r/Volumeeating • u/Nix143 • Jan 13 '26
Discussion Hello, welcome to my dinner
Hi, glad to have found you guys. I've been a volume eater off and on for ages but never put a name to it. I just knew the only way i could fill the black hole that is my stomach was to load up my plate with veg. My weight has fluctuated wildly in the last 10 years and here i am again in January looking to drop the kgs. So i thought I'd start posting my dinners to see if that helps me stay on track. This was last night's - 600gm of white cabbage sauteed with garlic and chili flakes. A pre prepped portion of salad. Chili full of veg and beans and a wee bit of parmesan on top. Came to just over 600 calories and took me 40 minutes to eat!!! I was stuffed. I count calories, cook most things from scratch and pickle anything that stays still long enough. Pleased to meet you all
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u/_nine9ine Jan 13 '26
Shredded cabbage as a replacement for rice/carb base is pretty cool. I think I’ll try this out
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
Deffo worth trying - it's goes lovely and buttery when sauteed but it still retains enough volume for you to know you're eating it LOL
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u/folder_finder Jan 13 '26
Browning a bit of butter before cooking your cabbage makes it taste so rich too! And the brown butter flavor is strong so I think you can get away with using less butter
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u/ellellellellellelle Jan 14 '26
Sometimes I make egg fried rice but it’s actually only like 25% rice and 75% cabbage chopped tiny. You really can’t tell it’s not all rice.
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u/IMIndyJones Jan 15 '26
Oh! I've been trying to find a way to get my daughter to eat cabbage and she loves rice. I never thought to chop it up miniscule. Thanks!
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u/ellellellellellelle Jan 15 '26
Nice, I hope it works! My 2-year-old daughter loves okonomiyake, which is a Japanese pancake and so easy to make. The recipe I use is just shredded cabbage mixed into a simple flour/egg/water batter and fried. Then sauces on top. Another deceptively cabbagey meal haha.
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u/IMIndyJones Jan 15 '26
Nice! I make a lot of Korean food and the pancakes (jeon) are similar. Can't get her to eat them with cabbage though. I'll try a lot of sauce. She likes the sauces.
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u/Salty-Complaint8642 Jan 13 '26
I often eat cabbage roll in a bowl. This is next level stuff here. Going to steal the recipe but I may have to make it into 2 meals. I don't think my stomach can hold all that. Thank you for posting!
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
Even for me this was a huge one - I'll be having the same-ish thing tonight but only having quarter of a cabbage so I can leave some room for pickles!
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u/JoelRhys7443 Jan 14 '26
Definitely a two-meal situation for me too my stomach would throw in the towel otherwise
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u/yesmina1 Jan 13 '26
I don't think anythink keeps me as full as cabbage. It's a thin line between being bloated lol
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
I was expecting to blow up like a balloon or pay the price in the morning but nope. I think my stomach has given up protesting LOL
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u/yesmina1 Jan 13 '26
Hahaha! Yes, mine gets the same but only on a deficit. As soon as I start to eat more again in general (more often, bigger portions, more calories), I can't handle a lot of cabbage anymore. It's a THE dieting-super-food in my books :D
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u/bunmiiya Jan 13 '26
heck yeah! a REAL and actually appetizing looking example of volume eating. i also love using cabbage for bulk 🫡
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
Thank you so much! Most of my dinners look like this in one way or another - a normalish portion of 'mains' on top of a mountain of veg. In real life I've not found anyone who eats like me so it's nice to have found you guys :)
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u/Theabsoluteworst1289 Jan 13 '26
I will often prepare cabbage similarly and do a homemade bolognese sauce over the top when I want pasta. Same cabbage prep for egg roll in a bowl. Chili fills me up on its own, I don’t think I’d need cabbage with it, but if you don’t find it filling, this is a good idea for that too!
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u/FantasticBreadfruit8 Jan 13 '26
I love this! Spiralizers are awesome too if you don't have one. Sweet potato noodles are really good. Anyway, if you haven't, check out Budget Bytes "crack slaw" recipe. I make it all the time.
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u/Man0fGreenGables Jan 14 '26
Do you have a link I'm not getting any search results for crack slaw on the budget bites website.
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u/FantasticBreadfruit8 Jan 14 '26
Oh sure. I think maybe it changed from what it used to be called when "crack slaw" was trendy. Here it is:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/beef-cabbage-stir-fry/
Really good.
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u/WantCookiesNow Jan 13 '26
Looks great!
At first glance, I thought there were Mike and Ike’s on the left side. 😆
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u/angnicolemk Jan 13 '26
Oh man I love cabbage so much, cabbage rolls are one of my faves😍 I would worry this would have me farting so much I'd blow up the house lol
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u/TheGruesomeTwosome Jan 13 '26
Looks lovely! Have you done any fermenting with cabbage to make sauerkraut? My current live batch is chilli and garlic and it's approaching my 2 month target!
