food

I have tried six more types of plant milk since my last update about 27 days ago. I have determined that the best type of plant milk for me is store brand oat milk from Rema 1000.

''Look ma, no English!'' (good)

Unlike other types of plant milk, this kind tasted really good right away. It's mild and pleasant but clearly distinct from dairy milk. And that's what plant milk really should be, not an imitation of dairy milk so much as something that can fill the same purposes as dairy milk while having a different identity.

My second favorite kind of plant milk I'm going to say is almond milk, I tried Alpro brand. It tasted a lot like dairy milk with an almond flavor added.

I also tried rice milk, but it honestly did not impress me, especially since the carton I got turned out to be leaky.

A thought that's been going through my head while trying these plant milks, though, is that oat is something which is cultivated locally here in Norway, while soy and almonds and rice are all imports only. So this was another reason why I wanted to try oat milk, because local ingredients are better for the environment, and food sovereignty is important to build.

Problem is, though, Rema 1000's oat milk is actually manufactured in Italy. There is however another brand called Ur-kraft that makes oat milk entirely using local ingredients, so I might try that another time, although it does cost a bit more... But it feels like sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, though, because the packaging of Ur-kraft just gives me kind of icky vibes. See for yourself:

''Look ma, no English!'' (bad)

So, you know, I'd like to support local ingredients without also supporting drumming up patriotic sentiment and playing into nationalistic archetypes — just like I'd like to support the end of animal exploitation without also supporting diglossia with English.

Anyways, as I've been trying to establish a "revolutionary base area" in the realm of milk, I've also been trying other things to cut down on my consumption of animal products.

Among these things — and I won't be talking about everything I've tried — I tried Alpro's soy-based chocolate pudding, which was a yummy treat; fava beans with paprika spices, which I did enjoy decently; and a Stabburet brand veggie burger. That burger was decent in quarters but I found that trying to eat a whole burger in one sitting was just a bit much flavor-wise.

That burger does go into the whole debate of what place plant meat has in a transition towards veganism, though. I won't go on about that debate other than just acknowledging it exists, and saying that I think I'll use plant meats to a limited extent as a stepping stone to ultimately shifting my diet away from eating anything that plays into the "meat culture" at all.

There are a lot of things I'd like to try going forward, but my circumstances don't necessarily make trying everything too easy, whether it be the ability to find things in stores or just the time to prepare meals for myself. Things may be shifting up for me soon so I'll try to seize opportunities as they arrive.

With butternut and honeynut squash, Japanese sweet potatoes, honey, olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I cube it all, mix it, and bake at 204c/400f for 30 minutes. Tastes like autumn.

By which I mean a way for a poor busy worker to keep eating through pottage.

Vaguely Ethiopian Stew

• 1-2 bowls of water
• 1-2 handfuls quinoa, millet, or barley
• 4-5 shakes berebere seasoning
• 1 BIG SCOOP of peanut butter
• 2-4 shakes onion powder and or dried onion
• 1 shake of nooch
• 2-4 shakes of garlic salt or seasoned salt
• 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade or apricot preserve
• Hot pepper to taste

Vaguely Asian Lentil Soup (serves 4)

• 1/2 instant pot of water
• 4 handfuls red lentils
• 2 globs gochujang
• 1 glob better than bouillon
• 1 substantial portion pickled ginger
• 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade

Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 4 minutes.

Barley Slop

• ~3 cups water
• 1 hearty shake barley (1/3 of depth)
• 1 handful red lentils
• 2 shakes smoked paprika
• 3 shakes garlic salt
• 1 shake nooch
• 1 shake lime salt

Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 20-25 minutes. Barley will be a bit chewy at 20 minutes which I like. Lentils disintegrate and thicken the broth.

All these meals take at most 4 minutes active time and are ready to eat within 30 minutes. Very filling and fairly healthy. All can be made with shelf stable jar goods for the most part. All meals can be improved with fresh or frozen greens. Hardy greens can be added at the start of cooking, and softer greens can be added after cooking.

The light greenish substance is a jalapeno, cilantro, and tofu sauce, the dark green bits are roasted peppers.

(not food: Bhonus owl I saw on my walk):

I've been trying out Textured Vegetable Protein in these "burrito bowls" I do (literally just rice + beans + protein and some seasoning/sauce) and I don't think it's for me. Sawdusty vibes tbh.

