In-flight food refueling

[timotb]

Hi!

 

This should probably be moved to "ready to eat"

 

I'm here, not to sell anything, but to talk about an idea.  Am I the only person on the planet that most of time doesn't want to stop to eat?  Sure, a nice meal and a drink are fine with the right company.  But most of the time determining what and where to eat is a pain.  Love to swallow a pill and go.   Still science fiction. 

 

The closest I'm finding to this is a frozen bag microwave steamable meals from Walmart. For $6,  a good size meal, put the bag in a microwave and in 10 minutes, EAT.  Walmart has maybe 4 choices of this kind of meal in their frozen section.  Aldi's has frozen meal bags for $3.29 but not the kind of packaging that you can just pop in the microwave. 

 

The military has dry meals ready to eat (MRE).  Not the best for regular everyday meals as they don't taste good  are expensive and high in calories.  Designed for young adults in the field. 

 

We need a better way to eat.  Efficient, fast,, easy, inexpensive, nutritious , one step prepare,  and tastes good.   A lot of points to hit. 

Love to start a revolution how we eat.  Fast food is high priced junk as is most restaurant food....prepared frozen, add lots of salt, then drop in a deep fryer to serve the customer and charge a big dollar.

 

Anyone have thoughts or ideas? 

[Anna N]

40 minutes ago, timotb said:

Love to swallow a pill and go.   Still science fiction. 

Really? Are you sure you’re talking to the right people. Most of us love to cook, love to eat and love to enjoy all the social aspects associated with food.  I bet not many of us would prefer to swallow a pill. 

[Smithy]

You may find this topic interesting: Soylent (Food Replacement)

[Tempranillo]

Processed foods, including frozen meals and shelf stable meals have been linked to a higher incidence of cancer.

 

I personally really enjoy exploring ingredients and techniques and have been known to make most everything from scratch. I even have a grain grinder attachment for my mixer, so that I can make fresh whole grain flours.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, timotb said:

Anyone have thoughts or ideas? 

 

Your post made me think of chocolate.

 

[cakewalk]

2 hours ago, timotb said:

We need a better way to eat. 

 Maybe. But I don't think we'll be in agreement about what that better way might be. Sounds like you're firmly within an "eat to live" crowd. I think most of us here are in the "live to eat" crowd. I think it's why we're here. There are many threads about efficiency and nutrition, etc. But all of them are oriented towards getting things to taste good so that eating them will be enjoyable. I do not want to swallow a pill and go. Ever. 

[Katie Meadow]

timotb: That's your idea of a revolution? Sign me up for La Resistance!

[gfweb]

5 hours ago, timotb said:

Hi!

 

This should probably be moved to "ready to eat"

 

I'm here, not to sell anything, but to talk about an idea.  Am I the only person on the planet that most of time doesn't want to stop to eat?  Sure, a nice meal and a drink are fine with the right company.  But most of the time determining what and where to eat is a pain.  Love to swallow a pill and go.   Still science fiction. 

 

The closest I'm finding to this is a frozen bag microwave steamable meals from Walmart. For $6,  a good size meal, put the bag in a microwave and in 10 minutes, EAT.  Walmart has maybe 4 choices of this kind of meal in their frozen section.  Aldi's has frozen meal bags for $3.29 but not the kind of packaging that you can just pop in the microwave. 

 

The military has dry meals ready to eat (MRE).  Not the best for regular everyday meals as they don't taste good  are expensive and high in calories.  Designed for young adults in the field. 

 

We need a better way to eat.  Efficient, fast,, easy, inexpensive, nutritious , one step prepare,  and tastes good.   A lot of points to hit. 

Love to start a revolution how we eat.  Fast food is high priced junk as is most restaurant food....prepared frozen, add lots of salt, then drop in a deep fryer to serve the customer and charge a big dollar.

 

Anyone have thoughts or ideas? 

 

There's something to your idea. 

