Hi
I’ve just signed up having been dieting on/off for many years! I’ve tried every diet plan imaginable and yet still end up back here!
I’m now attempting calorie counting once more - my difficulty seems to be I do not like cooking so clever plans and cookery books don’t inspire me !
Any hints to get me started??
Is there a fear of cooking from bad experiences or do you feel you don't have time?
Is there any underlying reason why you don't get inspired by cooking?
No - just no desire to plan and cook meals- hence when I do flick through a cook book I’m missing half the basic ingredients!
Fair enough 
.. i've no experience of knowing what to suggest apart from salads and in my opinion, only rabbits can live off them long term! LOL
Might have to grow my hair and fluff up my tail then !!!
Thanks for at least taking me seriously xxx
I'd love to find a way to inspire you to do a little cooking. Try reading some of the daily diaries on here, see if there are things you go "ooooh" at in terms of fancying it to eat. moreless hit the nail on the head with saying cooking doesn't have to be clever. It's more about finding out what you like, how adventurous you want to be, how much time you have and then building a knowledge of foods that will be healthy and suit your life.
Alternatively, if you do love salads .. You're set! 
I’ll work on it - thanks
Maybe try some basic recipes to begin with. Curries are easy & you can start with pastes rather than buying lots of spices. Once I started cooking from scratch I enjoyed my food more. I tend to cook at the w’end & freeze portions for the week. Omelettes & salad are good too. Anything with lots of veg & good fats. 🙂
What types of food do you like? As there are lots of healthy recipes out there that take little preparation for example I’m maki g chicken curry for tea, pre diced chicken pieces, curry powder onion, garlic and to if chopped tomatoes all put into slow cooker earlier today took me 5 mins to prepare, I’ll serve it later with brown micro rice which takes 4 mins in microwave so it takes 10 mins to make 672 calories but I feel like I’ve eaten more than enough food. I make my ow curry powder which takes 5 mins to make but I usually make enough for 5-6 curries so don’t make it that often. This to me is a healthy meal with little preparation and not a lot of cooking time as the slow cooker does it for me.
There are lots of meal suggestions on the daily diary too. Hope this has helped a little.
Oh and welcome to the forum.
SLOW COOKER! - A great suggestion I'd forgot about this but - you can also do a whole chicken roasted in a slow cooker. The skin doesn't get crispy but for a medium chicken, it does 4 good meals and you can make it into whatever meals you like!
Your curry sounds good as well Pete! A few of us on the curries tonight!
I try to have a curry at least once a week plus it stops me wanting take away on a Saturday night lol. I use my slow cooker more than I use the hob as I can prep the meal earlier in the day and eat it when I’m hungry later. I love cooking chicken in it plus I make a lot of soups which I make in a big batch and freeze so that I have them when I want them.
I don’t eat the skin on a chicken so the fact it doesn’t crisp up doesn’t bother me. I do enjoy making beercan chicken too but that gets cooked in the oven, I use full flavoured can for it( I don’t drink alcohol I only do chicken ) as the flavour gets into the meat and as it steams from the inside it’s very tender meat too.
I've seen that beercan chicken before .. i can see how it keeps the chicken juicy and i bet it is really good!
I under use my slow cooker these days as i tend to try and make myself free to prepare stuff on a Sunday for the week and can do a few hours using hobs, but i must get it back out again soon.
Freezing is a godsend. i make big batches and freeze and its a great tool
I think you hit nail on head - I could force myself once a week into the kitchen and freeze for other six days!! Someone else on here made similar suggestion !!
Worth a shot!!
Hi and welcome, OkdGal
Your post brings to mind my favourite saying - "If we always do what we've always done, then we'll always get what we've always got"
Do you really want to do that, or would you rather this time was different? We can support, encourage and advise, but without your full participation, we're on a hiding to nowhere.
Cooking doesn't have to be clever and I don't use cookery books either. Find the foods you like and make them into something you'd enjoy eating. We have recipes and we have a Daily Diary, where you can get all sorts of ideas for meals, but you're the one that has to use them.
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Hello, just saw your post. I have also been on the same rollercoaster maybe the plan I’m in might help. Let me know if you are interested. Thanks Vivian
Hi OkdGal, non-cooker here. Or I should say used to be a non-cooker. I was frozen pizza and cardboard chips in the oven cook. I really really wanted to lose weight and become more healthy and I quickly realised when reading the recipes and daily diaries there was no way I was going to achieve that by constantly buying processed or ready-made meals.
