Feeding myself like an adult

It can be a tough transition when you aren't used to it. I probably did it around your age, since I was basically in school and had meal plans 'til age 24 and then it took me a while to get it together with work and everything else.

I've never liked meal plans because for me they make it more complicated with all the ingredients and recipes and things that aren't even what I necessarily like.

What worked for me was to start really simple.

(1) Come up with a good basic breakfast and just do that for week 1 (or until you get sick of it--I pretty much alternate 2 breakfasts even now). Back in the day I think my breakfast was yogurt and fruit, as I used to not be a morning person. But there are lots of things you could have ready to grab and eat depending on what you like, like hardboiled eggs, cereal, overnight oats.

(2) Make lunch in advance. Again, don't make this too complicated, and feel free when you start to use convenience products, IMO. I used to love those Vigo rice & beans and just add some shrimp or chicken or some extra veggies or bring some raw carrots and celery. You can make sandwiches in advance. Those roasted chickens at the grocery can give you meat to use, stuff like that. (Currently I try to cook stuff ahead on Sunday and have leftovers from dinners later in the week, but I also buy lunches from places that I think have good options.)

(3) Learn some simple dinner options and then start mixing and matching. The book I started to cook from when I first decided to really learn was Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (and later his Fish book and a few books about vegetables). But once you get in the habit of cooking I think recipes tend to be more about ideas than anything else. Most of my cooking is really fast and simple, although when I have more time I'm a pretty good cook and enjoy it.

One trick is having stuff on hand, as once you have to go to the store everything starts seeming like even more of a burden. Better to be able to cook with what's on hand.

The second, related, trick is forcing yourself to cook with what's on hand. Have zucchini and then see a recipe involving broccoli? Use the zucchini as the veg instead rather than going out and buying broccoli and then letting the zucchini (plus the leftover broccoli) go to waste.

I have a few super fast meals that I know I can do with whatever is on hand, even if I'm tired--vegetable omelet, for example, or pasta with vegetables. (That means cook the pasta, and at the same time chop some vegetables, whatever is on hand, and sautee them in olive oil. Add some meat if you have it--or if what you have is the pre-roasted chicken you can even incorporate that. Add some olives and/or cheese and/or pinenuts or herbs for flavor. Add to pasta and mix around.) You can do something really similar to the pasta with a stirfry.

My basic simple dinners involve picking out the meat I intend to cook the night before and--at the beginning--figuring out how to cook it and how long it would take (roasting a skin-on, bone-in chicken breast? look up temperature and time). If it needs to be defrosted, do that in advance. Most meats are pretty fast. When I get home, I heat up the oven and deal with whatever will take the longest (chop some potatoes or sweet potatoes for roasting, maybe), chop some vegetables and roast or sautee them, put the meat on or in the oven.

This gets really easy. Cooking is something that really really does feel like a ton of work at first and then become second nature as you do it a little bit.

What I'd advise at first is deciding what you like and want to try cooking and when you plan to cook. Maybe start with 2 days at first with a plan to make double or triple meals and have the leftovers for the next day/lunch. Or have convenience options on hand for a couple of days, that's really no sin and can make life easier for a new cook. Look at what's available--stuff like the rice and beans I mentioned, frozen veggies you can microwave in the bag, there are lots of options.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps. I remember it seeming like a lot of work on top of everything else back in the day and now it's a fun way to de-stress after work/working out.

Some people seemed to naturally pick this up, but it was definitely a skill I had to learn!

I do a lot of semi-homemade meals -- I'll start with a package of tortellini but add extra vegetables to the cooking water (those packages of frozen peas/carrots are wonderful), then toss with olive oil and parmesan. I also make a lot of meals where the base is the same (like fried rice or potato hash), but then add whatever vegetables/proteins sound good that day. I also like scrambling 2-3 eggs with some kind of vegetable and cheese.

I also really hate food prep, and am more than happy to pay a little bit extra for bags of vegetables that are already cut up or bags of salad greens. My favorite thing to do with raw vegetables is to toss them with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, then roast in a 400-425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on the vegetable. I have very little patience for cooking, but this is a recipe where you just need to stir them once, about halfway through, and that's it. Pro tip: line the pan with foil, so cleanup is easy too.

