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Ask HN: got any food hacks?

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Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#131

Post by keefe »

This will probably get lost in the sea of messages, but this is a topic I spend a lot of time on. First off, http://nutritiondata.com is a valuable resource - I treat the body as a machine with certain fuel requirements. The key ones are fiber, protein and calories. You need to know your input profile or you're just guessing. Next, pick a few dishes that satisfy this profile. I eat a bowl of carrots a whole can of corn (canned corn is a GREAT fiber per $ ratio if you buy it in bulk) and a large protein shake. Next up is a vitamin, which is absolutely crucial for micronutrients. If you let veggies + protein be the centerpiece of your diet (that is my breakfast) then the rest of the day tends to fall around it, because the bulk makes you less hungry and your body has what it needs. I'd also recommend you workout at least 3 days a week if you don't already - body maintenance is not optional for optimum performance.

If you honestly are saying ONE hour is too much time for a full day of quality cooking? You're dreaming to some extent.

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#132

Post by sabat »

mattmaroon wrote: post #22

What you just asked for is a full-sized SUV that costs $10,000, rides like a Lexus, gets 45mpg city, and never loses the new car smell. If you don't want to cook or clean, that means someone has to cook/package for you. If you don't want processed food (and I don't blame you) where this is done by machine, then you have to pay for something done by real people. This will by-definition be not cheap, since labor is rel…

You're being very hard on someone who merely asked an honest question. Lighten up, particularly if you don't actually have an answer for the guy.

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#133

Post by pasbesoin »

There have been some previous threads on this topic. Search will probably turn them up.

My recurring suggestion: Microwave a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are much more nutritious than white potatos; currently, the popular press has taken to labeling them a "superfood" (insert skepticism here).

Wash it

Poke it (deeply) in a few places to vent steam

My vintage microwave takes approximately 8 - 10 minutes, depending on size. If your microwave does not have a carousel, flip and rotate the sweet potato halfway through.

They can cook somewhat unevenly, so let it stand for a couple of minutes after cooking, while the heat continues to disperse and cooking completes.

Season and eat. I cut mine in half, sprinkle each half with a bit of (raw) sugar, and dust liberally with cinnamon (also now being shown to have health benefits).

P.S. I went to check the manufacturing tag: It was made in 1977! How's that for durability? No explicit statement of wattage, but 13 A at 120 V, 1 (of 3) phase (sorry, I'm not sure what to assume for the power factor).

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#135

Post by gte910h »

endtime wrote: post #35
gte910h wrote: post #6

Eat lots of blueberries. Buy from vegan delivery chefs in your area. I's pretty easy, and a counterbalance to any eating out you might want to do

As it stands, this is a bit of a surreal answer. Why do you advise eating lots of blueberries? And are vegan delivery chefs actually a widespread thing? Is there a central place to find local ones?

I dunno, in Atlanta, I've gotten a flyer put on my car for one more than once.

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#136

Post by nate »

I have a book called The Best 1001 Short, Easy Recipes. I brought this with me when we started Y Combinator. Each recipe has at most usually 4-5 ingredients that are often very easy and cheap to get. I don't think anything in that book would take over 30 minutes to prepare and cook.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-1001-Short-Easy-Recipes/dp/193129...

I'm sure there's some other books of this same ilk that are filled with good ideas that just take a few things to put together.

Also my wife just got a groupon to this http://thescramble.com/

We've made about 5 meals so far, and they've all been awesome and pretty healthy and easy to make. Even has a handy grocery store list aggregator thing for the recipes you decide to make that week.

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#138

Post by rokhayakebe »

fbailey wrote: post #100

oh god, don't hack food... it's not worth the saved time. Just learn to cook, good food is cheap. I make dinner for friends all the time 5 courses and the cost per person is 5€ if I want. Preparing good pasta never takes an hour, a simple rice dish is fast, you can cook nearly everything with very little preparation time, it's just a matter of training. So don't hack food hack your food preparation skills. It's like…

5 courses? Do you have room for a new friend?

Re: Ask HN: got any food hacks?

#140

Post by jackowayed »

daniel-cussen wrote: post #129

I just bought a 55 pound bag of dextrose. I mix it with mineral water so I can drink a solution containing it (the carbonation inhibits fermentation, too). It's not very labor intensive, very healthy, and it tastes like what it is: rocket fuel. It is very, very good for your brain. I have yet to ask a doctor about this though. And it's bad for teeth, like normal soda.

Isn't dextrose just glucose?

That doesn't seem healthy at all. In moderation to give you a boost, it would probably be fine, but you definitely shouldn't get a significant amount of calories from straight sugar.

As a vegetarian who has to worry about protein, I think about that a lot. Basically, the more crap you eat with no nutritional value, the more nutrient-dense the rest of your food has to be.

So if I got all my calories from rice, I'd be fine protein-wise. But if I eat 500+ calories of various things-that-are-just-fat-and-sugar, I need to eat more protein-dense food, like lentils. (Not that just eating rice would be healthy anyway. That's just an example of how the more nutritionally-useless calories you get, the healthier the rest of your food needs to be.)

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