Meal Planning and Comfort Condiments - A Self-Assessment

 If you are a food purist BEGONE

I wanna talk about food. And more specifically, I want to talk about food in relation to neurodivergence. I want to talk about why meal planning is hard for me, and maybe also just a bit about how cooking isn't as fun under capitalism. 

But before we begin, I do want to add a trigger warning because I understand that foodstuff can make folks a bit squeamish! So I will be talking about certain foods I like (ex. Eggs) and the controversial sauce I put on these foods (ex. Ketchup). So if this grosses you out and/or pisses you off then hey! Maybe skip this one!

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So to preface, I have a lot of experience with food! I have an associate's degree in culinary, I have done volunteer work at a sportsman's club where I've prepared tons of wild game, I've managed two different restaurants, and I just love to fuck around with new recipes. Nowadays I'm a bartender, which is kind of cool because it still has a lot of culinary aspects to it. It's just all liquid now. And it tends to fuck people up. I'm also vegetarian now, so the kinds of food I tend to prepare have changed quite a bit in the last 5 or so years.

I'm not saying this so much as a, "wow check me out I'm so good at cooking", but moreso just that I really give a shit about food and I generally love to cook and bake and eat. 

GENERALLY

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Let's talk meal prep. I love/hate meal prep. I love the idea of having a burst of energy and just making a ton of food and then you get to spend your energy on other stuff the rest of the week. Very cool very rad great idea. My problem is I wake up and I just. Don't want any of the shit I meal prepped. I want cereal or...coffee and a donut or something. Part of this could be discipline based, but I have heard from other neurodivergent folks that they have the same issue! 

I actually want to plug this person I follow on Instagram who creates a ton of fun/colorful/helpful printouts for neurodivergent folks to help them keep track of things and get stuff done. That's another thing about me. I'm a list guy. 

The user in question is Kristen West and their website is The Centered Life and has all sorts of print-outs from meal prep to weekly partner check-ins to goal maps. A lot of them act as coloring sheets too :)

A ton of folks online make similar things, so if Kristen's aren't to your liking I'm sure you can find something. Or make your own on your dry erase board like I do!!! (Less paper waste too!!!)

The way the meal planner works is that you list 3+ meals in each category and just eat whichever meal you're feeling that day. I try to use this concept when I meal prep so that I have a lot of options available so I'm less likely to go completely off my rocker and eat one handful each of every snack in my house. 

People that can eat rice and chicken and steamed veggies for dinner every night of the week are wild to me. People that can eat the same flavor over and over and be fine with it?! My brain would self-destruct. Especially without my current comfort condiment.

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I LOVE SAUCES. 

You tend to hear about neurodivergent folks that have restrictive/avoidant eating. They often will eat plain and repetitive meals. Some will have textures or smells they avoid. I sometimes wonder if there's something similar with the way I use condiments. A familiarity or consistency  that could be similar perhaps? Idk. I just think of them as Comfort Condiments.

Since I was little I've tended to DROWN my food in sauces. Some of those things don't really make sense when I think back on them. I used to put ketchup on everything. Green beans, carrots, pork chops, eggs, mac n cheese. I just wanted everything to taste a little like ketchup. It fixed things that I didn't like. Ya can't taste your mom's overcooked depression pork chop through the gentle scarlet veil of Heinz Ketchup. 

Ketchup is still one of my favorite condiments, but lately I've been enjoying BBQ sauce and Chipotle Mayos a lot. Does anyone else do this? Does anyone else have "Comfort Condiments"? Is it ranch??? It's always ranch.

In general I just want a lot of sauce. I tend to prefer pizza or pasta with a heavy hand of red sauce. Indian food is top tier because it's all just sauce with stuff in it over rice. Soup is a bit overboard tho. Depending on the soup it can be texturally underwhelming. And that's a whole other post. 

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Something that has been a bit strange to try and articulate is that under capitalism food has just become less fun. It's been less "oh wow I wanna make this big crazy meal let's go to the local farmer's market and buy a bunch of special items to make it!" And more "what's on sale at Kroger this week."

Sometimes these things can overlap, especially with a bit of creativity. But typically...they don't. 

Combine that with the fact that lately it feels like it's too expensive to go out to dinner, and food has gotten kind of....boring? How many pasta/salad/casserole/sandwich/rice variations can you make before you run out of inspiration? Now, more than ever, we need comfort condiments. 

Get urs today 

(Not sponsored but hmu Hellmann's 😘)

--せん