Open jars of apple sauce never get a chance to go bad around me. I basically turn it into apple-pie-without-crust, putting some spices on it, heating it up, eating it with icecream or heavy cream. I have to get the fancier brands, though, the ones made with more tart apples. I cannot stand the typical American applesauce and how bland it is.
If you've got a lemon squeezie, a few drops of that go a long way towards doctoring up bland apple sauce.
Oh, good point! I should try that. In general, keeping a set of flavor enhancers like that around is a great way to breathe life into bland food, and sometimes I really need that when I'm going through low-spoons high-stress times. Hot sauces. Worcestershire sauce. Mustards. Almond and vanilla essences to give extra yum to sweet things.
boil and strain some macaroni, with a few eggs in the pot after they cool chop up eggs add a can of tunafish (drain the water out of the can first) add a can of peas (again drain the water first) mix with mayonaise add salt and pepper if you want when I have the spoons to do all these steps I have enough macaroni salad to last a few days. Not the healthiest food ever but it beats eating handfuls of crackers all day.
Sorta medium-spoon cost, but so good, and pretty quick. Chop a zucchini. Toss it in a pan with a spoonful of garlic, oil, and red pepper flakes (the kind you get from pizza places work just fine). Wait for it to get sorta soft, then chuck in a can of corn and a can of black beans. Top with cheese, eat with chips or as nachos or in quesadillas or just with a spoon.
Three ingredient peanut butter cookies: * 1 cup peanut butter (the commercial kind seems to work better than the natural kind, if you have the luxury of choosing) * 1 cup sugar, white or brown (I've also seen people use 1/3 cup honey/syrup/agave, but in those cases you'll need to add about two tablespoons of flour to make it hold together.) * 1 egg Mix until smooth. Spray pan with nonstick spray. Dump lumps of batter onto it. (The batter won't spread much, so if you've got a firm dough you should push down the tops with a spoon or fork.) Bake at 350 degrees for somewhere around 10 minutes (or until the bottoms are brown). Let them cool for a while. Eat.
Things to put in soup to make them more filling: rice of all kinds, couscous, egg noodles, unseasoned ramen, toast bits, tortellini, any kind of teeny pasta like acini di pepe, little pasta rings, stelline, (star shaped! :D) small pasta shells, whatever you like. Misc: boiled perogies + olive oil + hot sauce + curry powder + sour cream + green onions = NOM frozen berries of your choice + carbonated water, blend until awesome brown rice + peanut sauce + canned mushrooms (or whatever vegetable you’re in the mood for–canned stir fry veggies or water chestnuts are also awesome if mushrooms aren’t your thing) chicken also goes pretty dang good with this, add cashew nuts if you’re feeling fancy. macaroni and cheese with red pepper flakes is pretty amazing. (other nice additions include: sausage, chicken, broccoli, chili, diced tomatoes, etc.) pan fried perogies + olive oil + sausage = NOM two flour tortillas + cheddar cheese, nuke in the microwave until melty. other nice fillings include scrambled eggs, spinach, green onions, sausage, etc Add your favorite jam or jelly to your heated granola and/or oatmeal of choice. luka’s sushi salad: medium grain rice + rice vinegar + nori strips + canned tuna + sriracha + sesame seeds = put it in a bowl, stir, NOM. Aud’s quiche recipe: the first rule of quiche club is that it is really, really difficult to mess up a quiche when it comes to the ingredients, like, as long as you have a crust, eggs, heavy cream, and cheese, you’re good to go, the rest is just having fun and being creative. if you grabbed a graham cracker crust instead of the pie kind, don’t despair! I’ve made this mistake too–but if you like stuff like pork with maple or honey flavors, you’ll find a graham cracker crust isn’t half bad in a ham or bacon quiche, as the crust isn’t too sweet. It might not be everybody’s favorite though. Preheat your oven to about 400 F. Grab one frozen pie crust, two eggs, a half pint carton of heavy cream. Grab about two cups of your favorite shredded cheese. Grab your favorite fillings. These can include: ham, bacon, chicken, broccoli, (chopped tiny, I usually try to keep the stem bits out but they don’t hurt) spinach, (if you thaw frozen spinach, be sure to squeeze out the extra water!) green onions, dried tomatoes, carrots, asparagus, pretty much whatever tickles your fancy. Grab a bowl, blend eggs and heavy cream with ¼th teaspoon of the spices of your choice. I dig: paprika, powdered garlic, black pepper, nutmeg, onion salt, rosemary. Grab the pie crust. Add alternating layers of cheese and fillings until full. Pour in egg/heavy cream/spice mixture. Pop into the oven for about thirty-five minutes, check to see if it’s done by sticking a knife in the middle–if it comes out clean, you’re good! SNARF YOUR EGG PIE. And seriously, go experiment, quiches allow for all kinds of fun stuff.
