#i like green beans and cabbage if you couldn't tell

[raviollies]

With that being said - here are 9 weeks of my meal prep! Been putting a lot of care and time into it and am very proud of the results

[cascadedkiwi]

A Grand Soup [Comfortember 2023]

Characters: Micah Yujin x “Angel” Visual Novel/Game: Error 143 Genre: Comfort (more fluff, I’m feeling) Summary: Because Micah shall not settle for any old simple soup. Word Count: 822

Prompt: 27. Soup

Micah’s happy voice sounds through the front of the house. “Angel~ I'm home!”

“In the kitchen!” she calls back. 

Micah practically trots into the kitchen with his nose in the air, dropping the shopping bags onto the island countertop. “Oh, you brought out the big pot!”

She giggles, turning from her stirring. “What did you bring home?”

She can almost see imaginary ears popping up from his hair as he lights up.

“Angel, I went down that market street you told me about? There was produce EVERYWHERE!” He starts pulling out ingredients from the various cloth and straw bags. “I got carrots… sweet potatoes… bok choy - I hope I said that right - tomatoes, corn, red and white onions…” 

Micah separates a smaller amount and pushes the pile across the counter to where Angel is waiting with her sharpened knife. She transfers all she can carry to the sink to wash and peel as necessary.

“Don't think I'm done!” He says excitedly, although there's no way she possibly could've when he came in with four large bags stuffed to capacity. She listens as he continues unloading his haul like a proud gatherer. 

“I didn't even know cauliflower came in yellow! I got the regular white, too. I got all four colours of sweet peppers, white and purple cabbage - why do they call it red? Red onions aren't even red, either!”

Angel chuckles at his tone, bringing over bowls to separate the prepped ingredients. Her husband’s insistence at an excessively wide countertop was currently much appreciated. They could host a full family reunion to this thing.

“I got a bunch of beans and stuff, too! I found those ‘lentils’ you kept asking about, and Lima beans, and black beans, red beans, split peas…”

“Micah Yujin, who are we feeding with all this?” She asks with a laugh. The carrots had been diced and she was on to the broccoli he had purposely not announced. Her eyes roamed over the various mushrooms and pumpkin, lighting up at the butternut squash.

“Me and you, my love,” he answers in a posh tone. “You told me to bring home veggies for soup. This will ensure we execute only the grandest soup possible.”

“It'll be healthy, that's for sure,” she murmurs as Micah pushes the bags to the opposite end of the counter. 

He goes over to the sink, washing his hands before returning with his apron hanging from his neck and a knife and cutting board in his arms. “You didn't think I was leaving you to prep all this alone, did you?” He gasps dramatically. “I'm hurt, my angel, that you think so little of me after living as my sweet wife all this time.”

“We've been married for three months, Yujin.”

“And clearly I haven't demonstrated myself enough in those 90 days, Mrs. Yujin.” He makes quick work of the onions, using the excuse to have tears accompany his exaggerated sniffling.

Cassie shakes her head as she sets aside a bowl of greens, clearing her cutting board for the cabbage. “My apologies, my sweet.”

“No!” Micah huffs with a pout, leaving the tears as he moves on to the bell peppers. “This is my failure as a husband. I am more than just a provider, a bringer of raw materials for sustenance. I must prove myself!”

Cassie raises an eyebrow as he pushes away the peppers, dutifully wiping his knife before smacking down a sweet potato. God bless him because as much as she loved the things, cutting them was a workout. She would gladly watch him strongarm that vegetable into submission for their pot.

Micah turned everything into a performance or a good time. Even with his antics he was an efficient kitchen assistant, and pretty soon everything they wanted was in the pot and bubbling away. 

He sniffs the air, a confused look on his face. “Angel, is the oven on?” He bent to look but couldn't tell.

“Should be,” she responds as she rinses the dishes. “I've got bread rising in there.”

She squeaks into a laugh as she's suddenly hugged from behind, dropping a - thankfully plastic - bowl. She squirms as Micah peppers her cheek with kisses. “It's just bread, babe, relax!”

“My Angel made bread from scratch with this timing and I must relax?” He asks incredulously. “I shall not!”

“I'm assuming that informing you that my first attempt at a garlic confit is also in there will earn me more physical affect- Wah!” She squawks as she's raised clean off her feet and walked out of the kitchen.

“Mm-mm, mm-mm” Her husband repeats in her ear. “You're not allowed to do this to me. You're showing me up.”

“Micah-”

“ I'm the giver in this relationship, missy. Stop stealing my love language!” They topple onto the large sofa where he smothers her and her protesting laughter in kisses. 

It's a good thing they have a rather loud and intrusive kitchen timer.

[cottoncandyopinions]

I remember when I was a kid, this is around when I was 8-10 years old, my parents would ban me from eating the things I liked because they thought that would make me eat less, and ultimately make me skinny.