But I'd not couch it as a fast way to get eating over with...at least not here. 

But if you propose a microwaveable premade meal that doesn't suck...so one could eat well at work...and avoid all the crap we usually eat at lunch...that's different and worthwhile. 

[Tropicalsenior]

I'm a bit confused about your purpose in joining the group. If it's about finding better recipes and better ways to feed people, you've come to a good place. The cumulative knowledge and the willingness to help that you will find here here is immeasurable. But if you were looking for converts, I'm afraid they will be few and far between. Please tell us more about yourself and what you would like to learn from joining The Forum.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[liuzhou]

14 hours ago, timotb said:

This should probably be moved to "ready to eat"

 

No, it's not your post that is in the wrong place. It's you.

 

This is a community which celebrates food in all its diversity. Celebrates sourcing it, buying it, growing it, cooking it, sharing it and eating it. A  community that understands and celebrates the  importance of food in our various cultures and histories and lives. A community in which, like in families, the members don't always agree but usually respect and learn from each other.

 

Food in a pill. Never.

Edited February 25, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[suzilightning]

My husband, Johnybird, would agree with you in a way.  He has expressed the same feelings as many times intestinal distress comes after eating food.  It makes cooking interesting/sad/uninspiring.

[Alex]

This topic, at least so far, is a good illustration of why, after 14½ years and, soon, 3,003 posts, I’ll be greatly curtailing, if not stopping, my participation in the “on-topic” forums. I was contemplating doing so anyway, but this became an opportune time to explain myself. (Why 3,003? It has two types of symmetry and it’s a fun word to say. Yes, I have a strange relationship with numbers.)

 

I was seriously disappointed – (dismayed? disillusioned? I’m not sure of the best “dis” word here) – by the majority of the replies in this topic. It was timotb’s first post on eGullet, and if I were in his shoes, it would also be my last. All he (I assumed "he" based on the screen name) wanted to do was to introduce a food-related topic for discussion, but he immediately got jumped on.

 

Last I checked, eGullet was about FOOD, period; ergo, he’s still very much in the right place. Perhaps his introduction went a bit far afield, but except for gfweb and maybe Smithy, no one responded directly to the actual topic, which he detailed in his next-to-last paragraph. It had nothing to do with pills or MREs or anything of the sort.

 

In my opinion, all this reflects a larger issue concerning eGullet’s history and current incarnation. However, getting into specifics is probably a violation of the Guidelines, so I won’t.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Alex
to add paragraphs (log)

[cakewalk]

In general, I agree with some of things you're saying @Alex. But for this thread specifically, I do not.

 

Did you miss this part?

"Am I the only person on the planet that most of time doesn't want to stop to eat?"

 

Or this? "Love to swallow a pill and go."

 

His ideas may well be of merit. I do not think this is the place to discuss them. The main thing I understood from his post, and the above sentences in particular (and I do not think I'm imagining it) is that he does not enjoy food all that much. That's perfectly fine. We all know people who don't care much about eating. But why would they hang out here? What sort of conversation can we have with one another?

[Alex]

1 hour ago, cakewalk said:

In general, I agree with some of things you're saying @Alex. But for this thread specifically, I do not.

 

Did you miss this part?

"Am I the only person on the planet that most of time doesn't want to stop to eat?"

 

Or this? "Love to swallow a pill and go."

 

His ideas may well be of merit. I do not think this is the place to discuss them. The main thing I understood from his post, and the above sentences in particular (and I do not think I'm imagining it) is that he does not enjoy food all that much. That's perfectly fine. We all know people who don't care much about eating. But why would they hang out here? What sort of conversation can we have with one another?

 

I understand what you're saying, but I do think this is the place. Maybe not the ideal one, but acceptable nonetheless. I think that most everyone in this thread didn't quite get what timotb was asking. As I read it, it was: As a person who "most of [the] time doesn't want to stop to eat," and given the current state of the food industry, is there a way to provide commercial food that's "efficient, fast, easy, inexpensive, nutritious, one step [to] prepare, and tastes good"? His inclusion of "tastes good" tells me he does care at some level. Would you similarly want to exclude someone who, because of physical limitations, asked the same question?

