Why is food so hard?

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Yes I can totally relate. I used to manage it okay and keep my meals very simple and easy to make but it's like I just can't do anything anymore. On a good day I'll make some toast! I've been like that for that past year - I'm wondering if it's side effects of my medication tbh. So I'm having to resort to going out every day to buy a sandwich for lunch (if I can be bothered, am up in time or even feel like eating) and/or going out at night for a take away. I like to snack and pick at things like crisps, sweets, breakfast biscuits and so on. Or I'll eat dried fruit and nuts if I have them in. But it's just not healthy. I need a personal chef!

Maybe I'll get back into cereal now that I have nifty sealable containers from Ikea. I didn't buy it for the longest time, and now I always forget to.

I hate to cook. Some people think that must mean the same as "I can't cook" but I actually can cook competently, it's just that I cannot stand the process, it gives me no pleasure, and it aggravates my dislike of mess. There's a lot of cleanup involved in cooking most things, too, it's like half the job! I don't have the time, inclination or desire.

My workaround is to use my microwave for not just microwavable packaged foods but also there is a lot you can do quickly and least messily with "real" food too, in a microwave. For example I do a mini omelette made in one small Pyrex dish which is one of my favorite things to make myself for breakfast. You whisk it up in the dish with whatever other ingredients, zap it for literally 60 seconds, done. That's "my" kind of cooking I can get behind, lol.

My trick has always been to find things I like to eat that are easy to make and make them as often as possible. I get that that sounds obvious.

The microwave is my friend. I will open a can of beans, heat it in microwave, and eat with chips. Sometimes I add hot sauce or leftover rice. Sometimes I will even add yogurt or a vegetable if I'm really ahead of my game.

Breakfast is the easiest meal because it's yogurt (lactose free) and dried blueberries and walnuts. Takes about one minute. I'm lucky because I like those foods and they are convenient.

it's tough though, because there's so many things I'd rather do than make food. I always mean to make a bunch of food at once, and then just eat it in pieces through the week. Rarely actually make that happen though.

I know, it really is an uphill battle!!

I also live by the microwave, but I hate that because I worry that I'm killing whatever nutrition in the food. I really do want to get behind some meal prepping, but that, like all my "ideas", falls flat after the first two weeks. Aspergers is the most stubborn of stubborn, stubborn. "No, you must do WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT IT... And that's never. Now lets go back to bed. Or right, I'm refusing to allow you to sleep as well!"

But seriously, this is definitely my hardest struggle. I have found that taking out gluten really did make a huge change in my life. I was actually able to control my irritability. But now I feel like I have nothing to eat. I use to just eat baked goods, and that's how I survived!

I totally know what you mean, I'm actually a really good cook. It's weird. I've made things for my gf that are quite complicated, and wa bam! But cooking THREE TIMES A DAY?! Are you insane world? I would NEVER get to do anything else!

That's why I cook mine in advance (on weekends and holidays), freeze, and then just re-heat in the oven throughout the week.

Dumb question, but how do you heat in the oven? If I were to save things in tubberware, then what would be the best way to heat something in the oven?

Not a dumb question if you picture freezer storage as tupperware territory. I buy tins from dollar store. You can get a 4`-pack of single person dinner size ones with tops for a dollar. I put saran wrap on my prepared dinner in the tin, then I place the top it comes with on top, then I seal the edges. I date the dinner and state the contents on the cover with a permanent ink pen. I recently did an entire month of dinners this way.

This way, I can come home to a homemade meal every day.

That's a really good idea. How long does it take (on average) to heat up and what temperature? Also, do you ever reuse the tins?

HoneyB33, re your question about my food allergies:

I took the liberty of lumping my hypoglycemia, the sensitive reactions I have to some foods, and a true allergy into that one term. My hypoglycemia is quite severe and the bottom line of dealing with it is to eat at least on schedule, have morning and afternoon snacks, and most important, not eat anything containing sugar (or dextrose or any other sweetener) or white flour. If I do my blood sugar takes a dive leaving me lethargic and shaky, not to mention in a very bad mood.

My sensitive reactions to some foods usually result in insomnia. For example, everyone was talking about what a boon a microwave oven is, and I agree, but I cannot eat a potato I have baked from scratch in one. Why, I have no idea. But I can eat potatoes boiled, fried, or baked in a conventional oven. Just not baked in a microwave--or I will be awake most of the night. There are some other foods that affect me that way, usually no matter how they are prepared.

