So...You Have Type 2 Diabetes and You Hate to Cook?

Eating out may not be the best answer to eating Diabetes-Compatible meals. You know that. You did not just fall off the turnip truck (why do turnip truck drivers get such bad press?)  But you don’t, can’t, hate, won’t cook?

I don't like cooking

I get that too. Some people would rather go to have a tooth extracted without the benefit of Novocaine than cook a meal. Cooking for me is a great creative endeavor and even greater stress reliever. Think of it as a way of getting back at your boss and the world. Each chop is like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland…off with their head!

Solution: Well one solution is to eat more salads.

Did I really say that? There are dozens of varieties of pre-packaged salads greens on the market. Most of them are pre-washed (although I personally recommend you wash them again). Then find a low carb salad dressing of which there are also dozens available on the market. Open a can of tuna and drain it and add it to the salad, or get some rotisserie chicken and use some of that on the salad. Go crazy and get some steak and slice it very thin and stir it with a few onions in a skillet over high heat (Notice, I DID NOT say cook) and toss it on top of your greens. The possibilities are limitless. Think cooked shrimp, crab, cheese, deli meats.

I have no time to cook

Ok, I get it. You work full time; have a family and a hamster you HAVE to take to spin class. You consider yourself and your family extremely lucky if you have time to take a slab-o-meat or chicken, slap it into a pan with salt (not too much) and pepper, plop it on a real plate with a hunk of lettuce and call it supper. Solution: Try and find an hour or two over a weekend and make a few dishes for the freezer. Soups, stews, pot roasts work really well for this pre-cooking and freezing process.

I'm not good at cooking and planning

You say that even when you boil water it tastes funny?  Beans I say! Don’t be silly.  You can cook and plan along with the best of them. Solution: Find a simple recipe that you like and make it over and over again until it works for you. It doesn’t have to be difficult. You perfect the one recipe and use it on chicken, meat, fish, or pork. It takes on the special properties of each of the proteins and tastes totally different on each protein. It also is so simple to make it goes back to reason one where there is no time to cook. The marinade takes almost no time to make, and stores very well in your fridge.

My kids won't eat it

Yeah, well, Julia Child did a recipe for zucchini casserole many years ago. Her claim is that it is so good that everyone will love it. She also suggested that if people said they hated zucchini…Just don’t tell them what it is. I also have another Solution: make what works for you and keep a can of tuna and a box of the kids’ favorite cereal at hand. If they absolutely, positively will not eat what you prepared, hand them the tuna, a can opener and the box of cereal. I do this with all the picky kids I know. Rather than having tuna and cereal, they try what I prepared and usually they find out that they actually loved every bit of it.

I'm not sure if I'll like it

What if I don’t like it? I have never eaten that before. “I bet that tastes yucky.”

Ok, this time I don’t get it! I will go along with your not being willing to eat chocolate covered rutabaga puree (much as you might like chocolate). That may be going too far even for me. Adding variety to your eating helps to keep you from being bored. There is a wonderful world out there of tastes and choices that are just plain delicious.  Try something new and different. You might surprise yourself by liking it and then having a little more variety on your table. There is nothing to say that if you try it, and don’t really like it, that you will EVER have to force yourself to eat it again. I asked Sylvia, my 97 year old auntie, if she liked avocado. Her immediate reaction was “NO.” That was followed by “I never ate one”. When I suggested she try it, she said “I am 97 years old, it is too late for me to try new things”.

My solution: try something new it before you are 96!

BIG SOLUTION: Unless you live alone (with that hamster) in a one room apartment with a one burner hot plate, cook something new. PLEASE remember to take your sneakers out of the oven first.