Ask HN: got any food hacks?

Rice and lentils can be stored dry for months, and lentils (unlike other beans) can be cooked without soaking them first. If you always have rice and lentils on hand, you're always halfway to a decent meal. Cook the rice and lentils however you like; there are a million ways to do it. You can even just cook the rice and lentils together in a pot and rely on the roasted vegetables to provide all the flavor.

Roasting vegetables is extremely fun and satisfying for two reasons:

1) It's by far the simplest and laziest way to prepare vegetables. Roasting makes stir-frying look like railroad chain gang work.

2) You can roast damn near anything. Potatoes, carrots, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, garlic, Brussels sprouts, fennel, endives....

Here's a short (2:25) video telling you absolutely everything you need to know to start roasting vegetables:

http://www.chow.com/videos/show/all/12072/how-to-roast-veget...

You can get fancier than that, but you might never want to.

Also, to get in some veggies with some taste, try some curries (you can learn to make a decent potato curry and save leftovers - you can get some ready to make mixes at your local asian grocery store). Also, cauliflower curry is pretty good tasting yet economical and lots of leftover. With curries, indian flat bread (naan) is pretty good.

As about Ramen, you can make that better by getting better flavored ones (again, hit the asian groceries). A crazy cool trick - make ramen stove top; but first, fry some onions and w/e veggies then set it aside. Do your ramen with water thing, then throw in the veggies and your local asian grocery curry mix.

As about eggs - a bagel and omelette in the middle is a pretty decent breakfast. Throw in some fried onions and some basil flavored pasta sauce (try the pasta sauce section) in the omelette and you have a winner.

I still eat other stuff.

3 dl of non-fat milk (taste & liquid) 1 dl of ice cream (taste & carbs) 1 dl of whey protein powder (taste & protein) 5 ml of dry-pressed sunflower oil (omega-6 fats) 5 ml of dry-pressed flax oil (omega-3 fats) 1 cl of ispaghula husk (fiber) 1 cl of freeze dried fruit powder (antioxidants)

The energy intake is divided quite evenly among carbs, protein and fats. It provides 1) the essential fats in a decent ratio, 2) a good dose of varying amino acids, 3) enough fiber for the digestive system to function and 4) a good dose of antioxidants. With a quick preparation now and then it is super fast to produce, takes almost no cleaning afterwards and the taste can be varied with different ice cream flavours. It might take a few drinks to get used to the taste if you have never consumed protein supplements but if you pick the right protein powder, use milk instead of water and get good ice cream, this tastes very good. And for some reason I haven't gotten bored with this even after months of almost daily use (on several meals).

For fast consumption buy a big bowl (with a lid as ispaghula reacts with moisture without it) and mix 10-20 portions of protein, ispaghula husk and dried fruits in the correct ratio. Store a dedicated 1 dl cup in the bowl. Prepare a ready mix of flax and sunflower oil in the correct ratio and keep it in the fridge with the milk - you can learn to pour about 10ml of it by hand fast. Cut a whole pack of ice cream in small (about 2cl) bits in advance and store it in the original pack in the freezer. For mixing I use a protein shaker which can be flushed with water after use.

I get my protein powder, fruit powder and the shaker from http://myprotein.co.uk/ in bulk, which makes this one of the cheapest healthy snacks (below 1$ per serving of about 400kcal). My preferred protein taste is Chocolate Smooth. Ispaghula seeds I get in the form of Pfizers laxative medicine (which is nothing but ispaghula husks and a bit of added sweetener) which goes by the name of Vi-Siblin in the nordics. You might find it with the brand Isogel. I prefer Vi-Siblin S which is sweetened with sorbitol instead of sugar.

Don't let the "unnatural protein shake" scare get you. This is a balanced and healthy choice proven by active athletes around the world and it provides your essential macronutritients in easy form. You should still make sure you get enough micronutrients elsewhere as the dried fruid powder is in the mix mainly for it's antioxaditive qualities, but also on that front I would not shy away from the vitamin supplements as this drink provides a good essential fat balance which helps the intake of fat soluble micronutrients also in that form.

For those who are trying to get leaner, the drink works pretty well also without the ice cream. This shifts the calorie balance heavily on protein and good fats which keeps you fed for long and provides pretty much all you need to sustain muscle mass while losing fat.