We eat a lot of these lentils, which I realize may seem too weird for most people. But I developed it after learning that ful medames is often eaten as a breakfast food.
Breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, black beans, and a bit of cheese and salsa? Could be made the evening before and eaten cold the following morning. Cold eggs aren't for everyone, though.
Thighs are cheaper than breasts, and IMO taste better. Also, I don't believe that prepacked chicken salad is cheaper than chicken breasts -- you're just eating less chicken in the form of chicken salad because you're eating more mayo. If you're hungry, and need the calories, what's wrong with getting some of them in the form of mayo?
Also, hardboiled eggs? Other, non-chicken, cold meat?
I eat toast with liverwurst for breakfast. Easy + protein + iron.
Is one of the requirements that you be able to take it in and eat it at work?
If not, breakfast "burrito". Prep: diced bell pepper, diced green onion, shredded cheese, cooked & diced hot sausage. Tortilla. Cooking: Put cheese on tortilla. Scramble two eggs. Toss in pepper, onion, sausage. Place in tortilla. Roll up. Eat.
If you start smoking, you can eliminate breakfast altogether in favor of a cigarette and a cup of coffee.
Is one of the requirements that you be able to take it in and eat it at work?
Yes, actually.
Drink raw eggs.
Has anyone done this, actually? My diet is pretty low on protein and I've thought about it as a quick-fix solution.
Yeah, ditto on the chicken thighs being nicer than breasts. Hardboiled eggs are also good. Cook up some sausages, mebbe? Have with some fresh tomato and salad?
Personally I tend to skip breakfast and then succumb to the lure of pain au chocolat or blueberry muffins around 11:30. Which is clearly the absolutely wrong way to go.
To expand on 'cold meat' -- do a beef roast once a week, and slice it for breakfast sandwiches? No trouble either up front or at breakfast time.
6: It's always efficiency for you, isn't it, Apo?
1: redfox: that looks awesome, and I even have lentils at home already. Thanks!
I have no idea why cold meats didn't occur to me, but it's a good idea.
Now I'm thinking about hardboiled eggs, and I want deviled eggs.
Eggs every day is problematic on the cholesterol front; that's also the problem with mayo.
Smoked fish, either straight or in salads? Smoked whitefish salad, while classically on a bagel, would be good on a pita, not to mention lox, or any other kind of smoked fish.
12: Woo!
14: God, I love deviled eggs. I have not yet tested how many I could eat if I let myself go on eating them until I stopped wanting more. It would certainly be an embarrassing and possibly dangerous number.
Oh, sliced eye of round roast is wonderful.
Okay, portable things. Hardboiled eggs, sliced, put in a pita with tomato and lettuce. You can even use a bit of mayo because it will be far less mayo than egg salad would be.
You're lactose-intolerant, right? So yoghurt with stuff mixed in is probably out.
Hmmm. I was going to suggest the omelette and bacon I have roughly every other morning, but 7 rules that out. Although I want to try 5 myself some day.
15: Not so! I started having a breakfast burrito every day when my wife moved out last year, and I haven't had my cholesterol checked once in that time.
15: I thought eggs were good for you and they found that cholesterol was more a problem with your body than just eating eggs.
Personally I tend to skip breakfast and then succumb to the lure of pain au chocolat or blueberry muffins around 11:30.
This is so alien. I wake up and wander into the kitchen for something to eat so that I can face the problem of assembling an actual breakfast. I'm never voluntarily more than five minutes between my feet hitting the floor and chewing on something.
Also for Ogged -- sliced hard sausage and cheese on crackers?
Minus the cheese, which I lactonormatively forgot was a problem.
This may sound gross/weird, but I often make little sandwiches in the toaster for breakfast, with grainy bread, sliced tomatoes and red peppers, low-fat ricotta cheese, and, after toasting, a slather of hummus. Proteiny, low-fat, filling, and nutritious!
This is so alien. I wake up and wander into the kitchen for something to eat so that I can face the problem of assembling an actual breakfast. I'm never voluntarily more than five minutes between my feet hitting the floor and chewing on something.
Ditto. I have the chicken salad after I have a nut bar.
The rest of your comment is honkatively lactonormative.
You could make crepes and wrap them around leftover chicken cooked lightly in hoisin sauce. Possible problem: eating all the crepes.
re: 23
I rarely feel hungry right after getting up. If I am at home and not going to work, I will usually eat within an hour or so of getting out of bed. A few pieces of toast with some scrambled eggs or some cereal. Maybe a bowl of porridge.
But when I'm going to work I tend to wait till my mid morning tea-break. It's caffeine I need immediately on waking.
I wish I had a bowl of my breakfast lentils right now.
I normally eat when I wake up but today I forgot. Smoothies are out due to the restriction on liquidy, right? I love a good smoothie, but I do find that they're filling for about 20 minutes. It must be the blending that does it because if I have yogurt and a banana I'm good for a while but if I whirr them into a smoothie they digest too fast. But they're usually pretty good on protein and you could get soy yogurt or something.
Eggs are awesome. I'm going to have a cheddar leek omelets. Something seems off about cheddar and leeks -- two powerful flavors? but that's what I got, and omelets are how I roll.
Yeah, smoothies are out on liquidy. I do love smoothies though.
Also, back to chicken breasts and expense -- are you buying preflattened chicken cutlets? Because if you just buy the breasts, and slice them yourself, they're much cheaper.
Peanut butter banana sandwiches would be good in a rotation.
For dinner tonight we are having that zucchini frittata. Up with eggs!
Something seems off about cheddar and leeks -- two powerful flavors?
Oh, no it doesn't sound off. It sounds really good.
I'm really good about eating a hearty breakfast and less later in the day. I'll wake up two hours before I have to leave, even on a very early day, just so I can make a good breakfast, drink coffee, and read news. But now I'm realizing that I end up eating too much anyway throughout the day, so I'm trying to cook my traditional breakfast foods for dinner and replace breakfast with cereal. Last night, I had a delicious frittata for dinner. Mmm.
re: 35
Cheapest way I find is to buy whole chickens and butcher them yourself.
That way you get two breasts, the thighs, drumsticks and a carcass for making soup.
Cheapest way I find is to buy whole chickens and butcher them yourself.
Barbaric. Also too much work. I buy breasts and cut them up. Still something like $9/lb. at Whole Foods (and I think more than that at the nearer grocery store).
