I’m eating to survive

I’ve started a new position within my company, moving from project to program manager. It’s 5x more responsibilities, and constant back to backs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it.

However, I’m also working on managing my finances better. Much less eating out, no night outs and impulsive shopping. I’ve realised that for the past 3 weeks, I’ve been eating to survive. Even if I decide to stay home to save up money, I don’t ever feel the need to cook, I don’t enjoy it and I found myself “nibbling” rather than cooking a full hearty meal.

I realised how much I relied on delivery/eating out, sometimes spending about £300 a month on it. How do you find joy in cooking? By the end of the day, I just cannot find the energy to spend 1h in the kitchen to eat for 10min.

in Adultingby Significant-End-2823

75%

23d

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Specialist_Royal_449

23d

you defintely need to eat more than snacks, some people call it meal prep which i hate its home economics as it was called when it was taught in schools in the last century. basically using a slow cooker to have leftovers for ahead of time whether it is a stew or pot roast. also making sides macaroni salad , mashed potatoes, or coleslaw. and sticking them in the fridge to be eaten later. your efforts in the kitchen should be able to gain you more than one meal. I'm a strong believer that we have been completely lie to with the concept of cooking one big meal at a time.

I buy gound meat in bulk, never one pound at a time. turn it into patties ,no special ingredients just meat, separate them on parchment paper, put them in an air tight container and freeze them. cook them up when i need to with just salt, top them with maybe an onion & pickles, whatever condiments i feel like at the time and they are just as good as most burgers you would get from whatever fast food chain. i make sausage patties also for multiple breakfasts in the same fashion. yes i could buy the premade one but they never come out as good for some reason, i like the top and bottom to crisp properly not how the premade one get stuck to the pan. for pancakes if i want some that week , i make a bowl of batter in a bowl with a sealing top and pull it out as needed from the fridge.

basically this is how our great grandparents did it. its not all in one go but to just set ourselves up for the week over multiple days. one day i might make biscuits"american scones" to last a few days. then the next i will whip up a batch of cookies"american biscuits" i didn't realize how confusing describing american baking to someone in another country was going to be lol. it usually only takes 30 minutes or so and its not that labor intensive. i have made both while falling asleep standing up, you got to love how us in the U.S. have not enough worker's right lol *silently crying on the inside*

but cooking is not a chore so long as you do the work ahead of time, so it far easier to eat better when you are exhausted. best of luck to you

Significant-End-2823

22d

Omg thank you so much for this, it made me so motivated to do some good prepping!