Aspies For Freedom

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I'm almost 30, living alone, but not very successfully - and I need some guidance on how to feed myself properly having put on lots of weight lately.
Problem is: I can't really cook, mainly for two reasons:

- After a long day at work I'm too drained/overloaded to really go shopping and spending half an hour in the kitchen figuring out how to turn a handful of ingredients into something I eventually can eat.

- for a long, long time in my life I had to deal with OCD, which included being affraid I had forgotten to switch of the stove (even though I never used it back then) and to this day, although OCD doesn't really play a role in my life anymore, I need to be in a very "courageos" mood to dare using the kitchen stove (which I'm usually not in when I come home from work)

so my usual diet is either
- something to eat from the local chinese (indian...whatever) deli
- something I just have to throw into the microwave, heat it and eat
- chocolate, crisps, cookies... :-(


Technically, I can cook some sort of a veggy stew thingy and other easy stuff, but I am not able to cook on a daily basis (and I don't see this will change in the near future).

So, my question is:
are there any books, sites....out there which can help me putting together some easy meals which don't require cooking  other than putting something in the microwave (or does anybody of you have some suggestions) ? I'm looking for a meal plan for a week or so.
I need to loose weight, eat healthy and need to spent much less money on food than I do now. I just can't eat out all the time.
I'm looking for suggestions for breakfast/snack/lunch/dinner.

Thanks in advance,
celtica

Your google is as good as mine (I hope), for recipe sites, but here is my infamous non-cooking person's soup recipe:

hope you like it...

PS:  You could live on sandwiches but use whole-grain bread and easy on the mayo.  Put lots of lettuce and other vegs in your sandwich.

PS: If you get tired of cheese and/or meat sandwiches, natural (no extra sugar) peanut butter is good protein.  You can make a good sandwich out of wholewheat bread, peanutbutter, and raisins or sweetened/dried cranberries.

If you like soups and stews, you could try using a crockpot cooker.   You might want to borrow one first to try it.

You put in meat, vegetables and water, spices etc into it and it cooks the food slowly over 4 -8 hrs.  You do not have to stir it and it will not burn.  If leaving it on while you are at work bothers you, then try it while you are home on a day off.  I usually put mine crockpot on the stove and never had a problem with it since it is new.  

I also cook rice up in large batches and freeze portions in small bags.  When I want to eat it, I microwave it.  Rice can be eaten at every meal, even breakfast. You can add small amounts of veggies and cooked meat to rice.  I like it better than cereal or sandwiches.  


Buy big bags of ready-made salad.  Take a separate container for dressing and add-ins.  Mix just before eating.  This is a good take-out lunch.

yeah rice cookers are great.

remember to wash (dry with paper towels) the pre-made salads before using, though.  they can have still the pesticides in them and it can make you sick.

Invest in a good cookbook that has a variety of simple recipes.

If you like fish then thats easy to make, cooks fast and you can season/cook it in several ways.

Salad is also great.  Green salads, pasta salads (whole wheat), bean salads, [tuna, white beans and lettuce] (one of my fav.)
You can add toasted pita bread to your salad and make fatoush (I make a homemade tahini dressing and eat my fatoush like a meal)  
Dips are also quick and easy, like hummus.

If you like rice then a rice cooker is great, otherwise its quite easy to cook one serving.

"Here is how to cook a perfect pot of rice:

The amount of water used in cooking the rice is crucial, and eye measurement works better with experienced cooks. According to those eye measurements, there should be enough liquid to cover rice in the pot by 1/3-inch. If you prefer to measure by cups then always remember that every cup of uncooked rice needs 1 3/4 cup liquid, provided you follow the instructions. "
By: Nawal nasrallah  <  from my cookbook, delights from the garden of Eden.

Following the instructions above my rice always comes out PERFECT and Basmati rice is the best in my opinion, if you like curry it's also easy to make (I can write out a simple recipe if you're interested)

If you like couscous it's so easy to make, follow the package instructions and it goes so well with stew.  (there is even whole wheat couscous now!!)

We are quite fortunate today to have cleaned, partially cooked frozen veggies (and fruits) of all kind. This helps alot.

*I didnt' list any meat suggestions except fish since I'm a vegetarian*

There are tons of good recipe sites out there too.

Also incorporate fresh fruits,  and some nuts and dried fruits into your diet is excellent.  If you eat a balanced diet and everything in moderation you don't even have to worry about their fat content  too much.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Thanks for your suggestions.
Leaving something on the stove for several hours while I'm not even at home would worry me to pieces - so a crockpot is not an option, also cooking rice/etc. wouldn't be something I could do on an average day after work.
I have been looking at a great number of sites on the internet, even at some having only recepies that can be done in the microwave but I haven't found one that has (microwave) recepies that are easy enough for me to deal with (as in just 2 or 3 indgredients) or else suggestions for yummy, nutritious/healthy sandwiches...unfortunately there isn't a "eat healthy without cooking" site out there (maybe I should be looking for a book on sandwiches and snacks and get some inspiration from there).

There are some all microwave recipe cookbooks, I have one though I think the microwave it asks for has to be microwave/convection oven. (something like that) and it does not apply to my microwave even though some of the recipes may work.

Those machines claim to work when you are not there.
I have not tried it, though.  You could have a look at the instructions in the store and see if you could deal with that.

I am not going to give you any recipes, but rather other advices that might be a help.  :wink:  And for this advice I have to thank my very good friend who helped me with this.

As I´ve always had trouble recognizing hunger correctly, or even thirst, my weight has been going up and down and I must say that often I really hate cooking as it causes lot of mess too that is difficult to deal with then later on..
So, for the non-cooking diet!

