Where is your tupperware lunch box? hmmm?
If only not stuffing your face for one meal was a thing.
Breakfast is the worst. Sausage, ham, pancakes, cereal, eggs, hash browns, or toast. Want a breakfast burrito? Take a normal burrito, add scrambled eggs. Want a breakfast sandwich? Swap out sliced bread with english muffin or bagel, optionally add an egg.
Screw that. I’m having leftover spaghetti for breakfast.
Avocado toast! With an egg on top!
Bread in the toaster; mush an avocado with salt, pepper, lime juice; fry an egg and put it on top
One of the greatest freedoms of adulthood is realizing you can have whatever you want for breakfast and nobody can stop you imo
Cold pizza breakfast hits in all the right spots.
It’s frustrating as an adult with ARFID/eating disorders. I can’t bring myself to eat leftovers because I worry that they are contaminated. I’ve thrown away so much food because I won’t reuse a pasta sauce jar if it has been opened.
A lot of the common “easy” meals are things that I absolutely will not eat - spaghetti, canned veggies, ground beef. Sometimes I struggle with eating ramen. It’s fucking embarrassing but I literally cannot help it. I will gag and puke if my brain decides I can’t eat something.
Have you considered taking a serve safe restaurant hygiene class. I used to be similarly worried about food, but after learning about the safe handling and storage rules and temperature danger zones, I’m much less worried about left overs.
I got the manager certification a long time ago, and it oddly made it worse. Weird things like being convinced that my refrigerator isn’t consistently keeping temperature or that the plastic in the packaging has holes in it. Texture sets me off and there’s a lot of variation I’m sensitive to.
I can’t get a family sized bag of chips or cereal for example, because I can only eat them the same day I opened the package. I know that there is nothing wrong with them, but the thought of a stale one upsets me. I love apples, but rarely eat them because I don’t want to risk a mushy one. I know a mushy apple or stale chips aren’t “contaminated” but they feel intensely like they are.
I’d say you have to learn to trust your nose (it really is that simple) but you seem to have a condition worth to see a therapist over.
Sounds absolutely horrible. I usually have to tame myself, to not eat all leftovers in the evening so I have some for tomorrow.
Cooking takes SO MUCH TIME when you’re single. But eating out is so expensive. It sucks.
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.
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.
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. Make extra pizza dough and put some on the freezer, etc
Good news, they’re making eating in expensive too, so you can get the full experience!
Yes georgia, it ends when you marry mr successful and he pays for everything.
I skip breakfast so technically lunch is breakfast but it’s then I eat my main meal and it’s always top notch. Who wants to eat a large meal in the evening?
Me. Can’t stomach a full meal until late noon.
I do, it makes me sleepy otherwise Ill stayup way too late
Mind that stomach valve, they wear out.
Oh shits fucked lol i sleep on like a 45 degree angle
Don’t eat lunch. When you finally convince your boss to let you work 8 hour days with no break instead of 9 hour days with an awkward 1 hour unpaid break you can do nothing with, that’s 1 hour you can spend on yourself that you didn’t have before. Also, now you don’t have to waste as much of your spare time exercising (to fight weight gain caused by eating 3 meals a day as an adult) so the time savings are twofold.
Not everyone can do that unfortunately as it is illegal. We’re “forced” to have a lunch break, which I support the idea of, I just hate that I have to stay the extra hour when “normal” full time jobs are 9-5 and the lunch is in that 8 hours…
That was
one of the fewthe only advantage of living in Texas. It was not difficult to get out of that 1 unpaid hour “break” so I could go home earlier and get paid the same for spending less time at work. Lawmakers pushing for mandated unpaid breaks are helping corporations keep their employees at work longer.Mandated breaks should be paid. Nothing personal gets accomplished in an hour, it is just a chance to recharge so you can work even harder. For that reason, it serves the company, and should be paid time.
Everything bagel, cream cheese, provolone, tomato/cucumber in that order. Eat open faced. You’re welcome.