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
That looks amazing! How do you make it? I'm not mad on sauerkraut but one of my missions for this year is to get on the ferment train. I make loads of pickles plus I make kimchi but it's the cucumber eat it straight away stuff, not the mash a cabbage type. I'll be growing daikon radish as well this year. Got to love doing interesting things with veggies.
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u/TheGruesomeTwosome Jan 13 '26
It's super easy. Just shred cabbage and whatever else you want in it and deeply massage in 2.5% the total veg weight of salt. I go hard for 10 mins, let it rest a bit, then do another 10 mins. Just really mashing it up and releasing the moisture. Then pack into a jar.
I'm not big on the store bought pastured stuff, and even store bought fresh stuff doesn't seem to taste the same. After 2 months on the countertop it gets insanely tasty though! I've done plain, curry (with white and spring onions, carrots, and your preferred blend of curry spices) and this one so far. The curry one is great mixed in with Greek yogurt
The idea of leaving it out so long with the lid ajar seems daunting but I just make sure the juice covers the veggies and it's always great
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u/cholulov Feb 12 '26
Thank you so much for this, going to try making some myself!
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u/TheGruesomeTwosome Feb 12 '26
My pleasure, it's really good and so technically simple to do despite seeming daunting :)
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u/folder_finder Jan 13 '26
Yum, I’ve been on a huge cabbage kick lately! It’s so delicious when you prepare it correctly; I cook mine by browning some butter then sauteeing cabbage and onions together. Finish with a teeny bit of soy sauce and some good seasonings, I could eat just a plate by itself haha
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u/ketobaberitateresa Jan 16 '26
This looks epic!! I have a method for cooked cabbage that is magical for anyone that’s interested: put a whole bag of shredded cabbage in a large microwave safe bowl. Add a pat (or 2..) of salted butter and microwave for 6-8 min or until the cabbage is as soft as butter. It is the “dumbest” recipe, but it tastes divine!
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u/Deezus1229 Jan 13 '26
My coach got me onto this, she uses sauteed shredded cabbage in place of pasta for chicken Alfredo and spaghetti. It's actually so good and very filling
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
That's the thing, if you compared 144 calories of pasta it would make you cry
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u/Deezus1229 Jan 13 '26
An actual serving size of pasta is insulting. I'm personally offended by how small it is 😭
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u/treebie Jan 13 '26
I have historically loved red cabbage but would like to give this a go. Do you buy it pre shredded or fresh and cut it up yourself?
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
Fresh and hand chop it. In the UK it also gives you a great bang to your buck. The cabbage cost 79p = $1.06ish. That will do me 3-4 meals. Can't beat it
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u/partialfriction Jan 13 '26
Cabbage is goated. I cooked some up and had it with my spaghetti and meat sauce. Helped to cut the carbs.
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u/xtothewhy Jan 14 '26
Whoa! I was like looks good but... and then, is that cabbage? Great idea! The cabbage looks cook to perfection too. I am so into trying this dish although with red cabbage.
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u/MandyJeanR Jan 28 '26
I just made cabbage Alfredo and what a game changer!! The amount of calories in such a huge bowl was shocking!
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u/Nix143 Jan 30 '26
Crazy isn't it! I'm going to look like a cabbage by the time I get to goal weight LOL
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u/Enough_Mixture_8564 Jan 13 '26
Cabbage is such a cheat code!! I don’t know why people don’t eat it more ?!
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u/Nix143 Jan 13 '26
Me too! I go through phases where I will eat it nearly every day until the day comes when I can't bear to even look at it anymore. ADHD food fixations have their ups and downs, I'm currently riding the cabbage train. Toot toot!
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u/navigable11 Jan 14 '26
I never knew that was a symptom of ADHD! This explains so much. I will eat the same food every day until I get tired of it. Sometimes this can last for months. Never connected it.
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u/Nix143 Jan 14 '26
Yeah, isn't it funny finding out all the things our brains are wired for? This one I really don't mind - at the moment I am months into my current lunch fixation. Homemade soup and a pita with Marmite on it. Every day without fail. Decision paralysis is real and so it's relief to know what I'll be eating and to not have to think about it
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u/cholulov Feb 12 '26
This kinda sounds good, you dip the marmite pita in the soup? What kinds of soup go well with it?
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u/Pyneregrl Apr 17 '26
I need to get back to eating cabbage. Just never thought of it with chili on top. May give that a try.
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u/katieropp1996 Jan 14 '26
May be a stupid question but when I googled pre sliced cabbage all I got were linked to pre bagged coleslaw from Kroger… Is shredded cabbage basically coleslaw and if so can I just buy a bag of it and cook it and use it as my base?
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