This person’s problem can be solved by a sandwich. Takes like 3 minutes to make, or can be prepped earlier, no cooking necessary, has color, is fresh, not frozen, beats any fast food meal in price and quality. Also can even be healthy if you shop wisely. Can be different every day. Can be hot or cold. The possibilities are endless. Sandwiches are the best.
Sandwiches were literally invented to be home made, portable fast food, for hunters, workers, and the like. Not only are they ok with being wrapped up and carried, if made right they actually get better when wrapped up and squashed.
I agree sandwiches are the best. But my metabolism is just too efficient at turning carbs into fat and high blood sugar. There’s just no substitute for good bread in a sandwich, all attempts at compromise/substitutions ruin the whole thing.
wraps are just as convenient and use far less bread, i love a good turkey wrap for lunch
Even a wrap is too much white flour right now. I bought some Low Carb High Fiber Whole Wheat tortilla wraps, but they’re serving the same role as Discworld Dwarf Bread: I look at them and remember the time I tried to eat one, and decide I’m not that hungry after all. I don’t even have to worry about them going stale, because they can’t become less appealing.
I don’t mind the taste of the “healthy” tortillas. I generally prefer the taste of whole grain bread and pasta over white flour variants. My largest complaint is that they all seem to disintegrate when you look at them – probably a gluten thing, but they all just break or shred instead of hold together, which defeats the purpose of wrapping your food in them.
I settled on OLÉ “Xtreme Wellness” high fiber wraps. They’re stretchy and they even toast/grill well. They’re good for sandwich wraps but also soft tacos and small burritos.
… With all currants in it? Just like mother used to forge.
What type of bread are you using, and how thick are your slices? These work fine for me, but theres also rye versions. https://frutimian.no/2016/08/12/matpakkebrod-i-langpanne/ - note link is in norwegian.
I dont mind spending time preparing if it means i get great taste.
This looks like a nice recipe for later on once I lose enough weight to start adding a few carbs to my life that aren’t from vegetables. No grain or starch right now.
I don’t have this problem, but lettuce wraps are shockingly good too. A good sturdy lettuce, sliced turkey, smoked cheddar and some chipotle mayo (canned chipotle en adobo, pureed, just mix some of it into mayonnaise to make a spread.) Onion if you have it. I don’t understand why it’s good, it sounds like nonsense but I do this when I don’t have time to make bread, but do have good lettuce or homegrown lettuce in the garden. It is delicious and feels good to eat.
You’re right, lettuce wraps are good and it’s been awhile. Next time I look at that dwarf bread I’ll get out a romaine leaf instead.
Don’t forget lettuce sandwiches.
What do you consider ‘good bread’? Don’t buy supermarket bread, go to a good bakery and get some nice, freshly baked whole-grain bread, that should be much more difficult to turn into sugar.
Even homemade whole-grain bread, while delicious and healthy in its way, has too many non-fiber carbs when you’re trying to minimize them. And my body is unfortunately very efficient at converting the starches to blood sugar. As for bakery whole-grain bread, (and of course the supermarket kind) the ingredients almost inevitably include “wheat flour” which is white flour, not necessarily bleached but minus the bran. This is because bread that is not only “made with 100% whole wheat” (which just means it contains SOME 100%-whole-wheat flour!) but is made with ONLY whole wheat flour (plus any other whole grains) doesn’t rise very well. I’ve struggled with it myself and made some bricks, despite being able to bake gorgeous loaves when allowed to include some unbleached bread flour in the mix. Go ahead, ask your baker. And then enjoy the bread, it’s still great for most people.
This is because bread that is not only “made with 100% whole wheat” (which just means it contains SOME 100%-whole-wheat flour!) but is made with ONLY whole wheat flour (plus any other whole grains) doesn’t rise very well.
I don’t know anything about baking bread so I can’t tell you how they do it, but in my country (the Netherlands) whole grain bread has to be made from 100% whole grain flour by law. If you add any other kind of flour you cannot sell it as whole grain. There is plenty of delicious whole grain bread for sale both in supermarkets and bakeries.
Get some keto bread. It’s basically pure fiber in bread shape. The aldi keto bread is fantastic
You can even eat it riding a horse!
Or cook a big batch of your own soup at the weekend. Then microwave it for lunch.
Good Lord I am happy I can handle my shit and not have to publicly post my executive dysfunction for the planet to see.
So much of these news aggregate sites are morons reposting the same tired posts from absolute crayon eaters who bloviate about how critically incapable they are at basic life functions.
I’m soooo ADHD, sitting through that lecture yesterday was rough! 🙄
You’re so quirky! Whats your gamer tag??? Do you play MLP?
