Motivated by cost and convenience, I've been experimenting with microwaving whole foods. I've never used a microwave much and I got curious: could I get the convenience of frozen dinners, but without all the mystery ingredients? That seems to be true.
My general food goals:
- <= $20
- ~10 minutes
- whole foods
- <= 1500 calories
- one meal
My meal experiment this week:
- 16oz precut garnet sweet potatoes ~ 400 calories ~ $3
- half a stick of butter ~ 400 calories ~ $0.50
- meat, either
- 3 cans of sardines ~ 400 calories ~ $9
- 3 precooked chicken sausages ~ 400 calories ~ $3
- 2 cups of chicken/steak from Chipotle (near the office) ~ 400 calories ~ $8
- fun, either
- dessert
- half cup of full fat greek yogurt ~ 150 calories ~ $0.50
- adding, either
- one scoop of fancy mixed animal protein powder ~ 150 calories ~ $3
- 10g of creatine ~ $0.25
- one cup of frozen blackberries ~ 100 calories ~ $1
- one scoop of fancy mixed animal protein powder ~ 150 calories ~ $3
- or I'll add parmesan/sharp cheddar to potatoes
- half cup ~ 300 calories ~ $2
- dessert
Sweet potatoes cook pretty well in the microwave so no trouble yet. I put them and the butter in a glass bowl with a lid, and nuke them for ~8 minutes and mash them. Then I'll add whatever meat (which is precooked and heats via the mash), cheese, and seasoning I'm having, and call it dinner.
Before this week I tried
- whole Japanese potatoes which were great - they were just a bit of hassle to prep as the skin becomes rubbery.
- microfried rice
- previously steamed rice - also great but I can tell it does a number on my blood sugar (not in clinically relevant way - just don't feel as good) - with frozen peas and carrots
- I bought some eggs to try adding next time, which are supposed to do well microwaved, but haven't tried that yet
- turned a Chipotle burrito bowl into microfried rice
- previously steamed rice - also great but I can tell it does a number on my blood sugar (not in clinically relevant way - just don't feel as good) - with frozen peas and carrots
Once I've tried adding an egg or two, I'll share my microfried rice recipes.
While I could definitely lose some weight, I'm not really trying to. I'm mostly calorie restricting to play with my appetite - which I've never had much control over.
Hmmm interesting choices you are making here just for convenience.
You must not know that microwaves kill food that is already dead, and that food is basically matter devoid of life...
Why not give your body more life by eating fresh foods? A convenient but fresh meal for me can be dandelion leaves mixed with some chopped tomatos, onions avocado, a drizzle of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It makes for a great salad and you can add whatever protein you like. Sometimes I switch it up with shredded chicken and a bit of avocado mayo if I don’t have the actual avocado. Just an idea. Also getting more sunlight, fasting and doing coffee enemas have helped me with appetite and cravings.
If i could i would cook for you just so you could eat better foods.
If you're using counter top electricals, have you considered an air fryer? They are actually not a fryer but a mini convection oven that sits on your counter top, a fraction of the cost of a conventional oven, instant heat.
Would be great for crispy potatoes, nicely finished chicken sausages 😋
Obviously heating rice would still need to go in microwave but can be cooking two foods at once, multi tasking k00b.
Also microfried rice is a based term, I shall incorporate into my kitchen speak 😋
I cosign the airfryer
Hmmm this portable one would be a pretty big unlock.
We have this one and love it since it handles toasting and air frying.
Being able to just cook your meal in the container you're going to eat it out of is pretty excellent design.
The below is at least 50% of my diet. I never get tired of it, especially the beef. It doesn't start in the microwave, but I batch cook it, and then heat it up for individual meals in the microwave.
Maybe you can adapt it to your needs.
Ground beef patties
73/27 fat ground beef, pressed into a large size glass casserole dish, cooked at around 375 until done. Probably about 15 minutes.
Cut up into patties, put in fridge. Nuke one or two of them a minute or so, for a meal. I'll eat with one or many of the following
salt
butter
tallow
sour cream
cheddar
other cheese
Egg "fritatta".
I still call them fritattas, though I've simplified dramatically from the beginning, where I'd put in bacon, cheese, etc. Now it's just ... eggs. Plain eggs.
Basically, beat 12 eggs, and pour evenly into a silicon muffin pan. They cook up in about 15 minutes, puff up dramatically. (Then they shrink again). I eat 2 for breakfast every day, and sometimes for snacks. It's much easier than cooking up eggs fresh every day.
I'll eat with salt, butter, tallow, etc, similar to the ground beef.
Ground beef can also be bulk-cooked into crumbles, not patties. Then it's great to eat with taco seasoning and sour cream. Yum.
I used to do a lot of ground beef too when I was carnivore. I never tried cooking it in the oven though. I'll give that a shot soon.
This sounds 10x easier than hard boiling eggs. Very cool. I've cooked eggs this way before, but never thought about meal prepping eggs this way.
Yeah, and with the silicon muffin pan, they pop out really easily, no need to grease or use muffin liners, just put the pan in the dishwasher.
And of course, no hard-boiled egg peeling (I've never found a method that makes them easily to peel, consistently).
I finally did! By just a random trial and error. If you have a rice cooker with a steaming basket, steam the eggs in the rice cooker. Peel comes right off, I have no idea why.
Same!
I think ~10 min is very hard for a nice / nutritious meal. In my experience the best way to reduce the time is to make enough for a couple of days and just heat up the next one.
Just my 2 sats.
I agree. I've done it before. In order to get my noodle going though I need to test the limit of something, so that's what I'm doing.
Originally thought you were putting sardines in the microwave and clicked the post in horror.
I didn't realize sweet potatoes cook so well in the microwave. I make a lot of sweet potatoes, but usually diced in a skillet, which is a slow process and somewhat fiddly. I'll have to try to the microwave approach.
They won't be nearly as tasty as your skillet potatoes, but they cook surprisingly well in the microwave.
Hmmm looks like indented list rendering is borked.
gh issue: https://github.com/stackernews/stacker.news/issues/2887