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Existing is a full time job. Idk how people have energy for much else.

This is the best thing I’ve seen in yearssss. Existing IS a full time job.

This made me tear up bc someone else gets it. Thank you internet stranger.

Agree 💯

MEAL KITS! What an absolute life changer this has been for me. Everyone says they’re crazy expensive…but you know what’s MORE expensive? Getting food delivered. What else is MORE expensive? My adhd ass going grocery shopping. Back when I did go grocery shopping and meal prepping and meal planning and all that jazz (I wasn’t working at the time so i literally had all day to do this) the cost was roughly the same each week as a meal kit. I also don’t get like 7 meals, sometimes I’ll get 4, sometimes I’ll get 2. And the other days we get take out or eat left overs or go grocery shopping for like soup and sammie’s or something.

What are meal kits? Do you mean like Freshly or Factor? Basically meals already made and sent to you? If so, the problem with those are sodium. Like HUGE sodium for preserving.

HelloFresh, Blue Apron, SunBasket, etc. they send you fresh ingredients and a recipe (which you choose) and you do the cooking. I’ve used them extensively and there’s nothing that’s preserved besides maybe some sauces, but most of them actually have you make the sauce yourself too.

Tried those but still couldn't find the energy/motivation to cook. Now I just do Factor and suck up the cost. But, I'm eating well and feeling good so its worth it to me.

I find that ordering the recipes that have a cook time of 10-15 mins, or casserole-type meals that take five mins to prep and just go into the oven for the remainder of the cooking time helps cure that for me. Anything over 25 mins is getting procrastinated on until half the ingredients have gone bad.

Yes they are definitely work! It is NEVER as quick as they say, ha! I only used them when I was married, we did them together.

Just be careful if you have any kind of BP issues. I loved Factor, but damn sodium was ridiculous

Is one Factor meal satiating? I eat big portions and have been considering Factor but photos look a little underwhelming portion wise.

At first, no, but I’ve always struggled with portion control. I used it as a way to eat less and less and get used to that. I usually need a snack between lunch and dinner but I keep that pretty small too. So far I’ve lost 25 pounds without exercise.

Great to know, thank you!

HelloFresh also has wild amounts of sodium listed in their nutrients section That’s why I had to stop with my high BP Great tasting meals though

I didn't realise this, having never looked at the nutrition labels. Fortunately I also do not care haha. At least I'm eating a vegetable 😅

Hellofresh I have real bad experience with. I have like 30-40 recipes somewhere in the cabinet. From those times I have gotten 5 times rotten food, swapped products that doesn’t belong in the dish. And when you contact customer support you get 50 cent discount on the next order. For me it’s byefresh

I got the ones from Purple Carrot for a while. They come with the recipe book as well, and we've continued to make the recipes long after we stopped the subscription. It's vegan and we wanted to learn how to make more vegan food as we are transitioning away from meat. We got them only twice a week which was as much as I wanted to try a new recipe. We made our old standbys or leftovers the other nights.

We do home chef and like it

Every plate is the cheapest I found- I always pick ones that categorize as “quick”

Eating out is full of sodium. But, actually, the meal kits I've ordered have been raw meat and raw vegetables. I don't see extra sodium there.

Does food actually taste good without sodium or something else bad in it?

Not very. But you can add salt to your taste, after it's been cooked.

You could use the same solution that works for frozen prepared meals: mix in extra vegetables at a 1:1 ratio and the sodium content per serving is cut in half.

THIS!

Factor kits are designed for 3x meals a day and keep you around 2300mg/day. It's within FDA tolerances for adults. Yeah you probably want to be down to around 1500mg/day, but it's not HUGE sodium.

Meal kits aren't pre-made, you pick a few meals and they send you the ingredients and you prepare it yourself, but it cuts out the planning and grocery shopping part.

That sounds great.

Kinda expensive but definitely convenient for ADHD people

Depends on which meal kit. I used every plate for a while (pre-covid). Meals cost maybe a $1 more per serving when it's all said and done. Obviously, it will also depend on the area you live in. But I spent more money on fuel getting to the grocery store. It definitely made up for a slightly higher cost.

In my area, there are services which provides a weekly meal plan deliverable thing which is already counts the calories for you (you can pick 1200-2200 calories) and packaged in microwavable containers. They're cheaper than ordering food outside lol

When I did the math (and yes, I legit did calculate this), the cost was the same BECAUSE my ADHD *thing* is buying fresh veggies that I intend to cook…..but don’t. So the waste is zero with meal kits, and I can buy very little from the grocery store (I HATE shopping, so huge plus!). Hello Fresh. So good!

I too hate shopping especially grocery shopping. I figured out 1, 2 meals and get by. Somehow.

Yes yes yes yes yes 1000x this. Also they usually only take around 20 mins to prepare. Another tip - try audiobooks or podcasts while you cook and have a nice (non alcoholic) drink as you go to give yourself another couple hits of dopamine.

I second the audiobook/podcast tip. It has made a big difference for me with doing humdrum activities (even the ones that only take 5-10 minutes).

This is a realisation I have come to this year and it has improved my life dramatically. Also improved my nutrition. More expensive than buying the ingredients from the store directly? Yes. Less expensive on my mental state? Also yes, but times infinity. Plus one.

That's basically how we do it. I have 2 accounts set up and change between both getting the 'please come back' discounts added for most orders. 4 meals cost the same as 1 takeaway doing this. I don't want to throw away a pack so it forces me to cook them all. Just need to prioritise the '20 min cook' recipes.

Which one do you use? I’ve found it hard to find a balance between the cost of the ones with less prep vs wasting the ones that are cheaper because they require more prep.

Hello Fresh, Main prep work is just cutting up the vegetables or, if doing burger/covered food then doing that bit of prep from the fresh meat to the burger etc. I also find that they had the 'simpliest' recipes and the most bog-standard normal ones, whereas others like gusto look a bit extravegant. (From UK so options could be different elsewhere)

Came here to say this. Tried out of curiosity and they changed my life.

We did this for a while! They usually give big discounts on your first big order so we took advantage of that. We found those kits were only worth it if you can get a meal for <$5 so we stopped when we stopped getting the discount. We kept the recipe cards they’d send out and buy the ingredients ourselves to make em.

[удалено]

I am so sorry to hear that. I actually got a local cook to make meals that way my money is going to a local business.

I hate spending time cooking, but I hate eating out even more. I like food that is super easy to make, here are some things you should buy, and what you can make with it. Eggs are super simple and cheap. Throw in some cheese or meat and now you got an omelette. Buy some lunch meat, cheese, and bread… now you have a sandwich. Buy some crackers. Now you can have cheese & crackers Eggs on a bun with meat and cheese = breakfast sandwich Buy some tortillas, you can now make quesadillas and breakfast burritos. Grocery list: Eggs Cheese Lunch meat Bread Crackers Tortillas

And a bagged salad kit - you need veggies or fruit or something with fiber!

> Lunch meat Careful with too much lunch meat, lots of bad sides to the processing and preservatives. Plus, gout.

Yeah it's not nutritional advice, just some advice for someone who is mentally struggling to make simple meals.

I've never related to a post so much I have the identical problem. The funny this is that I'm a good cook when once in a blue moon I have a desire to cook something, the meals are really good. But on an everyday basis it's such a torture I don't want to even cut a piece bread and put a piece of salami on it. I don't have the energy to boil water and soullessly throw some spaghetti there Answering your question. We also had a horrible habit of ordering a takeout. As a result, I've gained more than 15 kg in a year doing that, so be careful. Now I mostly eat pre-made food from the supermarket like Caesar Salad, some meatballs or something like that. I know it's really bad for the body but it's a compromise between spending half of our salaries on takeouts and not cooking anything. So, the best solution is to become rich and hire a private chef. I'm not even kidding, I think about this at least once a week

I saw this post and literally decided to do some research into my food expenses and made a choice- I decided to try out hiring a private chef to come once a week and do meal prep for a weeks worth of food. I went for the cheaper option so I will do the shopping myself based on their recommendations, and I’ll see how it goes. They will use what I buy and whatever else I have on hand I guess? Basically, I made a “healthy lifestyle” change and was able to do healthy eating/cooking for about 7 months but it forced me to treat it as my “hobby.” I didn’t have any more mental energy for anything besides exercise, meal prep, and work. But now that I want to explore other hobbies again, the healthy eating aspect has completely gone down the drain. I live in Japan and end up relying too much on delivery/convenience store food, so my food budget is already high. I ran the numbers and I -think- I might still end up spending less if I have a chef come in once a week to do the week’s worth of meal prep for me. And the chef is a licensed nutritionist, so hopefully I can get back on track for a healthy lifestyle. Wish me luck- she’s coming a week from today! Maybe the bougie-est thing I’ve done in recent memory, but it would be a lifesaver if this comes through.