I am pretty sure I have ADHD and I still manage to meal prep.
Even if you cant, you can literally just have a backup plan like mine, for when I forget to cook I have some frozen chicken strips, potato wedges, and green beans, throw it all on a sheet pan and into the convection oven for 20-25 mins, boom you have a decent meal, bit more pricey than doing it from scratch, but it’s quick and low effort
I do have ADHD, and while I can manage meal prep, 99% of the time I just can’t be bothered. But I force myself to do it, because the alternative is eating a bag of crisps and a big bar of chocolate and feeling like crap all afternoon.
I make slow cooked chicken burritos and freeze them. Takes about 1 hour of prep, and about 6 hours to cook so it isn’t easy, but I only gotta do this occasionally. If I do this in conjunction with meal prep it takes a lot longer to prep, but then I can have a work week of food, and have like 8 burritos for when I’m too lazy to cook.
I’m okay cooking for just myself but I have a toddler and celiac wife so I use cook smarts. Takes away so much of the planning.
It’s called a sandwich.
For anyone who is confused, this user is talking about a sandwich. That is what is called a sandwich.
Hope that cleared it up!
Here in the Netherlands a lot of people just eat sandwiches. I usually take them with me to work. Not a lot of effort
I’ll never understand how can people eat sandwiches every day, especially those woth some kind of meat in them. I’m not vegetarian but eating sandwichesv for more than two days in a row make me want to puke.
Do you eat the same thing for breakfast every day? I do. But for whatever reason, lunch and dinner is different. Can’t eat the same thing twice.
Dumb brain
I don’t. But I’m a rich american who can afford to be picky and eat different stuff for every meal and eat 1-2 meals a day from restaurants regularly.
I am one and it’s peanut butter every day. For 3 years basically every working day has had a peanut butter sandwich. And that’s how the next 30 some years are looking too. It’s fine. I can live that way.
That’s a fucking delicious 33 years.
I eat sandwiches every day, and the same thing or small variety. I’m not eating for the experience, I’m eating to not be hungry. I can make and eat a sandwich is less than a minute, so I can get back to doing what I want to be doing.
If I really don’t feel like a sandwich, there’s always toast.
A sandwich can be a thousand different dishes if you get creative
Not Mongolian I take it?? Lol
a lot of people eat the same food several days in a row, or several meals in a row.
you only feel that way because you see food as pleasure to be enjoyed. not as a necessity for living. lots of people eat to live.
Peanut butter? Upgrading to natural peanut butter made all the difference for me, so it’s no longer just for kids.
I even get decent marmalade, which definitely doesn’t work for kids, or a dark amber maple syrup. I currently have apple butter, which goes nicely on a peanut butter sandwich, or with a scoop of cottage cheese on the side
Genuinely, why? Personally, I’m happy to eat basically same meals for a few days before they get boring, and you can vary your sandwiches a lot of you so desire.
You don’t have to make the same sandwich every day.
Why?
Idk
this was a productive thread
Same in the UK, where the post was written.
Also, there’s literally a Greggs on every corner or a greasy spoon that’ll make you a sandwich for 2.50
Same in Germany. We have bread with butter and cheese. It’s a blessing with a good bread
Lunch is my favourite. Nothing beats a fine sandwich with cheese.
Peanut butter and provolone is one of my favorites
I will ask my cousin about it lol
Yeah I just make a peanut butter sandwich and prep some fruit and bring it to work. Easy, healthy, and filling
You can just… not? Having two larger meals a day isn’t that weird.
I have adopted the “Central European” diet:
One large meal a day and then leftovers + bread and toppings.
Occasionally might have more but that’s my daily meal plan and works pretty great.
Bread is a life saver. If you don’t have time to cook just eat some bread. Healthy (depends on the kind of bread) and you don’t have to worry about beeing hungry an hour later.
And honestly, you can make a lot of really good bread quite quickly. Leaving out proofing for a bit, it’s less than watching an episode of a show. Bread it also easy enough that you can totally watch a show while making it, and not worry about chopping off your fingers lol
What does the rest of the world do then? Cook twice or thrice a day? That’s just silly.
Cooking takes SO MUCH TIME when you’re single. But eating out is so expensive. It sucks.
Good news, they’re making eating in expensive too, so you can get the full experience!
If you don’t have a freezer that can hold two weeks worth of meals, buy one. I have three homemade frozen pizzas and a half dozen chicken pot pies waiting right now.
I can cook a whole roast chicken on Sunday and enjoy chicken tacos, chicken sandwiches, etc. all week.
I can cook a five liter pot of chili/soup/stew and freeze it into pint containers; I’ve got a nice hot meal any time.
