Tired of cooking - but enjoy my food - any thoughts?

[Anjanax]

I’m 60 and live on my own now. Some health issues - so the effort of constant shopping, cooking and cleaning up after I find v tiring and time-consuming. Especially with other commitments. It might be easier if I was a happy—natural-good-cook Italian grandmother living in a farmhouse in Tuscany (like the Dolce & Gabbana adverts). But for me, even if I can manage sone reasonable meals, it’s always been an effort!!

Batch cooking has limited appeal. I also do not have the freezer space. I just keep a few emergency basics in there - bread, fishfingers, peas 😆….

However living on toast etc also has limited appeal. I’m a bit of a foodie. Plus I’m at least 20 lbs overweight. Gah!

Anyone managed to resolve this conundrum, or improve matters, at least partially? I need a plan or some new ideas …

Why does batch cooking not appeal other than the freezer space? You don’t need to make huge volumes at a time. It’s very easy to make something like lasagna, eat one portion, keep one in the fridge for later in the week and freeze 2 portions. If you get the right sized Tupperware that doesn’t take up loads of space it makes life so much easier.

I’ve tried @TheFlis12345 but without a proper chest freezer (and I don’t have space for that), it was very limited and some of the results were varied let’s say!!

I know on some level I’m asking for the impossible!

What about a recipes for 1 book? Prep once a week?

You can do batch cooking without a chest freezer! I’ve only got a normal half and half fridge freezer.
I freeze batches of a basic tomato sauce (onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes) which can then be used as a base for things like pizzas, pasta sauces, lasagna, traybakes. I also use mostly frozen veg rather than fresh.

Just cook easy food.

Tray bakes are the easiest.
Chicken pieces, skin on, with baby new potatoes, skin on, cherry tomatoes and olives. Add some purple broccoli or asparagus half way through the cooking if you want greens. Shake some oregano over them with a squeeze of lemon and half a glass of white wine. Five mins to prep, 40 mins baking. Eat with salad if you didn't want the faff of adding greens half way through.

Or chicken pieces marinaded in medium curry powder mixed with water, a little oil and brown sugar to make a paste. Bake with some quartered white onions, sweet potatoes and yellow peppers and chunks of frozen spinach which will mix with the marinade.

Salmon - brush with sweet chilli and soy, serve with egg noodles and sugar snaps steamed while the fish bakes.

Yesterday I made fresh pesto with spaghetti. Took 5 mins. Rinse a bag of basil. Put it in a small blender with some grated padano cheese, a peeled garlic clove or two and some cashews or pine nuts. Add some oil and water and blend to a paste with the pasta is boiling. Easy to rinse off the blender as it's not sticky.

I often cook separate meals for myself so I make a lot of stir fry's which are quick and easy to cook and I use a tefal wok so very easy to wash afterwards.

In your situation I'd be cooking a lot of steak and salad / veggies

My gran had this mindset too, hence why she became very regular atM&S . She used to stick their quiches in with ready prepared new potatoes plus salad or coleslaw

I'd do Hello Fresh and/or Gousto for a while, I think.

Yes, you'll still be cooking so it's some effort, but...it's convenient, well balanced nutritionally and you don't have to think about any of it.

One meal should cover two days if it's just you, so you'll save money too.

Have you thought of trying a meal delivery company like Gusto.

They deliver all the raw ingredients, pre measured and the meals are often quick and simple to make and also taste good.

As i am on my own i used to get the box for 2 people for 3 meals, I would save 1/2 of every meal i cooked for another meal and the 3 meals would last me for 6 days

It's almost summer, so a weekly summer salad might be something to look forward to.

Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater. An oldie but just the kind of thing you need.

If you want to be healthy and lose weight, I'd recommend Dr Mark Hyman's The Sugar Solution 10 Day Detox Diet book which contains lots of extremely easy recipes:

https://archive.org/details/bloodsugarsoluti0000hyma_e7w4

I also have a book by Saskia Fraser called Raw Food - Recipes & Preparation which explains the ins and outs of preparing food without cooking.

Since I've started this way of eating I've not just lost weight but I feel more energetic. People actually comment on how well I look. And I don't feel hungry!

I'd highly recommend this - lots of vegetables, lean protein, very limited carbs (no refined carbs or UPF) and virtually no sugar.

Get yourself a two drawer airfryer. Meat/fish in one drawer, vegetables in the other. You can cook most things in an airfryer and it saves so much oven faff.

Like you, I live alone and enjoy nice food, I'm retired so my time is very flexible. Batch cooking is of little interest to me as I've only got a small fridge freezer. I do usually have some soup available for a quick lunch.
I tend to eat things that can be cooked simply such as fish...salmon fillets, lemon sole, sea bass, prawns, that can be bought in single portions.
I'm a fan of pasta, and like dishes such as pasta primavera, pasta Alfredo, pasta Norma, also risottos are a favourite especially mushroom or pea & asparagus.

With summer almost here, I do much less cooking, and eat things such as open sandwiches of smoked fish, Parma ham, cheeses, or salads like Salade Niçoise, chicken Caesar salad. Couscous is another summer staple with salad items & smoked fish or chicken.

I am embracing salads at the moment as they are quick to put together and I get a bag of spinach leaves, proper marinated prawns from M&S, seeds, avocado etc. so delicious and nutritious but so easy to put together too.

I buy a cooked chicken or roast one and do similar and eat that in various ways throughout the week including on crusty bread. Yum.

Buy a ready roasted chicken,will do 4 meals new potatoes ,make extra next day sauté them with herbs etc and have lots of salad.Poached salmon cook 2 one hot then cold the next day.Mutti veg sauce best thing ever use on pasta or rice.Lts of fresh fruit and yoghurt.Keep it simple.

Thanks y’all.

apologies if I don’t respond separately to each suggestion, just too knackered today.

re. two drawer airfryer, yes sounds good. do you use it a lot?! I saw it on MSE the other day. Though I’ve just bought a soup maker to encourage me in That department. I don’t want to crowd myself out with appliances …

yes, summer here, will hopefully make it easier!!!!! Simple dishes like Ada and others mentioned are easier then.

if only I had an M&S next door too.

I probably sound a little bit pathetic but am so tired and overwhelmed at times! I just need to get myself together. “The answer is within you” as they say