Feel bad because I can't cook

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There have been times when I have been asked to help out with the cooking at home as well trying do other favours for mum and her partner around the house which I do already such as cleaning round the house and hoovering but despite there being a few times helping with cooking and trying to make the food but most of the time I still haven't done all the helping out with the cooking for months when I've been told several times over a number of months to try and get back into it because of Chris my mum's partner doing more hours of work and not coming back till late and not having to always rely on them to make meals and make my own and yet I still feel reluctant on doing it. I even got Jamie Oliver's latest cookery book which has images of ingredients he uses in the making of his recipes which I thought would be helpful but I still haven't done that myself yet.

I then feel bad like I'm a lazy sod when I have a job as well and work like everyone else. I know full well I'll be on my own one day without my parents and will need to have some idea on how to cook but time again I still feel unable to want to do it because I don't enjoy it when I know people have said that it is not about enjoying it, it's like a skill and a job that you need to have otherwise you would starve.

I even get told about making sure I go to sleep at a more reasonable time when I seem to struggle going to bed early at night especially if I have an early shift in the morning. I even had a shave at 2 or 3 in the morning early in the week when I know I should have done it earlier. I even sometimes finding myself going somewhere later on in the day when I could have gone there much earlier in the day. There have been times when I've tried to change that and yet these habits still happen. I seem to feel more motivated to do things when I am already out early at work than when I am at home and I don't really get up very early.

I seem to feel as though I'd make the worst partner for someone if I was in a relationship with someone and feel like the only one with an "abnormal" routine and habits.

What don’t you enjoy about cooking?

There are lots of people who say "I don't have the time to cook", but what they really mean is they don't know how to cook, or don't like cooking - and won't engage in it as an activity.

The solutions to this are:

- Microwave meals (doesn't require waiting ages like with an oven)
- Takeaways
- Pre-made food like pre-made sandwiches.

You can minimize cooking if you are willing to eat the above. It's not healthy necessarily, but it is convenient.

You don't really have to be able to cook. The instructions are on the back of most packages.

I just do what it says on the packages and add about ten minutes for safety reasons and most things are edible.

I enjoy food when someone has cooked it for me

I eat mostly bean salads.

How to:
Take a can of garbanzo beans (also called chickpeas), open it with a can opener. Place a colander in the sink. Dump the beans into the colander. Run water over them to rinse them, then shake lightly to get most of the water off. Dump them into your serving bowl. Take a fresh tomato, run it under the faucet to clean it, cut it up into pieces (removing the part where the stem attaches to the tomato) and dump the pieces in your bowl. Repeat with another tomato. Take a cucumber, peel off the dark green skin, cut it into pieces and dump it into your bowl. That's enough for a pretty good salad. Pour a small amount of olive oil and red-wine vinegar onto it, and some salt, and mix it with a serving spoon.

Other things you can add:

Take a can of solid white tuna in water, open it with a can opener. Holding it over the sink, squeeze the now-loose lid to get the extra water to come out into the sink. Dump the tuna into your bowl.

To make hard-boiled eggs: put two or three whole eggs in a saucepan and fill it with enough water to cover the eggs. Put it on the stove at high heat. When the water starts boiling, cover the pan with a lid and turn off the heat. Wait 15 minutes. Using a potholder, take the pan off the stove and put it into the sink. Remove the lid and run cold water into the pan, letting it overflow. This will cool the eggs. Wait about 10 minutes. Take the eggs out of the water, peel them, and cut them up, then dump them into the bowl.

You can also add things that are in jars and ready to go, like black olives or roasted red peppers. Take them out of the jar with a fork so you're not getting any liquid. If the pieces are too big, cut them up.

A cutting board is useful to do the cutting up. You can also just use a plate.

I hope this helps.

I know how to make a sandwich, make toast, make cereal, cut up fruit and vegetables, make tuna mayonnaise and so on. Unlike other things I can do such as cleaning, washing etc, cooking is not always the same process, you are making different meals and different recipes every day and I don't know if I maybe just find it daunting and so it puts me off from actually cooking food.

I mainly live out of my freezer so it's just a case of turn on oven, bung meal in oven, wait 20 minutes. Either that or a microwave meal and I don't feel bad about not doing it from scratch. I think you're too hard on yourself chris.

I suppose it helps to enjoy cooking to actually WANT to cook and prepare truly fine meals or beautiful food or complex recipes etc.

I cook, but I can't say I truly Enjoy it like "Oh yay, cooking time!" but the thing is I like eating food And I value eating relatively healthy tasty food vs. prefabricated BS that'll make you fat or give you cancer etc. So, I cook as necessary. Sometimes from scratch, sometimes premade stuff, sometimes just a single meal and other times a big batch to save and eat all week.

I don't understand Refusing to cook for yourself or pitch in and help to cook for others. Just doesn't compute. I get being exhausted an unable to prepare to proper meal.. like it's been a Long work day, went to the beach, hiked the ~480 stairs, drove 45 mins home and by the time I get there F it as much as I Wanted to cook something up I know I won't so I might heat up something premade or just have a protein shake or whatever quick nutrition. But I don't get just not cooking for oneself/household almost ever.

Sometimes when I'm cooking I'll check with others and see if they're coming home and want me to cook up a meal for them, too. May as well, room in the pan/on the bbq etc and everyone's gotta eat and I've definitely had more meals cooked for me than I've cooked for others in this life soooo..

I think you just need to be more disciplined and make yourself cook. Maybe for yourself, maybe for others too. Accept that you don't Love the process of cooking, but maybe find some enjoyment out of the food/flavours, doing for yourself, doing for others. The end justifies the means even if you don't enjoy the process all that much - but you Could learn to enjoy the process more.. maybe if you looked at it as learning to master some basic chemistry via timing & temperatures, selecting just the right combination of ingredients.. learning that order of operations matters and now you're creating permutations not just combinations.. heh. Anyways, get to the kitchen and cook yourself something & share it with others. It's good for ya.

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