Easy healthy food when too exhausted/depressed to cook

[Adollop]

I rarely feel like cooking. What do you eat when you've no motivation to cook and just feel like eating junk? I want to make sure I'm still eating something healthy, but can't be bothered to make anything, so I end up just eating toast and biscuits.
Grateful for any ideas.

I usually make meals like lasagnea, curries, veg pies, cottage pies etc and freeze them then just cook them for about 30 minutes in the oven it's so easy. I make 2 weeks worth of meals for myself and my partner.

My quick fallbacks are fried chicken, couscous made with half a stock cube & microwaved sweetcorn.

Or a ham & pepper omelette.

Or soften some crushed garlic in a pan, rinse some tinned canellini beans and add to the pan, heat for a minute then add half a tin of tuna, heat through and serve with cherry tomatoes.
All less than 10 mins.

Soup

Scrambled eggs with avocado and cherry tomatoes
Soup
Tuna melt
Pasta with pesto and a handful of frozen peas and some chopped cherry tomatoes
BLT wrap
Omelette with feta peas and mint - dried is fine
Salmon and stir fry veg

I really struggle with this too. Cooking feels like such a big effort for very little reward. Are you just cooking for yourself or are there others to consider?

Pasta with tomato sauce (just a tin of tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs, salt).

Having a rice cooker is great - just put rice, frozen vegetables and ham/chicken in there, then when it is finished, crack an egg on top and let the steam cook it. Take it out and add sesame oil and soy sauce. Instant fried rice.

Smoothies - whatever fruit you have, and add oatmeal, seeds and nuts to bulk it up (helps with low mood too).

Baked potato with tuna and sweetcorn or beans

Beans and egg with whatever (sausage, chicken nuggets), surprisingly healthy, considering

Steak - all you have to do is put it in the pan

A tin of coconut milk, some peanut butter, curry paste and one of those ready cut packs of vegetables is a really nice curry

What I do with a lot of things is make twice or three times the amount and then freeze it. Then when I can't be arsed, I still have something healthy to eat.

Even just having snacks around like healthy crackers, brown bread, dried fruit, ready cut cheese, cherry tomatoes etc is useful for me. It gives me the energy I need to make something more substantial.

It's horrible when you can't be bothered cooking and it only makes your mood worse. I totally sympathise, I've been there loads.

Depends if you are skint or not. Obviously it's a lot easier if you have money to spare. I try and prioritise healthy eating as it makes me feel so much better and energetic when I do.

Buy cooked chicken slices/cooked salmon or whatever and microwave veg steam bags and add to portions of microwave rice. Add some soy sauce or other pre-made sauce and there is a low fat, low calorie, hearty, tasty meal in a few minutes.

You can do the same with noodles or pasta.

There is no need for meals to take long to cook.

Macdonalds veggie wrap is low calorie (350ish) and tasty -

Or bulk cook when you have the energy.

Or buy ready meals. Some are ok if needed.

Aldi Tuna and Rice Meals. I’ve just had the Puttanesca. 40 seconds in the microwave and it was delish.

Nothing wrong with some soup, a few oatcakes and a bit of hummus. Or carrot sticks.
Or an omelette. Or scrambled eggs on toast.
Porridge.
Bag of salad with pre cooked chicken or tuna.
Yoghurt and fruit and or nuts.

Try and fill up on ‘real’ food as much as possible. Your mind and body will thank you.

Aldi do jars of curry sauce with a spice mix on top that are lovely. Tesco does really useful frozen veg - they have an onion, celery and carrot finely chopped base mix one. I fry some base mix, add frozen veg (peppers, mushroom, whatever will go) and a rinsed tin of butter beans, and add the sauce. I don't bother with rice, but half a pack of microwave rice would work with it.

Boiled eggs, toast, apricot jam, lump of cheese and an apple.
Boiled rice and green beans topped with fried egg and chilli sauce.
Ready made tortellini with olive oil and Parmesan.
Packet gnocchi with pesto, bocconcini and wilted spinach.
Bagel with cream cheese, tomato and basil.
Cheese and tomatoes on toast with a side of rocket.

I second what a PP said: batch cook loads of healthy recipes at the weekend and then separate into individual portions and freeze. You can take one box out of the freezer and it will feel like heating up a supermarket ready meal. I also find that cooking during the day feels like a hobby, not boring chore cooking.

Eat with salad, tomatoes and a dash of balsamic vinegar and it’s a goodun.

I would stop thinking about cooking meals and just stock up on lots of healthy food you love.

For me that would be: fancy soup, part baked brown rolls you can freeze, nuts, oats for porridge, Greek yogurt (big pots of plain, then blend banana and frozen berries into) if you can afford, then nice pots of salad, some cold meats/cheese/cooked chicken/salmon, avocados. Just picky stuff. Thinking about cooking meals is exhausting. Theres a great video on you tube by someone with adhd who gave up cooking meals and just took this approach. I'll try to find it and link it later.

