Cooking!

Is it just me, or is cooking and catering for yourself a difficult everyday task?  I understand the importance of being healthy so I like to make nutrionally balanced food, but recipes that are full of words can be quite hard to follow.

Things I struggle with:

Not knowing if the food can be frozen and eaten at a later date

Is the food been cooked enough?

Is it still fresh?

Can it be reheated?

 

Cooking classes maybe an idea, but that involves people and only certain ingredients.  Unfortunately my literal mind doesn't let me guess if foods are fresh or not.  Even though it maybe OK to freeze fresh prawns, I don't know if it's OK to freeze fresh fish.  I know now you can, but even though they are both seafood they are both completely different ingredients, so my brain wants to know how to use every single ingredient.

Because I want to eat healthy, but also in big batches so I can freeze and save money, I want to use ingredients like meat, seafood, grains, etc, but I have no idea if recipes I make can be frozen or need to be thawed before cooking.  One book that has helped me is these step-by-step picture cook books.  I discovered them recently and thought it would be a good idea to make my own step-by-step recipes with pictures when I make foods.  I've also tried the Healthy Good Food app on the iPhone, it is good in a way because it tells you what recipes are freezable.  I would really like to use meat and seafood as I really like both, but preparing, cooking, and eating it is very scary.  Could make me sick if I don't do it right!

 

Has anyone else had issues with food and cooking?  And, any ideas to help me?  I need snack ideas as well that don't contain a lot of sugar, I try to limit sugar to help me keep calmer.

  • Hope said:

    My kitchen is very clean and well wiped, and no-one else can do the washing up!. I wash up straight away because I hate food sitting around, and I never eat food after its date. All the rules have to be kept or I would get very anxious.

    I try and eat a varied diet, but tend to follow a certain theme.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one with the washing up thing!  I am a bit more flexible with "best before" dates though; some seem to be very pessimistic.  I often find milk fine ten days after its "best before".  I get some good variety in my diet due to the fact that I prefer to buy local fruit and vegetables and live in a temperate zone.

  • I quite like cooking, particularly vegetable curries and pasta concoctions, but because of my OCD, there are some foods I cannot touch, such as raw meat - it would cause me to wash my hands for a very, very long time!. My diet is therefore almost Vegetarian, although I cannot call myself that because I do eat tinned fish (tuna etc), and I sometimes eat ready cooked prawns in a ready-meal.

    My kitchen is very clean and well wiped, and no-one else can do the washing up!. I wash up straight away because I hate food sitting around, and I never eat food after its date. All the rules have to be kept or I would get very anxious.

    I try and eat a varied diet, but tend to follow a certain theme.

  • aimosan said:
    I had a can of Monster, or whatever it's called, once during work and I was really ill.  My colleagues thought it was funny I could get so ill over a can of juice but they're pretty full of rubbish these drinks.  No wonder I was so ill.  I know they only joke about it, it is quite funny when you think about it.

    Problem is a lot of snacks, drinks, and foods contain high quantities of high sugar and fat.  I really should make a visual list of snacks that agree with me for when I'm a little bit hungry.  Writing things down in a list isn't as easy to follow for me.

    I just read a girl of 14 died after drinking 2 cans of that stuff, she did have a condition that caused weakened blood vessels but the article says about 5 people have died from drinking it.  It has extreme doses of caffeine in it, no wonder you were ill.

  • I am the queen of the ready meal, although I can make a roast, and a handful of other dishes.  I hate cooking and I frequently forget things are in the oven and get distracted/hyperfocused elsewhere (usually the computer) and things burn.

    If the children are not home I do forget to eat until I am starving, again due to hyperfocus.

    I forget to use things within a certain date and have to throw them away.

    I do have ADHD traits as well as AS.

  • Eled said:

    I don't do cooking and need very exact instructions if I have to do anything because otherwise I'll get the timings wrong and end up having the meat ready half an hour before the potatoes or something.

    Same, I dont have the ADHD issues though. What I have is a bad habbit of fogetting that the meat substratethis particular mind happens to inhabit needs upkeep, leading to my simply forgetting to eat unless made to becase I was playing with intresting ideas, or being striken with a stabbing headache becase its backingly hot, I'm deydrated badly and all Ive had to drink all day is a mug of super strong coffee. 

    [/quote]

    I never forget that I need to eat (I like food too much) but I do often procrastinate cooking far too much because my mind is busy.  Often my mind goes over and over things.  This leads to me needing super-strong coffee to get through the next day.

    I can cook decent meals, with lots of fresh vegetables, but they tend to all be very similar.  And I need to feel that I am doing absolutely everything right in terms of looking after the kitchen and keeping it clean.  There are already countless rules and protocols for it and I still want it to be cleaner and more systematic.  I can't remember letting my (rare) guests help me wash up since I first got my own flat four years ago.  They'd only do it wrong!  They just have to consider themselves lucky to be allowed in the kitchen at all).  I don't eat meat or fish though, which does cut out a lot of the worries about how to store things safely.

  • Skybird said:

    I don't do cooking and need very exact instructions if I have to do anything because otherwise I'll get the timings wrong and end up having the meat ready half an hour before the potatoes or something.

    Same, I dont have the ADHD issues though. What I have is a bad habbit of fogetting that the meat substratethis particular mind happens to inhabit needs upkeep, leading to my simply forgetting to eat unless made to becase I was playing with intresting ideas, or being striken with a stabbing headache becase its backingly hot, I'm deydrated badly and all Ive had to drink all day is a mug of super strong coffee. 

  • I don't do cooking and need very exact instructions if I have to do anything because otherwise I'll get the timings wrong and end up having the meat ready half an hour before the potatoes or something.

    Because I also have ADHD, I literally have to force myself to stand in the kitchen because otherwise something WILL distract me and I'll have a bit of a disaster.

  • How about kid's cook books? They are pictorial, and are easier to follow than the adult ones.

  • I had a can of Monster, or whatever it's called, once during work and I was really ill.  My colleagues thought it was funny I could get so ill over a can of juice but they're pretty full of rubbish these drinks.  No wonder I was so ill.  I know they only joke about it, it is quite funny when you think about it.

    Problem is a lot of snacks, drinks, and foods contain high quantities of high sugar and fat.  I really should make a visual list of snacks that agree with me for when I'm a little bit hungry.  Writing things down in a list isn't as easy to follow for me.

  • Wow i feel ill after to much sugar i call it a sugar overdose and people laugh at me cos the have never felt that way after too much sugar i end up feeling light headed and fuzzy headed its the only way i can explain it lol

  • I think so.  I like to think that I don't have the sugar high and crash as bad so I find I'm calmer.  Coca Cola is the worst for me because I don't have caffiene very often, so I don't have energy drinks either.  I find I feel unwell after having them.

  • Does less sugar in ur diet work?