Hi! I’m Mel, and I love to cook. I am also neurodivergent, with neurodivergent family and friends. When I first started cooking, I didn’t understand how anyone was possibly doing this – the long lists of uncommon ingredients, blocks of text that my brain couldn’t handle, and inefficient use of time or space in the instructions all made me feel overwhelmed and underqualified. And that’s not even including the difficulties of deciding what to cook when I (or a partner, friend, or family member) was having trouble with a specific taste, texture, or food group.
This blog is my attempt to record my favorite recipes in a way that is accessible for me and for the people I love. If it helps anyone else, great added bonus! Some recipes are more ND-friendly than others, and not every recipe is especially quick or even especially easy. But I want a record of the tricks I’ve used, the shortcuts I’ve taken, and the choices I’ve made to be able to cook and eat satisfying meals.
Generally, I’m less concerned with doing things “right” and more concerned with doing them at all. We aren’t always going to be producing the most authentic or technically correct versions of these meals. In fact, most of the time we won’t be. The best system is the one that people will use, and for me, that means ignoring what a chef would do and focusing on what I, a mostly-competent home cook with a miles-long to do list and a neurodivergent brain, can accomplish on a weeknight.
Note: I’m also a huge nerd with a master’s degree in biostatistics and epidemiology, so some of these posts are oriented around current research on neurodivergent eaters. Enjoy! 🙂
How to Use:
Across this site, you will find a few types of posts. Primarily, this site’s content is made up of recipes. Recipes are organized into categories for easy browsing according to your needs. Within each recipe post, you’ll find the following:
- Recipe title, source, yield, and time
- Ingredients
- Directions
- Directions are listed as both overall concepts and detailed explanations. Click on any concept to expand its more detailed explanation.
- As much as possible, the condensed version of the recipe is written to fit in a single phone screen without scrolling.
- How To’s
- How to make the recipe faster: includes opportunities to use pre-made, frozen, or convenience ingredients as well as corners to cut if you’re low on energy or time.
- How to make the recipe clean up easier: includes opportunities to combine steps into one dish, pot, or pan, as well as tricks or shortcuts to begin the clean-up process while you cook.
- How to use the recipe best: includes suggestions for how to best use the recipe to reduce future effort, like guidance for batch cooking, freezing, storage, and transportation.
I love conversations!
Feel free to comment, email, reply, etc!
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