The post immediately above yours this:
If I seriously don't feel up to cooking, like there's no fucking way I'm turning on the stove? Cereal.
My "just throw it in a pan" meal? Seashell pasta + canned tomato soup. Apparently one fateful day before payday, my grandmother had two hungry kids to feed, and nothing in the house but those two ingredients. So my gramma invented Spaghettios from first principles and a family comfort food was born. A hot meal so simple you can make it without a working brain stem.
This is going to be super Asian... But I usually have rice on hand, and in the fridge an assortment of Chinese pickled/preserved veggies, fermented tofu, Vietnamese fermented prawns, salted and/or century eggs, kimchi, jars of seasoning like sate for example. Keeps forever (use clean utensils to avoid contaminating the jars) and good in a pinch.
Even better to add a side of greens if I have them. Boil or saute for a few minutes, then toss them in whatever seasoning (oyster sauce for example, keeps it simple and magically makes everything taste like stir fry).
It's challenging to cook when one lives alone. I came up with a frozen buffet system.
I make several main dishes, several side dishes, and several desserts. Subsequently, I divide the foods into portions that I would normally eat, then I freeze.
That way I can grab 2 or 3 items, microwave, and eat whenever I'm hungry.
Doing this, I only need to cook once or twice every shopping cycle.
Yogurt and granola, with a side of nuts and cheese for an portable, decent protein, heavy snack/light meal. Or, salad with chopped lunch meat and some cheese on top, so I can again get some easy protiens. I also keep some decent frozen meals in case I'm short on cook time and need a hot heavy meal. There are work gaps where I can barely spend time at home and the bagged "family meals" of pasta or mixed veggies are awesome portioned out for multiple meals.
Popcorn, cereal, or yogurt with fruit.
- Boil macaroni elbows. Drain.
- Open jar of pasta sauce. Pour over macaroni. Stir until heated through.
- Add salt, pepper, a sprinkle of chile flakes.
Done.
I usually have some kind of instant noodles and chili oil about. That typically will get me through. I also have some canned/frozen stuff that goes fine with rice (which we always have cooked (and I don't know that hitting a button on a rice cooker and walking away counts as 'cooking')).
I've basically got 2 lazy meals:
Veg dog on a toasted bun with diced red onion, pickled jalapeños, mayo, mustard and ketchup.
Instant ramen with some extra fixins. Always green onions and shishimi togarashi and then some combo of frozen corn, black fungus, pickled bamboo shoots, kimchi, sesame oil, miso, nori, fried gluten, and/or tofu.
Pre-made sauce and spaghetti. Usually doctor up plain marinara by adding a little olive oil with sautéed pre-packaged diced garlic, some dried oregano, and maybe a little salt and pepper. The hardest part is waiting for the water to boil.
Can o soup.
Overnight oats, just steel cut oats in whole milk left in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Healthier and cheaper than a box cereal and so so easy. But if I didn't think ahead to chuck some in the fridge beforehand, then it's gotta be hardboiled eggs. I always have eggs in the fridge and chucking them in a pot and waiting 11 minutes is as easy as it gets.
Well, aside from eating fruit/berries with cheese and crackers but that could be argued to be a snack not a meal.
Baked beans on toast is my usual go to when I want something quick and minimal effort.
I'm not seeing it here so I will recommend:
Always have some frozen shredded chicken in the freezer.
It's super easy to make. Chicken, broth or water, some veggies like celery and onion and salt if you just used water and let it simmer in pot with a lid on at a low temp or use a pressure cooker for even more hands off and then hit with a mixer to shred the chicken.You can make several pounds of it in advance and then just wrap up portions of it in Saran wrap or foil. Bag it and put it in the freezer. It's now very resistant to freezer burn and it's a perfect ingredient for lazy days.
Tacos, grab some chicken add some cayenne cumin and lime juice and throw it in a tortilla.
BBQ, mix with BBQ sauce and heat up throw on bread or a bun or even better some yellow rice or rice-a-roni. You can add it to soup, you can turn it into all your classic chicken dishes and it's there and waiting for you.Shredded chicken.
Humous and baguette
Two cans of air fried garbanzo beans. I don't consider it cooking because it takes all of 19 seconds to open the cans, drain, spray cooking spray and turn an air fryer on. Gives me what feels like a bag of potato chips at a much healthier nutrition on the cheap. Toss some tajin seasoning on there and away I go.
Microwave oatmeal
Ingredients
Oatmeal
- 1 part oatmeal (1 dl for a small meal, 2 for a bigger one)
- 1.25 parts water
- Some salt
- Optionally some psyllium seeds for extra fiber, maybe a teaspoon
Extras
- Some milk, maybe 1 dl
- Some lingonberry jam, maybe a tablespoon
- Mix everything in a bowl
- Microwave for 2 minutes for 1 dl oatmeal or 2.45 for 2 dl oatmeal
- Mix with a spoon
- Top with jam and pour over some milk (careful, it's hot)
Ready to eat in five minutes, very low effort, produces little in the way of dishes to clean, cheap as dirt, vegetarian if using cow milk and vegan if using oat milk, and not particularly high in calories but still quite satiating. Downside is that it's not the most exciting meal you could think of, but you arguably get more than you pay for all in all.
Sandwich or hotdog with chips.
Or a Soylent and some toast/ bread.
Tuna melts are surprisingly easy. You can make enough tuna salad to last three days. Toast some bread, stick the tuna on top, then cheese and leave under the grill for a bit. Perfectly tasty snack. My classic tuna combo is tuna, mayo, olive oil, celery, spring onion and canned sweetcorn. Salt and pepper to taste.
Jamaican patties. You can pick up a big box of them frozen from almost anywhere (at least where I live) and heat them up in one minute. I mentioned to a Gen Z in the fall that this got me through many a college all-nighter and noticed when I was at their place last weekend, they were all stocked up! Feels good to pass on the torch…
I bulk prepare and freeze food often for those situations, so I can get lazy and still have a decent meal. For example, my freezer currently has chickpeas stew with sausages, kibbeh, Bolognese sauce, a simpler tomato sauce, a half dozen pierogi... all of those can become a meal if paired with quick stuff, like rice or pasta and a tossed salad.
If that fails, I cook some quick polenta using pre-cooked cornmeal, then break some eggs in it.
pineapple slices straight out of a tin can
Cheese.
I've got a bunch of frozen mashed potatoes pre-divided into meal-sized tupperware. Microwave one of those and it's quite hearty.
I've also got a rice cooker and it's super easy to make something both substantial and tasty with one of those, dump in the rice and water and then add a tin of condensed soup as well. Push the button and come back later to dump it onto a plate. I've found most kinds of condensed soup work well, though avoid anything with "cream of" in the title as those can end up unpleasantly goopy.
Whenever I get lazy I just throw some seasoned chicken drumsticks in my airfryer and then add some Uncle Ben's rice. Almost 0 effort.
Chicken patties in the air fryer, on pane bread with mayo. Sometimes cheese. Might put frozen fries In the air fryer with them. That was my dinner tonight. Except I used frozen hash brown patties instead of fries. I meant to to have some mini cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for a side and totally forgot.
Cup noodles with two eggs
Some store bought soup and a bit of toast or something from the freezer, most likely pizza.
- Cereal
- pasta or rice, frozen vegetables, cheese
- Vegemite on toast
Carbonara, because I nearly always have some lardons / bacon in the fridge, and usually have eggs and cheese too. Sauce is ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta, and it feels like a real dinner despite not really needing much prep.
Lazier? Instant noodles, with extra spices and a big spoonful of peanut butter. Makes it richer, creamier and keep nds 'satay' like. Also feels like there's a modicum of nutrional value. If I'm feeling virtuous I'll add some frozen / tinned sweetcorn or peas.
Bologna bowl, good for when you're poor and/or lazy.
Slap a slice of bologna in a bowl, slice of cheese on top of that, then crack an egg on top of that and nuke it in the microwave for about a minute and 30 seconds. Good with toast or as is.
