Does anyone else not enjoy cooking as much as I do?

gratefulgb
gratefulgb Posts: 7 Member
edited April 2018 in Food and Nutrition
I realize that meal prep and cooking is essential to successful weight loss and maintenance but I truly dislike cooking and I'm terrible at it! My family doesn't like my cooking and I don't like my cooking! It's so frustrating!
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Replies

  • gratefulgb
    gratefulgb Posts: 7 Member
    I'm trying to eat at a deficit and bump up exercise to keep my metabolism moving since I am a woman over 50 and that's been the biggest hurdle. Weight just doesn't want to come off. Cooking is not my forte and all the meals I make are either meh or a disaster. We hardly ever eat out because it's so expensive.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Cooking isn't essential to weight loss (although it can truly be helpful). What did you do for meals before you were trying to lose weight?
  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
    What kind of foods and flavors do you like?
  • springsweet
    springsweet Posts: 184 Member
    I do not enjoy cooking either. It gives me anxiety. Plus, our kitchen is absolutely horrible and tiny. Luckily we are moving in a couple of months, so I look forward to that. :)
    It's really made eating healthy and attempts at weight loss a huge challenge. :(
  • RadishEater
    RadishEater Posts: 470 Member
    Are you or your family okay with eating leftovers? I spend a fair amount of time cooking on the weekend for food for the week. I don't mind eat tasty meals 5 days in a row. I don't spend alot of time on both lunch and dinner usually one is a quick meal to make. Then during the week I just chop up any fresh veggies and scoop out what ever I made.

    This week
    lunch :
    greek salad ( i chop up my veggies at work, and measure out some cheese the night before, toss on some red wine vinegar for dressing)
    Mujaddara (middle eastern spices and lentils and rice slowly cooked in a pot)

    Dinner:
    greek buddha bowl ( precooked ground beef and couscous, premade tzaziki sauce, then chopping up cucumber and red onion each night) takes ~5 mins to throw together each night
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    As long as you're keeping track it shouldn't matter. In fact, a lot of your information will be more accurate than those of us who cook. If you're getting meals from restaurants, and pre packaged dinners that information usually available and accurate in the database. It may increase your sodium in take quite a bit tho.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    I don't mind it. Following a recipe is easy. I like using my Instant Pot for a lot of my meal-prepping. Less cleanup, faster cook-time, great results.
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,267 Member
    Cooking can be challenging for folks who haven't done it much or have a hard time with recipes. My advice is get yourself a crock pot or instant pot and look up recipes online and start making those for your family.
    You literally dump all the ingredients into the pot and come home from work and its done. You might have to make some pasta or rice or something to go along with it but in the end it is cooking made easy. You can choose what meat you want, or go vegetarian, what veggies you want or make pasta and sauce, etc. I use my crock pot and/or instant pot multiple times a week and I consider myself an excellent cook (when not using those devices)... it's just so easy to use!
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    I agree that cooking at home saves money, but if you hate it and aren't good at it, sometimes it's best to just admit it and look at other options. Does anyone else in your family cook? Have them do it. You'll have to learn to eyeball ingredients and estimate calories--it can be done. Can you throw together a salad? Do you like to eat them? Can you grill a piece of meat? Maybe do simple things, but it sounds like you need help with the cooking.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Having a calorie deficit is essential to weight loss. Cooking or following a particular diet is not.

    I love to cook but it has nothing to do with weight loss.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    I hate cooking. Hubby does all of our cooking. :star:
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  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,186 Member
    RodaRose wrote: »
    I hate cooking. Hubby does all of our cooking. :star:

    I hate cooking too. I do all the cooking :D , although hubby takes care of breakfast. So one less worry for me.

    @amgreenwell

    Cooking is not challenging for me, I do well on my own and I am very creative without the need to follow any particular recipe. I have been cooking for 55 years and I still don't like it but I do it anyway. The reality is that we may be good a something but not necessarily like or enjoy doing it. So I feel for the OP.
  • r3488
    r3488 Posts: 77 Member
    I hate cooking, but I had to learn to do it to follow the diet the doctor put me on. I've had to throw out a few things that turned out just plain nasty and inedible (and ate my "backup" meal instead). However, I've gotten pretty good with a few things and now like to eat them a lot better than prepackaged or restaurant versions (still hate cooking them, though). Research (YouTube videos and recipe blogs), practice, practice, practice, and keeping a log of what worked/didn't work/ideas to try next were the keys for me.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
    I do not like cooking. It's one of those skills that feels really frustrating, because some people obviously love it, and some don't, and yet unless we are independently wealthy, most of us have to do it, or marry someone who will. :-/

    One thing that I have heard can help is that once a week cooking thing - where you take one day, get all the food prepped, cooked, and put in containers that you either refrigerate or freeze, and then you just take it out and thaw it, reheat it, on the day you eat it.

    So while there is still cooking, it's only one day a week, so there is less irritation on that front. There are specific recipes for people who do it. The ones I have seen are often called 'meal prep' ideas, like this site - https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/extra-bytes/budget-friendly-meal-prep/

    Don't know if your cooking skills are up to the recipes, but it might be worth looking at, maybe?

    Or crock pot cooking - so you just dump it in a pot and walk away, and that's it, you know?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I have to be in the mood to cook, which doesn't happen a lot, lol. The reason I do it though is because I can make what I crave for much less calories than restaurants (and more taste than frozen meals), so that's worth the effort.

