Just some random ideas, in no particular order:

• Buy dried garlic granules and dried onion (sliced or powder) in a large quantity, use this to cut down on food prep but also to reduce shopping weight/volume. (2 tablespoons of dried onion = 1 fresh onion, ¼ teaspoon of granulated garlic powder = 1 clove)

• Get a pressure cooker to cut down on cooking times

• Look up dump casserole dishes and use a slow cooker so that you can prep something in the morning, forget about it, and then have a tasty dish that feels new to you in the evening

• Look up sheet pan meals

• Find what veg you prefer and start building a repertoire of dishses around those vegetables. For example, maybe roasted capsicum/peppers, pumpkin, potato, onion, and tomato are something that you enjoy. If you do meat, you could also roast something like chicken or lamb alongside this. Then use those ingredients as your base for making different meals for the next few days - salad, pizza, stew, wraps etc.

• Consider alternatives to pasta like couscous

• Get good at making soup - it’s cheap, healthy, relatively easy and flexible. Start with something like minestrone then branch out when you are feeling comfortable with it. Remember to branch out into non-European soups like laksa, miso soup, ramen etc. because there is so much on offer outside of western cuisine.

• Try to break out of the expectations of what cooking “should” be like. One of my favourite things to eat is steamed vegetables. I’ll put a side of protein with it so that it’s a balanced meal but often I’m happiest with a plate or bowl full of steamed veg. There’s no shame in eating something like that as often as you like and it doesn’t have to be anything more than just palatable fuel for your body.

• On a similar note, try to find those dishes that you could eat every day for the rest of your life without getting sick of it. For me, that’s dal and rice. If I know that then I can use this dish in my weekly rotation and it can be my go-to. (Extra points for a dish like dal and rice that doesn’t require any fresh ingredients because it’s perfect for when the fridge is empty and the vegetables have gone bad but I’m not going shopping for the next couple of days.)

• Maybe see if one of your housemates or friends would be willing to give you a lift when they go shopping? It might help ease the burden.

• Get a little bit creative - if you make up a Thai curry but set aside the addition of curry paste, you will be able to fry up one type of curry paste in a little bit of coconut cream or oil and then incorporate that into your base of veggies+protein in coconut milk, thus completing the dish to make one type of Thai curry. The next day you can do the same with a different colour of curry paste. It won’t be massively different but having some variation is probably going to make it more enjoyable for you. Or you could run two pans during cooking and divide each of ingredients out so that you can make two curries side by side simultaneously.

• Start having smoothies or protein shakes as in-between meals. It doesn’t have to be some big production, it just needs to be palatable enough to fill you up so you can make the distance between breakfast and dinner.

• Lentils are a happy midway point between canned beans and dried - they are fairly quick to cook, they are much cheaper and lighter than canned options, and you aren’t going to need to muck around with overnight soaking or simmering for hours on end like you would with dried beans.

The freezer is full because there’s five people living entirely separate lives in the household

Is the freezer full and actively used? Could you do a shelf audit/regular clean along with the rest of the fridge space (if your sharehouse does these, add it to the roster/calendar?). Given my flatmates’ histories of freeze-and-forget, I would be surprised if you can’t free up some space.

Could you do horse trading with flatmates who also freeze meals (portion for portion) for the times you both have excess prepped meals? (Keeps variety for both of you, keeps turnover in the freezer up).

Tinned foods (beans) over rice for the nights you feel less like cooking are great too, and will take up cupboard/pantry space rather than fridge space.

I don’t like pasta

Well damn.

How’s rice?

If you don’t have a rice cooker or the attention span to cook rice the usual way, you can actually just boil it for ~11 minutes then run it through a fine mesh strainer. It ends up rather different from sticky/fluffy preps, but it’s still good.

the main thing motivating me to eat pasta is the threat of someone yelling at me, hunger alone isn’t enough

???

Death to America

If possible keep track of what you do like to eat, or at least what you find yourself eating through the day, then try to make meals based on that. I like throwing ‘I have lots of a particular food item’ into search engines to see what recipes pop up for inspiration.

For the bulk food order maybe try making different dishes the same day you cook that have overlap, like savory spinach soup, college student palak paneer and maybe a stirfry with rice could be prepared together since a lot of the initial steps are the same and then you can split off and add broth to one, cheese and curry to another, just toss on rice for the third.

Do you have much experience making beans and things from dried? I tend to only go grocery shopping 2 times a month and mostly eat ‘pantry soups’ which is what I call making soup from dried things, condiments and spices. It’s actually pretty healthy and tasty and the flavor can be changed a lot. Here are two templates:

Lentil Soup

• 1/4-1/3 c red lentils per serving (i.e. I use about 1/2 a cup if I want to make two meals)
• 1 Onion diced (optional)
• 1 Big Scoop jam or chutney (citrus or mango ones work best)
• 1-2 Tbsp Bouillion (cheaper and more space efficient than stock)
• Spices (lemon pepper, garlic salt, curry powder, chili powder, **powdered onion **, nutritional yeast)
• Tomato paste or tomato sauce (optional)

Pretty much just toss it in a pot and boil until the lentils are at a nice consistency. For added flavor, add a big dollop of plain yogurt, spinach, or frozen peas (hard bc the freezer situation)

Grain Salad

• 1/2 c couscous or quinoa or bulgur or barley
• opt: stock or bouillion for the grain water
• dressing: vinegar, oil, salt and any of the following: mustard, dried herbs, pepper, sugar
• any of the following diced mix-ins: toasted nuts, olives, beets, onions, anchovies, sardines, garlic, parsley, mint, basil, dates, raisins, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes.

This one also takes about 15 minutes. Start the water boiling for the grains. While that’s going, make the dressing and chop the other things. If chopping is too much work, just throwing in a handful of nuts and raisins makes for a good, filling meal.

What are your favorite foods, in general?

Spitballing here…

First idea, figure out a generic food stuff that is aggressively neutral. Something with enough calories, protein, fiber to sustain you but has very little flavor. Something like bland as fuck oatmeal, with some nuts/seeds, fruit, maybe a bit of sugar/honey/jelly, cinnamon and a very small amount of nutmeg are solid. Need some extra protein and aren’t vegan, you can crack an egg into the oatmeal and stir vigorously, vegan? extra soft tofu should be fine but it will change the texture of the oatmeal more than an egg so be prepared.

Second idea: Set alarms for when you need to cook and or eat then just inhale the food as quickly as possible, don’t think about it. Its just another chore in your day like brushing your teeth or washing dishes. Doesn’t seem appetizing but you can try to ignore it and just do it.