What To Do When You Don’t Want To Cook?

In episode 7 of the Simple Nourished Living podcast, hosts Martha McKinnon and Peter Morrison discuss the common struggle of not wanting to cook and explore various solutions to make meal preparation easier. They address a reader’s question about cooking fatigue, share ideas for convenient foods, and emphasize the importance of gradual habit changes in cooking and eating.

The conversation highlights the variety of options available in grocery stores today, including pre-prepared meals and easy assembly ideas, encouraging listeners to embrace convenience while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Key Takeaways

Cooking fatigue is a common issue many face.

It is important to give yourself grace during lifestyle changes.

Slow and steady changes lead to lasting habits.

Convenience foods can help reduce cooking time.

Meal assembly can be a fun alternative to cooking.

Grocery stores offer many ready-to-eat options now.

Using rotisserie chicken can save time and effort.

Don’t hesitate to explore new products in stores.

Healthy eating can be achieved with minimal cooking.

Engaging in a healthy lifestyle goes beyond just food.

What To Do When You Don’t Want To Cook Podcast

Video Transcript

Martha McKinnon (00:02)
Hi, welcome to the Simple Nourished Living podcast. I’m Martha McKinnon and this is my brother and partner, Peter Morrison.

Peter Morrison (00:10)
Hi everyone.

Martha McKinnon (00:11)
So today we’re going to be talking about, we’ve got a reader question. So we’ve had tons of submissions around ideas for podcast episodes and I’m so excited about that. And so we’ve got one that I think a lot of people are going to relate to. A question came in about what to do when you just don’t want to cook. And so we’re going to explore that a little bit, give some ideas. Cause I think we all can relate to days we just don’t feel like it.

But before we do, what’s new and good in your world?

Peter Morrison (00:46)
What’s new and good in my world? We’re on podcast number seven now, so I’m really proud of us.

Martha McKinnon (00:52)
Okay. We’re gonna like pat ourselves on the back, because we’re sticking with it even though it’s not natural. Right?

Peter Morrison (01:00)
Yeah, we said we’d give it a year. Our goal is to release one episode a week. We may or may not hit that during the course of the year, but that is our intention.

Martha McKinnon (01:13)
Yep. And we’re sticking with it, even though, you know, this is all new and uncomfortable. But. Right. Well, and, know, you got to you got to stretch. I mean, if you’re going to change, right. I mean, this really is analogous to the to the journey here that we’re talking about.

Peter Morrison (01:18)
Uncomfortable and just trying to help.

Martha McKinnon (01:39)
If you’re going to change, if you’re going to have a new, you know, way of of being then you’re going to have to try new things and some of it’s uncomfortable, but you just give yourself grace and stick with it and know that over time it gets easier. You know, I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently and as it relates to my, you know, to my journey, because like we said, I mean, I started, having issues with my, you know, when I was what, third or fourth grade. And it seems like it just continued for a long time.

And now I’m to a point where I just, you know, I stuck with it and sometimes I look back and I remember things that were hard that are now easy and it’s like, well, I don’t even remember like how did I get there? You know, how did it get to the point where, for example, I mean, I just used to be so addicted to Cheese-Its. I’d eat them, I mean, I would really eat them sometimes until my, because for the salt and stuff, I mean, my mouth would hurt. And now, I mean, just had recently, I had the opportunity to have a handful and I’m like,

Peter Morrison (02:18)
Right.

Martha McKinnon (02:37)
What was that ever about? So I think you just keep going and going and going and then you sort of look back in the rear view mirror. I think like we could do that with any aspect of life and say, I don’t even know how did we get there? We just, just one day at a time, one step at a time, you know, one podcast at a time. You just keep, keep moving forward and, and, and it works out, you know.

Peter Morrison (02:58)
And soon you’ll have a new reality, a new day to day, right?

Martha McKinnon (03:03)
Right, exactly.

