#low-spoons cooking

[jakey-beefed-it]

Jake's Relatively Low-Spoons Burrito Recipe

AKA "Burrito Glop" but I promise it's tasty

You're gonna have to eyeball quantities for your own needs- if you're only cooking for yourself you might wanna make like a can of beans and a cup of rice. If you're cooking for an army, you know, more than that. The whole thing takes like 10 minutes of actual cook time, maybe 5-20 minutes or prep time depending on if you do the 'fancier' method.

You will need:

rice, and a means of cooking rice

a pot

a pan

tortillas (the bigger the better)

beef (stir-fry strips ideal)

refried pinto beans (can sub with black beans if you're feeling more authentic)

shredded cheese ('mexican style' or 'tex-mex' mixes prefered, otherwise some combo of cheddar and monterey jack and mozzerella is fine)

seasonings of your choice

You're gonna scoop out your refried pinto bean glop into the pot, setting the heat to medium and stirring occasionally until it gets hot throughout. Then you're gonna add the cheese and any seasoning you like to the beans, stirring it all in until it's uniformly distributed and the cheese is melted in. This will be an unholy mess of cheesy beans, and if you're not used to it, it might not LOOK appetizing, but it's good. For seasoning, I personally like to use a hefty amount of garlic (powder or flaked for ease), a hefty amount of hot sauce called Cholula (specifically chipotle flavor; it's not hot so much as it is flavorful imo), and a good squirt of lime juice (fake is fine).

Alternately you can just do this entire step in the microwave. Takes like 3 minutes to heat up the beans. Mix in the cheese and seasoning. It's not as good but the difference is negligible and I'm all about cutting corners.

You're gonna make your rice. I recommend you mix in roughly one tablespoon of caldo de tomate/tomato bullion per cup of rice, so it's more 'spanish rice' than just plain old rice, but you do you. Minute rice or equivalent for the microwave works great, but use whatever rice you've got. Personally I like basmati and we've usually got some lying around, and while it's a slightly nontraditional choice for Mexican food, I have looked upon the Throne of Heaven and found it empty. So the good news is, there is no one to judge me.

You're gonna heat up your tortillas. If you've got a gas stove, you can do this directly on the range if you've got calloused fingers like a proper abuelita. If you've got an electric stove, you're gonna want to do this in the pan.

You're gonna drop a bit of butter into the hot pan, let it coat the whole thing, then drop in your beef. I like to buy the strips of stir-fry beef and cut them into like, half-inch/1.5 centimeter long strips. Stir the beef around a bit. If you're like me, drop in some lemon pepper seasoning, some more lime juice, maybe some chilli powder if you want a bit of kick. Once you've flipped the beef so that most of it's been more or less cooked on both sides, you're gonna want to cover the pan to finish it off. Then drop the beef into the cheesy beans glop and stir it around.

I drop the juice from the beef in, too- butter, melted fat, lime juice, and all. Just stir it into the beans until no more liquid is visible. But that's optional.

Don't have the spoons for cooking beef? Throw some pre-cooked canned beef into the beans while they're hot. Stir it around a while. Boom. Or sub with pork or chicken or goat or whatever.

Man, goat is delicious, I miss living in southern California where I could get goat somewhat regularly.

You glop your bean/cheese/meat mixture onto the tortillas, then layer them over with rice. Alternately, you can mix the rice in first and then lay it all out at once. The rice helps absorb some of the saltiness from most cheeses, and it helps a good amount with the burrito's structural integrity.

I can't tell you how to fold a burrito very well via text, if you don't already know. Worst case scenario I guess you can eat it with a fork.

I like to make a heaping amount, serve everybody two big burritos minimum, and then put the rest in the fridge to be reheated for leftover burritos the next day, but you do whatever you like, I'm not your mother.

You can store the bean/cheese/meat glop and the rice in two separate containers if you are wrong my sister, or you can dump it all in one bowl for easier serving the next day. You sexy no-spoon genius.

If you wanted a vegetarian option you could just leave out the beef. If you wanted a vegan option I'm not sure how you'd help the beans stick together without cheese but maybe you have an idea.

Enjoy! And if you don't actually enjoy it... well, you're weird, but I still love you. Go eat something you do enjoy.

[weaselle]

i had to make a solution for this for myself, mostly because of depression, but it makes a nice How To for folks who are low on spoons or could use some help in the kitchen.

Fortunately i was a professional cook for over a decade. UNfortunately the first post i made explaining it was suuuuper long. Let's see if i can do better

So you select any protein that you can cook in a frying pan -- chicken breasts, ground beef, pork chops, sausages, steak, chicken thighs, whatever. You also select one or two types of veggie (mushrooms or tubers also work, i just did this with potatoes and carrots for dinner tonight).

