Eating Out UPDATE!

I think part of it is simply thinking outside the box.
There's nothing wrong with having sandwiches for dinner, for example. If you want something warm you can always toast it open face style under the broiler for a few minutes.
Eggs are another great dinner option. Scrambled is easy, add some meat, onions, cheese or veges, make an omelette if you want it a little fancier (and it's a GREAT way to use up random leftovers in the fridge.)
Spaghetti is super easy, and tacos too.
Get the kids involved, cooking is a great way to spend time together, and they learn healthy habits at the same time!

You're going to have to spend some time doing actual meal planning. Do you have a full size freezer?

I am of the opinion that your freezer is your best friend. I do lots of meal prep work, and then all I have to do is take things out of the freezer.Instead of making one meat loaf, make two or three and freeze. It's a matter of learning how to cook smart. For instance, you make a roast and then use left over meat for tacos later on in the week. Or you roast a chicken or two and then convert the carcass and scrap meat into chicken noodle soup. We have soup and sandwich nights. Soup freezes great, so I make big double batches of soup, freeze meals for later, and then just make grill cheese sandwiches. Another thing we do is buy spiral ham and freeze lunch and dinner size portions.

Chicken pot pie is one of my favorite "quick" meals. In fact, hubby just roasted a bunch of leg quarters for me, and tomorrow we will make stock and throw together hte pies (I did my dough today). I'm doubling a recipe, so I should get a bunch of dinners out of it ( 6-8). While doing the chicken, he also grilled a bunch of sausage for sandwiches and as a side for pasta.

In short, have food cooking days, where you prepare tons of food. Then, you have your own "fast food."

BTW, pizza dough freezes great. Cheese for pizza freezes great! I make my own quick pasta sauce that doesn't even require cooking! All my bits and pieces are in the freezer, and it takes no time at all to make a fresh pizza! We even grill it, so I don't have dishes!

If you want to eat healthy, you are going to need to stop buying processed foods and start learning how to cook where you convert one meal into 5 or 6 meals. I made pasta with a vodka sauce last night, and I made enough sauce for 3 more dinners. Sauce, like soup, freezes well, and homemade sauce and soup is healthy! It doesn't have all that junk in it that they use to "store" stuff.

Enchiladas is another great one. I make up bunches and then freeze meals for later. Throw in some rice, fresh gauc and chips, and you have a healthy meal everyone loves.

I use the ap menu planner, and then I use cozy to keep track of what is in the freezer. I have a list of "prepared foods." It works great.

When I am not up for cooking a lot or doing a lot of dishes, we do toast and eggs. Surely that is a lot healthier than fast food. add a piece of fruit and you have a healthy meal with protein that is under 300 calories.

We also do sandwiches with a side of the baked chips and fruit on busy days, or spaghetti with jarred sauce and a green salad. You could also look into crock pot meals or freezer meals. I will cook an extra big batch of sweet and sour meatballs, chili, beef and broccoli, orange chicken, etc and freeze part of it, then you just need to defrost or put it in the crockpot the day of eating it. You could also do stir fry with the bagged frozen veggies. We like the House of Tang brand stir fry sauces and I have a rice cooker that makes cooking rice even easier, just press a button. Quick, easy, healthy. Good luck!

Great question! I have loved reading the other answers.

A few things we do are:

1) English muffin or pita pizzas cooked in the toaster over (or regular oven depending on how many people you are cooking for). We usually toast the English muffin for a bit, take it out and put on sauce from a jar and top with cheese and whatever else we feel like.

2) Crockpot chicken - I'm not a huge crockpot person, but like to shake up my meal plan with it. You can put chicken, mushrooms and italian dressing in the crockpot and cook for several hours. Or we recently did chicken, potatoes and italian dressing and it came out really good!

3) Shake 'n bake chicken or pork (it only takes a minute to prepare and around 20 minutes to cook). We pair this with brown rice (pre-bagged take 10 minutes to cook) and a frozen veggie.

4) Tacos - Although there can be some prep work (tomatoes, olives etc), it really doesn't take long to cook. We like to use 99% fat free turkey burger so they aren't too unhealthy either!

