Yes, it's a sad day when the thoughts turn not to the iron rations of nutrition for my characters, but to the much more mundane sustainence that keeps us all alert and playing long into the night. However, I'm wondering what everyone eats at gaming sessions these days.
I remember the days of yore (middle school in the 80's for me) when a huge bowl of popcorn slathered in real butter and salt and a 3 litter bottle of jolt was the perfect afternoon snack. Chicken wings by the 50 peice and pizza until my ears were full of cheese went for food in high school and beyond - heck, I once at an entire cake because my buddy's sister made it and he wouldn't have any.
Now I find that I'd maybe like to think of starting to eat 'healthier' foods that won't get me mocked at the table. You know, stuff I can cook myself so I can spent that pizza money on gaming supplies. Any suggestions?
You're going to want to avoid carbs and sugars-- those things that make you drowsy asa result of an insulin spike. Insulin spikes are when your body turns sugar to fat most readily; things like veggie trays with fatty dips are probably best, since the fatty bits will be filling and the veggies and/or fruits give solid energy to keep minds active.
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There are some pretty good rice cakes out there (white chedder, caramel, etc.) The veggie idea is a good one. I also like the idea of dried fruit or trail mix ( you can pick up a food dehydrater for around 20-30 bucks if you don't own one) and they taste great. For drinks I go with flavored sparkling water (0 cal, 0 fat, great taste). I get them by the case 24-20 oz. bottles for $10 at BJs Wholesale. As we age our bodies like to punish us for stepping out of line, I love food and constantly fight at the perilous edge of the Overweight line. Eat healthy so you can play D&D longer!
FH
The idea of someone passing me a veggie tray at the game table is as alien to me as a Bodak. Our gaming room is littered with chocolate, popcorn, candy, and soda (Dr. Pepper is unfortunately a front-runner) and choked with a concoction of cigarette and cigar smoke. If we didn’t have to drive home, most of us would be drunk too.
Health food and D&D makes about as much sense as those Rock Against Drugs comercials from the 80's. But to each their own I guess. Our fare is Fast food and Starbucks coffee. No Alcohol though. Drinking and DMing don't mix. Next thing you know some fool has a Deck of Many Things and all Hells break loose!
Well as I have gotten older the food has become a little healthier. I drink nothing but bottled water. We tend to get food before game, but it's less fast food and more take out (they are different). We still have our chocolate or Jolly Ranchers. So I guess you could say we're kinda in the middle.
Back in the high school days, my group's routine during the summer was to play until the first big combat encounter, then race en masse to Godfather's Pizza and abuse their lunch buffet until nobody could move. After a time we'd waddle home, play for several hours (further fortifying ourselves with Doritos and Coke), and finish off by hitting the pool.
Sigh. The good ol' days.
Nowadays I've gotten pretty into weightlifting (as have a few members of my D&D crew), so standard fare for me is "Hobo Dinner" (canned green and kidney beans), PBJ's, apples, oranges, peanuts, and a Nalgene full of low-carb protein powder (affectionally referred to as "man paste" :-P). The rest of the Paizo crew thinks I'm bonkers, but I do a pretty good job of sticking to my guns (though I'll admit that Medesha's cookies occasionally overcome my self control).
How things change....
-James
My wife makes a huge pot of stew or chicken soup or homemade tacos that we eat during our gaming dinner break, which takes place between DM changes. My friend DM's from noon to 6pm and I take over at 7pm until exhaustion sets in.
Sides include salads, so I guess we eat okay....no manpaste.
Big problem--drinking! We've gotten better, but I'll usually polish off a six pack of beer or a 1 liter bottle of merlot (not both) during the 12-14 hour gaming sessions. It's usually not a problem for me, but some of our gaming group tend to overindulge.
They've gotten better because now I stop running the game when any one person at the gaming table is too drunk to play...peer pressure kicks in and they usually stop drinking.
We always have several designated drivers who can get people home, so the driving is not an issue, since my wife rarely drinks and one of my friends never drinks (and has a mini-van).
I'm back into homebrewing beer and mead and that won't help the issue either, but my first batch of mead won't be aged well enough to drink for another 4 months or so.
Recommendations for healthy snacks:
Baked tortilla chips with good salsa (not Pace Picante Sauce)
Grapes with yoghurt
Tabuli
Hummus with Pita Bread
Non-lard bean dip (look out!!)
