Spending 30~90 minutes every day cooking, dirtying pots and pans, and then wasting even more time cleaning it all up… for what, exactly? Everything you need can be eaten raw or ready-to-eat: salads, fruit, vegetables, nuts, cheese, yogurt and the list goes on. The most I could justify doing every day is a quick microwave heat-up.
Cooking “for fun” or eating out occasionally? Fine. The idea that daily cooking is a must honestly just looks like a pointless social imposition and, to be fair, I don’t even see cooking as an essential life skill. You can live just fine without it. Sure, it’s a nice skill to have, but in the end it’s unnecessary.
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The cost-efficiency balance goes up depending on how many people in the household are eating
Edit: guys I know about meal prep thanks
You don’t have to prepare anything elaborate and you can also do things in batches and freeze them.
I find cooking quite therapeutic. Washing dishes though, absolutely a chore.
Why do you have to cook every day? That one 90 minute cooking could make a meal that has leftovers the rest of the week. Its what meal prep does.
I saw an instagram video recently bashing industrial gnocchi. The video says something like “instead try this quick recipe of homemade gnocchi”.
And then start by asking you to make your own gnocchi paste and let it rest 2h while you also prepare the sauce from raw tomatoes.
Yeah fuck you.
Have you heard of eating the same food multiple times in one week? Or of freezers? Or just making a simple meal? Christ.
Huh you can eat any vegetables raw, naah, you can’t thats why you cook, only there are few you can eat raw and i bet you will be bored to eat tasteless raw vegetables again and again and again.
I don’t know how to say but theres a very good reason we have come this far as human existence so do you think going back is cool?
Let me guess, you live alone? Because cooking for one is the same amount of work as cooking for four people. And you can just put the dishes in the dishwasher afterwards, you don’t have to clean the dishes yourself. Also, who wants to eat salads every meal? Takes 10 minutes to cook some rice and a steak.
You’re either cooking inefficiently or you’re being disingenuous.
The majority of daily cooking shouldn’t even hit 30 minutes of active engaged cooking. Also you can do meal prep or you could be cooking for a household.
Also what do you mean by cooking? Roasting a Christmas turkey is very different to toasting bread.
I agree that this is an unpopular opinion. People who enjoy tasting food would usually rather a proper meal than just its raw ingredients. Most people don’t eat solely for fuel
Do you also think that dishes and silverware are a waste of time, as you can just eat everything with your hands over the trash can or sink?
What is food prep OP?
Meal prep. Cook in huge batch and freeze.
that largely depends on what you would like to eat. you don’t have to cook as long as uncooked foods are preferred. if you prefer cooked foods, you may have to…. cook
Probably only takes about 20 min to cook and you can have a hot meal. Eating a cold meal every day isn’t my cup of tea.
Also raw meat isn’t going to be fun in most instances
Everything you listed is freaking vegetarian stuff. You do need protein in your diet and most protein needs to be prepared. You could do raw eggs I guess, but I personally think meals are intended to be enjoyed not endured.
I 100% agree. That is why I meal prep on sundays. Lunch and dinner for my wife and I until Friday. Then sat and sun I cook something special. Some steaks or fish. Even then a nice healthy meal only take about 20 minute to make. Fish, fresh veggies or even frozen veggies.
I suspect you aren’t much of a foodie OP?
My partner would probably agree with you but I look forward to my dinner all day and like sitting down to something really nice and i try to avoid UPFs as much as possible so I choose to cook every day.
I suspect this will be a pretty unpopular opinion
Cookings usefulness depends on how it’s used.
Meal prepping: meal prep is the act of making lots of food and saving it for later. This can be done ranging from about a few days of food to a month’s worth of food depending on quantity and intent. This is more time efficient then cooking a single serving typically is, and allows you to save time for every day. Given it’s customizable nature, it can be cheaper, better quality then store brought stuff, or just taste better. Personally, I make like a month’s of breakfast burritos and about a weeks worth of sandwiches or congee.
Most food tastes better cooked: simple as that: food usually tastes better cooked then raw. Even fruits and nuts can be cooked for an improvement or alteration to the usual flavor.
Some products need to be cooked: what you’ve listed are food produced that don’t need cooked to be edable. This isn’t all food. Grains and meats for example should/need to be cooked to some degree to be palatable ot even edible.
Larger groups: when feeding multiple people, it can be cheaper to make 1 larger dish then to buy them microwave meals or whatever, as well as typically healthier.
Lotta time isn’t always Lotta effort: 1 pot meals, baking not bread objects, and stewing/boiling is considered low effort, and it’s a blessing. At best, you stir a pot or check something. The effort here is all in assembly, after that it’s just waiting for the thing to be done.
