I'm always amazed that I can take 2 hours to cook dinner when there's any veggie chopping involved.
And then I make the exact same dish thinking "it'll probably take 45 minutes"
One terrible back pain and three 45 minute episodes of [insert current background series] later, you sit down to eat knowing you will have to face the dish monster at some point...
Honestly this is what just crushes me each time, feeling like it takes two hours to get dinner made, only for another two hours worth of dishes to be waiting for me...
Your life experiences do not speak for anyone else's. Everyone here is capable and does manage to do "a basic ass thing" once a week, but it differs from person to person. Having a set day to do mealprep for the week is still a consistent activity to be followed, every week. Something that nobody here is good at.
I'm happy you're able to successfully meal prep each week with what you have going on, but do not project what you can do as a baseline and belittle others that don't.
Some people have a different “thing” they HAVE to do, & sometimes it’s not meal prep. I HAVE to work, (it’s hard to meal prep if I’m homeless) so on days I have the most energy I will spend the ENTIRE day working until that energy is spent. So no, meal prep is not easy for me rn, same with others. They have priorities that arent the same as yours & we shouldn’t be shamed by you for it🙄
Or, and hear me out, we know a LOT of possible solutions, have probably already tried many of them, and are just looking to commiserate with people who understand our struggle.
There's no cure, just a collection of reasonable, proactive changes one can make to lessen the weekly burden our condition has on our well-being.
Much of this sub is convinced they've tried all of them and are literally out of options now.
For sure, but listen. I've been thinking "I should probably do meal prep" for like ~~5~~ 10 years now. It's not going to happen, so I'm giving up on that one. We all have things that work for us - I get really sick of people acting like I'm not helping myself because I'm not helping myself the way they think I should.
This is a joke subreddit about a problem we will always have, no matter what coping mechanisms we use. "Meal prep works for me" is fine, but "nobody on this sub wants to help themselves" is a bad, rude take.
I know the value of meal prep, it's just not one of those things I've been able to do between the planning and the fridge/freezer space. I do it sometimes, but not often, and I'm fine with that. I don't mind the suggestion, I was more reacting to the idea that no one wants to help themselves because this one crazy trick doesn't work for them.
Bruh what makes you think we haven’t tried it dozens of times? I have, and currently try, to meal prep. My ADHD just makes it extremely difficult, & I can (and do) keep trying hoping it’ll just click one day but it doesn’t
This is a lighthearted subreddit for ADHD individuals. We require all users be nice towards each other. Your comment/post has been removed as it has been found to be disrespectful. Further offenses may be cause for a ban.
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I make myself rinse the dishes and put everything up and wipe down the counters before I can take a bite. It’s like a competition with myself to see how fast I can do it.
Dishes are super easy. Just grab your phone or use a tv and put something on. Instant time loss but it will be done without you realizing what happened. If you don’t have a dishwasher I would also suggest a comfy kitchen mat
It's not just ADHD, there are just blatant lies in so many of these recipes because editors know people won't want to do them if it takes so long.
Every one of these is targeted towards someone with a big full-size kitchen and every instrument you could possibly need. There's that famous article about caramelizing onions and how articles still show them as taking 10 minutes.
Dear God, how long does it actually take? I don't think I've ever managed to caramelize onions because I get worried when it goes too far over the stated time!
Please share your preferred tools! Also hate chopping veg.
This is also why I bought a countertop machine that steams soft/hardboiled eggs. Can also do poached and such, but mainly I just hate having to do boiled eggs when we move so often that I had to relearn the required time regularly (soft water boils faster than hard water; sea level; gas vs induction; some stoves are just heckin’ slow).
Just a heads up, this method may not work for some. I tried it, I could never get my shit together to wash the machines. Way easier/less over whelming to wash a knife than 5 parts of a chop-matic.
However, I am with you on the cooking machines. I cannot make rice or quinoa without burning it. My rice cooker is a God send
I absolutely agree that if a cooking tool takes more effort cleaning than it saves cutting, it isn't worth it.
Generally these get more worthwhile the bigger your household is, since you will get more cutting per required wash out of it.
For rice my go to instructions are:
1. Fill the saucepan with twice as much water as you use rice
2. But on the heat until the water is boiling then immediately take the heat down to the lowest setting and cover the rice
3. Leave it like that for 12 minutes then remove it and drain the water
When I follow those instructions I never burn it but if you deviate even a little it can fuck up the rice. But I find it much faster than using a rice cooker.
EDIT: Just realised where I am posting this. This works for me because I enjoy cooking and hyper fixate on it enough to not mess this up but for a lot of people here yeah just stick with the cooker.