Your day to day just becomes different because you’re just programming in new habits. And that’s really, we are creatures of habit. And so it can be hard in the beginning, but you just stick with it. So.

Peter Morrison (03:09)
Mm-hmm.

And I think you’ve also found through the years that it’s easier to make small incremental changes gradually over time than it is to just revamp everything all at once, right?

Martha McKinnon (03:33)
Right. Right. Yeah, I mean, that’s really true. And I think a lot of the science, like there’s so much being written now, so many books around habits. And that’s really been recognized through, I think, the behavioral scientists, because they’re just showing that making it as easy and painless as possible and slow and steady really is the lasting approach. And we could even think back, remember the biggest losers loser show?

Peter Morrison (03:59)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (04:02)
You know, so many of those people lost tremendous amounts of weight very very quickly in what would be called sort of like artificial circumstance, right? They were removed from their everyday life and taken to this ranch in really controlled environment. And so they lost the weight but now years later most of those people did gain it back. So I do think the science will show that the slower you make these changes the more ingrained they become.

Martha McKinnon (04:32)
They just become your way of life and it’s so much less painful. So slow and steady really is the approach that works. It’s worked for me and it’s like I said for many many people and it’s all the books around tiny habits and atomic habits. I mean they’re all saying the same thing. Slow and steady.

Because I am another believer, like, don’t do anything to lose weight, right, that you’re not willing to keep doing to keep the weight off. Because again, this biggest loser kind of phenomenon, they did a lot of things that they just couldn’t keep up with in their day to day, when they went back to their everyday life. And so they really kind of were set up to just have a really hard time. They were sort of set up to fail almost.

Peter Morrison (05:24)
Right, and we were talking recently, I think it was in relation to a reader question, but you were saying how there’s really no difference between weight loss and maintenance.

Martha McKinnon (05:37)
There’s not a lot of difference. The things that you… It’s like you can’t… I mean, and that’s why you’re much better off to just think of it as a life journey and a lifestyle and just do it slowly, incrementally, because there’s not a tremendous amount of difference. Of course, you get to the point where you say, okay, I don’t want to lose any more weight.

Peter Morrison (05:40)
Yes.

Martha McKinnon (06:03)
So it gives you a little more latitude, but it doesn’t give you… doesn’t like it’s not like you go back to your old way of being because if you go back to your old way of being then you’re going end up back where you were. So absolutely.

Peter Morrison (06:13)
Great, I have the question here which I’ll read. It came in from Barbara. Hi Martha, I’m retired and live alone. No soap operas or bonbons here. I’m trying to do all the things I promised myself I’d do once I retired. Ha! But now I don’t have the stamina I had even at 60. I didn’t retire until I was 75 and no, I have no retirement benefits.

Peter Morrison (06:42)
I worked as a contractor so I only have my social security. I don’t want to cook at all. It just takes too much time shopping, prepping, cooking, packaging leftovers, cleaning up. I don’t want that in my life. I’ve tried food delivery service, but they are just too expensive. Fast food delivery is horrible. I want to live healthy, but between my church, my friends, meditation group,

Martha McKinnon (06:48)
Mmm.

Peter Morrison (07:12)
classes I take and classes I teach. There was just nothing left for meals. Can you come up with a plan for us? We did everything we were supposed to do for the whole family raised our kids took care of our husbands worked, worked our jobs did the laundry made the meals or at the beck and call for our parents our siblings made the holiday meals prepared everything for the holidays cakes cookies pies and smile through it all.

I’m tired now and can’t even look at a saucepan. Help, Barbara.

Martha McKinnon (07:44)
Right.

Oh my. So Barbara, I hear what you’re saying and I can relate. I mean, there are days like that because I’ve, when you’re just kind of over it and it sounds like Barbara’s right for right now anyway. She’s just, she’s in a place where she just doesn’t want to have to cook for herself. And I can appreciate that, you know, and especially when you’re cooking for one.

