'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

[faevii]

I'm afraid I can't help you with that, but I'm commenting to say YAY I'M NOT ALONE. I know exactly what you mean ...

[jenett]

I don't know if you saw the rec a few months ago for http://thestonesoup.com/blog/ - five ingredients, a number of vegetarian recipes.

I've also been making use of a number of recipes from Crockpot365: the one currently in there is Brussels sprouts, and I'll post later about how they came out. (Total ingredients: Brussels sprouts, butter, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. And water or a little chicken stock) found here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/10/very-best-brussels-sprouts-ever-slow.html

She cooks gluten-free, though a number of recipes have easy gluten-containing options if you do those, and she tends not to do random ingredients you only use once. (She also is more likely to, say, use an onion rather than onion powder.)

[killing_rose]

I did a google search. To find 5 ingredients or less, I had to look for three ingredients or less.
http://busycooks.about.com/od/hotsouprecipes/r/dblecornchowder.htm
http://busycooks.about.com/od/appetizerrecipe1/r/spinachquesadil.htm
http://listverse.com/2008/02/18/10-recipes-with-3-ingredients-or-less/
http://www.cooking4busymoms.com/3_INGREDIENT_RECIPES.html
(The immediate above also has 4 and 5 ingredient lists.)

Not all of them are vegetarian, and I'm sorry. But hopefully this is a decent starting point.

If you eat eggs, my go-to when I'm tired is scrambled eggs. Or if I'm exhausted, scrambled eggs in the microwave. Often with cheese. Or french style green beans. Or both.

[axelrod]

Greens, like kale or collards, stir-fried or steam-fried with garlic and/or onion. Or brussel sprouts or broccoli. Probably works with other veggies. Could be seasoned with, like, red pepper or whatever if you felt like it. I don't know about adding some already-cooked noodles and/or tofu to the pan would be too much for a brain-fogged mind, but gluten-free noodles of some kind would be a way to get some carbs and/or protein into the same dish. Let's see: vegetable, garlic, cooking oil, pasta. That's four, and you could add a fifth for flavor or protein. Not sure if all the steps required would work for you.

One of my fallbacks is "pizza" in the microwave oven: bread (gluten-free in your case), marinara sauce, cheese. I add garlic a lot, but there's lots of ways to make pizza more interesting and/or a source of protein or veggies.

A variation is very thin apple slices, cheese, and mustard.

I get pre-cooked frozen dumplings at Trader Joe's (they are *delicious*) and I cook them and some soba noodles in the same pot, since they have about the same cook time. According to google, soba noodles are gluten free if they're 100% buckwheat, and they cook really fast. There are probably other frozen or pre-cooked and refrigerated things you could cook at teh same time as the soba noodles.

I know rice has gluten, but melting some cheese on top of rice, maybe with some tomato, is quick and easy.

I always keep hummus around to put on bread. Hummus, goat cheese, and roasted red peppers make for a good sandwich imo: with the bread, that's four ingredients and no cooking. I added cucumber once, that was delicious. (Though I realize sometimes you probably want something *hot* to eat).

I eat apples and cheese together fairly often. Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are also relatively easy.

I hope some of these suggestions are helpful - it can be hard to judge what is too much for another person. And I mean I have definitely found it too difficult to make toaster oven pizza (I have also found it too difficult to get out of bed) so I dunno. This is why I always keep Clif bars around - $1 each at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (I'm sure you can get them elsewhere, but not sure how much they'd cost), ~250 calories, ~10 grams of protein. I think they taste quite good for an energy bar and the texture isn't really dry like a lot of snack bars. Not sure how gluten friendly they are. The one I've got next to me uses soy flour, rice flour, flaxseed, and oats among the ingredients. And they rely on nuts for the high protein, in case you're sensitive to nuts.

Ahem. I just really like Clif bars and eat a lot of them. If you find that sometimes you just *don't eat* because putting ingredients together, however simply, is too complicated, then I suggest finding some kind of energy bar that works for you, so you get at least some carbs and protein in you.

[lilacsigil]

Ingredients: water, pasta, asparagus, a handful of rocket (or baby spinach leaves if you prefer), olive oil.

Cook some pasta in a pot.
While it's cooking, chop some asparagus into pieces about 3cm long. Put them in a bowl.
When the pasta is cooked, scoop some of the hot pasta water onto the asparagus to blanch it for about 1 minute.
Drain the pasta.
Drain the asparagus.
Put the pasta, asparagus and leaves in a bowl. Stir them together. If it's a bit dry, stir in a little olive oil.
Eat.

(Works with ravioli and bow tie pasta. I don't think it would work so well with long pasta.)

[sage]

How do you feel about Texmex? Here's my favorite super-simple meal.