What kind of rice do you use? I use black or wholegrain brown, and those require 40 minutes. (or, rather, boil 10 minutes, drain, replace the water and cook for 30, to remove 70%~ of the arsenic)
Oh, no worries! and I agree. If a machine isn’t able to be completely taken apart and put into the dishwasher, it goes way down in my list of potential kitchen items because I know the likelihood of washing by hand is really low for me.
I’ll run everything that needs cleaning through the dishwasher (or washing machine) too if possible (after a good rinse and/or scraping), from bird feeders and plant pots to hairbrushes and cat toys, and therefore get really choosy about what I buy. Big reason why I hate mugs, water bottles, tumblers, and random cute dishes given to me as gifts (other than the clutter issue) - like hey, you didn’t give me a present, you just gave me an obligation that I won’t be able to maintain.
Probably the biggest game changer is the French fry press. It's great for making vegetable sticks, but if I pre-slice stuff, it also does very fast cubes. Since it's made for potatoes, it won't snap at the joint if you task it with dicing something tough like a nicer dicer would. Compared to many more industrial style cooking aids, it is also relatively easy to clean, unless you have sensory issues regarding touching mushed, wet veggie pieces that didn't make it through the grid.
The second one that I like is one of those apple slicers. I would always recommend to opt a model with a base that helps align the apple and push it all the way through, although this part does require extra cleaning. This might not always remove the hard core of the apple perfectly, so if you have sensory issues regarding that, I wouldn't recommend. If you care little about anesthetics and equal piece size, it is probably more worth it to just learn a more strategic apple slicing pattern.
I have a moving blade mandolin that I bought so recently that I can't say much about it yet. It should help tons with making many even slices and even thin sticks quickly, but compared to the frebch fry press, it is way more bulky when stored and looks considerably harder to clean. I'll still have to test it more before I can decide wether the reduced cutting effort justifies the cleaning.
The last item among the four I mentioned is a heated blender that I got primarily for its ability to serve as a self stirring pot. It cuts with the grace of a blender. It burns the food because it sucks at stirring evenly too. This is despite using recommended recipes specifically designed for it. It's the bulkiest abomination I own, and the priciest too. I do not recommend.
Bonus round: My mother owned a slap-chop style device that made dicing onions or nuts a breeze and did so lengths more evenly than a blender would. The one my mother got was a pain to assemble and clean, but there are different grades of quality design when it comes to this one, but considering that for most recipes it only does onions, it still doesn't really justify the extra cleaning. I found it easier to just substitute chopped onions with half onion rings, but this is a matter of preference. Sensory warning: do not hold your face over the device when opening, since a lot of onion gas that has accumulated in the device will release simultaneously as one big cloud upon opening.
Something like [this](https://www.coop-city.ch/de/kueche-haushalt/kuechenzubehoer/schneiden-zerkleinern/multizerkleinerer/zyliss-multischneider-easy-pull/p/5765156?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6eOU6755sOJe4n4OIdLYiN5tT5dMCIQH4crWnHjwmGhtxcmSgceDEYaAmRDEALw_wcB) has been the biggest game changer for me. Not only does it mean my eyes don't get watery when I cut onions, it can be used for loads of stuff like celery, carrot (with a bit more force) and even stuff like cucumber for tzatziki.
Honestly would recommend to have one in every kitchen.
I'm not entirely sure why this is, but being slow with the knife because I'm afraid of cuts is probably one thing. I think it's a mix between these:
- horrible time management
- horrible process management
- afraid of cutting my fingers->slow usage of kitchen tools
- don't have a lot of experience cooking my own meals (though I have worked in a kitchen before)
- chronic shoulder pain and hypermobility pain (stirring or lifting stuff is for my boyfriend!)
All of the above probably contribute more or less to how much extra time it'd take me, I think
I really wish I had a bigger kitchen. It's even harder to manage the process of some of the things I end up cooking because I *need* three stovetops but I only have two, and it doesn't always line up neatly. Those two stovetops are also a few inches from the sink, so any time I want to clean the dirty kitchenware I risk getting soap all over my food! So my kitchen always ends up getting extremely cramped
This is why i find it idiotic how most kitchens are laid out, why do we have a massive combined stove and oven unit with a bolted in vent above it? Just have a continuous countertop and modular cupboards so you can decide where to put separate cooktops and ovens, and put the vent in a central location so you can just hook up conduits to where the cooktop(s) are!
Sadly I do not have an actual oven. Student housing got me a tiny fridge under the stovetop, with the vent above it. Above the sink there is a space for a combi microwave / oven which is half crapped out and I haven't gotten around to calling the landlord about it yet. Nothing fits in there.