Peter Morrison (08:08)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (08:14)
Right? When you’re just cooking, when you’re cooking, I shouldn’t say just for yourself because you’re important. Like we’re important. We shouldn’t discount ourselves. But.

It can be a lot of work like what you’re describing, coming up with a plan, grocery shopping, doing the cooking and to get portions that are small enough, right? When you’re one person, there can be a lot of waste. You know, if you’re trying to make a recipe and you’re buying all these ingredients that you know, you’re buying a whole bag of carrots and you need one carrot and a whole bunch of celery and you need a little. So yeah, so she’s got a valid point.

So how do we help? I think if you’re in this position, we’re living in pretty exciting times because you and I, when we were last together, we spent a little time at the grocery store just kind of scanning to notice what’s new and what’s out there. There are a lot of cool products on the grocery shelves, I think, to make life easier.

So I thought what we would do is share some ideas and this I think could end up even being something that we repeat, you know, as we have ideas to share. And I think there may be a lot of comments. So yeah, please, as you’re watching this, if you have ideas to help Barbara, please weigh in on the comments and we’ll just continue to expand on this. what kinds of things come to your, like I’m a huge fan of, the rotisserie chicken.

It has a lot of uses and there would be a little work, but I mean you’re not having to cook it. But what I think works really well is to just come home when it’s still warm, remove all the skin and bones and just get it down to the meat. Then just pack, especially if you’re one person, just subdivide it into little Ziploc bags that you can then store in the fridge for a few days and or in the freezer and then you have something to start with.

I love the rotisserie chickens for that purpose. I love baked potatoes and now especially now that potatoes are zero points on the on the latest WW plan, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, all of them are zero points, but I find a baked potato and again microwave. So all you need to do, you know, five minutes in the microwave, split that open.

A recipe, a topping that I learned years and years and years ago in Weight Watchers was cottage cheese and salsa as a topping. I love the canned, recently just last week we had for dinner, canned turkey chili from Trader Joe’s on top. There are also vegetarian chilies out there. I love broccoli and there are so many veggies now that are just…

Peter Morrison (11:09)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (11:19)
microwave in the bag in the frozen section. So, you know, just microwaving broccoli and maybe a little shredded cheese and just then back in the microwave to just melt it a little bit. So what else would you top with potato with any ideas around that?

Peter Morrison (11:36)
Well, I’m, I was just with you, with you talking about rotisserie chicken. One of the finds that is available at Costco in larger packages, but Kevin’s Natural Foods puts out, I was just looking cause I don’t know them all, but he does several different chickens, with spices. One’s a roasted garlic.

Martha McKinnon (12:00)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Peter Morrison (12:08)
Thai style coconut, Teriyaki style chicken, Korean barbecue chicken, Cilantro lime chicken, Chicken tikka masala. And he also does several beef, like a Mongolian style beef, Korean beef.

Martha McKinnon (12:28)
Yeah. So that’s something you’ll find in the grocery stores too. One idea I have for Barbara is to just, when you have a couple of hours, just go to the grocery store and just check out. mean, in the refrigerated section, in the deli section, in the freezer section, you’re just going to see lots of products. And Kevin’s is really advertising as a healthy brand, you know, with no additives, no added sugar.

Brenda, our sister, just shared with me, she has seen a couple versions of, she’s a big fan of the Kevin’s products, again, because it’s just a matter of sort of taking them out of the plastic and heating them, right, in the microwave, I think, or sometimes maybe boil, like if you wanted to do the sous vide kind of thing. Sous vide. So you just boil it, like boil it in water till it warms. So that’s, again, you’d have to have one saucepan with water in it that would be really easy to.

Peter Morrison (13:16)
I believe they’re prepared like sous vide, right?

But you could also take it out of the package and just microwave it, which is what I do.

Martha McKinnon (13:31)
You could take it out of the package exactly in microwave it. And Brenda saw a couple versions now that were actually with cauliflower pasta. So it was some type of chicken, chicken and done a couple different ways with different sauces and veg and cauliflower pasta. So they’re definitely expanding that line. And there are other, I’ve seen similar products like that at places like Aldi. mean, so checking out the refrigerated section, you can buy.