I guess I'm lucky to be one of the few men that cooking comes natural to. I never had to put thought into that kinda thing. I think like learning any new skill though practice makes perfect, and don't be discouraged by the trial and error process, cause there probabaly be some error involved.

Do you mean recipes when you say food plans? If so feel free to add me as a friend and I'll throw recipes your way as often as I can. I do a lot of cooking and a TON of (healthy) eating.

Falconidae wrote: »

So I am a 26-year-old biological female who is working full-time and living independently. I do live with my boyfriend, but our work schedules (and thus our eating schedules) do not match up.

I have come to a realization recently - I am terrible at feeding myself. I dislike cooking, I am bad at shopping for food, and I am terrible at planning meals. I struggle with the daily food-related tasks that seemed to come so easily to my parents.

Right now I wake up, grab breakfast crackers out of the pantry and heat up water for tea. Go to work, eat the breakfast cookies and nothing else, and come home starving. I then scrounge for whatever, which typically is a big bowl of honey-nut cheerios and milk. I then snack on whatever, like chips, or leftovers from the boyfriend until I go to bed.

I try to buy healthy food at the supermarket, and I do! I love spinach, whole grains, and such, and I buy them. But later in the week I fail to use the vegetables and they just spoil, since cooking can seem so daunting. So I order pizza or something.

So, I'm good at exercise, I'm good at work, I have friends! But I reaaaaaaaally need to scrape my food life together. Eating nothing but cereal and breakfast crackers every day can't be good for me, and I also eat way too much pizza and such. I had an idea - why not try a meal plan? It'd be great if I could just follow along a list for both shopping and meal planning! That may help me a ton!

Looking up lists to try also proved to be rather daunting....many involve giant ingredient lists, or obscure ingredients...or even ingredients I've never heard of. Or complicated cooking techniques I don't know how to do. And those are the ones labeled "simple." So google is not being very helpful so far....

So....help? Anyone have any food plans that require relatively few ingredients? Any recommended lists out there? I don't even mind eating the same thing multiple times in the week, if it helps me start getting it together. Really, it's probably better I start small, and slowly work my way towards more complicated lists.

I don't mind spending a bit either - I just struggle with the effort part. I need a list with "remove thing from packaging, place other things on top." or "heat up on stovetop." And I need to plan veggies and other 'spoilables' so they actually get used before they go bad.

Help me be an adult! I have no dietary restrictions and I am not picky (I only hate vinegar).

I feel like something doesn't add up. You obviously are an intelligent adult. You've written a long articulate post with nary a misspelled word or dangling participle. But you bend over backwards to seem childish and helpless about anything culinary.

I could write a list of simple cooking techniques that, one by one, could be quickly and easily mastered but that's not what you want.

As a teenager In the late 60's I got a '63 VW beetle. It needed more or less constant minor repairs and I couldn't afford to pay a mechanic. When I asked my dad, or any acquaintance the slightest bit mechanical for advice, they would immediately start talking about something I didn't understand and pretty soon they just sounded like grown-ups in a Charlie Brown cartoon. I couldn't see it at the time, but my attitude really was, I don't know anything about fixing cars and It's a good thing I don't, because if I did, I might try to fix it and then, after screwing it up big time, I'd be exposed as a dummy, a failure, unmanly, and my car still wouldn't run.

A book came out right about then called How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot. It assumed absolutely no prior knowledge, mechanical aptitude, common sense or even intelligence. Every diagnostic began with something like, "Put the key in the ignition and turn clockwise." Every procedure began with, "1. Open hood, The rear one 'cause that's where the motor is. 2. Prop it up so it doesn't bang you on the head."

That book was exactly what I needed to get started. I learned to do a minor tune up myself, set the gaps on the valve risers, and a whole bunch of other stuff that was really incredibly easy on those old VW bugs if you knew how. Those "mechanical" conversations with my dad and others were completely transformed. If I didn't understand something, at least I had a clue about what I didn't understand.

While writing this post, I checked Amazon and they're still selling that book more than 45 years later. It must have been an inspiration for umpteen hundred different Whatever for Dummies series. I used some of those in the 80's to learn software programs and they were written in the same vein as my old VW for Idiots manual. I know there are a bunch about cooking. There also seems to be A Complete Idiots Guide to Whatever series.

My suggestion for the original poster is to go to a bookstore and look at "dummies" and "idiots" books. They have a very good tables of contents. Find the one that suits you best. I'd advise one that covers cooking techniques best, but it isn't up to me.