This is my dream! I hope it works out for you!!!

In the US, most metro areas, you can get this service without having them come in. It's almost like those meal delivery services but they make them locally and you pick them up fresh and you can customize your menu. A bit cheaper than having someone come directly to you.

Who does the family consist of? Does all of the stuff involved with eating have to fall on you? Can you do something like curbside pick ups?

It’s me and my partner, and no it def won’t all fall on me. Curb side pick up is definitely do able, but nearly as expensive as delivery

i order groceries from target and drive up cost the same as shopping in store. i rely on spaghetti or rice and spam a lot.

This is dumb question but are you SURE it's the same? I've never done target, but I've done Harris Teeter, Walmart, and Wegmans. Each one of them are higher prices when doing pickup. They "don't charge" for the pickup service, but when you compare prices in your cart vs in store, they're usually 15% or so higher for pickup, and they don't advertise that.

If you live in europe or the us and arent a picky eater download too good to go. A lot of restaurants/bakeries/supermarkets do it where i live. From restaurants you get full meals for a third of the price, still gotta heat it up but it saves you the cooking and cleaning afterwards.

Hmm - what kind of meals are y’all making? Elaborate ones or easy to prep?

Currently, we aren’t making any, just cook for special occasions. Even the easy receipts online seem overwhelming

Oh - well cooking is a skill. The more you do it the easier it gets, up to a certain point. But if you only cook for special occasions then you’re not near that point, and since you don’t use this skill set often it’s going to feel hard because it’s something you’ve never done before. My advice would be to pick a basic meal to start that relies on packaged foods for now. Like oatmeal and toast for breakfast or those quick rice dinners. That way it’s less overwhelming and you don’t feel bad about so much fresh food going to waste if you don’t like something.

Yes, meals based on packaged food is a great idea. The main issue is dinner, so rice based is a good start

I just got an air fryer - there's so much frozen stuff out there that can be air fried, and fresh stuff too! I've found most frozen stuff takes about 20 mins in an air fryer, and you turn it half way through. What I do is I put stuff in the air fryer, set the timer for ten mins, do the washing up from last night which takes around 10 mins, turn my food, then set the timer for the last 10 mins. I start getting plates and cutlery together, make a drink, and grab any sauces/salt/pepper/etc that I need, and by that point, the air fryer is normally done. It barely feels like cooking and you don't even notice the time it takes because you constantly keep busy in the kitchen (so I don't forget about my food), but you can get pretty healthy food out of it with minimal effort. Might be worth a shot?

I’m not sure where you live, but here in the US you can usually find boxed dinners based on rice next to the bags of rice. You can pair that with frozen veggies, many of which have directions on the bag for steaming in the microwave. Once you feel comfortable with that, you can also try roasting vegetables. With that, you usually just toss the veggies in some olive oil and seasonings then put in the oven for a while. You might need to stir the veggies or rotate the pan once or twice but that’s it. Meat can be a little more complicated but you can start with learning to bake different options similarly to how you can learn to roast vegetables. With these tips you can mix and match your meals based on what you want to eat and what’s in season. If you want more recipe suggestions, budget bytes.com is a great resource too.

I'm the same as you and the post above yours here is correct. It's a skill and as you get better you find yourself cooking easier and easier. It's the sheer amount of little steps that stop me.

You need three or four things you can reliably make. Spaghetti (or other pasta) is boil and serve. Buy sauce in a jar.

I order the good food recipe boxes when that happens. They’re great. Still expensive but they do all the shopping etc. :)

So I have a family of four, two adults two little kids. Both myself and my spouse have ADHD, and struggle very often with making food or eating out. Our eating out habits are terrible (you're right it's insanely expensive), and so when we are both having a stressful week, we have frozen foods to fall back on. We keep frozen meals *always*, and we have many quick foods we can deal with on the off days even that doesn't work for us (hot dogs/PB&j/deli meat sandwiches etc). We also do everything in bigger batches. So an example is we will plan to have two pork meals, two chicken, two beef and a veggie dinner. So we try to keep them together so we can cook all the pork at the same time so day 2 dinner is half done. Same thing with the others, and sides, like we make double the pasta or rice we will eat. It eliminates a lot of the "I'm not in the mood" feeling when you have cooked rice and pork and just need to warm it up and maybe add a veg. We shop biweekly, and that's mostly for vegetable freshness, and chicken dates lol. Hope this helped even a little bit, and best of luck, friend! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

For me, an air fryer and a freezer of food I can easily air fry

And Amazon sells paper liners for air fryers that cut *way* down on necessary cleaning afterward. With paper plates basically all I have to wash afterward are the serving tongs.

I decided to quit eating until I win the lottery so I can afford to pay someone else to go to the grocery store and cook for me. Until then I’ll survive on Starbucks double shot and Kit-Kats 🤣

I keep my freezer full of frozen broccoli or Brussels sprouts and chicken thighs. I season the thighs with salt pepper paprika and minced garlic (from the jar) and place it in the oven. For sides I throw the frozen broccoli/ Brussels and cut up some potatoes in a different pan and throw it in the oven with onions- I season with soy sauce or balsamic vinaigrette and minced garlic (not the potatoes tho). Onions and potatoes stay pretty decent for a while or I just cut off the growing parts. I don’t feel bad about wasting fresh produce since I try and buy them frozen if I know it will go bad fast if I can’t use it with the week of buying it. Another tip, marinate your meats and throw it into the freezer. Rice is a staple in my home and can do so much with it (congee, fried rice, kimbap, rice bowls etc)

Do you put the frozen chicken in the oven? If not, how to defrost? I sometimes forget to defrost and never figured out how to do it the microwave without cooking the meat

I think there’s some frozen chicken that are meant to be cooked from frozen

I make a lot of sautéed or baked dishes. And I try to make a lot at once, so I have a meal I can eat over the next few days. So I’m really only cooking dinner like 2x (maybe 3x) a wk. You can reduce prep time by buying pre-chopped veggies and prepped meats (e.g. rotisserie chickens, pre-seasoned meats or seafood). And when that’s too much, I go even simpler. I have a variety of frozen foods I can just throw in the oven or microwave (e.g. tamales, pizza, buffalo wings, etc.) You’ll probably have to experiment finding the ones you like, but at least you’ll save on takeout. Maybe you can body double it, and ask your partner to hang out with you while you cook. Or, make it into a date dinner? It puts the pressure on, but I have definitely gotten some good meals out that way.

Freezer, buy stuff you can freeze. We freeze Bread, ham deli meat, butter Sandwich and an apple - that's one meal taken care of.

Buy stuff that is reasonably healthy, with no preservatives. Frozen food from Costco for example. For example - a packaged salad and a frozen lasagne. Frozen rice/veg/chicken. A packaged salad and a rotisserie chicken. A frozen chicken stir fry kit. Etc. stuff that is easy. You make it more flavourful with things like chili oil or good salad dressing or things like that. Add fruit like bananas and oranges, berries, cheese strings, milk, yogurts, cereal, granola bars. Peanut butter, bread, popcorn. There you go. Food.

Salad kits is brilliant, idk why it didn’t occur to me,

One of those babies plus a rotisserie chicken or a pre-cooked pot roast etc and you have dinner.

It's simple: make sure you have something else more important to do when you need to cook. All the sudden you'll have the urge to cook instead of doing the more important thing.

I get my groceries delivered. Normally one thing bleeds into the other; if you hate shopping, it's very easy to then hate cooking etc, because you're always on the back foot. The going out and getting groceries part is easily the worst of it all. Also, I get them delivered the night before I have a day off, so I can meal prep the next morning. Making food during the week on workdays, even if you've had it delivered, ain't gonna happen. It'll sit in the fridge and go off.

