We were grocery shopping the other day & Betty was scanning the frozen dinners – have I mentioned neither of us are particularly good cooks? – and chose a Hungry-Man one. I told her she couldn’t eat those anymore, not being a man & all. Then I looked at the frozen dinners marketed to women: Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine. It’s sad, really: even the freezers at the supermarket tell women they’re fat, & not hungry.
Edited to add: & yes, men are told it’s okay to die of stroke or heart attack with the way we define “manly” eats.
yeah, but the typical guy – overweight, smelly, out of shape, can’t get an erection, losing their hair, smells (did I mention that already), high blood pressure & high cholesterol — that’s what HungryMan dinners are supposed to turn you into. Not Arnold Swarzenegger. Arnold doesn’t do promos for Swanson. They’re telling guys that “you’re HUNGRY!! Eat More! Eat Lots More!!”
Guys want to eat tons of food, drink beer, and fart and sleep in front of the tv.
Women are selfconcious and obsessed with weight.
These are the premises we’re taught from childhood, and I think it goes well beyond our borders. Interesting that the USA has found a way to export that as well, eh?
Don’t read the labels on the “Hungry Man” stuff. If they are marketing starvation to women, then they’re marketing artery blockage, heart disease, diabetes, and strokes to men. They all end up tasting like the cardboard they come in anyway.
(I also remember a brand of soup called “Man Handlers” whose jingle was: “How do you handle a hungry man? The Man Handlers!” Now you can read a lot into that name…)
There isn’t much to making good food at home, if you can get good ingredients and block out a bit of time. If you’re not like me, making things up as I go along, then you get a recipe that’s not too difficult and you follow it!
Of course, if neither of you likes to cook, then it’s definitely hard to get motivated. Still, it really isn’t difficult. My spouse is lucky I love making food, and that I’m pretty good at it. I’m sure it’s one reason she is still with me through this transition (not kidding).
Another person who is a big fan of cooking. How about a Chewy Oatmeal Cookie recipe:
1 stick unsalted butter
4 c rolled oats (not instant)
¾ c white sugar
¾ c brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 fresh eggs, beaten
1 c dried cranberries (optional)
½ c chopped nuts (optional; pecans, almonds or walnuts are best—toast first for richer flavor)
Preheat the oven to 350.
Add melted butter to oats, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Add eggs and mix thoroughly. Add cranberries and nuts—if you want. Bake on a greased cookie sheet about 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack a while and store for a few days.
Hungry Women Dinners
Three kinds of vedgies ( no potatoes, corn or lima beans please )
small chicken breast grilled
sugar free pudding
OK Swanson package that for me will ya ?
In the pursuit of solidarity with our lovely Betty, I went to a Jewel and purchased a “Hungry Man†TV dinner just to see what the issue was about. (They are not sold at Whole Foods)
Lets see, the Salisbury Steak version advertises “1 lbs. of food†prominently featured in red lettering. It also declares that this particular package even “includes a chocolate brownie†(probably adding at least another 1,264 calories to the total entree).
A brief perusal of the nutrition notices advises:
Serving Size: 1
Calories 650…. (calories from fat 310). Hmm. I stand corrected. That figure probably “does†include the chocolate brownie.
Cholesterol: 90 mg (What would a cardiologist say?)
As to ingredients, lets see, the label states the ingredients are in addition to food like beef, water, pork and soy protein concentrate with caramel color (something healthy!), it also includes….
Enriched bleached white flour with niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, Riboflavin, folic acid, dextrose…. Modified food starch… corn syrup…. Natural and artificial beef flavour….. hydrolyzed soy protein (oh… well it might not be healthy)… hydrolyzed corn gluten…. Autolyzed yeast extract…. Onion “powderâ€â€¦. Disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate…. Monosodium glutamate… reconstituted potatoes (mono and diglycerides sodium acid pyrophosphate citric acid…. And diglycerides beta carotene… for color….
Hmmm…. Sounds tasty.
But seeing as I would go from a 12 to an 18 in about 72 hours if I ate this thing, it might be prudent to keep it in the freezer until someone with a metabolism that can process food faster than the speed of light stops by and gets hungry. After a year of modest HRT to maintain sanity, those days are over for this body.
Like so many I have been obsessed with my weight since about twelve. Even now I actually “eek†when I look in the mirror. But the Salisbury steak picture on the box, covered in gravy and mushrooms, does look delicious.
Catrina
Actually, I bet the picture of the steak not only looks better than the actual steak in the package but that the picture tastes better, too…