Fat Free Turkey dogs on whole wheat buns with grey poupon mustard and Louisiana hot sauce
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Ditto on the hummus. I've found that SUN-DRIED TOMATO flavored WHEAT THINS taste great with hummus.
Our group did fondue one night (two pots: oil for the beef, cheese for everything else). That was great!
Unfortunately, our usual staple is pizza; which is neither healthy nor particularly exciting, but very easy to clean-up after.
Trail Mix. That good kind with the dried pineapple that's been covered in powdered sugar... It's healthy and salty and sweet. Outside of that, put out some Celery with Peanut butter or Creme cheese (by preference), some carrots, green peppers, and apple juice/tea/cider/hot chocolate by preference.
Those are my recommendations.
Personally, I go for a pizza, some pretzels, & a Jones blue bubblegum soda.
My mates bring loads of sweets to the game, and corn chips and the like. And coke. By the cube.
Me, I'm the freak. I bring mineral water (or Schweppes' Agrum and Ciata when its on sale), with nuts, banana chips, nuts, dried fruit (especially pawpaw and pineapple!), nuts and carrots.
Oh, and nuts.
We used to eat nothing but crap and drink so much Pepsie it replaced our blood I think (my group swears that IT...and not Oil is the REAL BLACK GOLD...even funnier when said by Arabs LMAO).
But as everyone pointed out...with age, things change.
Being a Canadian of Lebanese origins (and playing with a group where half were of the same ethnicity/background) we have always been big on middle eastern and mediterranean food. Its weird but our diet consists of either REALLY healthy stuff or REALLY horribly unhealthy stuff (with VERY little in between LOL).
So my tips are:
Hummus and Tabboule (the Lebanese salad) are great. And the Hummus can either be eaten with "oven toasted" pita bread chips, or the healthy crackers others have suggested.
Another less known but really good one is something called "Labneh". Another Lebanese concoction it is a sort of cross between yoghurt and cream cheese (and there are Low fat varieties!) which eaten almost the same way as Hummus. It is VERY tasty though (especially with some Zaatar...lebanese mixture of thyme and sesame seed spice...and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil).
Ok now i'm beginning to sound like some crazy RPG Lebanese cook book LOL.
But give those a try and let me know what you think =p.
Bon Appetit.
So my tips are:
Hummus and Tabboule (the Lebanese salad) are great. And the Hummus can either be eaten with "oven toasted" pita bread chips, or the healthy crackers others have suggested.
Another less known but really good one is something called "Labneh". Another Lebanese concoction it is a sort of cross between yoghurt and cream cheese (and there are Low fat varieties!) which eaten almost the same way as Hummus. It is VERY tasty though (especially with some Zaatar...lebanese mixture of thyme and sesame seed spice...and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil).
Ok now i'm beginning to sound like some crazy RPG Lebanese cook book LOL.
But give those a try and let me know what you think =p.
Bon Appetit.
Ooooh. That Labneh and Zaatar sounds nice, I'm off to dig up a recipie from the great beast that is the Internet.
I'll be running a game in the not too distant future, planning some food ideas for when I do run them.
When the weather warms up I'm planning on firing up the grill, burgers and dogs, chicken, roasted corn on the cob, etc. Highly reccomended that players bring contributions and if they need anything specific (Vegetarian type food, or whatever) they bring it themselves for communal cooking.
Another idea, planned for one of the first game sessions and probably more after that is a classic group snack. Fondue. Cheesy goodness!
I've had everything from healthy food, such as carrots and celery and the such, to pizza. We usually have many bags of chips available during gameplay and some cookies. Our beverages usually consist of sodas Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper mostly. Personally I like a mixture of both. Eat the pizza for dinner, but snack on the healthy stuff. And I have fired up the grill and had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner at a game before. Went over great. Hope this helps.
A bit from my Hoarde
Anything and everything...
We've had chips and beer, pizza and beer, chicken and beer, beer and beer, lotsa soda; tons of beer, sandwiches and beer, nuts and beer, more beer, burgers and beer, add a few beers, how about a beer? Did I mention we had beer?
I need a beer...
Ultradan
(I'm just kidding about the beer; We drink a few sometimes, but rarely in big quantities)
In my opinion one of the best things about gaming when ones older is wives and girlfriends.
It seems to me that wives and girl friends will cook good food for even quite sizable groups of people and you can pay them off with nothing but praise.
In fact I've found that if you make sure that you and your buddies all bestow liberal amounts of praise on the wife or girl friend who resides in the domicile your gaming at then food will essentially magically appear pretty much everytime you show up so long as said wife or girl friend happens to be in residence. Its a phenominal deal.
