I love to cook, but sometimes I am just not feeling it. On those days, these are some of my go-to solutions:
~1-pot meals
~sheet-pan meals
~5-ingredient meals
~Buy veggies already cut/prepped
~Cook in bag meals/rice/veggies
~Pasta with jarred sauce (you can add pre-cooked shrimp or store-bought meatballs if feeling fancy)

OP, keep on eye on when you can stop doing it - the cooking. When can others cook for themselves? That is a good thing. A good thing for them to do for themselves, and a freeing thing for you.

I care more about nutrition than the effort it took to make the meal. Tonight we are having chicken cheesesteaks for dinner but in hamburger buns. I use rotisserie chicken I just got from Costco. We’ll have salad with it ( from a bag) DD will have cut up veggies. DD likes cold chicken in her lunch so that will be her protein the next couple of days. I’ll make chicken salad and rage that to work for lunch. Literally mayo, celery and old bay mixed together with the chicken. We have tortellini or ravioli once a week with pesto sauce. Black bean quesadillas, DD doesn’t like guacamole so I literally mash up some avacado with salt and gave that with some sliced tomatoes. Individually packaged salmon we have about once a week too. Marinate in pesto, stick under broiler, 3 min rice in the microwave, raw veggies. As long as your having a protein, veggies, and some grains, you’re good.

Anonymous wrote:I pay for shortcuts. So I buy bottled marinade. I buy breaded chicken when I'm making chicken parm. I buy jarred tomato sauce, peanut butter, etc. I make things that either don't take long OR take minimal effort. Baked ziti takes a long time but is minimal effort. Garlic butter shrimp with pasta takes a short amount of time but I have to stand there cutting up the shrimp which takes me a long time.

Also, nothing wrong with pb&j with carrot sticks and fruit for dinner. Nothing wrong with frozen ravioli and some broccoli on the side. Both minimal effort. Breakfast for dinner is what I'm having tonight. Also, I order in at least twice a week and generally order enough for leftovers another day.

Peanut butter?! Even people who love to cook and are great at it usually buy their peanut butter, lol. It's not one of those things that is fun to prepare or soo much better homemade, as long as you buy the no sugar added kind.

I feel the same way. Dh is good at cooking and it seems to come more naturally to him. He doesn't stress about the timing. I'm great at timing/planning most other things in life, but cooking I am horrible. I'm home more so I do a lot of simple things. I stick to the same recipes. I like using boneless chicken breasts, don't like dealing with fat and bones. Today my slow cooker recipe is:
5 raw chicken breasts
box of stove top stuffing
1/2 c sour cream
1/3 c chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
salt, pepper and any other seasoning
I'm adding onion and celery but not necessary

Cook on low for 5 hours. This goes well with a can of niblet corn or any other easy vegetable. I find easy recipes like this on youtube.

Ground beef is easy to use. Sometimes I make extra browned gr beef with onion, freeze in portions. It's ready for tacos, sloppy joes, mix with jarred spaghetti sauce, etc. I chop onions, celery, peppers and freeze in baggies so it's all ready ahead of time.

Costco has some great options that just need to be popped in the oven or even better, dh will bbq. I'm just happy to get decent tasting food on the table, will never be gourmet at our house, lol! I usually make more than necessary so we have left overs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a grocery store that has ready made meals.

My grocery store has 2 - ones that are precooked and just need to be heated up, and uncooked ones that are a combo meat/veggies you just pop in the oven or sauté for a few minutes.

I load up on those plus buy a bunch of bagged salad mixes, the kind that have the toppings and dressing included.

I can't even remember the last time I cooked a meal from scratch. I just use these. Saves me so much time and money.

Oh, also - I'll also get 1 or 2 rotisseries chickens each week for meals.

Which grocery store?

We eat the same thing every week. Monday meatloaf (easy to make ahead and pop in the oven), pasta tuesday (ziti again, super quick to make ahead and throw in oven but regular pasta with sauce and some carrots on the side (served in the sack), Wednesday salmon or chicke (I buy the premarinated salmon or cooked chicken), Thursday empanadas (make ahead put in fridge, ready in 15 mins) Friday pizza, weekend is a mix of eating out or just throwing something together. Repeat. Eating and cooking is such a hassle. If I could just have one thing that would meet all my needs and have that every day, I'd totally do that. I stopped eating breakfast because how much time do I have to devote to this. The fact that I need to think of and prepare two meals a day for the rest of my life is so so burdensome. I've got things to do!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s me and I’ve found my way with meal kits. I like the precise directions and having all the ingredients at my fingertips. There’s still some chopping, but I don’t mind it as much when I can see it as a part of a finished meal.

I tried meal kits and it seemed like they all involved 3 pots/pans and 2x the time they said it would. Maybe I’m just exceptionally unskilled and lazy at it

I am a very good cook and they frustrate me for the same reason. They're trying to teach you how to cook and use different techniques, but that involves more steps than someone more experienced in the kitchen would probably do because they don't take what I would consider no-brainer shortcuts. I distinctly remember making a Blue Apron salad that involved turning on the oven to roast one ear of corn as a topping and just thinking, "no effing way."

Anonymous wrote:Find a grocery store that has ready made meals.

My grocery store has 2 - ones that are precooked and just need to be heated up, and uncooked ones that are a combo meat/veggies you just pop in the oven or sauté for a few minutes.

I load up on those plus buy a bunch of bagged salad mixes, the kind that have the toppings and dressing included.

I can't even remember the last time I cooked a meal from scratch. I just use these. Saves me so much time and money.

Oh, also - I'll also get 1 or 2 rotisseries chickens each week for meals.

Find a grocery store that has ready made meals.