5) I love rotisserie chickens as a quick on the go meal. I can pick one up while driving home from somewhere. I like to eat it with a salad, fresh bread, or tomatoes with mozzarella.

6) Sometimes we cook a bunch of chicken on Sunday. We'll put some with a sauce (bbq, teriyaki) and some of it plain. The plain chicken can be used during the week on top of salad (chicken caesar or whatever dressing you want to use), in fajitas, or in quesadillas (I'm sure there are other options too!).

Good luck!

What keeps things interesting for me so that we don't get bored with the same things is that I surf at least one cooking blog a day. My favorite is Pioneer Woman but there are lots and lost of great ones out there. And then you need a place to actually store the recipes. For me, the Cozi online calender (which is free) is the best place for this. Before Cozi I used to have a bunch of bookmarks or would e-mail myself recipes and ideas but never did anything with them. Pinterest is a good way to do this too.

With Cozi, there is a button you can download to your tool bar that you can click when you see a recipe you like and it adds it to your Cozi recipe collection. From there, you can add items to a shopping list, schedule them in your calendar, etc.

Seeing food from the perspective of other cooks who really enjoy cooking and meal planning, and who take good pictures, can really help turn what is a chore into something adventurous and enjoyable. It might also inspire you to try something new. Like veggies...it's hard for me to believe that you really don't like ALL veggies. There's such a variety of textures, colors and flavors and no way that you've tried everything. Maybe challenge yourself to try one new veggie a week, cooked a different way than what you've tried before. For example, 10 years ago I HATED spinach. Would never, ever eat it. Well then I realized I hated cooked spinach served on its own. Chopped into a pasta dish, calzone filling, dip, etc. or served raw are now totally fine for me. If you can find some veggies that you do like, you'll be setting a good example for your kids and making your own life easier.

Anyway...here are some fun blogs:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
http://smittenkitchen.com/

And this is a GREAT blog entry for anyone dealing with getting dinner on the table quickly - the rest of his site is great too!
http://www.dadcooksdinner.com/search?updated-max=2013-01-...

My favorites:

Crock-pot recipes
Foreman grill for chicken sandwiches or burgers
Stir-frys (a meat, a couple of frozen or fresh veggies, bottled sauce / seasonings) served over rice or pasta or tortillas
Soft tacos - chicken, fish, or black bean
Quesadillas - cheese, or chicken & cheese, bean & cheese - with salsa
Omelets

Any of these can be made in about the time it takes to bake a frozen pizza. The trick, of course, is to have the ingredients handy. Bottled sauces are great to have around - sweet & sour, peanut sauce, stir fry sauces (spicy and not), pasta sauces (red & Alfredo), marinade-type sauces for chicken/fish, taco seasoning, salsa.

Or, make a big pan of something on the weekend and have leftovers - lasagna, enchiladas (my family loves chicken, green chili, cheesy enchiladas). Serve with a side salad...yum...

Crock pots can be your friend. Put things in when you are getting ready in the AM and come back to soups, stews, roasts, chilis...If your kids won't eat soup, will the eat the parts of soup? Or you can always say "Tonight is stew or PBJ you make yourself." Making things in the crock pot is a good way for me to get veg to the family and keep it lower fat, lower salt, etc.

Ground beef (low fat) can become meatballs, hamburgers, tacos....whatever you fee like and have the ingredients for. What may help is to think about standard meals your family likes and if there are special ingredients, keep them on hand. I can always reach into our pantry for things like taco shells, corn bread mix or chili spices. I also keep pasta, couscous, canned veg and fruit of different sorts and rice.

Stir fry - not hard and you can enlist the whole family to wash and chop what they want. You get your meat (you can put potatoes in there, too) and just add what veggies you like - broccoli, baby corn, carrots...you can each pick what you like but it will all be flavorful.

For us, part of it is thinking ahead and keeping a few go-tos to fill in dinners. Like I have decided I will pay more for precut butternut squash. Super easy side dish. Or potatoes (baked or sweet) in the microwave.

You can also adjust your definition of dinner. Breakfast is perfectly acceptable. Soup and sandwiches, too. Dinner doesn't need to always be steak and 3 sides.