Out of the three other meat alternatives I put in the title what would you recommend? I'm leaning towards tofu because it's somewhat familiar but the whole "pressing" situation seems annoying

Came across lions mane mushrooms at my local grocer, which was a great find as i had been wanting to try these for a while. I went very basic, just seared them in canola oil with a little bit of salt and black pepper, and flattened them out with a pot to release moisture or some such. Shredded them up and tossed them in some leftover ramen. The flavor was quite nice and light, somewhat similar to oyster mushrooms and paired nice with the broth i felt. The texture was pleasant, with the nice springy bite typical of fungus and a tender inside. I saw it compared to crab, lobster, and scallops online and while i do kinda taste the resemblance particularly with scallops (honestly i really didnt think they tasted like crab or lobster much at all) they lack any sort of oceanity or fishyness to them.

They were very tasty. I'll probably use the rest to top a mushroom risotto and baste them with butter, garlic and herbs for more flava

Yum

Meanwhile the name brand stuff is twice as expensive and everything has security tags on

Made soup. It was great.

I looked at several different recipes to figure out the proper cooking time and temperature, then drained and rinsed a can of garbanzo beans, and lightly coated them in a mix of garlic, ginger, sumac, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I cooked them at 390 for 13 minutes, shaking at the five and ten minute marks.

Conclusion: flavor was decent (because that's all down to the spices, which were intuitively correct like with everything I make), but the texture was awful. It just sort of desiccated them and made them tough. This was also way more work and took a lot longer than just cooking them in a cast iron pan, which yields a much better result overall.

3/10 air fryers continue to be inferior to the easier option of just using a stove and proper cookware.

Yes I'm comparing disparate recipes, but "roasted chickpeas in an air fryer" is one of those things people always rave about and it's just worse in every way compared to cooking them in a pan.

Wish me luck it is a monster

And at what temperature?

I enjoy my slop. Literally rice and 5+ days per week every week. Whole batch costs less than $3 in ingredients and I get like 7-8 meals out of it. Supplement with roasted veg

not sure where the recipe is from. i'll share them with my colleagues at job training

was thinking of adding spinach but I forgor

no carbs (though I guess the beans count) since I ate a bunch of potato chips before making this 😓

I substituted brown lentils for red lentils because we like them more and it was great. Curries and salsas + rice/pasta are peak food

I soaked them for at least 16 hours, and they were still a bit hard. Maybe because I bought "raw" chickpeas.

Now I'm giving them a slow boil, and they look much better.

Really want fruit but I don’t know what to get

My chef friend is arguing with me and IMO she is just straight up fucking wrong. Cooking tomatoes to death during the canning process isn't going to do any favors for the texture or flavor. Every canned diced tomato i've had has been gross (and the dice is always too big and ugly)

I think she's 100% confusing a comparison between QUALITY canned tomatoes i.e. real san marzano tomatoes versus shitty greenhouse grown tomatoes but she's insisting that no actually canned tomatoes are just better

I just want to get a consensus but i'm going to continue to disagree with anyone else who is wrong about this

can't think about the erection if you hyperfocus on :beanis

don't

Kroger made final arguments for merger with Albertsons. Albertsons owns Safeway so now Kroger meglo corp international gmblz will be the largest grocery business in the usa. Kroger will own Alberstsons, Jewel-Osco, Safeway, Dillons, Food-4-Less, Fred Myers, Frys, Harris Teeter, Home Chef, King Soopers, Mariano's, QFC, Ralphs, Roundy's, JayC, Smiths and Vitacost.

Aldi is German owned. They own trader joes and recently bought Winn-Dixie & Harveys making them second largest food meglo corp

In 2024, Trader Joe's joined SpaceX in a lawsuit to have the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices, deemed unconstitutional.

Bro consuming enough caffeine to paralyze an elephant. Any yerba-mate drinkers on hexbear? I'm looking for a source of caffeine cheaper than coffee. Last two months I've seen the largest food price increase since the pandemic and coffee is just about off the menu at this point. I kept going cheaper but I realized that as you go down the cost structure the coffee has less caffeine (img below) and I'm at diminishing return level now. Yerba-mate is a sub tropical woody long growing plant so even If I could grow it I probably wouldn't be able to get enough caffeine out of one plant but if I can get seeds I might give it a try. Amazon has a 4.4 lb bag for $19. Thats much cheaper than coffee but I can't get good info on how mate compares lb for lb wrt caffeine.