How to Cook with ADHD
A living document
Some books should be books. Some books should start off as blog posts. I am making this blog post to reignite my desires for writing books, for my books that definitely should be books.
This is one of those, “maybe this should be a book, or long pamphlet, but maybe it should be a blog post, first” posts. I will continue to add to it, and tinker with it. If it becomes long enough, I might release it as a book. But this is meant to be effortless, helpful, and fun, much like cooking with ADHD is supposed to be. And so here we go, let’s start this ride!
MAINTAINING YOUR KITCHEN
Principles of Inventory
A pantry is more than a pile of supplies. The point of keeping inventory isn’t just to have things, it’s to have them when you need them. The second purpose is to actually use what you’ve saved.
Think of inventory as something alive: it should flow in and out. A healthy pantry is one you touch often — drawers that open, items that rotate, space between objects that breathes. When inventory only increases, it stops being useful. You forget what you have and buy things you already own. All the cupboards become completely packed, and you stop opening them at all. Does this sound familiar?
That said, it’s comforting to know you have what you need when life gets busy, when you’re tired of thinking, or when it is raining out.
How do you balance having what you ned, without having too much?
The point of inventory is to convert it into throughput. You want to use what you have and turn it into meals eaten. “Running out” should not feel scary. It is data for your rate of use, and you can get more of that specific thing ahead of time.
You can make predictions about this, and then take joy in checking those predictions. Chances are, you will run out of pasta before you run out of salt, because you can store a lot of salt very easily, and use very little of it at a time, whereas when you make pasta, you use up either half a package or an entire package at a time, and then because it takes a lot of space to store, you wouldn’t be storing too many packages of it.
This can help you. If you are at the store, pass the pasta aisle, and are not sure if you have pasta, you can go ahead and just grab a pack or two. Chances are, it will be gone quickly anyway.
This process of reducing decisions is very valuable with somebody with ADHD, for whom decisions can feel like they are multiplying, and take a lot of energy.
Types of Inventory
There are types of inventory you can keep track of in broad categories
Things that are frozen
Things that are dry and non-perishable
Things in jars
Things in the fridge that are alive
Things outside the fridge that are alive (like herbs in pots)
One life hack that I love is that scallions, or green onions, wilt extremely fast in the fridge. They last less than a week. But outside of the fridge, if you stick them in a cup with water, they just grow like a plant. Even if you accidentally kill it, remember you were going to eat it anyway.