That said this only seems to work as the wives and girlfriends get a little older. My recollection of gaming when I was younger was that 16 year old girls behave in the same manner as 16 year old boys. Which is to say they descend en masse like biblical locusts on any unguarded fridge and rapidly consume everything at all edible before withdrawing in a pack to the basement or rec room.
Which is to say they descend en masse like biblical locusts on any unguarded fridge and rapidly consume everything at all edible before withdrawing in a pack to the basement or rec room.
Ahh those were the days. Though for me it was but a scant three years since I've been able to do that. Then again, when you've only been playing about seven years, three isn't that much time.
A bit from my Hoarde
Some great ideas above. In a perfect world, I'd have sugar-free snacks at my gaming table.
There are usually five of us, so I always bring two 2-liter diet Cokes and a bag of original Baked Lays. There's usually pizza, combos, jerky, gummi bears, pretzels, various chips, and sometimes Mountain Dew (Where's the Mountain Dew? ... lol).
Some great ideas above. In a perfect world, I'd have sugar-free snacks at my gaming table.
That who sugar free chocolate is cool (I don't eat sugar for health reasons) but you have to warn people who have never eaten it before that if you eat too much it's like Exlax. If you start shoveling down hand fulls of sugar free candy, you might end up trying to DM through the bathroom door.
Gotta have the M.dew man thats a must!!!!
But drinking and d&d dont mix at all, we've try and the next thing you know your LG Angel is droping bad guys from 100ft in the air!!!!!!
KFC all the way, but it probly dependes how offen you play each week to how heathy you should be eating.
That who sugar free chocolate is cool (I don't eat sugar for health reasons) but you have to warn people who have never eaten it before that if you eat too much it's like Exlax. If you start shoveling down hand fulls of sugar free candy, you might end up trying to DM through the bathroom door.Some great ideas above. In a perfect world, I'd have sugar-free snacks at my gaming table.
Woe to those uninitiated who attempt to eat an entire zero carb chocolate bar.
Exlax? More like a colonic neutron bomb. Splenda won't ruffle your feathers but a tablespoon of maltitol will gut punch you into fetal position all night long. You'll pray for sweet death's release.
Those mini-sandwich trays you can get at the deli. Perfect finger foods. Veggie and fruit trays are good. Sadly, many of my gaming group are staring down the Long Barrel of Middle Age and can't do the potato chips-soda diet anymore. Because we're often gaming at the players' home, we often divvy up dinner and make it before game and eat during.
More like a colonic neutron bomb. Splenda won't ruffle your feathers but a tablespoon of maltitol will gut punch you into fetal position all night long. You'll pray for sweet death's release.
Oddly enough, this is the same effect that eating 10+ slices of pizza and drinking gallons of Coke in an hour generally had on my gaming goup... most encounters found at least one player shouting tactics from the various bathrooms. Ah, the American love affair with "all you can eat"....
-James
Sliced meats, smoked fish, cheese, crusty artisan bread, grapes, sliced apples and pears. Add a moderate amount of wine, ale or mead and you have a spread that is not only easy to prepare and clean up after, but one that is relatively healthy and suggestive of medieval fare.
Ragnarock Raider's inside knowledge of middle-eastern food made me hungry...I love middle-eastern food.
My wife recently made some pretty healthy tacos for our gaming group--low-carb tortillas lightly fried in canola oil with shredded chicken breast, guacamole, homemade salsa, small amount of white cheese, lettuce, tomatoes. She sprinkles the tortilla exterior with a small dash of Steak Seasoning (Great American)....it was good.
For those who ever wish to try homebrewing--mead is really easy to make, just kind of time consuming. All you need is about $50 of equipment (reusable), 8 to 15 lbs of honey, 5 gallons of water, some yeast nutrient and some wine or champagne yeast (less than $1 per pack for the dry stuff). Mead is better aged properly, so you need to be patient, as it will take at least 6-9 months before it's drinkable.
So my tips are:
Hummus and Tabboule (the Lebanese salad) are great. And the Hummus can either be eaten with "oven toasted" pita bread chips, or the healthy crackers others have suggested.
Another less known but really good one is something called "Labneh". Another Lebanese concoction it is a sort of cross between yoghurt and cream cheese (and there are Low fat varieties!) which eaten almost the same way as Hummus. It is VERY tasty though (especially with some Zaatar...lebanese mixture of thyme and sesame seed spice...and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil).
