WTF is Spoonification?
If you've been following me, you might have seen me mention "spoonifying" a recipe in a blog post or two. And if your response to seeing it was, "What the hell does that even mean?"... well, this post is for you.
What Are Spoons? (And Forks!)
Before we get into spoonifying recipes, let's talk about spoons and what they represent. “Spoon Theory” was originally created by Christine Miserandino to explain what it's like to live with a chronic illness, but the concept has since been widely adopted by the neurodivergent community.
I know this post is about spoons, but before we get to that, let’s take a moment to talk about forks. If you wanna go the uncensored route, we can call them fucks. Fucks (or forks) represent how much you care about a task. When you don’t care about something, a common phrase to use is “I don’t give a fuck” aka you have zero forks available for the task or situation. The amount of forks you have for any given situation is entirely up to your own personal feelings towards the situation. For example, if your boss (who you don’t care for in the least) tells you to complete yet another task that is not part of your job description, you’ll likely give zero forks over completing the task. On the other hand, when it’s your best friend’s birthday, you’ll have all of the forks in the world available to help make sure their surprise party is the absolute best ever.
Then we have spoons, which we don’t have as much control over. In short, spoons represent your available energy including physical, mental, and emotional energy. Everything you do requires spoons, from getting out of bed, to cooking food, to deciding what to wear, to having a conversation, to walking your dog…it all requires spoons.
Some tasks take more spoons than others, and your daily spoon supply isn’t always consistent. After getting a great night of sleep and waking up to see the sun shining, you might start the day with an abundance of spoons. Then the next day you might wake up hungover so you’ve got less spoons. Another day you might forget to take your ADHD medication leaving you with almost zero spoons. Because of this fluctuation in spoons, one day a task like chopping an onion might feel easy, then the next day the same task feels like climbing Mount Everest.
Oftentimes for those with invisible (or visible) illnesses and those who are neurodivergent, you’ll have plenty of forks to give a situation, but don't have the spoons available to complete the task. Maybe your office is a mess, and you’ve got the forks you need to care about cleaning it, but if you don’t have the spoons to complete the required cleaning tasks. Having forks but not spoons makes getting an organized place to work feel like an overwhelming and impossible task. The same goes for cooking. You might love the idea of a completely homemade meal (aka, you’ve got lots of forks for it), but if you’re out of spoons, then cooking from scratch isn't a realistic option.
What Does It Mean to Spoonify a Recipe?
“Spoonifying” a recipe means adapting it based on how many spoons you have available. Instead of an all-or-nothing approach (either cooking everything from scratch or giving up entirely), you can make adjustments to recipes so the work required matches your spoon level.
When I share meals I’ve made, I’ll also include a “spoonification guide” of simple ways to modify the recipe to fit different spoon or energy levels. My goal is to make cooking more accessible and less overwhelming.
Factors That Affect Spoon Levels
Nobody’s spoon supply is static. Whether you’re neurodivergent or neurotypical, the number of spoons you have can change based on:
Physical Energy – Are you feeling well-rested or completely drained?
Mental Load – Did you spend the day making tough decisions or dealing with overstimulation?
Daily Demands – Were you running around from work to appointments to kid-related chaos? Or did you have the house to yourself all day?
Health Conditions – Chronic illness, pain, or fatigue can impact your daily spoon level.
Because of this, the way you approach cooking can and should change based on your needs at the moment.
Spoonification in Action
To show you how this works, let’s take a simple example: making pizza. Here’s how you can adapt it based on your spoons:
All the spoons: Make everything from scratch! Homemade dough made using hand milled grain, sauce from scratch using fresh tomatoes, a block of cheese made in your home, hand-cut toppings grown right in your garden... You’re basically an artisanal pizza chef.
Medium spoons: Buy pre-made dough or crust, use a jar of sauce from the store, buy a block of cheese to shred or even a bag of pre-shredded cheese, and have ready-to-use toppings. Still homemade, but with some shortcuts.
Low spoons: Toss a frozen pizza in the oven, but maybe spice it up by adding your own toppings like extra cheese, fresh mushrooms, or leftover veggies.
No spoons: Order a pizza and have it delivered. Done and done.
Each level gets you a meal that works for your needs, without guilt or shame.
Spoonifying Beyond Pizza
You can apply this same principle to any recipe. For example:
Vegetables: Fresh, pre-cut, frozen, or canned-choose what works best for your spoons and your family.
Protein: Whole cuts of meat, pre-cooked options, or fully prepared alternatives.
Carbs: Homemade noodles or boxed pasta. Fresh potatoes, canned, or the instant mashed variety.
The key is to remember that adapting a recipe doesn’t make it less valid. Cooking should fit your life, not the other way around.
No Judgment, Just Options
One of the biggest reasons I share spoon level-friendly adaptations is to remove the pressure and guilt around home cooking. There’s a lot of messaging out there that makes people feel like they’re “failing” if they don’t make every single thing for every damn meal from scratch. But you know what’s worse than “taking a short cut” and using pre-cut veggies? Not eating any vegetables at all. Or even worse…buying fresh ones and letting them rot in your fridge because you didn’t have the spoons to prep and cook them.
So, as I share recipes and meals, I’ll also share ways to spoonify them. And if you have your own adaptations or ideas, I’d love to hear them! Cooking should be flexible, realistic, and, above all, work for you.