My true food allergy is to eggs. If I eat them, I breakout in a rash. So I have to use an egg substitute when I make waffles or a meat loaf or whatever.

So with these twists thrown into the scenario, my cooking has taken on an intriguing challenge. At least that's how I look at it.

SO this ^^^

Especially with meat, e.g. steak, by the time it's ready, it just doesn't taste as good as I expect it to. Like, I can taste it's good, but the smells were promising something more? Like an overadvertised movie that turns out to be eh.

I always used to wonder why my mum ate the least meat at home. She'd cooked it and had been smelling it all day, hence filled up on the smell.

I think it's better when you have company when eating, though. When you have someone to have a conversation with, your brain is half-taken up processing that information and the taste and texture of the food more easily overwhelms your senses. Whereas when you eat alone, your whole brain is available to concentrate on the food, so its effect overall is lessened, if that makes sense.

^ Yup, totally makes sense... Wander if the NT populous experiences a similar issue when cooking or if this is just another spectrum thing? I know i often hear people are ''over cooking'' but have never heard what i have discussed. Any NT's floating about that can give their opinions?

I actually think looking at this that what seems a curiosity by the OP actually has a much larger impact on why many on the spectrum have a hard time cooking? Not just being subject to too many ingredients, tiredness etc but literally down to a sensory thing as well that also puts many off cooking for themselves..... Interesting.

I hate to cook. Some people think that must mean the same as "I can't cook" but I actually can cook competently, it's just that I cannot stand the process, it gives me no pleasure, and it aggravates my dislike of mess. There's a lot of cleanup involved in cooking most things, too, it's like half the job! I don't have the time, inclination or desire.

My workaround is to use my microwave for not just microwavable packaged foods but also there is a lot you can do quickly and least messily with "real" food too, in a microwave. For example I do a mini omelette made in one small Pyrex dish which is one of my favorite things to make myself for breakfast. You whisk it up in the dish with whatever other ingredients, zap it for literally 60 seconds, done. That's "my" kind of cooking I can get behind, lol.
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i hate to cook and i do not know how to cook. exception: scones, bread, pancakes, dumplings, eggplant parmesan.

washing dishes takes a lot of work.

having to literally stand there watching things burn takes a lot of concentration.

and there are many methods of failure.

it's far easier to just waste $$.

but $$ is running out.

It depends on the food. My convection oven takes longer to heat up denser foods. I usually end up pulling them out and flipping them. I'll drop it down if it's a cheesy dish and just let it take longer to cook. If I'm hungry/in a rush I'll set it for 350. If I'm not, I'll heat it up at a lower temp and let it get there gradually.

If I'm bringing it in to work, sometimes I don't bother heating it in the oven at all, I just let it de-frost in the fridge, and bring it in like I would a fresh made meal. I bring a glass container to heat it in the microwave at work, and just transfer the food to that.

I've re-used the tins on those occasions when I have for instance, garlic green beans in one tin and mac and cheese in the other and I want to make two meals out of that. Then I'll heat up both and transfer between the two. I'll eat one tin that night, and the other tin for lunch/dinner the next day. That's it though. I wouldn't re-use and re-freeze a tin.

Regarding sensory issues, yes, that is one quite large factor in my hatred of cooking. I don't actually have OCD but I am very particular about my hands versus sticky, messy stuff. I cannot stand the experience of getting my hands covered in oily substances, greasy things, slimy things, as is often involved in the handling of food while preparing.I don't like to touch food for an extensive period of time.

I can eat things using my hands -- like a slice of pizza -- but only because I know it won't be long until I'm done and can use soap and water to "degrease" my fingers.

But when you are preparing food to cook, it's often a longer duration of time that you have to be touching stuff and getting fingers covered in things, and I can't tolerate it.

The other factors are simply things like I have other things I want to spend my time doing!! I have a couple of major special interests one of which has become an income earner, and also several other interests generally, which I enjoy and which take up my time and are things I'd rather be doing. Preparing food for ages is not one of them.

I also cannot opt for the big weekend session to set me up for meals for the week, because I live in a tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen and thus a tiny fridge-freezer --- my freezer compartment can't accomodate seven tupperware boxes, but it can accommodate bags and smaller boxes of frozen components that will see me through the week, from which I can throw parts of into the microwave daily.