We make homemade soup in bulk and freeze them in mason jars. Very easy to have a healthy meal in five-ten minutes - just pull from the freezer and reheat on the stove or microwave. Make a quick grilled cheese with it if feeling ambitious.
Redbul. Or Alcohol.
Instant ramen or few slices of bread with cold cuts and some cheese microwaved till the cheese melts.
Bags of carrot sticks is my go-to for when I really don't feel like cooking or eating unhealthy.
Hubby, but I wouldn't call him lazy
Can of refried beans, cheese, tortilla, whatever sauce, microwave, top with whatever veggies.
Spaghetti, olive oil, butter, and grated pecorino! A slightly fancier mac n cheese more or less.
Grilled cheeze with a thick layer of red onion chutney
Total prep time AND ready to eat within 15-30min.
Get a bowl
Make a "sauce" with plenty olive oil, basil, garlic
Slice tomatoes in quarters (about the size of cherry tomatoes) and throw them in a bowl
Let it rest for min. 30min or as long as you want to. No upper limit.
Add hot spaghetti (al dente) and stir until everything is well coated.Edit: Expanded and added more precise instructions.
Stoufers mac n cheese, pizza, pop tarts/waffles, popcorn, depending on hunger level.
I have a poor diet lol
Ricecakes and hummus, Beans and toast
Sauced up airfried beans in a tortilla.
Toast or a toasted bagle / english muffin with peanut butter on it.
Frozen burrito :(
Popcorn, whatever fruit I have at home, glass of milk. Comes out to 500+ cal easily.
One can of no beans Hormel chili, one can of black beans, rinsed and (somewhat) dried. Mix in a big bowl, microwave until hot, add sour cream and shredded cheese, and use it like dip with tortilla chips. If you're good at rinsing the beans, and your microwave doesn't suck, you can have this ready in 5 minutes. And the only dirty dishes to deal with are a single large bowl, and a spoon.
Another thing I tend to eat a lot when I get home from work in the morning and don't want to do anything, is literally just a bunch a wheat thins, a block of pre-sliced sarento cheddar cheese, and a container of sliced pepperoni from the deli. Takes like 2 minutes to grab those while I'm waiting for the bus home from work. Fuck ton of sodium, though. Same with the chili, I guess.
Minute rice, yogurt and sweet chilli sauce mixed together.
Some broccoli or cauliflower florets steamed in the microwave (salt, pepper, butter, tsp water, in a bowl, covered with a plate, nuc for 2 mins) and draped with a slice of cheese.
Frozen wraps are the bomb. Take seconds to thaw and the possibilities are endless. Put on it whatever, and it is good.
Grilled cheese sandwich. It's as lazy or as fancy as you're feeling.
Super lazy? Grease bread with cheese slice. Fry flip eat.
Feeling less lazy as you start? Cut a hole in one of the pieces of bread and fry an egg in it while you toast the other side, and upgrade the cheese. Just be careful. When you start eyeing meats and mustards to pair, you're in danger of making yourself a pretty epic sandwich.
Can of soup.
Mac & Cheese with a can of tuna. Usually either Kraft Deluxe or Velveeta Shells and Cheese and usually white/albacore tuna. Sucks that shrinkflation has made the cheese packets watered down so much that it's no longer tons of sticky cheese and that the cans of "solid" tuna are now only mostly solid pieces with added filler. But it is still a decent tasting, simple meal.
pasta
Toasted bagel with cream cheese, a canned protein, like salmon or smoked oysters, and capers. Super easy, and it also feels fancy. It's helped me out of a rut on more than one occasion
Chips with cheese melted in the microwave.
Least effort: essentially snacks, but somewhat filling and can get the job done
- string cheese (proteiny, and fun to pull apart like you're still a kid. Why can't adults have fun too?)
- cut up fruit
- those seaweed snacksChicken nuggets.
I only cook if there is someone else in the house who needs to eat. My meals are either family meals or leftovers, toast, cereal, toaster waffles. Occasionally a cheese quesadilla.
