I wish I enjoyed cooking!

I love cooking. I enjoy looking through recipes and searching the internet for new things to try.

I do not like baking though. I make reasonably good pastry, biscuits and scones, but my cakes are abysmal.

I've just received a Ninja Foodie, like an instant pot, but with two kids. One for saute/searing, baking, grilling and slow cooking, the other for pressure cooking.
I'm going to make a pork cassoulet in it tomorrow for our lunch.

I have to say, when I worked in a residential home as activity coordinators, I HAD to organise, plan and encourage the residents to join in with 2 cooking sessions a week.

Now, I'm no cook, and my people had mostly forgotten things like recipes, but we did really have fun.

We made Halloween cakes like fingers, with almonds as nails.
It was around that time I made my first ever cake at home, so I wonder if being more proactive would get the urge going again?

Has anyone got an air fryer and are they any good?

I used a deep fat fryer for years to make chips for the family. Chucked the last one out a few years back because it got so greased up. Oven chips only now. You cant beat homemade deep fried chips though. Bit tempted to buy another fryer.

I love egg and chips but they would have to be proper chips, not the oven ones.

My love of cooking gets me through stressful times. Even if DH is in hospital and I'm on my own I plan meals using veg from the garden and look for bargains to keep my freezer stocked every time I shop.

I will happily make tortillas rather than buy them and if I'm bored I'll dig out some cook books rather than plonk myself in front of the telly.

I enjoy CBA cooking days though. Sausages and beans on toast or fried eggs and oven chips. YUM!

Well, that would have milk, egg, dried fruit etc in it so is a meal in itself [imo]….[I might be wrong about the egg, being culinarily challenged though....]

I'm not bothered about dinner. I enjoy breakfast and lunch, but can happily go with very little at dinner time. Today I gave DH a decent meal but I just had the pudding which was bread and butter pudding.

Got it in one Tangerine

I've never got those basic ingredients in the house that people seem to have.

I think cooking for yourself is not as enjoyable as cooking for yourself plus somebody else.

I baked our Christmas cake today and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I enjoy making a pot of soup and did for lunch. So why is it the thought of cooking a main meal leaves a heavy dread? No logic is there? Left to myself I’d live on soup and cheese.

I look at all the recipes in the Sunday Times; even cut some out and think I'd like to make that. But there's always one ingredient that I haven't got a clue what it is or where I'd get it from. I'd really love to have some new 'taste experiences' though but can't afford to go to fancy restaurants...I'm living on bacon and eggs at the moment; at some point I'll switch to 'something on a baked potato' for a while....

Now I feel guilty MOnica

I have always planned meals a week in advance. It takes about half an hour a week. I raely ever end up sticking to the exact plan and anything left and not used the previous week is incorporated into the next week's menu.

What I do get thoroughly fed up with, is not the cooking, but the endless thinking about what to have - esp. if we have guests. Not that I do dinner parties any more, but just guests staying.
I do usually plan meals at least a couple of days in advance but I still find it a PITA.
Dh is useless at suggesting anything. He doesn't really cook, never has (though he's well able to make something simple if he has to) - he loads the dishwasher and clears up the kitchen - which in fact suits me fine, since I'm a messy cook.

Ha ha MissAdventure, I could have written your post. I used to like cooking but now I like that DH does the cooking. I do bake, and I’m told I make lovely cakes, but I try to not do it too often as it’s fattening! I make cakes when the family is coming or it’s someones birthday. I also like baking with my grandchildren because they enjoy it.

What a relief I hate cooking too. When DH goes away for a few days I revel in NO COOKING AT ALL. I live off cereal, fruit and yoghurt. Maybe go out for a light lunch, I’m happy eating alone. I might go as far as a poached egg on toast, but that’s pushing the boat ? out. I can easily open a bottle of wine and glug with cheese and biscuits. Bliss, sheer bliss.

I don't hate cooking but I find everyday cooking boring. I think it was all those years of cooking every day for the family. So my DP does most of it now, he's not a brilliant cook but it's edible.

I love cooking for parties and visitors though.

I think ‘recipes’ put me off. All that faff. Can’t be bothered so it’s quality food, cooked simply for me.

“Life’s too short to stuff a mushroom!”

I haven’t baked or made pastry for 30y since our daughters were little.

I enjoy eating out - it makes a nice change because I always choose something I don’t do at home.

I enjoyed cooking when I was younger and am quite good but I think I got bored after so many years. I also find now that cooking larger amounts when the family visit is more difficult due to arthritis in my hands and a bad back. My usual dinner when it's just me is a piece of fish or chicken with new potatoes and green veg.

I am another who has become thoroughly bored with cooking. I started cooking 62 years ago and it was pretty well non-stop for 59 years, I was a fabulous cook and baker, people thought I enjoyed it but I didn`t, it was just something I had to do. On my own I eat well but it is such basic plain food now, the protein, the veg, fruit, soup, a bought pudding now and then. Scones and victoria sandwich and honestly that is pretty well it. No cooking mojo at all

It did occur to me recently, though, that at least meal planning etc gives a structure to my day and stops me just giving up and sitting down in my recliner with a blank mind.
It's as if I never stopped going to work, whereas husband is bored in his retirement.

Reading these posts made me realise that it is the never ending grind of thinking what to make that is the problem. My husband's tastes have changed and he no longer likes roasts or chops or what you would call plain English food. He now wants rice, and spicy food. I like plain food so end up having to cook two meals or I have a sandwich.

Tonight I have made spag bol for him but I will have some prawns and smoked salmon. If I ever live alone I will have Cook or M&S ready meals interspersed with roasts and salads. I will never cook again, apart from a roast.

I don’t like cooking or cookery programs on the radio or TV and there seems to be so many of them.