I'm kind of like AWB in 40, except I split the difference: get up one hour early and show up one hour late.
re: 42
Nah, it takes 10 minutes. The chickens are gutted and plucked. I'm just buying whole chickens meant for roasting and then doing the cutting. Easily 100% cheaper than buying it cut up.
I love a good smoothie, but I do find that they're filling for about 20 minutes. It must be the blending that does it because if I have yogurt and a banana I'm good for a while but if I whirr them into a smoothie they digest too fast.
My doctor suggested including protein powder in my (near-daily) smoothies, and this seems to have helped with the 20-minute problem. (Caveat: I'm hypoglycemic, so my blood sugar was doing some weird things in response to the sudden deluge of fructose; the protein seems to mediate that reaction and leaves me feeling full for a long while.)
Still something like $9/lb. at Whole Foods (and I think more than that at the nearer grocery store).
You've got to be kidding me.
Nah, it takes 10 minutes.
You have superior skills, sir. It takes me that long to cut up a couple of breasts (though I confess to being incredibly picky about defatting and degristling the meat).
Still something like $9/lb. at Whole Foods (and I think more than that at the nearer grocery store).
That's insane. You can sometimes get good tuna for that price, and tuna tends to be crazy expensive.
44: Or peanut butter on crackers.
42, 45: Or, you can buy the chickens whole, roast them, and then disassemble after roasting into cold chicken pieces to gnaw on. And roasting a chicken goes from almost no work, if you just throw it in the pan, to very little work if you do a little more rubbing with spices and oil, trussing, whatever.
Apparently, there's some level above free range chicken. Ogged only buys chicken that had therapy, so that it could come to terms with its approaching death.
1: That does look really good. I will have to try those if I can track down the crispy onions.
Have you ever tried microwaving fish, e.g. salmon, along with some cut up veggies and fruits? Just wrap everything up in a pouch of parchment paper and nuke it for like ten minutes. The fruit provides enough liquid to steam everything nicely.
It's hard to find something easier than pickled herring on Wasa bread. It is, admittedly, a slightly weird taste to start the day with. But it requires no prep, doesn't go bad and is fairly cheap, full of protein and good for you.
51: Yeah, I'm starting to figure out why liberals annoy Ogged -- he thinks of liberals as the people who determine his chicken prices.
ttaM's right about the chicken. And $9/lb is nuts. And I thought only white people ate just the breast.
55: I think this conversation started because Ogged doesn't want people to make fun of his non-breakfasty breakfast choices anymore, right?
58: Yeah, but I think herring's weird enough that people don't know what meal it should normally count as. Also, Wasa's dimensions make it seem superficially breakfasty.
It is boneless, skinless breast meat. There are cheaper selections, but come on.
Actually, cut up chicken breasts here are about $9/lb in a supermarket. Sometimes more.
Hence adventures in chicken butchery ...
I'm not really a fan of fish, unfortunately.
Ogged only buys chicken that has passed through the digestive tracts of civets.
Actually, cut up chicken breasts here are about $9/lb in a supermarket. Sometimes more.
Sure. If you live in a socialist country. But maybe ogged's having the chicken flown over from England. I could see that being more expensive.
Pickled herring and smoked fish are the best of all foods, but they bother a lot of people.
My brunch today was pickled herring plus the best canteloupe I've ever had in my life. It was aromatic, melted in your mouth and was sweet as candy. One day longer and it would have started to go bad.
Pickled herring is a pretty simple recipe -- I've never had bad pickled herring except one time when it had been sitting in the cooler for too long. But I've had bad canteloupe (crunchy and flavorless.)
I thought the food threads were always already about sex, and vice versa.
Ogged: you should have sex for breakfast.
Fish, eggs, dairy, mayo.....
Oatmeal? Is oatmeal OK? They have little quicky packets you can microwave, and it will make you seem more white.
About sex, OT: I have a date tonight, but am concerned that my very email-happy date stopped replying yesterday and has only sent a sad-sounding "So... are we still on for tomorrow?" without then replying to my request for a phone number. Am I going into his spam filter? Should I assume everything's fine?
I second pb & j, which is lovely in the morning. Esp. with crunchy pb. Pasta salads, made once a week or two in large batches, could be yummy, esp. with cubed tofu for protein.
Instant oatmeal is so, so yucky.
Do you have concrete plans -- like, you know where and when to show up? Because I would, and not worry about it.
Do you live near a Costco? Can you get big, cheap bags of chicken breasts there? My parents used to get those. Probably not organic, free-range whatevers but cheap.
70: That steelcut scottish oatmeal is yummy, though, and you can make it in batches ahead of time, and reheat daily. If you add nuts, it's proteinier, and dried fruit is just good.
I know you like (or at least eat) tofu. Could you make a tofu scramble that you just heat up in the microwave, stick in a tortilla, and call a burrito?
71: Yup. Okay, I won't worry. If he doesn't show, I'll try to figure out if something went wrong, but he probably will.
I second pb & j
Sure. I used to have almond butter on rice cakes, and still like that a lot. But now that nut bars are my main snack, I'm less keen on the almond butter; a guy can only stand so many nuts in a day.
You can get pre-marinated and cooked tofu "steaks" flavored with Mexican seasoning. Those hold together much better than fresh raw tofu and might make a good base for a breakfast burrito, with low-fat refried beans and rice.
I did. I love hummus in the morning.
46: Right now I've been including flaxseed oil, which helps a little bit and is supposed to be good for you.
72: Or a regular grocery store, even. $9 is not chicken prices and if you're grinding it up and mixing it with mayo anyway...
Peanut butter and honey on double-fiber wheat bread (to make it extra filling).
I've never myself felt that there were too many peanuts or almonds in any one day, so I find this hard to imagine. But, ok.
Maybe you could grill a bunch of yummy chicken sausage once a week and munch on one in the morning. You could even wrap it in a microwave pancake; I understand in some parts of the country/breakfast establishments, this is erroneously known as a "pig in a blanket." I would not, however, recommend "pigs in a blanket" proper, (read: holupki) for breakfast.
My vegetarian advice is probably totally useless here, but I frequently have the following breakfasts:
1. veggie sausage, heated up in the microwave, on toast with a bit of cheese and some salsa. I use to take in the raw ingredients to work and put the ensemble together there. It doesn't take too long. I like Tofurkey's Kielbasa flavor. Fairly low fat too.
