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My ultimate low-spoons food is miso soup. For a basic recipe, you need:

-miso paste
-a tiny pinch of dashi stock granules
-hot water

And all you do is mix them together! To make it even easier, you can buy dashi-iri miso (miso with dashi stock already in it) at Japanese markets. I think I’ve even seen squeeze bottles of dashi-iri miso at my normal supermarket under the name “Miso & Easy.”

If you have a few more spoons and/or access to Japanese food, some things you could add in are:
-cubed tofu
-dried wakame seaweed (it rehydrates in the hot water)
-chopped green onion (low-spoons tip: use kitchen scissors to cut green onions)
-kameboko or narutomaki fishcake slices
-when I have sinus congestion I like to add ichimi or shichimi togarashi, but any ground red chili would probably work.

Note that miso soup is not vegetarian, since dashi is a fish stock. You can try omitting the dashi, but the light miso you can find in Western supermarkets doesn’t have a very strong taste by itself, so look into darker miso (red miso) to see if it doesn’t have dashi in it if you can’t have dashi.

So, if you want something sweet but don’t have much energy, here is an option.

You will need:

-sourdough bread, or anything else that not too soft to wilt under chocolate 

-chocolate chip

-cinnamon (optional)

Take the bread, and if it is not sliced, cut some. Nice flat slices are best if you can, in whatever size you think you will eat. You can toast it if you like, depending on how soft you like the bread.

Sprinkle some chocolate chips on the bread. A light coverage is generally best. You should be able to see the bread underneath, but not a lot of it.

Put the whole business in the microwave or toaster oven with a plate or napkin under to prevent messiness. I do 30 seconds in the microwave. The end result should be mostly melted.

If need be, take a knife and distribute the chocolate evenly. Optionally, sprinkle on cinnamon to taste. This makes it taste spicier and more complex. 

It tastes sort of like chocolate chip bread, but more intense. It’s probably also a little like nutella on bread, but richer.

If anyone hasn’t yet, get a rice cooker. I got the Aroma  20-cup digital rice cooker because it has a steamer basket. I never make 20 cups of rice, but I do usually make 4-6 cups cooked so that I have leftovers. Halfway through cooking I will add meat and veggies, cut the meat really small so it cooks (or just toss in whole shrimp) and put veggies in the steamer basket. One non-stick pot to clean, very little effort, and you can make a large amount.

Favorites: Use chicken broth instead of water for the Jasmine rice, add in diced raw chicken once it all gets hot. Add in chopped mushrooms if you want, or buy presliced. Broccoli in the steamer basket for extra protein plus fiber. Or, frozen carrots tossed into the rice mix. Or frozen peas. Add in shredded cheese later if you want.

I’ve also put in a small amount of ground beef + salt + onion powder into the pot before doing the rice, turn it to “steam” and let it pre-cook. Then make the rice. Toss w can of beans + cheese + seasoning.

1 red bell pepper

1 tablespoon neutral oil

1-2 tablespoons red curry paste

(1 onion)

1 tablespoon raw cane sugar (or other sugar)

200 ml coconutmilk

(1 tablespoon limejuice - I used lemonjuice instead)

salt

250 g frozen vegetables, e.g. a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots (that mix is called “Kaisergemüse” in Germany, for all the German followers)

- wash the pepper and cut it into pieces

(- peel and dice the onion)

- heat oil in a pot

- add currypaste, (onion,) and sugar, while stirring

- add the coconutmilk (and limejuice)

- season with salt

- add pepper and the frozen vegetables

- bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about 8 minutes on medium heat with the lid on the pot

- season with salt and limejuice

This is really good with rice, but I think it would also go well with bread (naan should be really good!) or on its own.

Here in Germany you can buy frozen pre-cut onion, which would also save some of the work. Or you can just leave the onion out.

If you don’t want to do any cutting, buying only frozen vegetables should also work fine.

My cookbook also suggests switching out some of the vegetables for zucchini, snow peas, bush beans or bamboo-shoots - some of which can be bought in cans, glasses or frozen as well.

enough to feed two people:

1 glass artichoke-hearts (165g of artichoke, just as a reference point)

1 glass/can of white beans (225g)

125g small tomatoes (the ones you can eat whole)

(some parsley)

1 avocado

½ tablespoon maplesirup or similar

2 tablespoons balsamico-vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

(1 red onion)

(1 clove of garlic)

salt, pepper

-

a big bowl

a sieve

a knive

a small bowl or glass

-

- put artichokes into sieve and rinse. (cut into half.) shake some of the water off, put into bowl

- put beans into sieve and rinse, shake some of the water off, put into bowl

- put tomatoes into sieve and wash. shake some of the water off. (cut into half and) put into bowl.

(- peel onion and cut into small rings)

(- wash the parsley, shake some of the water off, pluck the leaves from the stems and put into bowl.)

- cut avocado into pieces and put into bowl. (my method: i usually cut the peel lengthwise four times, so i have eight bits of peel, which you can then peel off using your fingers. no need for a big and scary knife. then cut pieces directly from the avocado into the bowl, avoiding the stone(?) in the middle. you can just rip the rest off with your fingers.)

- mix everything that is in the bowl.

- mix the sauce - i usually do this in a glass with a lid. add vinegar, maple sirup, olive oil, salt, pepper. (peel the garlic and press into the sauce.) put the lid on the glass and shake until it’s mixed.

- put the sauce on the salad. let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

- goes very well with white bread, e.g. ciabatta.

cottage cheese mixed with chunks of canned pineapple. for a savoury thing, you can mix it with sour cream and add loads of salt + pepper. also good in blintzes or to make it easier, on any pancakey/bready thing.

Nutritional drinks like Boost or Ensure (and lots of the big box stores have their own, cheaper versions) have been a lifesaver for me and for friends when eating is a problem and we need calories. A couple of friends who were doing chemo and had zero spoons and trouble keeping solid food down swear by them. And when my dad was at the end of life and had little interest in eating so he was losing weight rapidly, I could usually get him to drink a bottle of chocolate Ensure. They’re not a healthy long-term substitute for real food, so my major problem is keeping them around and not just grabbing one because it’s easier than cooking, even when I have the spoons to make a healthy meal.