We all have to eat, so cooking is difficult to avoid altogether. But there´s no need to be a slave to the saucepan if you just don´t have the cooking gene!Lazy cooks like me have a bit of a dilemma. What do we do if we want to eat well? I like good food, but I just can´t get enthusiastic about cooking. Fortunately, there are ways around this problem that enable you to eat tasty food without spending much (or any) time in the kitchen. So here are some handy tips on how to eat well without cooking…
1. SIMPLE DISHES
Even a lazy cook can´t avoid doing some cooking (unless you want to live on junk food, which isn´t at all healthy!). So if you are forced to enter the dreaded kitchen, the answer is to make some simple meals. Cooking doesn’t need to be complicated, and with a few simple but healthy ingredients you can quickly whip up a nutritious meal. Think dishes like pasta and hearty salads.
2. QUALITY INGREDIENTS
Do you want to make a meal with a minimum amount of effort? Using good quality ingredients can make all the difference to a no-cook or low-cook meal! Better quality food naturally has a superior taste, so you won’t need to spend a lot of time trying to make something tasty. If budget is an issue, concentrate on buying a few key ingredients like a good olive oil.
3. BATCH COOKING
This is my favourite solution as a lazy cook. Some initial time investment is required, but it doesn’t really take much longer to prepare ingredients for four portions than it does for one. The beauty then is that you can freeze the remaining portions, and all you have to do when you want an easy meal is reheat one. Spend an hour or two cooking and you could have enough meals to last you all week! Serve with a different accompaniment for variety.
4. SHARE
Do you have a roommate who likes cooking? Sharing meals is a great solution if either or both of you hate cooking. Take it in turns to prepare meals, and you’ll only have to cook every other day. Of course, the non-cook has to wash the dishes! Or you could propose an arrangement whereby your roommate does all the cooking and you buy the ingredients – they get free meals and you have a resident chef!
5. DECENT RESTAURANT
An excellent solution to how to eat well without cooking is to locate a decent deli in your neighbourhood. This might not be the cheapest option – cooking from scratch is always more economical – but a quality deli will offer plenty of delicious dishes that you can put together to make a meal.
6. RESTAURANT OFFERS
If you really hate cooking, then eating out is one way of avoiding the kitchen! It’s expensive to eat out every day, and most people can’t afford to do so regularly. However, if you have a reasonable budget, there is one way of getting more for your money. Restaurants try to encourage your business with discounted offers – check out coupon sites to see what’s available (obviously if you’re eating alone, 2 for 1 offers are no use!).
7. FIND THE RIGHT PARTNER!
The ultimate solution for the lazy cook is to find the right partner – someone who loves cooking! They don’t have to be a professional chef, just someone who loves cooking a whole lot more than you do. To be fair, make sure that you take responsibility for other household chores, so that you’re compensating for their efforts in the kitchen.