I’ve always hated cooking so I just do quick simple meals. Like the other day for example, I dumped a can of Campbell’s chili into a bowl, nuked it for 3 minutes and dinner was served.
I don’t want to just eat ingredients half the week for my meals though lmao. I live alone so there’s no “social imposition” or whatever. I just want to eat delicious meals and not settle for snacks most of the time lol.
I’m not upvoting this either cuz I know a shitload of people who do not cook for themselves and just eat what you described.
Cooking every day can be a hassle and it’s something that most people would agree on, so I don’t really see this as unpopular. Even people who enjoy cooking (like myself) know that it can be time consuming and that it can sometimes be quite difficult, especially when learning new techniques. I believe it’s worth the time and effort though.
But I will say that I can’t agree with it being a “waste of time”. I think it’s a skill that everyone should have if they are able to. Learning how to prepare your own meals is rewarding and with enough skill, it can actually be super fast and easy. Learning something new, like cooking, is time consuming for sure, but once you are comfortable in the kitchen it can be relatively simple.
This is truly unpopular, because food is one of the great joys of life. I’m vegetarian and cook for teen daughter and me. We look forward to our lunch at home daily. On an average week we will enjoy the variety of cooking 1-2 each of Indian, Italian, Mexican/ American and Oriental, plus frozen / delivery 2 days .
Then cook for 3 days of the entire week
Upvoted. I love cooking. Doesn’t take me 90 mins granted, but I like spending 30-60 mins an evening making good food.
Absolutely, totally disagree. But it is indeed.. an unpopular opinion.
I enjoy cooking and eating good food, regularly – so like cooking each night. Plus I am naturally a bit tight and don’t like spending on eating out, when the food isn’t always good.
Some people enjoy eating nice food and being able to make it.
That said I personally don’t believe in cooking on work days. I’ll settle for protein bar in the morning, sandwich for lunch, and then a meal prepped thing for dinner.
If it’s a weekend morning or afternoon I’ll cook something good. Or holidays.
Not everyone’s still in college eating for one.
People cook because they have the time in the first place, if you are hungry and dont have the time, you naturally would order it. that’s it.
Your problem is misunderstanding cooking, people cook if they have free time, not adding cooking time to the schedule
Completely disagree with you. While I will say cooking an elaborate meal every single day is unnecessary, being able to cook will save you time, money, and your health in the long run.
It’s important to note that I believe that cooking becomes a skill when you can do so without a recipe. Being able to cook with a recipe is just a thing that you can do, cooking without one is a skill. I’m talking about cooking without recipe.
Usually on Sunday evenings I prep a large amount of food to eat for lunches throughout my work week and I’ll prep a different dish to eat for dinner the next night. That way Mondays when I get home from work I don’t have to think about it. I already have dinner and I’ve already eaten a healthy lunch that day. I usually make sure I make enough of that lunch prep so that I have Tuesday and Wednesday covered as well. Sometimes it lasts me till Thursday.
Last night I made this delicious Korean style veggie situation with all the leftover veggies in the fridge that needed to be used up. If I didn’t use them last night they would have just gone bad. But because I use them, I saved money. I save the stress of trying to find something to eat for lunch and dinner every day.
I also made a creamy shrimp pasta that I ate last night for dinner and will have again tonight for dinner. 😋
Who is saying you have to cook everyday?? Sounds like the majority of people here, including myself, meal prep for a few days at a time.
Eating cold beans from a can is Great Depression levels of sad, man. Treat yourself better than that.
If you’re spending more than 60 min total between prep, cooking, and cleanup then you’re doing too much. Hell, I can make a quick meal for myself and have the mess cleaned up inside 45 minutes. Any longer than that is generally only when I’m expecting company.
Skill issue
You obviously don’t cook for a family. Or are a squirrel.
Of course, cooking every day is a waste of time, but eating healthy without cooking costs too much for ordinary people.
It’s better to spend 30 minutes a day or prepare your own frozen meals for the week than to eat unhealthy street food and deliveries every day or spend a fortune on restaurants and meal-prep services.
But if you’re rich – that’s fine lol
Upvote for actually popular opinion. I’m not even going to debate you.
90 minutes?! Ya know, there’s like a billion recipes for dinners that take only 30 minutes to cook and prep.
It takes 20-25 minutes at most to grill a chicken breast and cook a side dish or two. You dont have to cook some elaborate meal every time you cook
i hate cooking and planning meals. i do it because i have to, but i hate it. i long for human kibble: something nutritionally balanced that i can crunch on at meal time.
Cost and quality matter.
I cook twice a week and eat every day.
Lol not eating raw food like some helpless child isn’t a social imposition
If you dislike cooking and eating so much, there are solutions out there for you. There is a product called Soylent and I’m sure others exist where it’s a meal in a bottle. Just drink it and it has all nutrients and calories you need per day. It’s not perfect but it’ll reduce your time spent eating to a few minutes per day.