When I have the spoons to even think about easy cooking, my go to is boxed instant mashed potatoes with cheese. However much you want, just make the potatoes, add in a good hunk of butter at the end, salt, and while still heart dump in whatever cheese strikes your fancy. And black pepper. Good to have if along with stuff like boiled hot dogs. Speaking of hot dogs, anyone got any good brands they like? Last one I had was all mushy and gross and I gagged.
Hebrew national kosher beef franks. They are the hands down best hotdogs available. Fight me. Also, wrt hot dogs. Put those fuckers in a pan and crisp up their outsides. It takes the same time and energy as boiling them and is 1000000x more delicious. I do not understand why anyone boils or steams their hotdogs ever.
I feel a lot of these seem to actually be high spoons foods? Like for me it's Low energy: stuff I can take right out of the package and eat, zero in between steps required. Like crackers or chips or snacks in general Medium energy: stuff that I have to put in the microwave first or add a second ingredient to High energy, feeling fancy: spaghetti. You have to get out the noodles, put water in a pot, boil the water, cook the noodles, strain the noodles, put the noodles back in the pot, microwave the sauce, put the sauce on the noodles, get the cheese out, put the cheese on the noodles. That is often too much to do. And yet a lot of these are spaghetti-level recipes.
That does suggest that either you have a very low baseline of spoons, or that cooking uses up a lot of them for you. Or both. neither of which surprises me to be honest, even though it sucks. As long as you can afford food that is instantly edible that works, but some people can´t. I´ve lived off of noodles with salt and butter sometimes. (Some of the recipes here are medium to high spoon levels for me as well.)
You might consider having someone look at your executive function stuff because pasta+pre-made sauce is pretty low spoons for me and I regularly cook higher difficulty level stuff for funsies and I consider myself to be pretty anxious about cooking. Like for me 'Make your own pasta dough from scratch for lasagna' is hyper high-spoons, 'tricky techniques and stuff with multiple components that requires timing' is high spoons (which is incidently some of my baking stuff, sadly), medium spoons would be 'requires chopping stuff and assembling', and low spoons is everything that doesn't require much cutting and assembling. Like pasta with a bought sauce and below. I think the whole thing with 'how much cutting do I have to do' might be related to me having somethign sorta like intrusive thoughts about sharp objects like kitchen knives so that's a spoon drain I guess
@BPD anon yeah, thats rough. I think if cooking in general is consistently that spoon draining for you thats pretty unusual and would probably be the point where Id start looking for a roommate who liked to cook and offer to do their laundry in exchange or something. Possible also its practice. Like, ive put dinner on the table on my own for 10+ years now and its a lot easier than it used to be by sheer dint of repetition. Like, yeah, there are days where i just can't and we have cereal or order pizza or something, but still. You could try picking a recipe and making it a lot whenever you have spoons and see if it gets easier over time. Another option is to cook when you have spoons and freeze single serving packets. Baked eggs, stews, soups, casseroles, enchiladas, etc are really good for this. Take out, pop in microwave, put in face. Much cheaper and tastier (and healthier usually) than buying frozen foods. (That said half of why I'm so fat is because you can eat cookies straight out the packet so I totally feel you on eating that way. Before i come off as having more of my shit together than i actually do)
Laundry? Probably not. Laundry is a giant multi-day task for me because at some point half way through taking the clothes off the floor and putting them in the hamper, I end up just not being able to do any more, or even really stand up. Also, though I will have roommates for the next couple of months, it's a temporary thing and I much prefer to live alone. Maybe it's just my food. I'm vegan*, but I try to get protein and B12 from as many easy, no energy involved in making sources as I can. But that could be why I don't have all the energy in the universe. Idk. *not the preachy kind, I swear! Also the cheese for my spaghetti that I mentioned earlier is fake.
Its all good. I was vegan for a good long while myself, so no worries. Seems to me theres not great choice in vegan and no-effort food so yeah might be worthwhile to track what you're eating to make sure you arent deficient in something. As for laundry, it doesnt have to be that specifically so much as just 'what can i do for fairly few spoons to trade'. You never know what'll be valuable to someone.
