#the sad bastard cookbook

[indelibleevidence]

People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I'd pass it on.

I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?

These people seem to get it, though. It's very simple in places. It's basically the cookbook for people who think, 'I'm really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can't think of anything else to cook that won't exhaust me'.

And it's free!

[zillanovikov]

Sad Bastard Expectations

It's 2025, and we're sadder than ever!

Maybe it's time for a Sad Bastard Cookbook sequel? Maybe a spin-off for parents of small children? Maybe both?

I'm new here. What's a Sad Bastard Cookbook?

Glad you asked! We wrote a cookbook full of judgement-free recipes you can make when you're suffering from mental illness, physical disability, poverty, or anything else late-stage capitalism throws up that makes basic self-care feel impossible. Some of the recipes were our own, some we collected from the community.

The ebook is free--you can download a copy here if you wanna check it out.

I'm a community! Or at least, a Person! Can I contribute my recipe for survival food?

YES PLEASE.

If you have a survival recipe that you make for yourself, or to feed a baby, toddler, or small child, please share that recipe here.

I’m a fan of the original Sad Bastard Cookbook—when will the new ones be here?

We really have no idea. We’re in the very early planning and writing stages of the two projects, but when we have more information, you’ll probably see it here first!

[faintingviolet]

The Sad Bastard Cookbook (CBR15 #22)

When my brain is cooperating, I enjoy cooking. But as a neurodivergent person who lives by herself and absolutely has no idea what is presently in my refrigerator at any time (yes, even immediately after going to the grocery store) keeping myself fed has always been an interesting challenge that I attempt to hide from the world around me. I also tend to get stuck in eating the same thing over and…

[sawyerquinnbrown]

I hate to cook for myself. Give me a house of 6, 10, 20 people and yes, cooking is fantastic! I have Contributed! I have Made Others Happy! But just for me? No, no, no. Too Much Effort. When I make food for myself, it is Curséd food. Not delicious; merely sustenance. So for a while there I was subsisting on frozen food that I could make in the toaster oven. Okay by ‘a while’ I mean years, and by…

[astranite]

AMAZING!!!

Learning bookbinding, and after making a few blanks for practice, decided to go with @zillanovikov 's The Sad Bastard Cookbook for a first serious piece

[confessionsdiaz]

The sad bastards book is so fun where else will I find "Our society makes it financially costly to be physically or mentally unwell because it doesn’t consider human life to be intrinsically valuable." Under a section on pancakes

[dullahandyke]

Also I need to stsrt collecting sad cookbooks I need it. I have a ciuple but I want one that takes me by the hand and sloooowly introduces me to foods one ingredient at a time. Full page of recipe titled 'YOU CAN EAT A BELL PEPPER'

[scholarlysalamander42]

Its been a Day. Its been a couple Days tbh. I've been a sad noodle. Here's soup about it.

Chicken Soup For Sad Noodles:

Ramen pack (1-3 depending on how much I'm making. 2 usually means I get seconds)

Better than bullion Chicken paste, idk like 2 reg spoons, so maybe a tablespoon

Siracha garlic paste, like a bit less than half a reg spoon

Jarlic (jar garlic), somewhere between a tiny bit and half a reg spoon

1 eggy

Heat water, ramen gets added immediately to make it cook more fast

add the flavor goops

When your goops are heated and dissolved, try yo soup and fix yo broth. (idk how much water you put in, don't have sad bland water soup, just add more goop here)

Wait until ramen noodles are mostly done, crack 1 eggy into soup.

Wait idk a couple minutes until the yolk is cooked

bam! soup.

Notes: if you don't have chicken goop you can use a chicken ramen packet, a bullion cube or 3, actual stock like in a container or home made, whatev, they all work.

I like Jarlic and Sriracha. Put in what you like, not what I like.

Just taste it. If its too salty? Add more water. Water that tastes like chicken lacroix? Add more flavor.

You don't need the egg, but if you feel like a sad noodle you probably need the egg for protein if nothing else.

Honestly if you had like leftover rotisserie chicken bits you could toss them in too? Use what you have.

