For people who can't cook

I don't cook a lot. I just think all the frozen meals have too much sodium so I check everything. And I add more vegies.

I never learned how to cook either. Growing up I was fed convenience food like TV dinners, Mac and cheese etc. I'm not a very good cook now, but I do try. With all that sodium I'd worry about high blood pressure and kidney stones down the road. Have you thought about crockpot meals? You can make a really good BBQ chicken by tossing in 3 ingredients.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, and I totally understand elderly care woes. But if you can try to master a few techniques, you can cook some healthy and easy meals. Try the food network or youtube for how to's. Look up sauteing - this is the basis for hundreds of meals. I also think back to my early cooking days and I didn't consult a recipe and tried to wing it. Sometimes that works, but most often, not so much. A basic cook book from the library might be helpful too.

You don't have to do everything from scratch, use boxed soup stock and canned beans & frozen vegetables and make a vegetable soup or chili using the spice packet at the grocery if you don't have spices. How about scrambled eggs with some vegetables? Cook the vegetables first. Saute some onion, spinach or broccoli, mushrooms. Turn the heat down to low then add in the whisked eggs, continue to stir until they are done. So filling! and cheap.

Roasting vegetables are super easy. Cut them up, add in a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper. Put them in a roasting pan in a pre-heated oven and cook about 30-60 minutes - stir every 15 or 20 minutes. Eat plain or on top of pasta or any grain. While the oven is on, you could bake a sweet potato or two as well - wash the outside, puncture the skin a few times and put on foil - cook at least an hour (but you could start them in the microwave for a few minutes to cut down on oven time.

How about buying an already cooked chicken from the grocery? Cut it up for several meals, add some to a salad or make tacos with canned refried beans and a spice packet.

Good luck!!

Eating prepped foods will not hurt you. (If you have a reason to watch sodium or carbohydrates, then you might need to be careful.) I love cooking and am definitely a home-cooked-meal missionary, but you can lose weight as long as you are eating fewer calories than you burn each day.

If you do want to learn how to cook, there have never been more resources than now, so you shouldn't have a hard time getting started. Don't feel obligated though; you're doing a lot right now! Good luck!

I learned to cook via youtube! Made my first pico de gallo last week! It's all easier than it looks.

You can certainly lose weight doing that.

But, in reality, cooking does not have to be difficult or involved. There is no need to get all Food Network in your kitchen every day. We cook very simply at home. Our dinners are usually grilled or baked meat (take meat out of package, sprinkle some salt and pepper on top or if you want to be more involved use other seasoning mixes, put in baking dish which possibly will need a tiny bit of oil in it but often does not, or place directly on grill, leave it alone until it is done. Eat it.), raw cut up veggies, and then an easy side like rice (which we make in the microwave) or mashed potatoes (slightly more involved.) Couscous is also a super easy side--heat liquid (water with a bit of butter or chicken broth are good options) to boiling, take off the boil, pour in couscous, put lid on pot and let it sit for 5 minutes. Eat it.

That's it. No sauces or recipes with long lists of ingredients which must be chopped, julienned, shredded, diced etc. Cooking is easy.

For me, I just don't want to. Plus, I attempt to cook maybe 2 or 3 times a year and it never comes out as palatable as I want it and I don't have the patience for trial and error.

I even made THE MOST SIMPLE chicken crockpot recipe....boneless skinless chicken breast, a cup of water, some dry zesty italian dressing mix and it came out TOO zesty.

I never "learned" how to cook. I just started looking at recipes online, watching cooking shows, and throwing stuff in a pan and seeing what happens. As long as the food is cooked through, the worst that will happen is that it won't taste great, and often it turns out fine in spite of me!

In other words, you don't have to know how to cook to know how to cook. Sticking some chicken pieces in the oven, and throwing some veggies and tofu in a stir fry is not really something difficult you need to be taught how to do.

But as long as you don't have to worry about sodium, and make sure you are eating a variety of foods, I don't see why the way you are eating would be unhealthy.

I don't cook - cuz I don't want to. I own one frying pan, and one corning-ware pot. I make hard-boiled eggs, occasionally bacon - and very very occasionally brown hamburger.