Context/preamble
I struggle to eat enough or well when I’m under stress and trying to save money. I live with my parents and I’m a busy single parent, so I needed something dryish, energy-dense, and quick to reheat. I stumbled on the concept of "human kibble" and decided to just start doing it rather than over-researching like I usually do.
amateur cook and mostly used a mix of YouTube videos and Gemini for advice. I’ve eaten two bags so far very I’m impressed with the taste and how full I feel.
Ingredients (Bought in Dunnes stores Dublin Ireland/Asian Store):
- 1kg beef mince (18% fat)
- 380g pork mince (unsure of fat %)
- 315g basmati rice (dry weight)
- 315g proso millet (dry weight)
- Large bag of washed kale
- Large bag of and spinach
- 3 white onions (used 2 blended)
- Grated garlic (starting to sprout cut off bad bits)
- Tomato paste
- MSG (never used before, but will now)
- Forgot to use: Cashews and tinned chickpeas.
- Didn't use: 500g Moong Dal.
What I did:
The Meat:
- Browned the beef and pork together until all the water cooked out (Jamie Oliver technique).
- Added the blended onions and grated garlic toward the end.
- Stirred in tomato paste and MSG. Added zero salt.
The Grains:
- Washed the rice and millet thoroughly.
- Soaked for about 15 minutes.
- Cooked in a basic rice cooker at a 1 : 1.6 ratio (grains to water).
- Spread the cooked grains on baking trays to air-dry and cool for about 15mins.
- The rice is soft; the millet has a nice bite very nice to eat but open to know if nutritionally this is correct (only interested nutrition, digestibility & freezing impact)
The Greens:
- Washed and air-fried the kale and spinach until dryish/crisp.
The Storage:
- Mixed everything in a big pot. I think the water content was perfect for storage and freezing.
- it weighed about 2.6kg combined and mixed.
-made 8 ziplock portions (approx. 300g–315g each).
- Flattened the bags into thin sheets and sucked the air out before freezing.
Afterthoughts:
- Reheating: They microwave from frozen easily. I add a few tablespoons of boiling water before heating to help hydrate (possibly not needed, but if 2.0 I would possibly soak millet longer.
- Texture/Taste: It’s very savoury and yummy. 300g is a small portion in numbers but very filling. I love meat flavour but could stretch with more grains or legumes.
- I really like the spinach and kale, look and taste.
- Improvements: I was under time pressure and forgot the cashews/chickpeas. I’d soak the millet longer next time to soften the bite. I could also stretch the meat further with more grain next time to save more money. I am very open to new flavours, but this taste is great.
- Open to any advice on how to improve this for next week, especially regarding the grains or legumes to add. I want it to be nutritionally complete
- I did very quickly, and will save me money and Greatly improve my energy while working on the road.
- take away lessons from this is, "Just do it" don't over research to be "perfect"