To crowd source a list of ADHD friendly meals/recipes

[Nemorth]

I’m popping this in AIBU for reach. People with ADHD often forget to eat and then when they need to eat they don’t have time to make food so often snack. Instant gratification food.

My DD jokes that we live in an “ingredients” house. When we go out and leave her at home (she’s plenty old enough to be left alone) we often plate up meals for her to make sure she eats.

She’s getting much better. Today she made herself a really pretty looking salad with chicken goujons, followed by apple and peanut butter for pudding.

I’d love to make a list of easy meals so that she can develop her skills with a view to her moving out for Uni in a couple of years.

She’ll make herself toast and baked beans. Or soup.

She’ll happily eat the same meal for days on end and then suddenly will have a sensory ick reaction to it and it will be months before she can eat it again.

The sensory ick thing can affect her making food too.

Meals should have a minimum number of steps, be easy to make and hopefully avoid ick moments. She eats little and often. Probably 5 or 6 small meals a day.

What say you Mumsnet? What meals should I include in her ADHD friendly recipe book?

Thank you.

We do have an air fryer and she is much more adventurous with food since we got it. It’s a really, really basic one. Two analogue dials. One for temp and one for time. The time one ticks down even if meal finished so we turn off at wall or leave drawer open. This basic interface really makes a difference for her.

So the thing being used to cook is part of it. Toaster = easy. Air fryer = easy. MIcrowave (once I showed her the way to do anything in 30 second increments) = easy. Our oven and microwave are quite complicated.

I’m not sure she’d use a slow cooker, she finds everything we make in that too mushy.

I think when we do shopping lessons (don’t laugh, we did this with DS too) I’ll show her things like all the frozen prepped veg and shortcut spices (prepped garlic) etc. I’m also planning to get her an electric grater.

I have a few doodads for making eggs in the microwave and she loves whatever eggy thing I make for her, so those will definitely go in the “take to Uni” list.

Have a look at simply cook. They’re like a basic version of hello fresh and only send recipe and spices. I hate cooking and really struggle with it but manage quite well with these. I pick quick/simple recipes and it’s basically just a case of a bit of chopping, boiling some pasta, then chucking everything into a pan.

Haven't RTFT but have a look at Filling Meals by Lindsay Wilson. It's technically a weight loss book, but the recipes are very smple, filling and very easy to make. The author also has ADHD so ease of cooking was definitely a factor. The meals are either a single, double or quadruple portion so very easy to cook one meal and have it for lunch 4 times, etc.
I have ADHD, as does the rest of my family, and I've found meals we can all happily eat.
Filling Meals also features on Facebook and Instagram - if you've found a ginger Aussie bloke, that's the right one! 😉

I really liked the look of the filling meals book.

I'm laughing my fucking head off!

Mac n cheese. 25g flour with 25g butter. Cook together til all melted. Slowly add milk til its the right thickness then throw in grated cheese. At the same time cook pasta. Takes 10 mins. Or if she can't be bothered to cook pasta then just eat the cheese sauce with fresh bread like fondue!

A little oil in a frying pan on medium heat, lay a rice paper pancake down, crack an egg on it and swirl it around so yolk/white mix and cover the pancake - that's the base. Add prawns/shredded chicken/cheese, then thin cut veg, maybe spinach which wilts easily. Cook until the base is crispy. Fold the pancake into thirds and let it cook a little more. Cover with sauce like sriracha, cut into four.

It takes 5 mins, one pan, and whatever's in the fridge and can mix and match.

also the same with flour tortillas/ cheese/ black beans/ quesadilla fillings - that works in a non stick pan with no oil