Im so bored of food, hate cooking but need to eat

[SurlyCue]

Long back story but i'll cut it down.

I have childhood food issues, textures mainly, but i dont eat any fruit, very very bland palate. Diet consists of what i call "yellow" foods. Pasta, bread/toast, chips, sausage rolls. Basically all the lazy unhealthy stuff.

DCs eat at CMers 3 evenings a week, their grandmoter's one evening a fortnight and their dad's one evening a fortnight. On the weekends they are with me we get take out. The weekday evenings i "cook" for them i usually do a pasta dish (from a jar) or something like fish fingers. When i'm feeding just myself i will either have toast, a sandwich, quick pasta stir or a ready meal from supervalu. (Which work out quite expensive)

I hate cooking, food has such horrible associations for me that i take no joy in preparing it, its a real chore that i would happily never do again. But obviously i need to eat and i am so bored with toast/bread/pasta.

I need to get out of this rut. I need some variety but it has to be minimal prep as a) i just wont put the effort in and b) in the evenings i just want to walk in and switch the oven on while i do washing/homeworks etc. and also- i'm scared of trying new things so i dont waste time cooking new things i mightnt like. I have seen myself cooking a full meal only to bin it before tasting as it smelled bad.

I'm expecting to be told to grow up and just eat my veg like an adult but unless youve grown up with the association i have with food then you just wont get it. Ive seen Paediatricians as a child and had hypnotherapy as an adult to try and conquer this but it hasnt happened.

So i need advice/recipes/tips for not too scary meals that are easy prepped and wont cost a fortune in food i mightnt eat. Even something like a meal plan of basic meals i could rotate, especially stuff i could prepare in advance and freeze or stick in the fridge.

Thanks in advance.

I do very easy stew, chop carrots and onions and put in slow cooker, add a pack of diced stewing beef, enough water to cover and crumble a couple of oxo cubes in. Put on high for the afternoon or on low all day while I'm at school and when we want to eat I stir some bisto in until it's thickened up. You can add tin of potatoes for last hour too and it's nice with crusty bread x

For a nice curry - fry chopped onions ( I just pop mine in the food processor), add chopped red peppers, Pataks Balti paste, diced chicken, a bit of water and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Job done! Great with ready made naans and mango chutney.

I've just PMd you

That's totally ok. Just means we can make sure we are in the right lines to help you.
It's totally fine to be terrified of curry given what you say. Something to work up to maybe?

I do my beef stew similar to lost it and it's lovely and very simple. I serve mine with mash cos you can ignore the slow cooker while sorting the mash no worries about everything being hot together.

I agree with cdtaylornatsabout getting a slow cooker. They are cheap enough to buy. Look in Argos/on Amazon.

You bung in the ingredients in the morning, leave on low and come home and eat. I have a large slow cooker so feed us one night the then freeze (in takeaway containers) individual portions for my cba to cook/in a rush days. I sometimes prepare it all the night before and just get it out the fridge and switch on in the morning!

My lazy stew consists of already chopped up stewing steak (or any meat you choose). I dont brown it or anything I literally bung it in the slow cooker. A ready prepared stew pack of veg and colemans/schwartz/asda own beef/chicken casserole packets.

It just needs the odd stir. You can add some aunt bessies dumplings a short while before serving.

I also cook a whole chicken in mine. Again I literally do nothing except take chicken out of wrapper.Place in slow cooker add a couple of table spoons of water leave on low all day. I serve with veg like a chicken dinner but you could have it with some bachelors savoury rice/salad or anything else.

Sausage casserole is another one you can do in the slow cooker.

Its a myth that you need to seal meat etc by frying it off first. It may help/make things taste better in some instances but honestly I rarely bother and it all comes out ok to me and no one has complained yet!

Mash will keep in the fridge for a few days and can be warmed up in the microwave.
Also freezable!
Defrost and microwave :)

Mild currys can be very very mild, in terms of spice. But they are packed full of flavour. I think on your current pallet it might be a bit of a senses overload!
Build up to curry!

The stews mentioned above are great for that,
With the slow cooker always put in less water than you think you'll need, probably by half. None of it evaporates away, because when it evaporates it condenses on the lid and drops back in again!

What sort of things do you drink?

So what do you get from the take away? What do you like ready meal wise?

I so totally get you, my carer/friend has food issues similar to yours and in the 15+ years I have known him he has recently branched out. This week he tried rice with mint sauce and ate 1/2 a meat ball.

How old are your children? You could perhaps learn to cook together.

OK you like potatoes - what about sweet potatoes? If you get one microwave for 3 mins (in the skin), turn it over and cook for another 3 mins - then cut it completely in half and squeeze - you end up with instant mashed sweet potato.

You could do this along side a ready meal to increase veg intake.

And you don't have to start cooking everything yourself, get your mum to make her stew and then put it in individual portions in foil cartons - like the ones your take away comes in and freeze.

Get your mum to write the reheating instructions, I find stew from frozen in the oven takes 45 mins to 1hour, I check at 45mins - your mum's stew is probably the same.

Another vote for a sc, normally I wouldn't recommend this but to start you could buy one of those packets of 'casserole mix' and following the recipe. Or the tins of ready made. If you are doing it in the sc reduce the amount of water by 2/3.

I cook ribs in the sc, I use a variety of veg mostly peppers and onions but they can be done without.

Switch on the slow cooker, put pork ribs in - you might need to curl them round the edge. Add a packet or jar of passatta, a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of mixed dried herbs - just leave it, the meat will cook off the bone so just pull the bones out and serve.

I have a rice cooker, if you like rice maybe invest in one, lidl has them at the moment for £10, they do perfect rice but you can also do other things in them with just a bit of prep and then leave to cook.

I second taking a look at Jamie Oliver's Ministery of Food book, it is an excellent guide to making very tasty, simple wholesome food and there are very clear instructions and pictures in it. What I liked about it is it shows you how you can build on a recipe once you decide you like it.

I would recommend getting a notebook and as you find a recipe that you and the dc like, jot it down. That way you can go straight to your families favourites and it is something you can give to your dc when they grow older - that way they will never not know how to make mum's best stew etc. I am doing this for my dd.

I think take aways are fine every once in a while and we do have them here and I love it, so handy. But I try to balance that my not using jars / packets to make the dinners the rest of the time. But that is just how I like to do it. Jamie Oliver has some very nice stew recipes that do not have packets of sauce mix in them. They are worth trying out.

I think it is great that you are tackling this and letting your dc have a healthier relationship with food, you should be proud!