Cooking With ADHD: 7 Kitchen Products That Saved My Mind

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“I love to cook but hate feeding myself.”

Does this sound familiar? It’s definitely one of my top ADHD conundrums. Doesn’t matter that I’m absolutely obsessed with cooking. In fact I would even go so far as to say that cooking is my special interest. My forever fixation. Love everything about it, preparing beautiful meals and desserts, figuring out starch free recipes for my husband’s medical condition, getting excited about hosting Christmas dinner for 6. That same person would also be absolutely stumped for 6 out of 7 days of the week, skipping meals and grabbing the cereal box because the thought of cooking felt like being asked to take a deep breath under molasses.

Cooking with ADHD requires it’s own set of solutions. In order to be able to actually practise my passion, I needed a system that supported my brain wiring. I needed a system that takes care of my ability to feed myself in order to free up energy to enjoy cooking as a whole, and the following list of kitchen gadgets made all the difference.

Here are my top 7 Kitchen Products that have changed how I cook with ADHD:

1. Silicone Freezer Portion Trays 

If you only buy one thing from this list, make it silicone freezer portion trays. It is my all time favourite thing for cooking with ADHD. They are the centre of my entire batch prep system

The idea is simple. Instead of storing batch cooked food in the fridge where it has to be eaten within a few days, you portion it straight into the trays while it’s still warm, cool it in the fridge, then transfer to the freezer. Each portion pops out cleanly, goes into a freezer bag, and you’ve got ready-to-go meals that last up to three months. One of my favourite recipes to prep and store this way is my beef mince sauce.

I use two sizes. The 1 cup (250ml) size is perfect for sauces, stews, mince and soups. The half cup (125ml) is great for smaller portions, sides and sauces. I use Souper Cubes for my half cup trays and a generic brand for my 1 cup trays (both work brilliantly).

2. Reusable Silicone Freezer Bags

The frozen blocks have to live somewhere, and since I have limited freezer space and might want to use the trays again for something else, I don’t keep them in there. Once they’re frozen I pop them out and transfer them to a large silicone freezer bag, one component per bag. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing all those uniform blocks stored neatly inside a bag, in my freezer, organised, ready to just grab whatever component I fancy, mix and match my plate and pop it in the microwave.

I love these bags which come in two large sizes, 3 x 2.5L and 3 x 3L. I use the bigger ones for larger batches like meat sauce and the smaller ones for things like mashed potato. They’re also great for storing chopped veg if that’s your thing.

3. Digital Kitchen Scale 

A simple digital kitchen scale is one of the most underrated kitchen products for cooking with ADHD. I detest having to use measuring cups and any recipe I find that uses them gets saved and immediately converted to grams. This removes a surprising amount of friction from cooking. Just put your bowl on the scale, zero it, add your ingredient, zero it again.

But here’s the biggest kicker. The thing that changed my cooking most was converting liquid measurements from volume to weight. Water and milk are 1:1, so 200ml is 200g, dead simple. Oil is slightly different so I convert it once, save the number to my recipe app, and never have to think about it again. And crucially, I weigh oil directly into the pan or bowl rather than pouring it into a measuring cup first. Pouring oil into a cup before adding it wastes every drop that sticks to the sides, puts oil down your sink or in your dishwasher which is genuinely bad for your pipes, and gives you an extra thing to wash up for absolutely no reason.

You don’t need anything fancy. Any cheap digital scale with a tare button like this works perfectly, and it’s one of the most used things in my kitchen.

4. Instant Pot 

It’s also great for complete one pot meals, everything thrown in together, minimal washing up. It has a sauté function if you want to brown things first, works as a slow cooker or steamer, has a keep warm function, and the pot and lid are dishwasher safe. Also did you know the lid actually slots into the handle to hold it up? The combination of speed, hands-off cooking and easy cleanup is pretty much unbeatable.

5. Meat Thermometer with Cable

I don’t time my meat anymore. I just cook it until it hits the right temperature and that’s it. No more cutting into chicken to check if it’s done, no more guessing, no more dry overcooked meat because I left it in too long to be safe.

The kind I use has a cable so the probe stays in the meat while it’s in the oven or air fryer and the display sits outside. You just set your target temperature, walk away, and it beeps when it’s done. For chicken the safe internal temperature is 74°C / 165°F and once you know that number you never have to worry about undercooked chicken again.

It’s especially useful for batch cooking because you’re often cooking large thick pieces of meat and timing is genuinely unreliable. A thermometer removes all the guesswork and means every batch comes out perfectly cooked without having to hover over the oven.

Any basic probe thermometer with a cable works fine, I love this one because it has multiple settings and a timer function.

6. Air Fryer 

An air fryer is basically a very efficient small oven that circulates hot air and cooks things faster, crispier and with less oil than a conventional oven. It’s another brilliant product for cooking with ADHD. It preheats in seconds, cooks chicken and roasted veg in a fraction of the oven time, and produces a better texture on things like chicken thighs or roast potatoes than the oven does anyway. And as I mentioned earlier in the Instant Pot section, it gives me another appliance to use parallel to my oven so I can prep multiple things at the same time without piling up pots and pans. I use it particularly for the deli sliced chicken I make a big batch of every week. And, it’s also dishwasher safe.

It’s also just genuinely useful for everyday cooking beyond batch prep. Reheating leftovers, quick crispy things, defrosting and crisping up frozen components straight from the freezer. Most baskets are dishwasher safe too.

I have the small one, I wish I had the big one. It would make prep even more efficient, but we will not have ADHD impulse buys unless we actually need them, right? RIGHT??? 😬

7. Glass Containers

Tell me I’m not the only one. Few things give me more of an ick than storing certain food in plastic. Not in a crunchy way, I have absolutely no problem with plastic for things like cherry tomatoes. But anything saucy or stainy just puts me off completely when it’s in plastic. Something about it I just can’t face.

So for anything I don’t freeze I use glass. My main one is a large glass container that I use exclusively for my deli chicken slices, every single time, same container. I also have a selection of smaller ones I’ve accumulated over time, though honestly I don’t use them as much now that most things go straight in the freezer. I still use the 1570ml size to reheat my frozen mix & match dinners, and smaller 400ml round ones for things like dessert pots.

My advice would be to figure out what you’d actually use them for before buying anything. Don’t get one of those big sets with every size imaginable, you won’t use them all. Get the exact sizes you need, in the exact quantity you actually need.

Cooking with ADHD doesn’t have to be hard

None of these are magic fixes. You could batch cook with nothing but a basic pan and a knife and it would still work. But the right kit removes friction, and friction is the enemy of cooking consistently with ADHD.

Every single item on this list has a specific job in my system. Nothing is here because it looks nice on a kitchen counter. If it saves me time, reduces decisions or makes washing up easier, it earns its place.

Start with the freezer trays if you’re starting from scratch. Everything else can come later.