'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

[kaz]

This doesn't satisfy your lack-of-starch requirement because the main ingredient is potatoes but is becoming my go-to braindead dish... and I should note that for me "braindead" means minimal *everything* pretty much; most of the recipes people have suggested here are out for me on low-spoon days either because they use the hob or because they require chopping or because they are just plain too complicated. This is the only dish I have so far that I can manage when I'm feeling even moderately badly, and it might still not work if things get too bad (once spent five days living off a box of dry cereal. :( )

So: microwave/oven baked potatoes.

Take some potatoes. Poke some holes in them. Put them in the microwave until they're soft. (Note: as it stands they get kind of crumply - there's probably a way to avoid moisture loss via adding water to the dish they're in, or I've seen the suggestion of wrapping them in a wet paper towel, but I haven't tested this out yet. They are still edible, though. ALSO I haven't worked out the times here, it does depend on potato, but I don't think it's not such an issue if they're in too long.) Slice them in half, put them on a baking tray (non-stick, otherwise you have to grease it) with the sliced side up, put some grated cheese on top - you may want to add a bit of salt and/or pepper at this stage or later - and cook these in the oven until the cheese is brown. Eat.

Number of ingredients: two minimum (potatoes and cheese), plus possibly one or two extra for salt or pepper although I've had this without either and it still tasted okay, plus grease for the baking tray if you don't have a nonstick (and in fact you might still want to add a bit in case even if you have one, but it works without). I am also going to experiment via things like adding a slice of ham or (veggie) a slice of tomato below the cheese to spruce these up a bit.

Number of things to wash: three minimum - you need a plate to cook the potatoes on in the microwave, a knife to slice them in half and poke holes in them and a baking tray. You can transfer the finished potatoes back to the plate from the microwave to eat off. (I also suppose you could put the plate in the oven if you've got one that will work, reducing # of things to wash to two!)

Number of kitchen equipments used: two - microwave and oven. You can also cook the potatoes in the oven using aluminium foil but a) complicated b) it takes much longer. I think you can possibly also manage it all in the microwave but the cheese won't get nice and brown that way. The advantage of doing it the way I'm doing it is minimal time and that even a toaster oven with pretensions like mine (it's smaller than my microwave) can do it.

[shiyiya]

If you put foil under the potatoes on the baking tray, you could just throw that out instead of washing the tray.

[kaz]

...that is an excellent point. Thanks! :D (washing the tray has been kind of annoying.)