Healthy foods for someone who hates to cook?

Bjninja

Well, I shouldn't say that I hate to cook, but I don't enjoy it. I have an abysmally small kitchen and an abysmally small fridge in my tiny city apartment. I can't really make things with lots of ingredients because I don't have space to prepare/cook them all. When I'm feeling good, I'll usually make a huge batch of chicken and broccoli rice and spread it out into five servings for lunch during the week, but I'm starting to run out of ideas for really simple meals and I'm tired of eating out. I can't really make tons of food and freeze it because of the small fridge. I also can't really eat dairy (a bit of milk is fine, and I can eat Greek yogurt, but no cheese) because I'm lactose-intolerant. I feel really restricted and I'm starting to fall back on buying what's convenient.

Any ideas?

wanabthinagain

I have the same problem, as i really do HATE to cook. I have been eating what is convenient also. I look forward to seeing what kind of advice there is for your question.

joe_d

Spaghetti squash! Easy to cook in a microwave or oven. Just scoop it out and do with it what you will--plain with a little margarine and salt/pepper, or with pasta sauce with cooked ground meat, etc. Easy to make, filling, and low cal.

marypatmccue

:flowerforyou: I love to cook, but I don't always have time -- I use my crockpot about 3x a week. In the recipes thread there are a TON of slow cooker recipes and suggestions, or pinterest has a lot of fun stuff. A few of my favorites that take 4 or less ingredients:

"chicken pot pie" - 2 cans cream of chicken, 1 can chicken broth, 4x chicken breast, ready to make biscuits in the can. Cook the first 3 ingredients on low for 6-8 hours, then the last 45 minutes, put the biscuits in there. You can add veggies then too if you want.

"salsa chicken" - 1 jar salsa, 1 packet taco seasonings, 1lb chicken. 6-8 hours on low.

pot roast - 1 rump roast, or whatever meat you like, mixed fresh veggies cut up (I like carrots, celery, baby red taters), a packet of the seasoning mix from the spice aisle. Low 6-8 hours.

pulled spicy chicken - 1 bottle franks red hot, 1 packet ranch mix, 1 pound of chicken. 6-8 hours on low

Just some ideas. You can make more/less depending on what you want for the week.

wanabthinagain

I like this...any recipes there for a low sodium diet do u recall?

marypatmccue

I like this...any recipes there for a low sodium diet do u recall?

Uh, not sure... I use low sodium ingredients when I can find them -- but I don't really worry about my sodium levels.... When I do, I tend to pass out in the mornings

beckeyleigh

I used to have a tiny little kitchenette and had a difficult time cooking in it. (I normally love to cook, if I have the space to do so).
My healthy staples eaten at home were:
- Parfait: Made w. greek yogurt, berries, and granola (I'd buy a couple boxes of whatever berries were on sale, but ALWAYS avoided the strawberries that were not organic. Nobody should be eating strawberries unless they are organic. Think about the foods that can absorb pesticides and stay away from them. Blueberries will, of course, keep longer than raspberries, so I'd make the raspberry parfaits first, and then I'd still have good blueberries.)
- Salads: They're easy, with basically no fancy preparation involved. I'd just buy a giant head of that living butter lettuce and tear leaves from it and sprinkle whatever fixin's I had in the fridge (grapes, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, maybe cut a few slices of red onion, and some chunks of avocado, and maybe some slices of a hard boiled egg). I'd either make my own dressing or be sinful with a salad cream or dressing pre-made. WHICH BRINGS ME TO SNACKS.
- Boiled eggs: There's nothing easier than opening in your fridge, and picking up one hard boiled egg, peeling it under running water in the sink, and eating it for a (boring but) very healthy snack. If you add a little fruit, you have a well-rounded meal.

Do you know about the boiled egg diet? Even the grapefruit diet involves boiled eggs. If you can boil an egg, then go ahead and boil 12 and you'll have snacks for the rest of the week.
There's another version of the boiled egg diet which is this (boring, but true):
5x/day: 1 boiled egg, 1/2 an apple, 1/2 an avocado. You supposedly lose a lb. a day if you do that.
I wouldn't do it on consecutive days, however. I'd probably take 3 days of the week and eat that way. And you can add salt and pepper and vinegar and ketchup and mustard and stuff like that, I think. No mayo. No peanut butter. But all that's very easy to do at home.
Here's a site with one of the versions of the boiled egg diet:
http://dietsindetails.com/the_boiled_egg_diet.html (although, this chick really cannot spell at all! But she's put up different diets on this site. I'm not recommending you try this "diet" at all, because myfitnesspal is much more about healthy eating plans and choices and lifestyles rather than "diets." But, there are meals on this site you can find that you can easily put together at home.

I also used to make a bunch of tuna salad and egg salad and just eat it out of the bowl. No bread. I simply don't buy bread. That's the healthiest change I've made in the last couple of years. If there's every any bread in my house, I didn't buy it. I'm still a cookie monster, though. Can't help that.

: )

Hope some of this gave you ideas.

wanabthinagain

That sounds terrible. I have to for a health concern, or i definately wouldn't lol I will just have to check them out

littleburgy

Do you have an oven? Wrap a piece of chicken or fish in foil or baking paper with some vegetables, pop it in the oven and that's it. Baked potatoes are easy as well.

The nice thing about this is that it's versatile, you can vary the choice of flavors/seasonings, meats, veggies. Add pasta or rice on the side instead of a potato, both can be easily prepared on a small hob/stovetop.

Bjninja

Thanks for the tips! My biggest issue is that I don't actually like vegetables. I can do broccoli, baby spinach, and lettuce. That's about it. If it's green, I'm usually like, "Is that food, or is that grass?"

Boiled egg tips are good though! I love boiled eggs. I used to get them already boiled and peeled from Trader Joe's, but I think they stopped selling them.

Keep_The_Laughter

Here are a few ideas that make my small kitchen less painful.

Grab a strainer that has double sliding handles, so that it will adjust to hang off the edges of your sink. This leaves you 2 hands free to work in the kitchen. Keep a good supply of clean dishcloths and sealable bags. Any produce that you buy clean, dry and repackage (if needed) to fit your fridge. It takes a bit of time to get your groceries put away, but you will not have to struggle with trying to prep 3 or 4 things when it is actually time to cook.

If you have stackable reusable containers, you can even chop herbs and aromatics on shopping day and have them fully ready to cook before they even hit the fridge. Things like cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are also more easily stored precut.

For easy meals a whole chicken works nicely, (either roast your own or buy a pre-cooked rotisserie bird). Carve the chilled cooked bird, remove the skin if you are eating lower fat and take the cooked meat off the bones to save space. Just store it in a plastic sealable bag. For boneless items like steak, portion it out, season the portions, put the individual portions in sandwich size bags and then place all of your portions in a larger bag and freeze them. You can save quite a bit of space getting rid of the meat trays and containers right off the bat.

For quick meals it is fairly easy to take a portion of protein out the freezer in the morning and make a quick meal with your already cleaned veggies. Premade broccoli slaw and coleslaw make great easy meals. Slaw, some precooked chicken, salt, pepper, dill, pumpkin seeds and Greek yoghurt make a great cold salad. The same chicken and slaw with sesame seed, sesame oil and soy can make a great quick stir-fry.

Personally, I find that pre-cleaning and chopping makes it very easy to put together and quick tasty meal. Small kitchens can be infuriating, but working around limited space has made cooking a bit more efficient for me.

Good luck!