Cooking motivation

Minder

What motivates you to cook a meal each evening?

It's 8.30pm on a Friday evening. I've had a long week and a busy day. I'm at home with no dinner on and a distinct lack of motivation to start cooking, probably not helped by having two beers. I did the shopping this evening for the weekend and I bought a lot of ingredients - and nothing for a quick meal.

While typing this I've decided that a fritatta is probably the easiest thing to do.

How do you keep your motivation up to cook a meal every evening, and if you not cooking every evening, what tricks do you use to be able still produce a meal on those days where you can't be bothered? (Pierce & Ping and Takeaway besides!)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i dunno.. it generally takes me about 5 minutes to get dinner prepared.
lob some broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and a potato into the steamer

when that's halfway done, throw some meat under the grill.

granted most people probably like a bit of variety in their evening meals but it could still be a quick and simple option for anyone else that can't be bothered cooking something fanceh

Minder

Sure - but do you do that 5 working days a week?

yogalady

I think life is short. if you can cook mon-thurs or sun- thurs you are doing well. Don't think it so terrible to get a treat fri and sat evening. life is hard enough some times. Don't give yourself hard time if you don't want cook every night. just my tuppence worth !

Gloomtastic!

Helps having a family to feed.

Toast4532

I really, really enjoy cooking. I love sitting down to a meal and enjoying it knowing I put lots of time, work and effort into it which makes me enjoy it even more.

That said, I do have those days where I just think "I'm not cooking", "I don't want to cook" or "what's in it to cook/eat?"

As another poster said, there's nothing wrong with getting a takeaway once a week, especially if you are working five days a week, have a family to feed/look after, house work to do etc, we all need a break from cooking sometimes.

A night off with a take away, some beers and TV/movies/laptops etc does no harm.

LaChatteGitane

I like to eat and cook. And during the day I am already 'preparing' dinner in my mind. Usually. But there are days that I just lack motivation and inspiration, just like anyone else.
So every now and then we do get a take away. Better still, I often prepare too much or do some batch cooking, which goes into the freezer as single portions or for instance bolognese for two.
I have noticed that boiled potatoes don't like being frozen very wel, but mashed potatoes are great. Leftover pork roast or chicken, gravy and some veg can all go into the single portion meals.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Minder wrote: »

Sure - but do you do that 5 working days a week?

well im unemployed, but yeah I do it 7 days a week

it's no effort at all to throw vegetables into a steamer, unless you're suffering from a very serious wasting illness you should be able to do it

woodchuck

I try to plan ahead; either have meat defrosted or already cooked. That way I'll be motivated to eat it before it goes off and I've wasted my money. I tend to just stick to simple things these days like chicken korma or spaghetti bolognese. Usually from a jar the days I'm working (just takes too long otherwise), but it tends to last a couple of days. Also I might cook something more decent on a Sunday evening and then have leftovers for dinner on Monday.

I tend to get a takeaway about once a week though.

The Sweeper

If I'm not motivated then it matters little what I have available in the fridge, I just won't cook. Takeaway is nearly always disappointing.

I have a supply of goodies in the fridge for platters when I don't want to cook. If I'm tired while I'm shopping I know I'm not going to bother my arse cooking when I get home, so I'll pick up a loaf of nice, crusty sourdough.

In the fridge I usually have things like pickles, semi dried tomatoes, big queen olives stuffed with lemon and feta, liverwurst, prosciutto, blue cheese, smoked cheese, so on. So I'll cut some of the sourdough in thin slices and pile it on a plate with pickles, olives, meat and cheese and cut a crisp red apple into pieces and eat with a glass of good wine. If I have other fruit - grapes, pears - I'll include those on the platter. It's extremely satisfying, for some reason it doesn't feel like food preparation, putting it together, and it's better than takeaway.

The Hill Billy

My motivation these days is twofold...

1 - When I am at home at weekends with Mrs Billy & The Kids I love cooking for them. The boys love helping me in the kitchen, even if it is just peeling garlic or getting me stuff from the fridge or digging out pots & pans. The motivations is to give the boys a love of cooking & give Mrs Billy a break from her everyday work. (She's a great cook, but does it because she needs to. But that is changing & she is really starting to get into trying new dishes & expanding her 'culinary' skills. Go girl!)

2 - During the week (even though I don't like cooking just for myself) I need to eat more healthily & if I do it for myself I know exactly what I am eating & only have myself to blame if I stick on the pounds or get a 'belly ache' from **** that I am not meant to eat anymore.

Edit...
3 - Because I work/live away from home during the week & come home most weekends I also have the motivation of cooking something out of whatever I have left in my fridge on Thursdays. Waste not, want not & all that. As long as I have my spices, I can usually rustle up something to suit my palate regardless of the actual meat & veg content.

Gbear

woodchuck wrote: »

I try to plan ahead

This a million times.

Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals are good for some inspiration.

Make friends with blenders, and other shortcuts.

So for example, for something fairly complicated like a curry, say a Thai Green Curry,
Put some peeled shallots/onions, garlic, ginger, fresh coriander, juice of 2 limes, chili and cumin, coriander and chili powder into a blender. Fry in a wok, throw in chicken and fry for a bit then throw in a tin of coconut milk.

Serve with noodles or rice. Cooking time + prep time is about 40 minutes. If you feel up to putting in more effort and throwing in lemongrass, chopped veg at the end or Thai fish sauce or whatever else you'll make a nicer curry but the barebones of a TGC is delicious and you get 70% of the flavour for 30% of the effort.