[i like cooking for vegetarians, but this is how i cook for myself when i'm low on spoons - perhaps i'll do another post for meatless meals]

You'll also need some kind of oil, and a sauce or two of your choice in a bottle. All cooking gear is a large frying pan with lid (i prefer non-stick) a spatula, a cutting board, and a knife.

You cut the veggies into bite size pieces, cut up enough for two meals. One kind of veggie is fine, or you can do mix two or three

Put frying pan on medium heat with a little oil. Tubers or mushrooms or go in the pan a few minutes before the protein. 2 portions of the protein goes in the pan, about 5 minutes with lid (don't worry you can still get a good sear on both sides)

Now flip your protein if it's flip-able and add normal veggies, put the lid back on another five-ish minutes.

Take your protein out and put it with one portion of the veggies in a microwave safe container. That's going to be your lunch tomorrow. Put the other portion of protein on a plate to rest (you have to let a cooked protein sit a couple minutes before you serve it or when you cut into it all the juices run out and it goes dry - the liquids thicken as it cools, preventing this drying out if you let it rest, the goal is to serve it very warm but not hot hot)

While it's resting, pour some sauce from your bottle in the pan with the rest of the veggies and turn up the heat. A single sauce/bottle is fine, i like to get fancy and mix a couple. Two examples of personal favorite mixes are 1: bbq sauce and a hot sauce like sriracha 2: roughly equal parts low sodium soy sauce and worcestershire (makes something similar to a teriyaki sauce) A swallow of wine is almost always a great option if you want to add that to your sauce too, just add it to the pan before the other sauces so the alcohol has time to burn off.

...

Here is the important bit. While your veggies are finishing, wash your cutting board and chef knife. Then when you dump your veggies and sauce over your protein on the plate, while it is still too hot to eat, you wash your frying pan and spatula before you eat. Now the only dishes you have left to do are your plate and fork. Maybe a steak knife.

...

The whole thing takes about 35 minutes even with washing the dishes, and that includes your lunch for the next day- just pour a different sauce on and stick it in the microwave for a couple minutes (or five minutes back in the frying pan) and you have a full healthy lunch with a different flavor

You can use this technique every single meal and it yields hundreds of combinations, from pork and potatoes bbq, to salmon and broccoli teriyaki, to chicken and zucchini in a soy glaze.

It will keep you down to less than an hour of kitchen time per day total for both lunch and dinner including all dish clean up, uses the least dishes, the least effort, requires the least technique, and is, depending on what you pick out, very affordable

here are a couple more examples from this month; i didn’t take pictures of the salmon i did recently, but you get the idea

it's not super fancy, but it is easy, affordable, quick, and any flavors you want. Hope this helps some folks

Happy Cooking!

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

*Sees someone on twitter arguing that DoorDash is necessary for the disabled because microwave food is too much to handle.*

...What. That seems absurdly specific.

There are a lot of reasons someone might not be able to microwave food. "I literally cannot get out of bed", "i need nutrients you can't just microwave", "my dumb brain has put up 18 billion barriers to try and stop me from eating and this is the loophole I have" "the microwave in this apartment is out of reach/not labeled properly/not ADA friendly in another way" "for x or y reason microwave food is a one way ticket to severe burns", etc. I found a lot of reasons someone might need DoorDash and I also found this cool article about food sharing in the disabled community and how the author had to rely on an abusive partner once because she was either in bed or barely able to crawl and they were among the few people bringing food.

Just saying, there's a reason disabled people have higher chances of food insecurity and there's a reason meal trains, meals on wheels, and other programs focus on bringing food to people in need and not just assuming "they have a microwave and money, why bother?". Sometimes you don't have a family or friends or mutual aid group to bring you meals when you can't even pop something in the microwave.