Or, more commonly, nothing. Unfortunately, there arent many "lazy" meals I could use to feed the whole family, which I am obligated to do at least twice a day, most days. Sometimes I can get away with re-using leftovers as the foundation of a new meal.
Bread or cereal
Avocado toast or peanut butter toast. I guess technically there is some sort of cooking involved there but it is minimal...
if "prepping something beforehand" and "throwing stuff in a pan and just let it sit for a couple minutes untouched" is still fine:
I've been doing big batches of japanese Gyoza in the last couple weeks.
I make a whole kilo of them beforehand, freeze them and just put them in a pan for a couple minutes when I want a quick dinner.
I love gyoza. prepping them takes a bit of fiddling around, but once ready, they hold for a while in the freezer
Macaroni and cheese with ground turkey. Brown the turkey while you boil pasta, make a quick bechamel, add cheese.
Tacos. Brown some ground beef, add some taco seasoning (Pensey's Bold Taco Seasoning is my go-to, do a quick corn starch slurry to make a sauce. Serve on soft corn tortillas with cheese, salsa, sour cream (or whatever).
A burrito with some sort of meat and beans. Really depends what I have on hand, but fish chicken or beef all work. Canned black beans or refried beans are easy to use as filler.
I buy some frozen fish patties from Costco and just make sandwiches. Not really much to it than baking it and defrosting a bun.
Fettuccini Alfredo. Butter, cream, and cheese. Throw it over pasta. A tiny pinch of sodium citrate will keep it from separating too. Don't use too much, it makes the texture weird.
I keep ingredients for these things on hand most of the time. I keep a lot of things in my freezer for that purpose. Meat, cheese, homemade burger buns.
Just a note that these are all things that can be made with 15 minutes or less. I don't really keep fully prepared food around.
Tuna salad. Almost all of the ingredients are stable or long lasting and it's very tasty and filling.
Ingredients are
A can of tuna ("in oil) is best, "in water" turns tuna to mush) Mayonnaise Finely diced onion Diced pickle Diced celery, lettuce or other leafy green Fresh or dry dill (optional ) Garlic powder (optional) Small drizzle of olive oil (optional, I use it when I use less mayo) American cheese (served on bread of choice, also optional)
It can be served on most breads as a sandwich or crackers. I recommend the bread be toasted as well
Directions: Dice components, drain tuna, stir, add mayo, stir, serve on carb of choice.
Spaghetti and meatballs. Rice and fishsticks. A piece of toast with oily chili-tuna slathered on.
First one with ketchup, superhot chilisauce and parmeesian, latter with lemon soysauce (ponzu) for the rice and sweet chili sauce for the fishsticks. Garlic mayo on the fishsticks is also nice.
The lazier I am, the more basic version. If I have any energy at all, I'll make an actual tomato sauce and not just put ketchup on spaghetti.
Food
A slice of sharp cheddar on wasa crackers
I take some cooked rice out of the freezer, and put it in the air fryer with a few pieces of pork shoulder season it, and boom I have a nice meal in 15 minutes
Roasted almonds. Tons of protein, lots of fiber, often keeps me sated for longer than a "balanced" meal.
I buy them raw and roast them myself, it takes 15 minutes in the oven on a pan, that's it. I have a giant tub that I go to when I need them.
Yes, they are calorie dense due to the oil but this is a replacement meal, not a daily thing.
It's actually amazing how far 100 g of almonds will take you in a day. I managed to lose 130 lb of fat by incorporating various high protein nuts into my diet.
Edit: Unsalted only. Salted nuts just provoke greater sensations of hunger.
As much ice water as it takes to feel full
I make spaghetti pasta, put a ready-made sauce from the store (one from a jar), put a grated cheese on top and cook in microwave for 2 minutes.
I still need to do some work here, but I have done it so many many times for my brain it's like putting on shoes or brushing mt teeth, do not think about it. And it's still relatively nice meal for me, I just like it so much I can eat it very often without having enough. This might be the key, find what you like that takes less than 30 minuts and require no attention (like constant checking or mixing) and just get used to it.
leftovers
just frozen meat, heat it up, spice it up and cook it with olive oil.