You might want to sit down with the kids before a grocery run and brainstorm ideas for each night. Make them part of the process. Remember, you are building new habits. It takes time. Just keep working at it. How to cook? Get Joy of Cooking or any simple cookbook and just try. Laugh at the failures and rejoice at the successes. If my DH can, you can. :)

Quick go to meals? Tacos. Spaghetti. Picadillo. BBQ chicken. Salads.
I always add veggies and fruit to every meal. Frozen veggies, fresh, salads, carrot sticks. something!
You just have to stop going out. I know it's hard!! My sons play soccer in the evening and it would be so much easier to just drive through and get burgers, but I just can't do that to their bodies. My is all kinds of messed up, don't want theirs to be!
If you have a crock pot that should be a lifesaver! I don't have a big enough one, I will in a couple of weeks! I can't wait. I should be able to prep and put it all in in the morning and then easy dinners on the 4 nights we have soccer.
L.

Subway sandwiches

Omelettes

Burritos ! we keep em simple.. grilled chicken or steak... rice, beans, avocado and salsa...... you can make all the ingredients the day before as they keep quite nicely.. OR buy em out...

Since the kids and hubby will eat veggies, you can make a BIG salad... We do many different types from Greek to Cobb ... Now, since you don't like veggies.. is there any type of greens you will eat and if so.. then add grilled chicken or steak.. .. since you like fruit, Mangos go nicely in salad...

I didn't list the recipes because you probably know how to make both..

Another go to item for us is lasagne and or pasta.. I do make my own sauce in batches, so on days when we feel like either, I pull a container out of the freezer..
If you think you want to do sauce, lemme know and I can give you my recipe.. it's ALL in my head.. so I need to do it on a separate post..

good luck

I only cook breakfast about once a week. The rest of the time we have cereal, toast, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt etc. I never cook lunch. Lunch is always sandwiches, cheese and crackers, raw veggies, left over dinner, hot dogs etc. I only need to worry about cooking supper. On week days it is just the kids and I, so I make easy meals. I make pasta once a week with ground beef or italian sausage in a sauce from a jar. Other quick and easy (30 minutes or less) main course items are baked ham (the pre-cooked nugget kind), baked fish, baked chicken breasts, roasted pork tenderloin, pan fried pork chops, chicken fingers, taco's, grilled cheese, pancakes, french toast and quesadilla's. Frozen french fries or hash browns, rice, perogies or noodles are quick sides. Veggies from a can or frozen, and raw fresh veggies for my kids (they don't eat cooked veggies). I save the meals that take more time and preparation for the weekend.

Hi! Everyone here is always coming and going and meals are a challenge. Think small. I prep everything ahead and I split it onto single size servings. I'll make burgers or homemade (fat free) sausage patties and freeze then on a cookie sheet so we can pull out just what we need. They thaw quickly so you don't really need to think ahead. I precook things like bratwurst (in apple cider- yum) so all you have to do is warm them up.
Do you have a Foreman grill? We use it all the time for quick meat cooking.
Poach chicken, cube and use it for stir fry or salad. If you freeze it put it on a cookie sheet first , it thaws in moments. Cube chicken or pork and marinate. Oh, so many uses. We even put the cubes on the Foreman grill.
I always have baked potatoes around. When I bake them I make extra. They can be potato salad, stuffed potatoes, mashed potatoes, homefries.
I also prep onions and peppers, grate cheese, and make beans to go with lettuce, tomato, salsa, and whatever else we have around. I won't call them tacos because we rarely make taco meat but we do keep wraps in the fridge all the time. We will throw whatever we have in the wrap and can add any of the prepped meat from the freezer.
Learn to love your crockpot.
It's too bad the kids won't eat soup. My son hates breakfast but makes soup for himself almost every morning.
You can do this!!!
Good luck

Are you on Pinterest? I got a little tired of our "go-to" meals and found some great new ones on Pinterest:)

Crockpot: 3 frozen Chicken breasts, 1/2 bag frozen corn, 1 can black beans drained and rinsed. When you get home, shred chicken in crockpot add a packet of taco seasoning and half jar of salsa. Eat with taco shells, lettuce. And tomato.

