An example of EF difficulties-do some of you relate to this?

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Some may relate to this. I bought microwaveable little potatoes and microwaveable veg to go with some chicken . The potatoes needed 8 minutes and the veg about 5.5 minutes. I put the potatoes in the m/wave first for several minutes in a bowl and then added the veg. They should be m/waved separately but I didn't know how to coordinate that without the potato or veg getting cold hence why it went together in a bowl. I couldn't properly judge how long to cook the combined potato and veg . The potato and veg were both quite hard despite getting up and m/waving them again after I'd put them on the plate and sat down to eat .


In future I'll be getting potatoes that go in the oven .

Dunno much about cooking, but I kinda get the point.

Sometimes I do it no problem, as if I know what I'm doing and doing it right.

Sometimes it's worse than your example.
Whether I suddenly don't know what the heck am'I doing even if I supposed to know what I'm doing, or that I don't know what am'I supposed to do because of certain variables to take account to and mess up anyway.

.. For whatever reason.

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I think it'd be tricky with a microwave. Some veggies might grab more heat from the device than others, and cooking a mixture could need different times than cooking them separately. I'd have probably cooked the taters for about 5 minutes, then added the veggies and continued till they were soft, which I'd have expected to happen at roughly 7 minutes. I'd assume it wouldn't matter if the taters were cooked for a little too long.

Usually I microwave 400 grams of fresh taters at 700 watts (organic so I don't need to peel them, I just cut out the worst blemishes) for about 7 minutes and then transfer to boiling water for 4 minutes. Meanwhile I microwave 90 grams of frozen spinach for 3 minutes - that doesn't need boiling afterwards.

I don't have a microwave

I would cook the potatoes first for their full time. Then the veg for their full time.

The potatoes would be left covered and when the veg have finished I'd give the potatoes an extra minute to warm through again.

Saying that I'd probably buy tinned potatoes/veg and cook both in two pans of boiling water, probably for the same length of time.....

I don't have those EF issues with cooking. I am a very good cook and baker when I have the energy to do it but I do have similar EF issues in other areas especially when I am tired.

I don't do well with controlling several different saucepans and processes at the same time (though the benefits people refused to accept my claim because I didn't get a doctor to write that down for them - I didn't anticipate that because they never explained it to me and the doctor has never seen me cook so his opinion wouldn't have been of any logical consequence......in those days I was still silly enough to think that benefits people might be actively helpful and could be influenced by logic and reason). Anyway, I'd do OK with those multiple saucepans if the cookery thing was scientific, because then I'd know all the required times and be able to calculate different start times for each saucepan so they'd all complete at the same time, but cookery isn't scientific, all the times are nominal and in practice it all has to be done by inspection, and I can't multi-task to that degree.

But I've got a few fairly complex recipes I've done many times that are pretty intricate, and they work because I know all the required times pretty accurately and I'm used to the procedure - as long as nothing gets changed. The saucepans have to be the same every time, the cooker has to be the one I'm used to, and the ingredients have to be fairly well standardised. So yes, executive function problems give me trouble in the kitchen and I find myself using repetitive behaviour to cope with it, which works pretty well as long as nobody who eats my meals objects to the results being rather samey. Objecting to samey is a luxury I can't afford, so if they insist on variety then they can go eat somewhere else.