You can buy tins of mixed beans-you literally heat for a few mins and add what flavouring/other salad bits(if you want to jazz it up) Very healthy and no effort required.
I won't repeat most of the other great suggestions given by others but they all are easy and healthy.
Even those frozen steam veggies packs most supermarkets do, are a reasonable way of adding extra nutrition to your meals.
I would also suggest having of your favourite meals, I have been experiencing similar issue and use Youtube to find healthier versions of things i enjoy.
Hope things improve and remember cake every so often is never a bad idea!

Thanks, some great ideas. Soup sounds good at the moment

The £6 stir fry deal in M&S. That will do you minimum of 2 meals. Choice of veg packs, meat or tofu, rice or noodles & sauce. My favourite is prawns, noodles & thai sauce. 5 minutes cooking literally.

Chicken stir fry is my go-to healthy but very quick meal. If you buy a bag of ready-prepped veg you can fry chicken, add that and noodles all within the space of 10 minutes.

Also rye toast topped with wilted spinach and poached (or fried) eggs - another sub 10 minute meal that's good for you

Pasta carbonara with courgettes (think it's a Jamie Oliver recipe) - also sub 10 minutes

I've got a chronic illness and also have bad mental health. There are many days where I don't have much energy or enthusiasm for cooking. It's sad because I loved cooking before, but I'm slowly getting back into it but now with added short cuts.

I buy frozen, ready chopped vegetables and a lot of tinned tomatoes and different types of tinned beans. Frozen onions and peppers for example, even frozen mashed potato. You can also buy these bags of frozen ready chopped onion, celery and carrot. It's easy to use this stuff to make a few different things - chillies, bolagnaise, shepherds pie.

I also do simple meals like lamb chops with microwave mash and some sort of microwave vegetable side from the supermarket. Usually creamed spinach or cauliflower cheese.

Stew is another of my go to meals. Diced lamb and one of those bags of pre chopped stew vegetables into a pot with some barley and stuff and then put in the oven. (Though I discovered recently on mn that oven cooking means it's a casserole and not a stew, but I call it stew).

At my lowest ebb:

Soups

Soup, either tins of Heinz tomato with bread & butter; or those packet soups with the noodles in.

Things on toast that can be microwaved

Scrambled egg on toast.

Tinned tomatoes on toast.

Cheese on toast.

Beans on toast.

Attempts at vegetables

Tinned sweetcorn, eaten out of the can

Chopped capsicum, mushroom, tomato and cheese, put in a pitta, microwave 30 seconds.

Try and buy a decent loaf of seeded bread if you can for the toast, and an olive oil margarine maybe.

Take a multi-vitamin/mineral daily if possible. (Cheap ones at Savers / Wilko.)

I find it very hard to bother to cook or prep food.

I eat uncle Ben's rice pots (60 seconds in the microwave)

Baked beans (3-4 mins on the hob)

Microwaved omelette (1 egg beaten in a microwave container for 1.5 mins)

Porridge (oats with skim milk microwaved for 3 mins)

Apples, babybel lights, cereal or protein bars, nuts, carrots.

I keep wholemeal rolls & sliced meat which I eat with a bit of mayo at work.

If I have the energy I will cook dried pasta & use a stir in sauce.

Not sure how healthy this is but is tasty and there are vegetables, and it doesn't take any time at all.
www.rhiansrecipes.com/wagamama-wok-fried-greens-vegan-gf/

One gadget that can make cooking prep lighter if you want to batch cook, is a mini chopper like the Kenwood one. I do batches of soffrito when I have a spare few minutes, and freeze in portions enough for a recipe, eg bolognese, etc. Takes a lot of the chopping work out of the equation.

I used to keep protein bars and whey protein at home.
Long life chocolate milk.
Cereal.
Toast.
Frozen pizza.
Store bought ready made meals which just needed to be heated.
Chocolate.

This was me a few months back, very little cooking done, now I cook almost every day and making meals I would never had made before, my trick is the slow cooker.

First thing in the morning, meat loads of veg or whatever u have already, throw all into the slow cooker, then u don't have to think about it all day and when u hit that slump of wanting a takeaway or eating junk, ur dinner is ready and waiting for u,

Also use a 3 tier steamer for veg and rice/ potatoes, put in and come back once ready, i rarely even turn my cooker on, oven has been broke for months and I don't miss it, and no standing over the cooker at dinner time,

Have a look on Google for meal ideas for slow cookers, there are so many meals, I just add in extra veg, best way to get a healthy meal in my house,

Slow cooker is from Tesco for £12.

Thank you for this 🙂