Spaghetti, rice, potatoes, all are pretty much “boil water and set a timer.” I also enjoy the preseasoned chicken and pork from the grocery store. Turns out better than when I season it myself and the only step is to heat it up.

Figure out what specifically you don’t like. Is there a texture thing when handling certain foods? Are you too focused on perfect measurements? Is there a planning issue with getting overwhelmed before you can even start?

From there just focus on ways to mitigate the problems.

I always listen to podcasts while cooking. Without that, cooking feels like I’m wasting time

I love cooking but I don’t have the energy fo rmuch thanks to my health issues. I also do have severe ADHD.

For me, it’s looking for simpler recipes.

Look for shortcuts. Find things that are easy but are tasty. Don’t fall for the bullshit that you have to make everything from scratch.

A slow cooker and a rice pot probably would serve you well. It’s so very easy to get a pot of rice going. For my rice, I use:

• 2⅔ C rice (basmati or long grain)
• 3 C / 32oz tetra pack of stock (whichever makes sense with the meal)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon MSG
• stick of butter

(yes, that’s a whole stick! You should get more than 8 servings of rice out of it, and it’s just tastier. But you do you)

Beef stew like my mom made and I still make:

• Cut up a beef roast or just buy precut stew meat (should be around the same price and worth the saved effort)
• Cut up 2-3 large potatoees (after scrubbing). If you have the energy, peel them first, otherwise scrub REALLY well
• Peel (or scrub well) a pound of carrots (or maybe closer to 2 - I like carrots a lot) and cut into 1 inch chunks or so
• Peel a couple of onions and slice in half, the halves in halves, then each quarter in half - or slice each half in thirds
• Add it all into a slow cooker with a tetra pak of beef stock or broth. May have to add water to cover. Add a couple tablespoons of Better than Bouillon beef and stir it in, then cook for 2-4 hours, checking for doneness and tenderness of the beef

Serve stew over rice

If you get some dry roux, take a couple of pounds of stew meat, dust with a quarter cup of dry roux and a couple tablespoons of better than bouillon and mix in your slow cooker and cook until tender. The juices from the beef should be enough to make a gravy, but if you want to add a little beef stock or water if it needs it, go for it. Serve over rice.

Same trick that works for most ADHD problems: grease a groove. Make a few select meals over and over until they become effortless, then expand your pool over time once you’re ready.

Simple pasta dish is a good place to start. Then an oven roast maybe, or a breakfast meal.

Once you know a few staples and can execute them with your eyes closed, the whole process is much less daunting.

I’m the opposite of most here. Cooking can hold my attention on quick but medium complexity recipes. Add X, wait a few minutes mixing in high fire until it starts to water; add Y, keep mixing for another couple minutes until it starts to change color, etc. No period of just waiting, you’re always engaged. I find it relaxing, my mind focuses on just that one thing.

I do two step foods. Two steps, food is done.

for me, it’s always been about reducing steps. possibilities can be mixed and matched:

• starting from grocery shopping stage, choose more items that are partially or fully cooked. can be main protein/carbs like frozen chicken patties, sliced bread, or it can be side dishes like pickled vegetables.
• also for raw ingredients, choose items that are pre-chopped or pre-sliced. Asian supermarkets have thin sliced meat intended for hotpot but they’re also great sautéed or stir fried and Cook thoroughly in SECONDS. same goes for hotpot veggies.
• many saucy dishes have condensed base version in jars. Japanese curry(non-spicy available) is sold in dry blocks that only require water and heat to become a rich comforting stew-like sauce. i also recommend Japanese blocks of “hayashi” sauce (beef & mushroom flavored thick sauce) and “cream stew”(can be used as a white gravy). these can even be used as pasta sauce. Italian style pasta sauce is also great. don’t have to use with pasta. Cook it with protein and/or veggies then just add any carb when serving.
• traditional processed foods are great! not ultra processed foods, think sausage, meatballs, tofu, cheese, dumplings (gyoza, pot stickers, dim sum), pickled veggies, etc. these examples usually only need minimal cooking/reheating if any. if there is a Korean market within range, they often sell giant jars of kimchi (even non-spicy) which may be enough to serve as main veggies for several meals (pickled, so just open jar and serve).
• use appliances to take over steps. i.e. electric slicer, stand/hand mixer, slow cooker, air fryer, instant pot, or “as seen on tv” style or aliexpress/daiso style kitchen gadgets like choppers, salad spinners, etc. don’t feel bound by using tools for only their original purpose! for example, instant pot is great at baking things while keeping them moist. that plus a quick broiler session in the oven makes for juicy roast meats!

