No Cooking!

Not exactly no-cooking while dh is away, but yesterday I did stick a chicken in the oven, so plenty to pick at cold with salad.

But in the end I couldn’t bear to waste all the lovely residue in the roasting tin, so did make some gravy, and had it with just some cauliflower, no spuds.
Still a minimum of faff, but I’ll def. be making stock from the carcass.

WHat is meant by 'a bit of salad'?
I live by myself, have salad as my main meal most days. It is far from being 'a bit'. Quite good size and lots in it - lettuce, spianch leaves, tomato, red peper, sugar snaps, celery, cucumber, spring onions, beetroot, pom. seeds. Usually add a few walnut, and even some dried fruit or fresh grapes.
I used also to put in some carbs like pasta or salad potatoes, but have recently stopped that in an effort to lose a few pounds,
To this salad I add a piece of salmon, or a fish cake, or chicken of sea bass, or trout.
Do not think there could be a more satisfying or healthy meal anywhere. Takes me about 15 minutes to prepare that salad, and piece of fish or chicken is cooking during that time.
Dessert is usually yoghurt based. I am most definitely not under-nourished.. yet little cooking involved.

Lunch is either a couple of soft boiled eggs, ( electric egg boiler used), or twice a week two poached eggs (microwave poached), on low fat baked beans on toast. Occasionally, I will make myself an omelette or scrambled eggs on toast.

Breakfast is Fruit &Fibre (summer) or porridge winter) all with added de-frosted frozen berries added. Mug of tea

I live food, but do not wish to govern my time with cooking.

I would suggest that anyone who wishes to make meals and not want the faff of long cooking times and lots of washing up could invest in a good steam cooker.

I’m another who doesn’t eat before traditional lunchtime, just thinking about it now, it’ll be weetabix/porridge with 2/3 fruits. MrJ will be eating in a while, he’ll have a bacon and egg roll.
But I do cook from scratch most evenings, I enjoy it.

I’m the same, sf101, my breakfast is rarely before about 11 am.
Dh, OTOH, has to eat first thing, even before he has a cup of tea or coffee! Weirdo!!

watermeadow, I'm with you on this. Especially seeing as I am doing an early shift job at the moment and I hate getting up at 4am and then trying to decide what to pack for lunch (or rather 'brunch' as my break is 30 mins at 10am). It's totally screwing up my meal routine and it's stalled my weight-loss.

Because I was always first home from work I cooked for the family for many years until DH and I retired, when he took over. He really enjoys it, is an excellent cook, actively sources new recipes he can make from scratch (Ottelenghi is a favourite), incorporating all his allotment produce, and we eat “proper meals” for lunch and dinner. I’m very lucky, but I do have to have two fast days a week to maintain my weight.

Left to my own devices I have fresh bread and cheese, something on toast, sandwiches, soups and salads, with loads of fruit, and really enjoy it. I do make the soups - or rather, the soup maker does - and we always have plenty of those in the freezer. I can cook and still do if we have the family or friends round, but find day to day cooking a chore. I can’t see that not cooking is any less healthy than spending hours over a hot stove. It’s what you eat that matters, not how it’s put together.

Hooray for all the non cookers I thought I was the only one. So happy to hear there are lots of us. I have lived alone for years and like many can't be bothered with all the mess cooking for one.
I will carry on guilt free with my salads, sarnies and things on toast, breakfast cereal any time of the day snacking on cherry tomatoes or fruit. Like many I would much rather be doing something else.
And breakfast is when you break your fast so can be eaten at any time I usually have my first food between 11 and 12, just not hungry before then.

Hetty Many obese people are malnourished. You do not need to be thin to be malnourished.

But 50% of older people admitted to hospital are malnourished and surely that is a large proportion in anyones reckoning and given that the majority of people in hospital are elderly, reducing malnutrition in the elderly could go a long way to reducing the load on the NHS and improving the quality of the services it offers.

I would have thought that malnourishment (as in simply not eating enough of the right things) must be a small problem compared to all the overindulging in junk food - without taking much exercise. The traditional UK diet seems totally unsuitable for elderly, less active folk. We have an obesity problem in all age groups.

Looks as if the minimal cooking brigade are in a majority. Aged 85 now and don't eat anything beyond ten minutes to prepare. For the really lazy, I recommend frozen baked potatoes. One does for an evening meal with tuna or cheese or any left overs or even baked beans. Four in a pack, and not an extravagance considering how much fuel it takes to bake a potato.

Couldn’t be bothered to go out in the heat and buy more spinach today, so tonight it was another piece of smoked haddock from the freezer and green beans ditto. An absolute minimum of faff and no carbs. At this rate I might have lost a few pounds by the time dh returns from his travels. ?

I think growstuff we will have to agree to differ because we are clearly talking at cross purposes.

TwiceAsNice

It’s not very healthy to just snack all the time. I do agree cooking can be a chore but a quick meal out of the freezer or my favourite an omelette is quick and tasty

Not cooking isn't the same as snacking.

henetha

I think we are reasonably healthy in spite of not much cooking, growstuff, aren't we .
It's quite liberating to not cook often.
Part of my reason is a chronically bad back which prevents me from standing for long.

