I don't like to cook and I need meal ideas!!

[Waterlilly]

Help!  I don't like to cook. Not only that I don't like to cook, I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and my space for freezing and storing pots and pans is VERY limited.  I need some meal ideas for someone like me who doesn't like to cook. I pretty much microwave everything and I'm pretty busy with work  and my work on a second masters degree along with a job search, so time is also a factor.  One cool part of FTS is where Doug outlines what you can eat and how to throw together some easy meal ideas. That part is helpful.

Does anyone have any fast/easy meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, or dinner? I'd be more than happy to pay extra for pre-cut pre-packaged anything. Lean Cuisines and Subway used to be my staples but I want to live the "low carb life" so I simply need to find another way to get what I need. The easier, the better for me!  Thanks. 

[SarahC]

Hi Waterlilly! I found this neat meal planner on pinterest (such a fun place!) and thought it looks like a great idea - when you find your easy meals, you can make cards for them and use something like this to keep organized. The front of the little cards has the meal plan and where to find the recipe, the back of the cards has the shopping list. The pockets hold more meal plans - used ones go in one pocket and fresh ones are in the other. What a creative idea! I might make a another pocket for the recipes if I made one. The gal who made the menu board here said she cooks by themes - i.e. Monday is Mexican, Tuesday is pasta, Wednesday is salads, etc., and keeps in mind what's going on with the family activities on different nights, too.

I use MasterCook and it has meal plans that connect to the recipes and will print shopping lists, so I don't know if I'll make this or not. I might make it just for the 'nifty' factor.

[Doug Varrieur]

I am swamped with soooo many social networks. Sarah pin me! :-)  waterlilly the new cookbook is terrific!

[SarahC]

Doug, somebody who has a facebook account will have to pin you - I don't do facebook and so can't do the pinning! I just troll the site and get ideas. Sorry! It's an up-and-coming site, so someone will get the job done!

[SarahC]

P.S. the new cookbook IS terrific! Good job!

[Waterlilly]

Uh oh. It's not the word "book" that gets me, it's the word "cook"!  The doughnut recipe you posted a while back looked fairly easy and tasty, but I have to actually make the darn things as opposed to opening a box  . I can do OK with the foccacia bread and coconut oil candies. Does the cookbook have meal ideas or are the recipes fairly simple? You're a professional and you intimidate me!    I have thought about it though.

Sarah - That's neat. Thanks for the link. I do think that I will need to plan my dinners a little better. I'm thinking that I will come up with 3 different types of lunches and 3 types of dinners so I have some variety but I know the carb count. I think it all comes down to planning, even if it's super simple stuff. I need to get out of the habit of just opening up the fridge to "see what looks good".

[Andrea]

Waterlilly, keep it simple.  Think veggies, salads, eggs, cheese and meat.  You can go to Subway and get a salad instead of a sandwich.  You can drive through the golden arches and toss the bun (and hold the ketchup).  I buy low carb tortillas and use them as hot dog buns. 

I cooked for my kids for 32 years.  When they had all moved out, I SIMPLIFIED.  Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.  Also, spend some time at netrition.com and you can get a few convenience foods.  Tread lightly, some of them look like the real thing but. . .

[umpa]

I love the board Andrea! Waterlily if someone tells you they have been in the kitchen all day cooking you dinner don't eat the food!It will be overcooked!   Doug and i like simple.Time is a issue for us, we don't have alot.I always make enough for leftovers for a lunch the next day.I like to have grab food in the fridge like chicken wings,meatballs,lunchmeats and cheeses just for quick meals or snacks.You can go to subway just bring your own bread.Do you have a grill?I also like to do different meats and veggies on the grill,make extra and have it for snacks and salads.

[SarahC]

Uh oh. It's not the word "book" that gets me, it's the word "cook"!  The doughnut recipe you posted a while back looked fairly easy and tasty, but I have to actually make the darn things as opposed to opening a box  . I can do OK with the foccacia bread and coconut oil candies. Does the cookbook have meal ideas or are the recipes fairly simple? You're a professional and you intimidate me!    I have thought about it though.

