Notes on feeding oneself

Personal wiki food
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Wikipedia says most commercial quinoa is pre-washed:

But bulk barn

“1 cup Quinoa 2 cups Water Season to taste To rinse quinoa thoroughly before cooking, run warm water into a pot so the quinoa agitates but does not overflow. Rinse for 3 minutes, drain well. Place quinoa, seasonings and water in saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cover and simmer for 7-10 minutes. Substitute quinoa for rice or grains in your favorite recipes. For a hot breakfast cereal add chopped apples, raisins and cinnamon. NOTE: Quinoa requires thorough rinsing (3 minutes).”

Since the Bulk Barn quinoa is not pre-rinsed, I went back to Bob’s Red Mill quinoa from Safeway. Very expensive, like $18/737g (4 cups uncooked).

The instructions on the back for simple pot cooking work well, better than my instant pot attempts.

I wonder if I can use oats as a cheap “bulking” filler

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make cubbi italiano-like sandwich? use instant pot chicken maybe

it’s the spread / sauce that really makes their sandwiches pop. maybe I can find something to put on it

sliced cucumber / tomato

canned mushroom

Freezing Sandwiches | UNL Food.

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this looks like a great overall resource

IMPORTANT: “Salad dressings,” such as Miracle Whip, work better as a binder in sandwiches than mayonnaise. Mayonnaise tends to separate on thawing. So, experiment to see how you like the result before making a freezer full of sandwiches.

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Bought a bottle of beano tablets.

Expensive; $25 for 60 tablets. That’s only about $1.5/day at 2 tablets/meal * 2 meals/day. If it allows me to use cheap veggie and bean dishes more often, though, it’ll save money

Eaten a lot of chickpeas and beans and had no issues; seems to work well.

https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/strategies-for-the-relief-of-bloating-and-gas

Alpha-galactosidase is another means to prevent bloating and gas.1,13 This is an enzyme derived from Aspergillus niger, and it has the ability to break down the oligosaccharide linkages that humans cannot digest. The patient is then able to absorb the single-component sugar residues. In research exploring the enzyme’s efficacy, subjects ingested two meals of meatless chili composed of several types of beans, cabbage, cauliflower, and onions.14 They were given either a placebo or the commercially available alpha-galactosidase product, known as Beano. Beano reduced the number of flatulence events at all times except for 2 hours postingestion. The effect was most pronounced 5 hours after the meal.14

To use Beano solution, the patient places approximately 5 drops on the first bite of troublesome food, such as beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, grains, cereals, nuts, seeds, and whole-grain breads.13 That amount usually covers a half-cup serving of food. If the meal consists of two or three servings of the food, the patient should place 10 to 15 drops on the meal. However, if the patient still experiences flatulence, the amount can be adjusted upward until an effective dose is reached. The patient may also swallow or chew a Beano tablet with the first bite of food or crumble it onto the first bite. One tablet usually digests a half-cup serving; more tablets can be used for larger portions. Patients cannot cook with Beano because of heat-induced enzyme degradation. Patients with galactosemia should consult a physician prior to use since enzymatic degradation of oligosaccharides produces galactose. Beano is labeled only for patients aged 12 years and above. While it appears to be safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding, there are no studies to confirm that observation. At one time, the manufacturer recommended that patients allergic to molds not use Beano, but the present view is that the caution is not supported by medical literature.13

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I don’t understand what’s happening here. I made a bunch of cheap meals for the last few weeks, lots of bulk food, along with eating canned soups etc, the inexpensive bag of $10 meatballs

But, no matter how I slice it, I’m paying about $17 to $21/day, or ~$500 to $650/month, for my grocery bill; the majority of this is in groceries itself. How could this be?

I just made 4 meals (i.e. 2 days), with 1 flat of ground beef ($10), 4 cups of rice (2 kg flat for ~$6, 4 cups would be 900g, so maybe $2.5 in rice), and maybe (generously) 1 kg of frozen veggies (2 kg bag, $8, so maybe $4).

That’s $4/meal or $8/day, which is in line with my expectations. Also added some sauce, maybe a quarter bottle, so add another $2 to the total.