[lowspoonsgourmet]

easy non-alcoholic mixed drinks

not something that we usually post, but thought it might be nice for the times when you want something slightly fancier than a pre-packaged drink, but don’t want to put in too much effort or drink alcohol. the instructions for all of the following “recipes” are to simply mix the ingredients together in a tall glass.

passion fruit + grapefruit twist:

12 oz. grapefruit sparkling water

1/3 cup passion fruit juice cocktail

pomegranate berry “sangria”:

12 oz. cranberry, mixed-berry, or cherry sparkling water

1/3 cup pomegranate juice

optional: 2 tbs. cranberry juice

optional: 1 tbs. grenadine syrup

optional, but recommended if using unsweetened juice(s): sugar to taste

cranberry lime:

12 oz. lime sparkling water

1/3 cup cranberry juice

optional, but recommended if using unsweetened juice(s): sugar to taste

optional: half a small lime’s worth of fresh juice

optional: a slice of fresh lime as garnish for the rim

summer sunrise:

6 oz. plain sparkling water or tonic water

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup pomegranate juice

optional: 2 tbs. grenadine syrup

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Hey guys! I wanted to put together a list of low spoons foods, and thought you might enjoy it. My primary objective was to come up with a list that requires little to no prep, is relatively inexpensive, and has a fairly long shelf life. There's also a few of my favorite simple recipes at the end. Bon apatite!

Proteins: Tuna/Canned chicken: Canned tuna/chicken can usually last a few years, and you can get it for a dollar or two, sometimes cheaper. It can be cooked easily in a skillet, eaten raw, or added to soups/pasta. Mix with some mayo for a quick tuna or chicken salad that goes well on bread, tortillas, or crackers. You can add raisins or cheese for a little extra variety as well! Breakfast sausage: A lot of meats are really scary to cook with, but I've come to the conclusion that breakfast sausage is designed for people with that groggy, zombie-like morning brain, so it's fairly simple; just pop it on a plate (usually with a paper towel to catch the grease) and toss it in the microwave. You can get it as links or patties, and if you're like me where foods with a hint of flavor are unreasonably spicy, there's a maple variety that's sweet rather than spiced. Deli meats: There's no rule against buying a package of pre-sliced ham, turkey, roast beef or even bologna that's designed for sandwiches and instead just snacking on it when you need some protein, or just serving it on the side with your meal. If it feels weird to just eat sliced deli meat and you've got the time and energy, get some sliced cheese as well, cut them into squares with a butter knife, and eat them with crackers for DIY lunchables. Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is an excellent source of protein, and you can eat it on bread, crackers, tortillas, celery, pancakes, or even just on its own on a spoon! If you don't like the texture, you can mix it into something else like oatmeal, sauces, or pancake batter. If you don't like the flavor, try it with a little cinnamon sugar (put cinnamon and sugar in a jar or shaker and shake it until incorporated.) If you've got a peanut allergy, alternative butters are good too, but often separate if you leave them out for too long, but are much better in baking than on their own. Eggs: Making eggs is hard sometimes, but you can boil a bunch in advance and leave them in the fridge for when you need them (not too many or for too long, though.) Just put them in water and bring it to a boil; once the eggs start to float, leave them there for ten minutes. Once they're done, drain them and leave them in cold water for ten minutes to cool. Either peel in advance if you've got the time, or peel as needed. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Dairy: Sliced Cheese: Just like with deli meats above, you can get sliced cheese to chomp on when you need a little boost. There's a lot of flavors to choose from! Shredded Cheese: Shredded cheese is great for sprinkling onto your meals or just snacking on handfuls of. You can also throw some onto some tortilla chips and pop 'em in the microwave for ~30 seconds to make quick, cheap nachos. Cheese sticks: Not a fan of eating slices or shreds of cheese? Cheese sticks are much more snackable and can be eaten on the go! Yogurt: You can eat it as is, or you can mix in frozen fruits and honey to create an almost ice-cream like treat! Chocolate Milk: A carton of chocolate milk that you are going to drink is better for you than a carton of regular milk that is going to go bad because you can't bring yourself to drink it. If you're like me and milk leaves a weird taste in your mouth, try following it with water or finishing the milk before you finish the rest of your meal. Cream Cheese: You can put this stuff on anything, guys. Bagels? Crackers? Toast? English Muffins? Tortillas? Regular muffins? Cookies, even? Go crazy! Cottage cheese: A lot of people like cottage cheese for salads or with peaches, but it can also be tasty on its own.

Grains: Crackers: You can eat them as is, you can add cream cheese, nutella, peanut butter, tuna salad, deli meats and cheeses, or you could dip them in a spread like hummus, guac, or ranch. Tortillas: Sometimes bread can be Scary and Evil and there's no way you're gonna eat a whole loaf before it goes bad. I get it. Tortillas last longer, they're a better texture, and it's only eight servings per bag. Use them whenever you'd make a sandwich- pb&j, ham & cheese, tuna salad and more can all go in a simple wrap or roll up. If you're feeling ambitious, you can also make a quick breakfast burrito by throwing scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage in a tortilla with a little cheese. Pancake mix: Boxed pancake mix is simple enough- just add water, or milk to make it fluffier, then cook according to instructions. It's a little time consuming, but it's simple to learn, and if you make a big enough batch you can just pop them in the microwave, airfryer, or even the toaster in the morning for the rest of the week. You can also spice up your mix by adding frozen fruits, peanut butter, bacon bits & cheese, or chocolate chips, or by replacing the water in the recipe with coffee, apple cider, or chocolate milk! Toaster Waffles: Toaster waffles are great for a quick breakfast or snack, but can also be used for sandwiches, or topped with a protein like peanut butter!