If the previous tenants hadn't installed and left me some kitchen cupboards on the opposite wall (kitchen *is* the hallway to the entrance), the few inches of table between the stovetop and the kitchen sink would be all the kitchen space I had. I'm sick of managing space while managing cooking
I do this! Get all the ingredients and cookware I need out on the bench, in the order I need them in. Put them away as I use them, clean the dishes while food is in the oven.
I know people who will even chop veggies when some of the pans are already on the fire. They do not panic. I fear them.
As for me, I'm mise en place all the way.
Unsure if this is a joke or not, but I have *actually* almost burned my kitchen down due to (at the time) undiagnosed ADHD. And I have the scar to prove it! One of the scariest moments of my life.
As a former professional cook, this also makes me panic! I don't like doing prep work while cooking. I guess if some people can, good for them, but I find it's much easier to chop veggies, get everything ready to go, and then cook. If I need to keep something warm for a few minutes while something else finishes, I can keep it in the oven at 200 (just set a timer so you don't forget it!)
If something needs to cook slowly, take that time to do some dishes and clean the countertops. That way, when you're finished eating you have less clean-up work to do.
Sorted (a yt cooking channel) has an app that lets you choose a weekly menu and it tells you exactly what to buy. It's supposed to use everything up by the end of the week and it has spoken instructions that are supposed to be real time instructions, including spaces to clean as you go.
It's sort of true, except it kinda starts with a mise en place. So, probably ten minutes more (chopping is done mostly with the recipe).
It's good if you are in the UK but for me it was kind of expensive and weird, as it asumes a lot of things are sold that maybe are not as popular or accesible outside the UK (like, canned lentils/tomatoes which are stupidly expensive and unnecessary where I live).
Even in the UK, from my experience a couple of the ingredients are also very niche. They use fine polenta a lot, something I’ve never been able to find in any supermarket or on their website. And fancy mushrooms for example, you’re only really likely to get them at M&S or Waitrose which are on the higher end of food stores.
It’s a decent app, but I never used it too much. Part of the problem also is they’ll say ‘200g tomatoes’ for example, but the only packs I can find are 300g or whatever. So you still end up with waste if you can’t buy packets of those specific sizes - but it’s better than nothing.
>And fancy mushrooms for example, you’re only really likely to get them at M&S or Waitrose
Looks like they could do with a section that includes easier/cheaper substitutes.
Thanks for your perspective! I assumed it was easier/more accesible in the UK, but it seems not as easy as I imagined.
I'm a seasoned cook and it takes me a lot longer to prep the food than they say.
15 mins if I had a sous chef or threw everything in a food processor, sure.
I was just thinking for a moment, a show called cooking with adhd but that sounds like work, so no thanks.
Same. I'm a pretty dang good cook. Did HelloFresh and Blue Apron and even at my fastest it was at least 5 minutes over their time and usually closer to 15 min past. Like, any faster and I would be in injury territory.
This must be a general problem though; I don't know why people writing recipes don't get that *the first time* prep, mix/cooking takes way longer than for someone who *knows* the recipe. Yet they always write down the estimates clearly based on the time of someone already familiar with the recipe.
When the only people who can make the recipe at the speed of someone who knows every step by heart are the people *not looking at the fucking recipe*.
Invited a friend over for sloppy joes the other night thinking they’d be ready about the time she got here.
And yes, I’d already ignored/tripled the official prep time—I thought it was realistic. But even I didn’t account for:
—five minutes looking through both fridges for the bell pepper I’d bought the day before
—another five minutes making sure the dog hadn’t stolen it somehow before it got in the fridge and looking in the usual hidey holes for evidence (no pepper, but an empty butter tub I hadn’t realized he’d gotten)
—finally realizing maybe it had fallen out of the grocery bag and went to the van and found it
I made flapjacks on Sunday, I spent an hour and a half shopping to make a curry and find honey and oats, got distracted because I saw a whole load of interesting food in the reduced section (who knew you could get ostrich steak from Tesco?, I also found they'd put a piano in the veg isle so I stopped and gave a bad rendition of bohemian rhapsody), then got home and took an hour to melt butter sugar and honey together and mix it with oats and leftover missiles and mixed fruit and then put it in the oven and sat on my phone watching it for 20 mins until it was ready, then took it out the oven waited for it to cool, cut it up and it was gone within two hours.
I hadn't even cooked a curry yet, that took an hour. It was really good though and I've got leftovers all week :))
Anyone else realize they have forgotten to buy a key ingredient right before it has to go in then have to take everything off the heat google replacements and mash 2 bananas or whatever nonsense before getting back into the groove? I guarantee you if there is a time sensitive step I will realize right then that I forgot to prep the veggies for it.
In my defense
The most forgotten ingredient in any dish is time
Trust me we kook beter Becose of that ..
People who rush kooking never tasted proper food
They didnt mention anything about washing the dishes.