I don't have a reason. I just don't like cooking, cleaning and washing up. I prefer the taste of what I eat to cooked meat in particular and I can't stand overboiled and salted veg. I honestly don't see a problem. I get the necessary calories, three macro-nutrients and loads of micro-nutrients from what I eat and I don't feel hungry and my weight is healthy and stable. Even when I eat out, I choose the simplest food on the menu. It's quite restricting because I don't eat starchy carbs, so I usually choose a salad, traybake veg or stir fry.

No MOnica it doesn't make me feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, but if you honestly thing these people would be fit and well if they cooked themselves a proper cooked meal "from scratch", I think you're overlooking something about them. There's nothing virtuous about cooking.

Some people seem to imagine that if you don't "cook" then we're poor old souls in danger of malnutrition. Far from it. I can't remember the last time I used my oven.

Porridge every day for breakfast. I make a four-day pan of lentil/vegetable soup that I have for lunch with toast and cheese. Evening meal might be salad and an omelette, or baked potato (frozen microwavable variety), fresh fruit and yogurt.

I keep my electric bills low, and am fit and healthy. Walk 5 or 6 miles a day, weight the same as it was when I was twenty.

Cooking is great if you actually enjoy it, but is certainly not a necessary pasttime if you don't.

I am sorry, growstuff I am talking of people in their late 70s-80s, without any sign of dementia, both were in good health had no mobility problems and both were still playing an active part in their local communities. They did not even live in the same area, let alone know each other. One had had depression most of his life, but managed for some years on his own and eating well. The other lived with a sister.
,
But both of them began to eat less and less because they could not be bothered to cook or prepare a meal. The less they ate, the less they wanted to eat, We could see them losing weight and we did all we could to get them to eat, but it was a bit like anorexia, they couldn't face food and would leave the table. I ended up coaxing my uncle to eat small slices of banana with a cup of tea, which he was always partial to, but in the end he had to be admitted to hospital. My aunt fell and broke her hip.

I am sorry that the problem of malnutrition in older people makes you feel uncomfortable.But it is a subject that has been researched and the problem confirmed and cannot be explained away by saying those malnourished must have dementia, or depression, or are be extremely elderly (90 plus?).

Many of those who end up malnourished start by losing interest in food and cooking and slowly and gently drift into malnutrition, despite initial good health and being part of a supportive community.

I’m on my own now, too and have lost a lot of interest in food and cooking, but I could live on fish; it’s quick and easy. Like Witzend, smoked haddock with wilted spinach and a couple of new potatoes is a favourite, or sea bass or salmon fillets; quick and easy. I have an air fryer oven which is quicker and more economical than the conventional oven for cooking fish, chops, or a chicken breast and a few roast potatoes or roasted vegetables. Meat cooked in it is very moist and tasty. Sometimes, though, it’s just a BLT panini and a glass of wine that hits the spot. Soul food.

I think we are reasonably healthy in spite of not much cooking, growstuff, aren't we .
It's quite liberating to not cook often.
Part of my reason is a chronically bad back which prevents me from standing for long.

It’s not very healthy to just snack all the time. I do agree cooking can be a chore but a quick meal out of the freezer or my favourite an omelette is quick and tasty

Poor chap! He sounds hen-pecked!

I have a Singaporean SiL who doesn’t consider any meal a ‘proper’ one if it’s not cooked and served hot. She’s considerably younger than me, too, only 51.

It was ages ago, but I still remember the poor old chap at some self service cafe/restaurant where there was both hot and cold food to choose from - it was lunchtime - who just wanted a sandwich.

His wife wasn’t having it.
‘You’ve got to have a Proper Dinner!’
‘But I only want a sandwich.’
‘No! You’ve got to have a PROPER DINNER!’

The poor old bugger eventually had to give in, for the sake of a quiet life.

henetha

It's one of the upsides of living alone, - not having to cook if you don't want to. I'm cooking less and less now, although I still do in the winter. But now summer is here it's mainly salads with something like, maybe, two grilled fish cakes or chicken. I'm trying to cut down on carbs and have not eaten potatoes for weeks.
I still like a boiled egg for breakfast now and then.

Sounds like me.

PS. My blood pressure and weight are both healthy. I eat 1,500-1,700 calories a day and my weight has remained stable for as long as I can remember.

What do you mean by "elderly"? I expect you mean those with dementia, serious mobility problems or depression (or all three). I doubt if their problems started when they were perfectly able but didn't actually enjoy cooking or see the point.

It's laughable to think that people in their sixties should keep cooking just so they don't get malnourished when they're very elderly.

I've been eating the way I do now for about ten years and I'm not malnourished (I also have low fuel bills). I've just been tested for blood glucose, full blood count, ferritin, folate, lipids, liver function, kidney function, pituitary, potassium, sodium, Vitamins D and B12 and had a bone density scan. Every one, except blood glucose, is in the standard range, so "not cooking" (or, to be more precise, minimal cooking) isn't doing me any harm and I have every intention of continuing like this until I'm too decrepit to open the fridge door.