Or with the pasta. 4 or more meals, half of $5 in spaghetti, $10 in meatballs, 2 cans tomato sauce at $3 each, and maybe $4 in frozen veggies. $6/meal, $12/day, which is still excessive but acceptable (still cheaper than Subway or Wendy’s, my baseline). $360/mo. How do I get to $500?!

And what about the third set of meals, which involved 5 eggs (~$3), $4 in rice, like 3 cans chickpeas and beans, (3*$1.8 = 5.4) and maybe $4 in veg, for 4 meals.

Looking at my last grocery bill, of $185, about $40 is non-grocery (TP, or non-essentials like chips).

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can food guide has some good recipes

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Started going to Co-op on my mom’s suggestion. Really good prices and good slection

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Pressure cooker beef stew

Thaw meat in microwave, strip thawed area,

put in pressure cooker

Dice potatoes

Cover fully with water

Cauliflower from winter vegetables.

Onion

Potatoes should be large enough that they do not break apart

Drain meat well

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Once again, spent $500 in groceries. Need to get this under control once and for all.

Also diverging from the “quick and easy meals” target. Kale soup remains a perfect mantra - done in 20 minutes of work.

Have been buying e.g. Arctic Stir Fry mix (co-op). Realized this is very expensive; $15 for a 1.75 kg bag. However, if I compare with e.g. fresh broccoli, maybe $3/lb = $9/kilogram

In an example meal today, used half of the 0.9 kg bag (0.5 * 15 = $7.5), mixed it with 4 (uncooked) cups rice (155 grams per cup, $2.5/kg, about $1.5 for 4 cups), and 3 tins of tuna ($1.8 each, $5.4 total), plus $2 in stir fry oil. Made 3.5 meals, comes to about $5 /meal. Should probably have gone for 5 tins of tuna.

So arctic veggies aren’t breaking the bank.

Should lean into tuna.

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Don’t think I’m getting enough protein. Running into a hair issue.

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Need to find a good oat recipe. Still haven’t found an alternative to rice milk that tastes acceptable.

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Jack notes that Parmesan is an exceptionally expensive cheese. Suggests substituting Brie. Indeed, Mozzerella is about a third of the price of grated Parmesan that I love.

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Tried collecting recipes here, but it’s not working super well. There’s a selfhosted open source meal planner which I want to try out. For now, trying out the app/service PlanToEat. Will regularly export to this page to maintain the ‘public benefit’ aspect

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The math above for frozen broccoli does not hold for frozen ion.

750g bag of diced onions is $5 at safeway. That’s $0.6/100g, whereas a 10lb bag of onions is $0.2/100g. I probably wouldn’t finish a 10lb bag in a reasonable time

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Substituting turkey for ground beef is a good idea. Even lean ground beef always cooks to a puddle of grease which I need to remove by hand. Turkey doesn’t have this problem and is about the same money.

turkey has B12 as well

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Very scientific testing here.

Do Any Traditional (i.e., Non–Beano) Cooking Techniques Reduce Bean-Induced Fartiness?
Categorically no. You can soak your beans for anywhere between 8 and 24 hours, you can throw away that soaking water or keep it, you can cook direct from dry, you can pressure cook, you can cook with bay leaves or kombu, you can even parboil soaked beans for a minute in boiling water and throw that water away. None of these strategies makes an appreciable difference in the fart levels of beans cooked from scratch.

Does Rinsing Canned Beans Reduce Gas?

A resounding yes. Gram per gram, rinsed beans are over twenty percent less farty than unrinsed, and the liquid you throw away is thirty percent fartier than the beans are themselves.

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Sounds like forms of alpha-galactosidase would be a nice target for the home biohacker. Making something robust enough to survive cooking
https://www.reddit.com/r/FODMAPS

There is a beano “Ultra 800”, not much more expensive.

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Trying to double the Quinoa recipe,

  • 2 cups Co-op quinoa
  • 4 cups water
  • Big pot with rice-cooker lid (with small vent hole) on induction heater

Messed up; didn’t bring water to boil first, added quinoa first. Proceeding anyhow. Once boiling, 12 minutes simmer at 300 watts.

Not quite right on the quinoa. Has a bit too much bite and is also a bit soggy. More time cooking perhaps

with 500 grams
only made 4 servings