I used to do something like that for lunch. Next thing I knew I was crashing from not enough protein, and developing high cholesterol. Be careful eating the same basic things all the time, it’s easy to accidentally max something out without thinking about it.
Where is the crushing existential dread and multiversal blackhole?
Go look at a tiny plant sticking out of a sidewalk crack. You’ll feel better
Shit take.
If you’re not eating a croque monsieur for lunch, that’s your fault, and you deserve to be miserable
Mmm calories
Just eat a small one
Croque garcon?
Where’s all the people who loathe breakfast because they aren’t hungry until lunch?
Followup question because I’m not one of them. Should we not talk to you until you’ve had your morning coffee and cigarette? You know what hat doesn’t give you permission to act like a fucking dickweed to everyone Kyle & Amanda.
Bring my morning coffee and cigarette to me in bed and you’ll have a fast friend for life
Diet shakes :)
Most of my lunches are leftovers, but many of them are things like a burger or a bratwurst that I can cook with little effort. Or I can buy something.
Imagine complaining about £4 for lunch, I’m lucky if I get out for under $20.
british people are poor
I interpreted it as a 4 pound tv dinner. But maybe I’m reading it wrong.
[Edit] Now I am doubting what even a meal deal is
I’ve seriously considered buying MREs because I can’t be bothered to meal prep.
It’s still basically canned food, it’s just that the can is a pouch. It’s more expensive too.
Most MREs that I’ve looked at are a bit more elaborate than your average canned product.
But the idea is the same, yes. It’s more interesting than your typical canned meal, and it’s more expensive, but the quality of the food, if you can call it that, is not dissimilar.
MREs usually are a more “complete” meal with a variety of components, while canned meals are just a volume of a single component.
For me it’s mainly that it adds variety.
And sure, there’s MREs that are like, stew, or soup, that you would probably be better off just grabbing a can of ready to eat Campbell’s or something… But there’s way interesting options than that too.
I once saw a “taco” MRE. It was little more than some “beef” (that you had to heat up) and “cheese” and some other fairly sad toppings on a small tortilla… But I would still take that over a can of chunky beef soup any day.
The nice thing is that MREs are shelf stable for a really long time, so you can get a box of them and shove them in your trunk, or into a desk drawer and then you don’t have to worry about lunch for a month. Longer if you occasionally go out for lunch with coworkers to local food places near your workplace.
Presently, I don’t work in an office (my job is 100% work from home), so I don’t really need it. I can get the same variety from a frozen meal, which is arguably easier, and it’s definitely cheaper than MREs.
I also have considered buying a few boxes as emergency food and throwing them in the trunk of my car. I live in Canada, and getting stranded in a blizzard isn’t impossible. I have access to my trunk from the cabin of my car, so I shouldn’t need to get out to get them and I could stay nourished while waiting for rescue. MREs are supposed to be paired with heating/cooking packs, which would help the car warm up when I’m having one, and with a decently sized container of drinking water, I could wait weeks for rescue, as long as I have adequate protection from the elements (jackets, blankets, etc), and some way to dispose of my bodily waste without contaminating my “living” area. I almost always travel with a radio (I’m a certified amateur operator, aka, ham radio), and a battery bank for my cellphone.
For a couple hundred dollars (maybe? Maybe more? IDK what the prices are for MREs right now), myself and a passenger could survive for a while being stranded in the white wasteland of Canada, without really having to do anything… Just waiting for rescue.
With global warming, last year we barely got snow where I am, and I don’t travel much, so the whole thing is on the back burner at best. The idea was to have it, and if I don’t need it, a few months before everything expires, the MREs become my lunch, and I buy a fresh box for my vehicle.
Yeah, there’s some stuff on the side, but get a can of chef boyardee, a sealed packet of crackers and a pop tart, and that’s pretty much it. Add some Qwik and Gatorade powder for hydration, maybe. At 250$ per 12-pack it’s more expensive than eating out.
I’m involved with the Canadian cadet program, and these are the exact ones we eat when we go on expédition, they’re nothing fancy. They are convenient, though.
Dont forget to put it on a tray.
I’m not a monster.
Nice. Mmk…
