Ask HN: Eating and coocking is so inneficient, better way?
Am I the only one who finds it bad that I either have to spend around 10 hours a week going to the grocery store, cooking, cleaning the kitchen,... or, if I want to skip all that, that I have to spend a shit ton of money ordering uber eats?
We have rockets that can leave our atmosphere and cars that can run using electricity. Why don't we have a better way to feed humans? Do you realize how much human capital is spent every day on this useless foodstuff, day in and day out, the exact same process for billions of humans?
I mean, honestly, at this point, just mail me a tube that contains my daily food nutrients, I don't care if it tastes like shit, as long as my body can function and I don't have to deal with this inefficient bulshit anymore.
Is that something that exists? a company that does that? If not, is there a better way? can someone find one, as I'm probably not smart enough to find one.
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[ 1.5 ms ] story [ 38.4 ms ] threadSoylent was intended to be that. And there were some people when it first came out who made a go at seriously replacing all of their meals with it - not sure if a significant number of people still do. In the end it's probably not any less expensive than home cooking, and certainly a whole lot more dull. If you really want to just replace your meals with a nutritious sludge, though… https://soylent.com
Personally, I know I'm not the greatest of cooks, and I generally find more complicated recipes more trouble than they're worth, especially when I have to go hunt down a bunch of ingredients I don't normally keep stocked. But at least cooking one of the meager list of meal combinations that I can make decently, I find the time spent in reflection doing the prep, cooking, and, yes, even the clean-up somewhat relaxing.
But the bottles on store shelves offer something around $1/100kcal, and the subscription powdered mix on the website isn't sufficiently better than that to really change the calculus. It does get bland, but it certainly could replace meals, if you're willing and able to shift your meal inefficiency from time to money.
We must be of different species. If it doesn't rhyme with "stone nut" and isn't made fresh at the bakery every Friday morning then all my other normal food feels like shit tube food, maybe that's getting close but still.
Have you thought about building a system of your own for this? Components could be humans, paid or unpaid friends who love you, robots, tubes carrying different materials, army food, whatever needs to work could be designed...
Better in the sense of not requiring the time of shopping weekly and home cooking meals or the expense of ordering prepared food for delivery, or the various options that are pretty much directly in-between (meal box subscriptions to cook that have lower shopping/prep/cooking time than classic grocery shopping and home cooking, etc.)?
Well, I mean, you can do shakes either those made as full meal replacements or less complete protein shakes with some other ingredients (low shopping/prep, no cooking, much lower cost than eating out.)
Or do what is probably approximately one of the most common historical patterns, adopt a consistent pattern of a long-shelf-life basic staple (probably some form of grain and/or dry legumes) and some consistent accompaniments to get full nutrition, and prepare what you can in as large of quantities as you can eat before it goes bad. You’ll cut down all of expense, frequency of shopping, and total prep/cooking time compared to what you describe. The options you describe are basically ways to exploit the abundance and variety of food options available to modern, wealthy populations, not optimized human feeding within the current economy.
You would get your nutrients and a full sense of satiation from IV infusions and sleep pods.
It turns out that the desire to be fed a Matrix-style, nutrient rich slurry like you're on some sort of human foie gras production line is not as mainstream as one would imagine...
It’s no worse than Cheetos.
My kid who is in the target demographic knew all about it when I mentioned it a couple of years ago.
Which is further evidence I am not hip despite what I like to believe.
the chili, spicy curry, and tomato recipes are pretty good they also added mac and cheese now(with high protein and vitamins)
the powdered stuff taste like garbage tho
But I love the ritual of waking up, cooking up bacon, eggs, and a lot of fresh veggies. It's a highlight of my day. And don't forget some fresh brewed coffee.
Many, many companies do this. I can name three companies selling meal replacement shakes that you could probably subsist on for months without noticeable nutrition problems. I'm regularly bombarded with ads for companies that will send me prepared meals I only need to microwave and eat.
I would be very surprised if someone wasn't able to find a reasonable solution to this problem with a few minutes of googling.
1 - Easy heatables. Whether it's TV dinners or chicken nuggets, it's low effort.
2 - Quesadillas. It's cheap and no harder than putting a can of chicken and hot sauce in a tortilla, throwing it in the oven. Or no chicken. Or add cheese. Whatever.
3 - Crock pots. Would often keep a deer stew going that I'd eat for days at a time. It's a little investment up front in time, but pays dividends.
