Just some random ideas, in no particular order:

• Buy dried garlic granules and dried onion (sliced or powder) in a large quantity, use this to cut down on food prep but also to reduce shopping weight/volume. (2 tablespoons of dried onion = 1 fresh onion, ¼ teaspoon of granulated garlic powder = 1 clove)

• Get a pressure cooker to cut down on cooking times

• Look up dump casserole dishes and use a slow cooker so that you can prep something in the morning, forget about it, and then have a tasty dish that feels new to you in the evening

• Look up sheet pan meals

• Find what veg you prefer and start building a repertoire of dishses around those vegetables. For example, maybe roasted capsicum/peppers, pumpkin, potato, onion, and tomato are something that you enjoy. If you do meat, you could also roast something like chicken or lamb alongside this. Then use those ingredients as your base for making different meals for the next few days - salad, pizza, stew, wraps etc.

• Consider alternatives to pasta like couscous

• Get good at making soup - it’s cheap, healthy, relatively easy and flexible. Start with something like minestrone then branch out when you are feeling comfortable with it. Remember to branch out into non-European soups like laksa, miso soup, ramen etc. because there is so much on offer outside of western cuisine.

• Try to break out of the expectations of what cooking “should” be like. One of my favourite things to eat is steamed vegetables. I’ll put a side of protein with it so that it’s a balanced meal but often I’m happiest with a plate or bowl full of steamed veg. There’s no shame in eating something like that as often as you like and it doesn’t have to be anything more than just palatable fuel for your body.

• On a similar note, try to find those dishes that you could eat every day for the rest of your life without getting sick of it. For me, that’s dal and rice. If I know that then I can use this dish in my weekly rotation and it can be my go-to. (Extra points for a dish like dal and rice that doesn’t require any fresh ingredients because it’s perfect for when the fridge is empty and the vegetables have gone bad but I’m not going shopping for the next couple of days.)

• Maybe see if one of your housemates or friends would be willing to give you a lift when they go shopping? It might help ease the burden.

• Get a little bit creative - if you make up a Thai curry but set aside the addition of curry paste, you will be able to fry up one type of curry paste in a little bit of coconut cream or oil and then incorporate that into your base of veggies+protein in coconut milk, thus completing the dish to make one type of Thai curry. The next day you can do the same with a different colour of curry paste. It won’t be massively different but having some variation is probably going to make it more enjoyable for you. Or you could run two pans during cooking and divide each of ingredients out so that you can make two curries side by side simultaneously.

• Start having smoothies or protein shakes as in-between meals. It doesn’t have to be some big production, it just needs to be palatable enough to fill you up so you can make the distance between breakfast and dinner.

• Lentils are a happy midway point between canned beans and dried - they are fairly quick to cook, they are much cheaper and lighter than canned options, and you aren’t going to need to muck around with overnight soaking or simmering for hours on end like you would with dried beans.