I have a couple friends who have issues with making their food. Idk how many times I've been talking to one, they mention feeling like shit, and I asks aht the last thing they ate was and it's some shit like "I had a coffee yesterday around 2pm"

So now, since I love cooking but hate all the prep and cleanup, I have them buy the ingredients the day before I plan on coming over, then I spend the day making meals for the next week and a half. It all has to be able to heat in one container, preferably the container it's stored in to assist with ease of heating.

It's still a toss up, but now at least when they hit a wall they can grab a box out of the fridge instead of sitting paralyzed trying to figure out what to eat or deciding to just stay hungry

I also have to label the meals with binary choices. Things like "LUNCH MONDAY OR DINNER WEDNESDAY" so they have variety and an option for if they don't want a specific one right now. Otherwise it's "too many options" and instead of just grabbing whatever, they close the freezer/fridge.

Takeout? I just don't eat

Stop attacking me!

After “vegetables” it could be “eats potato chips instead.”

See what you need is heavily medicated depression so that you can just skip steps 2 through 5 and skip straight to delivery.

I feel this so hard! Lately I've been better but not by much. I just do shelf-stable stuff like oatmeal and frozen stuff that I can either microwave or airfry.

It's not the healthiest, but it's better than not eating and it's cheaper than takeout every day...

more than id like to admit

I go days without meals just cos of this. Even if you get most of the veg and meat etc pre prepared, it's still costly but cheaper than wasting food unless I change my mind a hour later

I guess I'm over that. Just made tomorrows lunch. I get takeout once or twice a month at most.

Yup. Gotta lock in and strike while the iron's hot. That means you shop, buy, cook, prep, freeze, package, whatever, all in one go. If it's not done in 4 hours wall-to-wall on a Sunday, it ain't happening; one of those steps will get derailed.

Au-adhd: Not only do you hate the dishes, you hate the smell of leftovers, you hate the taste of microwave, the oven takes too long, sometimes even going out takes too long. So you obsess over getting the most bang for your buck when going out.

Personal debuff : I need glp1 but insurance dosent cover them because have pre-pre-dibetus. Add in major depression and anxiety. And if that wasn't enough: fibromyalgia.

Meal prep is an impossible task and I'd be dead if it wasn't for my husband.

Buy food that you can eat without cooking it. Or where cooking is extremely easy.

Meal prep? Just cook more than you need when you cook. Then you have leftovers.

Buy: eggs, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, fast cooking pasta, canned fish, bread, cheese

This is what drugs are for. Try a mix of weed and LSD.

Meal prep sounds like the most amazing thing.

Half a day prep with dishes, just basic dishwasher the rest of the week, all that contiguous free time.

So I put on an audio book or some jams and start cooking.

2 great things that are hard, 3 decent things that are moderate, 4-5 ok things that are easy

one time dish cleanup, spread out into the bentos. Stack em into the fridge.

Monday: 3 yummy meals ***
Tuesday: 3 ok meals **
Wednesday: 3 yummy meals ***
Thursday: god, i'm tired of this stuff already 3 ok meals, some of the sides are easy and meh **
Friday: Running out of good stuff, the bad stuff ruins the mediocre stuff 3 i'm sick of this meals *
Saturday: I'm tired of the good stuff, over the ok stuff, i don't want the bad stuff 3 * meals
Sunday: time to meal prep, I'm so sick of meal prep already. God all these dishes, all that cooking...