Working people....dinner?

[mommytotwo]

For all your working people out there, especially moms. Do you go home every night, and make a sit down meal for your family? What do you make? Do you go out often to eat or pick something up at a restaurant to take home?

 

[Christine]

For all your working people out there, especially moms. Do you go home every night, and make a sit down meal for your family? What do you make? Do you go out often to eat or pick something up at a restaurant to take home?

Pretty much 5 days a week I cook a meal. I usually plan out my meals on Sunday and shop for them. Nothing spectacular of course. Most of my recipes need to be done in 45 minutes to an hour. I usually make spaghetti one night a week, flank steak with salad is another, a chicken salsa verde casserole that my son loves, sometimes I make a Chicken Souvlaki in pita bread.

Lately though, I have tried out one of those dinner preparation places (they have different names depending on where you live but Dream Dinners is a big one, Let's Dish, Dinner Done, etc.). I go there once a month and prepare 8 entrees that are usually REALLY good. I have been augmenting my own cooking with these and it's great.

I rarely carry out from a restaurant because the food is fairly high is sodium and fat.

 

[C.Ann]

This topic is discussed frequently over on the Budget Board - for those who are looking for ways to trim their budgets and not eat out or bring food home that often anymore..

Lots of people do a "marathon" cooking session on the weekend.. Sometimes once a week - sometimes once a month.. They make large batches of food that they can freeze (usually main dishes) and then just heat them up when they get home - adding a vegetable, side dish, salad, or whatever..

I do something similar here at the lake.. I'm all alone during the week until my DD and her family come up to their travel trailer on Friday night and stay till Sunday night.. I know myself well enough to know that there are going to be nights that I just don't feel like cooking from scratch - even though I don't work.. So when I do cook from scratch, I make enough so I can eat that night - plus have enough leftover to make several "homemade" tv dinners.. I keep a bunch of "sides" on hand - usually some kind of fruit - and if I haven't included a vegetable in the tv dinner, I grab whatever I have on hand..

Works out great - and I don't have to cook from "scratch" every night..

 

[RN4Babies]

For all your working people out there, especially moms. Do you go home every night, and make a sit down meal for your family? What do you make? Do you go out often to eat or pick something up at a restaurant to take home?

I'm a single mom with two kids. I work full tiime. I (or sometimes my son) make dinner every night; we go out to eat twice a month on Sunday morning for breakfast. I can't remember the last time we ate dinner in a restaurant or took something home for supper.

I use my crockpot a lot. (There are tons of crockpot recipes on the internet). I make pot roast, bbq short ribs, chili, beef stew, etc. in it. A favorite is crockpt chicken supreme (skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cream of mushroom soup, sliced fresh mushrooms and onions. During the last 30 minutes stir in a container of low fat sour cream, and serve over brown minute rice and a salad). Tonight for dinner we're having bbq oven baked chicken (again, boneless, skinless breasts), baked potatoes and salad. I do more time intensive dishes on the weekends, and always double up. For example, if I'm making meatloaf, I always make two, and freeze one for later in the month to heat up on a work night.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I am a working mom of 2. We almost always have a meal prepared at home, but we use a lot of "convenience" foods, prepare one-dish meals for the freezer on weekends and at least once a week we have sandwiches. I almost never cook anything that takes more than half-an-hour on the actual meal night. We also like the grocery store rotisserie chickens. One of us will pick one up, we'll have it with veggies and salad or something and then take the leftover chicken to make jambalaya or something along those lines the next night.

We used to eat out quite a bit, but with two kids now it is soo difficult and doesn't fit into our budget anymore.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Pretty much 5 days a week I cook a meal. I usually plan out my meals on Sunday and shop for them. Nothing spectacular of course. Most of my recipes need to be done in 45 minutes to an hour. I usually make spaghetti one night a week, flank steak with salad is another, a chicken salsa verde casserole that my son loves, sometimes I make a Chicken Souvlaki in pita bread.

Lately though, I have tried out one of those dinner preparation places (they have different names depending on where you live but Dream Dinners is a big one, Let's Dish, Dinner Done, etc.). I go there once a month and prepare 8 entrees that are usually REALLY good. I have been augmenting my own cooking with these and it's great.

