High-calorie Bachelor Chow
Based on some feedback a few months ago from Reddit, lab mates, and commenters on the site, I decided to enrich the calorie density and lavor of my bachelor Chow recipe (available for download in the Top 10 Recipes booklet). This is a short report of my results. Obviously, not everyone is interested in adding calories or additioanal cost to their food shake. For those who are, however, the simplest manner with which to add such calories is vegetable oil. Oils/fats are very energy dense. Relative to carbohydrate and protein, oils contain almost twice as many calories per gram. They are also extremely cheap. Hence…
Bachelor chow with vegetable oil
I tried updating bachelor Chow today with some vegetable oil for extra calories. I have been working out in the mornings and this has made me especially hungry in the last week or two. In order to meet my calorie requirements, I have been supplementing my diet with granola bars. These are not very healthy (they contain a lot of sugar) and they are relatively expensive. I tried bachelor today with some additional vegetable oil to increase the calorie content. It tasted exactly the same.
The basic recipe
How to make bachelor Chow: in a blender, mix three parts traditional rolled oats, one part dried milk, and one part peanut butter (dried peanut butter, PB2, or a spoonful of creamy generic spreadable peanut butter). Blend this with an equal amount of water. Drink quickly. Try to ignore the somewhat grainy texture.
Extra calorie bachelor Chow
As above, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and blend again
How to make better tasting bachelor Chow
My lab mates tell me that although it is acceptable, and not offensive, the taste of bachelor Chow requires some work. I have tried Bachelor Chow with added whey protein isolate (WPI) which comes in many flavors. The flavor of the Bachelor Chow becomes almost the same as the flavored WPI. To prepare Bachelor Chow With Flavor, add one scoop of chocolate or vanilla whey protein isolate and blend again. Obviously this is more expensive, but the flavoring of the whey protein isolate overwhelms the bland flavor of the generic bachelor Chow.
The Purpose and Alternative names for Bachelor Chow
My lab mates have been calling this Chode-chow or Bro-chow. I am comfortable with either name, but I stand by Bachelor Chow and Grad Chow. It might be nice if this product work in kibble-sized lumps, but that would require chewing and tasting it for a longer period of time which (I think everyone will agree) is not a benefit.
This project is greatly inspired by the success of Soylent, the food substitute drink that raised $2 million on kickstarter. Although I am very impressed with this, I did not feel that that was the perfect food for my needs. It is too expensive, and too focused on replacing food rather than cheaply supplementing a more conventional diet. I like eating. I want to eat delicious food. I like chewing vegetables. I love cooking meat dishes and will not give them up. But when I am hungry at lab or in other circumstances where cooking is impractical, I hate spending money on expensive food that is less good than I could prepare myself. When I am engaged in other activities and become hungry, I need a bolus of 300 to 400 low-sugar calories for $1 and I want it in less than 5 minutes. For that, I do not think it is easy to beat Bachelor Chow.
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