Sarah - That's neat. Thanks for the link. I do think that I will need to plan my dinners a little better. I'm thinking that I will come up with 3 different types of lunches and 3 types of dinners so I have some variety but I know the carb count. I think it all comes down to planning, even if it's super simple stuff. I need to get out of the habit of just opening up the fridge to "see what looks good".

I had the same issue when I first started FTS, Waterlilly. I was almost tearful about not being able to get low-carb 'convenience' foods. It was so much easier when I finally got over it and started cooking. You can cook extra of whatever it is you're making and freeze it for future use. I like cooking extra chicken, for example and then using the leftovers on a salad the next day. Sometimes I take leftover cooked meats from the freezer and make a quick soup. When stuff in the fridge needs to be used before it expires, I make a soup - which can be frozen in individual serving-sized plastic bowls... you get the drift. You can just take a day and make yourself a lot of convenience meals for the freezer. If you embrace it, it can become fun. Another idea is to get a buddy and each of you fix some large meals and exchange half of them - you get twice the variety for half the work.

[shawn116]

Sarah is that your freezer??  I'm jealous!!  LOL  you are so organized!! 

Waterlilly there a a lot of easy recipes on here and in the book.   Don't let them intimidate you    Even though I do know how to bake and cook I find myself on most days feeling lazy and wanting to stick with what is easy.  Simple stir fries or just meat and veg dinners are the easiest. If I'm grilling or cooking meat I always cook a family pack and freeze the extra for quick dinners.   Don't forget the incredible edible egg.  The breakfast muffins are as easy as you can get.  I like to use a muffin tin with whatever meat (sausage, bacon, etc...) egg (you can use egg beaters for even easier use), cheese....what ever you like in them....  Bake for 20-25 minutes (these freeze wonderfully and heat in the micro for a quick snack or breakfast on the go)  Pizza on the low carb tortillas.... the one minute muffin is easy as pie too..... there are really to many to count    Just search around, pick a few and give it a try....you'll see that they really aren't all that difficult.  For a quick "I don't want to cook tonight" meal stop at the grocery store and get one of those rotisserie chickens from the deli and a bag of frozen broccoli or other yummy veggie, some salad makings and you will have enough meat to last you for a couple of days 

[SarahC]

Sarah is that your freezer??  I'm jealous!!  LOL  you are so organized!! 

Ha! I wish. Not my freezer. It was on ... well, you know where. My favorite idea place. I do have bags of frozen dinners/leftovers/extras in my freezer and can pull together a meal pretty quickly and easily.

[shawn116]

That is my dream freezer  Ha!   I have to stay away from that site..... I just get to caught up     I would never get anything done  haha 

[BigTex]

That's a great idea TooSweet I will start doing that as well. I don't know why I didnt think to do that  

[SarahC]

That is my dream freezer  Ha!   I have to stay away from that site..... I just get to caught up     I would never get anything done  haha 

Those people are so creative! I never fail to find at least one great idea every time I go look. I found the under-the-cabinet spice racks there - put up 2 of them, ordered more for gifts. Love, love, love them! So many organizational things - lots of busy women share their good ideas! They make me brave. Today I turned my unorganized catch-all sewing room/office into a beautiful, organized room by clearing out the odds and ends furniture and getting a big U-shaped desk-unit for the room.

Today I saw plans to make a drawer for the toe-space under your cabinets to store seldom used flat things, like extra cookie sheets, cake pans, etc. Anything less than 3 inches tall. What a neat idea!

[Waterlilly]

Ooohhh! Such wonderful ideas here!!  Thanks everyone!

Truth is, I think I'm just whining a little bit. I've been flirting with the low carb idea for the past week and preparing for it by taking DOWN my carbs but not full on , 20 net carbs going for it yet.  But I think that it's not that much different from what I have been doing. I just need to quit whining about it and do it.

SEE the power CARBS has over me?!!!