Diabetes and Eating Healthy When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking

I try my best to eat healthy, tasty meals as often as I can (about 80% of the time) because I like eating healthy and the whole "I have diabetes," thing. I love to cook — which makes things easier...for the most part. Unfortunately, I hate cleaning up, which has the ability to make things more challenging, though I prefer the term “interesting.”

Even though I like to cook, COVID-19 had me cooking and cleaning up after almost every meal. Honestly, there were times when the last thing I felt like doing was cooking a good dinner and cleaning up the mess afterward. For the record, I only ordered takeout a handful of times during lockdown. There were times when the very thought of preparing and cleaning up after a meal made me want to skip a meal. I didn’t because I know skipping meals isn’t wise. Instead, I found some workarounds.

Simple healthy eating ideas without a ton of cooking

Here are some go-to quick fixes that allow me to spend less time in the kitchen while keeping my belly and my diabetes happy.

Embracing multi-meal, meals

Making soups and stews provide us with multiple healthy meals for days. Bonus points: Storing soups/stews in individual size serving containers in the fridge so they can be heated up in the microwave as-is and eaten immediately. Double bonus points: Double batch soup and chili recipes and freeze half immediately for future use.

Utilize yogurt

Yogurt for lunch (and sometimes dinner) - topped with berries and sprinkled with cinnamon is a tasty lower-carb meal that requires very little cleanup! Plain Greek yogurt mixed with salsa and served with fresh veggies is one of my favorite lunches! Bonus points because the nutritional info for the yogurt is right on the container and the nutritional information for berries can be found with a simple internet search.

Rotisserie chicken is your friend

Purchasing a rotisserie chicken is worth the money! That chicken can be used in all sorts of ways and for multiple quick meals and snacks.

What are some of your favorite quick, tasty meals that work with your blood sugars and require very little prep, and are easy to clean up afterward?