2. half can of beans, ever so briefly sauteed with garam masala the previous night or night before that, served with tabasco or salsa on toast. This might also work in the pita.
3. Almond butter on toast with a juicy fruit on the side.
Is this lactose intolerance strong enough to preclude (partially delactified [1]) yogurt or cottage cheese?
And woe to anyone who harrasses me by saying savoury food is not for breakfast.
[1] yes I know this is not a word, but it sounds so pleasing to me I had to use it.
woops, just saw Ogged's thing about the almond butter. nix that.
Still something like $9/lb. at Whole Foods (and I think more than that at the nearer grocery store).
Ogged, that's insane. Even allowing for bone/skinlessness. It's dead easy to skin chicken (grab the skin, pull) and nearly as easy to bone a breast. There is never an excuse for buying boned/skinned chicken parts.
You can get thighs for like $2.39/lb even at Whole Foods or comparably snooty stores.
Protein powder eaten dry with a spoon? That doesn't taste like animal.
Or, if tastes like animal is a bad thing, go be a vegetarian.
Of course, I alternate between three things for breakfast:
1. Oatmeal with some selection of fruit/nuts/honey/yoghurt
2. Bread with marmalade
3. Dutch Baby pancakes
Thighs taste like animal.
So white.
You should start posting as "milquetoast".
Ooo. Dutch baby pancakes. Mmmm.
Do you skin these Dutch babies first, wolf-man?
Thighs and breasts arouse Ogged's prurience an distract him from breakfast. Scratch chicken.
Of course not. I like it when the skin gets all crispy.
Yum. You could stuff a chicken sausage inside a Dutch Baby pancake with no trouble at all. Protein, sweet, savory, and deliciousness all at once.
Just to recap here, we're looking for an easy to prepare, high protein, low cholesterol, non-dairy, non-nut, non-fish, foodstuff that doesn't taste like animal.
I hate to tell you this, Ogged, but you're going to starve.
Sausage neither tastes nor looks like animal.
There is never an excuse for buying boned/skinned chicken parts.
I have been trying to make my wife understand this basic truth, without success. Boneless/skinless breasts are $6-7/lb at our local WF equivalent.
Thighs taste like animal.
So sad.
95 - not so fast! There's always Quorn!
You're just being ornery, LB. Chicken breast, roast beef, turkey...none of these taste like animal.
95: /pouting. ..I don't see what was wrong with my garbanzo beans or seitan sausage. . .
I'm a little confused as to what "tastes like animal" means in ogged's mouth.
It's merely a poetical way of saying "gamey," gaylord.
That's because chicken breast and turkey breast tastes like crap. Here's, let's breed the hell out of it so it has no flavor, then inject it with a salt solution to put the flavor back in.
101: I think he means "tastes like blood."
Quorn is really good. Why don't I eat more quorn? Or huitlacoche, for that matter.
Chicken thighs taste gamey by you. Chicken thighs.
I weep.
I like the Markson-inspired inflections in 107, Ben.
You can get thighs for like $2.39/lb even at Whole Foods or comparably snooty stores.
w-lfs-n, you misunderstand. The point of buying $9/lbs. chicken breast is to show that you are the refined sort who needs $9/lbs. chicken breast. You don't think it was a common farmers' market pea that ogged's mom first slipped under his mattress, do you?
Quorn tastes of bugger all. It's a crap meat substitute. That's fine, if you're a non-meat-eater, but lets not pretend it tastes nice.
The point of buying $9/lbs. chicken breast is to show that you are the refined sort who needs $9/lbs. chicken breast.
In that case, who needs breakfast? I see Apo's coffee and a cigarette, and raise him a couple of grams of cocaine.
I stopped eating chicken for about two years because it was so flavorless. Then I bought some when shivbunny was here because he isn't a fan of most vegetarian food. It seems like a good plan until he defrosted a chicken breast and then asked me whether it was a turkey breast because it was from some sort of mutant chicken. I think we're done with chicken for a while.
Now we pretty much eat pork. I don't even like pork.
111: If I were spending that much, I'd have lobster for breakfast. Maybe not so good for taking to work, though.
Roast chicken on the bone. Much more flavor. Chicken breasts don't taste like much of anything, animal or not.
Really good quality chicken tastes nice and has a real flavour. However, good chicken, here at leasts, costs about $12 a chicken.
There's always game birds or duck if chicken is a bit bland.
For breakfast almost every morning I have six to eight large strips of bacon and a good-sized bowl of fresh fruit (some combo of blueberries, strawberries, melons, pineapple). And a large cup of coffee, black. Simple and delicious.
110: Quorn is very nice. Of course, it's obviously not any kind of "mycoprotein"; it's the pounded, veal-like flesh of some kind of mole-people or morlocks or something.
Quorn!
Now, that pre-marinated, weird toful stuff I can't stand. And breakfast burritos? Urgh, unless they have lots and lots of cheese and refritos. The thought of cooking those lentils for breakfast, though, has me dizzy with anticipation.
A few days in the fridge before cooking can improve the flavor of chicken.
117: s/b "tofu"; toful is a a prog-rock album, or it should have been.
If I were spending $9 a pound on meat, it wouldn't be chicken.
Brock's breakfast sounds nice [only I'd put milk in the coffee].
Chicken breast is basically tofu in my mind. Dressed up in a variety of ways its palatable, but on its own merit, it may as well be Soylent Green. Just getting the job done.
122 gets it right.
I have a very strong cultural/family-indoctrinated aversion to ordering vegetarian dishes. It just seems like the vegetarian option should be not just $1 less than the cheapest meat option, but MUCH less. I need to remember that tofu is quite similar to chicken, at least when they're fried.
re: 120
US foodstuffs are, I believe, much cheaper than here.
re: lentils
A nice lentil salad can be made by cooking puy lentils and draining and leaving to cool while you cook some frozen peas and refreshing under cold running water. Combine the two. Stir in some freshly chopped parsley, loads of freshly ground black pepper, and then drizzling with extra-virgin olive oil. Tastes great. If you add a couple of thin slices of goat's cheese on top it's the perfect lunch.
Maybe a bit much for breakfast.
Thighs taste like animal.
I don't even like pork.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
Markson wasn't the first to use repetition or short phrases for effect, o-man.
