it's fine but once in a while it'll have you on the toilet until next Thursday.

[JaDanketies]

I've read a few things saying you shouldn't leave food (particularly if it contains meat) at room temperature for too long as bacteria starts to grow on it, however I've eaten leftover chilli, lasagne, pizza etc. that's been sat out overnight and it's never made me ill so fuck knows. Ditto not defrosting things at room temp either, but again I've done it and it's been fine. Maybe it's bacteria roulette, mostly it's fine but once in a while it'll have you on the toilet until next Thursday.

In a commercial setting, like at a buffet, you've got to throw it out after four hours. Anyway it was vegan so I'm safe. I think not eating meat for so long has made me ignorant of the dangers of dogshit fly eggs.

Definitely agree about some things freezing worse than others. I know you already alter the texture of veggies when you cook them, but then when you freeze them all the water in the cell walls expands and breaks all the cells even more and makes them even mushier. So if you've made something with a bit of 'bite' to it, freezing ruins this. When you cook some veggies, you make the skins even tougher, but freezing would typically undo this because of the cellular water expanding. At least with my understanding of the world.

So soups and sauces mainly