Between school and working full time I have less than 0 energy to cook food when I get home. I also don’t have the energy/time/attention span to pack a lunch most days. I’ve been eating like a raccoon for a month just waiting to feel up to meal prepping because this current pattern is bleeding me dry. What works for you?
There’s a startlingly large quantity of meals that start with olive oil and seasoned meat in a pot and end in being served over a carb that you can make ten pounds of in less than an hour. I keep dried onion flakes and a jar of minced garlic on hand for when (buying and) cutting fresh aromatics is too many steps. But really, skipping enough “you should do this it makes the dish better” steps can turn everything from beef stroganoff to japanese-style curry to cottage pie into one-pot meals that provide “leftovers” for a week or more. If you crave variety, you can compress the effort and do the same amount of work “per week” but commit more time to one day: this lets you make three or four ten pound Meals that are then divided into freezer-safe portions that can be defrosted or reheated as desired. So instead of “red sauce pasta week, teriyaki chicken week, bacon and egg and hashbrown bowl week, etc” you spend a day per month prepping 3-5 meals and then just microwave those meals for the next month. This strategy basically requires a chest freezer though. Pairs well with compressing your month of grocery shopping task into one big trip to Costco where you can buy 40lb of raw meat to prep into meals.
Take shortcuts, be lazy, compress all the effort into one “task” (“meal prep for 2h a week” or “meal prep for 6 hours once a month” instead of “make 3 quick meals every day”). Basically ask yourself “what is actually wrong with eating hot pockets for three meals a day” (expensive, not actually that good tasting, lacks a lot of important nutrients) and fix that problem by making something better that takes just as little effort as a hot pocket does when you’re actually hungry.
Main strategies right now:
- engineered staple foods always available in stock (Jimmy Joy, Soylent, Huel, “This is food”, …). So always the option to have a somewhat healthy meal with 0 effort.
- big freezer & hot air fryer. Good compromise of taste & health: salmon with vegetables in cream sauce. Less healthy: Fries (still best-health fries), fish sticks, vegan burger
- healthy-enough snacks. Currently binging on high protein, low sugar cookies. Obviously not that healthy, but otherwise I’d binge the really bad stuff when I lose control
- healthy snack plate with carrots, apple slices etc.: Just set it up at the desk and see what happens. Thinking about actually eating it is too much mental effort, and it happens automatically anyway.
If someone else is cooking I’ll eat what they make.
If I have the energy to cook : Ground beef and eggs mixed in a cast iron pan for easy cooking and cleanup.
If I don’t have the energy to cook: A block of mozzarella cheese and cans of tuna.
Cook a huge amount when you can, eat leftovers forever.
You’re a student? I guarantee someone on campus has already done the hard work of making a calendar with all the events with free food for students on it. Subscribe and dine.
Me, I have a job that feeds me at least one meal a day. I eat what I can there.
this is how I made it thru college
What worked for me is marrying someone that is a phenomenal cook. Have you tried proposing to any chefs?
My partner taught me how to cook and now relies on me to be the family chef haha. She’s chronically ill and already working full time to help keep a roof over our heads while I axe my overtime for school. Safe to say she’s more spent than I am at the end of her shift
My more serious answer would be something along the lines of a crock pot. You can get fancy and do stuff like brown your meat before putting it in or timing some ingredients, but most recipes will work just fine if you just dump everything in and turn it on. Along with that you can make freezer meals for the crock pot. Cut up everything and toss it in a freezer bag. You can include seasoning. If there’s anything extra that needs to be added on the day you make it you can just note it on the bag. Then when you want it just dump it all in same as before.
Most of my meals are things I can throw on top of each other or things I can microwave.
tortilla wraps, throw on feta cheese, hummus and spinach. Shove in face.
If you can get the energy to make pasta or rice, throw on beans and frozen veggies and sauce. Just on top and into the microwave.
Beyond that, I supplement heavily with protein bars, protein chips, trail mix or dried fruit. Things I can leave in a bag.
There’s no shame in eating lots of little things. Picnic lunches. The variety actually helps.