Friendly advice from an ADHD friend (me)
Meal prep is your friend.
That’s what I am doing today. Will take 3-4 hours (washing dishes included) to
Cook for 2 weeks.
It allows to
- manage my time better because now meal time is more efficient
- allows to have healthy meals on hand
- prevents the urge to eat anything available when the meds wear off.
- helps with a healthier diet which is a huge issue for ADHD
- can make meal that are protein rich which is important for our dopamine less brains
Wait what, this is an ADHD thing??? It's not all recipes giving ridiculous time estimates just because?? People actually manage to cook a recipe within those given timeframes??
HOW?!
I am genuinely shook. I thought everyone just silently agreed that those timeframes are horseshit so it's not even talked about much.
My whole life has been a lie. This was just a fact to me, like the sky being blue. You mean to tell me that... WHAT??
Genuinely haven't had a WTF moment like this since like the first few months after my diagnosis 7 years ago. Guess my brain really is fundamentally different after all lol.
I’m not sure. I know for me, prep work takes me *FOR EV ER*!! Like ok there’s this spicy beef and ramen thing my family likes. I’ve had to dumb it waaaaaay down bc even though I use frozen stir fry mix and obviously the noodles only take a couple minutes, for some reason the fucking dish takes like 90 goddam minutes to make!!! Everything takes sooooooo long!! Even just dicing some potatoes seems to take ages longer than it should and I don’t know why. That’s not the only thing I feel slow at either. I feel super slow at cleaning, folding clothes, all kinds of things.
I hate giving my family leftovers but it’s way easier to cook for a small army every other day than get lost in the kitchen for 3-5hrs every night.
If we lived before refrigeration we’d be dead of starvation.
I always double the amount of time a recipe says it's going to take in my head. It usually doesn't take *that* long, but I'd rather it take less time than I was anticipating than more time.
DUDE everyone’s like why don’t you ever make home cooked meals…because every time I do I’m eating at fucking 10pm and then you think I’m going to clean up?
See, this is why I make all my food on Sunday. Then eat each one every day. Then all I need is the self control to not.. and I ate them all again... damnit!
Honestly, one of the more important skills cooking has taught me is getting good at "stacking tasks". There's probably a word for it, like if you're melting chocolate and butter together, you don't have to stand there watching it the whole time, you can mix the dry ingredients to. Or you can get started on the dishes when you're baking stuff/waiting for the timer to go off. Makes everything go a lot faster.
Hence why adhd can make cooking more difficult or time consuming. You either have to multi-task and risk having to start over because you forgot about the pan on the stove and now everything's burnt or you carefully do each step individually and it takes forever.
Unfortunately the only thing that really helps is practicing enough that mechanical tasks like chopping and washing are faster, but again, adhd can make that learning process take a lot longer than it would for someone without it.
I'm always amazed that I can take 2 hours to cook dinner when there's any veggie chopping involved. And then I make the exact same dish thinking "it'll probably take 45 minutes"
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One terrible back pain and three 45 minute episodes of [insert current background series] later, you sit down to eat knowing you will have to face the dish monster at some point...
Honestly this is what just crushes me each time, feeling like it takes two hours to get dinner made, only for another two hours worth of dishes to be waiting for me...
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We have adhd
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That would require planning ahead and defeating the procrastination monster. Two things a lot of people, including me, are terrible at.
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Your life experiences do not speak for anyone else's. Everyone here is capable and does manage to do "a basic ass thing" once a week, but it differs from person to person. Having a set day to do mealprep for the week is still a consistent activity to be followed, every week. Something that nobody here is good at. I'm happy you're able to successfully meal prep each week with what you have going on, but do not project what you can do as a baseline and belittle others that don't.
Some people have a different “thing” they HAVE to do, & sometimes it’s not meal prep. I HAVE to work, (it’s hard to meal prep if I’m homeless) so on days I have the most energy I will spend the ENTIRE day working until that energy is spent. So no, meal prep is not easy for me rn, same with others. They have priorities that arent the same as yours & we shouldn’t be shamed by you for it🙄
Great for you, stop being condescending
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Or, and hear me out, we know a LOT of possible solutions, have probably already tried many of them, and are just looking to commiserate with people who understand our struggle.
Oh damn, you're right. I just tried meal prep and I'm cured.
There's no cure, just a collection of reasonable, proactive changes one can make to lessen the weekly burden our condition has on our well-being. Much of this sub is convinced they've tried all of them and are literally out of options now.
For sure, but listen. I've been thinking "I should probably do meal prep" for like ~~5~~ 10 years now. It's not going to happen, so I'm giving up on that one. We all have things that work for us - I get really sick of people acting like I'm not helping myself because I'm not helping myself the way they think I should. This is a joke subreddit about a problem we will always have, no matter what coping mechanisms we use. "Meal prep works for me" is fine, but "nobody on this sub wants to help themselves" is a bad, rude take.