Is processing a factor in this decision? Maybe you should just buy some lunchables and call it a day.
The only people I know who eat cocaine for breakfast are securities lawyers, and Ogged presumably doesn't want to be like us. Or have to take naps at 3:00 once the high wears off.
(Though I did notice the same thing.)
However, good chicken, here at leasts, costs about $12 a chicken.
That's what I recently paid for a whole one, but it came to less than $3/lb. (Naturally, I cut it into 8 serving parts—I admit, though, that I just tossed the carcass.)
Ogged, you should just go down to your nearest chinatown-equivalent and buy some of those ducks they always have in the window.
No no, Ogged, while you're in Chinatown buy fertilized eggs. Then in a few weeks you can just pop a pullet or cockerel into your mouth every morning.
Why don't I eat more quorn koЯn?
Also: What the hell is a Dutch baby pancake?
124: I was responding more to ogged and his snooty mcsnoot chicken.
Roast chicken is very good if you stuff sage and rosemary under the skin before you roast it. Still, chicken is the blank canvas of foods.
If you think $9/lb for chicken is pricey, you should see what Whole Foods charges for deboned Dutch babies.
Cooking for one it doesn't really make sense, but homemade chicken carcass soup stock is easy to make and really tasty. Throw in the skin and leftover bones too. And I'm not even a cook.
It's baked, like some freaked-out breakfast popover. With fruit? Mmmm.
Perfect breakfast for Ogged - meaty and pancakey.
Still, chicken is the blank canvas of foods.
There was an article in the Atlantic a while back about "heirloom chickens"—chickens bred from lines that hadn't had everything interesting about them destroyed in the effort to get bigger and bigger breasts. Kinda spendy, apparently, but yum-o-licious. My mom was recently enthusing about some chickens she got at whole foods that were apparently quite flavorful themselves.
Chicken is also very good with BACON.
If you slowcook Dutch babies the bones melt in your mouth.
133: Oh, I've had those--they're delicious. But we just called them puffy pancakes. Baby = gigantic?
Probably uyou can customize chickens by feeding them special foods to give them more flavor.
: I was responding more to ogged and his snooty mcsnoot chicken.
There's a certain type of person who believes that the higher the price, the higher the value. I'm now wondering if the guys at the butcher counter see ogged coming and just invert the price label.
Markson wasn't the first to use repetition or short phrases for effect, o-man.
Shocking, if true. However, you have been reading the Markson recently, and that's what you were thinking of, and I won't hear another word on it.
141: Can I fed them, say, bacon I wonder? Or chicken sausage? Because if I could get a chicken breast that tasted like chicken sausage, that woudl be sweet.
Mm, lentil salad. We have some puy lentils at home; maybe I will make that when we run out of breakfast lentils. With feta, methinks.
There's a certain type of person who believes that the higher the price, the higher the value.
Hey, if that isn't true the business won't stay in business very long, ha ha. </economist>
Look, you duck fuckers, I'm glad you live in the boondocks where everything costs a dime, but that's what chicken costs here, and that's roughly what it costs at each of the four grocery stores nearest me. I could get it cheaper if I had to do more prep work, but given that this is something I'll be having every day, that's just too much prep work. Fie on you all.
Duck probably tastes like animal too.
The best-tasting Dutch babies are the ones raised on a pure chicken-and-cigarettes diet. Don't let them try to to sell you the ones they feed cocaine. Those are all stringy unless you tenderize the daylights out of them.
I'm not sure I live in the boondocks, o-face.
You can freeze chicken, you know. Get it cheaper and prep a whole bunch of it sometime when you don't have anything to do—friday night, say— then defrost as necessary.
And do you really want to have the same thing for breakfast every day?
In Elgin, N.D. duck costs $.19 a pound.
Once you've removed them, though, the daylights can be sauteed for a tasty snack.
and that's roughly what it costs at each of the four grocery stores nearest me
I think we'd all been assuming that you still lived in the US. But, hey, at least you get free medical care now.
Chickens are completely willing to eat chicken. They do not eat chicken guts full of chicken shit, however. There's a fundamental scientific principle there.
Anyway, the lentils are a good idea. Make some lentils. You can even snoot it up by getting the fancy french lentils and calling them "lentilles du puy". Put a quartered hard-boiled egg in there along with some fennel and peppers, maybe some carrot and lightly sauteed red onion. Add a vinaigrette and shoot the first person who says it ain't breakfast.
And you could boil up w-lfs-n's wasted carcass to make stock.
Well, I don't really need them to eat chicken sausage. If they could eat pork sausage and then taste like pork sausage, that would still be a notable improvement.
And do you really want to have the same thing for breakfast every day?
Yes.
They do not eat chicken guts full of chicken shit
Pigs will eat chitlins.
155 sounds like prison food to me.
Really? How come?
Because I love routine.
You could put some sausage in a different lentil preparation. Your fellow Whole Foods enthusiast can offer some tips.
Easy to prepare, proteinacious, filling
I've got just the thing for you, Ogged. You'll need to stand back a little, though.
Not liquidy
Ah, too bad.
165 took longer than I expected.
162: That's exactly what I thought the first time someone served me lentils, in the form of gray sludge in a bowl. "Hey, prison food!" I thought. But it does kind of grow on you, even more so if prepared in not so much the gray sludgy manner.
Ogged-- if you search the site for 'lentils', I've got a very easy spinach-lentil soup, that could just as easily be made thicker, into a porridgey sort of texture. I don't know if that violates the 'no liquids' rule.
The thread linked in 164 provides us with another potential username, "Linsen mit Speck".
165 took longer than I expected.
He masturbated a lot as a kid.
165 took longer than I expected.
Sorry. I masturbated a lot as a kid.
He also lines up all eight of his freshly-sharpened pencils in a neat row on the right hand side of his desk every day before he starts work. Whenever he uses one of them, he resharpens it immediately.
Lentilles du puy, and even non-snooty green lentils, don't turn into sludge readily. Brown and red lentils are the sludgy ones.
Ogged-- if you search the site for 'lentils'
I would find my own delicious lentil recipe. Lentils are good.
My soup recipe is comment 13 to the post linked in 164.
I can't help it, it does. It was the egg that really did it for me. Throwing random hard boiled eggs in shit just screams economizing and mass protein preparation to me. That and I hate fennel.
Lentilles du puy are really great, you know. Lentils!
