1. Plan Ahead When You're Feeling OK
  • Make a List of Meal Ideas: When depressed, sometimes just thinking about things to make is overwhelming. When you’re not feeling too crappy, make a list of simple things you can easily make when/if a depressive episode hits again. Some examples are: peanut butter and banana on toast with a yogurt, meal-replacement smoothies, or pita pizzaCheck out the “Depression-Friendly” Recipes section for ideas.
  • Plan For The Future: When you’re feeling up for cooking, make some extra to portion into meals for the future. Future You will thank you.
2. Stock Up on Frozen Vegetables, Microwaveable Rice, and a Protein
  • Benefits: Frozen foods and instant rice keep forever, are cheap, and take no time to prepare. Pair them with a protein (think: rotisserie chicken, scrambled eggs, tofu, etc.) and you have a complete meal. Click here to learn how to roast frozen vegetables (spoiler: it’s super easy), and here for different sauces to put on your rice+veggie+protein combo so each meal is unique.
3. Delivery is Your Friend

If you’re able to swing it financially, get food delivered to you!

  • Allow yourself to order take-out: Spending a bit more on take-out right now might be a wiser decision compared to not eating at all.
  • Get your groceries delivered: Check out Instacart and Peapod. Whisk is also a great app that allows you to import ingredients from a recipe into a grocery list, and connect that list to a grocery delivery service. Easy peasy.
4. Temporarily Forget About Saving the Environment
  • Make use of plastic utensils, paper plates, and disposable aluminum pans: We know, this one is hard to swallow. But just for now, give yourself permission to use these things- reducing the number of dishes you’ll have to wash can make cooking so much less of a pain.
5. Invest in a Slow Cooker and/or Instant Pot
  • Seriously. Throw ingredients in and let the device do the work for you. Get an Instant Pot here and a slow cooker here
6. Get By With a Little Help From Your Friends
  • You can’t do everything alone: Ask for help – maybe a friend or family member can pick up some groceries for you or help you prepare meals.
7. Break Big Meals Up into Smaller Ones
  • 3 meals too much right now? Break them into 6 mini-meals per day to make it easier.

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