Do you have an air fryer? Most things that come out of that taste pretty good & are easy to pull off. Also doesn’t heat up the house as bad as the oven & stuff doesn’t come out slightly soggy. Even tater tots are nice & crispy
I love to cook, but this was a very hectic week with working extra hours, two cat vet visits, and one human physician visit so I just could not do it tonight. I promised myself I would eat less junk food this year but on the drive home I said fuck it and got jalapeno poppers from Arby's.
this is why i started making more soups or giant portions of indian food or lasagne, just take the decision out of my hands for another 4-8 meals this week. i can't care enough anymore, and any immediate decision i make would be some variation of "a restaurant"
I've started taking apple and cheese slices with a short roll of crackers, sometimes some sliced meat, as lunchables. Super easy meal and I really don't eat much and that's plenty of calories for me
i also like to play chicken with my own miserliness. "here's a pound of good deli meat. are you going to waste it? that's four reasonable sandwiches. that could just be your lunches, pal. why are you resisting?"
That's what I did when I was single. Just make 1 thing for the week, and just heat it up when I got home. Plus keep some cans of pasta-ready tomatoes (do they make that anymore?) if I needed a change of pace.
I hear you on this! That's why I have one thing a day that is pretty much always the same: Oatmeal in the winter, granola in the summer. Soup for lunch also works ❤️
I don't love to cook, it's just a chore that occasionally produces a delightful result, but I am rarely excited at the prospect, especially at the end of a long day stressing out over various aspects of work
My 90 year old parents moved into an assisted-living center about a year ago, and my mom says the best part is not having to think about what to cook for dinner every night.
When my grandma went into assisted living after surgery, she LOVED the fact that other people cooked and cleaned and she could just pick her meals off a menu. Especially after 70-odd years of cooking for a huge family.
Even when she didn’t need to stay there, she was like “heck, I’m staying!”
I’m basically in charge of menu planning and cooking and I struggle to think of like 5 meals (yesterday was grilled cheese because I couldn’t think of anything when it was time to go grocery shopping)
I have the same breakfast, and the same lunch and dinner for six days; a weekend day is open. Change it up every week. Shopping is easy. Cook on Sunday, portion into containers and put it in the fridge.
Not only do I have to make fewer decisions, I have fewer opportunities to make bad decisions...
Ive been known to have the same thing 3 days in a row but that's my limit. It's healthier to vary the diet anyway. I'm not sure they were thinking of fish fingers and chips in that scenario though 🤔 😏
I like variety in other things, but the decision-making for every meal is too much overhead. Especially breakfast, since I'm not a morning person. (To be clear, the three meals each day are different from each other, and the menu changes from week to week. I'm not *that* monotonous.)
I know where you're coming from but variety is the spice of life. I have porridge for breakfast most days but vary it by adding fruit or jam (occasionally mince pie filling)
Without the recipe boxes I struggle to decide what to cook & eat for dinner so if it relieves other stress then go for it 😅
90% of my breakfasts are "coffee"; the other 10% are usually
"coffee and avocado toast". But my lunches do vary,
and sometimes I'm cooking them for two or sometimes my wife's having one of her usual lunch staples.
I'm not going to suggest any food, but it's possible to choose 21 meals, put them on a chart, and put them on repeat. Then you just need to figure out if you have the ingredients.
I started 12+ hour fast. It means I'm hungry enough 1st meal is whatever is in reach then I have the energy to hunt down and kill 2nd meal. The suck is: basically water only on the fast. Beer, sugar free flavor water, everything counts as "food"
I live mostly on protein shakes + 1 meal these days. Delicious food is great in a social setting, but my wife & I both have 2 jobs & a toddler. It's about fuel. I was excited a few yrs ago at an ad that promised a "food pill" like the Jetsons - turned out you needed like 50 pills to replace a meal.
Been tougher for me. Pretty sure I've figured out what my body's not into but then there's me deciding, which is often the difference between nothing and a basic sandwich. Meal-in-a-pill's not looking as dystopian as it used to
Do what I do.
Don't eat all day, then get carried away at 9pm and make way too much.
then either have that again in the morning or put it into cold storage for the next time.
In lieu of a serious suggestion, I'll just tell you a good friend and I used to lament how we as children were told when we were grown up we could decide to have ice cream for breakfast ... that always IS a choice ( :
Sorry to hear it. It's one of my joys. Always going down new avenues, combining, revising -- trying to find ways to create something to share and enjoy with others.
I feel this in my bones! I don’t get hungry like normal people (I think) and unless my daughter makes a meal, I’m having a smoothie or a frozen meal or cheese and crackers because I’m not going to actually use what’s left of my energy to think about cooking something.
My breakfast go to is oatmeal or toast. My go to lunch is leftovers plus. If the leftovers are veggies and starch, I add an egg. If the leftovers are protein and vegetables, I add a potato. If it's protein and starch, I just eat it.
Do you cook?