    And if I see more than 8ish ingredients on a recipe, I slowly walk away...
  • gratefulgb
    gratefulgb Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks for all the replies! Still frustrated. After cooking for almost 30 years I'm just out of ideas of what to even try. No one in my family likes salads for dinner. My husband does manual labor and works outside a lot so he's starving when he comes home. Also, my daughter is special needs and unfortunately we are always trying to get her to GAIN weight! UGH! A crock pot works maybe once a week and no one eats leftovers. We both come from old-fashioned meat and potatoes families. I don't think either one of our mothers were especially good cooks either.
  • RadishEater
    RadishEater Posts: 470 Member
    Can you try alternating leftovers at least? Make two batch meals then MWF eat one meal, T,TH eat the other so it isn't the same thing every night but less cooking.

    Or try making a batch of ground beef for a couple of days and do the first night spaghetti with ground beef, the next night tacos, then one after throw it in a casserole dish with some eggs and sweet potato and now u have a frittata you could left over spaghetti in that too.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    You can eat meat and potatoes and lose weight. Do yours baked and put a tsp of olive oil and a little salt on yours. Your family can put on other higher calorie toppings. Grill your meat and weigh out your portion. Fix vegetables as a side for yourself. I cook for a family of 5--4 of them are men, and I eat less and leaner than they do. I've been doing this for years. I make pasta for lunch for them, and have a little--or not, depends if I've been to the pool or gym that morning, and then I have a salad or veggies, and a fruit. For dinner I make a protein--meat or fish or eggs with a cooked vegetable. They eat bread and desert to round out their calories, I sometimes do if I've got calories left for the day.
  • laur357
    laur357 Posts: 896 Member
    Have you tried any of the food delivery services like HelloFresh or Blue Apron? They provide fresh ingredients, detailed instructions, nutrition information, portion control, and rotating menus each week so you don't get tired of eating the same things.
    You still have to spend 30-40 minutes cooking, but it sounds like planning and skills is part of what's stressing you out. If your budget allows, you might want to give them a shot or order one every few weeks to get some ideas.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    gratefulgb wrote: »
    Thanks for all the replies! Still frustrated. After cooking for almost 30 years I'm just out of ideas of what to even try. No one in my family likes salads for dinner. My husband does manual labor and works outside a lot so he's starving when he comes home. Also, my daughter is special needs and unfortunately we are always trying to get her to GAIN weight! UGH! A crock pot works maybe once a week and no one eats leftovers. We both come from old-fashioned meat and potatoes families. I don't think either one of our mothers were especially good cooks either.

    so eat meat and potatoes and throw in some other veg and eat an appropriate serving of said meat and potatoes.

    there's nothing unhealthy about that and really, it comes down more to portion control than anything. I lost 40 Lbs and I eat a salad like maybe once every 1 or 2 months...you don't have to just sit there and eat rabbit food to lose weight.

    Particularly this time of year, I throw some kind of meat, poultry, or fish on the grill and saute or roast some veggies and make either a grain or starch for the side...if my wife is trying to lose weight she'll skip the grain or starch or take a very small portion and double up on the veggies.

    Cooking doesn't have to be some big, elaborate ordeal...throw some *kitten* on the grill.
  • gratefulgb
    gratefulgb Posts: 7 Member
    edited April 2018
    I guess it must be portion control. How many calories should I really be eating? I seem to always go over what this site figured I should be eating.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    gratefulgb wrote: »
    I guess it must be portion control. How many calories should I really be eating? I seem to always go over what this site figured I should be eating.

    If you gave MFP all the correct information your calorie goal should be correct--it's a mathematical formula. However, if you gave MFP the request to lose 2 lb a week then it gives you a lot fewer calories. You might think about plugging in a 1 lb a week weight loss and see if that's doable for you. You will still lose, but slower.
  • gratefulgb
    gratefulgb Posts: 7 Member
    I've been doing this for a few weeks and I haven't lost anything, as usual. I've actually gained which is what happens when I exercise. So frustrating! I know I shouldn't always go by the scale but still....
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    edited April 2018
    That must be frustrating!

    I suggest you start doing some research. Pinterest, cooking shoes, YouTube, cookbooks, blogs, etc. You might be surprised what you find!
  • Rijama
    Rijama Posts: 4 Member
    I hate cooking with a passion!! Even thinking about it makes me angry. So you are not alone. I do force myself to cook my own lunches (soups most of the time), and thankfully my husband adores cooking and he does it to relax after work.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    gratefulgb wrote: »
    Thanks for all the replies! Still frustrated. After cooking for almost 30 years I'm just out of ideas of what to even try. No one in my family likes salads for dinner. My husband does manual labor and works outside a lot so he's starving when he comes home. Also, my daughter is special needs and unfortunately we are always trying to get her to GAIN weight! UGH! A crock pot works maybe once a week and no one eats leftovers. We both come from old-fashioned meat and potatoes families. I don't think either one of our mothers were especially good cooks either.

    Tell us some of the dishes that you made that have been meh and some that have been disasters. Also, what is your best dish?
  • busyPK
    busyPK Posts: 3,788 Member
    kballsocc wrote: »
    Or try making a batch of ground beef for a couple of days and do the first night spaghetti with ground beef, the next night tacos, then one after throw it in a casserole dish with some eggs and sweet potato and now u have a frittata you could left over spaghetti in that too.

    This is similar to what I do. I brown lean ground beef and use it for tacos one night and spaghetti or lasagna another night (both just fine as leftovers and I'm not usually a leftover eater). I also make a roast w/veggies in the crockpot once a week/every other week and eat it different ways - as a roast with meat, veggies then meat as a sandwich then over bread or potatoes, then add more veggies and beef stock and as a stew. I'm also a fan of breakfast casseroles and using my George Foreman grill for marinated chicken and add steamed veggies and rice/potato as a side.

    I'm a single parent to 3 kids and once I get home from work cooking isn't what I want to do, but I plan ahead and do the above to make it easier on myself. :smile:

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