I make huge amounts of spagbol, chili con carne or lamb curries (chicken doesn't reheat so well) on days when I've got time.

If you make out a plan for the week it makes it easy to buy what you need and freeze and defrost things when you need them.
You can, for example, stick a few whole chicken breasts into either a curry style or mexican style marinade the night before (that takes about 5 minutes) and then if you're tired the next night you can just plonk them in the oven at full blast (230 degrees for me) for 20 minutes or so and have a chicken salad.

You could probably even go further and if you feel motivated one night cut a few extra bits of veg (onions and whatever) and stick them in the fridge for the following day.
If you're in the middle of chopping things it's easy to keep going for another thirty seconds and having something like that set aside would let to irrational levels of joy for me if it meant shaving off a few minutes from prep time in making dinner.

homemadecider

I always plan out my meals for the week ahead on a Sunday, then make a shopping list from that and only buy what I need. It makes it so easy during the week to cook because I know exactly what's on the menu each day and I never put anything taxing on the menu mid-week.

This week's dinner menu for example...

Sunday - BBQ-ed homemade burgers, salad

Monday - Chorizo risotto

Tuesday - Potato hash with chorizo and fried egg

Wednesday - Ray wings with salad

Thursday - Chicken fried rice with scallions and mushrooms

Friday - Italian meatballs with brocolli

Toto Wolfcastle

I'm not working at the moment so it's a bit easier for me because I have all day to cook. Still, I find that planning for 3 days at a time helps keep me motivated. If I plan for more than 3 days I just end up getting a take away on day 4 and eventually throwing out stuff. My husband has diabetes so I end up feeling seriously guilty if he comes home and I don't have something healthy for him to eat.

However, my biggest motivation is that if I cook I don't have to do the washing up!

livinsane

You have to be prepared. I love cooking and make a whole meal most days but if I come home late and not sure what to do, I'll probably have a tin of spaghetti and two birdseye potato waffles!

You should identify maybe 6 or 7 recipes that you like and know so if you are in a shop you can pick the ingredients without even thinking.

Make more than one portion so you can get two days out of it.

Come on to this forum regularly!

Use BBC food website which allows you to search by three ingredients.

Get to know flavours so you don't need a recipe to work from.

Pack your freezer with meat.

Always have a big bag of spuds handy. Filling, cheap and versitile.

Fromthetrees

I'm a lazy bum, so, I always make too much of anything. I buy a big chicken and put a full bag of peeled carrots and a whole chopped turnip underneath it. I then have enough chicken and veg to last me 3 days, day 1 with boiled garlic potatoes, day 2 chicken fagitas and salad/coleslaw/chips, day 3 chicken curry and rice.
Day 4 pasta bolognese, same day 5.
Day 6 boil/roast a giant ham, you then have a base for another 3 days worth of dinners and sandwiches.

I'm a terrible person clearly.

Gbear

Fromthetrees wrote: »

I'm a lazy bum, so, I always make too much of anything. I buy a big chicken and put a full bag of peeled carrots and a whole chopped turnip underneath it. I then have enough chicken and veg to last me 3 days, day 1 with boiled garlic potatoes, day 2 chicken fagitas and salad/coleslaw/chips, day 3 chicken curry and rice.
Day 4 pasta bolognese, same day 5.
Day 6 boil/roast a giant ham, you then have a base for another 3 days worth of dinners and sandwiches.

I'm a terrible person clearly.

That's the ticket really. Probably saves you a load of money too.
You can also be making stocks and so forth to make even better use of stuff you'd just throw away.

Mr Simpson

I find it very difficult to get the motivation to cook lately. I either work quite early or quite late. I also work in a large pizza franchise, so I'm fed up making food, so just spend the day picking at food rather than cooking a proper meal.

I must try and work harder at it, I love cooking normally. I just need to stop being so picky!!

carolinespring

I always make sure have a batch of a good home made sauce made and frozen that can be used as a base for a lot of dishes.

I pick 5 dinners (or the main part of them( so I have a fairly rough idea what we will be having. I make sure that it is simple and easy during the week.
We always have a take away one night and go for lunch either Saturday or Sunday.

So this weeks dinners

Monday. Beef stir fry with boiled rice

Tuesdays. Pork chops, mashed potato, carrots and frozen peas

Wednesday. Salmon with soya, chilli and ginger, stir fried veg and noddles

Thursday (today). Chicken and root veg casserole

Friday. Going to be a Chinese take away.

Saturday. Bolognese (already made and frozen in batches) With pasta, garlic bread, salad and a nice bottle of red.

Sunday. Mostly lightly will have lunch someplace

MissFlitworth

I think what motivates me is that is that I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and as a result of that am near constantly on a diet (not necessarily in the restricted calories sort of a way but in a clean eating sort of a way). I also like to know exactly what's in what I'm eating which means ready meals & jars are generally a bit too loaded up with things that you don't come across if you make the offending -ose & -amate loaded item from scratch. To round it all off I like food to be flavoursome and find microwave dinners/oven meals/sauces from jars really bland much of the time (unless they're from M&S and then bland is replaced by 'HOLY HELL how did they get 1200 calories into a single portion of curry')

I try not to eat too many starchy carbs which also cuts a lot of more convenient foods right out of the picture (don't eat grains or potatoes during the week and very limited at the weekend). We tend to eat a lot of salads, omelettes, chilis, one pot stews, Mexican food, protein-and-veggie combination dinners & fish. Guess the main thing is that if I don't cook during the week I can't eat how I would like to eat