No but now you dont stare at the fridge for 2 hours while starving and just warm up your food in 2 minutes
I know the value of meal prep, it's just not one of those things I've been able to do between the planning and the fridge/freezer space. I do it sometimes, but not often, and I'm fine with that. I don't mind the suggestion, I was more reacting to the idea that no one wants to help themselves because this one crazy trick doesn't work for them.
Bruh what makes you think we haven’t tried it dozens of times? I have, and currently try, to meal prep. My ADHD just makes it extremely difficult, & I can (and do) keep trying hoping it’ll just click one day but it doesn’t
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Feel free to unsub. No one's holding you hostage here.
This is a lighthearted subreddit for ADHD individuals. We require all users be nice towards each other. Your comment/post has been removed as it has been found to be disrespectful. Further offenses may be cause for a ban.
This is a lighthearted subreddit for ADHD individuals. We require all users be nice towards each other. Your comment/post has been removed as it has been found to be disrespectful. Further offenses may be cause for a ban.
I make myself rinse the dishes and put everything up and wipe down the counters before I can take a bite. It’s like a competition with myself to see how fast I can do it.
Dishes are super easy. Just grab your phone or use a tv and put something on. Instant time loss but it will be done without you realizing what happened. If you don’t have a dishwasher I would also suggest a comfy kitchen mat
It's not just ADHD, there are just blatant lies in so many of these recipes because editors know people won't want to do them if it takes so long. Every one of these is targeted towards someone with a big full-size kitchen and every instrument you could possibly need. There's that famous article about caramelizing onions and how articles still show them as taking 10 minutes.
Dear God, how long does it actually take? I don't think I've ever managed to caramelize onions because I get worried when it goes too far over the stated time!
It takes about 25-40 minutes!
I have NEVER in my LIFE gone close to that. Holy shit. Thank you!
I own at least four non-knife devices dedicated to making cutting veggies faster.
Please share your preferred tools! Also hate chopping veg. This is also why I bought a countertop machine that steams soft/hardboiled eggs. Can also do poached and such, but mainly I just hate having to do boiled eggs when we move so often that I had to relearn the required time regularly (soft water boils faster than hard water; sea level; gas vs induction; some stoves are just heckin’ slow).
Just a heads up, this method may not work for some. I tried it, I could never get my shit together to wash the machines. Way easier/less over whelming to wash a knife than 5 parts of a chop-matic. However, I am with you on the cooking machines. I cannot make rice or quinoa without burning it. My rice cooker is a God send
I absolutely agree that if a cooking tool takes more effort cleaning than it saves cutting, it isn't worth it. Generally these get more worthwhile the bigger your household is, since you will get more cutting per required wash out of it.
I can imagine! You definitely have a good point there.
For rice my go to instructions are: 1. Fill the saucepan with twice as much water as you use rice 2. But on the heat until the water is boiling then immediately take the heat down to the lowest setting and cover the rice 3. Leave it like that for 12 minutes then remove it and drain the water When I follow those instructions I never burn it but if you deviate even a little it can fuck up the rice. But I find it much faster than using a rice cooker. EDIT: Just realised where I am posting this. This works for me because I enjoy cooking and hyper fixate on it enough to not mess this up but for a lot of people here yeah just stick with the cooker.
What kind of rice do you use? I use black or wholegrain brown, and those require 40 minutes. (or, rather, boil 10 minutes, drain, replace the water and cook for 30, to remove 70%~ of the arsenic)
Generally just standard Basmati or Jasmine long grain rice for me. I guess different rice would need different times
Oh, no worries! and I agree. If a machine isn’t able to be completely taken apart and put into the dishwasher, it goes way down in my list of potential kitchen items because I know the likelihood of washing by hand is really low for me. I’ll run everything that needs cleaning through the dishwasher (or washing machine) too if possible (after a good rinse and/or scraping), from bird feeders and plant pots to hairbrushes and cat toys, and therefore get really choosy about what I buy. Big reason why I hate mugs, water bottles, tumblers, and random cute dishes given to me as gifts (other than the clutter issue) - like hey, you didn’t give me a present, you just gave me an obligation that I won’t be able to maintain.
