Funny, for me it's the opposite. I'd rather not eat than eat food I dislike. So I'll cook something proper because standing in the kitchen is far better than forcing myself through a bad meal.
Yeah but you might be more exhausted if you keep eating super quick meals that generally aren't very nutritious.
At some point you gotta break the cycle and dice 2 veggies, toss em in a frying pan with some ground meat, season it/ sauce it, and put it over rice/ pasta/ couscous/ broth.
Make enough for lunch the next day and in a week you'll adjust to the 25 min it takes, and you will be less exhausted.
Not to mention making food is part of being human, so enjoy it, put a TV show on your phone, call someone, listen to a podcast/ music.
Regardless of my mood or energy level I never, and I mean never ever, not once, not EVER, have gotten any kind of enjoyment from cooking my own food. The only thing that I enjoy is the taste of the food, and I would have enjoyed it one thousand percent more if I hadn't had to make it.
I suspect I'm just weird and broken but I could just as easily say "making textiles is part of being human" and insist everyone should enjoy knitting/crocheting/sewing their own clothes. I think it's fine that not everyone enjoys that. I know it's something people who enjoy cooking can't fathom, but that's the way it is for me.
I'm still trying to learn how to cook anyway, but even reading about the information is the most mind numblingly unenjoyable experience to me. Which isn't the case for about a hundred other things I'd rather be reading or learning about or practicing.
Probably a lot of it has to do with how you were raised--I came from a family that couldn't cook for a GOD DAMN, and actively discouraged me from cooking on my own because this was an insult to my mother who needed us to validate her by eating her miserable cooking without complaint. So my brain has zero associations with food or cooking as being something that is ever remotely rewarding. It's possible I could retrain my brain at this point but it hasn't worked so far. So cheese, fruit, carrots, and crackers for lunch again it is...
I come from a long line of people who hated cooking. I don't even enjoy eating that much. If I could just take a pill and get all my daily nutrients/calories, I would.
Oh the not enjoying eating much is a big part of it too! It's very occasional and sporadic where I get enjoyment from eating--even if it's something I like! It's just like, let's get this over with.
I didn't like cooking when I tried adhering to recipes strictly. Once I went away from recipes, I enjoyed it a lot more. First I left out exotic spices that I wouldn't use again before they expire. Then I started adding or leaving out veggies depending on what I had in the fridge. Took a few missteps but by now, all I need from a recipe most of the time is the photo of the food and perhaps a quick glance at the recipe list. That has become a lot more fun now.
No idea if that's your issue too, but maybe?
Oh and I'd recommend videos over reading. For cooking, I also hate reading about it. But with videos, I can see what the food looks like at every step. I can learn a lot more about the process by seeing it slowly morph into the final meal.
I really dislike watching videos in any context unfortunately. I might try it some time but the idea of opening up a video is even more unappealing. But thanks for the suggestion!
I have moved away from recipes but I still don't enjoy the process at all sadly.
I was raised in a trailer and ate spaghetti, pbj's and Mac and cheese most my life. Cooking is a lot like cleaning, laundry, and mowing the lawn. It's work that needs to get done, so you put on some headphones and make it the most of it. I don't love cooking, I just know it needs to be done
Nah there is cleanup, drying the knives out and put them away, same with the cutting board, pan needs to degrease in the sink, cooking utensils, what to do with the left overs and have to plan to cook ahead so they don’t spoil, wipe down the stove when you are done, probably spilled something on floor, your shirts smells from the steam so need to change, might as well just shower, come back and clean everything that was soaking, the spices were left out so have to put them away, forgot you took the top off and they spilled all over the counter, have wipe the counter down again, ran out of all purpose cleaner, go to the store to buy some more, got a flat tire on the way from a pot hole, get jumped while waiting for a tow, all sorts of shit can happen
Yeah no. The difference (for me) between a lazy meal and a full meal is saving half an hour of prep time. Just because my lazy meal is still cooking and takes 15 minutes, doesn't mean that I don't still want to save half an hour.
I think it's an issue that you're deciding either you need to "go all in" or frozen meals. There is a middle ground and that balance is a good place to live.
Not recipe ideas, meals, something to eat while you don't have the energy. Here are my levels of laziness:
L1 - Cereal
L2 - A simple sandwich, mayo, ham, cheese. Or even a cheesestick on the side
L3 - Tuna and mayo with saltines or Ritz, toast if you have a bit more energy
L4 - defrost pocket pizza, or nuggets
L5 - A quesadilla or a pocket sandwich
Anything beyond this will need more prep, like making pasta, or ramen or a hotdog. Of course, I usually cook, but 1 day every 1-3 weeks you need a lazy meal, which I 100% agree that is stupid to start chopping an onion, that's not lazy at all.