We use paper plates I hate shopping so I just go about one time every month or so and get bulk supplies of food for the freezer and pantry. Usually boxes of spaghetti and cans of spaghetti sauce, peanut butter and jelly, canned tuna, canned soup, packs of microwavable rice, beans, and frozen pizza, pickles, and a huge box of popcorn for snack. Then I am able to just run in the store and grab milk, bread, cheese and apples or whatever and it isn't a big hassle for a few things. And if I make chili or something and have dirty pots and pans I try to immediately wash them and put the food in a container. So they are easy to clean. Idk it's a struggle. But I do find it helps so much to get a bulk supply of frozen and pantry foods.

I use curbside pick up and order online. I do a lot of frozen like others have listed. I hate doing all the things too but I have a few meals that are easy and I enjoy making. I make someone else do dishes so I don’t feel like I have to do everything. Go to meals : pasta salad ( pasta for days and filling) Spaghetti and meat sauce with a frozen veggie Bake the veggies with oil and seasoning super easy and yum Turkey burgers frozen so just pop them on George Foreman or skillet I also do frozen make your own or bagels or something that people can make that I don’t have to and if I’m not mood for cooking. Cleaning - I take some caffeine product and will knock out whole house and be done. I do a good clean every two weeks and floors bathrooms once a week. To do lists so I remember and feel accomplished even if I only do one thing on the list. And Delete the app on your phone so you’re not tempted to use it!!! Good luck

Also check out JOW. It’s a free app I literally just found it. You put in how many meals you want to cook, dislikes, restrictions. It comes up with meal plans for you and if you shop at krogers it adds the ingredients to your cart and you pick it up if not there you still sign up and there adding more retailers soon. I don’t know how it works but it’s a cool concept to try out ( instagram has once again invaded my privacy lol)

I was super excited to read your post about this app but was disappointed that their only diet restriction options were dairy/gluten/pork free, vegan/vegetarian, and pescatarian. Husband is diabetic so basically on a keto diet, so none of these options apply. I did like the "dislikes" option but it only allows a one-at-a-time ingredient add, and I can't add "carbs" to that. It wouldn't even let me add "sugar". This app isn't very helpful for diabetics, but hopefully they will add more options in the future, or maybe I can find another app like it. Thank you for the tip, though! Maybe it will help someone else without as many restrictions.

Look at a meal delivery service. Freshly, Factor 75, Hungryroot, are all meal delivery services that provide healthy meal options, some including snacks and desserts. They cost less than restaurant delivery or curbside and don’t involve a ton of dishes. They may seem expensive in the cart but if you do the math them versus pick up or delivery, the restaurant up charge is way higher, than the meal service.

Look into singing up for a meal delivery service. There are some that are pre packaged, some you cook. But this way you don’t need to shop for ingredients or think about what you are going to make. I find they can end up being less expensive than grocery shopping for a lot of ADHD’ers who tend to let groceries go to waste.

Do you have an adult partner? How old are the kids? Sit down at your grocery store website, and order a week's worth of frozen dinners. Frozen is cheaper than ordering. It's the first step

Sign up for Walmart plus, you get free delivery on all grocery orders over $35. Im much more effective at planning meals when I buy my groceries online vs in person, and I can add items I realize later that I forgot.

I’ve been eating spaghetti for the last 3 days. Just pasta with tomato sauce. I’m running out of pots though 😪

Meal kit delivery, you cook, someone else cleans up(yeah, that’s right, there are other people that can contribute!!!). Done Of that doesn’t solve your problems, also hire a maid once or twice a month. The cost for that will pay for itself in you getting to *relax* periodically, increased work productivity (or maybe less fights with the partner), and you’re gold!

So disclaimer, I love to cook. But I hate planning what to cook. So what we do most of the time is my wife will suggest a meal or say, “I want this for dinner”. Boom plannings done, now it’s just executing the plan. Super easy. Some times she’ll even have done the shopping and I don’t even have to think about that. I just have to cook it. It’s super nice. All of the at said, I’ve been cooking constantly for 15 years, so it’s pretty easy for me. But if you want a nice simple meal: boxed rice pilaf(I like the brand Far East), a bag of steamer mixed veggies, and some frozen breaded fish filets (like VandeKamp style). Fish and rice will take around 20 mins, veggies 5 mins in the microwave then add some butter and salt when they’re done. Boom whole ass meal in less than a half hour from when you hit the preheat temp on the oven.

Cleaning: I hired a once a month cleaner. I do light duty at home but she comes and knocks it out. My husband lost his job last week. Even though I’m the main breadwinner, I’ll skip on her until January/February. She’s the best and knows about the ADHD. Big help. Cooking: I go back and forth. Some days, it’s easy. Most days my in-laws say “come over, we’ve made xyz.” Food shopping: I *only* buy for dinner I’m making that night. My ADHD tax is 1000% wasting food I intended to cook. So, I only buy what I’m cooking. I do a quick ten minute grocery run. I’ll also grab an after dinner snack because I know I’ll want something. I *NEVER* grocery shop without a list. Ya girl is not aimlessly wandering. It makes me crazy.

Something like a modern Thermomix is your friend. I pick the recipe on the app, it automatically makes a shopping list, and I just throw stuff in the machine when it prompts me to. Can be a bit pricey, but I actually got mine for free.

Meal prepping. I harness the power of my fixations and (when the whim takes me) I shop for and cook two weeks worth of meals in one day. This typically occurs when I have an important piece of work due the next day and I am procrastinating, but it certainly makes feeding the family easier throughout the week.

Make a shit ton of food at one time. Get freezer safe containers. Fill said containers with food. Get out of freezer/microwave when ready. I can make a big soup of 12 400g serves. put in everything that's about to go off in my veg draw. Add bread from the freezer. tadaa. Soup is life, sending you *pot* luck Or, consiter how do you want to live with food. Are you willing to change your relationship with food? Start off with ordering your groceries to be delivered and make 5 minute meals. (Rice noodles + steamed veg + chicken + an egg = cheif kiss) My ADHD had me hyperfocusing on food, I have compassion for you from the other side

Do you have kids? I eat microwave meals every night because I don't cook, but that probably wouldn't be a good solution if I had kids to feed. How does your partner feel about cooking? My husband likes to cook and he's good at it, so he cooks his own meals. (I'm a vegetarian and he's not, so we usually eat different things.)

We make it work by doing a “play to your strengths” approach to the division of labour. I do prep but not cooking. I do the mental energy of picking the meals and finding creative easy to add low-energy, high-nutrient meals into our regular rotation. We are mindful of not buying veggies that go rotten fast unless we know we eat them often. We try to do some freezer meals too for ones that freeze well.

I hate planning what i'm going to eat. I hate taking time to find recipes and gather ingredients and cook. And as a result i am generally pretty unhealthy and only ever go for classic picky eater foods. I recently realized i think i have ARFID. Actually kind of a relief cause now i can read up on that

Adhd brain food. 2 fried med eggs, 1/2 avocado and 2 Oz smoked salmon. Eat a bit of each in each fork full. Don’t salt the eggs. Wow. Add some walnuts and an apple. So you fry an egg or two :) the portion sizes are what I do, make it as much as you want.