Martha McKinnon (14:01)
There’s so many things you can buy in the refrigerated section that are ready to go. I know, mashed potatoes that just need to be again microwaved. Cut up veggies, like in the produce section now, you’ll find tons of fruits and vegetables, solo and or in combinations that are all ready to go. The bagged salad, I mean I’m a huge fan of the bagged salads and all those different flavors.

So you’ve got everything you need to make a really nice salad with, you know, in the bag, just open, you know, open it up, cut up the little packages as I toss it together, add protein. You know, I’m a fan again of the rotisserie chicken, tuna, hard boiled eggs. If it seems like too much work to do, we bought ourselves and I think sometimes little devices to make cooking seem fun or helpful. So there’s lots of different ways you can cook your hard boiled eggs, right?

You can do them in the instant pot, you can do them in a regular pot, you can in the air fryer, but there’s also this wonderful little device that’s sold, I think Dash started it, where you just put little seven eggs in the device, add a little water, and my husband Rod actually will now even make hard boiled eggs using that little device. You basically put a little water in, hit on, the timer goes off, and they’re done. But if you don’t want to do that, if it’s too much trouble…

You can even buy hard boiled eggs that are peeled right in the refrigerator section of stores. So I think Barbara’s lucky that she’s living in this time when there are many, many options. You know, the freezer, the freezer section is getting more and more interesting in terms of, you know, healthier version versions of frozen frozen meals. So there’s lots of lines like, you know, out there that are making healthier frozen dishes.

What else? Tasty Bite has a line again in the grocery store that’s expanding. They tend to be more Indian flavors. But again, those are packets that you just, you just tear a little rip in the packet and again, into the microwave for 90 seconds or so. And they’ve got a line of products and they’re even putting out some bowls now.

They’re mostly vegetarian, but they’ve got several different flavors, a Mediterranean, a Mexican, an Indian, and they’re sort of like grain and legume bowls, which are cool.

Peter Morrison (16:37)
And if you’re not vegetarian, it’s really easy to toss in some of your rotisserie chicken.

Martha McKinnon (16:42)
Absolutely. Add rotisserie chicken, tuna, chopped hard-boiled egg. What else could give us protein? You know, some cheese, some nuts. So there’s lots of ways to get, you know, get a little, get boost the protein in these for sure.

What else? Deli.

Peter Morrison (17:03)
I like to think of it as meal assembly versus cooking.

Martha McKinnon (17:06)
Right. Right.

So the deli again, the deli case. I like to have again, cause there’s nothing much easier than a sandwich with some lean meat and cheese and a little bit of, you know, veg around. There’s tons of different variations on ways to wrap your sandwich, be it, you know, lighter breads and wraps and whole grain tortillas and just lettuce wraps. The lavash wraps. Yep. So lots of ideas there.

Peter Morrison (17:31)
I really like Lavash raps.

Martha McKinnon (17:39)
And we can in the show notes maybe just list out some of these products and some of the companies with links out to some of the things so that you can see some more pictures and get some ideas. So what else do you do when you don’t feel like cooking?

Peter Morrison (17:55)
Soups, lot of the stores, grocery stores, there’s good options in canned now for light, light or low calorie, but I don’t know what you’d call jars, but they’re sort of plastic containers that are sealed. So they’re more like home style, if you will.

Martha McKinnon (18:05)
Mm-hmm Right and jars. Yep jars on the shelves cans

So from the refrigerated case of the stores. Yeah.

Peter Morrison (18:22)
Right.

Peter Morrison (18:25)
Which would they’ll have a shorter shelf life, but they make really good meals. And there’s a there’s a I know it’s Trader Joe’s and not everyone has access to Trader Joe’s, but you might have an Aldi or your Albertsons or Walmart might carry something similar. But they have a lentil soup, which is a simple, simple lentil soup. But you could vary it up so you’re not eating the same thing.