My problem with low spoons food is that a lot of it is, "Throw eggs and cheese into everything!" and I am lactose intolerant and have an intolerance to egg yolks for some reason. I can eat some amounts of cheese, but not a lot. Vegan cheese could be an alternative there, I guess? My low-spoons food tends to just be pasta+whatever I have that I can chuck into it. I try to be at least semi-healthy there.
Pasta and tomatoes tends to be pretty yummy. I make it because I personally despise tomato sauce, but chopping them is also easier than making sauce out of them.
For me truly low spoons food is at most just stuff I can open and pop straight in the microwave or oven without doing anything else. Anything with even some prep is medium spoons, but I can manage that sometimes or my girlfriend can so it works out. I'm sure lots of people have mentioned pasta and mac and cheese and cereal and stuff so I won't bother. Trying to think of some 'recipes' though.. This is sort of medium-spoons, but one thing I like to do is make little pizza pockets. Get crescent rolls or any other type of pre-made dough that comes in pieces, some jar red sauce, some cheese (shredded , cubed, or even string cheese), and some pepperoni or crumbled sausage, whichever you like. Spread out the dough, put in enough cheese/meat so that it will fit in the folded over dough (it won't be a lot. i usually just get a sprinkle of shredded cheese or 1-2 cubes, and a single pepperoni), and fold it all together. If you're using crescent rolls it's honestly easier to not fold them the crescent roll way, I just kind kind of fold them in a way that they kind of end up looking like tiny little pizza galettes. Bake 'em at whatever temperature and time the can of dough calls for. Check on 'em to see if everything is melty and okay looking, and that the dough is golden. Microwave a bit of the red sauce in a microwave safe container, use it for dipping. Another pizza thing we often do around here is even simpler. Pizza sauce on a tortilla, sprinkle cheese, put pepperonis on, pop in the oven at 350 til everything is melty. Done, eat. Takes a few to feel full to be honest but so easy. One thing we make a lot that is not a low spoons thing exactly but it makes a lot that you can store for leftovers is chili. Make it on a high spoons day and store the leftovers. You can keep a bit in your fridge and toss the rest in the freezer if you want to. Packets of chili seasoning will have a recipe on the back. It's pretty much slopping the beans and tomatos in a pot or crock pot and then adding meat to it. The main spoons draining part to me is having to brown the meat. You can add some stuff to it also to make it more to your tastes. We usually use turkey over ground beef, and add extra chili powder and a bit of sriracha. Add a cup of rice or small pasta of your choice while it's cooking as well to add a bit to it if you like. Chili is one of those things that taste better as leftovers too I think. I make a ton of perogies around here as well. Just get Mrs T's or whatever. You can boil them or bake them and they're good to go that way. I like to put a bit more effort in when I can manage it and actually cook them in a non-stick pan with some butter and sometimes some pre-diced onions. Another fancy way to do it if you've really got the spoons that day is to boil the perogies and then drain them and leave them in the pot for a bit. Then brown some butter by putting butter in a pan that has been sliced up and stirring it around over medium heat. Make sure not to burn the butter, but you do want to brown it.. the milkfats will separate, it will turn brown, and smell almost nutty. As soon as it starts getting that way, add the perogies you already boiled and just stir them around in that butter for a quick minute so they get the browned butter flavor. Might not be everyone's thing, but I adore browned butter. On the browned butter front, if you have the spoons to make browned butter and enjoy the taste, that's pretty much how you make good Butter Noodles. Buy those swirly egg noodles, boil them, drain them, then make some brown butter. Mix them together and there's some good butter noodles. Another thing I just thought of as well, you can cheese a lot of steps in recipes that call for prep work if you're willing and/or able to potentially pay extra and if your supermarket has it. We buy a lot of carrot chips or slivers for recipes that call for slicing up a carrot, if a recipe calls for chopped up potato we buy those little baby potatos that just need to be cut in half to be small enough, you can buy pre-diced onions and even mirepoix (diced carrots+celery+onions mixed) in some stores as well. It really takes away a lot of the nitty gritty prep work on some recipes and becomes 'toss all of this crap together' instead.
Vegan cheese is very not worth the effort, imo. Try asian food-- its great for non-dairy stuff, and if you premix your spices or use the paste stuff curry's almost as easy as 'fuckit' pasta.
