Our approach to low effort cooking

This is slightly adapted, but mostly copypaste from a private post in September 2023. We might expand it eventually.

Context and unsavory past

So we had a look at this very-low-energy cookbook that we saw recommended: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

It's good, I think. It explains how to make all these things that tend to be gross imo in a way that is not too gross. It says that eating is good, and that good taste is good.

But ooof it reminds me of all the times I didn't eat anything tasty because I didn't know how to make things that I like within my energy levels.

I'd eat things like rice with hummus, raw tofu and whichever spicy sauce I found, and just the thought makes my stomach feel.... not great. Eww.
Or watery instant couscous with no taste and random attempts at adding spices that really made it leave the "kinda edible" area.

The only thing I'd do again is instant ramen in a pot with too little water (so it gets sticky) and a lot lot of frozen veggies. (Never again ramen without added stuff, that just doesn't make me feel full.)

How we do it now

But yeah, now my low energy food looks very different.

I think really the main things I learned are:

• salt!
• if not in tune with what I'm doing, keep the spices simple. Never add anything (especially not random sauces) in a desperate attempt to Include Taste, that will just make me feel terrible.
• lentils won't make me feel full when I need potatoes, and vice versa. I will need a second food if the first one leaned too much to the wrong side.
• pasta is hard, don't make it when too out of it, it will be gross
• same for rice
• even if the rice or noodles turned out good, throwing a gross sauce on them will make everything feel terrible. Do not buy gross sauces. Do not throw them on things.
• gnocchi are easier. Don't boil: roast in a pan, then throw sauce on them and let them absorb it a little.
• potatoes (thrown into a pot of water as they are, whole with peel) are something I've never messed up and they can take even the grosser sauces.
• soups
• boiling veggies for a short amount of time in very salty water is easier than steaming or sautéing them, thus harder to mess up, thus tastier.