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.

Sugar free granola with lots of nuts in it. Add milk and chopped banana and/or some berries

Baxters' healthy lentil and veg soup with wholemeal toast

Seedy crackers and cheese with cherry tomatoes, lettuce and a pear

Boneless sardines in tomato sauce, mashed with tabasco onto toasted seedy brown bread with watercress.

Avocado and walnuts mashed on seedy toast with cherry tomatoes, leaves and olives on the side.

Cheese and ham toastie with salad

Peppered mackerel with buttered seed bread and salad.

Hope your mood lifts soon. It's really good that you are working on yiour diet while you feel low.

@Gwenhwyfar - I do sweet potatoes in the microwave. Just prick them wiht a fork in a few places and cook for 5 mins then cut open, add grated cheese or spiced beans (or both) and put back in for 2 mins. Really warming and better for you than plain baked potatoes.

Dhal.

Seeded bread and crunchy peanut butter.

Try to always have plenty of olive oil, vinegar, really good tomatoes. And easy to eat fruit.

Grocery delivery is a godsend. If I step into a food shop all I see is crisps and chocolate biscuits ...

Thanks. I bought a bag of frozen jacket potatoes and some coleslaw and cheese and baked beans. Really can't be bothered cooking at all at the moment.

Sachet of slow cooker beef stew mix - I think it's Schwartz.

You put raw diced beef, onion, carrot in the slow cooker. Sometimes I buy the veg frozen and already sliced. Then a tin of tomatoes or a dollop of tomato purée, some water and the contents of the sachet. I don't fuck around mixing anything in jugs as it suggests in the packet. It all goes in the slow cooker. It takes five minutes to prepare.

Leave for four hours on high and it's done. Half an hour before the end, add some frozen peas for added health!

Low effort accompaniment could be a jacket potato, frozen mash or chips even.

The sachets are two for a quid in b&m bargains etc.

Depending on sachet (there are all different versions) they are one to two portions of your five a day. Add an extra one for the peas 😉

The only other thing I'll do is Jamie Oliver five ingredients meals! Any of the pasta dishes that take 15-20 mins ideally.

Baked potato (done in the microwave then blasted in the oven for 10 minutes toncrisp it up) with whatever toppings you like, egg on toast, or cooked chicken with a bag of salad and some dressing on.

Thatwas that sounds easy, I'll give it a go, I've got frozen casserole veg.

Tonight I had a frozen jacket potato with coleslaw and grated cheese. It'll have to do.

OP if you don’t mind my saying so, you do seem to have slightly unreasonably high standards for acceptable meals!

Bread and cheese (and most of the wine) has often, often counted as dinner for me. There have been plenty of times when beans on toast seemed like an achievement.

What I know is that even when food has seemed like a burden I must eat something or I’ll wake up, horribly early, starving. (Also not eating has a terrible effect on my skin.) So whatever you feel you can face is good enough for now.

I don't have high standards, just trying to not get stressed and still eat healthily

I need this thread. I have ADD as well and it's too overwhelming. I've just made myself turkey dinosaurs and oven chips, and I eat that kind of thing too often. It's better than it used to be as I used to literally live off biscuits for days on end. Low blood sugar doesn't really help the other symptoms because you end up with even less energy.

I find jars of sauce are an easy fix and buying chicken which is already cut into tiny pieces. That's not too bad. It's all the chopping I really hate. There was a thread on here not long ago about frozen shortcut food which is alright. I would put in a vote for Bird's Eye Steam Fresh veg packs - they aren't soggy like frozen veg usually is, and they don't go off.

Those instant ramen packets, combined with a mini stir fry - I use mushrooms, onions, random veg that we have plus small pieces of meat if I have some (raw or cooked) and season with soy sauce, ginger and black pepper then use the sauce from the noodles to thicken up and make a nice sauce.

Easy pasta is great too. I cook the pasta and at the same time in a frying pan cook things like bacon, mushrooms, courgette, garlic, any random veg. Just whatever I have available. I like strong flavours so I keep in little jars of chilli, olives and also capers. When pasta is almost cooked add either tinned tomatoes or cream (if I have either) to frying pan and thicken. Drain pasta, possibly coat in butter or pesto to prevent sticking, and then combine with pan ingredients either in the pan itself if it's a sauce type thing or in the bowl if I've done pesto. You can use a splash of pasta water to loosen the sauce. When cooking the pasta in the sauce you want it to start to look "glossy" as that means it's done.

Having a slow cooker helps because I can do it in the morning (as long as I remember) where there is no time pressure and I'm not tired and hungry at the same time. Plus it makes loads so I freeze individual portions as leftovers.

Cold dinners so crackers/ryvita plus ham, salami, chopped up salad veg, crisps.

I hate having to eat so often, I get really frustrated about it. I find it helps to have extremely limited options for breakfast (I eat weetabix, a yoghurt, museli or porridge and that's it), slightly expanded options for lunch and then the most variety for dinner as that gives me less to think about but it's not boring either, because if I find something dull I just won't bother to eat it at all.

I also do let myself have convenience food fairly often. I agree with Aldi - they do some really nice frozen meals which are OK.

If I have nothing in the freezer and can't be bothered cooking, my favourite healthy dinner is to "bake" a jacket potato in the microwave, cut it in half and butter/add pepper. Add diced capsicum, spring onions and tomato, back in the microwave for 30 seconds and then top with grated cheese. Delicious and much better than takeaway.

Peanut butter and buckwheat crackers
Boiled eggs with corn cakes
Sardines/mackerel and rice cakes
Yoghurt
Jelly
Apples
Bananas
Tinned fruit in juice
Soup
Meat slices and cheese slices in sandwiches
Salad of tuna, sweetcorn, kidney beans
Fish fingers, potato waffles and baked beans, all shoved in the oven
Hummus and carrots/cucumber/peppers
Poppadoms
Popcorn
Porridge
Cereal
Quorn slices or sausages
Nuts and dried fruit
Nak’d bars
Atkins bars
Quest bars
Savse smoothies
Coconut water

"Bread and cheese (and most of the wine) has often, often counted as dinner for me. There have been plenty of times when beans on toast seemed like an achievement."

Yes, that's what I eat a lot of as well, but I don't kid myself that it's healthy.

"@Gwenhwyfar - I do sweet potatoes in the microwave. "

Sweet potatoes gave me a migraine once so never again for me. I think it's the high sugar content.
A smaller portion or sweet potato fries doesn't have that problem, but just eating the potatoes is a big no-no for me.

I worry that I'm not eating anywhere near 5 a day. My street consists mainly of carbs. I don't go shopping regularly (to cut down on cost as well as struggling to get out of the house). Salad and berries go off quickly I find.