Sick and tired of cooking?
Fast food upgrades and 5-minute souped-up canned soup.
Hey! I’m Dina, a registered Nutritionist, I chat about realistic healthy living for diverse bodies, with monthly 5-minute meals. If you’re new here, you can read more about what to expect on the D-List.
I’m recently back from our honeymoon in Turkey, which was lovely - though we were joined by a two-year-old gatecrasher, who redefined the concept of a honeymoon.
Our toddler lives up to the reputation of the ‘badly behaved Brit abroad’ – walking around like he owns the place, loudly chanting nursery rhymes, flirting with the waitresses, refusing to eat foreign food, smashing a glass in a restaurant, then falling asleep in a bar.
The most relaxing part of the honeymoon was the break from cooking. And the most romance I got was from the ‘all you can eat’ buffet.
Grilled meat and aubergine stews, spinach and cheese gözlemes on the beach, helping myself to Cornettos from the freezer without getting arrested. It was dreamy. I didn’t have to think about food at all. I just ate it.
Being away reminded me how much my real life is consumed with endless meal planning, list-making and strategising how to feed my family healthy meals they’ll actually eat.
I love food more than most things, so I’m ok with it taking up a good chunk of my brain. But I am tired. I will cut corners to get to the end result quicker.
By the end of the holiday, the dread of returning to my endless cycle was creeping in. So I made another list.
Some days, it’s hard to get out of bed, sometimes we get sick, and sometimes, we’re just sick and tired of cooking, but mama needs to eat.
Artist and parent
sums up the cooking rage:‘Days when the task of trying to figure out what to cook would send me into a rage (I mean come ON, trying to cook EVERY DAY…it’s too much!!!).’
On days like this, we need fast food. Many takeaways and ready meals come with weird ingredients that our bodies could do without, and not enough of what our bodies need. And the healthy ones, just taste ‘healthy’.
But there’s a middle ground. We can create our own fast food by combining minimally processed, pre-cooked ingredients to make a family-friendly, nourishing meal, with minimal effort. It doesn’t have to be gourmet every day (food snobs, look away now):
A ready meal is ‘a pre-cooked meal that only requires heating’.
Bean burgers - Heat the bean burgers and toast the buns. Top with guacamole, gherkin slices, and an optional slice of cheese.
Veggie pizza - Add artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes (or any cooked veg), and crumbled feta (or any cheese) to a ready-made pizza base. If the base doesn’t have tomato sauce, spread on some passata first. Heat and serve.
Fish finger tacos - Heat jumbo fish fingers and add one to each taco. Top with tomato salsa and guacamole.
Cooked chicken - Heat the cooked chicken, sweet potato fries and sweetcorn cobs in the oven. Serve with tzatziki dip.
Chilli baked potatoes - Heat jacket potatoes and a pre-made bean chilli. Top with sour cream (or guacamole for vegans) and optional jalapeños.
Stir Fry - Stir-fry mixed vegetables in sesame sauce (or any stir-fry sauce). Add pre-cooked prawns and cooked rice, then heat through.
Simple ‘recipes’ with minimal cooking and prep, when you can’t be arsed to cook.
Souped-up Canned Soup
Homemade soups are great, but if you’re sick or tired, you can transform any basic canned soup into a comforting meal by adding a few extras.
Ingredients (serves 2)
Canned tomato soup
A 400g tin of chickpeas
1 tbsp crispy fried onions
2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
Sourdough bread
Butter
Directions
Heat the soup in a pan on medium-high heat until warmed through
Toast and butter the bread
When the soup is almost ready, stir in the chickpeas and yoghurt
Serve the soup in bowls and top with crispy onions
Swaps: Add any protein to any vegetable soup to make it more filling and nourishing - chickpeas, lentils, beans, quinoa or chicken.
Make it vegan: Skip the yoghurt and butter.
Baby-friendly: Mash or blend the chickpeas into the soup for a thicker texture and serve with toast fingers.
As always, let me know your thoughts or if there’s anything specific you’d like to hear about. I love hearing from you!
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The best part of an all inclusive holiday - never cooking, never thinking about cooking, but constantly thinking about eating or thinking about what to eat in the next meal as soon as one is over.
Heaven.