5.11.08

Cooking Dinner

I just wanted to know how many of you cook dinner and how often you do it? What do you cook? Is it like spaghetti or mac n cheese or is it roast with mashed potatoes? If you only cook a few times a week what do you do on the days and nights that you don't cook? Also, for the stay at home moms, what do you do for lunch everyday? Are you cool with peanut butter and jelly or do you cook then too?

I probably cook dinner 4-5 nights a week. It ranges from roast to pizza to chili. I also hate having to do all the cooking and the clean-up but I don't have the kind of husband who will do the dishes. Don't get me wrong he does other things, just not that. Anyway, now that I am pregnant and always hungry I feel like I am always either cooking, cleaning or eating. I just want to know if there is an easier and cheaper way? I forgot to mention that too. Somehow, our monthly food bill is outrageous! NO! I am not eating that much! I guess I just have expensive taste but it's not like I am buying filet mignon and prime rib. So tips, advice, whatever please. Make my life easier. :)

14 comments:

{lindy baker cakes} said...

I'm the opposite. Now that I'm pregnant I never want to cook. Nothing sounds good and cooking makes me feel sick. That's probably because I'm not out of the first trimester so I'm just sick all the time. But before that I would cook 3 times a week usually. One thing I think is good is making a roast and making different things out of it. For example. French dip sandwiches 1 night and then use the rest to make shredded beef enchiladas. I also half a lot of recipes and saute things. I make chicken cutlets a lot which are chicken breasts halved lenth-wise. That said, I have expensive taste too. My recipes usually require a lot of work and a lot of ingredients, but normally I love to cook so I don't mind.

Amy said...

I pretty much cook 7 meals a week,so I totally understand. Sometimes we get invited over to other peoples houses so it gives me a day off...sometimes. I like to do full course meals but simple. For example, I make bbq chicken Sandwiches on the days I don't want to do much, basically all I do is throw some boneless chicken breasts in a crock pot,(3-4 breasts makes about 5 sandwiches) glaze it with bbq sauce and cook it on low for about 3 hours. When its done, I shred it with a fork and put more bbq sauce in it and its done. (we really like Sweet Baby Rays honey bbq, but to each his own) Then I usually get out some sort of fresh veggies, and whatever fruit is in season and cut it up. We eat the chicken on whole wheat hamburger buns, if I don't have those on hand, I also keep a a bag of rhodes whole wheat rolls in my freezer, and will get those out at the same time I start to cook the chicken, and let them thaw and rise. Super easy. 10 minutes of work, and all you have to clean up is the crock pot and roll pan.

We also eat A LOT of breakfast foods for dinner, because it's kory's favorite, but we only use fresh grounded whole wheat flower. Those are pretty easy to make too.

Just some ideas, dishes blow so I totally know what you mean, we don't have a dishwasher, but kory will dry them with me, and that saves SO much time. Also if I clean the dishes as I cook, or am waiting for dinner to cook, it doesn't seem like so many dishes at the end of the night.

Also, groceries are just expensive...our bill has like doubled recently because prices are just rising. Plus, with Kory's diet we are pretty limited on what to buy, and its not cheap.

KaSs MiLeS said...

Our bill is outrageous too!! its about 125 a week!! Our stuff ranges from frozen pizza, to hawaiian hay stacks and roast to tacos or caserole's. funny thing is, we spend most our grocery money on snacks and drinks, not the actual food. i feel like i'm always cooking and cleaning when i'm home too! it drives me insane! Jerome wont do the dishes, but i wont do the vacuuming...

Olga Bogach said...

When I cook, I try to make a lot of it, so there are leftovers for next day or two:)
I also love frozen Lasagna from Costco - it lasts us a few days and it's really good. I actually tried to make homemade lasagna several times and after doing the math, it came up to over $20. You can buy a bigger one at Costco for $14!
After eating a LOT of bbq ribs at the work party a few weeks ago, Heber had a terrible case of acid reflux (the acid from your stomach gets burns your throat and it hurts so bad you can't eat anything for like a week). Man, we saved a lot of money:)) Heber felt so bad that he is now totally into eating more vegetables and less meat (he said it was his punishment for breaking the word of wisdom:)
So we've been having lots of salads. I make them fancy: with pears, pecans, gorgonzolla chese.. they taste soooo yum!

Mel said...

