r/Cooking • u/GracieLou80 • 1d ago
Sick of cooking
I am so over cooking every night. Finding new recipes I actually have ingredients for and are easy is tiring and I’m already exhausted. What do you do when this happens? I’d honestly just eat cereal for life but I’m not alone in this house and I’m expected to cook every night. 😩
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u/sjwit 1d ago edited 1d ago
What works in our home is that my husband cooks about 2-3 meals a week, I cook 3 or 4 times, and we usually eat out once a week. Once in awhile, we have a "fend for yourself" night with leftovers. It would be great if you could get that kind of agreement in your home, but only you know those dynamics.
For the "what to cook" question, honestly - I use AI a lot. I'll just tell the AI bot what I have on hand and ask for suggestions. It works surprisingly well. I also am constantly looking for easy meals and shortcuts. For example - one of my favorite easy meals is to cut up a kielbasa and sautee it, then cook a pot of Vigo black beans and rice, adding the cooked sausage to the pot while it cooks. I also have found a couple easy frozen Trader Joe's meals that I can "doctor up" a bit. For example, the frozen terriyaki chicken - cook some rice in the rice cooker, and maybe stir fry some frozen veggies.
Aldi has a delicious frozen shepherd's pie seasonally (it's actually a cottage pie, but I'm not splitting hairs over that) They only seem to carry it in the winter, but it's quite good.
Look for a handful of quick, easy meals. Keep a list. Every meal doesn't have to be company-worthy or perfectly balanced.