I hate to cook.

[Stayseeliz]

I wish I didn't!! How do I find the love? One of the issues is that we're often gone in the late afternoon for swim so I have maybe 30 minutes before I need to have dinner on the table when we get home. In the winter it's easy-soups, etc. But I need more help the rest of the year. We eat very healthy. I buy as much organic food as we can afford and try to avoid processed foods, etc. But I realized I had a serious aversion to cooking when I got giddy about the fact that DH is prepping for a colonoscopy today so I don't have to cook tonight. I can give the kids Annie's mac and cheese, make a fruit salad, throw in some carrot sticks and we're good to go for dinner. I wish it was like that every night. How do I find some inspiration? Help!

[speedmom4]

I don't enjoy cooking either but I have a family of six to feed. A few years ago my mil gave me a crock pot cookbook. It literally changed my life. I now make a menu each week, grocery shop one day a week, and use my crock pot several days a week. I get dinner ready in the morning and by dinnertime it's ready. I can easily add a salad, fruit, or bread and I'm done!

 

HTH,

Elise in NC

[bettyandbob]

In summer, prep salads for dinner in the morning. Chop everything and throw it on the table when you get home from the pool. We go through lots of lettuce and fresh vegetables. Serve with chick peas or boiled eggs or chicken breast you cooked previously . You can have cut up veggies with humus and bread.

 

The thing is to do most of your meal prep in the morning when you are doing breakfast before you go do what you want or need to do for the day.

[Kelly1730]

Agree with the pp. Prepping as much as I can in the morning is helpful. We are all tired after spending the afternoon in the sun/pool! If dh can grill then add your morning prep stuff (salads etc.) and dinner's on the table, easy peasy!;)

[MyThreeSons]

Yet one more voice saying that prepping is the key.

 

One thing I like to do is buy one of those packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts at Sam's Club, and cook them all at once. When used in casseroles, one or one and a half pieces is enough for a family meal -- they are big!

 

Sometimes I throw them in the crock pot; sometimes in the oven. If I do them in the oven, I put them in a few different baking dishes, and vary the seasonings: one may be savory, one Asian, one Mexican.

 

Once the meat is cooked, the rest of the meal is quick and easy. Add rice or pasta or stuffing or tortillas to make a casserole. Make fried rice. (Fried rice is best made with cold rice, so make that in the morning or the day before.) Add a side vegetable and/or salad, and some bread, and you're good to go.

 

Another tip: enlist the family's help in the prep work: they can chop or shred the chicken after it's been cooked. They can chop veggies for the salad.

 

Let them help choose what you're going to eat that night -- sometimes making decisions is the worst part for me.

[unsinkable]

In addition to all the other great advice:

 

Cook your and your family's favorites. Have a list of their tried and tries that they'll always eat. It's discouraging to cook and have it be a flop! Oh, and make a list so you remember what is successful.

 

And when you cook it once, try to double it and freeze for another meal.

 

Have a pizza night regularly as your reward. We do it on nights there is a reduced price for pizza.

 

[elegantlion]

I hate to cook. No amount of prep, planning, recipe making, anything will ever make me love the task. I've tried. I had to reframe my mindset. Yes, the above will make it easier and that helps. I changed it to a task I do because I love my family. Ds was helping with every dinner because he's fun to work with in the kitchen and his presence makes the task tolerable.

 

Dh and I are separated. I've hardly cooked since he's been gone. It has been heavenly. I will cook for ds and we've been exploring different dishes, something dh hated to do. Ds also cooks his own meals sometimes. We're doing a lot of simple and light meals.

 

Since I don't recommend my current path to not cooking, agree with the other posters. One of ds's favorite summer dishes is a salad. He prefer regular lettuce, put shredded chicken (cooked with light chili seasoning), mandarin orange slices, and bacon bits. He uses Italian dressing.

[Night Elf]

We cheat. We bring in twice a week, Chinese take-out and Subway sandwiches. One night we cook roast beef in the crockpot. The other 4 days I cook very simplistic meals. We have spaghetti one night, broiled chicken one night, broiled pork chops, and pastys (or our version of them). Once every few weeks I'll prepare a meatloaf which cooks for 45 minutes, but other than that, my meals are cooked in 30 mins or less. We have a very boring menu but we aren't chefs and just aren't adventurous in the kitchen.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

I *love* to cook!