Kraft Foods Magazine. I take most of my weekly menu from that (they have all the nutrition information in the back, so that helps with the point system). But after a year of that, I am finding the recipes begin to repeat themselves. I always keep a book of the "tried and true" recipes close at hand. The ones that Todd likes.

Melissa S. said...

You'll have an overdose of suggestions, I'm sure. I double a lot of recipes....but only the recipes that I don't mind eating as leftovers the next night. Yes, I cook every night besides.
Lunch- snacky foods, sandwiches or Mac N Cheese for the kiddos. Sometimes you can give them enough cheese, crackers and grapes and call it quits.
One of your friends hit it right on the head when she said the snacky foods and drinks are what you spend the most money on. Try making a menu and only buying those things. Being prego, I know that some nights you just don't feel like such-n-such. But have a list of 7 meals or whatever so you can pick from those that you know you have all the ingredients to.
Most casseroles, baked spagettis, meatloaves, etc. can be frozen. Try making extra one day and freeze another batch for bad days.
and you DO eat fancy my lady...I've never had fancier salads then when you made them. :)
Are ya craving Subway this time again?

Our EyreLife said...

Hello my dear!

My friends and I have several cooking/recipe blogs---You're welcome to join in on THAT fun (send me your email address and I'll make you a "contributing chef" if you want) or just look at the blogs for ideas. It's actually pretty fun--and helpful.

http://pleasantandplump [dot] blogspot [dot] [com]

http://deliciousdishes [dot] blogspot [dot] [com]

http://triedandtruefoods [dot] blogspot [dot] [com]

Let me know what you think of those! :)

Kory said...

All you need are el monteray's frozen chimichungas.

J&B Barrett said...

Hey Man,
as an answer to your question.. Nope.. no baby in me!
My two sisters are havin babies right after christmas though!

Prina Family said...

I have such a problem with this too. We spend so much money on food no matter how much i try to budget. The hardest thing for me is i usually cook one thing for John one thing for Kyler and one thing for me. I cant believe i do this and once i have another kid, im going to make my family eat the same thing at the same time or they can have nothing! haha. I cook 5 times a week usually. For lunch, i pack John a lunch. I eat wraps, sandwiches, leftovers and that sort of stuff. For dinner i have a weekly routine to make my life easier: i make something good Mon and tues. Something easy on Wed. Then eat Mondays leftovers Thurs, Tuesdays leftovers on Fri. or sat. and go out or do something special/ diff. the other day. Sunday we make one thing and bring it to my parents and they feed us all day! I hope that all makes sense. Sorry its so long. Good luck!!!

Kayla R. said...

YEah same I am not prego but I am cooking cleaning or cleaning! ha i personally think it is cheaper to cook ever night we shop at Walmart! and Tyler or I cook every night. I really like crock pots easy and you only have to clean one thing*

Jeanette said...

We get a lot of meats from costco like chicken and pork chops, the chicken comes already in individual packets of 2 breasts and the pork chops I put in baggies myself, then we freeze it and grab a pouch of whatever when we're ready. The only other meats we really use are groung turkey and we'll buy a whole chicken if its on sale. I'm not a big cow eater.... I use the crockpot a few times a week, there are so many great recipes and its so easy to just throw everything in there. This week I bought meat and cheese from the deli and other sandwich stuff so I was able to be lazy and make yummy sandwiches a couple times for dinner! But seriously costco is great for meats, snacks, juices, soups, so much stuff and even though we don't have a big family it still works out great!

Camille said...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who does dishes alone! Right now as soon as dinner is over Birch goes back to study and I clean--I guess we think we're both doing our jobs?

Anyway, I usually cook 6 nights a week. We've decided Fridays are always out-to-eat night, even if that means just Wendy's or Nico's. It's nice to know a break from the cooking is coming once a week.

For lunch we have leftovers, sandwiches or burritos. To keep our food bill lower, I always plan for one night of pasta, one night of potatoes and one night of beans per week. We do eat chicken or beef on the other nights but we split one chicken breast and keep meat portions small. Thanks for this post, everyone had some good ideas!

Jana said...

Since dishes are my least favorite thing EVER! I always try things to make the least amount of dishes possible. When I bake, I use parchment paper. When I cook chicken on a cookie sheet I line it with foil. When I use the crock pot, I buy those crock pot liners. It cuts down on dishes a lot.
And when I do cook, I try to plan out the weeks meals in a way that lets me cook only once. Like if I am baking chicken breasts one night I make a few extra to shred up for tomorrows dinner of tacos, or chicken soup, or casserole.