I rarely carry out from a restaurant because the food is fairly high is sodium and fat.

Can you post a Chicken Salsa Verde recipe? That sounds very yummy!

I do a lot of what I'd call super quick cooking. Things like:

Scrambled eggs, toast, fruit salad.

Make taco meat and dump it on a salad with some cheese, or mix it with boil in the bag brown rice, plain nonfat yogurt (tastes like sour cream), and a few other tasty things.

A piece of meat in my George Foreman grill, microwave in the bag veggies, boil in the bag rice. I LOVE my George Foreman grill for speedy dinners.

Ravioli or Tortellini with storebought sauce and a side of frozen peas.

Things I can make in 10 minutes.

I also like to make something on Sundays -- a roast chicken, a big pot of chili or soup, that will last me through the first part of the week.

We really try not to eat out more than once a week. Sometimes we do better than others.

 

[runwad]

I work 3 days a week so I usually make a big meal on Tues/Thurs when I'm home and on the weekends. Then on my work days we either eat leftovers or something from the crock pot thats done as we get home. Tonight we had chicken breasts in the crock pot that I mixedwith some cream of chicken soup and white wine to make a sauce then just made some white rice in the microwave w/ green peas. Very good and super speedy. You can even put your chicken breasts in frozen and they cook up fine. I do this when I've forgotten to take something out the night before. I never use my microwave to defrost, I don't know why I just can't do it right, seems like it always cooks part of the meat, yucky.

 

[Nette]

Another working mom here... We eat home most nights, but I make DH do the cooking! (he's better at it)

I do most of the planning for the week though. Tonight, there are pork tenderloins in a mexicanish sauce in the crock pot and they smell AMAZING. I wish he'd get home and finish dinner.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

Guess I"m the bad mom...lol
We have alot of ramen noodle nights, hot dog nights, pb&j nights..

Sometimes I find the energy to make a pot meal (chili, spaghetti etc)...

A few times a month I'll cook a true meat, potato, veggie meal..

Generally, we eat out.

 

[dec5girl]

I plan everything out on the weekend and get all the shopping done then too. We cook at home almost always. I try to make something big on Monday which is my day off and it gives leftovers for Tuesday. I love to use the crock pot. Sometimes we have what we call "easy" dinners. For example tonight we are having French Dip sandwiches and leftover Au-Gratin potatoes that I made Monday. Easy aren't always the healthiest, but we don't have them every night. We make lots of salads too. I think planning ahead is the best way to keep the budget on track!

 

[mickeyboat]

DH does most of the cooking at our house because he is better at it and usually gets home before I do.

We cook meals probably 4 nights a week, eat out once, and use convenience foods twice. I plan 3 meals on Sundays when I go grocery shopping and keep lots of convenience foods at hand.

 

[Handbag Lady]

It is just me and Husband.


I am a lousy cook and I hate it. Yet, every single day on the way home, husband asks me what's for dinner...sigh...I have no idea and I don't care. I wish he'd stop asking me. After 9 years, you'd think he'd get the hint.

I make spaghetti but he hates that, so he forges for himself or doesn't eat. I make canned soup or cubed steak dinners, sometimes we'll grill something.

We eat out more than humanly necessary.

 

[Pigeon]

I use the freezer a great deal. If I'm cooking a meal on the weekends, I make a triple batch and freeze the extras in meal sized portions. If I'm hanging around the house, I'll cook a big batch of soup or stew to stash in the freezer.

I do serve a hot meal every night. If I didn't have the freezer it would be a lot harder and we'd eat more fast food junk. I cook easy non-freezer stuff about twice a week, like spaghetti or grilled boneless chicken breasts. Generally speaking, I can have dinner on the table half an hour after I get home.

 

[NCRedding]

We used to eat out a lot, but that has been hard on our budget and waistlines, so I've been trying to cook at home in the evenings.

I do simple stuff. Tonight was frozen chicken breasts, covered and baked with jarred spaghetti sauce, and topped with parmesan cheese. I served it with a nice fresh green salad and canteloupe. A few slices of bread with a little bit of margarine and garlic salt on the side.

I've been using the crockpot to cook large roasts, usually on the weekend so I can watch the temperature gauge to make sure they don't get too done. Then we'll enjoy the leftovers either in a stir fry or on a sandwich later in the week.

