Easy healthy meals for someone who hates to cook

neanderthin

glassyo wrote: »

I'm gonna go against all the people saying you should suck it up and grow up and learn to cook. You know what? As an adult, if you hate cooking, and no one else is depending on you to feed them, you don't need to learn.*

I've gone *mumblemumble* years and rarely, if ever, have cooked. Every time I do, it doesn't turn out anything like it's supposed to. Except the time I threw a chicken breast and some bbq sauce in a crockpot (that was damned good) or when I made a really simple chicken breast, cup of water, packet of italian dressing in the crockpot. That wasn't half bad.

Mostly, I've survived on turkey jerkey, chicken filets and side salads at fast food places (bringing my own dressing to save on the sodium), cottage cheese and/or greek yogurt, eggs (in the microwave, not even on the stove), tuna packets, canned chicken (both no salt added) for dinner. Amongst other things. *Sometimes* I'll have a frozen dinner but that's not often anymore.

*Altho, if you learn to cook, you'd also have more of a variety of foods you can eat.

Yeah, why learn to cook, that makes sense considering most eat multiple times a day.

lchadwick2

I don't buy the "I lost 100 lbs" while holding a foot long sub with more bread and meat than veggies, but I HAVE grown to like Subway.

I get a veggie salad with a little mixed cheese and parmesan cheese and olive oil dressing. I load it with just about all the veggies and even avocado when it's available.
I take that home with a burrito tortilla (my favorite is spinach), divide the salad into thirds, and make a wrap out of it. 3 meals for less than $7. And you get to watch them put the salad together which is better than most restaurants. No cutting and no cleaning up.

I don't call myself a vegetarian but I eat less and less meat all the time.
And looking at the nutrition statistics at the end of each day, how full I feel, and how much muscle I'm retaining, I don't think I'm missing anything.

DeWoSa

Autum1031 wrote: »

I appreciate ALL of the suggestions, thank you! I did more research last night on MFP and came across some additional recipes. It is so very hard to break the habit of how I like to eat. I know it's common, but it's frustrating to me that I've twice lost a significant amount of weight, only to gain it all back, because I didn't like what I was eating (and not eating) to achieve that. (Also, I never did get down to a healthy size, just healthier than what I am now). The happiness of being healthier never outweighed the unhappiness of eating foods I disliked (and not eating the foods I enjoyed), so I always gained it back.

OP, I was just like you -- I hated to cook and I had no idea what to cook anyway. I didn't know how to eat properly.

I weighed 213 pounds and was given this food plan (used by a wide variety of people, not just tailored to me):

Breakfast
1 cup grain
1 cup dairy
2 oz protein
1 serving fruit

Lunch
1/2 cup grain
4 oz protein
1 cup salad
1 cup vegetables

Snack
1 serving fruit

Dinner
1/2 cup grain
4 oz protein
1 cup salad
1 cup vegetables

Snack Before Bed
1 cup grain
1 cup dairy
1 serving fruit

I just stuck foods I liked into these slots. Examples:

Grain: Cheerios, bread, crackers, granola, etc., corn, beans, peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, etc.
Dairy: milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.
Fruit: apples, blueberries, bananas, oranges, grapes, etc.
Vegetables: Bird's Eye frozen veg. broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, etc.
Salad: bag lettuce, basically, for me, but also cabbage, kale, etc.
Protein: chicken, pork, steak, hamburger, etc.

The only thing that needed cooked was the protein and some grains. I'd just nuke the veg. On a Sunday, I'd get about three month's worth of proteins from Sam's Club, then freeze them in 8 or 16 oz (or thereabouts) sizes using my Food Saver. For the next three months, all I had to do was pull one out of the freezer.

The cooking was minimal, I always knew what I was going to eat each day so I didn't just zip to <insert fast food place or vending machine>when I was hungry, and it worked very well for me.

The food plan also gave me a really good idea of what to order at restaurants and how much to actually eat of my restaurant meal (with leftovers for tomorrow for the win!)

Notice this food plan doesn't have any desserts or condiments. I added condiments as needed but I didn't add desserts.

The end result of this food plan was lost weight, a sense of control over my portions, and a dawning understanding of cooking.

All this information is on a take-it-as-you-need-it basis; good luck with your journey!

Cheers!

MoiAussi93

I hate to cook as well, but have realized you don't need to cook complicated things to be healthy. The microwave is your friend even if you don't eat processed foods.

For breakfast I microwave three eggs seasoned with some dill. This takes about 90 seconds, plus another 30 seconds to beat the eggs. If I am not in the mood for eggs, I have a protein shake (a scoop of powder mixed with water...no blending required) and a piece of fruit.