Slow cookers are another option.
My problem with that is defrosting. It requires timing and planning, which is tough due to impromptu work based meals. And some stuff once frozen tastes like crap defrosted.
I do liberally use the slow cooker.
What are you defrosting?
You don’t have to defrost anything except raw meat and even that can go straight into the oven if you want to season it after it’s cooked. If you have a frozen pizza/pot pie just throw it in a pre-heated oven.
Also, you can defrost quickly with a microwave.
Soup, beans, pasta. Also, for cooking: frozen meat. Veggies are also difficult, yeah there’s flash frozen veg that can work but that requires cookery too.
Store made frozen pizzas and pies taste like crap and are expensive. Homemade ones take a lot of time.
Soups are still good especially with a crock pot but I get so sick of soup.
I’m lucky because I have an Italian food shop near me that makes homemade uncooked pizza. I can take it home and cook right away or freeze. Same with the chicken pot pies.
The main thing I’d say is get in the habit of making giant servings and freeze them. I will make 5 liters of stew/chili/soup on a Sunday and freeze it in pint containers. A different recipe the next Sunday. Now I’ve got 20 meals sitting in the freezer.
It takes as much effort to make a big meal as a small one; make a meal big enough for four people and freeze three portions.
If you practice and prepare you can cut down on some of the time. I used to live right next to a street of fast food joints so it was never worth it to cook myself from a time standpoint unless I was just having some frozen garbage. Now it’s a 15 minute trip to pick something up if there’s no line so I cook a lot more and with experience I’ve been able to streamline things so it goes faster. Also make enough for 2-3 meals when you cook and then “leapfrog” through the week eating the leftovers. That way you don’t have to cook every day but also don’t have to eat the same thing every day.
If you find a few recipies you really like and learn how to do them from memory, and then make them a lot, you learn lots of efficiencies and shortcuts that save a ton of time. Making stuff without a recipie at all is even faster.
Yeah same. I just try to cook a meal on Sunday but it doesn’t get me through the entire week. Not to mention I usually need a second meal at night when I work out. It’s too much.
Cooking takes the same amount of time whether you’re single or not?
Like wtf.
Pasta boils at the same speed regardless of how many people are in the house.
That’s the problem. It’s more efficient with bigger meals. If you’re single, you have to cook and then clean. If there’s two of you, you can divide tasks.
I have good news for you:
Being single doesn’t mean you can only cook single portions of stuff.
You can cook two portions, and have an entire meal ready to eat anytime during the next few days.
You might even find yourself adventurous and cook three portions, and have TWO whole meals ready to go.
But be wary, most people who just learn the ability to plan ahead quickly get carried on and start preparing 5, 6 or even 7 servings ahead of time and I only recommend this for experienced meal preppers who know what they are doing.
Also, clean as you go, and cleaning suddenly doesn’t become this insurmountable task.
I swear to god half of the people in these threads are not fit for life.
The other half are armchair quarterbacks who can’t fathom that anything is ever difficult for other people.
meals ready to go.
Reheating leftovers is a gamble. Sometimes reheated food just tastes like ass, no matter how good it was fresh.
clean as you go
It still takes twice as much effort, IF the recipe you’re making leaves time for it.
Jesus, you condescending fuck, you think I don’t know this shit? Are you so damn arrogant you think no one else has figured out meal prepping? You think you’re goddamn einstein because you discovered cleaning as you go? We fucking know. And it sucks.
Douchenozzle.
of course I am being condescending.
I am talking to a supposedly grown ass man having mental breakdowns because they have to clean the dishes after cooking.
How does someone get so stupid that they equate “I don’t like this” to “mental breakdown”? Your mom smack you a little too hard that one time?
Hahaha learn to cook. Stir fry takes under 30 min. BLT in like 5 min. Pizza in under an hr including making the dough.
I see you never have to wash dishes or chop vegetables.
They’re like parallel processes. Rice takes about 20 min. Start that first and you can have the stir Fry done before the rice finishes with plenty of time to clean up. A sandwich leaves just a knife and cutting board. Just rinse that off. And if I was making pizza I’d make the dough the night before and the rest is simple, clean up when the pizzas in the oven.
Personally love leftovers. Make extra rice, use the leftovers in a burrito or something. Make extra pizza dough and put some in the freezer, etc
I disagree. I like cooking and since I’m working from home I can make something nice and fast at home for lunch. But I probably would have agreed back then when I worked at the office.
I love the cooking but hate the cleaning up part.
