What do you do when you’re tired of cooking?

The other day Jana left this comment in response to another reader:

“Tired of cooking at this point” really resonates with me. Why doesn’t Kristen ever get tired of cooking?! (Kristen, this might be a topic for a post: how do we keep on keeping on when we are tired of cooking or other endless daily functions of life?)

This comment made me chuckle, but I do agree with Jana that it’s a good topic to discuss. And for the record, I do get tired of cooking!

As per usual, I’m gonna share my random thoughts on this and then open it up to you guys.

First, I want to acknowledge a truth:

Getting homemade food on the table every day is not easy

No matter how many, “Meals in Minutes” or “5 Easy Ways to Make Dinner Fast” articles you read, the fact remains: preparing, cooking, and cleaning up food day in and day out is a big job.

If it was easy, would the takeout/fast food industry be booming like it is? NO.

So, I think it helps to have some radical acceptance of this fact. Cooking every day is a tough chore.

And this is especially true because it is almost a constant chore. I mean, even laundry happens less frequently! But we eat food at least three times a day.

So, there is no reason to expect ourselves to feel happy and motivated about cooking every single day.

It’s ok to get tired of it. It’s ok to not feel like it. I think that’s super normal!

You don’t have to like cooking at all

I think there’s a unique sort of pressure we put on ourselves about cooking, and we don’t do this with other chores.

If you say you hate cleaning toilets or doing laundry, you generally don’t feel guilty about it, and you don’t feel judged. But it is somehow more looked-down-on if you say you hate cooking.

Hmmm.

You can choose to do a chore you don’t like

I think this is another way cooking is unique: we generally expect ourselves to do laundry or toilet-cleaning or bill-paying even if those chores don’t delight us.

But sometimes we think we have to feel like cooking before we do it.

Hmmm again. That’s kind of weird!

You could try reframing it as a choice

When you get right down to it, chores are a choice. If we want to throw money at the problem, we can always choose to outsource the task.

I think this can be helpful because instead of thinking, “I have to cook dinner tonight.”, you could reframe it and say, “I’m choosing to cook dinner tonight instead of getting takeout because I want to add to my financial cushion/stay out of debt/pay off debt/whatever.”

Or, “I’m choosing to cook dinner tonight because I want to take good care of my body.”

(I do recognize that some takeout is actually healthy, and that some home-cooked meals are not good for your health…but as a rule, what you cook at home will be healthier than takeout/fast food.)

Try focusing on the result

Like I always say, I don’t really like cooking: I like eating! And the way to eat delicious food is to get my booty in the kitchen and cook.

The process of cooking holds little pleasure for me; it’s just a means to an end, a pathway to a plate of good eats.

I don’t know if that would work for everyone, but it helps me.

And I combine this one with reframing it as a choice: I want to eat delicious food and I want to take good care of my body and I want to save money, soooo…cooking it is!

Some practical ideas

Everything I shared above is about mindset, but practically speaking, here are a few ideas.

Lower your standards for what dinner needs to be

As you know from reading my menu posts, I have flexible ideas about what constitutes dinner.

 

A multi-dish meal with a main dish and sides is lovely, but that’s not the only way to feed yourself. You can eat something simple like:

• breakfast for dinner
• sandwiches with fruit/veggies on the side
• crackers, cheese, and fruit

It’s still quite possible to get whole grains, protein, and produce in that way.

Along those same lines…it’s ok to repeat meals.

Please see: me and my blueberry pancakes. 😉

Allow yourself some convenience foods

Almost nothing at the grocery store is as expensive as takeout, so if some convenience foods help you avoid burnout, buy them!

Trader Joe’s frozen orange chicken comes to mind, and so do frozen pizzas.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

If you can, budget for some takeout nights

Sometimes what helps you not get tired of cooking is….getting a break from cooking.

If you could know that every Thursday night, you get to order takeout, that might help you get your booty into the kitchen the other nights.

What would you add to my list?

I know you all will have some great ideas for Jana!