I buy meat on sale. Ill cook chicken in crockpot and then shred. I then freeze in single serving portions. We use for wraps, salads, soup, etc. I mix ground turkey and beef, brown it and freeze 1 lb in freezer bags. Chili, spaghetti are quick and easy.

You said you dont like veggies....i buy them frozen and bake almost all. veggies....i spray with Pam and a little salt.....soo good. I'll even broil to get them crispy like grilled.

Wraps. You can use any kind of meat (or none), any kind of veggie, throw some dressing and cheese in there too, and voila! Dinner is made. My current favorite is to mix cooked chicken with a little BBQ sauce then put in a wrap with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and coleslaw. Last week I made shrimp po'boy wraps (instead of on a baguette).

There are thousands of things you can do with leftover (or rotisserie) chicken. All you need to do is search for recipes.

Even if you make one of your standard dishes, add a vegetable side. Have raw veggies out for snacking while you cook if it's easier.

Breakfast is even easier. Toast something and serve fruit and yogurt with it. Hot cereals such as oatmeal or CoCo Wheats (my fav) are fast and easy. Hard boiled eggs sliced onto buttered toast is good, too. The key for me is to make it easy enough to do fast or for the kids to do with minimal assistance.

It's not as hard as you think. You can do it!

Quick meals in my book do not need to be based around convenience foods like pot pies and frozen pizza. It takes just minutes to mix up your own pizza dough: just mix a pack yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water and 1 teaspoon of sugar, set aside. Mix 2 cups flour, 1/2 t. salt, and 1 T. of oil in a food processor, process 5 sec. Add the yeast, process 10 sec. Then start drizzling in water until the dough forms a ball then process about 25 more rotations. Let it stand 10 minutes and make your pizza.

I also plan menus using the quick recipes (prep time 20 minutes or less) from Real Simple magazine and Cooking Light magazine. Look for recipes that use less than 5 ingredients (other than seasonings).

Step out of your comfort zone with foods. You say you don't eat veggies as a group. Huh? Veggies are incredibly varied, how can you lump them all into one group and say you don't like them? That is like saying you don't like protein sources. Using the wonderful recipes from the aforementioned magazines (check out their websites), I have learned to like a bunch of veggies I either never tried before or I had in my dislike category, like Brussel sprouts, kale, collard greens, etc. Amazing what a good recipe can do for your opinion about a food.

Another fallback quick meal for a night that I haven't planned anything specific is a stir fry. We have a rice cooker for the rice so I get that set up. In the 20 minutes it takes the rice to cook, I mix up a sauce for the stir fry (endless variations possible but start with a little soy sauce, rice vinegar, orange juice, garlic, and ginger with a little cornstarch for thickener. Set aside the sauce and prep the meat and veggies. The meat can be thin strips of beef, pork, chicken, or tofu. You don't need a wok to do stir fry, I just heat up a big fry pan to high with some peanut oil in it. For veggies you can do anything that is on hand: shredded carrots, broccoli, pea pods, kale, mushrooms, onions, celery, whatever is handy. After the meat is cooked set it aside and throw in the chopped veggies. Don't let them over cook, just til they start getting a tiny bit tender. Then throw the meat back in and add the sauce. Just cook until the sauce thickens. The rice will be done and you can eat. Super easy, super healthy, super good. Change up the sauce and the stir fry ingredients and it feels like a totally new meal.

A rice cooker makes life super easy. Leftover rice can easily be made into fried rice using frozen veggies, a little soy sauce, and a beaten egg or two.

Have fun trying new things!

Tacos (lots of fixings)
Spaghetti
Lasagna
Rotisserie Chicken
Steak, mashed potatoes, salad
Chili w/cornbread

What works for me is to make what I KNOW my family likes.

I am tired of wasting food trying new things because hubby & SD only like to eat one type of food. So.....I just try to put a spin on things.
If they want spaghetti, I add a salad & garlic bread.

Chicken breasts on the grill w/bbq sauce, corn.

Steaks, red potatoes.

I try to vary things (diff types of tacos w/diff fixings, diff kinds of steak w/
sauce, w/o sauce, on the bbq, in the pan etc. I try to add diff kinds of
sides like twice mashed baked potaotes, corn on the cobb.