Lunch and dinner are some combination of protein and veggies and fruit. I only buy frozen vegetables...you can microwave them in 2 minutes and don't need to clean or chop or peel anything. And they don't go bad before you can eat all of them. I either eat them plain, or squeeze some lemon juice on them, or occasionally some balsamic vinegar for variety. Keep a wide variety on hand so you don't get bored. Once in a while as a treat, I buy more interesting frozen veggies with some type of olive oil or butter sauce...but watch the calories with these and the other added ingredients.

For protein...either baked chicken breasts (I either season with lemon pepper, or a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, or sea salt, pepper and rosemary...all three of these options are about 1 minute of prep. time) or canned salmon. I love canned salmon...high in protein and healthy fats and no cooking at all. Occasionally I bake fish...again I just season with a little olive oil, lemon, or lemon pepper...about one minute of prep time. I just make this in my toaster oven, and make enough for two or three meals at a time.

I also eat on average two pieces of fruit a day...usually apples as snacks or with meals. Bananas or pears on occasion. I usually have peanut butter (natural peanut butter...no sugar, only ingredients are peanuts and salt) with the apples...adds protein, healthy fats, and it is really good...like a dessert.

I also snack on unsalted raw almonds...but count them because they are high in calories, even though they are very healthy...a serving is about two dozen almonds... or on dark chocolate. Minimum 70% cocoa dark chocolate...no fillings or anything like that. It is actually relatively low in sugar, high in antioxidants and it can be very healthy in moderation. A couple of small squares is all I need.

Sometimes for variety I have plain unsweetened yogurt. Either have it plain, or mix in some cinnamon and/or frozen raspberries. Don't buy the flavored yogurts, they have a lot of sugar added. Flavor them yourself without the sugar.

That is 90% of my diet.

skaterbutt

I work in a busy firehouse, so we often don't have much time to cook big dinners. We use two books a lot, "The Runner's World Cookbook" and "Clean Eats." I would recommend both of them...they have tons of great recipes for all levels of cooking.

Autum1031

I didn't mean to completely disappear from this post-- I've been taking the past week to go through this entire list and write down things I think I can do, also doing some more research on some of the suggested sites, so I can start trying 1 or 2 new recipes a week.

Believe me, I do know that I have to do some cooking and/or stop the frozen/take out meal train, I'm just trying to find some easy meals--which many of you have provided for me, thanks! I don't only hate cooking, I am terrible at it. I have tried some of the simplest recipes and I always ruin them. If there's rice, it will be over or under cooked. If it can be burned, it will be. It will always be overly-seasoned to my taste buds if I follow most recipes. The list goes on. Sigh.

Thank you all...I hope this time I can make it work.

melimomTARDIS

If you hate cooking, try eating simple stuff, like a bowl of cereal and milk for breakfast, a cold sandwich for lunch, maybe a greek yogurt and some fruit for dinner?

When buying canned and frozen meals, watch the salt.

flabassmcgee

I spend Sundays prepping food for the week. For example, I'll make a big batch of oatmeal, salads in mason jars, and roast chicken breasts, steam vegetables, etc. It's better to cook one day and eat for a week rather than cook every day.

I also utilize my crock pot at times. It is sooooooo nice to throw everything in one pot and come home to a tasty, effortless meal.

Rabid_Hamster

I have 2 suggestions:
1) any crockpot recipe will work. You put it all together in the crockpot, turn it on/ come back later at it's done.
2) spend part of one day doing meal preparation. Plan your meals out for the week and buy your groceries to support those. Do all your prep on that one day, so that when you are ready to eat it takes as little time as possible to cook it. For example, I've made a spinach mushroom quiche on Sunday, so I can have 1 slice for breakfast during the week. I only had to reheat it and then enjoy.
Restaurants and fast food seem easy, but when you take into account the time you spend going there and getting the food, it's not much different than if you stayed home and cooked for yourself. PLUS home-cooked usually is easier on the bank account.

MakePeasNotWar

You would be amazed at what can be microwaved. I have microwaved frozen and fresh veggies, potatoes and sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, soups, etc. My 84 year old father-in-law microwaves chicken and he microwaved a ham once. No idea how that tasted, but it's possible, that's all I'm saying. You can even get microwave cookbooks.

I also really liked having an Actifry. I could just put the ingredients in and walk away while it self-stirred and got everything cooked nice and evenly. It comes with a cookbook, and I bet there are a lot more recipes online. They are DEAD EASY. I miss my Actifry

I'm all about fitting things into your lifestyle as much as possible. Change is hard, and a ton of changes all at once can sometimes be overwhelming. Why not make it easy, at least until you get some momentum going?

samantha1242

Crockpots are really helpful for people who aren't big fans of cooking. You can normally throw stuff in before work and it will be ready by the time you are home. Lots of simple recipes that don't involved spice, crazy flavours, etc!

Also, I really enjoy www.skinnytaste.com for recipes. Some are really simple to make and delicious! Researching recipes online is a good start to find some new meals!