 

The eG Member Agreement says "We seek to appeal to a diverse group..." Granted that timotb's criteria might not fit some members' definition of the "art of eating," but still, we should be a big tent here.

[Katie Meadow]

I fear I am guilty of said rudeness and apologize. In general I must say that eG members are a very friendly and fair-minded bunch, and in this case it does appear that poster got ambushed. 

[gfweb]

@Alex  please don't act in haste. This exchange was very out of character for eG. It is a pretty collegial place 99.8 percent of the time. Wasn't always, as we both know too well 

[pastrygirl]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

is there a way to provide commercial food that's "efficient, fast, easy, inexpensive, nutritious, one step [to] prepare, and tastes good"?

 

Trader Joe’s and a microwave will get you pretty far. There’s still chewing though. 

[blue_dolphin]

@timotb - where do you live?  Larger cities in the US generally have a range of meal delivery services that cater to a range of different diets.  

My brother, who is of the eat-to-live persuasion, has used a number of them that provide daily delivery of re-heatable meals and snacks and suit his paleo and gluten-free notions. There is a cost associated with those services but he found it much more economical than ordering from or dining out in restaurants and I was surprised that the cost wasn't higher than it was.

 

The pill thing isn't happening for a long time, unless it's a bunch of massive pills.  Too many health benefits from having real food processed in the usual way.  Patients forced to use total parenteral (IV) nutrition really struggle in the long term and I suspect a tiny pill meal replacement would result in some of the same issues.

 

 

 

[Mmmpomps]

I wish he had said I like to enjoy food to the fullest on Sundays or Mondays or Fridays but the rest of the time I am just fueling my body. I feel we are here to discuss the enjoyment of food  times in general. Myself I like the 'diet' threads too but my mainstay is the pleasure of food. Even if we came to the point of a 'pill' for food because we are so busy in life..I'd like to believe there are egullet rebels that would spit the pill out and make a chicken soup  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

A Photoshop text I am reading at the moment uses frozen lasagne as a metaphor.  Perhaps better that I not say for what.  I do enjoy some frozen convenience foods.  Stouffer's spinach souffle comes to mind.  And tonight is Talluto's frozen ravioli*.  But not, not frozen lasagne.

 

 

*on sale, plus coupon.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

By the way, for anyone in the world where Talluto's is available, they have really improved their packaging.  And moreover, they are not chicken.

 

[liuzhou]

This may be relevant.

[weinoo]

9 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

 

Trader Joe’s and a microwave will get you pretty far. There’s still chewing though. 

Hmmmm - not if that pill comes in suppository form!

[pastrygirl]

3 hours ago, weinoo said:

Hmmmm - not if that pill comes in suppository form!

 

Where you put your peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets is up to you ...

[Beebs]

A meal pill wouldn't be for me. However, it would be nice to have some better ready-to-eat meals for when I'm at work. I've got some frozen pastas, ramen cup noodles, and canned soup at work, for those days when I don't have a lunch to bring or don't/can't go out. Or just feeling the wallet's a bit thin. I'm bored of all my back-up meals. Some of the better-looking frozen meals take up too much time in the microwave. 8 minutes...really? My coworkers would revolt if I hogged the micro for that long during lunch!

 

When I was running marathons I would consume energy gels (Guu, Cliff Shots, Power Gels). Basically a small pouch of flavoured maltodextrin and caffeine, for quick fuel delivery. Not very tasty, but did the job. I've since switched over to Honey Stingers gummy candies, which take a little longer to do the same thing but taste way better than a mouthful of goo.

 

I've known people to consume energy gels and gummies in the middle of a work day as a meal replacement, even though that's not the intended use. That's not for me, either.