What to do when you don’t feel like cooking?

TastyReuben

TastyReuben

Nosh 'n' Splosh
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We have wonderful cooks here, and we all love being in the kitchen, but we all have days where we just can’t be bothered.

Maybe work gets in the way, or family emergencies, or maybe you’re just too tired. For me, it’s usually work or personal errands, and some days, just scrambling an egg is too much.

When that happens, what’s your fallback plan? Do you run out for fast food, phone for a delivery, or do you keep some ready-made items on hand, like frozen pizza or a microwave meal?

I will usually resort to fast food or grabbing a takeout from the closet place to us (a little roadside bar & grill).
 
Weeknight fallback plan is pasta with some sort of quick pesto sauce. Used to be frozen Pizza, but we have high cholesterol so trying to avoid that.

Normally, we budget for eating out on the weekends, but sometimes we dip into that budget a bit early. When work really kicks us down its time for Uber-eats, and our go-to delivery is usually Korean. If I'm in the mood for something heavier, its Jamaican or Cuban food.
 
Like FowlersFreeTime I resort to something such as a pasta with a quick sauce: just two ingredients. For example, half a Boursin cheese with a bit of the pasta water makes a fine sauce. Ditto a hunk of blue cheese plus some pasta water. Two ot three ingredient recipes are a speciality around here when I don't feel like cooking.

Otherwise its ready meals - of which there are many to choose from in the UK. There are whole aisles in supermarkets devoted to chilled (not frozen) meals here and most have no additives. Many are really rather good:

This sort of thing:
81201

Ingredients:

King Prawns (Crustacean) (33%), Onions (28%), Tomatoes (17%), Green Peppers (6%), Red Peppers (6%), Tomato Paste, Rapeseed Oil, Yogurt (Milk) (2.5%), Garlic Purée, Ginger Purée, Coriander, Salt, Ground Paprika, Green Chilli Purée, Ground Cumin, Ground Garam Masala (Roasted Coriander, Roasted Cumin, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Mace, Roasted Green Cardamom Seeds, Ginger, Fennel, Cloves, Nutmeg, Bay Leaves), Lemon Juice, Ground Coriander, Ground Fenugreek, Turmeric, Whole Green Cardamom, Chilli Powder, Ground Green Cardamom, Ground Bay Leaves, Chilli Extract
 
I´ve always got tomato sauce in the fridge for pasta, and homemade pesto. OR I´ll dump some peanut butter, onions, garlic and ginger in the blender and add anything vaguely SE Asian to it, blend, instant sauce.
Or aglio e olio - what could be quicker than cooking up a bit of garlic in oil while boiling the pasta?
 
I have to admit, when I was in Cincinnati and didn´t feel like cooking, I´d just pop down to McDs or order a
domino´s pizza!!
 
I bring something home from work. We have deli salads and heat and eat stuff. Or, take out. But there is really only two places in town where I eat feom so it gets old fast
 
It's happening a lot lately due to long work hours and lethargy. We usually UBER it ranging from Chinese, Italian, Pizzeria or Jamaican (love that jerk chicken, brown rice and Rasta Pasta). If I am alone or people are all over the place, I will eat a Lean Cuisine or frozen pizza.
 
Part of maintaining a love for cooking is being able to not do it! There's all sorts of zero to low-effort meals I can fall back on if cooking isn't an option. Takeout or delivery is the easiest, but can be hit and miss, not to mention expensive. There's usually leftovers in the fridge so there's some easy options for dinner. Sometimes I'll just make a quick sandwich or salad out of what's available in the fridge. If even that is too much effort, I might just have a bowl of cereal, or yogurt and fruit, or something else that takes less than 30 seconds of prep.
 
TastyReuben said:
I must be on a cooking forum, because the answer to my question “What do you eat when you don’t feel like cooking?” is just to cook something easy. :laugh:
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Here in Cowboyville Arizona, there is no delivery service, so if it's been one of those days that I just don't want to or have no inspiration to cook a meal, we drive up 2 cities to dine out... we don't do fast food anymore, or very, very very rarely.
And then there's leftovers in the `fridge, some times... just heat and eat.
 
I wanted to add that DH will fend for himself and make something super easy... PBJ on Soda Crackers, canned Sardines over steamed White Rice (which is always in our `fridge), a "Tony Soprano Sandwich" (a coupla sliced of deli Ham and Cheese, wrapped together and eaten over the sink-no dishes to fuss with) 😁
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
Here in Cowboyville Arizona, there is no delivery service, so if it's been one of those days that I just don't want to or have no inspiration to cook a meal, we drive up 2 cities to dine out...
Click to expand...

Wow! I can't imagine that. I'm so used to getting everything delivered here. In fact, I'm totally dependent on it as I don't go to shops at all.
 
Weekend fall back plan: either fresh fried fish from the market or store bought russian salad with crayfish for husband and a frozen pizza for me. We used to order a lot of pizza but we have to cut down on our expenses this year so a lot less of that. Also planning to only go out for dinner twice this year.

Weekdays I either reheat meals I made and froze myself or just fry some snacks and fries. Or sometimes we eat ramen noodles
 
Depends. I sous vide, so I have a fridge full of ready made foods. I also live directly across the street from two shopping centers and there are two restaurants on the ground floor of my building, a ramen shop that's open till two and a convenience store. I haven't been hungry since I moved here. 😆
 
I just say about 2 times a year.....I cant be f@#$%^ cooking. Get yourselves something.
I dont get any argument.
Everyone knows when I say that it's look after yourselves.

Russ
 
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