Spoonie Survival Guide
Zero-Prep Food and Drink for Hard Days
Spoonie Survival Guide: Zero-Prep Food and Drink for Hard Days
Life has a way of knocking us down when we are least prepared for it. And when you’re a Spoonie, those crisis days hit even harder.
That’s why I withdrew from my online life for a while: my dad was dying and between being with him those last days of his life, and the aftermath of his passing (all the arrangements that needed to be made) I was living on borrowed spoons.
Even cooking—something I usually enjoy—became too much, and I stopped eating. Worse, I even stopped drinking enough.
No bueno. A plan needed to be made. Pronto.
Emergency Meal Cheat Sheet
It’s a zero-prep plan for the hardest days, when you can’t cook, can’t think, and just need to stay fed and hydrated. It suggests practical, ready-to-eat food and drinks that won’t cause flares, require effort, or drain the last of your spoons.
Because when you’re in survival mode, even simple meals can feel impossible. Zero-prep food lets you eat straight from the packet, with no chopping, no stirring, no lifting, and no guilt.
Shelf-stable, fridge, and freezer staples that are safe, simple, and easy to manage. Think: corn cakes instead of rice-based gluten-free bread, tinned fish and legumes for instant protein, hummus, cheese cubes, and yoghurt, frozen fish fillets, veg, and mash pellets for quick heat-and-eat meals.
Hydration is priority number one. Water and tea get boring fast, so I rely on: chocolate drinks for comfort and calories, yoghurt drinks for gentle nutrition, fruit juice boxes for flavour and energy.
Ask for help if you can. Go with a friend, use a list, and focus on essentials. Single-portion items reduce lifting and spoilage. If delivery isn’t an option, one bigger shop with support is better than several small ones alone.
Absolutely. Repetition is a survival tool, not a failure. In crisis mode, variety doesn’t matter. Nourishment does.
Always check labels, especially on drinks and sauces. Many ‘safe’ foods sneak in allergens like rice, apple, mustard, or celery. Stick to trusted brands or foods you’ve already tested when you’re low on spoons.
Yes. Anyone going through a crisis (grief, burnout, recovery) can use these ideas. But it’s written for Spoonies, by a Spoonie, for days when even simple things feel impossible.’
The Spoonie Survival Guide
Since I couldn’t even think straight, I headed over to ChatGPT and asked it to help me create a Spoonie Survival Guide. It took some back and forth, but eventually it helped me come up with a crisis plan that actually worked.
It covered all the basics:
- Hydration and calories to keep me going.
- Allergy-safe food to prevent flares and allergic reactions.
- Easy, grab-and-go food & drink that’s still (relatively) affordable
Survival Principles
Since I was in survival mode, anything that required any thinking or prepping was out. Even preparing a simple meal like my Creamy Pasta with Chickpeas & Spinach was too much. In fact, I didn’t even have the bandwidth to prepare any of my Emergency Meals for Spoonies.
What I needed was something even simpler than that. And that’s what my Spoonie Survival Guide provides.
- Everything is stripped back to the bare basics: safe, easy, familiar.
- Single portions (packaging waste is NOT a priority when you’re in a crisis): no pouring, no spoilage, no lifting.
- All food needs to be shelf-stable or frozen, and ready-to-eat: you’re already living on borrowed spoons.
- Forget about gourmet or Instagram-pretty food. It just needs to work for you.
Grab-and-Go Drinks
First things first: your body is made of 55-60% water. Staying hydrated should be your top priority.
Now, I’m well aware that the standard advice is to drink water, but honestly? Water gets boring real fast, and the same goes for tea (black or herbal). Yet, when your system hates cold or fizzy drinks, choices can feel limited.
That’s where single-portion cartons and bottles come in. They’re easy to grab, there’s no heavy lifting, and zero risk of a large bottle going off in the fridge because you couldn’t finish it.
Here are the three categories I went for:
- Chocolate drinks: comfort and calories in one sip.
- Yoghurt drinks: filling, protein-rich, and gentle.
- Fruit drinks: for flavour and quick energy.
Optionally, you might also want to stock up on protein shakes. While expensive, they can be useful to help you sneak in some extra nutrition. I personally can’t stand them, so I won’t waste my money on them.