4 - Staples. Beans, rice, and potatoes all go a long way and are pretty foolproof.
Number 3 is closest to what humans did for a long time, really. The problem is that we lost the sense of community so it's every man for himself.
Also, batch-cooking. Cook one evening a week, but 3-4x what you do normally and freeze the rest.
Initially your freezer will just have 1 thing in it but after a few weeks you will actually have a nice variety of things, ready to defrost.
Cooking 3-4x of one thing takes maybe 50% more time, if that, than cooking 1 portion.
If you can stand the humidity - move to Singapore! No rockets required, just jet airplanes.
Is that true??? I would be deeply, deeply surprised if it is.
But in small cities or villages, you usually live with your main family or even your big family, so it's cheaper to cook in large batches at home everyday.
I'd also confidently say (I'm Indonesian) that almost all house has a rice cooker, so you could count that as cooking right?
You've reduced your cost and time to a bare minimum (shopping and cooking are a couple hours a week). Note that you can skip the rice and put a starch (e.g. potatoes) in the stew, but rice is highly flexible. You can research the things you need, cut them up and add them to the stew - like beans and broccoli. Since you don't care about taste, don't even bother with meat. Oh, BTW, you're vegan now.
Meat on the other hand, can be prepared days in advance, then freezed in freezer.
Never seems to get 'bad' only dry. Throw some water in to steam it up in the microwave and its usually fine
A rice cooker can usually finish cooking in less than 30 minutes completely automatically, so it's not really worth the risk anyway.
2 hours + 30 * 7 is already 5.5 hours. 30 minutes across 1-2 trips to the market. Throw on various other foods like peanut butter bananas, bread with olive and hummus, popcorn.
I used to say the same as you. I got a big order of Huel and that’s darn good (no flavoring), yet not much faster unless it’s literally all I eat. It’s no cheaper than the taco bowl either which is full of produce, so I prefer to pay for more fresh food. I feel better when I eat fresh food too.
Pardon not answering the question. Huel is the best but it really doesn’t get better than meal prep with fresh food. Not even a partner would be faster TBH because you can’t treat them like a robot—-no free lunch.
Someone else mentions intermittent fasting, that helps a lot and I’ve been on it since like 2017, warrior mode.
I go to the supermarket every other day, takes me ~15 min, I have always fresh stuff, I don’t find it inefficient at all
I would ask the OP if any ARFID-like feelings/emotions are driving his quest.
- If they are, consider talking to someone about this, or joining an online support group. ARFID is pernicious, hidden, often derided, and affects a _lot_ of tech-type people; it seems to ride along with a lot of the traits that can make us a little different. It's time to take the shame out of admitting that it's more than just fussy eating; it's deeper, darker and scarier.
- And if not, I'd really recommend looking at fresh soups, part-baked bread, five minute meal recipes, three-ingredient recipes, and listening to podcasts or music in the kitchen. There are ways to make food less of a chore.
Also, it's an old-fashioned idea, but if you're really uninterested in cooking, look at your options for canned foods. You can buy them and keep them for months or years, and if you can find a thing you really like out of a can you need never be short of at least one ridiculously simple thing to eat. Canning is truly one of humanity's greatest achievements, and it's puzzling to see so many attempts to solve a problem that is in many ways already solved.
(My tip: canned curries are better than they sound.)
Fighting through my distaste for food at every level has made me a happier person, and as much as I can see the benefit of trying to "solve" this problem in one go like this, I'd urge the OP not to do so.
1. people using acronyms without defining (them).
Food fears are terrifying and not everyone wants to be confronted with chapter and verse on new ways to feel inferior to people who can eat anything, every single time.
Veggies: there are still some that give me the horrors, but it's really all in the cooking (and the seasoning). Which is not to say I am a good cook.
I hope over time you find a bit more enjoyment from food but I do fully understand where you are, and very often I am reminded that I could end up back there.
(When I was a kid, early '80s, my mother, exasperated, took me to the doctor and said, he only eats (lists three things). The enlightened doctor said to my mother, in front of me, and I quote: "That sounds lovely. Invite me round for Sunday lunch". And then to my mother when I was not in the room, that worrying about my intake and pushing me to eat things would only make it worse for me.)
But I have to consume like 5k calories every day for sports, and that gets tiring.
When you look at McDonald's at a distance, what they sell is comfort, consistency, and freedom from disappointment. It's always the same.
Haven't eaten there in years, but decades on I can see that there are people in our high-stress world for whom that provides some value.