What would you eat if

Delayed response (because I turn notifications off), but...

The reason I learned to cook originally was because my mum was a health conscious wanna be middle class stay-at-home 1970s/80s mum, complete with aga and Laura Ashley dresses.

There were hardly ever biscuits or cakes in the house because: sugar. So I got the Delia Smith cookery book down from the high shelf (that involved climbing on the Welsh dresser), found a recipe and began cooking. 

No idea how old I was when I started. I know I needed a chair to reach the countertop. I baked in secret as I never slept well so would be up at 4am sneaking into the kitchen and making scones or victoria sponge as quietly as possible.

Recipe books just clicked for me. Like programming the ZX Spectrum or reading music. It was a code I could learn and use. I still read recipes now, although usually adapt them to my own style 

I have a bread machine and we make all our own bread, I couldn't go back to shop bought bread now, it's just expensive pap.

I also batch cook so theres nearly always something in the freezer.

I can't cook. So I rely on Precooked meals for the microwave and the Air Fryer,

or I just order food through Just Eat, but I don't do that often, maybe just once every two months, 

I do sometimes have Toast, Cereal, Wraps, or bagels in the morning, depending on what I feel like having, 

If I had to choose something to eat, I would go for tinned Tuna and tinned sweetcorn, I LOVE tuna & sweetcorn  

Until more recently I cooked most things from scratch. I do prefer choosing my own flavours with herbs, stock cubes etc. 

I believe you were referring to going to individual shops. When I was only cooking for myself, they were preferable for quantities, particularly meat as supermarkets have lots of things in larger quantities. 

As for bread, I prefer to slice it myself, but this is not always easy to source, especially if you prefer brown.

I can cook well so I guess I would be ok from that point, though I find cooking stressful as there's so much to think about. I would definitely go to the shop and see if any Haribo was there, if it were, I would live on that.

I try to keep my food simple, but sometimes it's hard to tell what’s actually good for me. I’ve found that learning how to know what food is ultra processed helps a lot with making better choices. Checking ingredient lists is a quick way to spot anything overly artificial. Long lists with lots of additives usually mean it’s heavily processed. Fresh, basic ingredients are my go-to whenever possible.

Hi Bunny, as Cat woman said, don't blame yourself for struggling with cooking. I used to quite enjoy trying out recipes in my younger days, but now in my sixties I am pretty bored with it as an activity. I thought I might get back into it after retirement, but now I am retired I would rather spend the time doing other things. I'd rather buy a ready meal or pizza I can just stick in the oven than spend a lot of time peeling, chopping, and otherwise preparing. Iceland do some very tasty frozen meals, such as a chicken Korma that I think is almost restaurant quality - certainly better than I could cook

I would be fine. I am a good cook, though I prefer one or two pot cooking (multitasking is not my thing). I prepare curries - rasam, dopiaza, rogan josh - from basic ingredients. We have a cupboard full of spices and herbs. I like cooking rice dishes such as paella, risotto and biryani. I also do more local dishes, like Lancashire hot pot, chicken stew with dumplings and Irish stew.

Oh Bunny, don't punish yourself for not being able to cook, I know it's hard and for women of a certain age and/or culture it can be such a source of shame, but it really isn't. I can cook and cook pretty well, but theres so much I can't do, things that really frustrate me and those around me, like my inability with tech and anything mechanical. Probably you like my friend would have been ROLFing at my attempts to get a coin operated shopping trolley the first time I encountered one.

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I'm really not a fan of roast dinners, about the only time I do one is xmas and even then I find it boring to cook and eat.

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Yes you would have chocolate and fig rolls.

I remember when the idea of self service in shops was weird, most shops had everything behind the counter and you asked for what you wanted. I remember when salad was very seasonal, basically July and August, the rest of the time it was just potatoes, turnips, carrots and parsnips, plus sprouts and cabbage and onions.

I remember having to go to a specialist shop for ground coffee rather than a jar of nescafe or maxwell house, likewise, for veg like aubergenes and peppers. As for spices, if you wanted, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or ground ginger you were alright, oh and pots of pickling spice, but anything for a curry was way out there.