Black beans can be substituted for lentils and will revieve less ridicule from your high-tone friends.
economizing and mass protein preparation
I thought that was the point here.
Ogged wanted the protein. Plus I really like hard-boiled eggs provided that they aren't boiled too hard—the yolk should still have some softness in the center—mmm, eggs.
I have to say, lentils with hard-boiled eggs and fennel does not sound like prison food to me. But then I've never been to prison.
Prison food is the logical conclusion of the inquiry I guess. The other thing the random eggs make me think of is that funny scene in The Birdcage where the houseboy thrown hardboiled eggs in the random and heinous soup he makes.
138: I imagine so, but at the prices of heirloom chicken I'd probably prefer beef or tuna. And everything is better with bacon.
It wouldn't even be sludge with red lentils. What are you guys doing to your lentils that they turn grey?
Speaking of weird colored food -- I made spaghetti sauce to use up some yellow tomatoes and while it tastes good it's a little screwy.
But then I've never been to prison.
You're young yet, teo. Don't despair.
And everything is better with bacon.
I thought you didn't like pork.
I like bacon. It isn't really pork.
Pork is okay, but I currently have 20 pounds of it in my freezer, which may be more pork than I've ever eaten.
Oh my, without having refreshed for half an hour, y'all sound like you're at the mercy of your food!
What RedFox said in 1: lentils concocted in various ways. You can make a ton of them reasonably quickly (an hour or so all told, if you're efficient, what with the dicing and chopping of things?) and use them variously through the week.
Or a few days in ogged's voracious case.
Redfoxtail, your link in 1 says something like "it's not the prettiest food" -- funny, as I was thinking as I looked at the pictures, Oh, how lovely.
Lentils for breakfast? Bah.
Just stick with the pita thing, and pre make some kind of protein filling in batches you can chuck in there in the morning. Chicken salad type mix can be good, diced up lean pork roast would be a good base for another, maybe another based on lean steak or something.
20 pounds? Is this left over from your wedding reception or did you hit a pig with your car?
I was coming to the conclusion that you disregard the entire thread myself. None of the options, save Lunchables, seem better than what you have going.
If you're going with lentils, there's also yummy dahl.
Fry a metric shitload of garlic and freshly chopped green chillis, add cup of red lentils or split peas. Add chicken stock or water. Cook until turned into thick mush. Stir in a bit of garam masala.
Bob's yer uncle. Serve with bready stuffs.
Do they make Breakfastables? That might be the answer.
re: 196
Oh, aye, and add some turmeric.
At the grocery store they sold what was basically a gigantic tube of pork loin for $2 a pound. I sliced it into 36 pork chops and a little bag of stir-fry material.
199 I miss grocery shopping in Western PA.
Is this left over from your wedding reception or did you hit a pig with your car?
Cala's finally putting those rifle skills to good use.
a gigantic tube of pork loin
Mmmm, porktube.
If Michael Pollen is to be believed, chickens raised on grass, worms, and grubs taste like animals ought to taste. It's the lifestyle of the factory-farmed chicken probably, more than its genes, that deprives it of flavor (and this unfortunately includes many organic or all-natural brands, including most likely Ogged's Whole Foods hockey pucks).
Ogged, have you tried Whole Foods' fresh-ground honey-roasted peanut butter? Because 2 mornings out of 3, my breakfast is a glob of that (or, actually, Fairway or Freshdirect brand) on an English muffin. Nice.
Or how about soy nut butter? (I know you said no more nuts but... well... soy nuts aren't really nuts. And nuts are good. In a non-metaphorical, non-dirty-pun, strictly food-oriented sense.)
Stir in a bit of garam masala.
Oh now, that will not do.
Heat some oil and add some whole cumin, whole coriander seeds, and mustard seeds (some torn up curry leaves are nice too). Fry until the seeds start to crack. Optional: add some chopped onion and fry until it's soft, also optional are the green chiles, or you can toss in some dried red chiles with the whole spices. Add your minced garlic, minced fresh ginger if you like it, a bit of turmeric and then the red lentils. Add salty water and cook until it's mush. OR you can wait until the end on the spices, but then you have to heat some oil in a separate small pan and heat the whole spices in there until they crack, then pour the spices and oil over the whole thing.
Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good, foxytail.
One of my favorite breakfasts is ratatouille with a poached egg and grated gruyere on top, run under a broiler (which may sound snooty mcsnoot, but really, it's peasant food, just from a fabulously great food culture). A properly made pot of ratatouille isn't liquidy and can last for days. Also, reheats well. Substitute sausage for egg as a variant.
I mis-spelled Pollan. And made the baby Jesus cry.
It's the lifestyle of the factory-farmed chicken probably, more than its genes, that deprives it of flavor (and this unfortunately includes many organic or all-natural brands, including most likely Ogged's Whole Foods hockey pucks).
Partially. The breeding, though, is what makes them enormous compared to the chickens of 100 years ago. Meaning that each cubic inch of chicken contains comparatively less of what little flavor there is.
Ratatouille is not snooty mcsnoot at all. It's roasted friggin' vegetables.
each cubic inch of chicken contains comparatively less of what little flavor there is.
I am in no position to judge whether this theory of flavor has any scientific merit. But it sounds hooey-ish.
re: 205
In no world that is good, and kind, and just, are fresh chillis an optional ingredient in dahl.
The actual Pakistani person with whom I've cooked dahl, didn't bother with coriander or cumin or mustard seeds and no indian/pakistani cookbook I've read includes them either (as a constituent part of the dahl).
Although, I agree, they are nice added at the end, as 'tarka'.
I'm now imagining chickens being blown up like balloons so the flavor stretches like latex. I think it's more that the chickens have been bred to have gigantic breasts and to be lean, and all the flavor was in the fat.
Just to recap here, we're looking for an easy to prepare, high protein, low cholesterol, non-dairy, non-nut, non-fish, foodstuff that doesn't taste like animal.
No wonder Ogged is so skinny.
I'll take Steak for $200 please.
The only answer is steak for breakfast. You can get ribeye for $6.98 a pound.
I think it is a regional difference, whether they go in at the beginning or the end, but really, a pinch of garam masala?
I am very sad. My favorite Indian grocery is closing. So sad.
The only answer is steak for breakfast. You can get ribeye for $6.98 a pound.