Fruits and Vegetables: Raisins: Raisins are sweet, inexpensive, take a long time to expire, and are guilt free— no one in the history of ever has ever felt bad about eating too many raisins! You can easily throw them in a trail mix (trail mix is a loose term; just throw whatever little snacks you have in the pantry into a bowl and mix 'em together,) or a chicken salad, and they're really good sprinkled on peanut butter! Dried fruit: You can find these in the trail mix section of most stores. If you don't like raisins, there may be a different dried fruit you do like. Dried bananas are delightfully crunchy. Dried mango is still a little moist. Find a dried fruit that works for you! Pickles: Pickles are a vegetable with an extremely long fridge life. You don't have to settle for pickled cucumber though; you can find all kinds of pickled vegetables at the store, or ask a friend who pickles (you know which friend came to mind) if they have a jar of pickled veggies they'd sell you or any tricks to pickling your own. Frozen Fruit: Fruits last so much longer frozen, and you can get fairly good sized bags of them for not too much at the store. They're great for mixing in with yogurt, baking, pancakes, and more! Frozen Vegetables: If expiration dates are your worst enemy, consider getting some longer lasting frozen veggies. They can be microwaved or added to soups or ramen. If you're not a fan of the taste, you can hide them by adding some in with the frozen fruit in a smoothie. Canned vegetables: Canned veggies also last a while, and can be added to soups, boiled, or sometimes eaten as is. Canned soup: Tomato soup or a soup with veggies in it is a great way to get some vegetables into your diet. You can also add any canned, fresh, or frozen veggies to any can of soup you have on hand to use up some of your leftovers before they go bad. Tomato sauce: If you keep a jar of marinara, pasta, or pizza sauce on hand in the fridge, you can spread it on any grain you have lying around (bagel, biscuit, crackers, bread, english muffin, tortilla) and add shredded cheese to make a quick and fun pizza. You can go crazy with extra toppings as well! Applesauce: It's great as is, but you could also mix in brown sugar and cinnamon, or add it to pancakes or oatmeal. It can also be used as an egg substitute in most of your baking, and you can even use it as a spread on pancakes!

Quick Recipes: 3 Ingredient Pancakes • 1/2 cup applesauce (or one mashed banana) • 1 egg • 1 packet instant oatmeal Mix all ingredients together and cook on a greased skillet at 375°

Two Minute Mug Cake • 6 tablespoons boxed cake mix • 4 tablespoons water or milk Combine ingredients in a mug and microwave for one minute.

Toaster Crispy Quesadilla • 1 tortilla • 1 slice of cheese (I like to use cheddar!) • deli meat Place a slice of cheese toward the top of the tortilla. Layer desired amount of meat on top. Fold the sides over your meat and cheese (so they can't drip out the sides) then fold in half over the cheese (so it won't drip out the bottom.) Place in the toaster with the open end UP! Toast as desired.

Tuna Bagel Melts • plain bagel • tuna salad (one can of tuna with a few spoonfuls of mayo to taste) • two slices cheese Open the bagel and spread tuna salad on it. Place the cheese on top of the bagels. Broil or airfry for a few minutes.

Cracker Pizzas • a dozen crackers • a few tablespoons tomato sauce • three slices of cheese Arrange the crackers on a plate. Spread a spoonful of sauce on each cracker. Fold each slice of cheese into fourths so they break apart. Place one little slice on each cracker. Microwave for thirty seconds.

Simple Smoothie Recipe • 1/2 cup yogurt • 1/2 cup milk • 1/2 cup frozen fruit Combine all ingredients in the blender. Blend. [To make this easier, pre-mark your blender. Add a half cup of water to your blender and mark with a sharpie to the fill level. Repeat twice. You now know what level to fill each ingredient to without the hassle of measuring them.

[runawaymun]

as a neurodivergent disabled person who struggles to feed myself i recently got back into casseroles and they are great who decided they weren't. come out. I just wanna talk.

[mothric]

the war between "this is cheaper to buy in bulk" vs "the pricier option will take far less time and energy to prep and eat" is much more constant than I would like it to be

[easydoesit-rn]

Tumblr People help me eat healthier please!!!!

Sometime ago I saw a post here sharing a lazy cookbook or something like that. It was amazing and I thought I downloaded it and I do remember it started with ramen recipes and things you could add to your instant ramen to make it more nutritious...

But now

I CAN'T FIND IT

Please please if someone knows what I'm talking about and can link me to the post or give me the link to the page you can download the cookbook from, I'll be really grateful.

[cheapveganmeals]

Low Spoons Cooking Tip!

cook grains and beans in bulk, and then freeze them! make sure you lay them as thin and flat as possible on something like a silicone-lined baking sheet, so they break up easily before you put them in freezer-safe bags.

saves a TON of time and effort during the following weeks, always having beans or rice ready-to-go for a fraction of the price of pre-cooked stuff from the store! :)

[orchidvioletindigo]

If you have limited spoons and/or a limited budget and are looking for a way to add more vegetables to your diet, steamer bags of frozen veggies are a great option to look at. Literally just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes to cook. You can have them as a side dish or add them to stuff like rice or macaroni.

[bhaalsdeepbat]

losing my mind at the thought of astarion making mercy food once and mercy eats it without complaint, but he just finds them passed out on the floor in a puddle of vomit from an incredibly bad case of food poisoning

[lowspoonsgourmet]

Lets talk about potatoes.

They are a south american tuber which has hundreds of cultivars suited for multiple climates and elevations. It is part of the nightshade family and closely enough related to tomatoes that you can splice a tomato plant onto a potato stalk and it will grow.

They are also nutrient dense and can be cooked by simply boiling them or baking them whole if one has to. Absolutely minimal prep, you dont even need to peel them. Top them with dairy or other things to round out their nutrition profiles. Can be cooked in more complex ways as energy and ability allow. Theres thousands of ways to prepare them.

Were I to travel to a new planet and had to pick one plant crop to start out with? Thats what I would pick. You can get a high calorie yield out of a small plot of land.

Fellow spoonies, consider the potato.

[melodymorningdew]

Be sure to check out my latest short video if you're disabled and need ideas for quick easy meals that don't expend all your energy.

[ghiblihearth]

Low Spoon Cooking Tips, Thoughts, Ideas

This will be an ongoing, edited/updated, post of things I do to still enjoy cooking as a spoonie. This is NOT a place to debate this stuff, I'm gonna be liberal about blocking folks who want to fight. This is what works for *me* and I'm passing it along as advice that might help. Everyone is different, let's embrace that.

Buy minced garlic (also garlic paste and ginger paste)

I swear this is my #1 tip. Ignore anyone who tells you that in order to cook truly good food you MUST use fresh chopped garlic and ginger. I have cooked for all kinds of people, including executive chefs of expensive restaurants, chefs that have competed (and held their own) against other chefs... I use minced garlic and ginger paste and no one had a negative thing to say. They rave about the food. It's not THAT big of a deal. When the difference is enjoying the cooking process and making nice food, or being so stressed about The One True Way that you don't cook anything... well, I pick my way.

Mise En Place

It took me too long to include this as a part of my cooking. Embarrassing long. Borne out of a desire to cook quickly (and therefore use less spoons) I would try and do everything at once. Chop while stuff is cooking, mix sauces right before using, etc. It's certainly a skill and not a bad one to have for when you're really time limited. But it's not very kind to the body. These days I try and think about how I can piece-meal the prep. Some veg or meat can absolutely be held in the fridge for a few hours before cooking time.

I use small Japanese stainless steel vat trays because that works best for me. I like that they have lids, and wire racks, they're so very useful.

Having everything chopped, measured, mixed and otherwise ready to go means that cooking is a much more peaceful experience. I'm not flying into dinner absolutely fatigued with my ass on fire.

Freeze It If You Can

Not every meal lends itself to freezing well. But there are some staples in my house (sweet and sour chicken, soups, etc) which lend themselves to freezing and reheating. It's just as easy to double (or triple) the recipe on a day when I have spoons to cook. Then pop it into a ziploc freezer bag (with the name on it!). I freeze everything flat, then store like files in my freezer.

When it's time to reheat I pop the bag in the microwave for 1-2 min (depending on how much). Just enough so that I can kinda break apart the contents. Then dump into a pot on the stove, put the lid on, and reheat over a medium heat.

Those are the tips for now. I'll be sure to update them as I think of more, or learn something new!

[fudgecake-charlie]

weird i know but would people be interested in a silly little online recipe book? I made it so I, a guy who didn't cook often and doesnt like spending money, could cook regularly while living alone in university. I still use and update it!!