Cooking When You Hate Cooking
I know cooking is supposed to be this wholesome, nourishing act of self-care. I've seen the Instagram posts. But for a lot of us, cooking is just another chore on a list that's already too long.
If you hate cooking, you're not broken. You're just not someone who enjoys the process. That's valid.
But you still need to eat. And eating takeout for every meal isn't great for your wallet or your body. So here's how to make cooking less terrible when it's not your thing.
Reframe What Cooking Means
The internet has convinced us that "cooking" means elaborate meals with multiple components and a sink full of dishes. That's not what cooking has to be.
A rotisserie chicken, some bag salad, and a loaf of bread from the bakery section? That's cooking. You assembled a meal. That counts.
Frozen ravioli with jarred sauce and some parmesan? That's cooking. You heated things up and combined them. That counts.
Scrambled eggs on toast? That's absolutely cooking.
You don't have to earn your dinner by making it from scratch. The goal is to feed yourself something reasonably nourishing, not to perform culinary labor.
Lean Hard on Convenience
Pre-cut vegetables cost more, sure. But if that's the difference between you eating a stir-fry and eating cereal for dinner again, buy the pre-cut vegetables.
Jarred garlic exists. Frozen vegetables are nutritionally fine and don't require any chopping. Canned beans just need to be rinsed. Rotisserie chickens are already cooked.
This isn't cheating. There's no cooking referee who's going to dock you points for using frozen chopped onions. You're just trying to get dinner on the table. Use whatever shortcuts help you do that.
The Equipment Minimum
You don't need a kitchen full of gadgets. You really only need:
- One good knife (or even just a sharp knife)
- One cutting board
- One pan (a big skillet can do almost anything)
- One pot (for pasta, soup, boiling things)
- One baking sheet (sheet pan dinners are your friend)
Everything else is optional. Don't let anyone tell you that you need a food processor or a stand mixer or a garlic press to cook dinner. You don't.
Low-Effort Meal Frameworks
Instead of specific recipes, think in frameworks:
Sheet pan dinner: Protein + vegetables, toss with oil and seasoning, roast at 400°F for 20-30 minutes. Done. One pan to wash. Chicken thighs with broccoli and potatoes. Sausage with peppers and onions. Salmon with asparagus and sweet potato.
Skillet meal: Ground meat or sliced chicken + vegetables + grains or pasta + sauce. All in one pan. Ground turkey with pasta sauce and frozen vegetables directly in the pan. Sliced chicken with rice, soy sauce, and whatever vegetables are in the fridge.
Breakfast for dinner: Eggs, toast, maybe some bacon or sausage. Everyone likes it, it's fast, it's hard to mess up. Scrambled eggs with cheese and toast. Fried eggs with rice and frozen vegetables.
Taco bar: Ground meat (or beans), tortillas, whatever toppings you have. Let people assemble their own. You can do this with soft shells, hard shells, over rice as a bowl—whatever.
Grain bowls: Cooked grain (rice, quinoa, whatever) + protein + vegetables + sauce. Use whatever you have. Fried rice if you have eggs and soy sauce. Burrito bowls if you have beans and salsa.
Pasta: Boil noodles, heat jarred sauce, combine. If you want to be fancy, add some frozen vegetables or ground meat. If not, cheese and bread on the side make it a meal.
Soup: Sauté some onions and garlic, add broth and whatever vegetables and protein you have, simmer until everything is soft. Serve with bread. That's soup. It's almost impossible to mess up.
Quesadillas: Tortilla + cheese + whatever else. Fold in half, cook in a pan until cheese melts. Two minutes, maximum.
The specifics don't matter as much as you think they do. Keep the framework, swap out the ingredients based on what you have and what sounds good.
A Week of Low-Effort Meals
Here's what an actual week looks like when you're not trying to be fancy:
Monday: Sheet pan chicken thighs with potatoes and broccoli Tuesday: Leftover chicken (or pasta if you didn't have leftovers) Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner—scrambled eggs, toast, fruit Thursday: Quesadillas with whatever cheese and vegetables you have Friday: Takeout (plan for this) Saturday: Grilled cheese and tomato soup Sunday: Big batch of something—chili, soup, pasta—that covers Monday and Tuesday
Notice the pattern: cook, use leftovers, something easy, something easy, takeout, easy comfort food, cook once for multiple meals.
That's sustainable. You're not cooking from scratch every night. You're not eating takeout every night. You're just muddling through like everyone else.
Equipment That Actually Helps
You don't need gadgets, but some things make cooking genuinely less annoying:
A sharp knife: Dull knives make everything harder and more dangerous. You don't need an expensive chef's knife—just something that holds an edge. If you can't remember the last time you sharpened yours, that's a problem.
A big skillet: Like, 12 inches big. You can cook a whole meal in it. Smaller pans mean cooking in batches, which means more time and more dishes.
A sheet pan: Or two. Roasting is the easiest cooking method. Everything goes on the pan, into the oven, done.
Tongs: Much easier than a fork or spatula for turning things in a pan.
A vegetable peeler: If you're not going to buy pre-cut vegetables, peeling carrots and potatoes with a knife is tedious. A peeler makes it less annoying.
That's it. Everything else is optional. Don't buy a garlic press—just mince it with your knife or buy the pre-minced stuff in a jar. Don't buy an avocado slicer—a knife works fine. Don't buy things that perform functions you can already do.
Make Enough for Leftovers
Every time you cook, you're creating future work for yourself unless you make extra. If you're already putting in the effort to make a meal, make enough for at least one more meal.
Leftovers for lunch the next day? That's one fewer meal you have to worry about.
Leftovers for dinner the next night? That's a whole evening you don't have to cook.
I'm not saying you need to meal prep every Sunday for the entire week. But if you're already making something, double the recipe. Future you will be grateful.
Some Days, The Bar Is Just "Did I Eat Today?"
Look, not everyone is going to transform into someone who loves cooking. And that's okay.
If the best you can do is scrambled eggs and frozen peas on a stressful Tuesday, that's still a win. If some weeks you rely more on convenience foods or takeout, that's fine too.
The goal isn't to become a different person who suddenly enjoys spending time in the kitchen. The goal is to have a few reliable, low-stress ways to feed yourself something that doesn't come from a drive-thru.
Everything after that is gravy. (Or jarred pasta sauce. Whatever works.)