Costco is good for this sort of thing. I got some top sirloin yesterday, 3.99 a pound.
I eat the same thing for breakfast every day and the same thing for lunch every day.
And the same thing for my afternoon snack.
I am Rain Man.
Mostly, I'm just lazy and don't want to have to think about it.
My exposure to Indian home cooking comes mainly from Uttar Pradesh, I believe (via a friend's mother).
Well, if there's one thing Rain Man had trouble with it was not thinking about it.
We just do the very basic Indian dishes. Essentially, just adding spices to chicken and rice.
My cheddar leek omelet was a scramble, and it was good, but not great. I think it needed more savoring.
Back to the original post -- the protein is the thing. As far as I know, the options are: meat, beans, nuts, soy products.
(Ogged, dear, I will say you maybe can should think about some other things besides just protein, like iron, vitamins and minerals, you know. Vegetables.)
Here's a crazy thought: spend some spare bucks on a visit to a nutritionist. Maybe eating a lot of nuts isn't much of a problem, for example, given how fast your metabolism is, and how clean your system generally is.
I am a fast machine, I keep my motor clean.
Ogged is the best damn Persian that I've ever seen.
The level of consistency in eating habits sounds alien to me. Even as a kid eating cereal for breakfast, I regularly would switch around between the kids' cereal (cheerios or the like) and the grown-up cereal (shredded wheat). I feel a little strange if I eat the same thing more then every few days.
Breakfast: fruit and granola, cold cereal, fried eggs and toast, hot cereal (weather permitting), any starchy leftovers...
225: Consider Emmenthaler or some other variety of Swiss next time -- goes very well with leeks. Also delicious with leeks: potatoes.
205, 213, et al.: There are many varieties of dal, with variations on the type and timing of spices, IME. Pouring the oil over it at the end with the cumin seeds is delicious. (Is that what "tarka" means, ttaM?)
You left me with "He told me to come, but I was already there."?!?!???!?!! Thanks a lot.
The level of consistency in eating habits sounds alien to me
Likewise. Freaks.
Sure, I eat roughly the same things over time, but please not every day.
I bet you all use the same shampoo every day too.
Goat cheese goes perfectly with leeks, too.
Goat cheese goes perfectly with wine, too.
I have 100,000 different types of shampoo, one for each hair on my head. Shame I can no longer bathe, as they take up all of the room in my shower.
one for each hair on my head
Yes, and so with food: those who disdain gristle on their meat: sissy. Those who grimace at liverwurst for breakfast: fey. Those who poo-poo puy lentils (whatever the fuck those are): Nascar.
233 reminds me. Dinner: warm salad of a mix of whatever veg are in season (leeks are especially good), steamed and dressed while still hot with oil, vinegar, honey and a few herbs. Then stir chopped up goats cheese into the mix to melt, and eat with good bread. Food of the gods - we had it as a starter in Spain a few years ago and reconstructed it as a standby.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Becks: K-Mart sucks.
Those who poo-poo puy lentils (whatever the fuck those are)
Appropriately, they're the ones that look like mouse shit.
My brain doesn't work well enough in the morning to ask it to make choices about what to eat for breakfast.
So, O, if you want the same thing every day and you like chicken breast, then the mayo's the only problem, right? So why not make a different kind of chicken salad, like an Italian-style with olive oil instead of mayo, and maybe some onion, capers, olives and herbs? You could make a week's worth every Sunday. Totally easy. Problem solved.
205, 213, et al.: There are many varieties of dal, with variations on the type and timing of spices, IME.
Well, yes. I was just being bitchity.
why not make a different kind of chicken salad, like an Italian-style with olive oil instead of mayo...
Or, how about 7 different chicken salads, one for each day of the week? Wrap them up in your underwear, so you can keep track.
Wouldn't that make walking to work unpleasantly squishy?
Wouldn't that make walking to work unpleasantly squishy?
That's one way to make it taste like (m)animal.
There are many varieties of dal
According to the Cook's Thesaurus
channa dal = chana dal = gram dal With their sweet and nutty flavor, these are the most popular dal in India.. . They're a dull yellow and are renowned for causing flatulence.
Ogg's colleagues thank you. Not.
Channa dal are hulled split chickpeas.
Masoor dal are hulled split red lentils.
Moong dal are hulled split moong beans.
Urad dal are hulled split urad, or "black lentils".
And so on. But there are also many different ways to season and prepare them, which is what I was being sort of silly about.
OT: Man, my new secretary is a pleasure. And Junior's being useful, too.
Stop letting Whole Foods oppress you, Ogged. $9/lb chicken is bullshit.
And Junior's being useful, too.
So the talk went well?
Mollie Stone's is not much better than Whole Foods IME.
There wasn't so much a talk -- I just bounced a series of sloppy things back to him with how I wanted them fixed, and new assignments seem to be getting somewhat less sloppy. Still sloppyish, but improving, and he's getting substantive answers pretty briskly.
248 reminds me of a bit from The Specialist's Hat, which I read on Husband X's recommendation this morning.
252: Maybe mine is just particularly good? Stone's certainly has a wide selection of chi-chi lifestyle branded premium stuff that's supposed to say something about you as a person, but unlike Whole Foods (last I checked) that wasn't the entire point of the place, and you could get Cinnamon Toast Crunch, these really horrible frozen pizza rolls I love, and chicken that was considerably cheaper than $9/lb. By contrast, the cereal section at WF was this barren wasteland of strange brands that seem calculated to be the precise opposite of sugary breakfast cereals. They aren't just not sugary breakfast cereals, they are the garlic to the predatory Cereal Industry vampires preying on little Caitlin and Ian.
Y'all check the prices at your local grocery for boneless, skinless chicken breasts and get back to me.
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Come on Ogged. It's not that hard to cut a whole chicken into pieces. You must get over your distaste for dark meat.
You know, the Whole Foods in Brookline has some kind of pillow-shaped chocolate cereal with chocolate centers. How can this be?
Jesus is right about the different style of chicken salad. If you put a little fruit in it (grapes are good) you can tell critics of your breakfast food policy that this is breakfast salad.
256: $7/lb for the most chi-chi at Stone's, about $5.50 for the non-chi-chi. Safeway is $6/lb for the high end, $6.50 if they slice it thin (I forgo this service), and down to $3-#3.50 for the valu-pak.
Oggedville: fucking lame.
