Hacking food prep - good days and bad days - advice please?

[edfosho]

What I mean is, in terms of preparing fresh food e.g. peeling and chopping potatoes, carrots, cutting broccoli, courgette, etc are there any 'hacks' you use so you can prioritise the activity of preparing food on 'good' days and not have to deal with it on the 'bad' days.

Cooking meals in bulk e.g. casseroles, curries etc is not a problem once the food is prepared (personally I whack everything in the slow cooker and later that day I have 4 or 5 meals).

One that I have recently started to use is chopping onion - chopped onion can last up to a week when refrigerated and in an airtight container.

For a long time I have cooked at least 2 days worth of veg, mashed potato - if I know the next day is a busy one, I'll have a nice meal ready for heating up in the microwave.

I understand you can buy prepared veg in the supermarkets, but 1) it's expensive, and 2) I have tried some and mostly the taste isn't good (I know, it's there for convenience).

I live on my own and can prepare food safely, however on the really bad days it can be a battle/mess in the kitchen! 😂

[Midori]

Although not formally diagnosed; I have Fibromyalgia to the extent that my walking and coordination are affected.

My tips for pre-preparation of foodstuffs is this: Cut up your veg to the way you want them, depending on the dish you are preparing, then put them into Ziplok bags, take out the air with a straw and zip closed, then place in another box to freeze, This keeps them together, so you don't have to rummage for them. Only keep them frozen for the minimum amount of time, as they will start to degrade even in the freezer.

I use a combination of canned and home frozen veg, and I often cheat by using a can of soup instead of stock.

Hope this helps,

Cheers, Midori

[7151 in reply to Midori]

I ve given up on cooking i manage to let thé patates boil dry I have problème swollowing so can only eat liquide food luckily my daughter comes with nice fress veg soup i also have complètement food

[Midori in reply to 7151]

I also have that problem; Forgetting to turn off the stove.

The amount of food I have to throw away is prodigious.

Cheers, Midori

[wobblybee]

🤔 I don’t like commercial frozen veg…and will definitely try preparing ‘mini bags’ next time I buy veg.

[2hot]

Hi I know what you mean. I have one hands as well so if that hurts too I get a bit stuck. Ready meals don’t work because of allergies and they are hard to open. My boys bought me a food processor for Christmas last year. It has a chopping, slicing, grating facility. Brilliant for bad day because it take 2 seconds to chop stuff. I don’t have much freezer space so I can still do things fresh. They can be expensive but I would say they’re worth it.

[Sherena]

I use a mini food processor or one of those dicer things. I also freeze stuff as well like sweet pepper, callaloo etc or even sometimes I will freeze cooked rice or quinoa or soup. I can't eat the same thing daily so I will batch cook a variety of things and then mix and match.