I have a square griddle that will easily fit 2 corn tortillas on it. You can use a single skillet instead, but having a griddle lets you do 2 at once. I tolerate corn better than wheat, so I only use corn tortillas, but corn is higher on the glycemic index, so maybe whole wheat would go easier on your body? Also, wheat tortillas are bigger, so you'd need fewer of them.

Note: making them on a griddle, as described, gives you tostadas. If you use wheat tortillas instead, you can skip cooking entirely and have nummy soft tacos instead.

Ingredients:
4 tortillas
shredded cheese (I use my grocery store's in-house 4 cheese blend)
cooked beans
fresh baby spinach
avocado (optional)

(I nearly always have a pot of beans on the stove or in the fridge, so I just scoop a few spoonfuls into a bowl and nuke them while the tortillas are toasting. I think black or small red beans taste better than pinto (and have a lower GI number), but go with the variety you like best.)

Making tostadas:
Heat the griddle on medium heat.
Toast one side of the tortillas on the dry griddle.
Flip, sprinkle cheese on each tortilla.
Add a good amount of baby spinach.
Add a heaping spoonful of (drained) beans on top.
Remove to plate.

Top with avocado slices -- if you like avocado and have it available in your area -- fold in half, and eat like tacos.

You can also add stuff like chopped tomato, sauteed onion, sauteed summer squash, various other veggies you have on hand, etc., if you have the brain and energy for it, but the simple version is fine as it is.

lowering overhead...

[somewhatbent]

one of the ways to lower the overhead is having various pre-combined seasoning mixtures. I have at least a half dozen salt free mixes -- some commercial, some I mixed up. When I have "slow brain" I can consolidate all the seasoning into one shake and then mostly ignore any complex directions.

[meghanc]

We eat a lot of chickpeas. If you cook up some quinoa, rice, or couscous (I make all three in batches and keep it in the fridge), you can easily make a meal by heating a skillet with a little butter or olive oil, putting some frozen spinach in the pan, and then adding a tin of rinsed and drained chickpeas. Four ingredients like that, though I often add garlic, lemon juice, or both--but that can totally be done to taste and isn't crucial. Cook the chickpeas and spinach until the spinach isn't soggy and the chickpeas have (hopefully) started to get a bit brown in places, dump over the quinoa, and eat. Assuming that you had pre-cooked whatever, it only takes about five minutes and one pan, which I can almost always manage.

We're also big on roasted veg over [whatever]. The whatever is about the same in the last paragraph, only pasta (or bean pasta, or soy pasta, or whatever) is equally good. The basic formula is olive oil + [veg] at about 400F for 45-60 minutes, then dumped over the [whatever]. We do cauliflower like this the most, but it's also good with squashes (summer or winter, just cut into chunks [w/peel removed if appropriate]), broccoli, asparagus, peppers... Really, just about anything that's in the fridge (or freezer) and starting to look a bit questionable. If you're feeling protein-deprived, adding a tin of chickpeas to the veg is pretty tasty. You can make the food more interesting by adding a seasoning blend, some seasoned salt, garlic cloves (still in the skin--they'll slip out when they're done) or onion to the roasting tray, but none of those things are necessary if you don't have the energy.

[rydra_wong]

One of my defaults when I'm braindead:

Beat two or three eggs in a bowl.

Chop up some onion and red bell peppers. Saute them in a tablespoon of olive oil.

When they're looking cooked, tip the eggs over them, and scramble the whole thing. Messy but tasty, and a good protein source, and a bit less boring than plain scrambled eggs.

If it's a day when I can handle greater complexity, I may mix a pinch of chili flakes and/or paprika into the beaten eggs.

[fred_mouse]

my, 'oh, can't cope' recipe is red lentils.

Ingredients: red lentils, cooking oil, spice mix, water. And by spice mix, I buy something premixed at the supermarket. Or, on a good day, I pick several spices and add them.

rough quantities: for 2 adults and 3 kids, I use 1 1/2 cups of lentils and 3 cups of water. Oil is a generous slurp. Spice mix is about a teaspoon.

Put oil, spice mix and red lentils in pot to heat.
Boil water in kettle.
Add boiling water to lentils. This bit can be dangerous, as the water can spit. Can probably add cold water and it takes longer, but I've never tried.
Mix a bit.
Put lid on. Leave about ten minutes. Should be cooked.

Depending on how you are going, there are variations. My kids like to add dried fruit and nuts - a premixed option would work fine, although the ones we get round here might have too many peanuts in. Or I add in left over vegies, or frozen vegie mix from the freezer. All of these can be added at any point after the water is added.

[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.

[chaostheory635]

this has fiveish ingredients if you don't count salt and pepper (to taste anyway)...http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html

all you REALLY need: broccoli, garlic, olive oil, parmesan, basil. pine nuts are strictly optional...lemon is nice but unnecessary.

This five-ingredient lunch has served me well!