I find if I think about it a little bit ahead, it really isn't too hard, and MUCH cheaper than eating out.

 

[fussymonkey]

This time of year we're all about the grill. I will throw some meat and corn on the cob on the grill while the kids play outside. Its quick, no clean up, and I can be with them while they play. My husband just killed a pig so we have a ton of pork chops for the grill right now... I think we have some short ribs in the freezer, I will do them in the crockpot next week.

 

[ZachnElli]

Working mom here too. I also plan on the weekends and shop then too. I look at everything from the week ahead with the kids' activities, the weather (to grill or not), to the sales at the stores. I cook almost every night, very rarely do we eat out or grab take out. If I have a desperate night, forgot to take something out or have a migraine, there is a grocery store next door to where I work and I'll pick up a rotisserie chicken.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I am a lousy cook and I hate it. Yet, every single day on the way home, husband asks me what's for dinner...sigh...I have no idea and I don't care. I wish he'd stop asking me. After 9 years, you'd think he'd get the hint.

OMG!!!! I am another one with a husband who is one of those men.
One of those men who is like - 'the woman cooks....' PERIOD, no further option or discussion.
His dad was like Archie Bunker in that way!!! Couldn't boil water.... My MIL took care all of those things.

Why can people not get the simple concept that any normal, healthy, redblooded, human being who gets hungry should develop the ability to prepare something and feed themselves! But, alas, to the few men out there that are like this, having an appendage between their legs means that they must have a slave-woman to, as I call it, 'breast-feed' them!

If I am not up to cooking, then that means we go out... and not just to any restaurant, because we are picky about what we put in our bodies.... (calories, fat, additives, sodium, etc....) So, that means I either cook a healthy meal, or we go out and spend a fortune.

Well, in the interest of saving some money and being more fiscally responsible, he has determined that we should eat at home more... Ohhh goodie..... seven days a week for me in the kitchen... Me being responsible for 'What's for dinner".

Last night all of this came to a head.
DH got home before me. Nothing was pulled out of the freezer or fridge... nothing was started in the kitchen.... DH was puttering around, with the obvious assumption that food was going to just appear on the table.... When I finally got the obligatory "what's for dinner..." I said, "You tell me.... YOU take care of it... " You would have thought I started world war three... Thank goodness we had some Stouffers grilled chicken lunches in the freezer... THAT was dinner...

It is not like I am a regular working mom.... But, I am busy, and I really do not have the time or the energy to be a 'chef' every night. There are many ways to prepare a nice meal without being Martha Stewart. We have found a few frozen items that we can make of good use. I cook things that are quick. Tonight, it was an italian linguini dish. I use the fresh, not dry (and not 'enriched' with additives) linguini that you sometimes find in the cooler... (done and soft, not rubbery al-dente, in just moments) I have found a jarred Marinara that is quite good... So, it only takes minutes to put together a hot, healthy, well rounded meal starting with those two items.

 

[Pigeon]

Why can people not get the simple concept that any normal, healthy, redblooded, human being who gets hungry should develop the ability to prepare something and feed themselves!

My husband had this tendency when we first were married. He got home from his job several hours before I did, but he would ask me every night at 6pm, "What's for dinner, dear?"

I tried to get him to start dinner earlier by giving him instructions on what to cook (I'd done all the shopping and it was all right there) and how to get started, but he still didn't do it and would be clueless when I got home.

Finally, I started picking up some take out for one on my way home. I'd come in and sit down at the table and eat my purchased dinner in front of him, while not saying a thing about it but chatting away about other things.

It took less than a week to cure his little problem, and he's been great about getting dinner started ever since.

 

[Riverhill]

I use Schwan's. I make my meal plan for the week and buy Schwan's food to create meals that otherwise I would never be able to make in the limited time. I get home from work at 6pm and can have a pot roast with potatoes, and veggies ready in 30 minute. I know it cost more than buying traditional meals at the store but for the work-week it is worth the price. Plus for complete honestly's sake my husband does get an employee discount. It isn't much but it helps a bit.

 

[tasha99]

Yes, we do eat at home, but here it is after 7:30, and dinner won't be done for 10 more minutes. That's typical (no wonder bedtime is always later than it's supposed to be).