But that kept backfiring. I was a kid that, with a few exceptions, just really liked food. Green veggies weren't an issue, asparagus and green beans were outright treats for me. I adored fruit and would reach for it before candy and sweets.

So like, they just kept paring down my "permitted" meals to be less and less appealing. "You can't have bread on your sandwiches anymore, use these healthy wraps with veggies" and I would fall in love with the spinach and sundried tomato flavored wraps.

"No mayo or mustard, you can use oil and vinegar" and I proceeded to do that happily because I liked the sour taste of vinegar.

"You can only use one thin sliced piece of meat, the rest has to be veggies" and I had no problem making my wrap essentially a salad wrap with a little vinegar and the meat permitted to me.

"No more meat. No more oil and vinegar. You can only put beansprouts and a spoon of hummus in your wraps." I think they were sure I would hate hummus, but I actually ended up loving it. I wasn't huge on the beansprouts, but I still had hummus and the wrap I liked, and I didn't dislike them any more than cabbage.

After that didn't work, they made the size of wrap I was allowed to bring smaller and smaller and smaller. I remember looking at other kids during lunch, with my quarter of a beansprout wrap and little bottle of water, while my peers ate full lunches. I wasn't allowed to bring a piece of fruit, too much sugar.

Just the way it weighs on you sitting there, eating barely anything, knowing I wouldn't get a snack after school like my peers did, that this is all I had to eat til dinner, when my parents would serve me a plate that matches the amount of food I gave preschoolers for lunch when I worked with kids... And being able to see that I'm the fat kid, I'm bigger than anyone else here... But I'm also the kid that had never had a little Debbie cake, that never had snacks, never allowed to drink anything but water. And I felt like my parents must be right. I mean, I was always hungry! Clearly that means I was a fat pig and this was for my own good!

It wasn't long after that they told me that eating lunch at all was bad for me, that I'm already too big so I should just skip it.

I couldn't get away from how different I was from everyone else. I remember getting to hang out at a friend's house and the ordered food, and they asked my (8 y/o) friend what they'd like to get from the restaurant. That was shocking enough, but then they asked *me.* My father didn't start allowing me to pick my own meals til I was 16 years old, and even then if I didn't pick something he approved of he would still pick for me anyway.

They never took me to the doctor over this. To find out why I was the fat kid despite obediently under eating. They waited until I was 14 and started yelling at me to get it checked out. They would never tell me insurance info so I could find someone to go to though. I was clearly "adult enough" by then so I guess I was supposed to just know what to do and who to call by then.

I guess that's a lie, that I obediently underate. I did but mostly because that's the only option I had. I felt like it was my fault I hadn't made any progress? Why? Because when the church they sent me to had a pizza party, I ate so much so fast that I vomited. And then I went back out to eat more because these chances were rare. I didn't know that this was normal behavior for a kid being treated like I was, once again I thought it justified my parents, that I was a fat uncontrollable cow unless they intervened.

Every time I was in an environment where I was offered food, I overate to the point of making myself sick. Of course, no one worried or thought it was weird. I mean. I was the fat kid right? Of course I had no self control.

If I'm honest, I believed them totally and completely until an experience I had when I was 15. I got into a free academic summer program where I got to stay on a local college campus during the summer with other kids my age.

The meals were all buffet style, all you can eat, and I wouldn't even see my parents for weeks. On top of that, it was very active with a lot of walking, so I'd be using more energy too.

So I ate a lot. I made myself sick the first night, like I usually do. But despite that, there was just as much breakfast the next morning. And just as much lunch. And just as much dinner.

I still had to fight off my shame. Even when I calmed down and stopped making myself sick, and ate only til I was full, it was double if not 3x what my parents would permit me to eat. I felt disgusting every meal, but that primal part of my brain that knew it wouldn't last still pushed me to eat my fill.

At the end of that summer, for the first time in my life, despite being left fully to my own devices with no guidance on my eating habits, I'd lost weight.

And that's when it dawned on me. Years and years of feeling constantly hungry. Constantly exhausted. Using the energy I had to get good grades at school then crashing afterwards. Wondering why I never felt good. And then all of that going away within a week of being away from them and eating what I wanted.

That started to open my eyes to the fact that they'd been wrong. That what they'd been telling me to do wasn't good for my body.

It feels terrible to say, but after that I started stealing money from my father. He kept a lot of cash on him, would just have 800 bucks in his pocket. So I'd slip a 10 or 20 here and there. I'd skip class and walk down to the dollar store, stock up on shelf stable foods, then hide them in my room at home.

I'm not pretending that saltines, peanut butter, and canned ravioli were good things to be so prominent in my diet, but I did feel so much better once I started doing that.

It's silly to make this post. I saw something on twitter where people were being weird about kids asking for food, and I kinda went on a journey.

I've never really met anyone who's upbringing around food was like mine. That's a good thing, it's an awful thing to do to a kid.

But it does feel very lonely.