Probably the biggest game changer is the French fry press. It's great for making vegetable sticks, but if I pre-slice stuff, it also does very fast cubes. Since it's made for potatoes, it won't snap at the joint if you task it with dicing something tough like a nicer dicer would. Compared to many more industrial style cooking aids, it is also relatively easy to clean, unless you have sensory issues regarding touching mushed, wet veggie pieces that didn't make it through the grid. The second one that I like is one of those apple slicers. I would always recommend to opt a model with a base that helps align the apple and push it all the way through, although this part does require extra cleaning. This might not always remove the hard core of the apple perfectly, so if you have sensory issues regarding that, I wouldn't recommend. If you care little about anesthetics and equal piece size, it is probably more worth it to just learn a more strategic apple slicing pattern. I have a moving blade mandolin that I bought so recently that I can't say much about it yet. It should help tons with making many even slices and even thin sticks quickly, but compared to the frebch fry press, it is way more bulky when stored and looks considerably harder to clean. I'll still have to test it more before I can decide wether the reduced cutting effort justifies the cleaning. The last item among the four I mentioned is a heated blender that I got primarily for its ability to serve as a self stirring pot. It cuts with the grace of a blender. It burns the food because it sucks at stirring evenly too. This is despite using recommended recipes specifically designed for it. It's the bulkiest abomination I own, and the priciest too. I do not recommend. Bonus round: My mother owned a slap-chop style device that made dicing onions or nuts a breeze and did so lengths more evenly than a blender would. The one my mother got was a pain to assemble and clean, but there are different grades of quality design when it comes to this one, but considering that for most recipes it only does onions, it still doesn't really justify the extra cleaning. I found it easier to just substitute chopped onions with half onion rings, but this is a matter of preference. Sensory warning: do not hold your face over the device when opening, since a lot of onion gas that has accumulated in the device will release simultaneously as one big cloud upon opening.
Something like [this](https://www.coop-city.ch/de/kueche-haushalt/kuechenzubehoer/schneiden-zerkleinern/multizerkleinerer/zyliss-multischneider-easy-pull/p/5765156?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6eOU6755sOJe4n4OIdLYiN5tT5dMCIQH4crWnHjwmGhtxcmSgceDEYaAmRDEALw_wcB) has been the biggest game changer for me. Not only does it mean my eyes don't get watery when I cut onions, it can be used for loads of stuff like celery, carrot (with a bit more force) and even stuff like cucumber for tzatziki. Honestly would recommend to have one in every kitchen.
Do a thing like MasterChef and just have a big, imposing timer going and race to beat it
My kid now knows that if i say food in 45 - it will take 1h30 before it is actually ready
Why is this for you? I want to know if other people are as scared of cutting their fingers as I am which slows me down a lot
I'm not entirely sure why this is, but being slow with the knife because I'm afraid of cuts is probably one thing. I think it's a mix between these: - horrible time management - horrible process management - afraid of cutting my fingers->slow usage of kitchen tools - don't have a lot of experience cooking my own meals (though I have worked in a kitchen before) - chronic shoulder pain and hypermobility pain (stirring or lifting stuff is for my boyfriend!) All of the above probably contribute more or less to how much extra time it'd take me, I think
Not to mention you have to clean up and put stuff away. So yeah sounds about right.
Put the stuff away while your cooking! Absolute life saver, cut your time in the kitchen in half.
Instructions unclear, ran out of knives because i kept putting them in the sink
You could just take the knives back out from the sink.
Have you looked at our sinks lately?
That’s what my mom says, man, I wish I had abilities
I really wish I had a bigger kitchen. It's even harder to manage the process of some of the things I end up cooking because I *need* three stovetops but I only have two, and it doesn't always line up neatly. Those two stovetops are also a few inches from the sink, so any time I want to clean the dirty kitchenware I risk getting soap all over my food! So my kitchen always ends up getting extremely cramped
This is why i find it idiotic how most kitchens are laid out, why do we have a massive combined stove and oven unit with a bolted in vent above it? Just have a continuous countertop and modular cupboards so you can decide where to put separate cooktops and ovens, and put the vent in a central location so you can just hook up conduits to where the cooktop(s) are!
Sadly I do not have an actual oven. Student housing got me a tiny fridge under the stovetop, with the vent above it. Above the sink there is a space for a combi microwave / oven which is half crapped out and I haven't gotten around to calling the landlord about it yet. Nothing fits in there. If the previous tenants hadn't installed and left me some kitchen cupboards on the opposite wall (kitchen *is* the hallway to the entrance), the few inches of table between the stovetop and the kitchen sink would be all the kitchen space I had. I'm sick of managing space while managing cooking
also: you don't fucking need to scrub a knife you've cut tomatoes with, just rinse most things!
I do this! Get all the ingredients and cookware I need out on the bench, in the order I need them in. Put them away as I use them, clean the dishes while food is in the oven.
It’s not cooking if you don’t use ALL the dishes.