[jesse_the_k]

When I discovered I was celiac (unable to digest the protein in wheat, barley, rye, and many oatmeals) I had to learn a new way of cooking. Sandwiches for lunch were out, as well as flour tortillas. In their place was my 5-ingredient lunch, which I've been eating for more than four years and I'm not bored yet. As long as I was completely replumbing what I ate, I followed my acupuncturist's recommendation to eat a lot of protein combined with very few carbs. Don't know or care whether it's the celiac alone, or the celiac + diet, but I've definitely had more energy since then.

One thing which has made cooking possible for me has been MyGuy's willingness to create meal-size protein packages. Grocery stores offer price savings on larger quantities. They'd never last fresh in a two-person household, but because he's sliced and squished and wrapped them into 120-g units, the whole, "now what am I going to have for lunch?" issue gets a lot less stressful.

Right now our freezer contains:
Chicken breasts
Pork tenderloin
Beef tenderloin
Shrimp
Beef liver
Tempeh
Beef flank steak
Whitefish filets
Elk burgers
Ostrich burgers
Bison burgers

That's the protein. The other half are the greens: dark leafy and once you learn how to cook 'em, delicious. We get these from locals during our tragically brief growing season, and from the engines of industry otherwise:
Chard
Beets
Napa Cabbage
Bok Choy (and a host Choy cousins (Hmong, Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese growers vary the names. I just check with the veg supervisor to make sure that these are short-cooking like the previous, or long-cooking like the next))
Collards
Mustard
In midwinter when even the contrapolar supply is totally hopeless, I use frozen green beans. (Frozen spinach or leafy greens are so far away that it's not even worth the effort.)

When I began this regime I'd prep each ingredient completely and set it aside. Then at the end I'd bring everything back together for a get-to-know-you reheat. And I know that works -- the onions won't lose any of their magic if they end up sitting sentry on the counter for 15 minutes while I do the other bits.

After a year I got a good enough feel for the timing that I can multi-task -- I can defrost the protein while I'm chopping the onions and so forth.

So, let's make lunch!

INGREDIENTS
Oil
Onion
Greens
Protein
Liquid

POTS
3 qt skillet with lid
3 qt casserole with lid

The DRILL
1. Clean GREENS
For one serving prepare one third to one half a head of dark greens; strip leaf from rib, discard rib. tear leaf into palm size, clean thoroughly (gravel can lurk within)
Place in casserole, cover, microwave for 2 minutes (except 6 minutes for collards).
Remove from microwave, open lid to permit sulfurous steam to escape, make sure leaves are just slightly underdone, put lid back on.
Greens continue to cook.

2. Slice onion as you please
Oil into skillet, set on medium,
when smells nice add the onions,
shovel around,
leave uncovered,
shovel around again,
Cover. Let sit until step 3, then empty into greens

3. Protein.
Unwrap packet
Place on dish
Defrost in microwave (Better to err on the side of still too frozen, because it simplifies next step)
Cut into cubes
Saute in pan until seared around 5 minutes

4. Let's dance.
return onions and greens to pan, cover, turn down low, let flavors mix for 10 to 15 minutes. If things look a little dry, I add moisture and flavor with rice vinegar or lemon juice or soy sauce.

I transfer the completed dish into the casserole so I have two dishes to wash.

[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.

[indywind]

My go-to low carb comfort food when low on brain. Spouse calls it "stuff in a pot".

Ingredients:
1. 1 can diced tomatoes (or tomatoes plus seasoning or other veg e.g. onions)
2. 1 can cooked beans (not packed in corn syrup -- saltwater or sauce)
3. big double handful frozen or fresh (chopped/torn) greens
4. 1-2 cups meat (ground or in chunks), sausage, or tofu-sausage, smoked tofu, tvp or another can of beans. Precooked/leftover meat is fine; smoked meat or meat substitute is awesome.

optional:
about 1tbs oil if meat type thing is not oily, chopped onion or garlic, seasonings of choice, any more vegetables you have lying around and are able to deal with.

In a biggish skillet, heat up the oil or oily meat. Cook the meat first if it needs cooking, stirring, and onions/garlic if using. When the meat is cooked, dump in everything else. (may wish to drain beans if packed in water). Put lid on and simmer at medium heat til the greens are wilty, 5-10 minutes. Longer will not hurt if you forget it. Take off lid and season to taste if desired. Or just scoop some in a bowl and eat.


Total prep time: 10-20 minutes (with precooked meatlike thing and frozen greens, versus raw meat and fresh greens).
Total dishes dirtied: 3.5: 1 pan of cooking, one bowl of eating, one spoon of stirring and eating, can opener.

[susan8020]

Mine is tuna/potato chip casserole.

In a baking dish, alternate layers of tuna, crushed potato chips, and mushroom soup (thick, not diluted). Optional: frozen green peas, chopped celery, onions.

Microwave till all is hot and gooey.

Keeps well in the fridge, warms well. Have to soak the dish later. (Maybe I should try