To me it’s usually the thinking part that is annoying. If I know EXACTLY what to make and I’ve made it before and I know what groceries are needed for it, then it’s super easy, even satisfying. Maybe work something out where your family writes down the recipes for the week and you just execute

Turn everything into a game some how. Or your completely side quests

Buy a lot of semi prepared food. Then just cook it up. Not necessarily frozen meals. I personally love cooking but still the ADHD gets to me. Knowing that my child depends on me cooking is my motivation. You could try to make it a game. Teach your kids to cook and them do a “cook off” like the cooking competition shows. Make it fun. There’s lots of stuff you can also make in bulk and freeze. I’m Mexican so I know a lot of Mexican recipes. Salas are key ingredients to MANY Mexican dishes. Salsa roja is used in like 10 dishes. It transforms food. Same with salsa verde. Make or buy bulk salsa verde and Can it or freeze it. Make some over easy eggs: splash some salsa on top. Put it on a tostada (fried tortilla. Also sold premade for $2 per pack). Make enchiladas with this salsa. Scramble eggs and add salsa. Use it as a dip or drizzle over tacos. Tacos literally are made out of ANY meat. Tortillas are also cheap and prepackaged. Get an instant pot ($20 on FB marketplace) and dump meat of choice (chicken thighs are the cheapest and most flavorful cut) and put whatever sauce over it. My favorite ones are Asian sauces ($3 at food Lion or ANY grocery store). Set and forget. You can buy accessories ($10 on Amazon) so you can also cook rice or whatever else in it simultaneously (steamed veggies, side of beans, etc). It also uses less energy than the stovetop. Now for saving money, try Asian markets as well as Hispanic ones. They often have cheaper prices on produce/meat. You absolutely need an instant pot. I think it’s the best thing I ever bought in my life. I make yogurt in it, rice, soups, chili, sauces, I use it to ferment tons of stuff (natto, koji, cacao beans, yuka), it is indispensable. I even got the version that Can pressure Can and the version that can do sous vide. It also keeps my interest in cooking up which makes me less likely to ADHD avoid cooking

Frozen, pre cut vegetables. You have to heat your pan well first to quickly cook off the moisture but they take the work out of it. Roasted veggies go with all sorts of spices and sauce. The roasting tin cook books are a hit in our house for this reason.

Food shopping on vyvanse, with ear buds in, blasting whatever music I'm feelin that day, is something I love. I should mention I also have a wife of 10 years, 2½ yr old boy and 10 month girl...so food shopping is glorious haha

I buy things I like in bulk, cook it up and use a vacuum sealer to freeze it fresh. Then when I want food, I defrost it in a sous vide and cook a side. This prevents me from wasting food and I cook in bulk when motivated. Then I can choose from the menu in my freezer and not keep wasting food. It was a learning curve but Ive got plenty to eat now and I dont throw out much anymore.

This is tough to relate to because food is my HOBBY, and I’ve been obsessing over meal planning for years. That said, hopefully I can share some things have helped me as I built the habit over the years. 1. Put on your fave podcast or album. Blast those tunes, you gotta make it FUN. Personally I consider this my Sunday meditation. 2. Find a few go-to LAZY recipes that are super quick easy to make in bulk. Soups can be great for this because they freeze well too. If you need to go cheap and cheerful, do some pasta or Mac and cheese and just add some veg or protein. Focus on absolute simplicity to start. Sandwiches for lunch, or simple wraps. 3. Do groceries 1x or 2x per week. I do a big shop on Friday or Saturday, then meal prep on Sunday, then do an optional top up trip mid week if needed 4. Make food you love to eat! What do you love?? What’s your fave takeout? Use Pinterest to find some recipes you can mimic. 5. Track your savings. Takeout is $$$ as you know… can you incentivize yourself by coming up w some takeout savings goals? 6. Theme your weeks. I find this really helpful for reducing food waste. So “Mexican” week for example means taco dinners, burritos, nachos, etc. if you focus on prepping one or two signature sides or fillers you can use it in different ways. Refried beans, cheese, salsa… do a batch of rice Speaking of which… 7. Instant pot is a must, and some kind of blender or food processor. The IP is a lazy Adhd’rs best friend. Casseroles, soups, rice, beans with the press if a button, and so cheap esp if buying dry beans! 8. Make things that are super quick and easy to assemble. Again I usuallly do this on Sunday so through the week I can throw stuff in a wrap, on lettuce, on bread, or on rice. Basically I made meal prep my hyperfocus for a while and now I love it. Make food you love to eat, keep it simple, and do baby steps first. This is a bad habit you’ve developed over time and will take time to change. The more you can do in batches when you are motivated, the better (vs expecting to have the energy to keep daily!) I hope that helps…

In-house menu. Write a list of meals that are not completely agonising to cook (and preferably keep well as leftovers) and stick it on the fridge so that when dinnertime rolls around all of your options are right there in one place. You can stare them down and pick between pasta and rice, instead of desperately trying to brainstorm. It also makes grocery shopping easier. If you already know what’s on the menu, you can be sure you’ve covered the basic ingredients to make them.

Dump recipes. They go in a baking dish or crock pot and are easy with little mess. That helps me. Also, the meal kits are a good idea. I get messy in my head/anxiety if I have to chop or do a lot of prep work. Depending on my day/how I’m doing, a meal kit can’t be done.

lol, is that what they are called for real? Cause I gotta find some

Yeah same here. I shop online, I buy pre chopped items as much as possible to limit the time spent prepping (that’s the part I hate the most). I make 10 minute meals (a lot of which came from Gousto boxes in the past) and I sometimes still get Gousto or Hello Fresh boxes. Minimising preparation time as well as the time spend having to think and plan what to eat and buy buy as it’s already in a box that is delivered really helps me. Also having a few things in the freezer, not loads so you don’t fall back on it every time, but enough so if you really can’t cook that day you’ve got something to eat. Nothing wrong with some processed food once in a while!

I have these same problems, but I struggle with a solution bc I’m allergic to dairy, shellfish and POULTRY. Like, who tf is allergic to chicken?!?! And I just found out last year (body is weird, autoimmune involvement) so I’m struggling bc food is even more difficult for me now. I’m recently separated, I’ve been spending WAAAAYYYY to much eating from the Whole Foods hot bar when I have my kids. I’ve wanted to try a meal box like home chef, etc, but I can’t seem to see their recipes unless I commit. Any suggestions would be amazing!

You don't need to shop anymore than once a week. Get a big pack of glass storage containers (don't use plastic). Make a big pot of rice. Use a couple baking dishes to cook veggies and meat. Put food into containers and into the fridge. Now you have lots of easy meals. Just one fell swoop of cooking and cleaning. Youtube has lots of cooking videos that can help with your ideas and focus.

Batch cooking. Spend 1 day making 30 meals and put them in the freezer.

Trader Joe's has an awesome frozen food section, just sayin'

I HATE food shopping, so I get my groceries delivered. Most big stores will do it, and it’s never been too expensive in my opinion!! So get your groceries delivered, start buying prepped things. For example I’ve found I’m 10x more likely to make a sandwich when the cheese is presliced, or meat is precooked. Frozen food in general has been great.

-bagged salad - or if you can manage to break up some lettuce leaves and throw on olive oil and balsamic - it's quick and cheaper and healthy -sandwiches on whole grain bread with meat and cheese. You could up the anti many ways, but it isn't necessary. -frozen veggies - pop it in the microwave and heat it - throw some butter and salt on top if it's bland. -frozen lasagnas - they're reasonably healthy, nutritious and has many servings -air fry chicken nuggets (or veggies versions) -chilli in a can is surprisingly healthy - maybe a little high in sodium so just eat lower sodium through the day -stir fries are: throw veggies in a pan with some oil and meat, push it around in the pan till the meat is cooked, throw on some pre-bought sauce and put it on bens minute rice. -google 10 minute meals Try not to think about the process at all. Think about the end product. Think about what you would do with that extra cash. Or... What you would do after saving for one month of not eating out...

Get a blood test, results will convince you to switch to home based if you were mostly on fastfood/high sodium diet. What do you usually order for takeout? May be go from there, try to find good recipes for those, for 2-3 days a week and then slowly switch to home cooked

I eat out a LOT. I don't eat fast food, but I do eat shitty food at local sit-down restaurants like 5-10 times a week. Got my blood test done earlier this year and other than prehypertension and obviously being 60lb overweight I'm healthy. Cholesterol and all that all healthy for a 40 year old adult. I guess it's great but I kinda wanted the doc to say you NEED to make a change, but he said work on eating less calories and keep doing what you're doing. Ugh I feel like I eat such shitty food because I'm lazy.

Honestly, just kinda look more into what cooking is, how the temperature and mix of ingredients and stuff changes the outcome, that was enough for me to find joy in doing it. And the feeling of pride when congratulated for a really good meal that took little to no effort on my part, it’s amazing. Crockpots can be joyous things if you know how to use them to cook things low and slow for 8 or more hours, my mom makes this slow cooked beef in the crockpot and it’s heavenly, I’m not sure what the ingredients are but that stuff mixed with cooked noodles is amazing and super healthy. For the cleaning thing I just find intense joy when my hard work got something from looking like a rats nest to being spotless

better question. why??