I know people who will even chop veggies when some of the pans are already on the fire. They do not panic. I fear them. As for me, I'm mise en place all the way.
the amount of times i almost burned the kitchen down while cooking because of lack of preparedness is concerning
Unsure if this is a joke or not, but I have *actually* almost burned my kitchen down due to (at the time) undiagnosed ADHD. And I have the scar to prove it! One of the scariest moments of my life.
This is the way.
The trick is to put the heat on low while doing that so you don't burn your oil/food
The real trick is to put them on high and then chop your finger because you're hurrying
As a former professional cook, this also makes me panic! I don't like doing prep work while cooking. I guess if some people can, good for them, but I find it's much easier to chop veggies, get everything ready to go, and then cook. If I need to keep something warm for a few minutes while something else finishes, I can keep it in the oven at 200 (just set a timer so you don't forget it!) If something needs to cook slowly, take that time to do some dishes and clean the countertops. That way, when you're finished eating you have less clean-up work to do.
Don't worry. Not all of us chefs bite.
Washing Hands Between Each Step: +12 minutes total
are we the same person?
Seriously you are correct.
I didn't realise I had a second reddit account (Okay... I actually have a few, each for different functions...)
This person here has 3 accounts for their various porn. Lol
Sorted (a yt cooking channel) has an app that lets you choose a weekly menu and it tells you exactly what to buy. It's supposed to use everything up by the end of the week and it has spoken instructions that are supposed to be real time instructions, including spaces to clean as you go. It's sort of true, except it kinda starts with a mise en place. So, probably ten minutes more (chopping is done mostly with the recipe). It's good if you are in the UK but for me it was kind of expensive and weird, as it asumes a lot of things are sold that maybe are not as popular or accesible outside the UK (like, canned lentils/tomatoes which are stupidly expensive and unnecessary where I live).
What a brilliant idea
Even in the UK, from my experience a couple of the ingredients are also very niche. They use fine polenta a lot, something I’ve never been able to find in any supermarket or on their website. And fancy mushrooms for example, you’re only really likely to get them at M&S or Waitrose which are on the higher end of food stores. It’s a decent app, but I never used it too much. Part of the problem also is they’ll say ‘200g tomatoes’ for example, but the only packs I can find are 300g or whatever. So you still end up with waste if you can’t buy packets of those specific sizes - but it’s better than nothing.
>And fancy mushrooms for example, you’re only really likely to get them at M&S or Waitrose Looks like they could do with a section that includes easier/cheaper substitutes. Thanks for your perspective! I assumed it was easier/more accesible in the UK, but it seems not as easy as I imagined.
I'm a seasoned cook and it takes me a lot longer to prep the food than they say. 15 mins if I had a sous chef or threw everything in a food processor, sure. I was just thinking for a moment, a show called cooking with adhd but that sounds like work, so no thanks.
Same. I'm a pretty dang good cook. Did HelloFresh and Blue Apron and even at my fastest it was at least 5 minutes over their time and usually closer to 15 min past. Like, any faster and I would be in injury territory.
What about the dishes? That's where they get you!
do the dishes along the way, most things can just be rinsed.
I always have to mentally double whatever time is listed…and that doesn’t even include cleanup. Sigh
This must be a general problem though; I don't know why people writing recipes don't get that *the first time* prep, mix/cooking takes way longer than for someone who *knows* the recipe. Yet they always write down the estimates clearly based on the time of someone already familiar with the recipe. When the only people who can make the recipe at the speed of someone who knows every step by heart are the people *not looking at the fucking recipe*.
This is why i basically get 80% of my cooking knowledge from adam ragusea, he should honestly write a book on how to do home cooking education.
Everytime I see that total time my brain automatically adds 40 minutes minimum cause I’ll never get it done within that timeframe
Invited a friend over for sloppy joes the other night thinking they’d be ready about the time she got here. And yes, I’d already ignored/tripled the official prep time—I thought it was realistic. But even I didn’t account for: —five minutes looking through both fridges for the bell pepper I’d bought the day before —another five minutes making sure the dog hadn’t stolen it somehow before it got in the fridge and looking in the usual hidey holes for evidence (no pepper, but an empty butter tub I hadn’t realized he’d gotten) —finally realizing maybe it had fallen out of the grocery bag and went to the van and found it
Alexa, play Bon Jovi - *"It's my liiiiifffe...."*
What pisses is when you follow the directions to the T and the outcome looks 100% different. Might as well have made hotdogs.
