Ever suffer from Culinary Ennui? If so, what do you do?

[Rickbern]

When I’m stuck I try googling. I’ll pick 2-3 ingredients I have and see what kinds of recipes show up. Inevitably I’ll find something from Sri Lanka or something and be missing a few ingredients but fools  rush in…

[lemniscate]

I find if I'm looking at random stuff in the fridge and I have that "I dunno what I want", I think of what could go in a ramen bowl or a quesadilla and most times it works out.   I have the plain instant noodle packs (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) on hand and frozen tortillas.

[Tropicalsenior]

16 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

going out is not an option,

It's not an option for me either. In my area I have a choice of fried chicken, fried chicken, or fried chicken. I may not know what I want but I do know that that's not it.

[MaryIsobel]

I freeze cooked rice in one cup portions, so on the lowest of low days, I nuke a bag of rice. Depending on the level of ennui, I may only add butter and salt and pepper. If I have a bit more interest in eating, I will throw in a handful of frozen shrimp (thawed obviously) and maybe some green onions and a handful of frozen peas, some ginger garlic and soy sauce.

[Katie Meadow]

13 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

I freeze cooked rice in one cup portions, so on the lowest of low days, I nuke a bag of rice. Depending on the level of ennui, I may only add butter and salt and pepper. If I have a bit more interest in eating, I will throw in a handful of frozen shrimp (thawed obviously) and maybe some green onions and a handful of frozen peas, some ginger garlic and soy sauce.

My latest crush is Carolina Gold rice. If you can overcome ennui enough to make it fresh, it's fabulous with just butter and salt.

[FauxPas]

I know that I'll have days/evenings when I don't much feel like cooking so I do two things to get by. One is to try and make sure I have a few items in fridge/freezer/pantry for those times and the other is to make myself do a bit of prep ahead of time. 

 

One of my fave non-cook meals is bean salad over lettuce. I used to can my own but now I buy it - Paisley Farms brand (from Costco?) when I was in the US, I think. Easy to keep a jar in the pantry/fridge. It usually contains kidney, garbanzo, green and yellow beans with onion and red pepper so I feel like I am getting protein and veggies along with a bit of sweet and sour vinegar tang. Yum. 

 

I make Instant Pot Spanish Rice (itself very easy to make with chicken stock and jarred salsa) and keep some meal-size portions in freezer. If I have cooked beans in freezer, I add some + a bit of salsa and then microwave. Or I add frozen green peas and/or diced ham and microwave. 

 

I also like an apple with cheese slices. Cut up the apple or not, ha. And cottage cheese with fruit or cherry tomatoes. 

 

I sometimes lose interest in prep as it gets later in the day so I try to do as much as I can earlier in the day. Having pre-washed and chopped veggies etc makes it much easier for me to follow through on meal plans. And if not that day, then most things will keep until the following day. 

 

I don't know if I'm really addressing your topic very well though? 

[rotuts]

@FauxPas

 

how do you make your iPot Spanish Rice ?

[FauxPas]

27 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@FauxPas

 

how do you make your iPot Spanish Rice ?

 

I use this basic recipe but I  skip the diced onions  - instead I just use a chunky salsa (like Pace).  🙂

And I like to use good homemade chicken stock. 

 

https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/quick-and-easy-spanish-rice/

[blue_dolphin]

@Smithy, I’ve been thinking about your question for a while. I think it’s complex and I have no easy answers but am sharing this stream of consciousness anyway 🙃

 

@liuzhou wrote that there are two types of culinary ennui: cooking ennui and eating ennui.  I suspect there are even more subtypes.  For example, eating ennui can be appetite ennui (nothing appeals, no appetite) or dining/social ennui (something might appeal but it’s not worth making just for myself, I'd like a dish from a particular restaurant but I don’t want to go there alone, or I'd like something that I’ve always shared with a person or group who aren’t around) 

 

@liuzhou also said eating ennui was the most concerning and I agree, especially appetite ennui.  A number of years ago, I lost my sense of smell.  I could still taste (sweet, sour, salt, bitter, umami) but had zero appetite, absolutely nothing appealed to me.  I was sick, had other symptoms and many tests but no diagnosis.  After a while I realized that I needed better nutrition or I was never going to get better. I found a smoothie recipe that included 2-3 servings of both fruit, veg and protein, plus fiber, etc. I made one every day, drank half in the AM and half for lunch.  Not culinarily interesting but it did the job. I doubt you’re in that situation but looking out for nutrition in some way is important. 
Even when I started feeling better, and wanted to get back to cooking, I’d lost interest in trying new recipes because so much of their flavor was lost to me.  I learned to focus on old favorites and rely on flavor memory to fill in the blanks. Luckily, texture has always been key for me so I focused on that.  Again, I don’t think you’re in that situation but focusing on old favorites isn’t a bad idea from a comfort POV.

 

You mentioned both planning ahead and cooking earlier in the day and I think both are good strategies for dealing with cooking ennui. Sometimes the restrictions of a job, caretaking for kids, spouse, parents or the need to conform to the preferences of those folks restrict the time available or the recipe options but they can also provide a helpful structure. When I was working a demanding job, I could only devote time to cooking on the weekends.  If I didn’t get my act together, I’d be stuck with restaurant or cafeteria food that was expensive and not particularly healthy so I shopped, prepped and cooked. When my mom lived with me, I planned meals to accommodate her preferences.  I no longer have any of those restrictions but if I don’t do a little planning, I’ll just wait until I’m hangry, which is no time to do any enjoyable cooking.  
I’m a morning person.  That doesn’t mean I need to eat right away so I’ve got plenty of time but if I don’t have at least a bit of a plan, I’ll waste the part of the day that I could be most productive.  That pertains to cooking and anything else I want to accomplish.  I suspect the same is true for anyone with the flexibility to schedule our own time whether they’re early birds or night owls so I think you’re on to something with those thoughts. 
 

From what I’m reading in your posts, you’re doing fine!

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 01:03 AM by blue_dolphin
Grammar (log)

[ElsieD]

 

 I recently decided to sort my recipes and put hard copies in 3-ring binders.  I came across recipes that we have enjoyed in the past but had forgotten about, and decided I really wanted to make them again.  Since I had also been suffering from Culinary Ennui  I decided to change the way I approach dinner.  I decided that for the first time in my life I would pick out 7 dinners and make up a grocery list of the items I needed.  For inspiration, i go through the binders.  These meals are not specific to any one day which leaves me with some flexibility.  We have been going out on Thursday afternoons and rounding up whatever we need based on those recipes.  Tomorrow starts week 4 and so far I have stuck with the meals I picked out which includes some old recipes.  This meal planning has meant that we no longer need to go out for those odd bits we don't have due to lack of planning.  I find that planning has renewed by interest in cooking.  Since I started this, I also do a lot of the prep work during the afternoon which means that I don't do prepping and cooking in one fell swoop.  And as a result of that, the cooking has become, for the most part, enjoyable again.  I don't know if that helps anyone, but at the moment, it's helping me.

 

 And oh, for fun today I riffed off a recipe for peach frozen yogurt which we had for dessert.  I'd never made it before and I had a blast figuring out what to do/not do.  Happily, it my tinkering worked out.

 

 

 

 

[Beth Wilson]

I suffered from this during the winter months.  I ended up calling my sister who lives close by and we listed what we had in our fridges and freezers and tossed out some ideas for a couple of meals.  I packed up the food I thought we needed and some stuff I thought "maybe?" and headed to her place.  We combined our stuff, made 2 or 3 main dishes and divided them up.  I threw a couple of the meals in the freezer to pull out later in the week and enjoyed some great meals.

 

It is amazing what you can come up with a half a pepper and onion and some frozen ground turkey.  My sister is sensitive to some ingredients so we try alternatives and check out some cooking sites for inspiration, including Egullet!  I am learning some gluten free alternatives.

 

I was finding cooking was becoming a chore to avoid and now I look forward to a visit and some great dishes.  We don't do it every Sunday but try at least once or twice a month.  Bonus for me, is my kitchen is too small for two cooks so the mess ends up at her place.  We have been making dishes I haven't made in years and it is nice to dust them off now.  We have been working on putting a garden in for the last couple of weeks so my freezer supply of these meals is all gone so time to get back at it.

 

[Maison Rustique]

Last night was a classic example. I could not think of anything I really wanted to eat. I pulled out a gently-expired package of pre-cooked Jasmine rice and had it buttered with tomato and citrusy garlic seasoning. Photo in the Dinner thread.

[ElsieD]

Another thing I do is sous vide chicken and beef, rapid chill and divvy it up into meal sized portions.  If making, say, a stir-fry, I simply add it to the rest of the ingredients at the end to warm through.  

 

Edited to add:  after dividing it up i vac pac it in those individual portions and freeze it.

Edited 17 hours ago by ElsieD (log)