What to do if you hate cooking?

If your on a budget you will have to cook for yourself but if you had some more moola you could make use of companies that do healthy meals that you can pick up on a daily bases. We have one in SA where you go for a consultation and based on that they cook meals specifically for you.

Totally with you on that one. I hate it. Plus I don't really have the time to cook huge awesome meals.

But it's just something that has to be done if you want to reach your goals. If you always eat out or grab something to go you never really know what exactly is in your food and therefore never know how much you actually eat.

I just go for the really fast, easy stuff. Nothing amazing. Usually that's rice or noodles with some meat or fish and any vegs. Parboiled rice is great. One bag usually lasts me 2 days and it only takes 10 mins to get done. Throw some chicken and frozen vegs in a pan, done.

Unless you like to eat 3 cooked meals a day it really isn't much of an issue.

I love cooking, but if you don't enjoy it, it's best to keep things simple. As someone has already said, use a crockpot- make enough for 4 servings at once for example, it shouldn't take more than half an hour to chop all the ingredients, then freeze the remainder separately and bingo, you have another 3 evening meals covered with little effort. Or stir fries- you can chuck everything into one pan and cook in about 10 minutes. It will probably be less calories (depending what you use) than eating out, certainly cheaper, and you know exactly what's going in it, so much easier to track calories rather than guesstimating.

Thanks so much for the responses! One limitation I have is that I've shifted countries so this place I'm in, I've only bought a pot, steamer and a frying pan. So to heat up food, ill need to steam it! It's like life before the microwave was invented. The crockpot idea sounds awesome because I love stews and gravy

The thing is I'm trying to make weightloss sustainable but thanks to my dislike of cooking, I make edible food but there is so much deliciousness just a short walk from me! Hopefully getting a crockpot and being able to make good food will make te whole process much less tiresome. I need to find a recipe that I love that I can make for myself!

You cam warm thing up in a pot- just make sure it's thoroughly defrosted first, then heat through gently.

Whilst I love cooking, after working 2 jobs, sorting out my 3 dogs and getting some exercise in, cooking is often the last thing I want to do. One of my go-to meals is butternut squash, cous cous and chicken, or similar variations on the theme. It takes NO effort - slice a chuck of squash (don't even need to peel it), throw it in the oven with a chicken breast and cook for 30-40 minutes, and in the last 5 boil a kettle and pour over some cous cous. Done. Very little prep, or washing up after needed.

Hi, I love to cook but rarely have time.If you have use of an oven you should invest in some roasting bags! These are a great way to create tasty food without the mess or hassle of preparing a big meal. You can use chicken or turkey breast, throw in what ever vegetables you fancy (whole or chopped), seasoning, or a crumbled stock cube. Some times a small dash of olive oil. Tie the bag, put on a tray in the oven 20-30 mins Done! You can buy the shake n bake sachets but to be honest you can create your own. Piri piri seasoning works well. Also you can make a good curry or fajhita! (and this works with fish)

Just how long does it take to make let's say a prawn stir fry? No time at all.

Supermarkets have fresh stir-fry veg all cleaned and bagged up for you. Lob in some prawns.. drizzle of soy sauce... Done!

And if you're really super lazy, you can eat it straight out of the wok... :huh:

My life consisted of cereal for breakfast, frozen dinner for lunch, oatmeal/cereal or soup for dinner or whatever I could grab from the grocery store, already made pizza, muffins, donuts, anything, as long as I didn't have to cook it.

Then I got sick, real sick, digestive problems for over a year, found out I have Lymphocytic colitis and have so many food intolerance's. Gluten being #1, then dairy, soy, eggs....

So, I bought a crock pot. Now I have two. I freeze what I don't eat and am all set for work during the week. I still don't enjoy it but I have no choice.

I also bought a mini indoor grill for turkey burgers, sausage, or whatever. Comes in handy. Sits right on my stove.

And then you have google for amazing recipes.

Cooking is awesome just get into it, all other advice is invalid and should be rejected

I hate cooking, too -- the whole process, shopping, preparing, cleaning up. I also live near a lot of restaurants. That's how I wrecked my health and got fat.

If you look at the time to go to the restaurant, wait around for the food, eat it or take it home and eat it, and agonize over what you just did to yourself, cooking at home is a better deal.

I forced myself to find some food I am willing to eat that is good for me and easy to make. I make a lot of it ahead of time so there are always some healthy meals in the fridge and I just have to heat them up. I don't eat meat, so this probably wouldn't help you. but this is what I eat:

Breakfast:
Bob's Red Steel Cut Oats (better for me than eating raisin bread with cream cheese). I make a big pot, keep it in the fridge, and heat some up with sliced apple every morning. One batch lasts about a week. I order from Amazon because I can find deals that are cheaper than the grocery store, plus I pay no shipping because I have a student Prime membership.

Lunch and dinner:
I buy a lot of lentils, which cost 99 cents to $1.20 a bag in the grocery store, I cook a large pot that lasts all week. You don't have to soak them and they cook in 20-30 minutes. One measuring cup of lentils has the protein of 3 eggs with almost no fat. I stir fry them with a little olive oil and chopped vegetables. I make brown rice in a rice cooker -- just throw it in, add water, and it cooks itself. I also eat steamed greens, mostly kale and collards. My meal prep time is down to just a few minutes.

Experiment. Be positive. Find something you like to eat that's healthy and make batches of it ahead of time.

I second the crock pot idea. They make mini crock pots so you can just throw in a day's food instead of doing the whole week, too.

I buy a lot of pre-prepared food that I can just throw in the oven, like pre-seasoned chicken, or easy snacks like cottage cheese, yogurt, and sunflower seeds. For lunches i've started making sandwich wraps the night before to cut back on tv dinners. Always on the lookout for easy to prep and cook options.

I hate cooking and I hate eating the same thing more than twice, typically, so making a lot at once is just not happening.

I buy things I can just put in a pan or bake (fish, sausage, ham slices), frozen grilled chicken breasts (yes, a bit more expensive than fresh, but we have yet to manage to grill some that taste that good), buy a lot of frozen veggies and rice/pasta/egg noodles/couscous. It's easy enough for me to put something in a pan and turn it once, or bake it, then microwave frozen veggies and boil some carbs if I want them.

Or I make a lot of salads, eggs, sandwiches... and I eat a lot of snacks.

I'm with you on this one. It's so dang hard to change this part of living a healthy lifestyle eh? I've found these steam bags...you'll find them by the sandwich bags in the store...and you can throw frozen chicken/fish/etc along with some veggies and a sauce of some kind...microwave and in a few min have a meal ready!!

you can do this!!!