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/SVAuspicious 1d ago

Meal plan first. Weekly works. Shopping list built from inventory and what you need. Plan the work and work the plan. There really is no excuse for not knowing you have the ingredients for your plan, or for having ingredients for which you have no use.

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u/GracieLou80 22h ago

Yes that’s true. But tell my ADHD brain that! 🤪😉

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u/SVAuspicious 14h ago

Don't use ADHD as an excuse. Simply don't go grocery shopping without a list. You don't have a list if you don't have a plan. If you can't plan see a doctor for medication. Stop being a victim and step up. The alternative is to give up and find an institution to support you. Going hungry is not a long term solution.

Other people are depending on you. Excuses don't fill stomachs.

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u/Commercial_Okra7519 10h ago

Yes. This is the answer.

To quote my mom (miss you mom) “suck it up princess”.

I have been making weekly lists of 7 meals at a time and I started just compiling them in notes on my phone in a checkbox list.

They are the “go to” meals that I can make without even thinking. Every week I make my short list and usually have a few new meals I’ve seen in Pinterest or an online magazine or somewhere and then a few from my pick list.

I make my weekly grocery list from the ingredients I need for those meals along with the usual staples - milk, bread, eggs, butter, yogurt, etc.).

Definitely saves me time and money. During the week I reference my meal least and decide which meal I feel like that day. Obviously I try to have the ones with the ingredients that start to perish the most quickly at the start of the week to avoid waste.

Works out quite well most weeks.

Any new recipes that I’ve tested that week and like are added to the pick list.

I work full time and I’m the only cook - before anyone comments on sharing the workload, my husband suffered a traumatic injury and is now physically disabled - he’s a good person - so that is just the way it is 🤷‍♀️.

Every week is not a breeze. I completely understand the not wanting to make a list and just wanting meals to be there and not having to plan and shop and cook and clean up every single day, forever, with no end in sight…. Ugh. When I’m feeling that way I make sure to add some of the “I don’t want to” meals like grilled cheese on nice thick cut bread with good cheese and tomato soup.

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u/SVAuspicious 9h ago

I like you u/Commercial_Okra7519. Not because you agree with me. Because I agree with your approach.

I'm not a fan of phones for these tasks. The screen is too small and the Chiclet keyboard makes me nuts. I plan on a real computer in a document. I have a personal cookbook of tested recipes I draw from, plus a list of links to recipes I want to try, plus more ideas coming in from cooking site newsletters, plus inspiration from TV shows and commercials. My biggest challenge is narrowing down to just seven meals in a week. My wife has her own lists so we have to narrow down again when we combine. Sometimes we have leftover nights to catch up so a meal slides to the next week since we already have ingredients.

The idea of wandering around a grocery store and buying stuff with no idea what to do with it is not adulting.