Hamburgers, fries, salad.

Try diff types of veggies (broiled, steamed, baked).

stir fry is a great one, quick and easy. i just brown some diced chicken, throw in a can of chinese veggies, and put it over rice. (season all to taste). (*side note, i use a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, and peanut butter, add some roasted peanuts, and OMG. it sounds weird but it is to die for- but NOT healthy lol)

tacos! super easy and quick.

quesadillas....

grilled sandwiches. you can use Pam instead of slathering on butter and it's actually pretty healthy. whole wheat bread, etc.

we do home made hamburgers, super easy.

those are a few off the top of my head. i hate planning meals all the time, when eating out is so much more convenient/easier/quicker. i go through periods where we do it way too much too. in fact i rarely go a week without us eating out once or twice...ugh! you are not alone!

We used to eat out a lot-both my husband and I work, plus my daughter has soccer and my husband is in school, so time to cook during the week is scarce! What I have found that works is I do a lot of my cooking for the week on sunday and freeze it in those disposable foil pans. Most recipes will feed us twice, so I put half in each pan, cover with foil and write what it is and the re-heating instructions. I'll grab something out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw in the morning. Come home, pop it in the oven to cook while we do homework, etc and there you go-a nice dinner with hardly any dishes to do afterwards-just throw the pan away!

Go to easy meals:

-Cheeseburgers, frozen fries, green beans or salad
-Salads with chicken nuggets or grilled chicken breast on top
-Taco Salads or Tacos/Burritos with rice or chips/salsa
-Chicken (seasoned/marinated) over rice or with buttered noodles / mashed cauliflower or green beans
-Pasta of some kind with meat
-Fish (the already cooked frozen kind) with veggies/starch
-Eggs, Waffles, Toast and fruit
-Ham and Macaroni and cheese (kids fav)

MOST of our meals take less than 30 minutes from the start to the table. Some I make over the weekend (chicken chili in the crockpot, beef stew in the crockpot) and hubby and I will eat them for lunch cuz the kids don't eat them!

hi mom, so glad you posted again i've been wondering how it was going. you inspire me to try to be healthier too.

so i want to know what you eat when you go out???

we usually do pizza once a week. I really like when we have soft long buns and make our own french bread pizza in the toaster oven the kids love english muffin pizza's for lunch but i'm not a fan of english muffins. I also love the squeeze bottles of pizza sauce SOOO much easier than opening up a can ha ha. we always have pepperoni in the fridge that and peanut butter are staples. frozen pizzas are a decent option too, i just do'nt think they taste as good.

For the chicken, I think i'd just as soon pull out frozen nuggets than eat a frozen chicken pot pie, i can't ever get the bottom crust to cook right. Chicken is great to throw in the crock pot. and serve with a side dish or too. if you think to put it in in the am. I find that if i take the time to brown the chicken in a frying pan with some butter or something before i put it in the crock pot IT looks lots more appetizing.
and like people have said if i put enough chicken breasts in the crock pot i can have left over shredded chicken on a salad or on a soft taco with some cheese. chicken salad sandwich sounds great right now.

weds is always spaghetti night at our house because its' so fast. I boil noodles, heat up some jarred sauce, some garlic bread night fancy it up for you.

your roast sounds great

what do you like a sonic?? we keep frozen fries in the freezer and bake them they aren't half bad hubs buys hamburgers premade in patties and frozen and that is pretty quick to grab and throw on the george foreman, I got mine from freecycle and use it pretty often, you can fancy up your burgers with cheddar and bbq, or some fancy buns, we freeze buns they arent' great but i can never remember to get them.

go you with the pork chops!!

tacos are super fast, that is one thing i cook ahead and then freeze, i just thaw out a bag of meat and throw it on a taco shell, we always have taht in the pantry too. sloppy joes can be fast, mac and cheese and hot dogs are fast, even if they aren't super healthy i think they will help you break the link with eating out and would be a big step for you.,

i would love to have you post again. I was going to post what we had this week but i'm too tired to remember.