these are just some tips based on how i cook and eat. i know not all the foods or techniques are applicable to everyone but hopefully this can help you abstractify and extrapolate to the foods that fit you and your environment.

some may not accept plating/serving these as true “cooking” but ultimately what’s the importance of “cooking” other than making sure your loved ones have food?

I have pretty severe ADD, no H though. I LOVE cooking, provided I am not cooking for just myself. The key I have found it prep. Make sure you have everything chopped and measured before you throw anything into the pan. Also PREHEAT your damn pans and ovens! If you are data driven the way I am, set a timer and figure out how long it takes to preheat the oven. Your pan shouldn’t take more than 30-45 seconds to preheat. Once everything is chopped and assembled, I turn on the heat, and start to dance.

The dance is a chaotic mix of tossing stuff into the pan, stirring or tossing stuff in the pan, and washing the dishes I have used. Past that, it is literally just practice. The more time you spend in a kitchen the more innate your sense of time will become. I barely need to set timers anymore. I still do, just in case I get absorbed in something else, but frequently I look up at my time with about 00:03 on the clock.

Do a weeks worth of meal planning and prep once a week. Do it while relaxed and listening to a good podcast or having your favourite movie running. Make it enjoyable (or at least as stress free as possible). For the rest of the week it’s just plop and cook, plop and cook with very little thought required. Good luck!

Meal prep as much as possible. If you hate cooking but realize it’s got to be done, might as well cook double at a time so you can relax the next night.

It would help to know what types of cooking/foods you prefer if you want more specific shortcuts

I find something I crave enough to get motivated to follow a recipe, and make enough to eat for two days. Other times I do the simple things like pasta or miso soup from premade ingredients, or microwave potatoes. The simpler it is to make the better, preferably with a timerso I can just leave it until it’s done

I made it more fun by using a nice sharp kitchen knife. Not that I cook more now, but I can! If my wife asks me in advance to cook

As someone who likes cooking but not every day; I would ask you what is it that you don’t like about cooking? The smell, the texture, the time it takes, the level of attention it requires?

Anxiety is usually the culprit with me. Some meals, I just don’t like and I loathe to make them. Others are not really that good and are a bit challenging to make. I usually avoid those as if they don’t exist.

Maybe try to make something simple and easy but the goal is not really cooking, but instead allowing your wife to not have to cook. Grilled cheese sandwiches, canned soup, or even warmed up leftovers. The key here is doing something for your wife/family at meal time. Focus on helping them out and not so much with the quality of the meal.

I found my own interest in cooking when I wanted to recreate a dish I had at a restaurant. The dish was beef stroganoff. It was really good and I wanted to be able to have it any time I wanted. Now it was a puzzle. I found several recipes, noted where they were similar, where they were different, and made a new recipe that used the items that were always included and left out the items that were not. I made it. It was really good. I was really proud of it. Everyone else liked it too. A week or two later, I made it again. Each time I made it, it got slightly better and a little easier, and came together faster.

I now have about ten meals that I make all the time. I make them so often that I no longer need the recipe. Some of them have evolved a bit and can now be made with two or more variations. If I include the variations, it’s probably closer to thirty different meals, but they all have the same basic structures.

Some of my favorites are really simple.
Baked California vegetables ([frozen] broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) with melted cheese is one of them.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Add enough of the vegetables to mostly cover the pan without overlapping. Pour 2-4 tablespoons of light vegetable oil over the vegetables and mix them with your hands until most of them have at least some oil on them. Spread the vegetables out on the tray. Sprinkle (to taste) with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and smoked paprika. Cover the vegetables with a layer of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Place the tray in the oven on the middle rack for about 45 minutes or until the cheese is melted and has started to brown.
Start to finish, the prep time for this recipe is about the same as it takes to preheat the oven.

Instapot and a few recipes that essentially are, “Put everything in the pot, close lid, turn on, wait”.