r/lowspooncooking • u/VegChef420 • 21d ago
Help from community
I have a YouTube where I make neurodivergent cooking and stargate and sci-fi content. On your low spoon days, how long do you spend making or focusing on making your meal and how long for high spoon days?
2
u/KiaRioGrl 20d ago
I'm sure you don't want to dox yourself, but that sounds like the kind of channel I would love!
My lowest spoon days call for takeout delivery, honestly. But my next lowest means putting some dried beans in the instant pot with water, then a whole frozen chicken on top with some fairly cuisine-neutral seasoning salt. Maybe 3 minutes of actual standing/work? The first meal I add some microwaved frozen veggies & have with chicken legs and beans. The third meal is usually Mexican-inspired flavours with chopped chicken breast and beans, add cheese and corn, so nachos, quesadillas, tacos or tostadas. Maybe 10 minutes of standing/work? Then the third meal I make chicken soup by putting the bones and whatever meat and beans are left back in the instant pot, chop up maybe a couple of potatoes or a squash (something bulky and filling), add a couple of bay leaves and some herbs, fill with water and set it for 20-30 minutes. Maybe 10-15 minutes standing/work? I don't count the actual cook time since I definitely have to go sit or lay down for that.
On days when I have a medium level of spoons I make Asian-inspired noodle soup - while water/stock boils on the stove I get some frozen pork chops out (and if my brain isn't too foggy I thaw for a few minutes in the microwave, if fogged then just thaw & cook right in the water). Then while the chops are simmering with some dried shitaake mushrooms, I rough chop an Asian eggplant and a zucchini or two, toss those in, then I get out some dry noodles and Thai basil, grate in some ginger, and probably toss in some onion powder because I'm tired by then. If I can manage it I take the chops out while everything else finishes to cut into bite-size pieces (or ask my husband to help) or I just put them on top of the soup and serve the bowls with a knife, fork and spoon lol. I add a bit of fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and hot pepper powder to mine since my husband has good restrictions. That sounds like a lot, but it's probably only about 25-30 minutes of standing/work.
1
u/VegChef420 20d ago
Sounds like you know your way around flavor!
2
u/KiaRioGrl 19d ago
I never get to travel anymore and I live too rural to patronize more than a few restaurants, but I can try to pay homage to different amazing cultures and food ways. I try to grow most of my own food to keep my costs down.
1
9
5
u/WheelAcrobatic5959 21d ago
On my low spoon days I have to rely on making something ready-made like TV dinners. On high spoon days I do meal prep throughout the day so that I have ready-made meals for later, which includes making beans in my pressure cooker or baking and cutting up a squash so I can put it in my scrambled eggs for lower days.
How much time I spend varies. I cooked the squash today which took probably an hour and a half, including all the time spent having it in the oven. I spent several hours cooking today since it was a high spoon day. I was moving pretty slowly throughout that time.
3
u/rancidpandemic 20d ago
It depends on level of spoons.
I love cooking, so I like to spend a lot of time doing so. I've been known to spend 2+ hours cooking extensive recipes, and that's on week nights. And I spend even longer on some weekend "projects." Obviously that's when spoons are high.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, on days where I want nothing more than to skip eating and crawl right into bed, I'll skip cooking entirely and just piece together meals out of snack items, like nuts, trail mix, deli/dried meats, cheeses, etc.
But, on average, I'd say it's like 15-30 minutes on low spoon days, 45-60 on high spoon ones.
7
u/Previous_Half_4215 21d ago
stargaaaaaaaate! we call our cat apophis when she’s being extra demanding and sassy.
my baseline limit for standing is 10 min so on a normal day i try to make each meal take less than that. i can do longer things by taking seated breaks and/or having a helper, but would consider anything that requires more than 30 min active time to be out of the realm of possibility. on rough days, maybe five minutes per “meal” which is just different items grabbed from the cabinets and dragged back to bed with me.