If you don’t want to mash potatoes try something else.
I like mashed yams. Once cooked they are so easy, effortless, to mash!
It is not necessary to cut vegetables up into identically sized pieces, or to chop them into nano-squares. Food does not taste better for being organized like a bureaucracy!
Let the hems down, the pleats out and don’t plan too much. Happenstance, the magic of moments discovered and random discovery, have much to offer the warm blooded and prone-to-be-cheerful.