And if you can get over having to deal with skin, you pansy, you can take about a buck off, at any quality level.
strange brands that seem calculated to be the precise opposite of sugary breakfast cereals
If only. A striking proportion of these cereals contain "dehydrated cane juice" as a major ingredient.
"Sugary" is not the only problem with mainstream breakfast cereals.
The Whole Foods here has some good granola, but I shudder to think how much it costs by comparison with the bulk granola at the Co-Op (which is not that cheap itself).
Speaking of Whole Foods, my cheese experiments have led me to mostly good cheeses, but so far there are two types I completely dislike. It's reassuring to know that I don't just like everything.
It takes me that long to cut up a couple of breasts (though I confess to being incredibly picky about defatting and degristling the meat).
You start with boneless, skinless breasts and then defat and degristle? I take back what I said about you being raised by wolves.
Skinny, nervous, finicky wolves who get upset when one part of the dead caribou touches another part of it.
You know what's really fucking easy to make? Granola.
I can't believe nobody's suggested a half-pound of healthy bacon. Super easy, very high protein, always delicious!
I don't know how to make food. I plan to learn when I don't feel guilty about spending more than 10 hours a day away from the laboratory.
Yeah, if you choose to lower yourself to use grain other people have grown and harvested, foxy, you sellout.
268: I can't believe nobody's suggested a half-pound of healthy bacon. Super easy, very high protein, always delicious!
For a portable, tasty variation, take some other kind of food, and wrap it in the bacon!
Well, Brock was close, but too fruity.
271: take some other kind of food, and wrap it in the bacon!
Like, say, bacon!
Store-bought granola is fine, too -- just if the price overwhelms you, be a sellout like me.
A mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in bacon, deep-fried and put in a pita with just a dab of mayonnaise.
Solved!
Nobody suggested granola before?
great idea. Plus, there are lots of varieties. Mix in pumpkin seeds, cranberries, or bits of bacon.
Ogged, of all people, is not going to go for granola.
Back on the veldt, really picky, fussy, whiny carrion eaters lived longer.
I have no idea why, particularly, but I'm actually weeping with laughter at 275.
The "stuff dipped in yogurt" genre is pretty good for early morning protein, though, if you're the type who's liable to puke up greasy things on an empty stomache.
Granola is going to get you mocked less than if you eat beefy jerky every morning.
But did they have successful offspring, Emerson?
Yogurt-dipped penises make for a pretty good breakfast, I've heard.
w-lfs-n, are you hitting on me?
Bacon makes me cry sometimes, too.
The "stuff dipped in yogurt" genre is pretty good for early morning protein
Or for afternoon delight.
283: jerky and gatorade is a heck of a tasty breakfast on a hot day.
the type who's liable to puke up greasy things on an empty stomache
Bacon wussy.
only sorta, Lunar. If you want to try it out sometime, though, I'd be happy to put my penis at your disposal.
Why would you dip it in scrapple, will?
I was quite close to eating a large amount of scrapple about fifteen minutes ago. Still might do it.
290: "at" s/b "in"
291: Do you mean in this thread or in the history of humanity? In either case the answer is no.
If that answers your question, Stanley.
I would not at all be happy to put my penis in anyone's garbage disposal.
296: Even so fine a model as the In-Sink-Erator 2000?
Too buff and burly. I want a more sensitive spinning-blade death contraption.
Y'all check the prices at your local grocery for boneless, skinless chicken breasts and get back to me.
$6.29/lb was the most expensive I could find at the local Whole Foods. Even there, most of it was more like $4.59/lb.
$6.29/lb was the most expensive I could find at the local Whole Foods.
Ogged only gets the ones stuffed with yellowcake uranium.
Squirrel brains in scrambled eggs is traditional in some parts of the country. It takes decades for the prions to take over your brain -- live in the now!
In Elgin, N.D. duck costs $.19 a pound.
If you were to raise ducks in North Dakota you could buy a house for each of your ducks.
i didn't read this thread but unless you have some other indicatino, eggs aren't a problem for cholesterol.
Y'all check the prices at your local grocery for boneless, skinless chicken breasts and get back to me.
Freshdirect in Brooklyn ranges from $2.49/lb (conventional, boneless, in quantity) to $6.99/lb (organic, boneless skinless, thin cut). Are you buying heirloom, pastured birds, Ogged?
So maybe there's a reason my mom gasps whenever we go grocery shopping around here. What the hell?
You realize that most people don't get "complimentary" handjobs with their chicken purchases, right, ogged?
It's the complimentary pack of chicken breasts he gets when he drops in at the massage parlor that's really confusing.
It all depends on what the meaning of "chicken" is.
Hm. I never found shopping in the Bay Area to be prohibitively expensive (though it's true I wasn't buying meat). I shopped mainly at the Monterey Market and the Berkeley farmer's market, and the cheese and coffee shop around the corner from Monterey Market, supplemented by forays to Andronicos.
Oggedville has insane grocery prices because it's the most suburby of the SF suburbs; it has absolutely no personality or character. $9/lb chicken is what you get in return for your comparitive lack of homeless people and grunge. Check out Daly City or San Bruno for a good comparison.
Whereas, for example, the nearest WF to me is conveniently located in a grungy strip mall near a transformer yard, train tracks, an office park complex, and the largest local public housing projects.
$9/lb chicken is what you get in return for your comparitive lack of homeless people and grunge.
Probably right, and, in that case, totally worth it.
310, 312 - I will forevermore imagine you as roaming the streets of Pleasanton, crying out for $4/lb. chicken and hott women. BUT THERE WILL BE NONE FOR YOU IN OGGEDVILLE, SIR.
(If my mental image of Oggedville corresponds to actual Oggedville, please redact.)
Seriously, though, have you tried the ethnic groceries? Most of the people I know who live(d) in Oggedville were Chinese, one of whom specifically thought of the ethnic groceries as a big, big plus and one of the reasons why he moved there.
Ogged was raised by flowers.
Oh, god, this made me laugh uproariously, a shouted-out laugh, even.
crying out for $4/lb. chicken and hott women
God, so true. Whenever I go into the city, it's "Holy shit, hot young people live here!"
But they're all liberals. You hate them, yet you desire them.
Maddening, isn't it.
Ogged lives in oggedville to avoid the "ethnics", Rocky.
yeah ethnic places are great.
i get sprouts for a dollar for a big bag, lots of tea selection, lots of the unusual ingrediants obiously, tomatos for half the price of english markets and limes for 25c.