StirFrys, get a pan screaming hot, chop veggies, chop meat, wack them in, stir em up, add a sauce packet (black-bean/hosoin&garlic whatever you like) chuck noodles on top, 12 minutes top, serves 2.
Any veg and any meat will work, the sauce packets and noodles (not the dried type!) will keep for ever
You don’t even need to chop. I keep a zipper bag of pre frozen stir fry mix from Costco in the freezer. They take slightly longer to cook because frozen but they brown just fine.
I also cook meat and veggies separately. Meat first, then rest and chop on cutting board while veggies cook. The veggies also deglaze the delicious meat crust from the pan as they cook. Once they’re done, add the chopped meat and whatever else (sauce, noodles, toppings) and eat.
I only cook batch meals that can be frozen. Cooking 6 servings is not much harder than cooking 1, and it means I only need to cook roughly 1 day per week.
If I have extra energy I might cook more meals and stock up.
If I run low and still don’t have energy, I have some backup options in the form of frozen supermarket meals. They’re not particularly healthy or cheap, but they are better than fast food.
Having a shelf-stable (or freezable) lunch can also help. You could pack multiple lunches when you have energy, then just grab one from the stack when it’s needed.
Poorly.
Easy meals like chili are a fan favorite but I also grab a bunch of vegetables, lather them in olive oil and whatever seasonings I’m feeling and then put them in the oven at like 350-400 until crispy enough to munch on. Great success
Sometimes I eat peanutbutter out of the jar. Rice is also great if you have a rice cooker
First off is taking some of my meals as a liquid, Protein powder plus iced coffee has been doing wonders for me in the morning and it takes seconds to assemble. The other one is made a deal with my roommate that I’d cook dinner most nights if I never had to mow the lawn so the subtle pressure of not just needing to feed myself helps as well.
Another thing is you can’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Some days if its calories that isn’t pure sugar then I count that as a win and promise to try to do better tomorrow. I still skip meals on the regular to the point that my name has become a verb to describe the phenomenon but we do our best right?
I do have a bag of protein powder collecting dust on top of my fridge. I think I’ll give it a shot, thanks!
Air fryer. Seriously. I can have a ton of frozen foods in stock and eat exactly how much I need or will eat rather quickly. It’s not exactly healthy, but it’s calorie intake. If I didn’t have frozen food I’d be gaunt, or super fat/broke from fast food. The fact that I’m still alive is owed to my kid, my dog and that air fryer.
Grabbing a slow cooker and recipes for hearty stews is a solid starting point - only prep work is chopping veg and adding spices, chopped tomatoes are a good base for almost everything that involves a “chuck it in the pot” recipes. After it’s cooked the only thing you need to do is cook some rice or pasta to finish off the meal.
Alternatively training your brain to think ‘If I don’t cook a meal for myself I’m only going to feel worse tomorrow’ helps (Only slightly hypocritical coning from a guy that reached the point where my health was in serious decline during the worst times of not eating, and despite wanting to die I know I have to eat every day.)
rice cooker to me is easier than ordering food. Plus it only needs to be a few times a week as leftovers are microwaved and my containers are glass and sized about right for a meal so just eat it in it with no additional dishes.
Salads are just chopped vegetables.
Soups, chili, or anything watery can be made in bulk and then frozen in quart baggies (or other size-of-use) container.
Keep stuff like humus and peanut butter around so you can have a semi-healthy snack in a hurry.
Tofu is fully cooked already - just drain and (optional) season and (optional) heat. Chop, brush with oil and toss it in the air fryer, then heat up some frozen broccoli while you’re waiting. Bit of soy sauce and garlic and that’s a meal.
Keep easy precursors around. Refried beans, tortilla shells, and frozen fajita mix. Buncha beans, onions, and tomato paste for no-shop chili. Curry mix, dried mushrooms, and frozen tofu. You get the idea. Then whenever you get to the store you can make something that needs fresh ingredients - say a white bean and mirepoix soup that you can make an entire crockpot of and freeze.
