Cooking is Terrible

by Misha Fletcher

Cooking is terrible, and food is often a massive pain in the ass. Eating is sometimes ok, sometimes a giant drag, and somehow still a thing that you have to do multiple times a day, which seems enormously unfair. This book isn’t going to teach you how to cook, or turn you into the kind of person who hosts effortless dinner parties, or make you more attractive and popular and interesting. At best, it’s going to make it slightly more likely that you manage to eat something in the ten minutes between walking in the door and falling into the sweet embrace of the internet. I’m not joking—a lot of this can be done, start to finish, in ten to fifteen minutes. I resent thirty-minute meals because it feels like about twenty-eight minutes too long to spend on feeding myself. If you’re excited to get home from work and spend an hour cooking dinner, this isn’t the book for you. If you really value authenticity, this isn’t the book for you. If you literally only eat three foods and you’re happy like that, this isn’t the book for you. If you, like me, are tired and depressed and just need to get some food into your face once in a while, this is definitely the book for you. You should buy it. Maybe it’ll help.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Cookbooks, Cooking

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 26, 2017

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a cookbook for the spoon-deficient/culinarily challenged that is actually practical and helpful. Doesn't try to get you to enjoy cooking. Completely disarmed my defiant, stubborn ass.

[Maharetr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upfront, this is not a book for those times when you like cooking and food is an ~adventure.

This book is definitely about preparing you for those times when you’re too tired/overheated/miserable to want think about food prep, but you know you still have to eat.

This book is here for you if you’ve never learned to cook, if your time or money budget is desperately tight, if food prep is too many overwhelming steps (often me), or if life in general is Awful right now.

This book is entirely about minimising the food prep so you can get to the eating part of the proceedings, and therefore not starve. Also, it’s funny while it’s at it. From the section on soups: “If you have the time and energy to make stock, good on you, please have a great time with your probably very functional and fulfilling life. I will be over here making soup from stock cubes and it will be *just fine *” I am also with the author, over here making stock from cubes. I feel like this book has my back.

This book covers:
- Grocery shopping tips (hell yeah, buy tinned beans, microwave rice, and frozen or pre-cut vegetables)
- Kitchenware basics (because having a chopping board beats cutting things up on a plate. Also, paper plates are Fine), and
- Notes on food amounts, seasonings, and cooking times. (This book lists both C and F temps)

The recipes!
Food that requires no cooking, at all:
- Smoothies
- Assembling plates of things
- Cold sandwiches and wraps
- Salads, most of which are not about lettuce -- this section includes immensely helpful notes about how long each recipe will last in the fridge, and whether the aging process is cosmetic (browned apples), fixable (stir the dressing to recombine) or for the bin (sometimes grey avocado).
- Dips that are meals

Food that requires some cooking (but not much, esp if you’re starting with pre-cut veggies):
This includes meals of pasta, rice, oats, things on toast, and soups.

Food that requires some cooking, also waiting.
This includes: chicken thighs and roast veges, various pulled meats, baked potatoes, beans, and a little on baking scones/breads. Also a short section of sweets for those times when you can’t go out and buy premade sweet sugary goodness for whatever reason. This book does not judge.

Seriously, this book does not judge, and is well worth it.

[K.M. Szpara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooking is terrible but this book is great.

Cooking is time I could spend doing other things and this book knows it. The author’s voice is honest, humorous, and non-judgmental, and thought I haven’t tried the recipes yet, I did read the entire book and highlight my faves. For once, I’m actually looking forward to dinner.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe this doesnt count but i did read all of it so i am counting it

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great and it really understood my attitude about cooking and feeding myself. I liked how the author was so nonjudgmental about doing whatever you need to (like buying precut veggies or microwave rice) in order to make things easier for yourself, and there were plenty of recipes in here that I could see myself making in the future. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's just getting started with having to make meals for themselves or anyone looking to just have an easier time feeding themselves.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives great suggestions for assembling meals. Things that are low energy and easy to do. Must implement some of these suggestions. Not really a cook book. They hardly tell you how much of something, but give you ideas of what types of things go together.

[ainsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for when cooking is Too Much or you just don't care but have to eat anyway (because bodies). The acceptance that OF COURSE this can all be too much and that not all foods are for all people is necessary and makes everything more approachable.

[subzero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reference book. The author knows the pains of being too depressed to be able to cook and the recepies and approaches in the book are simple, easy, and nutritious. The only problem though is that it's very american/western in its assumptions about what food is readiliy available. eg. tinned food. But that aside, this is a solid reference book that helped me and i think i will keep coming back to this book.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more a list of ideas than what I normally picture with a cookbook, but I think I’m going to find it useful to refer to. I also really liked the author's sense of humor.

