Cooking/eating for yourself: choosing simple, no-bother food

[Millymollymandy]

I LOVE this forum and it's members

I thought it was just me that had enough of cooking

Sometimes I feel very sad that I have lots of lovely home grown veg but lack the inspiration/time/energy to make the most of them. The first year I was here I was always Googling interesting veg recipes but now I seem to have lost interest. I have bright ideas thinking - I'll make a Thai salad as I've got X ingredients or do something new and exciting with the runner beans but then after I've spent the day doing chores/working in the garden/harvesting all the ruddy veg and fruit I just can't be bothered! It's a shame.

[LBR]

MMM, I have that, too. It's as tho' I've used up all the creativity and ooomph just getting the food to grow and into the house.

Yesterday, I boiled some potatoes and ate them on romaine lettuce with olive oil and seasoned salt, and thought that was a lot of work.

I'll happily have a banana and yoghurt after I've finished my little pot of tea. I do like my tea experience untainted.

Part of my lack of interest currently is due to recovering from a long trip and having done so much cooking, washing up, etc., that I've had enough of it for a long while.

I did soak some adzuki beans last nite and put them in the crock pot this morning, with a handful of seaweed. (Don't know what kind, was too lazy too get the magnifying glass to read the tiny type on the card.) That'll be four meals, at least.

In some ways, life was easier with bread, crackers, muffins, cooked grains, etc. But, I do feel so much better not eating them.

[mrsflibble]

I cooked proper meals for myself through uni, until I got hit with massive depression when i ended up eatng nothing but stuff which could be eaten out of a bowl with a spoon, and my choices were not varied. the most I ever stretched to was packet mash mixed with some stuffing mix mixed together and made up with hot water and topped with and half a tin of tuna.

[SarahJane]

I love it when my OH is here as I have a reason to make the effort to produce nice meals, and I do actually enjoy cooking. When I have someone to cook for I even enjoy deciding what to cook and any shopping needed.
But as he is away an awful lot of the time and there is just me now the kids are all grown up, I find my interest has dissappeared completely and its a real effort. I tend to ( if i can be bothered) live on jacket potatos with bean, cheese or coleslaw, "something on toast" or marmite sandwiches!!
I do try and eat plenty of salad and usually make a big salad to take to work and have it at lunchtime.
But I dont find cooking for one any fun at all.

[LBR]

SarahJane, I like your menus-for-one. I do those often. Yoghurt and fruit add one or two meals a day. Or sometimes sour cream and fruit.

I tend to do the boiled spuds more than baked ones.

Mrs. Flibble, when I ate grains, I found a bowl of grains could be altered savory or sweet. It was one of my staples. Now, it's potatoes.

[rockchick]

I do like cooking but I struggle at the moment with time and feeding 2 small children who, despite my best efforts, would much prefer beans on toast to anything more interesting. But then if I'm on my own that it pretty much my choice too, but don't forget the brown sauce! Then OH gets in too late to eat with them so I have to cook twice and he doesn't like pulses which really annoys me, because I really like them. Porridge with banana and honey is by far my favorite meal or if I'm feeling really lazy banana on toast. I notice lots of us mention a fondness for bananas, but I certainly can't grow them in my garden, if I could I probably wouldn't be too fussed with them

[SarahJane]

If I am really pushing the boat out I will make a veggie lasagne which lasts about 3 days. Or a veggie bake (just veggies in a cheese sauce with grated cheese and breadcrumbs on the top.
Pasta is always a quick option, making a quick tomato sauce out of a tin of tomatoes and some mushrooms, onions and peppers and lots of black pepper.
The thing is after a long day at work , if you only have to worry about yourself, then sometimes I dont even feel like doing that!

LBR, If you are into boiled tatas, I put a recipe on a while ago, "spanish potatoes", very easy, cheap and tasty. You might fancy giving it a try.

[Penny Lane]

Leek & potato soup is pretty simple, no-bother foodstuff. I made some while my son was sleeping against my chest in a carrier (a wrap for those who know the terms!). Chop leeks and potatoes and put in a pot with water & some stock. And it tastes pretty good too

[LBR]

PL, leeks are nice. They are pricey, here. Leeks are a special occasion food for me. Too much money to be a part of every-day life.

Also, washing all the layers of leeks isn't quite enough no-bother for me.

Am thinking of making myself some teff bread, so that I can have toast-and-something for meals again. It just requires a project first.

I make my own nutritional yeast spread, and enjoy that on toast.

Simple, no-bother means no cooking at all, to me. Warming up something that's already made is all right, if I only have to make a batch of something once a week. Haven't got that worked out yet. I have to make yoghurt more than once a week. Also, do a pot of beans once a week, and some kind of casserole or quiche with potato crust. Would like to get away from doing this much.

I bake cookies (biscuits) or bars for friends now and then.

But, I've cooked enough for several decades and I'm just tired of it.

Here's to tea and toast, fruit and yoghurt, and other such stuff.

[mrsflibble]

tonight's dinner will be a rather extravagant local lamb with corriandar, cardamom, home grown garlic, home grown chilli served on potato rostis with onion marmalade and salad. I've had the leg steqaks in the freezer since last week, crying out for chillis to be put on them.

most nights this month we've been eating quick, fairly crap meals. I'm trying to get myself out of the rutt again!!!

[SarahJane]

Wow! that sounds great Mrs F! You put me to shame!

[ina]

I think tonight's dinner will be the lunch I didn't have time for... Lentil soup, which I made yesterday for three days.

[sleepyowl]

I get bored of eating the same thing all the time so would prepare very different stuff, ok breakfast is slightly different, can't beat a bacon sandwich of a weekend

[DominicJ]

If I had the time I'd live on mash, roast new potatos, roast pork, yorkshire puds and gravey, in fact when I do have the time, I do.

When I have freezer space I'll make large amounts to freeze, but 20 rather than 3.

Currently its microwave meals or burgers, too busy to "cook" anything, its a case of come home from work, put burgers in grill, shower, eat, sleep.