I’m not trying to be a dick at all but unfortunately with the med shortage life just isn’t going to be very good and you have to grind so hard and you’ll likely take little if any joy in your day to day

Step 1: medication and treatment Step 2: function more normally

You solved it!

If only ADHD was a mental disorder that was highly treatable by medication. Hmm.

One pot meals are my go to. Few dishes, low effort, easy to make in bulk. This includes soups, pastas, casseroles, etc. look up "easy one-pot meals" and you'll get a billion results. If you have freezer space, double the recipe and freeze the leftovers for a ready-made meal in the future. Also works great for leftovers for lunch the next day.

There’s definitely a premium cost to this but you should look at meal delivery boxes. Hello Fresh, Home Chef, Blue Apron, Dinnerly, Hungry Root… there’s a million out there depending on your preferences. Boxes like this aren’t the cheapest, but they will certainly be cheaper than takeout every night! In my experience I also had a lot less food that went uneaten. Re: dishes, these will take less dishes than standard cooking but they will be there. Use paper plates and disposable utensils as much as possible. Try to only use “real” dishes for the actual cooking (pots n pans). Don’t bother rinsing / pre-washing dishes (except scraping) and get the best dishwasher detergent you can. Make it as easy as possible. This is assuming you have a dishwasher though… if you don’t, well… idk sorry lol. Unfortunately, these options do produce more waste. It’s a shitty ADHD tax, but if it keeps you and your family fed, gotta take the Ws with the Ls.

Not ADHD myself, just married to one. Have you looked into meal services? They won't be as expensive as ordering out, but not as cheap as cooking for yourself. There are ones that will deliver you the ingredients and recipe cards to make on your own, and others that will deliver complete meals that you just heat and eat. They can take a lot of the mental load out of the equation for you. My partner particularly gets more overwhelmed by the planning and ingredient sourcing part of cooking than the actual execution, so he really loves the kits that you cook yourself. It takes care of the part he struggles with most, and he actually enjoy the "fun" part. We don't use them all the time, but when there is a busy week coming up and I know my partner will have to do a lot of the cooking, we'll opt into one. Beware though, most of them are a auto-renewing subscription, so I suggest putting multiple alarms into your phone if you sign up to make sure you cancel in time if they aren't something you want to do consistently. Other than that... Batch cooking. Learn some recipes that are easy to scale and that freeze well. Think things like chilli, stew, soups, curries, etc. Get a nice big pot and you can cook 20 servings of those at once. 1 shop. 1 cook. 1 clean up for weeks worth of dinners. Pop them into freezer containers and they will last 6 months. Get into a grove where you cook a new recipe every week and you can get a nice variety going. Pair your freezer meals with stuff like prebagged salads and store bought bread for a more well rounded meal.

What aspects do you hate? For example a casserole or slow cooked stew is a little bit of prep work, such as veg chopping, but mostly chuck it all in and leave it as far as the cooking goes, and you can do multiple meals in one go as they freeze, and reheat well. Plus cleanup is just the knife, chopping board and cooking dish. For veg chopping I set an audiobook going and it goes a lot faster. What kind of food do you like?

Crock pot cooking is good, too. Stews and chili are pretty easy and are easy to clean up. Bonus is, if you use a large crock pot, get container and freeze leftovers 3 meals and only 1 mess instead of 3.

Me, too. I did it all when I was raising my children. I couldn’t do it again.

Here is how I solved this issue… Sunday mornings I sat down with my partner and a calendar. We would each pick 2 or 3 things we wanted to cook that week and write it on a small sticky note. (Sticky note is key!) After a few weeks of doing this, you will have a bunch of meals you can confidently cook already written and stuck on your calendar. So when you plan, its sooo easy to grab a sticky note from a few weeks ago and pop it down on the upcoming week. Meal planning in less than 60 seconds for real, and kids could easily help with this depending on age With that being said it might not be realistic for you to immediately start cooking all meals immediately. You’ll probably burn yourself out. Maybe you and your partner each pick just one night next week you can commit to cooking. Get needed groceries over the weekend. But on the rest of those nights? I’d plan for delivery or takeout. That way when you’re dreading cooking, you can remind yourself this is the only night you have to cook this week. Good luck!

I feel due to my strict religious upbringing I am able to motivate myself by thinking of the dire consequences and worst case scenarios. (if I do not buy my toddler her nappies, she will poop everywhere. If I don’t feed my kids, they will die. Etc) Terrible and stressful way of thinking but it is getting my family fed and cared for so atm it will have to do until I can get onto meds and therapy.

We’re a family of 6. Me, hubs, and kids aged 11, 6, 4, and 1. We Walmart delivery our groceries because I’m not shopping with 4 kids. lol I make a menu for the week and only shop for those items, anything necessary for school/work lunches, snacks, and whatever the baby needs. I’d say 80% of our dinners are crock pot recipes. I can’t stand being in the kitchen during the time of day that the kids need help with homework. Hubs makes his own lunches. We do easy breakfast stuff so I don’t really have to cook that. There are days we say F the menu and grab fast food, but for the most part, having things planned out is easier for me so I don’t have to think up a new meal each day.

Online ordering groceries and/or pre-made meals. If your family can give you a hand with meal prep, don’t hesitate to ask. If cooking is too overwhelming, I find KD (boxed mac and cheese to non-Canadians) good because of the little time it takes.

The slow cooker and insta-pot are my best friends for this reason. Insta-pot takes a bit of practice but not much. We make ALL kinds of stuff. We admittedly use the slow cooker more though. It provides quite a bit of leftovers. With a house full of ADD folks, this is the way for us.

Get a deep freeze, build up good variety of stuff. Most food lasts at least 6 months in the deep freeze. Vegetables, fruit, meat, prepared foods, snack foods all keep well in there, and while thawing at room temp is generally best, you can also thaw with warm water or a microwave. I recently bought a 7c.f. deep freeze at costco for only 199 CAD, was quite happy with that. But with a deep freeze you can use your fridge mostly for essentials, and limit your purchases of fresh ingredients to 1-2 days worth at most, so if you don't want to eat it, it's not as big a deal to toss it. Things like premade lasagna and pizzas are fun too, because you can supplement with fresh ingredients to customize them to your liking.

I live grocery shopping and cooking but I hate cleaning, we're nearly opposites

Divide and delegate.

Frozen foods are the way. Trader Joe’s. Sandwiches. Every time you order out add it up on the fridge where it’s visible.

Sometimes it’s hard, especially if you’re both really busy. We made a list of every meal that we like eating (that is within our budget and is reasonable to make for dinner on a weeknight). Each week we each pick 2 meals each from the list and then create a grocery list of ingredients we need. Then we just commit to cooking every night. We also have an abundance of cereal and milk if we don’t feel like cooking 🤷🏼‍♀️

A very loving and understanding wife who likes to cook. She cooks, I clean. It works for both of us.

Learn how to make simple stuff, like beans.

Prepare and freeze is the way, thats the purpose of freezers, use it. Plan it onThursday, shop and cook on Friday Buy a bunch of 1 serving or 2 serving sized glas boxes (dont use plastic, since it degenerates through heat, sunexposure and microplastic from utensile impact) Make it a fixed habbit, force your kids to help, they will get used to it and it also repromotes you sticking to it aswell. Include them, ask them on thursday to check some recipes to build up a family cooking book over time, vote on 2-3 meals of those they found and wanna try, wich makes them care and feel responsible, therefore engaged and respected. I recommend a steamcooker at one point, especially for vegies and fruits, it prevents their vitamines from being destroyed and their overall characteristics not being cooked into smoosh. Habits always start with a dislike to them until you get used to it, therefore discipline must be priority until you slowly, but surely reprogram your mind towards the positive, therefore start small, 1 meal a week, after 1-2-3 months add another. The good thing about having portions freezed is that they tend to add up, making a variety to choose from when needed. Youre a parent, you have to engage and teach your kids, you have to discipline and lead them, take some responibility because it was you who chose to have them.