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favorite book.

I was searching for depression cookbooks on Twitter because Twitter knows that a depression cookbook doesn't mean one full of complicated recipes from the Great Depression, and because I know I've seen several advertised on Twitter. This was the first I found, and I couldn't be happier with it. From the absolute snark in this book, to the fact that Misha sprinkles in a "Good job!" and "You're doing great." every so often, to the actual recipes themselves... I have several pages of notes and will probably be making several more. Misha might have changed my life with this book. Food is frickin hard, but this book makes me believe in my ability to make it.

If you know someone with executive dysfunction, buy them this book. Or someone too busy to cook. Or someone going to college that thinks they have to live on Ramen. Or just, if you know someone. It's funny, uplifting, and useful as heck. Buy it.

[Anna Katherina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. I'm not sure I'd actually call it a "Cook Book" per say. Or, at least, it's far from being a traditional one. It's also not necessarily helpful for me, personally, because even though I'm disabled and neurodivergent, I don't struggle overmuch (like some do) to feed myself. Mostly because I've personally put a lot of effort into making cooking at a much higher tier than this as accessible to myself as possible due to my love of food and cooking.

That being entirely said: I could see how this formatting and methodology could be incredibly helpful for those who have no idea where to start cooking in the first place (because they were never taught); those who struggle to feed themselves (because of neurodivergency, disability, time, or all those and more combined); or those who simply just don't want to put forth a lot of effort (because they legitimately hate cooking- though I can't possibly relate, ha).

The formatting flows rather simply from least effort, least instructions -> to most effort, most instructions. The recipes are fairly simple to follow- though zero measurements are given in most areas (which may make it a tad more difficult for those just learning, or the neurodiverse who need clear and direct instruction). This is a part of the point, however, to streamline and simplify the process, and leave it as open to personalization and personal taste as possible; think of it more as a "learnt to cook" crash course with infinite possibility and an extra bonus of being useful for other individuals as a result.

[Danni Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am glad to have supported this author by buying their book. I did not find it as helpful as I imagined. I think I may be adjacent to, but not actually a member of, the target audience for this book, because I actually DO like cooking, I just often CAN'T because of disabilities. I loved the encouraging, all-inclusive approach. I wasn't thrilled by some of the assumptions made -- for instance, that a rice cooker would be too expensive for someone needing the book to own (which seemed like a culturally biased assumption, but also...you can get a perfectly good rice cooker for less than the cost of a toaster oven, which the author assumes you own, and it's a hell of a lot easier to clean a rice cooker). I was also surprised by some of the judgement language about certain foods or eating habits ("gross", "weird") which clearly reflected the author's personal preferences but could create barriers for someone with a tenuous or disordered relationship to food; certainly these preferences are valid but it just seemed to be the opposite of what the author intended. Nonetheless, I wouldn't hesitate to point someone to this resource if they needed it, and now that I did buy it, I could imagine referring back to it sometime if I need some ideas for how to make oatmeal or salad more interesting.

[anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooking is Terrible is not a cookbook so much as it is a field guide to turning the various elements in the kitchen into something your mother would agree counts as food. (Or at least my mother. YMMV, your mother may vary.)

Sometimes we do not have the time, energy, or desire to feed ourselves. That might be because we're fighting a head cold and can't taste anything anyway. It might be that we don't have time to put together even 30 minutes of cooking, and something we can cook AND eat AND clean up after needs to take, say, 20. We might have other mental or physical disabilities that are preventing us from standing at a stove. We might just not have the spoons to deal with it.

Cooking is Terrible is like, ok, that's not a problem. Here are some sandwich ideas. Here are some salad ideas, most of which are heartier than "dress up a lettuce". Got a stick blender? Here are some soup ideas and here are some smoothie ideas.

It is definitely geared toward Americans who are easily able to buy things like precooked chicken or other meats, and bonus points if you can buy precut veggies, frozen fruit, etc. Since I am one of those, I'm all-in.

I'm looking forward to using some of these ideas / recipes to take the pressure off of figuring out food.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually I pick up a pretty looking cookbook. And I look through the pretty cookbook. And I find maybe one, two recipes that I feel I can actually get my shit together enough to accomplish. Oh I'll maintain rosy IDEAS about a bunch of them, but let's be real.

Cooking is Terrible is the cookbook FOR being real. It's the first cookbook I picked up that I could see pulling off the food contained within the pages. It's useful and practical and frankly, amusing. Author knows cooking is, indeed, terrible. This is not for fancy impress-your-in-laws dinners. This is for "I'm anxious and exhausted and god I need to shove something in my face that's not oreos" dinners. Dinners when you need to feel like you're humaning at the bare minimum.