Pro tip: cook in and eat from one pot :D
but what about the 5 knives and 3 spoons i’ve used preparing the ingredients :(
Open dishwasher when you start. Instead of putting those things on the counter or in the sink, out then directly in the dishwasher
I just cook bigger portions for dinner and eat that as lunch
Right! I’m surprised this isn’t a more popular approach.
Yes, it’s so obvious. It doesn’t take significantly longer to cook a double portion.
Yes, eventually it ends when you’re promoted to middle management and you have to forage for granola bars and cookies during the few seconds you get between meetings. Stay an IC for as long as you can.
That sounds like a toxic-work-culture thing that I’m faaaar too European to understand. I’m off for a two hour lunch, don’t text me
It’s been years since I’ve eaten food away from my desk. And God forbid I should forget to bring food and need to run downstairs for sixteen seconds to purchase something. That’s truly one of the seven deadly sins.
Is a proper meal period with rest not guaranteed by law?
Or is it, but it’s hard to fight for it because the workplace culture is shaped differently?
I’m in the state of Georgia: no provision for breaks are given at all.
I used to live in the UK: I think the rule was employers are required to give 30 mins per 10 hours worked, cannot be in the first or last hour.
I’m in the state of Georgia: no provision for breaks are given at all.
Oh man that’s brutal.
I used to live in the UK: I think the rule was employers are required to give 30 mins per 10 hours worked, cannot be in the first or last hour.
Yeah here in Switzerland it’s similar to the UK rule. Any shift longer than 6 hours needs to be interrupted by an unpaid but uninterrupted break of at least 30min for eating, such that there isn’t more than a 6 hour continuous work period on either side of the break, IIRC.
Our standard for full-time employment is 8.4h per day. (That’s a bit high in comparison to neighboring countries). It’s very usual that you get your eating break somewhere between 11:30-13:30 o’clock, maybe on rotation with coworkers if you need to keep the phones staffed.
In my office job we all go together from around 11:45 to 12:45.
Combination of being salaried plus industry culture.
TIL I’m European
£4 sounds pretty cheap if it’s a decent meal
It’s a sandwich, pocket of crisps or a chocolate bar and a drink.
I would murder my whole family for a $5 sandwich meal deal in the states. Even fast food by my work is double that, and you’re still only getting America-quality food packed with sugars and preservatives.
As an American who spent time living in the UK - ‘sandwich’ is a generous description of what you get in a £4 meal deal. Some meal deals have things made from actual food but good luck finding one of those at that price.
It’s an appropriate amount of food in terms of calories, but it does leave one distinctly dissatisfied.
Yeah I’m usually more interested in nutrients than calories. Otherwise I’d just have a Guinness for lunch
Meal deals are rarely ever decent. They’re enough to get you through the working day if you sit at a desk all day.
So more like £8 or 10
California here. $15 minimum. Less if you give some shitty app all your data.
Someone needs to raise their sandwich game.
I mostly eat leftovers from last night’s dinner for lunch.
Leftovers gang checking in. Sometimes it tastes even better the next day.
Imagine your biggest realization as an adult being a wrong opinion.
If you want to minimize cleanup and effort, just use a rice cooker.
- Costs 30€
- Put in rice and lentils at a ratio of your chosing, cook with oil and salt
- Optionally spices and tomato paste
- Put in frozen veggies either in a steaming basket or directly in the rice
- Chuck in an onion (quartered if you’re lazy) and some garlic
- Yoghurt on the side
Congratulations you now have a healthy, cheap meal you can make at home or at work. If you eat directly out of the cooker you only need to clean your spoon. No cutting board needed either.
you only need to clean your spoon
Don’t you need to clean the rice cooker?
I’m not trying to be a smartass, I’m just that desperate that I’m hoping to find out you don’t need to.
Mine has a non-stick pan. It all comes down to how quickly you empty it. Emptied immediately, it rinses clean. If it sits around while I eat, I’ll need to scrub a little
This. You can use it back to back a few days and get away with not cleaning it. Then a quick soap rinse takes care of the issue.
I’m a pretty good cook, but I don’t think there’s enough here to get it done. Do rice and lentils take about the same amount of water to cook? How much oil?
It’s one of those “by feel” recepies. I would say 1-2 tablespoon per person. Red lentils fall apart and give a grainy texture, which you may or may not like. Black (or Beluga) lentils come out fine, or maybe a bit al dente, same for brown lentils.
Thx for the tips, I’ve never put anything in my rice cooker but medium grain rice and water
Old rice/pasta with olive oil, garlic and cheese is great too.
Rice with oil? Doesn’t it make it unsticky?
It depends on how long you cook it, I prefer it not very sticky. Longer cooking times will make it a bit softer and more sticky.