[sassysnowperson]

YES!! @primarybufferpanel you're amazing, that was exactly the one I was thinking of!

Help me out - there's some good info on tumblr about eating with low spoons/depression. Two I'm trying to hunt down again:

A cookbook, available for free on a platform like itch.io or something, that was all about making simple meals for low energy days. From what I remember the creator made it available as pay what you want and/or free because they wanted people to have it.

A page-sheet, illustrated with a bunch of staple foods (bread, eggs, cheese, peanut butter) and ideas for how to combine them.

If you've got any ideas, or a resource like it that you love, send 'em my way, would you?

[scifimagpie]

My friends made a thing!

[zillanovikov]

sad bastard cookbook on kobo

if you have a kobo and you wanna do this sad bastard a solid, please "buy" my free book so my number go up and the empty vastness in my soul can be temporarily filled

[lilacface]

Long story short: I had the munchies and a bland peach.

Ive seen people do fruit sandwiches before, but it looked too... wet. Soggy bread is awful. So I made my own thing.

Its kinda a cinnamon toast mixed with a peach crumble I guess? Lmao

Just writing it down so I can remember to try it again.

No ingredient measurements. Eyeballs only.

I mixed brown and white sugar together with some cinnamon, ginger powder, and oats.

Smoosh that all together with some butter.

Cut the peaches as thin as possible and then lay them over a piece of bread. (better crunch if you give it a wee bit of colour in the toaster first)

Place oat and sugar mixture in an even layer over the peach slices.

Chuck in the mini-oven, air fryer, whatever. But watch close because the sugars can burn real quick.

Bake until the top layer is crispy and the peaches are just a lil caramelized around the edges.

I wish I had ice cream for the side because it would have scored 100% in my books.

[saphiracat]

I find the Sad Bastard Cookbook [x] exceptionally helpful on those days.

i must not get takeout. takeout is the wallet-killer. takeout is the little-death that brings total obliteration. i will face the kitchen, fridge, and pantry. i will make choices about what to cook and then execute them. when hunger is gone there will be nothing. only i will remain.

[ineffectualdemon]

I get a newsletter from a group for people with chronic pain and other disabilities with advice and resources in it and last time they included a link to a free cookbook for people with chronic pain

The recipes are...basic and bland if you do them exactly as presented but I find them to be good starting points and I like some additions they added

They have at the top why the ingredients might help and then after the recipe they have how long it lasts and how you can store it and after that they have the cost per portion

Image description

Chickpea Salad Wraps

Benefits for people with chronic pain

Chickpeas are a plant based source of magnesium which can alleviate muscle tension. Fresh vegetables contain antioxidants and vitamins, including vitamin C, which helps reduce inflammation and oxidative stress

Ingredients

1 tortilla wrap

1 small diced tomato

1/4 cucumber, diced

1 tsp lemon juice

100g canned chickpeas drained and rinsed

Instructions

Step 1- Mix the chickpeas, cucumber, tomato and lemon juice in a bowl

Step 2- spoon it onto the wrap and fold to serve

Optional: why not add some seasoning such as Tumeric?

Storage: assemble fresh. The filling can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Not suitable for freezing.

Cost per serving: Approx: £0.65

Makes: 1 portion

I added a shit ton of seasoning and this turned out to be really refreshing and nice to eat though I added salad leaves as well and definitely more then one wrap was needed for the filling

A lot of the recipes are like this. Very bare bones but if you adjust and add things to your needs it's a good starting base so I wanted to share.

I think I like the sad bastards cook book better in a lot of ways which is also free here:

But this one also has some helpful ideas

[cleolinda]

Weekend links: April 6, 2025

My posts

I'm STILL working on the fourth video writeups for our Silent Hill 2 project, and I am a bit frustrated that life is getting in the way. 

(OH AND ALSO I HAVE A CAVITY AND FRAUDULENT BANK CHARGES)

Anyway (ANYWAY?!) Ian's fourth stream is up. HE HAS SEEN WHAT I RECORDED AND ANSWERS MY QUESTIONS I SWEAR IT'S REAL. 