You could add chicken, could add pesto, could add marinara or a can of Rotel tomatoes. So it’s fun to take the same thing, but how can I make it different so it doesn’t feel like you’re eating the same thing over and over?

Martha McKinnon (19:19)
Yeah, you brought up a good point about thinking about it, not in terms of cooking, but just sort of assembly and bringing in different ingredients that then you can then sort of mix and match. So you can be buying, you know, packets of already cooked rice. You’ll see packets of right beans. Again, these are cans of beans. You’ll maybe have a little protein around. You can buy canned chicken. You can buy canned tuna, leafy greens and then you just start thinking about well how can I mix and match these.

Maybe some some broth you know I like the chicken broth just the Better Than Bouillon that you just it’s like a paste that you just keep in the fridge because the boxes and cans just seem to take up more pantry space and it’s just like a teaspoon of that with hot water to make broth and suddenly you can make soup in a mug right by taking some of your cooked rice or cooked quinoa, there’s different grains that just take 30 to 90 seconds.

Peter Morrison (20:23)
Even riced cauliflower you could find in the in the frozen section.

Martha McKinnon (20:25)
The rice. Yep. Yeah, there’s like I said, check out the frozen, the frozen section. There’s tons of, again, those veggies that just they cook in a minute or two in the, you know, in the microwave right in the right in the packaging. So yeah, rice, cauliflower, lots of different rice, lots of veg, lots of interesting combinations. What any other thoughts around? So I mean, there’s so I think there’s there are a lot of options if you’re just over it.

It’s going to take some time to just experiment and figure out what works for you. And as we come across other ideas, we’ll continue to maybe share those just in these weekly podcasts that we’re doing as we come across new product ideas. What else? mean, you you like Trader Joe a lot. So if you have there’s some other products from Trader Joe’s that you really enjoy.

Peter Morrison (21:17)
Yeah, one thing I like about Trader Joe’s is we’re a small family, there’s only two of us and I find that their packaging seems to be smaller. So they have a chicken marsala but they have a really good chicken parmesan.

Martha McKinnon (21:40)
And that’s in the refrigerated or frozen.

Peter Morrison (21:43)
It’s in the refrigerator. It’s a little tray with cellophane on it. It’s two breaded chicken breasts. haven’t looked at what the points would be, but two breaded chicken breasts. There’s some marinara and a little shredded cheese. And I think the directions say to cook it in the tray. That kind of always was weird for me to like cook in plastic.

Martha McKinnon (21:45)
Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Peter Morrison (22:11)
I take it out of the plastic, put it in a little pie tin, put it in the, usually in the toaster oven because the microwave, I wouldn’t say soggy, but I just like the texture of the chicken and it gets a little crispier. And what I’ve found is to not cook the chicken with the sauce on it. What I do is it’s a little, takes a little more time.

Martha McKinnon (22:36)
Okay.

Peter Morrison (22:41)
I scrape as much of the sauce off the chicken as I can, cook the chicken for about 20 minutes, it gets nice and heated and the coating gets nice and crispy. Then for the last five or 10 minutes, I put on the sauce, the marinara and the cheese, and then that just kind of bakes for the last few minutes. It’s a weekly staple for us.

Martha McKinnon (22:45)
Uh-huh. Okay. Nice.

Peter Morrison (23:10)
With either some roasted broccoli or a salad.

Martha McKinnon (23:14)
It sounds delicious. I mean, I like chicken parmesan very much. But again, if you’re one person, it’s a lot of work to try to make it for yourself. Chances are anything you get in a restaurant would have a lot more calories even than a product like that.

Peter Morrison (23:29)
Mm-hmm.

Well, and we could even start doing more. I don’t know if they’d be considered recipes, but on simple nourished living, if that was something people are interested in, we could create meals using more prepared foods and calculate the nutritionals and give people not only that recipe, but just ideas for how to change this up. What can you do to?

