Sims 2 Strategy: Meals
Keeping your Sim properly fed can feel like a challenge sometimes. And of all the Needs, Hunger is the one which is most lethal, and least-likely to self-correct. A Sim low on Energy will collapse and fall asleep on the floor; a Sim low on Bladder will wet themselves. But a Sim low on Hunger could easily keel over and die. I’ve seen it happen!
Because it is so lethal and because hungry Sims don’t have an easy fail-over option, Hunger is the need that you want to monitor most closely. Before your Sim engages in a long-term activity like studying or going to bed, check their Hunger level first. If it’s getting low (less than 30% remaining), have them fix something to eat first.
Meals are more filling (which means your Sim tanks up more quickly) when they are cooked by someone with high Cooking skill. Of course, your high-Cooking Sim isn’t always around when you need them. In order to forestall any problems, I’ll periodically have a high-Cooking Sim fix several meals in a row. Before they dish up the meal, cancel that action, and command them to “put away leftovers.”
Once leftovers are in the fridge, any Sim can simply fetch them back out. (Even children, which is handy, because it can keep the Social Worker at bay.) Click on the fridge, select “get leftovers,” then choose a leftover meal from the pop-up menu.
Leftovers seem to have an indefinite lifespan in the refrigerator, by the way. My Sims recently ate a Thanksgiving turkey which was cooked by a member of the previous generation.
As a side benefit, many Sims with high Cooking skills will roll the aspiration “serve meal.” When another Sim eats a leftover meal that your high-Cooking Sim has cooked, it fulfills your high-Cooking Sim’s “serve meal” aspiration.
Food can also go in your Sim’s inventory. If you have a Sim with no cooking skills, and no money, and you want to send them off to another lot, you can stick one (or many) meals into their Inventory. Simply click on the Inventory panel, then grab the plate of food and drop it in there. I’m not exactly sure where your Sims keep that plate of pork chops… maybe it’s best not to ask.
Fresh fruits and vegetables can also make meals more nutritious. (See my earlier blog post on sparkly food for more information on this.) An excellent strategy, if you have the Seasons expansion pack, is to have your high-Cooking Sim prepare several meals with fresh produce, and stick them in the fridge. These super meals will top off your Sims’ needs very rapidly!
A caveat: the more filling a meal is, the more fattening it is. (Ain’t that always the way?) If you use this strategy, you will find that your Sims get fat quite quickly. Fortunately, they lose the pounds just as quickly - a few turns on the workout machine will get them right back into shape.