If you haven’t heard of Dump Dinners before, you might think any meal with the word ‘dump’ in it doesn’t sound appealing!

However, in this case, ‘dump’ has a positive meaning.

‘Dump’ doesn’t refer to flavor or quality of the ingredients.

It refers to the meal prep method, i.e., you dump all the ingredients into one pot and let it cook.

This one-step meal prep process makes it a super ADHD-friendly type of meal.

What exactly is a Dump Dinner?

A Dump Dinner is a one-pot dish cooked in a slow cooker, Insta Pot, pressure cooker, or sheet pan (depending on the recipe).

Dump Dinners don’t involve complicated steps, so no advanced cooking skills or time management skills are needed.

It’s just a question of assembling the ingredients and then cooking.

If you like to prep your food at the weekend when you have more time, some Dump Dinners can be prepared ahead of time. You can do your chopping and place the ingredients in a bag in the freezer.

Why are Dump Dinners good for ADHD?

Preparing a healthy meal can be challenging when you have ADHD for many reasons, including…

• Recipes include multi-step processes, and any task (in and out of the kitchen) that involves multiple steps is hard for ADHDers.
• Time-sensitive steps can be stressful.
• Cooking can take you longer than other people. The more steps, the longer it takes.
• If a meal involves a lot of different dishes – meat, two veggies – then coordination is required for everything to be ready at the same time.
• Just looking at a complicated recipe with many ingredients can feel overwhelming and make you not want to start.

Dump Dinners can bypass these typical ADHD cooking issues.

If you are prone to burning your meals, Dump Dinners for slow cookers would be a great option.

Where to find Dump Dinner recipes

There are lots of Dump Dinner recipes! If you Google’ Dump Dinners’ or go onto Pinterest, hundreds of Dump Dinner options will appear. You will find them to suit your specific dietary requirements.

There are recipe books called ‘Dump Dinners.’

I have included some links below to give you ideas and inspiration. However, some recipes might need a little adaption to make them truly ADHD-friendly.

For example, make sure your dump dinners are full of fresh vegetables, protein, and non-processed ingredients, and leave out any added sugar.

Also, although pasta meals are yummy, make sure it’s a side dish rather than the main focus of the meal.

Slow cooker Dump Dinner

https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-dump-dinners-slow-cooker-265808

Sheet Pan Dump Dinners

Here’s a link to 30 recipes online

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/easy-one-tray-oven-dinners

There’s also this cookbook with delicious recipes by Katy Beslow

Instant Pot Dump Dinners

https://www.purewow.com/food/instant-pot-dump-dinner-recipes

Are you a fan of Dump Dinners? Let us know your favourite recipe below!

P.S. A big thanks to the Untapped Brilliance Club member who introduced me to Dump Dinners.