Martha McKinnon (23:51)
Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so if that’s something people are interested in, let us know if you want to see more really easy ideas of just sort of assembling with sort of what I call like convenience ingredients or convenience products. That’s something we can definitely explore. Cottage cheese just popped in my head too. I mean, that’s something that doesn’t require any cooking and you can do a lot of different things with it. Cereal.

Peter Morrison (24:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I’ve started buying the big tubs at Costco because it’s so much more cost effective. I just started buying the big tubs of cottage cheese at Costco because the price is so much better. And we go through it. I use it in my smoothies. I use it in scrambled eggs. Like you said, over baked potatoes. It’s just so easy to add into various meals.

Martha McKinnon (24:39)
Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And we’ll link out because we do have a post that’s like 50 or more ways to use cottage cheese. There are tons of ways to use it and it’s a great source of protein and it doesn’t require any cooking. know, cereal, there are some nights when I just choose like a…

you know a whole grain cereal with some milk and fruit and you just that’s another option especially if you’re it sounds like Barbara’s just really on the go and I know she wants to be healthy around her food but it sounds like her lifestyle is really healthy you know she mentioned a lot of good things that she’s doing for herself

Peter Morrison (25:25)
Mm-hmm.

Martha McKinnon (25:34)
beyond food with our church and meditation and classes. So kudos to that because there’s healthy eating, but there’s also healthy lifestyle and that can be as important as what you’re eating. So I would say also just don’t beat yourself up over it. Just try to make it fun. The other thing that we found, we have quite a few microwave meals on our site.

So again, there’s a little cooking involved, but it’s just like a mug, like these microwave mug recipes. So I think that can make it again, if you can, I know you say you don’t want to cook, but they’re also like, how could I make it fun? And maybe then I wouldn’t mind cooking a little bit. If I’m really simple, you know, just really, really simple. It can make it kind of fun when I think that can help reenergize you, you know, around it a little bit too.

Martha McKinnon (26:31)
Yeah, so we’ll continue to explore this topic because I think it’s relevant for so many of us, especially as we get older. We’ve sort of been there, done that, and we just want to have more time to explore, to pursue other interests.

Peter Morrison (26:50)
And sometimes you might have the best of intentions starting the week, then some stuff unexpected things just happen and you really don’t have the time to make the meals on your meal plan or to grocery shop. So it’s good to have those old reliable that you can just sort of not even think about and just put a healthy meal on the table.

Martha Mckinnon (26:55)
Right? Right. Right.

Yeah, I one of my old reliables, I know it does require a pot, but I do often like whole grain pasta that goes into the pot and once and then also once the water is boiling and then I add broccoli like chopped frozen broccoli, fresh broccoli, depending on what I have. It’s already bagged and then just cook that, let it drain.

Add in a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a little bit of grated parmesan and just stir it together. And that’s one of my go-tos when I just don’t want to do more than one pot. And again, if you wanted more protein, again, you could add creamy cottage cheese. You can add chicken to that, certainly, and kind of snazzy it up. But that’s one of my sort of go-tos when I usually have pasta on the shelf.

And again, there’s so many pastas now that are higher in protein and made with legumes and garbanzo beans, lentils. I mean, that’s just an area that’s really exploded too in terms of offering healthier options. Yeah. So yeah, well, this is something we’ll continue. I hope this is helpful, Barbara, and we’ll continue to, as we find ideas, we’ll continue to share them.

Peter Morrison (28:16)
Garbanzo bean pasta, yeah.

And if you watching this video have a favorite go-to meal with minimal cooking or minimal preparation, please leave it below and share it with everyone.

Martha McKinnon (28:48)
Right. Yeah, absolutely.

So thank you so much for the question. really appreciate it. And I guess that’s it for this episode. We’ll be back next week. Take care. Bye bye.

Peter Morrison (29:04)
Have a great day.