I have arranged a small table where there is nothing else than nice fresh fruit, bottle of mineral-water and a glass. Visuals is very important for me, and it´s actually nice to place them in a bautiful setting, those fruits and vegetables. Lately I´ve sometimes added vegetable-plate on that table too. (and am planning to do that as routine)

It is healthy and there´s no worry about gaining weight, as with fruit and vegetables you can eat practically as much as you want to. However, there´s then also a danger of eating too little so a good healthy protein- and fatsource is f.e. peanuts, all kinds that you like. Peanuts on bigger portions are fattening as well, but contain lot of good fats and acids for the brain and heart, however, I would advice to put the emphasis on fruits and vegetables therefor.
Choose the ones you like, don´t try to force yourself to eat apples or carrots if you don´t like them.

For me this really works the best, as otherwise I just wonder what is this nasty feeling in my stomach (or why my mouth is so dry), and then eventually grasp on something unhealthy or simply over-eat as a result of being hungry for too long. On the long run I think it will also balance the weight without counting calories or making big fuss about it. And, another bonus is that it doesn´t make mess.  :lol:

If you're going to eat frozen fruit (ugh!) it would be easier to buy it already washed, cut up and frozen (my mother bought it this way from ALDI which may exist where you live, or they may have something similar in other stores.

Frozen vegetables are great, I eat them almost every day, in the aforementioned microwave recipes.
Oh I forgot, frozen eggrolls are good too, if you get bored...  I like the veggie ones and my husband likes the pork ones.  They don't microwave crispy, but they still taste good soft.

Maybe you could put a picture of your favorite foods on the outside of the freezer to remind you to go find them in there.
I hope this is not a dumb idea but I have the opposite problem (hard remembering NOT to eat all the time!) so I may misunderstand your difficulty and what would help.

OK good.  Most fruits we get in USA (I froget where you are) last at least a week in the fridge unless they are too ripe when you get them.  Things like apples will last extra long, like a month, sometimes.

Broccoli, celery (w/ creamcheese or peanut butter), tomatoes (if not in salad, cut in large slices and put a little mayo and worchestershire sauce),  cherry tomatoes (good alone), cauliflower (boring!), .... look in the supermarket at the trays of pre-prepared party food and you will see veggie trays of things that can be eaten raw (they sell them with dip for parties).  RADISHES!!

you know what else is good, speaking of party food?  CHEESE CUBES!  Protein in finger-food shape.  Or you can melt them on things in the micro or throw them in soup.

[quote="celtica"]Hi,

uh...no, I actually ment fridge, not freezer *lol* (ack, my brain likes to mix up words alot when I'm tired) - I ment just washing/preparing (peeling, cutting up) the veggies/fruits and put them in the fridge to keep them fresh for a couple of days, preferably a whole week [or 5 days] (would that actually be possible if I put them in airtight containers ?),  so I can just take out some in the morning to take with me to work or put them on a dish where I can see them at home when I come home from work. I didn't mean freezing them *lol*.

not sure about this, one or two days should be fine, i think five days too long, my experience is it doesn't keep/starts to go bad.

Here's another question for the experts here:
what veggies can you eat raw ? The only ones I can think of are
carrots, tomatoes and cucumber...

bell peppers, onions, umm, can't think of anymore either.

yeah, putting pics of my favourite food on the outside of the fridge (or rather somewhere near my computer as this is the most likely place for me to notice it ) to remind me to eat might help me too...  

i tend to forget to eat as well, but i don't eating fruit, i think i'm lucky in that i've got a family and so i do cook. usually once a day. i think if i was on my own i wouldn't eat well.

Appart from the fruit/veggie thing, a friend said she could help me with finding easy recepies (like 2-3 ingredients/if possible things you can cook in a microwave) if I told her what I liked (not out of a cookbook but her own "recepies" - if I learn them hands-on I might be more likely to be able to reproduce them on my own without a desaster). *Yay* :-).

Does this sound healthy ?

<snip>

sounds very healthy
you can also microwave potatoes in their skins. depending on the size of the potato, say 10-15 minutes and eat that with coleslaw or cheese or beans etc, and bits of salad.

Veggies you can eat raw are:  tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, celery, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets (grated is nice with cabbage to make a salad), zucchini,  potato (if you're like me, lol).

Other healthy greens, cilantro (very healthy), mustard greens, arugala, (those mixed salad greens), spinach.

Other easy root veggies like yams are great, I just wrap them in foil and put in the oven on 400F  for about an hour then eat it, it's so good. They aren't messy like pumpkin or other squashes because you just have to scrub it abit and leave it in the skin then wrap with foil.  *oven works better than microwave*

oven does work better than microwave in the sense that the food tastes better, except i prefer to cook rice in the microwave, but microwave ovens are good because they switches themselves off and the ping is a handy reminder. i understand someone panicking about forgetting to switch things off because i do the same, tend to forget things. if and when i get a new oven i'd like one with a timer switch precisely because of that problem.

Would you be able to cook on your days off? When our kids were babies (They are 17 months apart) I cooked most of our food in large batches at the weekend. Things like bolognese, chilli, curry, goulash, stews etc can all be cooked in bulk, frozen in individual portions then defrosted as needed. They can all be eaten with things like baked potatoes, salad, pitta bread etc. I guess you can get microwaveable rice and pasta too. Bulk cooking saves a lot of time and money and the results are a lot healthier than fast food.

You'd need to learn to cook these things but they arent too hard, especially if you've got a friend who's going to help teach you.