“AITA for telling my girlfriend I refuse to eat her ‘efficient food’ ever again?”
Ok this is stupid but it’s turning into a real argument so here we are.I live with my girlfriend. We’re both early 20s. Normally no issues. She recently got super into productivity stuff, like watching TikToks about optimizing your life, cutting wasted time, etc.
Last weekend she said she was gonna start meal prepping for the week to “save time.” I said cool, thanks, sounds good. Monday morning I open the fridge and there’s literally one giant container. Just one. With a sticky note on it that says “MEALS.”
I open it and I genuinely didn’t know what I was looking at. It was chicken, rice, pasta, vegetables, eggs, cheese, some kind of oats maybe?? all mixed together. Like not soup, not solid. Just… mixed.
I asked her what it was and she said (completely serious) that she combined all the meals so she doesn’t have to think about what to eat. She said it has everything you need so it doesn’t matter.
I asked if this was for like one day or something and she said “no, the whole week.”
She eats it. Cold. Multiple times a day.
She wanted me to eat it too. I tried a few bites to be polite and it tasted like nothing and everything at the same time. I don’t even know how to explain it. Imagine leftovers but from five different people.
I told her I really don’t want to eat that and asked if she could at least keep my food separate next time. She got annoyed and said I’m being picky and that “your mouth mixes food anyway.”
That comment pushed me over the edge a little and I said I’m not eating blended chicken banana oat nonsense and that I don’t want her cooking for me anymore if this is how it’s gonna be.
Now she’s upset and says I’m disrespecting the effort she put in and that I’m acting like a child over food. I honestly feel like I’m going insane because I don’t think it’s crazy to want meals to be… meals? AITA?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
Babigorl420
Sounds like she saw that one dude on TikTok who makes “human kibble” lol it works for some I guess but I couldn’t do it. Idk make your own food I suppose.
No-Agent-1611
My great uncle ate like that. He would just put his entire meal in a bowl (salad w dressing, meat, potatoes, whatever sauces and side dishes) and eat them all together. He never ate desert. BUT he had had a stroke 20 years before I was born and had no sense of taste. He didn’t even like to eat.
I’ll eat the same thing for efficiency sake (bake the chicken and a few pounds of potatoes on Sunday, eat it with a half of a different can of vegetables and a salad every meal for the week) but this is ridiculous. Glad my social media feeds are more “normal”!
Disney1960
What effort?
Dry_Cauliflower1998
Make your own food instead of asking her to keep your food separate . Seems like that’s the most simple and logical solution. And if she started all of this to “save time” maybe also cook for her. If she enjoys eating her slop, good for her, so be it.
MysticalWitchgirl
Just make your own food.
Dr_heal_with_fire
NTA. For health and safety, when you cook for a week, you only leave in the fridge the first couple of days and must freeze the rest for a reason. Food poisoning is no fun.
And that is just the health and safety part. If we talk about taste… Yikes! Why on earth? Does she have sensory problems? Like she struggles to feel the taste? We are really used to the people who have sensory problems when we talk about hypersensitivity, but there is the other way around, hypo sensibility.
Might be worth a conversation, it could even be a symptom of neurodivergency. Might be nothing. But I struggle to understand why anyone would eat like that unless they have problems tasting…
jwb101
NTA. I get it, there are days where I only eat because I know I need to and it’s just basic stuff. But most day I like to eat food to the food, I don’t care that it takes 8-12 hours to smoke a Boston butt because I want to enjoy that meal. If she wants to eat the same thing everyday that on her and it’s ok, it’s also ok for you not to do that but be aware that it may cause compatibility issues between you.
PunkZillah
NTA. Tell her you suspect that the current movement of eating food this way is to ready the common person to easily accept and eat prison food and she’s fallen for it. Non comedy response? She’s welcome to eat whatever she wants. What she isn’t welcome to do is belittle you for making a different choice.
Marawal
NTA. This is not meal. This is a crime against humanity. Food and meals should be a pleasure, where you savor flavors that make you happy, that are good and that makes you pause for a second and appreciate that you’re alive just so you can taste this.
Ideally shared with people you love. You can have this with a PBJ sandwich, some fast food or even just one simple apple. You don’t have to make great cuisine to get this feeling. Just pick something that taste good for your tastebuds.
What we talk about when we say not being picky or childish isn’t “eat whatever crap is put in front of you”. It is “stop for a second and consider the flavors and then decide”.
Dream_Alchemist
NTA. At a guess I imagine she is someone who doesn’t get enjoyment from eating food so it’s equivalent to her. She might not understand that other people have a different experience- taste and texture matter to them.
Have a conversation about how you both experience meals (the taste and the social aspect if that is also important to you). Also a whole week for leftovers is risky for food safety- I would keep it for 3 days max. Food poisoning isn’t efficient.