Got to add (sorry the for the spelling) babbaganoush with pomegranate.
But even more conventional dips are good I am a fan of Newman's own pineapple salsa - a tortilla chips (not hte lime ones).
Back in the day (read: mid-90's) when I had wholesale contacts from being in the forklift business, my game table got well-dressed some nights...
One night I cooked up a case of baby back ribs...
One night I made about a dozen different rolls of sushi...
One night I cooked up a Cajun chicken dish with cheese sauce over veggies...
Most of the time, I'd fry 10 lbs. of wings with fries on the side...
Damn, those were the days.
M
Ragnarock Raider's inside knowledge of middle-eastern food made me hungry...I love middle-eastern food.
My wife recently made some pretty healthy tacos for our gaming group--low-carb tortillas...
A group platter of nachos is a favorite in my group.
For those who ever wish to try homebrewing--mead is really easy to make, just kind of time consuming. All you need is about $50 of equipment (reusable), 8 to 15 lbs of honey, 5 gallons of water, some yeast nutrient and some wine or champagne yeast (less than $1 per pack for the dry stuff). Mead is better aged properly, so you need to be patient, as it will take at least 6-9 months before it's drinkable.
Yay for homebrewing! I like to wait a year for the mead, though - it turns out so much better. Yum! Mead is popping up for sale in some of the upscale grocery markets, I've noticed. You also might try looking for it at a wine shop.
We typically lack pizza at our game. Usually, we live on the staples of caffine, sugar, and carbs. Occasionally, we get something a bit more hardy like pepperoni rolls or a small meal. I think we've had pizza twice out of 20 sessions.
We're all teenagers, so we can eat like that without fear.
You'll be surprised at how soon and how quickly that resilience will stop...
M (who turns 39 next week)
My wife makes a huge pot of stew or chicken soup or homemade tacos that we eat during our gaming dinner break, which takes place between DM changes. My friend DM's from noon to 6pm and I take over at 7pm until exhaustion sets in.
Sides include salads, so I guess we eat okay....no manpaste.
Big problem--drinking! We've gotten better, but I'll usually polish off a six pack of beer or a 1 liter bottle of merlot (not both) during the 12-14 hour gaming sessions. It's usually not a problem for me, but some of our gaming group tend to overindulge.
They've gotten better because now I stop running the game when any one person at the gaming table is too drunk to play...peer pressure kicks in and they usually stop drinking.
We always have several designated drivers who can get people home, so the driving is not an issue, since my wife rarely drinks and one of my friends never drinks (and has a mini-van).
I'm back into homebrewing beer and mead and that won't help the issue either, but my first batch of mead won't be aged well enough to drink for another 4 months or so.
Recommendations for healthy snacks:
Baked tortilla chips with good salsa (not Pace Picante Sauce)
Grapes with yoghurt
Tabuli
Hummus with Pita Bread
Non-lard bean dip (look out!!)
Fat Free Turkey dogs on whole wheat buns with grey poupon mustard and Louisiana hot sauce
The dinner that his wife makes is truly excellent and appreciated. I still however like buttery caramel corn and sour chewy candy to snack on. I'm really looking forward to the mead. Yumm.
Did I mention BEER?
Ultradan
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Alas for our poor humble gameing group, we are a funny mix two of us are in customer service and alas are religated to bringing the drink (AKA the good old Dew but now the diet variety) and some old fashion bags of chips and such. The other four members of our group all work as professional chefs (including the one who is a baker by trade) and we have a different mix of food every week. You think gamers are competitive wait tell you get gamer chefs going out to one up the other. This week was the seafood gumbo week and I was the lucky one to get the leftovers. We have had everything from lobster to legs of lamb curtasy of nameless restraunts. I like the middle eastern ideas and I cannot wait to mention them this week and will see what happens............
Oh yeah... Beer.
Ultradan
Alas for our poor humble gameing group, we are a funny mix two of us are in customer service and alas are religated to bringing the drink (AKA the good old Dew but now the diet variety) and some old fashion bags of chips and such. The other four members of our group all work as professional chefs (including the one who is a baker by trade) and we have a different mix of food every week. You think gamers are competitive wait tell you get gamer chefs going out to one up the other. This week was the seafood gumbo week and I was the lucky one to get the leftovers. We have had everything from lobster to legs of lamb curtasy of nameless restraunts. I like the middle eastern ideas and I cannot wait to mention them this week and will see what happens............