Spoonie Tip: always, always check labels. You’d be surprised at the hidden ingredients in those drinks. (I had a very hard time finding fruit drinks without apple, e.g.)
Grab-and-Go Foods
Food needed to be just as brainless as drinks. If it required chopping, stirring, or even deciding, it wasn’t going to happen. I stripped everything back to what I could eat straight out of a packet, with maybe a quick zap in the microwave if I had the energy.
Here’s what made the cut:
Pantry / Shelf-stable
- Corn cakes: my safe alternative to rice-based GF bread or crackers.
- Tinned fish (salmon, tuna): instant protein with no effort.
- Bananas: Mother Nature’s fast food
- Peanut butter: spread on a corn cake or eaten with a spoon.
- Tinned legumes: drain and eat; no need to cook.
Fridge
- Cheese cubes: protein and comfort in one bite.
- Yoghurt: plain or flavoured, easy on the stomach.
- Hummus: store-bought this time, no shame.
- Eggs: I even managed to boil them all in one go, then stored them in the fridge.
Freezer
- Frozen fish fillets (cod, salmon, tilapia): throw in the oven or microwave.
- Frozen veg (peas, carrots, broccoli florets): steam or microwave, no chopping.
- Frozen mash pellets or oven chips: comfort carbs, zero spoons required.
Snacks
- Nuts and seeds.
- Crisps, corn crisps, tortilla chips.
- Biscuits
- Chocolate: because crisis food isn’t just calories, it’s comfort.
Shopping When You’re Out of Spoons
With everything that was going on, even just the idea of having to go shopping for groceries made me want to pull all my hair out.
Since I couldn’t magically make food appear, I needed to come up with a plan that wouldn’t cost me the last of my borrowed spoons.
As I went through my options (delivery, several short shopping trips by myself, going for a big shop with a friend) I soon settled on the latter. Delivery would take too long (plus I didn’t even know when I’d actually be at home), and going shopping by myself simply wasn’t going to happen.
What was great about going with my friend: He has a car; I don’t. He could push the trolley, allowing me to really stock up—something that’s simply impossible when your only method of transportation is a wheelchair.
But even more important than that was the moral support he provided simply by being there for me. It made me feel less alone.
More Spoonie Tips
- Make a shopping list (I use Google Keep) and stick to it. Tick off items as you collect them.
- Forget about Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Safeway, or Kroger. Lidl and Aldi are your friends if you want to keep costs down. (And they might even have more choice in single-portion drinks. Here in the Netherlands, Lidl definitely outshines AH in that respect.)
- Variety is all good and fine, but when you’re in survival mode you don’t want to have to think up new meals every day. You want something that works on auto-pilot.
- This is not the time to feel guilty about packaging waste. Single portions save spoons.
Spoonie Permission Slip
Speaking about guilt…
To be honest, I felt guilty about a whole lot of things. From all the junk I bought, to packaging waste. From surviving on Snickers and crisps, to not being stronger.
And I’m here to tell you that all this guilt serves nobody—least of all yourself. You’re not doing this because you are an irresponsible person, you’re doing this because you’re in survival mode.
And guess what?
- It’s okay if you eat the same food every meal.
- It’s okay to eat ready-made food and drink single-serve drinks.
- It’s okay if your bins fill up with packaging.
- It’s okay to eat comfort food instead of healthy meals.
This won’t last forever. Right now, your job is to stay fed, hydrated, and safe. Gourmet can wait. Survival is gourmet enough.
Wrapping It Up
When you’re in crisis mode, life reverts to the bare basics. Times like these are messy, exhausting, and heartbreaking. But you still need to eat and drink. Because life still goes on, and you need to keep going.
That’s what this Spoonie Survival Guide is about: to help you make it through the hardest days with food and drink that won’t gobble up spoons you don’t have. You won’t be eating gourmet food. You probably won’t even be eating healthy food… but at least you’ll be eating.
Remember, a crisis doesn’t last forever. No matter how rough things are, the storm will pass.
So if you find yourself living on chocolate drinks, hummus, and Snickers for a while, that’s okay. You’re not failing. You’re surviving—and in times like these, that’s enough.
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