I like to make extra for each meal and have leftovers. Sometimes I can get three or four meals out of one, and that's three or four I don't have to think about.
This is why I’ve sort of evolved one basic meal which is whatever I dig out of the fridge and throw into a pot of boiling water. Variations are “whatever I throw in.” There is no plan.
(Lunch is just a sandwich, when I remember lunch. Which is “whatever I have that I can pile on a slice of bread.”)
By the time I figure out what I want to eat it's way to late to start making it so I end up eating junk. But mostly I eat the same thing for weeks until it suddenly becomes disgusting and I have to figure out what I want all over again.
Count your blessings: imagine you're a chef on a cruise liner... Then you should decide on what 3000 passengers will be eating over the course (get it: course? 🙈😉) of weeks or even months. #firstworldproblems
I live alone and get really bored with cooking for myself sometimes. It's really bad when I'm staring at a full pantry or refrigerator and don't want any of it.
I'm tired of people who treat food as a burden.
be glad you have food. be glad you can afford it. no one is forcing you to have 3 meals/day. but for ffs be glad you could if you wanted to!
I spent the last 3 days with someone who doesn't appreciate food or their good fortune, so I dump it on you.
I do love to cook, and sometimes at the end of a long day it can be oddly therapeutic, but I still totally get this. Some days it quickly gets to "fuck it, I'm getting McDonald's". Yeah, exhausting.
True but also shows we have too much choice. I just reduce the choice of ingredients. Most heavy meals...rice a daal and a meat
All greens in salad
All fibre in the morning oats
Bas. Khatm.
The lasagna freezes and defrosts decently. It's cheaper than constant delivery, and freshdirect has basically everything. I don't have to leave to shop.
I like talking about food as a concept with my partners, but bringing things to reality part sucks. I don't eat breakfast. For lunch, I eat tuna, soup, or a protein shake. I refuse to think about it beyond that. But, my partners insist on nutritional and varied diets for dinner like psychopaths.
I consider that decision (combined with the cooking) to be a highlight of each day. And that I can afford the food and fuel to cook said meal in such variety that there is choice is a delight beyond belief.
i cook somewhat often so what i will do instead is make extra so there is the same thing 2-3 meals (dinner, lunch, dinner again) - this saves me thinking about what to do for every last meal
i certainly would go nuts cooking 21 meals a week...oh yes
My solution has been to get really into peanut butter on toast. Brown bread to be mature about things. Then I also eat huel to virtue signal to my body that I *want* to eat well, I just can’t really.
Comments
but man do i love those things.
At least dinner is sorted most days
See, also, when my grandmother retired from cooking. She said to my grandfather, "make your own damn mother oats!!"
I said this to a friend who loves to cook and he felt exactly the opposite.
Weird thing is, when she visited my sister down the block she insisted on helping prepare dinner. Almost an obsession.
Even when she didn’t need to stay there, she was like “heck, I’m staying!”
Not only do I have to make fewer decisions, I have fewer opportunities to make bad decisions...
Without the recipe boxes I struggle to decide what to cook & eat for dinner so if it relieves other stress then go for it 😅
"coffee and avocado toast". But my lunches do vary,
and sometimes I'm cooking them for two or sometimes my wife's having one of her usual lunch staples.
Have friends that if we go to their house for dinner and I take very small portions will say “You ate lunch today didn’t you?”
It actually gets better with time.
Thyme, too.
Even when I am, sometimes I don't want to chew. Eat. Blah blah. It's a PITA.
Surely one day we'll figure out the perfect food pill or perfect replacement drink, right?
....right?
I eat at 1 pm and 6 pm. Massive time savings
The fruity ones I feel need to be heated up.
It's got Gusto!
Don't eat all day, then get carried away at 9pm and make way too much.
then either have that again in the morning or put it into cold storage for the next time.
It's like having an infant that never grows up
and just grab a bit when hungry
no thinking
Not sustainable!
I like to make extra for each meal and have leftovers. Sometimes I can get three or four meals out of one, and that's three or four I don't have to think about.
(Lunch is just a sandwich, when I remember lunch. Which is “whatever I have that I can pile on a slice of bread.”)
be glad you have food. be glad you can afford it. no one is forcing you to have 3 meals/day. but for ffs be glad you could if you wanted to!
I spent the last 3 days with someone who doesn't appreciate food or their good fortune, so I dump it on you.
All greens in salad
All fibre in the morning oats
Bas. Khatm.
I have Crohn's disease so giving my intestines a rest by fasting for 24-48 hours once a week also helps.
Give me a recipe and I will try to make it, but don't ask me to decide.
It bites.
also the only thing I dislike about being married is having to talk about food with someone else on a regular basis
Me too. 😾
I consider that decision (combined with the cooking) to be a highlight of each day. And that I can afford the food and fuel to cook said meal in such variety that there is choice is a delight beyond belief.
Shit. I sound like my mother.
i certainly would go nuts cooking 21 meals a week...oh yes