Throughout your post, you stress that you want firm guidance on meal planning. I don't know if you're going to find that in the same book as cooking skills but maybe you will or maybe (more likely I think) you'll need a separate book on that topic.

I don't really have any advice on meal planning. My plan is to shop at least semi-smart and then cook what's on hand when I feel like it. Rarely Never really cook from recipes.

Google '3 ingredient recipes.' Lots of ideas for simple, quick meals.

Get a simple cookbook...

Falconidae wrote: »

I have come to a realization recently - I am terrible at feeding myself. I dislike cooking, I am bad at shopping for food, and I am terrible at planning meals. I struggle with the daily food-related tasks that seemed to come so easily to my parents.

So....help? Anyone have any food plans that require relatively few ingredients? Any recommended lists out there? I don't even mind eating the same thing multiple times in the week, if it helps me start getting it together. Really, it's probably better I start small, and slowly work my way towards more complicated lists.

Help me be an adult! I have no dietary restrictions and I am not picky (I only hate vinegar).

I sympathize with you! It took a long time for me to come to terms with feeding myself "like an adult."

I haven't become a gourmet cook and one think is I'm not that interested in food although there are certainly plenty of times when I mindlessly eat stuff I'm not interested in.

The solution for me has been to simplify as much as possible. I have a Foreman grill and most of my dinners are grilled something with a microwaved steamed vegetable (fresh or frozen). If I feel ambitious, I've started stir frying some veggies instead. I stopped eating frozen dinners because they're expensive and have a lot of salt in them - and quite frankly they're too small a meal.

I buy my protein in amounts that let me not weigh it - buffalo or ground beef, or ground turkey that I divide into four portions when I get home, a pound of fish, that I have them cut into four pieces, two steaks that are a total of a half pound, a pint of chili that I can divide in half, etc.

Breakfast is either hot cereal with trail mix and fruit, or an egg with toast. Once a week I eat breakfast out and have whatever I want.

I hate sandwiches (except an occasional Starbucks lunch), so I eat salads (either at a cafe or buying them made up, or soup and some bread.

Good luck!

I feel you a little. DH and I each know how to make a handful of things. We could each probably follow a recipe, but eh, we tend to stick with what we know. So, to eat healthier, we are rotating the things we know how to make. Some VERY easy ones (I promise):

Take thawed salmon (you can stick it in the fridge all day or run cold water on it in a bowl
McCormicks Lemon Pepper Seasoning + flour (the seasoning has the ratios I use on chicken recipe on the wrapper, but I prefer it on fish)
Set fish in a coat (turn it over, use a bag a lightly shake, etc)
Butter in a pan (from same chicken recipe), let it melt and pan heat up (I think I put it on medium-medium high)
Put fish in, let it be for 3-4 minutes. Flip it over, leave it 3-4 minutes. Sometimes if it's not too dark on the outside I flip it once more for one or 2, if the piece is sort of squatty vs. a long thin piece.
Done. Add a steamable veggie bag. And a quick rice (I like Wegmans Brown Rice and Quinoa steamer if you have one near you)

We also will grab a turkey tenderloin from Aldi (you basically leave it in a pan in the oven for how long it says on the pack - by weight) until it's done. We cut this and add to salad. You could also just do another veggie and carb side.

We just tried the Balsamic Pork Roast from skinnytaste.com. You leave it and the ingredients in the crockpot all day. It was very good, my mom and I had that quinoa mix and green beans and we were under 400 calories and pretty full

A frozen bag of pierogi or ravioli are also really simple (and my toddler loves them, so..) I just do a small portion of that plus a veggie.

You don't need to make complicated recipes to eat healthier. My sister went to culinary school, whereas I am pretty cooking challenged - the only things I impressed her by knowing how to do : She taught me to make a roux for my macaroni and cheese - not super healthy but better than the box stuff when I am craving it. and...I can flip an omelet (which I use for breakfast most mornings) Other than that I can follow really easy recipes - I would see if any other crockpot ones on skinnytaste appeal to you - a crockpot is an awesome tool if you are a beginner at cooking. You literally just throw all the ingredients in and wait

The easiest thing I can think of is to buy pre-cut veggies and meats and start making stir fries and pasta dishes that way