Reblogs of interest

If you'd like to help the survivors of the Myanmar and Thailand earthquake, World Central Kitchen and MSF/Doctors Without Borders are on the ground.

Val Kilmer passed away earlier this week.

"babe are you ok you reblogged 'it's coming back but we'll see it through' again"

The Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance is raising money to save black-footed ferrets on tribal grounds, after the current administration froze conservation funds.

RIP Stumpy the cherry tree, who will live on through his cuttings in D.C.

James Baldwin: "Love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win." 

"You lead a very interesting life"

Don't take the easy way out with AI: "Imagine what you can do if you learn to bullshit like I can bullshit"

The Sad Bastard Cookbook, a free e-book for your low spoons

"Put baby in pelican mouth for Instagram photo. Facebook photo of baby in pelican mouth for many likes"

How Many Cigarettes are in any given movie?

In defense of Mr. Darcy's proposal

Going snail mode

A hungry axolotl: "Fuckibg superb you funky little kirby"

Grip, snacking at my chamber door

"More actual things that happen in the 1897 Dracula novel without context"

A recommendation for A Dictionary of Color Combinations

Like I knew Ariana Grande had been up to some shit but I wasn't ready for this

Love a perfume review that says "Nothing wrong with a bit of fear"

"It’s a misconception that the mimics are hunting humans when they trail along at the back of hiking groups"

"But hey, there’s nothing wrong with having a completely absurd contingency plan. In case of time loops."

Video

Wet Beast Wednesday: Pitiful cranky baby otter sounds

Star Wars was not worthy of Amandla Stenberg and her violin (bring back The Acolyte if you want to prove me wrong)

Yes, Rick Astley has more songs

Hybrid Calisthenics: "Being on the right path often FEELS better and more natural - even if it’s more work."

Is this cat a goalie, technically?

"Sexy Nation Army," a mashup (only technically "video")

The sacred texts

"for april fools we’re deleting this entire site sayonara you weeaboo shits"

"when will mcr return from the war"

Personal tags of the week

1) Art, which had some real bangers this week, including Remedios Varo, Mexican Gothic, Diane & Leo Dillon, a genuine Hokusai print found at an antique market, a wee Eohippus, something that doesn't listen, AND MORE;

2) Honestly birds had some good ones as well;

3) One orange braincell had two good ones, including a painting of a cat about town;

4) and U.S. politics, since there were some good things:

First, Senator Cory Booker gave a marathon speech for more than 25 hours, reading from "multiple three-ring binders, including articles from bipartisan sources and letters from his constituents, in what he called 'terrified people' with 'heartbreaking' stories" in protest of the current administration, and breaking Strom Thurmond's filibuster record (which "itself was a last ditch attempt to block the Civil Rights Act"). And it was not just a filibuster; it was representation.

Meanwhile, April 5 had “Hands Off” demonstrations across all 50 states, "targeting threats to democracy, bodily autonomy, and climate justice." Here's how the St. Paul, MN, protest went (direct link for the tags).

[novaneedstostop]

ive been remindind of all the ways i think the hs kids would be weird about food so here we go head cannon time (i might mess up the alpha kids i dont have as good a grasp on their characterization as id like)

June: most 'normal' about food, pastries can get her pretty emotional tho

Dave(hc her as tgirl but dunno what im doing for name): will not eat when being watched(waits till everyone starts eating usually) because of his shades wont eat at all around dirk

Rose: kinda knows how to cook for herself, but only with random shit you'd find in half stocked cabinets(think sad bastard cookbook type shit) both her and dave are the "ive never had a non frozen meal in my life" post

Jade/Jake/Roxy/Dirk: all of them constantly ration without thinking about it, just as a group

Roxy: waits till everyone else has eaten before she does(from conceptofjoy: makes everyone else food all the time)

Jane: avoids branded stuff like the plague, and tends not to trust food she didnt make herself out of habit

Roxy/Dirk: constantly thinking about potential allergens and food hazards that might pop up

Thats all i can think of but yeag