we eat out (lunches) on weekends only. my go to meals are: turkey chili (has peppers, beans, and tomatoes), chicken parmesan with pasta on the side and oven-roasted asparagus, mousaka (with ground turkey or chicken and potatoes) that is served with steamed cauliflower, roasted chicken with roasted veggies (zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots (and whatever you have handy), chicken stew (and whatever vegetables you have handy/just fresj not canned or frozen etc.
if any of these look appealing to you pm me so i can send you the recipes)

Instead of your menu - try this one... it was mine ;)

Monday - scrambled eggs, broccolli, fruit, and toast (we do meatless Mon.).
Tuesday - pork tenderloin medallions - take a pork tenderloin - cut it into 1 inch thick slices and pan fry with a few spices (I like to add apples and fresh thyme). They cook SUPER fast. Rice and a vegi (beans). Here is a link to a fav. recipe:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spiced-pork-tenderloin-wi...

Wed. - taco's - we used chicken breast w/ black beans, and vegetables (avocado, tomato, lettuce).
Thurs. - Sloppy Joes and oven baked fries (I make my own by quartering potatoes and tossing with olive oil and kosher salt).
Friday - homemade pizza.
Sat. - Spaghetti
Sun. - not sure yet :)

I don't know about you, but my biggest problem is that I am the one that not only fixes whatever we, but I am the one that decides what we are going to eat. My solution (not completely original, but it works for us) is that I make each member of my family (including my 5 year old son, which yes means we end up with Mac n Cheese & Hot Dogs as a choice, but so be it, he will surprise me at times) choose 3 meals. The entire meal, right down to the veggie! Then I compile the list, purchase everything we need for those meals and all I have to do is look at the list and make a choice for the next night. 1--it makes dinner less stressful for me, 2--they all get something that they really want to eat at some point, 3--I have about 2 weeks worth of meals on hand, 4--on a night I need a quick fix I can always fall onto one of my 5 yr old's choices! LOL!
I also tend to keep spaghetti in the pantry, that is always a quick fix that everyone at my house likes.
I know that is not a direct answer to your question, but it sure helps at this house! Good luck! J.

I have a bit of an answer. Look at Rachel Rays week in a day. She has great ideas. Cooking on Sunday is going to be best for you, I think. Not much time during the week.

I buy a Honeysuckle frozen Turkey breast. It's about 3 lbs and takes about a couple hours in the oven. You would have to buy it about Thursday and let it thaw in the refrigerator to cook on Sunday. It's about $10. Before you cook it, let a stick of butter soften on the counter for an hour or so. You are going to make a compound butter. Really, just combine the butter with whatever herbs your family likes. They can be fresh or dried. I usually do garlic and rosemary. The butter should stll be slt firm. Mix in the herbs with a fork. Then I like to line a roaster with foil for easy clean up. Put the unwrapped turkey on the pan and take the butter and place it on top in about a half inch patty kind of oval. Cook according to directions.

Meal one, is the plain delicious meat and a starch and a veggie.

Meal 2 a casserole - if you have a favorite made with chicken, make it with the turkey. Keep out about 1/2 of the leftover turkey for the 3 rd meal.
This is a casserole we like:

Turkey Mac and cheese:
Cook 3/4 cup of any macaroni or pasta- it makes about 1 1/2 cup cooked pasta

1/4 c chopped onion
2 lb butter
Sauté the onion in the butter.
When the onion is soft add 2 TBLS flour and mix in. Pour in 1 1/2 cups milk
And cook till thickened. Put in 1 cup of shredded cheese and the leftover turkey till cheese is melted. Throw in the pasta and stir. Put that in the oven at 350 degrees till bubbly about 25-30 mins.

3rd day if you are tired of it, chop the turkey and freeze it for another casserole one day. Or make turkey salad or mix it with BBQ sauce in a pan for a BBq sandwich. Or Make a turkey wrap. Or a turkey enchilada. Or turkey on a salad with bacon!

You have now stretched the turkey and your money. Pasta is cheap.
You know what your family personally likes. Be open to looking up recipes on the web. Find what's on sale. Get H in on the cooking and your kids when they are old enough. You can do this.

Good luck!