What do you eat/drink while cooking dinner?

noel2fit

What do you eat while you cook dinner or do you manage not to snack/pick the entire time you're in the kitchen?

Painting the picture: between 5-530pm when my workday is over, my spouse is picking up kids, and I have 30 minutes of silence to unwind and cook dinner has become a daily pain point. I have a mid-afternoon snack allotted, but 2 hours later when it's time to cook dinner I'm starving and want wine and cheese and snacky things while I cook.

Brainstorming ways to deal with this: drink La Croix and listen to a podcast, start making black iced coffees or iced teas as a treat, prep some carrot sticks and cucumber slices for snacking (although honestly that sounds like a punishment)... How do you handle this time? If you've struggled with this, what helped you get a good routine in place?

nossmf

I sometimes allow myself a nibble of whatever I'm preparing as I'm preparing it, such as one slice of red pepper before it goes in the stir fry or one Ritz cracker before the rest are pulverized into powder to coat the pork chop. But I don't have something separate, like your example of cheese slices while baking chicken or whatnot. (Special exception for Thanksgiving, of course.) I do have a cup of water I sip from often.

AnnPT77

I actually love veggies, and will make a big plate of them to munch if I'm hungry while making dinner, so I'm not going to be much help here. Have you tried any less usual ones? Raw hakurei turnips, jicama are a couple of good ones, off the top of my head. How do you feel about cherry tomatoes? Pickles? (If I'm not hungry, I don't snack while cooking.)

You could consider some mocktail type drink, if you want to be fancy. (Some are higher calorie, but not all. I like plain La Croix with different kinds of bitters and a c itrus wedge, which is low calorie.) Some people find warm drinks more filling, so a hot herb or other low-caffeinated tea might work (chocolate pu-ehr is nice) . . . or flavored hot broth, perhaps.

Honestly, your snacking while cooking seems like it might be as much a habit asanything else. Usually it's easiest to break an undesired habit by replacing it with a new and more desirable habit. Finding one is complicated a bit by the fact that you're busy cooking, which rules out a lot of the usual options like yoga/stretching or something. Podcast, or an addictive novel on audio that you only allow yourself to listen to while cooking - could work.

SuzySunshine99

I'm trying to get away from the habit of having a glass of wine/cocktail/beer while I make dinner.
I really like to sip something as I cook, and plain water doesn't cut it. So lately, I've been making a little concoction of zero-calorie tonic water, lime juice, and a maraschino cherry. Feels a little fancy, but very minimal calories.

yirara

My kitchen tends to be on the small side, and just a chopping board and a bit of space next to the hob is all I have. thus maybe the solution is to downsize the kitchen

Seriously, I never considered eating while cooking. I just cook and then eat. Maybe have something to eat in the afternoon before you get home? I usually eat a bowl of veggies in the afternoon.

neanderthin

Yeah, I generally never eat while cooking but on occasion it might be a piece of an ingredient I'm prepping that just doesn't cut the mustard lol, and I don't snack much between meals either, so it's not in my head to do that I guess. Cheers

Lietchi

Hm, I have to say I don't have a tendency to snack at all while cooking, I'm usually too busy cutting/stirring/...? Even if I did eat, I don't think I'd be getting much enjoyment from it. I'd go for cherry tomatoes personally, just for ease of preparation: rinse and eat
Distractions would be better perhaps. Playing some games on your phone? Reading? Seems hard to combine with cooking (depending on if you're prepping or at another stage - dirty hands?) but I guess it would be possible, if drinking and snacking are possible

lynn_glenmont

I don't generally snack while I'm cooking. Between food safety/cross-contamination concerns, space issues, and wanting to be efficient in getting the meal made, it's not much of temptation for me. I might taste something when I'm checking for seasoning, or to be sure some veggie that it's a bit past it's prime (e.g., wilted) is still good enough that it won't spoil the dish. Otherwise, if I were really starving so that I couldn't waiting until the meal was ready, I'd have something quick and easy before I start cooking, like an apple or a banana or a glass of milk.

Any chance you could delay your planned afternoon snack until closer to the start of meal prep? Maybe it's time to rethink what you're having for a snack. Are there things that satiate you for longer than two hours?

COGypsy

As one of the other posters said, it sounds like this is more of a habit than true hunger. Could you shorten your cooking time? Thirty minutes sounds like a long time to be in the kitchen for just one meal. Maybe you could "race" yourself and try to do prep things faster or more neatly. The other suggestion, if you're truly so hungry you can't wait for dinner, would be to get something really good to eat and enjoy a planned and portioned snack while you cook. I do something similar for dessert - I mix dried cranberries and dark chocolate chips and eat those slowly with a round of Babybel cheese. No eating out of the respective bags, and no seconds, just a treat that I honestly look forward to almost every day. Perhaps something like that could be your own little treat for the day? I know habit change is hard!

nossmf

I neglected to mention I have music playing that I sing along with. Perhaps keeping your mouth busy singing won't leave you time to keep your mouth busy eating.