Help Low effort meal recommendations?

[Melly]

Depression meals. What the title said. Alternatively, do you know of any resources that share recipes and rate effort, cost, and nutrients? As an example if there's a miracle soup out there that has all the nutrients you'd need so that you can live off of it exclusively I'd be interested in it too, make a lot of it and freeze it. Just share your survival tips with me please. Thank you

 

[imtiredasf]

I don't know exactly how healthy it is in the long run, but when things get heavy for me, I fall back on cup noodles, individual packets of tuna/other protein and protein drinks to supplement. Probably not the worst for you if you take a multivitamin or something so you don't get scurvy or whatever.

 

[Hvergelmir]

Around here, frozen vegetable mixes are cheap, common, and relatively healthy. I often steam them and eat them alongside boiled pasta, but I guess you could blast them in the microwave or just leave them in room temperature for a few hours.

if there's a miracle soup out there that has all the nutrients you'd need so that you can live off of it exclusively

There is Soylent which is supposed to be a healthy alternative to traditional meals.

 

[livershapedbox]

Level of low effort that no one would really call cooking:

Scrambled eggs with rice or bread, toasted sandwiches (you can also put a fried egg inside them for extra nutrition and it'll taste so good), here in spain we have these sandwiches with baguette bread we call "bocadillos" usually with a good cheese and a meat, I recommend the ones with "pata" and "jamon serrano" specifically.

Somewhat higher effort but still good effort to bite ratio:

Chili con carne with rice is easy and fairly quick to make, and tastes just as good reheated even days after making it so you can just make a lot all at once and eat that for a few days.
Colombian arepas are easy and quick to make and you can put anything on them, I usually put fried eggs on them

 

[SchizoGymnast]

I eat baby food.

 

[bankai]

Whey protein shakes.

 

[whywere]

My go to is low fat string cheese and raisin bran. Protein, fiber and raisins for something sweet.

Very quick and easy.

Walter

 

[WakingNightmare]

Get a good rice cooker and the biggest bag of rice you can find. You can chuck canned tuna and frozen veggies on rice with some soy sauce and wasabi.
For powder get a mass gainer, international protein vanilla with milk tastes like a milkshake

 

[holyhorse]

I don't know if this counts as a low-effort meal for you, but maybe French toast? I'm not sure if it's cooked differently in the West, but in CIS countries, all we do is mix eggs with milk, dip bread slices in the mixture, and fry them on a hot pan.

You can also mix cottage cheese with smetana (sour cream) or plain yogurt and add sugar. Done!

If you have a microwave, you can make a mug cake. There are lots of recipes online; some might work, some might not. I haven't made one in a long time, so I forgot the recipe that worked for me.

You can also just put a slice of sausage and cheese on a slice of bread and microwave it for 30 seconds. We call that a "buterbrod" You can add a slice of tomato, cucumber, salad, or spread it with ketchup, whatever you like!

If I don't feel like cooking, I just stock up on cornflakes and milk and call it good enough for a few days

Hmm, instant noodles, supermarket pastries?

If you want a dessert (though it might need a little effort), here's one recipe: find cookies in your kitchen, no matter if they're old or not very tasty, and crumble them into tiny pieces. Add condensed milk and cocoa powder. Mix until you get a smooth texture. Roll into balls and put them in the fridge. Search for "pirozhnoye kartoshka" online for more detailed recipes.

What else... for a snack, you can just take a slice of bread, spread it with butter, and sprinkle sugar on top. Low-effort meals are all about improvisation! I also like spreading smetana on a slice of bread and topping it with jam.

Kids in daycare have a "soup" for breakfast made from milk and boiled buckwheat OR pasta (macaroni, vermicelli, etc). Hope this helps!

 

[Someonewhotypes]

salads would be the easiest healthiest for low effort. Leafy green salads (kale, spinach), or tomato, cucumber, avocado, pepper salads, also salads with beans. Basically what will give them flavor is the dressing, such as vinegar + olive oil or lemon juice. If you add cheese or egg in the salads, besides vegetables, that is a source of protein.
And spreadable healthy things like hummus make great snacks.
For cooked food, pasta is the easiest. Just combine it with a jar of pasta sauce

 

[BeansOfRequirement]

Beans/lentils + soy sauce + peanut butter sandwich.
Produce no prep needed.
Others have mentioned protein supplement (not replacement).
I take multivitamin.

 

[Parasitism]

I mix 2 x tinned tuna, with pasta, tinned sweetcorn and mayo/salad cream. I make a big bowl of it and keep it in the fridge. I go back and get scoops when needed.
If im feeling more motivated I chop onion and spinach and throw it in.

 

[either/or]

Spam and rice. May not be super healthy, but at least has protein and was easy-ish for me to make when I actually had an appetite haha.

Spam and rice. May not be super healthy, but at least has protein and was easy-ish for me to make when I actually had an appetite haha.

Oh!! Also, I used to fry an egg and then mix it into rice along with soy sauce and strips of seaweed and some of the butter I cooked the egg with :) Very yummy and quick. You can buy instant rice to make it easier for yourself!!

 

[gottacheckout]

Burritos (no meat) is my go to. I also eat a lot of salads.

French toast is really good. Try adding a bit of vanilla in it, no cinnamon.

 

[vitbar]

Huel is a drinkable meal replacement. Decent for when the depression says no.

 

[karakoltriste]

salad with canned legumes, frozen vegetables, microwave rice, sliced potatoes with salt and paprika on microwave, potato flakes, pasta with soy sauce/tomato/vegan bolognese (canned lentils with tomato sauce, pepper, salt and garlic powder. I recommed you to have a lots of spices like garlic or onion podwer so you won't have to chop them

 

[yeahyeahyeahfan]

There's something called The Sad Bastard Cookbook, it's a free pdf designed to be exclusively low-effort meals for people who are struggling. I've skimmed it and it's not perfect but I did find some good stuff in there.

I also read a tumblr post once about how if it's too much energy to make a sandwich, there's no shame in eating the cheese straight out of the bag. It doesn't need to look good for instagram, it just needs to feed you.

 

[Higurashi415]

Depression meals. What the title said. Alternatively, do you know of any resources that share recipes and rate effort, cost, and nutrients? As an example if there's a miracle soup out there that has all the nutrients you'd need so that you can live off of it exclusively I'd be interested in it too, make a lot of it and freeze it. Just share your survival tips with me please. Thank you

ground meat + beans (and spices for flavor), milk + oat + protein powder
meat can seem expensive but don't forget that it's the macros that count. the macros they provide compared to their cost is actually pretty good

 

[TrappedGnostic]

Some suggestions:

Protein bars + shakes
Fruit
Store-bought salads
TV meals
Pizzas (only require turning on the oven)
Yogurt
Pasta
Eggs
Avocado toasts

 

[khole]

Ensure complete shakes. They have 350 calories and 30 grams of protein !
I've gotten kinda sick of them though. A big bowl of cereal also helps, just don't think it's healthy haha.

 

[nobeertonight]

Depression meals. What the title said. Alternatively, do you know of any resources that share recipes and rate effort, cost, and nutrients? As an example if there's a miracle soup out there that has all the nutrients you'd need so that you can live off of it exclusively I'd be interested in it too, make a lot of it and freeze it. Just share your survival tips with me please. Thank you

A air fryer really helps me with cooking a fast meal. As for recipes I follow a gym diet but it's really easy to do. I keep bread frozen and heat it in a toaster for carbs, I usually do my protein (chicken, pork or fish) in the fryer. I tend to cook my vegetable in a pan but it's usually easy stuff, onions and carrots, peas, frozen spinach. Some times I buy lettuce if I'm too tired to cook but it's good to have more nutritious veggies.
If I don't feel like cooking at all I'll just buy low fat mozarella from the store (or just normal mozarella if you like life), rucola, toast the bread, add the mozarella with the rucola, salt and oil and you have a perfect meal, you can add tuna for some more protein.

A good nutritious and easy soup I cook often is just lentil soup, served with either pasta or bread.

No single meal will have all the stuff you need but you can have some staple simple meals to rotate for a good diet.

 

[Dot]

Get a good rice cooker

Rce & peas = gd recpe -- rce wth creamd ccocnut gratd in & sme nutmeg stirrd in - lts of nutrnts & chp & fillng -- slf recmmndd t/ anothr sasu membr in 2021/22 & thy livd on tht all summr

Also slw cookr - cn jst pt all ingrndts in & thn jst leav fr hwevr mny hrs needd & thn jst dsh up

Cn also ck in lrge batchs

Also - sme ppl prep ingrndts in2 bags & pt in freezr & thn jst pt in slw cookr whn needd

Also jackt ptatos r gd - jst pt in ovn or air fryr & thn u cn thrw whtevr toppngs on tht u lke

 

[thereisnoneed]

rice + canned sardines

 

[Spicy Tteokbokki]

I love eggs by themselves. You can boil the, pan fry them, have them soft, medium or hard, use various spices etc.. All super versatile while being extremely easy to cook — and quick as well.
Other than that I like wok-based dishes as you can just dump a ton of meat, spices, veggies and fats together and have a solid 7-8/10 meal right there. Though my secret to making them pop is 고춧가루, lol.
Another easy but delicious thing is ground beef with canned beans in tomato sauce + spices. It tastes more like a dessert ngl.
In all these dishes you can incorporate rice as well if you want even more variety or a different flavor.
Canned tuna with olive oil and salt as a base goes hard together as well. Can add some eggs to that and you have a delicious, quick salad to nom on ~