Okay, I might not be the only one thinking this, but dude! Any chance you live in Richmond, VA and have anopening at your table? I'll be there every week, early even, and bring whatever books/modules/etc you want. I've been collecting the stuff for years and have had little opportunity to actually play because my gaming group all went out and got lives. I've got one as well, but I'd be willing to sneak away for awhile :)
Oh yeah... Beer.
Ultradan
Nope, sorry, can't do it. I enjoy a Guinness as much as the next guy (I'll even drink it warm on occaision), but alcohol and gaming do NOT MIX for us. During one session a rather intoxicated player of the party's rogue decided IN THE MIDDLE OF COMBAT to parley with the blue dragon. He was promptly gobbled. Much hard feelings ensued, and alcohol was banned from the gaming table. We will occaisionally relax our restriction whilst wargaming, but it depends on who's playing.
Since one player has to work graveyard (after game), we usually don't do alcohol unless it's at the very beginning of the game and it's a single beer or a shot of hard stuff.
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Okay, I might not be the only one thinking this, but dude! Any chance you live in Richmond, VA and have anopening at your table? I'll be there every week, early even, and bring whatever books/modules/etc you want. I've been collecting the stuff for years and have had little opportunity to actually play because my gaming group all went out and got lives. I've got one as well, but I'd be willing to sneak away for awhile :)
Sorry Springfield Illinois and we wre looking but just found the last player. Poor us she is not in the food business but works our local Pepsi distributor and now is in charge of the drinks. PS this week it was Thai and one of the guys brought this peanut shrimp stuff with coconut milk that was awsome.
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My problem wasn't food snacks... it was drink snacks!
I used to drink regular soda by the gallons when I roleplayed but then I decided to lose weight so I switched to to diet soda about 5 years ago. At first, it was great because nobody else would drink any so I didn't have to worry about moochers! After I lost a bunch of weight, everyone started drinking the diet and now only one person drinks regular soda.
So, even if you get teased in the beginning for bringing heathy snacks, you may find that over time the behavior of others changes to be more like yours. And then, since everyone's eating the same thing, nobody is teasing you because you're different.
The moral of the story: Drink diet soda! It's hard to get used to at first so the best thing to do is to not drink soda for about a month and then pick up a diet. You won't notice the difference as much. Also, try a flavored soda like Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper or Cherry Vanilla Coke... they really taste good!
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I agree than alcohol and gaming don't mix... especially when it comes to the DM. I played in a game a few times where the DM would drink beer the entire game. By the end of it he was so hammered he'd make really stupid DM decisions but you couldn't argue with him because he was drunk. Have you ever tried to argue logic with a drunk DM? It's impossible! So, I only played in that game for two nights altogether.
All this talk of beery blunders... I think we've got ourselves a new concept:
G.W.I.
I agree than alcohol and gaming don't mix... especially when it comes to the DM. I played in a game a few times where the DM would drink beer the entire game. By the end of it he was so hammered he'd make really stupid DM decisions but you couldn't argue with him because he was drunk. Have you ever tried to argue logic with a drunk DM? It's impossible! So, I only played in that game for two nights altogether.
Got to say I agree with this. The DM has a responsibility to everyone at the table - the players are really only responsible for themselves. So if a player gets there character killed its not usually such a big deal (unless their the cleric and the rest of the party is trapped on level 16 of the Dungeon of Mega-Doom). The DM though can potentially trash an entire campaign while Gaming While Impaired.
I'm a raging alcoholic both as a DM and a player. Fortunately, it takes A LOT of alcohol to impede me much, that's all based on bodyweight and sadly, I weigh about a metric ton so we've never really had any drunken gamer run amuck issues.
As for food, I have two groups that I play with. One plays on Sunday mornings so it's whatever we happened to stumble through the door with (Burger King and sodas are quite popular). A Saturday night group that I also play in is straight pizza and beer. We typically play at one friend's apartment and for awhile his girlfriend took up cake decorating as a hobby so the three or four of us would divvy up a cake as well. I guess that explains the weight :(
During the good ol' days we used to dine on Garbage Plates (for those who don't know they're the most amazing combination of burgers, home fries, french fries, macaroni salad, onions, mustard, and hot sauce). Shout out to all my Rochester, NY gamers!
But now it's catch as catch can: candy, cookies, McD's, subs, etc. Now that I'm going to be DM'ing and hosting soon there will be an actual dinner option offered.
I love beer. Not the macrobrew stuff. I'm talking good beer - that has taste and complexity.
I'm also digging the new peach Fresca.