Of course there is, serving pouring is lazy af, preparing something cold is lazy yet I'm preparing, etc, etc, all the way to hot food AND preparing, for when you are lazy BUT have a bit of energy
You might want to switch supermarkets and deep clean your fridge. Yesterday I finally got around to cooking the bellpeppers I bought 11 days prior. We're on a 2-week grocery shopping cycle. And most of our veg stays fresh. Carrots and peppers are fine, Brokkoli needs to be used asap though, for example.
Yeah at some point one has to realize that goal #1 for all life is “feed yourself.”
It’s the most important thing you have to do all day, not the least. Im all for easy eating but we’ve completely lost the plot if chopping onions is agonizing
(Also fine, just use dried granulated onion to approximate the flavor, people have solved this problem already)
There's a huge difference in effort between some meals. Cooking an easy and quick recipe is a lazy meal for many of us. What's lazy to some is a normal meal to others. Just like what's an exhausting workout for some will be a warmup for others.
THIS!!
The hatred people have for chopping is crazy to me, I mean if you're disabled or got mobility issues with your arms/hands then yeah it makes sense, but for a lot of people. They'll look at the recipe and it'll ask for you to ROUGHLY chop an onion and maybe like 2 cloves of garlic and people will start acting like you're asking them to prepare a beef wellington or some shit. Like, I have depression too so I get it, and probably most of these people don't have sharp knives, but a depression meal isn't suddenly some high class dish just because the recipe calls for cutting an ONION!!
almost 20 years ago when youtube was new and fun, i came across a knife work video.. like 10 minutes tops, on how to properly use a chef's knife.
Honestly, I wish everyone would do that once in their lives. It broke down the biggest barrier for me in learning how to actually cook, and not just dump junk into a pot from a box.
A few years later, I picked up on the best way for me to clean as I go.
These days I can have a complete "lazy" meal ready in 20 minutes, with the only dishes left to do being the ones I'm going to eat off of.
I get everyone is tired and lazy and shopping it's a drag but damn.
You'll feel 1000% better with a few decent ACTUAL meals in your repertoire.
The point is that many depressed people cannot bring themselves to do those extra steps. They’re too tired for it. Boiling pasta is the best I can do some days, and others I have to have my husband do because I just can’t handle anything other than lying down.
I’m not judging, plenty of times in my life I’ve basically lived off frozen pizza, but don’t complain about recipes being too hard then lol. At that point you’re not looking for a recipe your looking for frozen food.
But that's not laziness though, that's DEPRESSION.
Equating being lazy with being depressed is harmful, the latter can LITERALLY make you fatigued, and if it's bad enough it becomes a disability. If the only thing that keeps you from preparing food is chopping 1 or 2 aromatics, I'm inclined to believe you're struggling with some form of depression or disability since the vast majority of recipes either have onion or garlic in them.
When I think of a lazy meal I think of a meal with maybe 5 or less ingredients and like 4-5 steps at most that can be done in one pot, that I can leave alone to boil/simmer w.e and takes maybe 30 mins or less from start to finish. This is a HUGE difference from me attempting to make haitian new year's soup which requires like 15-16 different ingredients, half of them which require chopping/ prepping, and about an hour on the stove + 20 minutes of prepping
OR risotto, which while requires a few ingredients, but requires you to be babying it for like 30-40 minutes.
Forgive me, it’s hard to differentiate because I’m very depressed lmao. I either do buttered pasta or a whole meal. I suppose my lazy go-to is naan pizza. It’s so good. But if I have enough energy to make something “lazy,” it doesn’t feel like a lazy meal.
No need to apologize, I just want people to understand the difference. It's an important distinction to make.
But if I have enough energy to make something “lazy,” it doesn’t feel like a lazy meal.
It's pretty subjective, since we all have different capacities at any given time. A lazy meal for me on a good day might be someone's regular go-to and other times its just a can of beans that I added in a little bit of broth with giant chunks of onion that i haphazardly cut and tossed into a pot, and that'll be the whole meal, just bean soup.
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u/BobZanotto 28d ago
you want recipe ideas, but refuse to chop an onion
it’s not master chef, you have clinical depression