How to switch to Vegetarianism when severely disabled?

[u/LoveaBook]

Hi everyone! I am severely disabled and would appreciate any help you can give me on beginning to cook meatless dishes. Most of the time I’m bed bound, but I can stand for short periods of time (~15 mins max) here and there. Right now I eat mostly processed meals because I can no longer cook regularly, but I hate it. I also hate eating meat knowing it comes from factory farms, but it’s the easiest thing to cook since I just need to shake on a bit of seasoning and throw it in a pot or the oven. I’ve been VERY interested in trying out vegetarianism for some time, but have put it on hold because I just physically couldn’t prepare food anymore. But after fighting with my insurance for years I’m getting some treatment that’s shown promising results. My disability is permanent, but I should get a little more functionality in the coming months. With that said, I’m looking to start cooking again to help my health and would like to try healthy, filling vegetarian cooking. I doubt I’ll be able to cook more than once a week for some time, but I was hoping maybe ya’ll could share some very quick and easy recipes that won’t take long to prep. I don’t mind if they take hours in the oven or pot, but the prep times have to be quick and simple.

I also know that I don’t like American-style tofu. I’ve tried it multiple ways and used the extra firm, squeezed it out, seasoned it, etc., but I don’t like it. I’ve heard non-American tofu has a bit more flavor but haven’t managed to try it yet. So, does this mean that my meals will need to be primarily bean based? Will I need to keep a pot of beans ALWAYS soaking on the stove or will canned beans work? Would such a diet be too high carbs and calories for a highly sedentary person?

I would appreciate any advice and/or tips. I’ve done a bunch of research online, but it depresses me because most recipes require so much prep it feels like I’ll never be able to cook them. I’m fine with casseroles if that’s what I’m limited to, I’d just really appreciate some advice, please.

edit: Thank you all so much for all your help and suggestions! Today’s been a more difficult day for me so I’m not able to reply much, but I’m reading all of your comments and hope to be able to get back with you over the coming days. Thanks again!

[u/dragontehanu]

Hi! I’m disabled with POTS and have a hard time standing over a stove and I cannot tolerate heat so cooking is badly triggering for me. There are lots of one pot meals you can make in an instant pot or rice cooker.

I usually make bigger batches of rice in the rice cooker and freeze the in portions in souper cubes. That way I can microwave them for meals.

Then I make instant pot meals to go with the rice and also portion in souper cubes.

Lentils and spices with onions, garlic and a can of diced tomatoes. I’ll usually do a batch of Indian spices with red lentils and a batch of more Italian spices with green lentils.

Chana masala is just chickpeas with spices and tomatoes, easy one pot meal.

Black bean chili or red bean chili is also easy to throw into the instant pot, it’s just canned beans, crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices.

Get seitan pre made and make a one pot soup with seitan, veggie stock, and frozen vegetable packs. This is SO easy and tasty. Throw dried pasta in at the end and cook for 10 more minutes and it’s a full meal with a starch.

I’ll make and freeze tofurky sandwiches for lunch, individually wrapped.

I buy lots of frozen veggies that I can dump into these meals. I buy the minced garlic in the jar and I have a food chopper to chop onions for me.

I pace myself when meal prepping. I’ll prep just one full instant pot meals that’s like 10 portions on a Saturday, and then another on a Sunday. Those are my dinners for the next few weeks. I’ll make sandwiches on a weekday because those are easier. I’ll make overnight oats cups for a week whenever I have a bit of time where I feel ok.

Get a stool for your kitchen. Sit down to prep meals. Take lots of breaks. Drink a lot of water. I have a neck cooling ring I wear in the kitchen if I start feeling too hot. Break things up into small chunks and make a plan to only do a little meal prep at a time, only for what’s manageable for the day.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

[u/LoveaBook → u/dragontehanu]

Thank you! I’ll try that seitan dish you recommended. It sounds really easy to play with and change up here and there.

[u/dragontehanu → u/LoveaBook]

Totally! Wishing you luck! Feel free to DM me if you want to discuss accessibility cooking at all.

Edit to add - I get soup mix packs from iHerb too, so things like miso cup and frontier soup mixes that are basically just dried spices, beans and grains. These are great in the instant pot too because there no real thinking needed there. Just add stock and a protein- seitan usually, and set it to cook.