I got you. I used to be a chef, so this isn’t just some random person offering you help, I had to keep cost and accessbility in mind for an entire restaurant’s worth of staff. I’d try to keep costs down, along as making it as easy as possible for you to make.

I’d even focus on food prep so you wouldn’t be fucked on days that I’m not available. Because secret about restaurants, most stuff you eat was prepped at least a day or two ago. They certainly don’t do any sort of carb daily. Rice, pasta, potatoes, whatever you can think of. They do it 2-3 times a week. Especially if you’re neurodivergent and have a safety meal, meal prep is the absolute shit. Like you could realistically cook 2 times a week and be fine for all 7 days or the week. Taco Bell recombines the same shit over and over again for new menu items, why not do the same thing at home?

An example of a meal prep that would last all week. You boil 1-2 pound(s) of pasta slightly below done on Sunday. Don’t worry about not being able to do it just right, just do it by the package instructions and subtract a minute. You rinse off your pasta and toss it in a bit of oil so it doesn’t stick to itself, boom you have perfectly cooked pasta after throwing it in the microwave for a minute or two. You make a base sauce on the same day, you’re already at the stove, what’s another pan mean? Canned tomatoes, whatever source of garlic you have, same thing with onion, and some salt and pepper. If you’re a drinker, a splash of whatever you’re drinking. You have a very generic sauce, but a great base for whatever you want to do in the microwave. Thinking Italian? Add some Italian seasoning, Parm, maybe some red pepper flake and you have a somewhat healthy and quick microwave meal. Wanna do Mexican? Add chili and cumin along with whatever protein you want the sauce to flavor, boom you have a quick Mexican dish in the microwave. Chinese? Add ginger, soy sauce and MSG if you have it and all of a sudden you have some fried noodles straight from the Chinese place.

Sorry for the long rant, I just think you’d really benefit from learning some restaurant prep. You can have a great variety of food for 7 days with a can opener and an hour or two of time a week. Everywhere does the Taco Bell method. And I know it’s a lot to do back to back, but I’m the type of autistic who does better with momentum, one thing gives me the energy to do more until like 2-3 hours in, then I lose the desire to do it for a while. Whatever you need to make it manageable for you, I got you. This place at its core is about helping each other. I’m broke as shit, but I can offer education to help you if you fall in this spot again. There’s never any shame in posting here, everybody is great, but as someone who posts here a lot I know nobody likes posting on this comm. Someone here helped me get a remote job that pays way better than mine, so I truly hope I never have to post here again and I can start giving back to the people here. Best mutual aid ever if it actually pays off