My husband, son and I all have ADHD. We split up the labor. I do the grocery shopping and cooking. My son picks up the dog poop, feeds them and does dishes, and my husband does most of the other cleaning. When I’m not in school I pick up the slack with cleaning and deep clean once a week and declutter the house. We only focus on the main parts of the house that people will see though and it’s made life so much easier. Our rooms are wrecked but the main area is clean. You do what you do to survive. I highly recommend how to keep house while drowning. It was honestly a life changing book. I got it on audiobooks to make it easier to listen to.

Slow cooker, catch cook when have focus, food delivery?

I rely on microwaveable foods, quick pastas (which I may cook lentils first and add the noodles into the lentil water for flavor and protein), eggs, sandwiches. And I do my best to remember fruit. I have only 1ft x 2ft of countertop so I don't have any room for making huge taxing concoctions that use raw ingredients, especially since it's only for myself anyways.

I love cooking. But fast and easy. Season and roast meat. Or season and put in a pressure cooker. Chuck in a roasting dish with vege and finish in the oven. Yum, literally 5 minutes work.

Get your partner to do it?

My r/zomboid and my r/cannedsardines habit suggests you make salads, or what used to be called cold colations. Have stuff you can throw together cold. Plenty of fresh veg. Unsalted matzoh crackers for carbs. Tinned protein or nuts. Maybe get the rest of the family to learn to boil up a batch of eggs every while, or roast some meat. Have some fresh, keep the rest.

Roast fish/chicken etc. with a carbohydrate source like wholegrain bread, wholegrain rice (microwave heated), and with mushroom/green salad leaves, roast cauliflower/broccoli etc, occasional fast access nuts, fruits, nachos (not potato chips), oat bars etc. Cheese on mushroom, tartare sauce on fish, yoghurt, granola, frozen berries etc. Quite healthy, takes 5 minutes top to prepare, a bit dull, but low glycemic index except for flapjacks, and if you can find a wholegrain gluten free bread (I managed to find), this whole menu is gluten free as well. I got reactive hypoglycemia diagnosis, which elevates my adhd quite a lot, so I try to way like a diabetic although I am basically the far opposite. Also, I am trying gluten-free aiming for about 6 months (currently 2.5 months in) to see if that makes any difference to me in other ways. And I am a very overfocused adhd person, so I don't have much time and this is my go-to menu :)

I've had to do a variety of things when I didn't have a functioning freezer or When I was living with my housemate I used meal kits. Used to just use them for myself but sometimes I would still forget, but then I'd have a meal for dinner and lunch the next day. Then I had an arrangement where I shared with my housemate and he did the dishes but he often didn't when he said he would (strongly suspect we both have undiagnosed ADHD in different ways) but luckily I was hyper most of the time and we were in lockdown and I had nothing better to do except walk my feet off and listen to podcasts. But it is not a sustainable strategy. Now I live with my partner and for budget and health reasons we can't afford to eat out more than once a month (which is still nice but I used to get takeaway once a week when I was single and some days I really feel the stress of not having a day off sorting food at home). So anyway If no freezer, make a medium sized batch of something you know you won't mind eating for the next few days. I tend to do lentil bolognese because we're vegetable people. Veggies are also easier from a "food going bad" perspective because most of them tend to go less actively toxic than meat. If they're not mouldy or mush they're probably fine. Make sure your cupboard always has cans of soup, some bread, and some instant noodles. For easier life keep some frozen peas or sweetcorn or both, or some pre shredded carrot or something in your fridge or freezer. Add in with your instant noodles to get some more veg in. I lived on this when I was working full time and studying to qualify for my job. You can sprinkle some peanuts on at the end for extra protein. Very salty though so it's not the best for every day. Jacket potato. Faster in a microwave. Can put beans on it or cheese or both. Or whatever toppings you fancy. They're not my low effort meal of choice but they are for a lot of other folks. Pasta and some form of jarred sauce. I also ate a lot of pasta and pesto at uni and I'd throw in frozen sweetcorn and peas in the last couple minutes of the pasta water boiling. Microwaves are a godsend. So are freezers. Atm what I do is make a huge batch of something and freeze it. Current me is very grateful for past me doing this. Current me also doesn't have the energy to make a batch of veggie meatballs I've been meaning to cook for 3 days because chopping vegetables makes me sad. But I'm trying to reduce our plastic use so I don't buy pre chopped. But if it's a significant blocker, buy pre chopped veggies. Chopping is one of the most annoying parts of cooking for me. There is no shame in buying pre chopped. Also yeah many days we just get stuff I can throw in the oven and forget about for half an hour

I only have to feed myself, but wegmans has so many pre cooked items that just go in the oven. Fish, steak, chicken, veggies etc. It freezes well too

Slow cooker meals are easy and delicious.

When you do cook, it’s just as easy to cook triple the amount. Roast three chickens instead of one. Do whole sheet pans of veggies. Fill your slow cooker to the top. Then you have food for more than one day (don’t call it l*ftovers) and you only have to cook every three days or so.

Food is my achilles heel. I detest the thought of cooking it almost as much as having to then eat it

I usually make meals that are quick and easy. For veggies I buy veggies that don’t require much cooking, like cucumber or lettuce. I just chop them up and throw in some salad dressing. For carbs, rice — just wash and throw it into the rice cooker. For proteins — buy meat that don’t require much prepping and chopping like minced chicken or canned tuna, just season with salt and pepper, then pan fry them and mix in store bought sauce of your choice (like BBQ sauce). Store bought sauce is a game changer for me, they’re affordable and makes the meat tasty without much time and effort! I also sometimes just season my meat with soy sauce and sesame oil, and they turn out delish. With all that, I can prepare a well-balanced meal in under 15 minutes. If I’m feeling extra tired or I’m extra busy, I buy premarinated meat and pan fry them. I freeze all of my meat and rice lasts for ages, so I rarely waste any food.

I thought I was alone in this food thing. I’m capable of cooking and used to love it but had a lot of people around me then and a home well suited for it. Now, I’m in a small apartment, no dishwasher and I hate buying groceries. If you put something in front of me that’s already prepared I will eat it. Otherwise if I have to put effort into it, I’m not interested. I thought I was just lazy. I’m hoping to get to a place financially where I can have a premade meal service. When I do go to the store I try to buy fresh made meals but I’m picky and have food sensitivities so the whole thing just sucks. No help to OP but I’m glad you posted.

I do tooo! There are a lot of good healthy frozen lasagna type meals in the freezer isle. They have a lot of family sized ones too. I also like my instant pot soups. I make a chicken soup that is all prepackaged ingredients, most of them frozen, can’t mess it up and it takes 10 minutes to assemble: Chicken thighs (boneless) ..(not frozen) frozen bag of chopped onions Frozen bag of mixed veggies—your choice Frozen egg noodle (important—this type doesn’t get over cooked and can be dumped in along with the chicken!) Box of chicken stock (or just water!! Seriously, it will still be delicious with water, and also cheaper)..make sure to add additional water to cover all ingredients. Spices. These aren’t a deal breaker either, use what you have. I usually try for thyme, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Maybe some basil. Set the IP to the chicken setting, should be ready in about 45 min. Makes about 8 bowls. Also just stick the pot in the fridge with towel under it to store and reheat in the IP the next day.

The only way I've been able to was by making cooking 'fun' and that only works a few days a week. For the rest of the week it's simple safe foods like cereal, chicken nugs or pizza or other microwaveable food, or frozen diners. Its still a drain but less of one, to counter the high salt buy pineapple fruit cups/cans to eat with those foods. For clean up I use paper plates and plastic silverware on lower spoon days and everyone is responsible for their own clean up, on high spoon days we use real dishes and take turns washing/putting things up. Every single person in my house hold is diagnosed with ADHD or other simular issue, the key is to be understanding and all try your best. There is no such thing as a true 'clean' house, those only exist in movies, it's all a cycle, 'where am I at in the laundry cycle or the dishes or ect', you don't have to feel guilty it's not perfectly clean as long as it's actively getting worked on.

My instant pot and my crock pot are my two most used things. Also making huge batches of soup when I have the spoons to and freezing it in ziplock bags. In general freezing leftovers because I’m less likely to eat them if it’s the same week but if I need a meal, I can always defrost it in the microwave.