Personally I’d rather eat food but fortunately there are solutions to both our opinions.
Since I’m not a squirrel I prefer not living off of nuts and vegetables lmfao. Keeping in mind most vegetables that you can eat raw safely don’t provide enough nutritional value.
Also salads are probably the most annoying meal to make. All of that chopping to not even eat a fulfilling meal after.
Yes Daily cooking is absolutely not a must. I hate. Too much work involved and it’s worse if you live with other people are have to come up with a menu and cook every day.
I cook for our family of 4. Husband and 2 toddlers. We spend about 200 a month on fastfood. He travels for work and even packing lunches between client meetings doesn’t always work as he doesn’t have access to microwave etc.
Otherwise I make everything from scratch. Our grocery bill is about 600 per month. The more you cook. The better you get at it and the easier it gets to use up odds and ends. I also work full-time but the entire family feels so much better than eating out all the time.
I can make an entire chipotle chicken spread for the cost of 1bowl and we eat off of it for a while. There is a benefit to cooking for sure
I actually completely agree with this. At most a larger meal prep once a week to get some cooked/hot foods in but otherwise meeeh a complete waste of time.
I once read a reminder that for much of human history, most people ate out of a simple pot for every meal: a single stew, often that was kept heated on a fire. The idea of 3 varied meals each day, and the pressure of making so many different things, each meal highly specialized, is a product of industrialization and capitalism. It’s totally ok to find a couple of simple options and use them as a base. We all managed to survive for millennia before air fryers and DoorDash.
If I didn’t have a family I would eat girl dinner for every meal. I wouldn’t cook anything if I didn’t have to
Gotta upvote this one lol. I don’t understand.
Air fry a pound of chicken thighs while cooking rice or pasta. Add a veg. Probably 3 or 4 meals in 20 minutes flat
You can make smash burgers on the stove from cold pan to plate in like 10 minutes
Some noodles cook in literally 2.5 minutes once the water is boiling
The internet is filled with “one pot meals” that take less than 30 minutes to make, and are delicious
When you have free time, it’s fun to kick it up a notch and sear a steak with some potatoes and a veg. The 30-45 minutes that meal takes would be worth it. Hell, if you just want to cook a steak? Like 10-12 minutes.
I throw a piece of foil down and throw meat on it, dump seasoning on meat toss in oven. No cleanup
>Ultimately a waste of time
Not according to your body. “You can live just fine without it” means you are not getting enough nutrients, or eating a lot of processed, shitty food. That will catch up with you when you get older. Sure, you’re going to save yourself a little bit of time and effort, but that will lead to a lifetime of blood pressure meds, diabetes, high cholesterol, higher risks of cancer.
Also, what you eat influences how you look, a lot, and not just with weight. If you eat shit, you will look like shit. Bad skin, B.O. etc.
if by some miracle i could just cook without having to clean a single thing i wouldnt mind it as much or at all.
but when you put it all together i honestly would rather spend an extra couple bucks and get food from somewhere
Sounds like something someone who doesn’t know how to cook well would say.
I really do genuinely wish I could cook more. It should be fun and gratifying, but it takes so much time out of my day that I’d rather spend doing other things. I have too many other chores, and I really need time to unwind as well.
In Germany there’s still a long tradition of having Abendbrot (“evening bread”) instead of a cooked dinner. It’s usually a cold meal with bread, cheese, cold cuts, maybe a boiled egg, some pickled items, fruit, a few tomatoes or cucumbers, and often a simple salad on the side.
It’s still pretty popular here, even though more and more people now also cook in the evening. So honestly, I’d say Germans do it pretty much the way you just described. It’s not that uncommon here at all.
This isn’t an unpopular opinion it’s just ignorant af.
It easy to grow up with a shit take like :”cooking is not an essential life skill” when you have doorDash.
this isn’t a hot take, this is a “divorced from reality” take
My 30 minute meals serve my whole family for about $2.50-4 per person…. Eating out on the other hand… it’s truly not even close.
This opinion isn’t really unpopular but it is for sure incorrect.
It takes 15 mins to cook a single meal or cook something in the oven on a sheet and most of the time you can watch tv while doing it…..it’s not that hard dawg
“I don’t even see cooking as an essential life skill” is certainly the level of take I’d expect from this opinion. This sounds more like a skill issue if you ask me.
There’re a lot of things you can make in 30 minute intervals/less throughout the day.
You just sound like someone that can’t cook and/or is lazy
Tell me you can’t cook, without telling me you can’t cook…😂
Have fun relying on ultra-processed foods. You’ve successfully saved yourself some time, but now don’t have the energy to get off the couch.
You don’t know life little one.