I have a few meals that my son and I love which I use regularly as I can cook those well. I am a very simple cook and to be honest that's because I prefer that style of food but also I don,t want to overwhelm myself. I do a lot of fresh fish, fried in butter or coconut oil. It takes minutes, we had fresh tuna last night seared for a few minutes. I had a veg stirfry going in a separate wok.
Tonight we had ginger, chilli chicken stirfry, minutes to prep the veg, fresh ginger I grated and added. Few other spices as we quite like hot food. Probably took 30 mins.
I am still not confident in the kitchen but my 12 year old thinks everything I have cooked is great which has boosted me a lot. I do cook now every day because I actually want to. I want to know what I am eating and what is going in my meals. In the beginning, I really struggled with food shopping, meals, planning, cooking, etc I found it a big change.
I would say now I actually enjoy it, but I also would say I wanted to change my lifestyle.
I really enjoy my food now, try and find a few meals that appeal to you and maybe rotate those for a bit. It's surprising how quickly you will adapt. Good luck.
Many thanks I really do need to work harder at this - I just felt it was down to the fact me and the kitchen aren’t buddies?? X
Well, I sort of thought that too. However, when I looked at the daily diaries and recipes on here I started to think oh I can do that. I am the same with cookery books, way too much stuff for me to look through so then I start dithering. I also keep a bag of frozen broccoli, green beans and peas in the freezer as a back up if I am running a bit low on fresh veg to top up the stir fries. I have made my own spicy turkey burgers, caper sauces for the tuna steaks. I always have food in the house now though, whatever happens I know I have enough in the freezer to eat healthily for at least 3 days.
I will be at the" cheaper " supermarket by 10 am tomorrow to restock on veg, eggs, cottage cheese, olives, sea bass, chillis, full fay Greek yoghurt. Once I actually started shopping for food and ingredients the cooking took off really.
My friend is strictly keto and has recently sent me a keto bread roll recipe and it will take me about a week to keep looking at the recipe and mull it over and buy the ingredients but I will start making them as I am doing low carb. Once I get going though I am fine. You will be fine too.
Depending on your budget there are a lot of healthier convienience food choices - even if you just had a few of those a week mixed in to other homecooked meals whilst your brushing up your skills! Depending on what you like some ideas are: sushi, soups, rice and veg pots, healthier ready meals, mixed salads, cous cous salads with packs of ready cooked chicken pieces. The healthier ones tend to be the more expensive of course and probably higher in salt etc. than homemade ones but might help you ease into cooking. Obviously you also need to check the packaging for nutritional info to ensure they are as healthy as they appear!
And then there's simple meals like stir frys mentioned already, grilled chicken breast/fish with roasted veg or green veg, scrambled eggs with grilled bacon and tomatoes, omlettes, chunky greek salad with feta or some halloumi, homemade chicken kebabs, flavoured microwave rice with grilled meats and veg, Quesadillas which is a tortilla wrap folded in half, filled with any combination of meat/veggies and a sprinkle of cheese and cooked for a few minutes each side until brown on the outside with cheese melted in the middle, things 'on toast': slice of toasted wholemeal with tuna and a sprinkle of cheese under the grill served with salad, beans on toast with a sprinkle of cheese and fruit salad after, scrambled eggs with a little chorizo, spinach and onion, tinned seasoned tomatoes or some cream cheese and smoked salmon with salad.
Hope that helps, good luck
Hey .... this was a great help .... I think you hit a happy medium for me with some nice simple suggestions of variations on something simple ! You see every time I think of food plan for the week my ideas are easy non-clever things .... that gets boring so I turn to a cook book ... then it gets too clever! Or I look at a ‘ diet plan for a week!’ Half the foods or additions to make it interesting I’ve either never heard of or can’t afford!! Or don’t readily stick!!
Your suggestions are definitely within my cookery capabilities and costing - so thanks for your time!!
I guess in all honesty I’m bored of food. ... due to my lack of interest in cooking which probably leaves me with a lack of foresight into how so pep up a simple meal!! Without adding fattening foods!!!
Many thanks thistimemaybe!
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