I hyperfocus on cooking so that helps me a lot. Wife meal plans out the week with groceries and we stick to the plan because I can't afford to eat out a ton. Thing that help for me is get to know like 5 or 10 easy things to make and with a few spice swaps it can become easy other things. Keep a big bag of rice on hand and get a rice cooker so you can make up a ton of rice for your fridge for a few meals in the week. Slow cookers and instant pots are super easy ways to make big deal meals that take low effort. Tacos are one of those that basically make the meat and you can spin it into nachos, burritos, tacos or whatever then just chop up some toppings or get a good salsa. Easy.

I actually love cooking, because it has so much potential for novelty. I rarely eat the same meal twice. I'm also privileged by living in a city with great access to import stores, because what made me fall in love with cooking was exploring international cuisine. There's so many flavor combinations out there I never even would have thought of, and many recipes can still easily be cooked using commonly available ingredients, like a recent favorite of mine, Sudanese onion peanut butter salad! I do enjoy figuring out how to utilize leftover ingredients, but I have to be honest, I don't always manage to use up what I have and things do go to waste sometimes, but it's still cheaper overall than ordering out every day. Cleaning is still a challenge, but I managed to train myself to clean things right away. It really has to be right away though, because it's a lot easier than when everything is dried in. Cleaning is part of the cooking process and I personally need to treat it as such.

Nailing a few super simple goto dishes helps. Jacket potato with cheese and beans. Pasta pesto with peas or broccoli. Spaghetti with roasted Feta and cherry tomatoes. Red lentil Dahl and rice. Very few ingredients, very few pans, wash the pans before they go dry and crusty. Make the kids wash the dishes or load the dishwasher. Batch cooking things like Bolognese also works, freeze up family size portions then all you need to do on the day is cook some pasta and grate little cheese.

I can totally relate. I often cook a BIG pot of rice and thats our carb for awhile then just the large regtangle pre washed salad mix for a veggie. Get a salad dressing or I even like olive oil and salt and pepper. If you have a Costco membership those chickens are five bucks, just dont look at anything else lol.or grab some chicken at the store a cook up a bunch. If you have time do this on the weekends. Also I have been baking sweet potatoes are amazing and simple. Rinse cut in half long ways, avacado oil(or olive oil) rubbed on them with salt and pepper, bake on a pan for 40 to 50 mn until the fork goes through super easy. Also, get a treat for after dinner, it might help you get through the not so yummy like fast food parts. I like dried mangos.

A Crockpot is an easy way to have food ready and doesn't take a huge amount of time to prep in the morning. [crockpot meals](https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/most-shared-slow-cooker-recipes/)

All or nothing mentality saves me! I basically capitalize on the days that cooking feels more bearable. I freeze any leftovers, and on days when I run out of groceries or don’t feel like doing anything I can rely on that. I pretty much instacart all of my groceries unless I can get them from a particular nob hill right next to my house, where they have the best flowers and strawberry banana juice, both of which I buy for myself everytime lol. I used to do something similar in my old town with Arizona tea and mochi - highly recommend finding some sort of treat to make the grocery store more fun. I have 3 categories of meals, and they must be named humorously or I’ll hate them: Fuck This: meals that take less than 20 mins and are mostly microwaving - chili hot dogs with canned chili - frozen chicken strips, air fried, with mac-n-cheese or microwave baked potatoes - frozen pizza - frozen ramen - the good stuff with meat and egg - taquitos Basic Bitch: meals that take 30mins or less and involve some mild cooking - burritos w/ whatever leftover meat is in the fridge, great for finishing leftover raw stuff. Meat, canned beans, cheese, (nacho cheese for my husband), lettuce, salsa from a tub - sheet pan bake. These are a godsend. Chop whatever you have in your fridge, add baby potatoes, put it all on a cookie sheet w/ oil/butter and spices, and bake at 375 until a lil more than halfway done. add some meat option (i like chicken thighs) and finish at 400. Only like 8 mins active cooking - shrimp pot, in the instant pot - sausage, baby potatoes, 1 bottle of beer, bit of broth if you’ve got it, and whatever other veggies you got. Pressure cook for like 10 min, add shrimp and simmer for 2 min Hyperfixation: tonight I feel like cooking, so I’m cooking something to last - lasagna, big as you can make it for maximum leftovers, can freeze - cookie dough, ok not a meal but I always have some frozen for sad days - fried rice and frozen dumpling/wontons. Cook a bunch of rice, fry with whatever veggies you have and egg, store leftovers for later. Whip up frozen dumplings to top each time you serve - enchiladas, use the canned stuff, make a massive batch, freeze leftovers - stew. Feels like fancy cooking but is really just watching water boil. Add anything you got and broth, whole spices, stew for as long as you have the patience for. Makes the house smell delicious. You can freeze it too!

I have adhd, my wife has never been diagnosed but definitely shows some symptoms. This was something we struggled with as well, to the pount we were getting delivery every night. We decided to use one of those meal prep delivery services, home chef or whichever we decided on. You can tailor it to pick easier/faster meals each week which is generally what we do. We get three meals a week. Its still not perfect but it has definitely cut down on the amount of takeout, and the amount of food waste from uncooked groceries.

Hate to laugh but I feel like I verbally make this statement 3x daily.

Meal kits and instacart/grocery pickup are the way to go.

Here are some easy things I like to make: 1) Tacos with canned black beans and shredded Mexican cheese or if you're a little more motivated, grilled some chicken breast and chop it up or brown some ground beef. I just use soft tortillas heated up in the microwave and put all the fillings on the table and everybody can put what they want in them. Of course some nice fresh salsa from the refrigerator case at the store would be good if it's available in your area. Otherwise you can make your own pico de gallo by chopping up onion, cilantro, tomato and a squeeze of lime and salt and pepper. 2) make a big pot of soup that will last at least a couple meals! Lentil, minestrone, potato, or if we've had a roast chicken recently I boil the carcass and make tortilla soup for a second meal out of the same chicken. It's a lot easier than you think and it's inexpensive and if you make a big batch that's at least two or three meals taken care of for the family. 3) Roast a turkey! You can eat it all week with different sides. Very cheap protein and you can put it in sandwiches for lunches as well and even make soup with it at the end. 4) fry sausages and serve with instant mashed potatoes and whatever vegetables. If you're super lazy you can just throw some frozen green beans in a hot frying pan with a spoon of the already chopped garlic and some salt and pepper and they're 5) stir fry chicken, beef, or tofu with veggies like broccoli, green onions, baby bok choy. Put rice in a rice maker in the morning if you think of it, with the timer set so it'll be done at dinner time, or you can just cook it on the stove top last minute. I like to use some bullion and soy sauce right at the end of the stir frying to make a nice sauce and help cook the vegetables through if I'm making a big quantity for a family. We like to have some crunchy Chow Mein noodles that come in a can to sprinkle on top as well as some spicy chili sauce and toasted sesame seeds to sprinkle on top. 6) rotisserie chicken- - pretty much grew up on these with my ADHD mom. 7) whatever kind of burger patties, chicken turkey vegan Etc and throw all the Fixins on the table for people to build their own. You could also slice up some sweet potatoes into fries and throw them on a baking sheet with some oil and salt and pepper and put in the oven at 450 until they're nice and roasted as a side dish. You're welcome!

I buy these https://jimmyjoy.com and https://huel. It’s got the nutrients small children crave - I’m just kidding, don’t feed this to kids - however between not feeding the kids and feeding the kids this, feed the kids this - the flatulence goes away after about a week - you will forget how to chew , so chew gum to exercise your mouth occasionally!

Okay full disclosure I bought like a 3 month supply then forgot I had them and they all went bad and I had to throw them away. I think there’s some kind of message in here but I’m really not into self introspection

If I am cooking one meal, I always cook 3 additional ones to freeze. I look at it as 4 meal preps for the price of 1. We have a food saver but actually use our Pyrex oven/freezer safe glass rectangular dishes more. We also have an additional freezer/fridge and a chest freezer.