 

I love cooking fancy meals that take forever to make and result in tons and tons of dishes :-/

 

So, while I love it, I get frustrated b/c I just don't always have the time to make a big meal and deal with the clean up afterwards.

 

I subscribed to The Fresh 20 back in March, AND I FRIGGING LOVE IT!!!!

 

It gives you 5 recipes a week, includes a shopping list and prep guide. The recipes are full of healthy foods; no boxes food, no chemicals or preservatives. And it's seasonal, which has been working well with our CSA we also started this year.

 

The meals are super easy to make and don't take long at all. And they taste SO good.

 

There have been a few, like the apricot chicken, where I've thought I wouldn't like them b/c it just sounded like as weird mixture of ingredients, ie. dried apricots, kalamata olives, and capers; but I followed the recipe and it was SO good- and I don't even like apricots!!

 

I can't say enough good stuff about The Fresh 20, it has saved me so much stress and helped keep us eating healthy, which makes us feel good :)

 

www.thefresh20.com

[Prairie~Phlox]

Well I would give my kids shredded chicken with quinoa before I gave them boxed mac & cheese, even if it's Annie's, since you said you eat healthy. I cook a large amount of both at one time and they will sometimes add salsa and a little cheese for flavoring.

[FaithManor]

Commiserating too. I hate and despise cooking with the fire of a thousand suns. The worst part is that in sacrifice for the family I love, I became quite good at it and people know the food is good so there seems to be some expectation that I'll enjoy making large sums of food for other people. Dh has finally taken the hint and no longer invites dinner guests. The added value of being gluten free is that not only can I generally not eat at church potlucks and the like, since I don't enjoy the cooking part and I won't be eating, dh now shuns such events. This is very good for me. Love you DH!!!!!!!

 

If we want to meet with people, we plan a non-food oriented event or meet at a restaurant that is safe for me. Since a tiny bit of cross contamination doesn't bother me, I can have an omelet and hashbrowns at a local diner or steak and baked potato at a couple of other places and so when absolutely necessary, we invite others out.

 

When there are no more hungry, growing like weeds, male offspring living here full time, soup made in the crockpot and salad will be the order of the day for the rest of our lives unless dh wants to cook. He's good at it and genuinely enjoys it so it may turn out that I take over some outdoor work and he takes over the cooking. Even now while it generally falls to me, I am keeping it to a minimum. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies cut up and waiting, rice pastas the boys know how to cook themselves, homecanned pintos and black beans for putting in pasta or dumping on salads, roasted turkey or chicken, shredded and in baggies...eat cold, eat warm...makes no difference to me. Plenty of nuts since no one is allergic, plenty of eggs and all three boys know how to cook them.

 

While I do put up a lot of food at harvest, when it comes to the actual cooking part, I'm trying to adopt a minimalist nature!

 

Faith

[Georgiana Daniels]

You ladies totally put me to shame!

 

Cooking is not my thing either, and because hubby works at night I pretty much get off the hook easy. BUT--that doesn't mean I don't realize I need to improve in this area. Prepping sounds like a great idea!

[Baseball mom]

When you are cooking, cook extra. Planned leftovers

[Dana]

I'll join the cooking hate.

With our son's food allergies, we have to cook most foods and lots of casserole and crock pot recipes don't work for us. So that's frustrating too.

 

I am lucky though that dh does the grocery shopping and cooks dinners and weekends, so I do only have to do lunch.

 

I sometimes do meatballs and freeze them. That makes a quick meal. I plan our meals for the week in advance and have the list on the fridge. Prep what's possible day before and try to do leftovers one day. I have liked taking cooked chicken and adding salsa to it for fajitas the next day.

[trulycrabby]

I'm not crazy about cooking either. MIL lives with us and has special dietary needs (gluten free), but it's actually very easy to accommodate. The crock pit is my best friend in the kitchen; I cook everything except fish and pizza in it. :laugh: