Finally got access to a kitchen, so I took the chance to make my first batch of kibble! I also made some cakes, which I'll also be posting here once I finish writing a proper recipe. Aside from the macro ratios, most of the ingredients and seasonings were put in on a whim with the idea that "more variety is more nutrition". Future batches will be fine tuned for actual nutritive value. This one was mostly made to prove that the concept is workable. Ingredient list is for 3 days' worth.
INGREDIENTS
• 1.5lb textured soy protein (chosen for protein density, affordability, and low initial water content)
• 0.5lb buckwheat (Chosen because I had a lot of buckwheat)
• 1 full celery heart, thoroughly washed and minced (For fiber and volume. I could've gotten away with just chopping it, so I'll keep that in mind for future batches)
• 1/3 cup olive oil (to prevent fat deficiency)
• Large amount of Maggi sauce (for flavor and sodium content)
• 1/3 cup fortified nutritional yeast (because I'm prone to B vitamin deficiencies)
• Large amounts of ginger, turmeric, rosemary, Mrs. Dash, dried onion, and celery seed
• Water, as necessary
PROCESSING
Put buckwheat to boil in a mixture of the water and Maggi sauce (the sodium content of the Maggi will sub in for salting the water) and leave it to boil for 20 minutes or until soft
Put the protein, celery, and oil in a large bowl and mix thoroughly (I did not do that and it resulted in a massive protein glob on the bottom that had to be manually dug up and mixed back into the mixture)
Once buckwheat is done, dump it, water and all, into the bowl. put a pot of additional water to boil. Let rest for a few minutes so the protein can fully hydrate (I, again, did not do this, and it resulted in ultra dense protein slop that was a nightmare to work with)
Add seasonings and nutritional yeast and blend together until it's a homogenous paste/batter. If it's too thick to blend, add additional boiling water (as little as possible, as more water lengthens dehydration time)
Spread paste as thinly as possible over as many baking sheets as possible
Leave in oven on the "warm" function overnight (I felt comfortable doing this because my oven has a safety feature to turn itself off if it detects a potential fire. Do not do this if your oven doesn't have that.)
Done
Picture doesn't represent entire batch. The rest is still in the oven because I spread it too thick and it didn't fully dry overnight.
A lot of y'all have asked questions and expressed their concern in my initial post, which I will be addressing here:
HOW'S THE TASTE/TEXTURE?
Bland. Functional. Noticeable celery flavor and the faintest hint of savory, as if La Croix made a mushroom flavor. Texture is akin to Grape Nuts.
WHY NOT DO [X] INSTEAD?
Because, over 4 years of continuously working on eating healthier, I've almost certainly tried that and it didn't work for one reason or another.
ARE YOU HOMELESS?
No.
THEN WHY [X]?
That's private.
WHY DEGRADE YOURSELF LIKE THIS?
Because I don't consider it degrading. If it's good enough for cats and dogs, who also feel emotions and demonstrate dietary preferences, then it's good enough for me.
IS THIS AN EATING DISORDER?
Maybe? Depends on how you define "disorder". I will admit I worded my initial post in a way that caused more concern than I intended. The plan is an 1800-2000 calorie per day diet, 1200-1400 of which would be kibble. With the kibble getting me to the minimum range of all my macros, micros, and fiber, that leaves me 400-800 calories a day that I can dedicate to literally anything I want without worrying about anything else.
The reason I was so hard focused on making the kibble hit "minimum nutritional requirements" was because I wanted to maximize the caloric amount of actual food I could allow myself on a day-to-day basis. I am by no means anorexic or bulimic and if I don't meet my calorie minimum on any given day, I intend to drink the volume of milk necessary to get to that minimum before I sleep.
I have high requirements for protein (I powerlift as a hobby) and I'm trying to lose weight at a healthy (read: maintaining my actual health) pace without crash dieting. To do these both while keeping a real food diet, I'd largely have to sacrifice things like desserts and full fat dairy, which I'm unwilling to do. By optimizing a kibble to fit the minimum nutrient values to have eaten healthily on any given day, I allow myself absolute freedom within the leftover caloric range.
WHAT IF YOU WANT TO EAT MORE REAL FOOD ON ANY GIVEN DAY?
I'll just eat less kibble that day. That or go a bit over my calorie range for the day (with the intent to not do anything to "make up" for it). Society will not collapse if I go to a Mexican restaurant with friends and actually eat my fill.
CONCLUSION
This diet is very specifically catered to my needs and preferences, and I don't think it's well suited for the vast majority of people. I understand that this is a rather unorthodox way to eat, which will naturally lead to further questions and concerns. I'll be happy to answer any good faith questions or listen to any suggestions y'all might have. I will not respond to any bad faith comments nor will I divulge anything about my private life that I am not fully comfortable keeping on a public forum.
by Gurfad
50 Comments
Not me reading this as ‘human kibbeh’……-_-
By “test batch” I take it you haven’t been eating this for long?
I have additional questions…sorry.
Are you eating the kibble dry?
Could you have it like cereal with milk or water?
Would rehydrating it make it worse/harder to eat? (Soft/slimy compared to dry and crunchy)
How do you eat it? Like with a fork? Spoon? Fingers?
Looks like if it were able to be more chucked or chipped shaped it would be easy to snack on with fingers.
Do you eat this as meals through the day? Or just as one big breakfast/lunch/dinner.
Or just snack on it through the day?
Sorry for the questions. I just love the consept of human kibble and wish to learn more.
Ok, so its dry cat food, but not in pellets?
https://preview.redd.it/vqj824lij2kg1.jpeg?width=888&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5e4548ffb4125b4d6a13340a7641c7391d7ad5c
I don’t know why people hated on you this much. I hate having to cook every day, and if I wasn’t such a picky eater who craves fresh stuff, I would totally do what you do. I don’t know how it’s different from e.g. powerlifters who get a chunk of their daily calories from shakes.
This looks like high protein chips.
Just wanna say I think it’s cool you’re working on this. There are many days where I wish I could just fill up a bowl with kibble and it would meet my needs so I don’t have to expend energy on meal planning. (I do know we’re in the meal prep sub, which is another way of investing energy into food prep/meal planning early so you don’t have to do that every day, but even meal prep can feel like too much.)
21st century pemmican, brilliant! Do give us an update after at least a month of eating this full time, I’m curious. Wouldn’t personally live on a diet like this but I can definitely see how this can be useful for some people.
This is not healthy. Diets require variety for health and this is exceedingly restrictive.
this… feels like it’s part of a kink thing
Asking this with love❤️🩹… have you heard of bigorexia before?
Even with just a casual glance at the list of ingredients, this really looks nutritionally incomplete. All you have made is a sodium bomb, blended protein powder and fiber supplement. I really don’t think this is a healthy blend of micro or macro nutrients for sustained health and wellbeing. I love the idea… in theory. I think you need to reach out to a nutritional expert with food science experience to help you formulate a more nutritionally complete recipe. Or look into any of the many meal replacement products already available on the market. Have you tried something like Huel? [https://huel.com](https://huel.com)
I am worried this seems really low on fiber? And are you taking a multi vitamin to supplement? You’re probably hitting carbs, protein, and you’re getting some healthy fats in, but low fiber will really mess you up, short and long term
Take care of yourself, op. I struggle with executive dysfunction and am working out my own go-to nutritional slop recipes. Maybe try adding in a mix of ground freeze dried fruits/ veggies?
This is the single most engineer thing I’ve ever seen.
Recommend posting this on other health/nutritional subs and asking for feedback on things to add. This is… Not healthy lol. But I appreciate the idea/effort. Im friends with someone whose (thank God) ex-bf would talk about how “if he could, he’d eat like a worm. Just dirt day in day out.” I’d have loved to send this to him and see if he finds it quite as appetizing xP
It very much looks like taco meat. Taco seasoning and leaving it wet might be nice.
i love this. i won’t do this but again i love this.
inyafelota no comprende copeng. Could use paprika y chili/cayenne fo make flavor, red kibble
This is some dystopian shit lmao…. I can’t wait til this gets out to the LinkedIn “Founders” with their 3am wake up BS.
dawg this is so weird
Vibes
https://preview.redd.it/8mv3lxk143kg1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=170dd7ee4756f84a28af678652a733e890fd4ba0
Bro made a diet and then had a conversation with themselves about it and posted it on reddit
Honestly OP I think engineers are great at coming up with things that check all the boxes except the human element. I see that you aren’t finished with making it a complete nutritional replacement, but you *need* to consult with a mental health professional to get a better idea on the possible outcomes for someone living on the same bland food 24/7.
Remember that “optimization” is for both our physical and mental health, and varied, fresh foods offer humans a lot of benefits that keep us stimulated, socialized, and happy. I bet there are already studies on this topic (ie; human mental health benefits of fresh/varied foods or cooking).
Are you willing to scrap the project if it turns out this could have net negative results? It doesn’t matter if you perfect your formula if fhe outcome is that you become a sad sack lol. If you’re in college I bet there’s a psychology grad student or professor who would be tickled if you asked them about this.
This needs another name 😬
If you’re the sort who can eat the same thing day in and day out, and you can get it formulated to meet nutritional requirements, go for it.
I know a few people who view good as nothing more than the vehicle by which to obtain nutrients and prefer to do it as efficiently as possible who could manage to eat like this. There are also a few “human kibble” concepts on the market already.
Personally it’s not for me and I won’t even feed my pets kibble because I believe they deserve flavour and variety too.
But if I was feeding just myself, I likely would cook in a similar way to how I make pet food and following a ratio formula to make sure all nutrition requirements are met and just changing on the protein sources and vegetables and spices for variety, make up a big batch of food for a week and then something else the next.
My husband and kids would revolt however.
The one thing with dehydrating it to make it crunchy is please remember to drink enough fluids
> If it’s good enough for cats and dogs, who also feel emotions and demonstrate dietary preferences, then it’s good enough for me.
I note that meat is also good enough for cats and dogs, and it is their dietary preference, but do what you feel is best!
r/theexpanse would like this
But I feed my cats and dog a balanced raw diet. And they are much happier than when I used to feed dry kibble. Now they eat with GUSTO! But they were never meant to eat kibble. Best of luck to you.
I find this an interesting idea. I’m a snacky person – it’s sometimes just a fidget type thing. I “blossomed” when I hit puberty at the same time I moved to a hot and humid place. So I tended to stay in the AC enjoying my 2 favorite things, books and M&Ms.
It was years later that I figured out that the M&Ms weren’t just tasty, they were also fulfilling a “fidget” need. At that time I switched to Cheerios which worked pretty well. Not very keto though. I haven’t found a truly satisfactory replacement.
I love this! I tried this in college but in drink form. Had to add a ton of different supplements to cover vitamins and minerals. Anyway it tasted terrible and I gave up. The kibble idea is great- solid food seems much more enjoyable!
I wish I had 10% of your dedication to eat healthy op! Respect!
Could you add more seasons or sauces when you go to eat it?
That’s fucking disgusting
They already have a commercial version called Dawg Food. https://eatdawgfood.com/
I love cooking, but the way I like to cook doesn’t jive with my 9-5 job. I often tell people I wish I could just focus on cooking one meal a day instead of having to feed myself all the time. I kinda like this, I could just think about one meal a day and still meet my caloric intake! Good on you for commiting!
Guys, human kibble already exists. It’s cereal.
Why not just buy monkey food?
What’s the purpose of drying it out vs preserving moisture content and freezing. You’ll have to supplement this with higher water intake.
This is really creative. And is really no different from all the fitness influencers who eat the same meal of chicken, rice, and veggies every day.
Only difference is the texture/even mixing.
May I ask why you chose the kibble option instead of eating the same foods in recognisable form? If that makes sense.
You can buy a 25 pound bag of primate kibble for about 30 quid.
Tbh, fully unhinged that you invented a question to ask yourself so you could publicly refuse to answer it. Hope it all works out for you, though.
Okay so 3 things.
1. Oh my god I’ve never been so happy to NOT find myself in the Rimworld subreddit.
2. I think this looks extremely cool and if I wasn’t eating fries and a patty almost every day I would probably try making this.
3. I find the looks so interesting I want to throw taco spices on it and see what happens.
Thought I was on r/shitrimworldsays for a sec
Very interesting, thank you for sharing !
I see you and I love you for this. I wish I was a plant that could photosynthesize and find no joy in cooking at all.
I used to do something similarly utilitarian. Still do for meal prep lunches sometimes.
I had some variation, but usually it consisted of lentils, rice, and broccoli, plus some olive oil and seasonings. I had it calculated to give me 1000 calories, 40 grams of protein, and 30 grams of fibre.
I didn’t blend it and dry it into kibble though – I would cook the lentils into a thick sort of mashed potato texture and eat them on top of the rice with steamed broccoli. But I had a fridge and microwave at work. Something dried is easier on the go.
“IS THIS AN EATING DISORDER?”
yes. the answer you’re looking for here is yes.
Serious question: have you tried Soylent? That’s a beverage named after the literary reference
I think it’s a great idea, even better if it has a long shelf life. It could be sold to peppers or packed as emergency rations.