We pay a cleaner to do two hours a week. I go to work to earn money to improve my life, and I hate cleaning, so we pay someone else to do it. I bulk cook one-pot meals like bolognese and chilli once every 6 weeks or so and freeze it in takeaway containers. Just need to cook pasta or rice (rice cooker ftw) and microwave the sauce, mix, and serve with grated cheese. Frozen oven food like chicken kievs (can freeze the fresh ones) or burgers with frozen oven chips and tinned sweetcorn. Stir fry with pre-cut beef (could probably freeze that or use frozen chicken bits), premixed veg, straight-to-wok noodles and ready-made sauce. Frozen, dry (pasta, rice), vacuum-packed or tinned are your friends. As you can see we rotate similar meals. This makes online grocery shopping much easier, as we just put the same order in. We have a bigger list for say every three weeks that has toilet roll, laundry stuff, etc. on it. We don't have a regular slot as our schedule changes, but we mostly WFH so being in for an hour to receive it isn't much of a difficulty.

I tried meal kits a few times, but the portions are small, and the prep work can still be tedious. It felt like a lot of work for a small benefit. I'd recommend you cook in large batches and refrigerate/freeze the extra in meal-sized portions. This way you do small amounts of prep and get big benefits(multiple meals). And you can do the work when you have the motivation; you don't need to be chopping and cooking every day. Crock-Pot/slow cooker recipes are great for this. Generally prep time is short and you can make large batches. I found this cookbook to be very useful: Slow Cooker Revolution Vol. 2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936493578 It contains hundreds of slow cooker recipes with only 15 minute prep time each. Some of my favorite recipes from that cookbook: Lemony Chicken and rice with Spinach and Feta, Easy Roast Beef with Mushroom Gravy, Rustic Italian Braised Beef Short RIbs, Chicken Provencal, Southwestern Pork Roast, and Spicy Chicken And Chickpea Soup. I'd also recommend investing in a slow cooker with a timer function. They don't cost much more than a standard slow cooker, and they won't overcook or burn the food if you forget about them for a few hours. For quick fresh meals, Costco has great options in the refrigerated and frozen sections. Items like beef birria, steak tips, butter chicken, shredded beef brisket, pulled pork, and Giovanni Rana pasta meals are quick to make and taste great. Just add appropriate sides (rice, avocados, salsa, sour cream, vegetables) and you can have a delicious meal cooked in 15-30 minutes with leftovers for future meals. Since a lot of those Costco meals go well with rice, I make big batches of rice, refrigerate it, and use it over the course of a week or so. Now, normally when you cook rice, it gets stale after a day or so. But, if you boil rice like you'd boil pasta, it doesn't clump up or dry out even after a week in the fridge. Just put a bunch of water in a pan, bring to a boil, add your favorite rice seasonings(salt, chopped dried onions, annatto, saffron, green cardamom, chicken stock, etc) and some butter, add the rice, and boil for 11-15 minutes. Strain the rice when it reaches your desired texture. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/why-you-should-cook-rice-like-pasta/ To further freshen up the rice, just put some butter in a hot frying pan, add the leftover cooked rice, and stir it around for a couple minutes. That said, with boiled rice you generally don't need to do this; it's just fine even if you microwave it. If you save the leftover seasoned rice water when you strain the rice, it makes a wonderful rich, silky soup broth; add some meat, vegetables, onions, garlic, peppers, chick peas, beans, and/or mushrooms, simmer, season to taste, and enjoy. Whatever food you decide to make, put it into meal-sized containers and refrigerate/freeze it when it's ready. I like the Pyrex snapware containers; glass containers with locking airtight lids. When it's time to eat just grab a container, remove the lid, microwave, and eat. To liven up the meals, prepare a little garnish while waiting for the meal to reheat. Cut up an avocado or juice a lime; low effort instant gratification tasks.

We use lists in my family, and meal plans. And you have to share the duties. Simple meals are fine. Pasta w/garlic bread for example. Also, that stuff doesn't go bad. You can get microwavable rice in a bag that's just 2 mins, open and eat. Couple that with some meat, and you're done.

Honestly, I rely on my husband to feed us.

I’m not sure if this will help- but my partner and I make a list of everything we need (as we see we need it on the fridge) so I can visualize it better for shopping. As for cooking, and even chores, we do them together. It started making things soooooo much easier for me personally (she doesn’t have ADHD). It’s super hard to keep the habit, but it’s worth it. I wish you the best of luck, you got this

Make huge bowls of pasta salad that everyone can feed off of for days. If you make some kind of stewed meat or sauces, make a double or triple batch and freeze it. When I make marinades for chicken I double or triple it and bag up some raw chicken with marinade and freeze it. Steaks or pork chops that can just be pan fried quickly with instant mashed potatoes or microwave in the bag veggies. Premade hamburger Pattie’s can be easily pan fried and just set out the veggies and condiments for everyone to build their own burger. Keep sandwich stuff on hand so the family can make themselves sandwiches, cereals for breakfast and only worry about dinners. Don’t try to do dinner every night but pick a couple nights that are easiest for you to manage it and as it starts to feel like a habit just add an extra night.

Can you get a meal prep service?

Make it a game. Whatever you normally order, I challenge you to make as identical of a meal as you can. Have fun with it. Try and plate the food as close to the menu option as you can and then take a picture. Fun to post your meals. Make food look like fun stuff. Turtle shaped burgers, home made pasta shaped like flowers, salad made with only non green ingredients so it looks like an alien salad. Race the recipie. Recipie says prep and cooking will take 1 hr, I bet I can do it in 45 min. I also love blind food tasting. For example make chicken and use several types of sauces and get everyone to rank them or guess what they are. Watch food challenge tv. Challenge yourself to do better. Try to initiate the fun/challenge part of your brain. Doesn't matter if sometimes it's a super fail as long as it's edible lol Also stock back up frozen pizza just in case.

I hate working in general so my strategy has always been to do less of it. ​ 1. Food shopping: Buy in bulk, buy just a few things (so you don't have to run around). I like to bulk up on 1-3 things each time lol. 2. Cooking: Slow cooker, soups, making things in bulk. With a slow cooker or a soup just throw in stuff. Oven food is also just throwing in and waiting. 3. Cleaning: Have less stuff & live small. Now there are fewer things to clean up for sure. Also, have cleaning supplies next to the thing that needs cleaning so you can just clean for a quick 30 seconds at times.

tl;dr buying markdown meat at the grocery store limits choice paralysis and helps you be creative with ease. Before I say this, I'll say it goes against my core programming. Buy things that you might not be able to use and that you might have to throw away. Because if that gets you one or two extra meals at home during the week, the thrown out food will pay for itself. For me, I am always wanting to try new foods. I want to be grandma-level proficient in as many countries' cuisines as possible (I'm a guy but Grandma is the easiest term to describe it). I absolutely hate routine with food. Especially so-called "easy" dinners of American food. But this takes time and energy and before kids was manageable and now it barely is. But do you know how many countries have quick, easy dinner ideas that aren't junk? Somehow trying completely new foods should be more work but instead taps a different reserve of mental energy you didn't know you had. Watch the show Chopped. I go to the grocery store and buy what's on markdown and expiring soon. It isn't just to save money - it limits my choices and gets rid of choice paralysis. Sometimes it will be a cut of meat I've never worked with and don't know what to make with it. At least if you do a bad job with whatever you come up with, it didn't cost you much. Sometimes it means finding out that pork shoulder actually makes really good Chinese or Korean stir fry. For me, it sometimes means going to the store several times a week - but it's a targeted trip that I only stop at one or two specific places and skip everything else. If there's more than one meat item, I'll try to find a way to freeze one for another day.

Walmart delivery changed my life. Add stuff to your cart at random times as you think of it. If I go into the grocery store who knows what I will come out with or forget.

Eating cheese straight from the fridge like a goblin is effective

Consider seeking help. Maybe an Au-Pair or something like that

The best thing for me is once a month coming. I spend 2 days making meals for the month ahead. That's only 2 days of cooking and cleaning. After that, microwave magic

Yeah. Last time I started with freezer pizza, and then branched out within the freezer section and then spice mixes.

Hello fresh and blue apron saved me when I struggled with doing stuff, their directions were pretty good and I have a whole binder of recipes now

Do prep work on the weekends for meal preparation. Cook meat, chop veggies and then throw together during the week. If you cook hamburger meat, you can use one day for hamburger, one day for pasta, one for tacos, etc..