My grocery store has 2 - ones that are precooked and just need to be heated up, and uncooked ones that are a combo meat/veggies you just pop in the oven or sauté for a few minutes.

I load up on those plus buy a bunch of bagged salad mixes, the kind that have the toppings and dressing included.

I can't even remember the last time I cooked a meal from scratch. I just use these. Saves me so much time and money.

My mother is a great cook. She taught my sister and me how to cook. My sister is a great cook. I am not. I think there is a talent to being a good cook.

Can you DH cook instead?

I don't like handling house finances, so he does it. I don't mind cooking, though it's 30min or less meals. We avoid/complement our weaknesses so things can get done.

Anonymous wrote:Is there anyway to make it less miserable given I need to do it. I’m not really asking how to cook, I know there are 10000 YouTube videos on technique (so please don’t send me to food forum with people that can’t relate to hating it!) more how to get myself to dread it less. I hate handling raw meat, the mess, chopping things, trying to time things and figure out when they’re done, all the word just to have the meal scarfed down (Df and me) or rejected (kids), the planning involved and on and on

Hi OP, I don' t hate it, but I don't like it either. (For me, cooking when I don't 'have' can be fun but general day to day drudgery is not something I like). So, here is my advice how to dread it less, based on what you wrote:
* Define/ redefine your goals. If you goal is to cook a relatively healthy, mostly home-made meal most nights of the week that most household members will eat while being together around the table together for at least 15 min (for example), dinner will look very different than preparing a gourmet or interesting meal nightly. Redefine that kind of 'adventurous' cooking to be an 'occasional' thing and/or something that happens when we go out to eat. Come up with a system that works for you: maybe it is a list of 5 or 6 meals to 'rotate; maybe it is a matrix literally where you have two vegetables, a carb, and a protein and you just choose what to make. Personally, I think about dinner in the following categories, some of which has to do with my picky eaters and making sure there is always something they will eat: raw vegetables (I usually serve raw carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, and/or pepper every night--sometimes with some dip like bottled ranch dressing or else tzatziki or hummus), a protein (tofu, fish, chicken, burger, veggie burger, cheese plate), a cooked vegetable (roasted veggie or a bag of frozen vegetables), a carb (plain pasta, a bun for the burger, corn on the cob, rice, etc.), and dessert (usually some kind of fruit like a clementine or apple slices). I'm not super strict about it...if i make lasagna-- to me that covers the protein and carb. We always have nuts and yogurts around the house, and I have taken away the 'power play' of the kids not liking dinner by saying that those are 'always available foods,' meaning they can opt out of the 'normal' dinner and eat nuts and/or yogurt at the table for dinner.

* Avoid what you don't like. You won't eliminate it, obviously-- but there are certain ways to avoid. For example raw meat grosses you out? Figure out ways to avoid handling it. Some ideas: eat more vegetarian meals. make meals where the main is fish (if you find raw fish less gross). Touching raw meat IS gross....look at meats you can cook from frozen. For example, you can get frozen burger patties you can pay fry (or maybe even put on a roasting sheet). Buy frozen fish (for example, the individually frozen costco salmon) and you can cook that (in an oven on a pan sheet or even in a microwave) from frozen. Consider if you make soup or stew and you can just dump a package of meat right in without touching it. Get some disposable aluminum pans and take a package of chicken (you can cut it open and dump it straight into the pan; throw about the package immediately), season it or pour a sauce on it, and just bake it (or crock-pot it, although personally I don't like crockpot food. You can do it all without technically touching the meat...of course, you will wash your hands, but no cutting boards etc to clean.
Bonus: less mess too.
* Simplify. Make simple meals. You don't want to chop? Ok, make meals that don't require much chopping, You can buy frozen stirfry veggies at the grocery store. Honestly, I don't chop a lot for 'normal' meals. You can buy prechopped items or just cut up vegetables in bigger pieces; the goal is edible and not perfection. Use jarred spices. Sure, a finely chopped shallot would elevate a dish (and personally I might use it for a leisurely made meal on the weekend), but chopped dried onion is 'good enough' for a weekday meal. Don't make meals with tons of ingredients. Some people like to buy a cooked chicken somewhere and eat that one night, use the (cooked) meat to make stir fry or simple chicken salad the next day. Use canned tuna or canned salmon. I don't make meals with a 'million' sides (like tacos or fajitas-- too much work and too many dishes for me personally).

* I'm feeling my age, and I don't watch youtube videos on cooking. When I was learning how to cook a while ago, I would watch Rachel Ray make '30 min meals.' She is (imho) super super annoying, but I think she has a lot to teach. If you spend a couple of hours watching her old shows, you can pick up some general hints of not needing to measure everything out, how to simplify meals, etc.. She talks about flavors and spices and her beloved EVOO, and her enthusiasm is infectious. She gives examples of how to simplify meals, and it might be helpful to use her as a model (spoiler alert, her meals take much more than 30 min)

OP, I hope some of this is helpful.

+1 on the air fryer. I also gave up on the idea that I had to cook something every single night. I cook about twice a week. We have leftovers (maybe), a night where everyone fends for themselves (including the kid), breakfast for dinner night, and maybe take out. I despise cooking. Everything about it. This has made it bearable.

We usually cook from scratch, but have the same thing almost every night. It really limits the prep mess and decision fatigue, I know everybody will eat it, and if I'm lucky DH made a big batch of chicken that I can just reheat.

Go-to meal: Baked chicken and salad.
Variation: Chicken in (bought) sauce over rice, and fish sticks for the kids.

Special occasion meal: Baked salmon and salad, or grilled burgers and corn.

"Eff it I can't even bake" meal: Ravioli and salad.