Food has changed so much since I was a child and the only pasta was either macaronni or spaghetti in tins of tomato sauce, I remember the excitement when spaghetti hoops came out! Rice was just for puddings, I hated rice pudding, especially the skin on top, it still gives me ick, just thinking about it.

Hmm, well for breakfast I usually have yogurt, but if that wasn't allowed I'd have cereal.

Lunch for me is usually a sandwich and a fruit pot, so the only change there would be fresh or tinned fruit.

For dinner, I'd have things like sausages & mash or roast chicken with roasted veg. If I was feeling lazy I'd have a Big soup with crusty bread.

I see you said in a reply below that you were thinking of things that were available when you were a child. I'm a similar age to you, and I remember packets of biscuits and chocolate bars being available then, so that's what I'd have to snack on (Fig rolls & dark chocolate preferred, like Bournville or After eights, yum!)

Roast dinners for me, I love a good roast dinner especially Beef , roast potatoes are my favourite apart from Crisps but I guess crisps wouldn't be allowed?

I would be the same. Really struggle with food, the prepping and then cooking, all a big meltdown waiting to happen. I would just live on sandwiches, already do if my mum isn't there to make me something.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You don't need to forgive or blame yourself for any thing, we're all better at different things, and you can learn and improve cooking over time if you want to 

TheCatWoman said:

would you live on sandwiches, your allowed breakfast cereal and basic tinned goods.

This, for me. I struggle with preparing and cooking food from fresh, or otherwise basic, ingredients.

Post diagnosis, I’m still working through learning to forgive - and not blame - myself for my ineptitude in the kitchen.

I was thinking what would it be like if we had no ready meals and jars of sauces etc, just bread, butter, chesses and meat and cakes, like we used to when I was a small child, before we had big supermarkets and people went to the butcher, the baker, the greengrocer, the fishmonger etc, there were a few tinned goods like baked beans and peas, jars of ketchup and chutneys and jams, but not a great deal else. Most bread wasn't sliced and had to be cut, tin openers didn't have a ring pull, you had to open them with a can opener with a spike and blade that you stabbed and hacked around the tin with. Milk and other dairy products often came from the milkman, along with orange juice and maybe some fizzy drinks, if they didn't have a sperated delivery.

So I'm allowed a toasted bagel with butter on right? Because I would just live off those forever.

Are we talking about ready meals, cakes, biscuits, jars of sauces etc, or more basic things like roasted coffee beans, tea leaves, wine, dried pasta, pressed cooking oils, butchered meat etc?

If the former then there would be pretty much no difference for me (except maybe for gravy granules), Everything is cooked from scratch including cake and biscuits (I freeze portions so don't have to eat an entire cake in one sitting!). I enjoy cooking and at one time went down a rabbit hole over "ultra processed food" so stopped buying it in virtually every case.

if you mean the latter, more extreme examples, then that's very interesting. I bake my own sourdough bread, but rely on pre-milled flour and salt from a packet. I could ask my mum how to make wine, but I'd need brewer's yeast from somewhere. I've never killed and butchered my own meat, but I'd be willing to try. It would mean giving up a lot of the more exotic imports like chocolate and coffee. That would be irritating, but not impossible. 

I'd be fine preparing my own meals from raw ingredients.

I got a lot of practice in preparing loads of meals in bulk when I ran supper club sessions for a few months, catering for between 12 and 20 people with 6 courses on average.

Even now I like to visit my local market at the weekend and buy loads of veg to roast and freeze for during the week.

Having to prepare meat from the animals would take some learning but I'd be up for that.

I would miss my sugary foods and beer though - those are some of my favourite vices. I could bake but I always find myself eating half the cake when I make them...

I suspect that if all the pre-prepared food dissapeared then society would descent to anarchy pretty quickly - there just seem so many that lack the skills to fend for themselves cooking wise and they would no doubt try to take it by force.

I guess it could be a solution to overpopulation though. (thankfully it shouldn't come to that).