Maybe that's not where you are, or maybe that's not where you are all the time, but gosh, it's so nice to have a book like this one here when you need it.

[ghost-hermione · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book through a giveaway created by the author, and I've read through it as soon as I received it!
As someone who has very few spoons and even fewer when it comes to cooking, and who revolves around the same three meals of croque-monsieur/burritos/premade pizza most of the time because it's easy to make and you can just watch it cook from afar (for a long time it was just burritos and croques because I didn't even have an oven), this book is a treasure trove of ideas.
It's not really recipes to follow, more like tips to make your pasta less boring because let's be real, you're gonna make pasta again aren't you.
It's made me feel better about the fact that I don't necessarily have energy to cook, and instead of shaming myself into cooking something I'm gonna expend too much energy for, gives me tricks to make it look more like a real meal.
It also includes tips to cook some food staples like rice or bread, so that's really nice too! (I still have to try the bread!)

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooking is terrible! It's difficult, it's confusing, I am 26 and I feel like I missed learning all the basic rules of cooking and am now thrown into a world where I'm supposed to know the difference between "broiling" and "sauteing" (or at least be able to look it up without wanting to weep).

This is not a book that will teach you the difference between broiling and sauteing, but it DOES have a huge list of low-effort foods written in convenient lists, and it tells you the important things, like how long something will stay good frozen, how to store it, does it taste good straight out of the fridge. All written in a nonjudgmental style that says "sometimes I too just use onion powder instead of chopping a whole ass onion."

Anyway this is a helpful and inspiring book designed to make you go "hmm perhaps I too can cook a mediocre soup that would at least be slightly different than having ramen again."
Also has a bunch of interesting sandwich ideas i had not previously considered.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming and Informative

For a disabled fridge goblin like myself this book is a treasure. I know that I can typically combine things and end up with an edible thing, but knowing which combinations are tasty together is invaluable so I don’t end up just making myself sicker. I’m planning on using some precious meat and avocado money to buy this book for some friends so we can all continue this unfair grind of forcing nutrients into our bodies multiple times a day.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Less of a Cookbook than a Guidebook - very funny and useful

Don't worry so much about amounts of times... As she reminds us over and over again, it's fine. This is the bare basics of throwing together something without expending too much energy - tips for prep and LOADS of ideas, and very funny. Not for everybody - but if you have ever skipped a meal because you were just too exhausted, this may be the book for you.

[david kurimsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a funny book. In both the "makes you laugh" sense and in the "curious, unusual sense". It's aimed at people who struggle with cooking (either with technique or motivation). The recipes are super simple and broad. Not really like anything else i've read. I found it useful to read as somebody who over-thinks (and probably over-spends) on meal preparation.

[Nospin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real people cookbook


Love this book for its humor. It will be a huge help for people in chronic pain with low energy.

Not a cookbook full of pictures for the gourmet chef.
A book to get the rest of us to get nutritious substances into our bodies.

Dip can be dinner, if done right!

[Eleanor Schechter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reassuring

The author is chatty and casual while explaining how to make very basic things into food. Unapologetically.

Excellent for days when you have no energy left to cope with meal planning.

I've recommended this book to many people, but this time I'm buying it for my an older adult relative who is learning from scratch how to be self sufficient.

[Davy Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came recommended to me as being "the recipe book for the disabled," but it did not really end up being that at all. It was just a few simple combinations of basic foods that the author personally enjoys, and that's it. My search continues for a functional cookbook designed for those who are incapable.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

depression cooking

this could also be called depression cooking, because damn this is amazing. i feel like i can make things that aren’t awful for me but not put in too much effort on days i have like a negative amount of spoons

[Maysun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

I saw the author on Tumblr, and had a bit of extra income to throw towards this. I'm so glad I did. I haven't used everything in here but it's pull it from great ideas for those low-spoon days... Or weeks, and maybe you've eaten the same meal 10 times and need a new idea.

[abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

not so much a cookbook in the way of exact measurements, but so incredibly helpful for types of things to pair together. really helpful for bad brain days and days when food is especially hard to figure out.

[Sarah Swong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, clever hacks for making meals out of very little. Recommended for people who really dislike cooking but need to cook in order to eat cheaply and relatively healthily.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relevnt

Great cookbook for quick and inexpensive meals. Plus, I like her style. I'm sure this will get heavy use in my kitchen.

[Coral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good for folks with physical disabilities or depression, who just need to feed ourselves but don't necessarily have the energy to make it A Thing.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

God bless u misha fletcher

[Chrees · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent! It helps me feed myself. And not only am I eating, I’m eating well. This book is also a good read.