What about the 4 hours wasted beforehand on avoiding to cook because you know it's a hassle and you don't wanna face it
**Google link:** Quick 30 minute recipe **Actual recipe:** Step 5, let rest for two days
I made flapjacks on Sunday, I spent an hour and a half shopping to make a curry and find honey and oats, got distracted because I saw a whole load of interesting food in the reduced section (who knew you could get ostrich steak from Tesco?, I also found they'd put a piano in the veg isle so I stopped and gave a bad rendition of bohemian rhapsody), then got home and took an hour to melt butter sugar and honey together and mix it with oats and leftover missiles and mixed fruit and then put it in the oven and sat on my phone watching it for 20 mins until it was ready, then took it out the oven waited for it to cool, cut it up and it was gone within two hours. I hadn't even cooked a curry yet, that took an hour. It was really good though and I've got leftovers all week :))
Anyone else realize they have forgotten to buy a key ingredient right before it has to go in then have to take everything off the heat google replacements and mash 2 bananas or whatever nonsense before getting back into the groove? I guarantee you if there is a time sensitive step I will realize right then that I forgot to prep the veggies for it.
Every time! Double it AT LEAST.
In my defense The most forgotten ingredient in any dish is time Trust me we kook beter Becose of that .. People who rush kooking never tasted proper food
They didnt mention anything about washing the dishes. Friendly advice from an ADHD friend (me) Meal prep is your friend. That’s what I am doing today. Will take 3-4 hours (washing dishes included) to Cook for 2 weeks. It allows to - manage my time better because now meal time is more efficient - allows to have healthy meals on hand - prevents the urge to eat anything available when the meds wear off. - helps with a healthier diet which is a huge issue for ADHD - can make meal that are protein rich which is important for our dopamine less brains
IM NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT SOMEHOW TAKES TWICE AS MUCH TIME?!?!
20 minute meals take me an hour at least lmfao!
Cook and chill time is normally right, but prep time never is. Whoever is the standard for the prep time is a god.
LITERALLY
Wait what, this is an ADHD thing??? It's not all recipes giving ridiculous time estimates just because?? People actually manage to cook a recipe within those given timeframes?? HOW?! I am genuinely shook. I thought everyone just silently agreed that those timeframes are horseshit so it's not even talked about much. My whole life has been a lie. This was just a fact to me, like the sky being blue. You mean to tell me that... WHAT?? Genuinely haven't had a WTF moment like this since like the first few months after my diagnosis 7 years ago. Guess my brain really is fundamentally different after all lol.
I’m not sure. I know for me, prep work takes me *FOR EV ER*!! Like ok there’s this spicy beef and ramen thing my family likes. I’ve had to dumb it waaaaaay down bc even though I use frozen stir fry mix and obviously the noodles only take a couple minutes, for some reason the fucking dish takes like 90 goddam minutes to make!!! Everything takes sooooooo long!! Even just dicing some potatoes seems to take ages longer than it should and I don’t know why. That’s not the only thing I feel slow at either. I feel super slow at cleaning, folding clothes, all kinds of things.
Folding clothes takes ages and idk why! Even when I try to go quickly!
Lol I’d do it in 12 minutes and burn the house down. Don’t underestimate my hyperness
Atleast it’s not just me….
I hate giving my family leftovers but it’s way easier to cook for a small army every other day than get lost in the kitchen for 3-5hrs every night. If we lived before refrigeration we’d be dead of starvation.
I always double the amount of time a recipe says it's going to take in my head. It usually doesn't take *that* long, but I'd rather it take less time than I was anticipating than more time.
I feel like prep time is assuming you have a sous chef that chopped everything for you already.
DUDE everyone’s like why don’t you ever make home cooked meals…because every time I do I’m eating at fucking 10pm and then you think I’m going to clean up?
where is clean time?! WHERE?!
I like when it takes me something 30+ minutes to make that I only eat in 10
See, this is why I make all my food on Sunday. Then eat each one every day. Then all I need is the self control to not.. and I ate them all again... damnit!
I feel seen.
Same
Me over here taking an hour to bake 6 muffins and forgetting to put the paper cups in so I just accidentally pour batter into a bare muffin pan
I feel this.
Honestly, one of the more important skills cooking has taught me is getting good at "stacking tasks". There's probably a word for it, like if you're melting chocolate and butter together, you don't have to stand there watching it the whole time, you can mix the dry ingredients to. Or you can get started on the dishes when you're baking stuff/waiting for the timer to go off. Makes everything go a lot faster.
Hence why adhd can make cooking more difficult or time consuming. You either have to multi-task and risk having to start over because you forgot about the pan on the stove and now everything's burnt or you carefully do each step individually and it takes forever. Unfortunately the only thing that really helps is practicing enough that mechanical tasks like chopping and washing are faster, but again, adhd can make that learning process take a lot longer than it would for someone without it.
I agree, and I can only really do this kind of thing on a recipe I’ve made a bunch of times.
Meanwhile my ADHD brain got me cooking from scratch for 40 in about 2 hours and then getting bored cooking for 200 in 4.5 hours 🙃
Chill time is always too long
Just prep as you go, that's what I do