9$ chicken!??!
i buy boneless skinless thighs for 1$ a pound.
What about something falafel-y? Chick peas would be proteiny, right?
Isn't ogged's life boneless {zing!} enough without all of this advice-giving? People, seriously: it's unkind to rub it in.
Man, my new secretary is a pleasure.
LB, I'd have thought a lawyer would be more careful about opening oneself to a sexual harrassment suit.
318: Ogged lives in oggedville to avoid the "ethnics", Rocky.
Yeah, I was actually just discussing this, and compiling a list of various pairs of suburbs where one has this reputation for being "cheaper" and "nicer" because it's not as "yuppie" (read: liberal, yuppie, tolerant of ethnics), but in the end, you pay a Whitebread Premium to live there because there's not as much of a range and little tolerance of grungy folk.
323: I am always careful about opening myself.
324:
Huh, I was about to write that perhaps the categories (of suburb) are a little different on the east coast.
But wading through the weighted language in 324, yes, I see. Sort of.
Lunar has a lot of opinions about where I live, but I'm not sure she's spent much time here.
Isn't ogged's life boneless {zing!} enough without all of this advice-giving? People, seriously: it's unkind to rub it in.
Surely you're not thinking this will make them stop.
Ooh, I want some falafel now. Thanks, Becks.
Lunar has a lot of opinions about where I live, but I'm not sure she's spent much time here.
Does hanging out there socially a great deal while simultaneously really disliking it count?
Wait, you hang out there socially? That's worse than living there, honky!
I am not a good cook. Can we have a meetup at one of the houses of one of the people who does cook or in some public kitchen so that we can all cook together.
http://simplybreakfast.blogspot.com/
332: We could meet up in my kitchen sometime. I'd like to see it used for the purpose for which it was intended, just the once.
I can only grill. And cook scrapple, obviously.
"cook scrapple, obviously" s/b "cock scrapple, obviously"
Obviously.
everyone's invited to a cooking class/meetup at my house!!! you'll have to leave the drugs at home, though. american chickens are bland and repulsive; the 'kampung' (village) chickens we get here that run around outside are incredibly tasty, though smaller. but you can just cook two if you want chicken that bad. I have to say that the idea of cooking enough chicken salad for the whole week is fatally flawed; chicken salad is good for 3 days tops. ditto roast beef. I think ogged should alternate; cold roast beef (maybe with sauteed onions and peppers) for 3 days, then tarragon chicken salad with walnuts and halved grapes the other days. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day, with minor variations. either 3 pieces of whole wheat toast or two english muffins. I eat the buttery insides out and then eat about a half jar of jam carefully positioned on the crusts.
Man, if I was anywhere within 1500 miles of SEACSX in any direction, I would eat rice soup for breakfast every day without fail.
I've been dreaming about that stuff.
Also: banana pancake!
I eat the buttery insides out
If AWB were here, should would call you uncreative.
Break me off some of that, in accordance with the rules governing the equal sectioning of n-dimensional solids!
A cake of arbitrary dimension.
Or a cake of arbitrary composition, no?
340: I AM here, and should would nothing.
When have I ever eaten the buttery insides out of something?
Jesus Christ, 6 gets it exactly right.
I have never in my life paid $9 a pound for skinless, boneless, chicken breast. Prices range from $2.50 or so for a family pack on sale to about $6ish for non-store brand, usually about $4.50 - $5. I might pay $6.50 in a pinch but I think I'd balk at $7 and change my recipe.
I am not conscientious about organic free range kosher what not, which could raise the price. But I used to be able to buy pretty decent steak for $9 a pound at the Whole Foods in Cambridge.
If breakfasty is no object, you could do a black bean & corn tortilla thing, which is cheap, healthy, & very tasty. (It would also help to have a food processor). I have a really easy recipe w/ canned chipotle peppers which is great (but I'm not going to bother looking up unless requested).
For ogged's price per pound for chicken, I'd surely expect a whole, organic, free-range chicken with giblets, dammit. I would roast it for company one night, make sandwiches the next couple of days, maybe shred it for salads, then I'd boil the carcass for stock (mmm, stock).
I used some such stock last night in a sauce de Bercy, and I only wish I had some left for tonight's sauce au chasseur. I'm going through a serious traditional French sauce phase.
If I were getting a whole chicken with organs—that is, one which had had basically as little work as possible done on it by way of cleaning, etc, to increase the price—and were still paying $9/lb, I would expect it to grant me at least one wish if I agreed not to cook it.
Also, JM, if you can roast a chicken for company and still have enough for sandwiches for the next couple of days, you either don't know very many people or they're all thinner than you.
347: The cigarette-and-coffee routine works for some people, but in others -- say, someone whose reviled ex was a roll-out-of-bed-and-light-up smoker -- it may produce only a sense of horror. 6 did remind me of this, however.
I serve other things! Like potatoes! Leeks! Exciting rice thingumabobs! Okay, I don't know very many people.
The best part of the Sartre cookbook is a throwaway line in the very beginning: Spoke with Camus today about my cookbook. Though he has never actually eaten, …
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re: 230
Yes.
http://www.theepicentre.com/Recipes/itarkdal.html
The way the tarka is done there is similar to most of the Indian cookbooks I have [I have about half a dozen of them*].
* not that I am some uber-expert on Indian cooking, I just have a lot of cookbooks ...
BTW, w-lfs-n, don't you want the organs? It's so disappointing when one pays for a whole chicken and they've gone and absconded with the organs. I coulda made yummy gravy! I coulda made salade au gesiers!
Oh, yeah, of course one wants the organs. But the fact that no one's taken the time to remove them means less labor for which to pay.
Can you buy live chickens by at the pound?
Walnut butter, blue cheese, and some chestnut honey on wholegrain toast - I know Ogged says sandwiches can't travel, but this is different.
I found a place with $9/lb boneless skinless chicken breasts: Mollie Stone's at Fillmore & California. However! They also had several cheaper (though really, not much cheaper) options.
Thanks for reminding me, ben.
Boneless skinless chicken breasts at Whole Foods here: there's one type for $4.69, one for $6.29, and one for $6.99.
Bone-in skinless chicken breasts are $3.99.
Further updates after I've gone to the regular supermarket and checked there.