Oof! I didn’t think cooking 7 meals a week would be as tough as it’s turned out to be, but after two weeks, I can say that this challenge has proven to be the hardest I’ve done for blogging purposes. October’s Rocky Horror Roller Show was a challenge that took a lot of time, but I have to say, I loved every second of it. Same with November’s Writing focus. (December’s focus of Relax and Reflect was, obviously, the easiest 😂)
One of our favorite meals are sous vide steaks from Aldi! So juicy and tender and not terribly expensive, especially compared to take-out!
Cooking, though … I really hate cooking, as it turns out.
Not just hate, LOATHE. I remembered why Intermittent Fasting initially appealed to me: less cooking if I only had to eat during certain hours! When I read about IF in Peter Shankman’s “Faster Than Normal” for the first time, he made the point that part of why IF is convenient for him as an ADHDer is because he doesn’t have to constantly think about things like “should I eat? Am I hungry? Did I forget to eat? Do I need to cook? Should I start something now or wait? Will I be hungry later? How many calories is this?” When I began IF after years of restrictive dieting with so many rules to follow, calories and nutrients to keep track of, and constantly worrying about messing up, I found it really freeing. When I was able to condense my eating into a smaller time frame, my brain was free of those questions between 8 p.m. and noon the next day. (Yes, I still cook breakfast for the kids, but it’s not as thought-intensive as cooking breakfast for myself while on whatever ridiculous diet I was trying before stepping off the diet roller coaster for good.)
I didn’t realize how face-to-face I’d have to come with the things I’ve been wanting to unlearn from so many years of diet culture and unhealthy standards, but one thing I realized had happened was my all-or-nothing mindset had gotten so tangled in my decision-making ability when it came to planning a meal. A lot of “off-limit” of “forbidden” foods from various diets have never made their way back into the house because my thinking was, if I didn’t buy it, I wouldn’t be tempted with it. But here’s the catch — I also didn’t want to cook the healthy stuff either, and it would end up going bad and we would end up ordering out.
But with this challenge, I’ve been a lot more conscious with what comes into the house, when I want to cook it and even planning more, which I’ve involved Mark in as well, which seems to work well to get us both going!
Some of our favorite meals this month
Speaking of which, Mark has become MVP of this challenge for lunch! We’ve really enjoyed using his favorite meat-cooking gadget, the sous vide immersion cooker. If you’ve seen my Instagram Stories from this month (January 2022), you may have caught his AMA, where we had a blast answering your questions. You can check out the AMA in this Instagram Post (LINK) and this Instagram Highlight. You can also check out our sous vide setup here!
Some other things I’ve noticed and found helpful this month:
I found this list of 50 recipes with 3 ingredients or less and have enjoyed saving a few recipes. I even tried the garlic chicken and it was pretty good!
I made an account at AllRecipes.com— finally a website without the long, complicated backstory that takes 20 minutes to scroll through before finally getting to the recipe.
Convenience foods are fantastic to combat my ADHD tendency to get overwhelmed with prep, which usually leads to take-out many nights. Paying the extra $$ (ADHD Tax) for pre-chopped veggies or pre-prepped meals still saves money from eating out and means less time in the kitchen doing the parts I hate!
We're finding patterns in our week, like on Mondays when none of us feel like cooking. It also happens to be the day of the week I usually go shopping for the week, and by the time I come back, all I want to do is order anything else! (I know I’m not alone 😂)
One thing that helps a lot in the kitchen (cleaning tip) is watching kitchen/bakery show where they organize kitchens — listen to the tips! I started watching Project Bakeover and got the great tip for pantries and fridges to put the heavier stuff on the bottom of shelves and things used most often at eye level.
It helped to clean the kitchen on Day 1 as a way to prep myself for the challenge and get in the mood. I tend to clean my kitchen Sunday nights because I found I love waking up Monday morning to a clean kitchen — especially when the sink is especially empty!
We’ve found that while Mark likes sticking to a lot of his favorites and classics, I tend to want more variety. We’ve found that sometimes we have dinners where I cook him one thing or get him drive-thru and I’ll make myself something from the freezer/appetizer section 😂
It has been fun to connect with my friends who enjoy cooking online and get tips from them! Thank you to everyone who has helped me out so far! I want to give a shout-out to my friend Jamie who told me all about getting high-quality chicken and the difference it makes.
I posted about getting an aversion to chicken from both my pregnancies and it astounded me how many of you found that, as well! How did anyone survive the early ‘00s when every diet seemed to consist of a bland chicken breast for every meal?! Blech!
Anyway, only a few more days to go with this challenge and I’m not gonna lie — I’m going back and forth between wanting to keep it up or going back to take-out for the convenience and time saved. The extra time spent on cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes have been very noticeable! Though I know we’re also saving a lot of money by eating at home, and the whole point of the challenge was to do that and see if it’s really worth it.
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