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DIY meal replacement... porridge?
Calica
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
For mental health reasons, I struggle to eat enough food. I eat a varied diet; I just don't eat enough to maintain weight, which is kind of a problem. I don't have an eating disorder in the sense of issues with control or emotional hangups re: food or anything like that; it's just... feeding myself is hard, dangit.
I've been considering buying a meal replacement powder like Huel or Soylent to supplement my daily food intake, but it seems to me it would be almost as easy - and probably tastier - to DIY a big batch of basically porridge that I could portion and then thaw as needed. Thanks to the local co-op, I have access to a wide variety of bulk dried grains and legumes; I just have no idea where to start. Googling hasn't been very helpful. You'd think there's be a niche for this kind of thing; but if so, I haven't found it.
Has anyone tried doing something like this? Any tips?
Again, I do eat a varied diet and intend to continue doing that, so I'm not worried about micronutrients. Getting the macronutrient balance more or less right should be good enough. I just have no idea what I'm doing :razz:
I've been considering buying a meal replacement powder like Huel or Soylent to supplement my daily food intake, but it seems to me it would be almost as easy - and probably tastier - to DIY a big batch of basically porridge that I could portion and then thaw as needed. Thanks to the local co-op, I have access to a wide variety of bulk dried grains and legumes; I just have no idea where to start. Googling hasn't been very helpful. You'd think there's be a niche for this kind of thing; but if so, I haven't found it.
Has anyone tried doing something like this? Any tips?
Again, I do eat a varied diet and intend to continue doing that, so I'm not worried about micronutrients. Getting the macronutrient balance more or less right should be good enough. I just have no idea what I'm doing :razz:
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What is your actual goal with the powders? Just to put on weight? To get some specific nutrition?
A basic option for some sort of porrige meal planning is to make polenta and eggs, since its easy, keeps well, and is pretty hearty for sticking to your bones:
I was thinking I could freeze it. I already do something similar for my pet parakeets - make a big batch of chopped veggies and grains every few months and freeze in small portions so I can thaw a little at a time.
The goal is to gain and then maintain weight.
Personally, I'd suggest overnight oats. There's a ton of variation suggestions out there, and you can use recipes that call for things like protein, chia seeds, nuts to tailor it to your needs. If you are trying to get more veggies in, smoothies are more accommodating to the addition of savory things. I've never owned a juicer, but I feel like you could juice veggies and preserve it in ice cube trays, and then add it too smoothies.
Full disclosure: I am a person who is weird about eating. I LOVE food, I dont like cooking, and as soon as I'm stressed or busy I will turn off my hunger for hours. I have a horrible habit of not eating breakfast, and then working through lunch. I've used overnight oats to some success, but eventually I just caved and tried soylent. I still kinda feel like a douche when I drink it, but I just now have a case on order once every two months, and I keep them around for the mornings that I know that I have no will power to make my own food, and chug one.
The shelf life, the lack of planning involved, and its general filling nature have won out over its price and feeling weird for drinking it.
It's not that I feel weird about it; it's that I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners, including sucralose and stevia. They just taste... wrong, like not-food. Both Soylent and Huel contain sucralose. Huel has an unflavored/unsweetened version to which I could add my own sugar and flavorings, but then the question is how much more convenient would this be than oatmeal or whatever, really? Except a bowl of oatmeal is inadequate as a meal, and so I arrive at the question in the OP.
The problem with overnight oats is the "overnight" part.
Oh, I guess for the record I I would make my "overnight" stuff 4 days in advance. I think you may be looking for longer term than that.
Are you wanting to keep this mostly about porridge or open to other "make ahead" breakfasts?
Just looking for something I can make ahead and eat for a complete meal with as little effort as possible.
To make oatmeal more substantial you'll need the additives for sure, but seeds and nuts add substance without needing to buy protein powder. You can lean on your grocery-store and get more generic whey protein. In the before times, buying whey in the bulk section was a much cheaper way to go. If unsweetened huel works for you in price and ingredients, then yeah, just adding that to oatmeal or a smoothie will add substance to it.
For the ease part, Agreeing with blaze: If you buy small mason jars you can make little portions to have in the fridge for a few days. To freeze, I imagine you can do this with the same basic concept with any overnight oat combo: https://www.slenderkitchen.com/recipe/frozen-oatmeal-cups
You could also get some freezer safe containers and premix a variety of smoothies, recreating something like this:
Might be worth looking at.
According to this random reddit thread I found, there are at least two alternatives that use monkfruit extract (?) as sweetener instead of sucralose
https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent/comments/953s1j/soylent_without_sucralose/
Not sure where you're located, but both the Botanica Perfect Protein (all flavours are unsweetened) and the Vega Protein Made Simple (all flavours use cane sugar) are both decently tasty.
Alternately you could cook up a giant batch of steel cut oats and freeze them in portions (I use the instant pot recipe here with a spoon of jam and peanut butter.)
This suggestion may involves some upfront work but then at eating time it is dead easy. I make breakfast burritos in batches of 60. They are fully cooked and I wrap them individually then put inside freezer bags. In the microwave for 2 min if fully frozen and they are good to go. Ingredients I use are scrambled eggs, ground beef (or beans), sauteed veggies, shredded cheese, salsa.
e: I re-read your initial post and this suggestion may be too far afield of what you're looking for. If so, my apologies.
Take nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, coconut flakes etc) and dried fruit/berries (dates, gojiberries, cranberries, raisins etc). Run them in a blender. Mix them with just a bit of honey (and possibly cocoa if you want it to taste more chocolaty).
Press them together between baking paper (use an oven pan or a cutting board to get even pressure). Put it in the fridge to chill them down. Wrap them in baking paper in meal-sized packages.
2. Frozen soup. There are a number of different high calorie soups that you can make in big batches (and honestly a lot don't need more preparation than a bit of washing, chopping and then waiting for 30-40 minutes while it cooks) and then freeze in portion sized packages. The key to a good microwave soup is to blend most of the soup with a stick mixer (Peas, spinach, lentils, onions, carrots, potatoes, leeks) and then mix in small pieces (like cm-sized/quarter inchcubes) of meat like chicken, bacon, cooked potatoes, pieces of noodles, knödeln etc (to get a bit more solid feeling) before you do the final cooking and then freeze it. Then when it's time to eat you just microwave it, stir it, microwave some more and it's ready to eat. Overall batch cooking is a good idea if you have plenty of freezer space but you frequently don't have the energy for cooking. You can easily cook enough soup in 1 hour to keep you going for two weeks....if you have a pot that's big enough that is.
P.S: Personally I think DIY, regardless of which DIY option you choose, is the way to go. I can't say I've really struggled with depression, but I've had depressive episodes where I don't have the energy to do anything more than the basic necessities for weeks at a time. At least for me a good tasting meal that you made yourself is a mental boost, even if you made it weeks ago when you had the energy.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden