'Five' ingredients or less

[vass]

My main cooking problem is with executive function/attention/general brain fog. If there are too many ingredients or steps, I just tend not to eat, or to eat junk instead of cooking a meal. I once had a three day brain block when it felt too hard to make a banana smoothie. All I needed was ice cream, a banana, cinnamon, and milk, but I also had to get the blender down and wash it afterwards, and it just seemed too hard.

So, it occurred to me this morning that I should try googling for recipes with five ingredients or less/fewer. I found a lot of recipes, but one small problem: THEY CAN'T COUNT.

Take this recipe for crockpot mashed potatoes: it purports to have five ingredients, but actually has nine. I'm guessing they thought the condiments didn't count. Well, if I were adding salt and pepper to my own taste, they wouldn't count. But if they're a step I have to get over while following a recipe, they certainly do count. If I have to go to the supermarket to buy onion powder, garlic powder, and white pepper, because I've never used those things in my life, then yes, they count.

I used to be a good cook.

Does anyone have any brain fog friendly vegetarian recipes? Preferably not too starchy, since insulin resistance contributes to the brain fog.

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

Here's a much-simplified version of my go-to pasta dish - this one is more like a side dish which my mum used to make.

Requires:

Pasta
Oil of some kind
Onion
chopped vegetables of your selection (for the sake of argument, bell pepper and mushroom)

1. Cook pasta
2. Chop onion
3. Saute onion in oil
4. Add vegetables, stir-fry until cooked to your liking
5. Tip pasta into frying pan, stir until vegetables and onion are mixed through.

Now, you could add any herbs or spices you like to that. But you don't have to include anything else if you don't feel so inclined, or don't have them. Just vegetables and pasta used to make a perfectly good side dish for us as kids, and I certainly remember cooking up the very plain version when I living out of home and working long hours for the first time. Only downside is that this is quite a starchy recipe.