Hellobee Boards

Only when we get a Blue Apron shipment...

It is REALLY hard but I try to cook at least 3-4 times a week at minimum.

@winniebee: I work 50+ hours a week normal, more during peak times (quarter ends). Here is what I aim for:

-big Sunday dinner (usually whole chicken and a few sides
-1 more "nice" meal (few sides and main course)
-2 easy/crock pot meals...by easy j mean something where DH (home before me) can get started or handle the lions share of

We eat leftovers one night (tues/weds usually), pizza or casual fam outng friday, nicer meal out saturday (we aim for date night)

I also take left overs for lunch. I make my breakfasts for the week sunday too.

Best thing I ever did was monthly meal plan...it's just hard to sit down and do!!!

I think I'm just in a bad mood tonight, but I read this thread and my very first thought is....I'm sure 98% of working husbands out there are not fretting about how many nights of the week they are cooking a "real" dinner for the family.

I think I'm just salty that I only cook maybe 2-3 meals a week and they are always "cheater" type meals, using like...a rotisserie chicken from the store with frozen veggies that I steam. But DH does 0-1 meals a week. Soooo..... I guess I just don't want to feel like I'm not doing what I should, because if I'm not, he REALLY isn't, you know?

Almost never which is awful to think about. We do either frozen pre cook food like pizza or nuggets and then other easy items like Ramon. I feel like must of the time one or both of us will suggest take out. it is what it is, hopefully it will get better as our LO grows!

On average, two times a week. Sometimes that is four times one week and zero times the next.

I would say 5 on an average week and 4 on bad weeks. We always cook on the weekends, One night a week is typically takeout. Tuesday's and Thursday's DH works late so one night is typically leftovers and the other I throw together a hodgepodge for the girls and I.

For instance, tonight was wagon wheel pasta with homemade sauce (made in a big batch and frozen), leftover steamed bass and peas.

We both WOH FT. It helps a lot now that we can get home by 5/5:15. Before we would not get home till 530/545 and was relying on the crockpot A LOT. A lot of times I would be staying up till almost 11 the night before prepping dinner for the next day. It's really important for us that we don't eat take out or processed foods too much. Don't get me wrong, we still do but I work really hard to limit it.

@Anagram: I'm not trying to be an a$$ or difficult. Promise. But the nights DH is home he is cooking. We come home and he immediately goes to start dinner after taking the dog out. I nurse DD2 then go help. When traffic isn't crazy and he has time he will start some of dinner prep in the morning or finish what I started the night before. He is much better in the mornings and I'm better in the evenings.

I SAH, but I still don't cook 5+ nights/week! We have a weekly date night (leftovers or random things for the girls) plus do either a family dinner out or pizza/take-out another night. I usually do a crockpot thing on Weds since we have a later class for LO1, and plan on getting either leftovers and/or a frozen portion out of whatever that is. Other than all that, I probably cook something 2-3 other times during the week and fill in the gaps with stuff we have frozen. And often one of those is something easy. I'm not a huge fan of cooking and especially not during 2 kids' witching hour!!

Also not knowing if DH will make it home affects things. I'm more likely to put an effort if he will be home.

@Anagram: ugh that is tough! This is the one aspect that was easier when I was a SAHM (or unemployed! Lol). At least I was home and could prep during the day!

I mean....what's NOT a "real meal"? If it's food, it counts in my book

In all honesty, DH eats leftovers every night shift I work. I try to crockpot when I can, but it doesn't always happen. But ain't nobody starving. Not fancy and that's ok

4-5 nights a week on average. We eat at my inlaws every Monday and have take away 1-2 nights a week. Its harder now I have GD because I cant have pizza, Indian or Chinese take away now.

What do you consider real meals? I'm not sure how to answer the question. We eat at home every night accept maybe once on the weekend if we order pizza. We don't make fancy meals but we have home made dinners every night. Most weeks we make at least one meal that will produce leftovers on Monday or Tuesday and then have those leftovers later in the week like Thursday.

Well, we never eat as a family (how do you all do it??) and DH is great about helping so we make dinner usually 5 nights a week. 6 and 7 are frozen pizza and takeout. We also kind of have to cook because I need food to pack lunches the next day for DS and DH. But it's easier for us because we cook after DS goes to bed at 6:30 so there is no rush and I never do more than 50% of the work.

My husband is an Italian and used to big dinners well he got over that real quick when he married me, I would be OK with a grilled cheese and soup for dinner...everydaylol

Our schedule is pretty awesome as he is off either 2 or 3 days out of the work week with every other weekend off!
On his short weeks we cook 5-6 meals
On his long weeks I do a lot more pre frozen things and cheat meals.....lol

@modern daisy: like @winniebee: said, it's a shitshow, but we try to all sit down for dinner together every night. or at least me and the girls if DH is working late. we eat somewhere between 530-6ish, depending on afternoon naps & schedules (generally closer to 530 if i know DH will be late). on a good night, it goes about as you'd expect with a 3.5y and a 1y. on a bad night, hopefully at least 2 of us are sitting at the table at any one point

@winniebee: i started meal planning in 2 week blocks, and it's helped me a bunch! it's not as daunting as monthly, but i hated having to do it every week. now i only make a big grocery run every other week and a quick trip to get random things the weeks in between.

I never cook anything fancy, not a priority in my book. I make sure we are all eating some type of protein, fat and carb combo. Sometimes it is from scratch, sometimes store bought.

@winniebee: I did monthly and LOVED it....I did not plan out exactly what days we'd eat what but I planned out our 4 meals for each week - so I could do my smaller grocery shopping trips on Sunday. It was hugely helpful...especially bc it made my weekly shopping trips much more manageable with a 2 year old in tow.

I bought all my meat in one large trip. I also bought a lot of bulk items from Prime & Boxed - to cut down on the volume of my shopping trips. My weekly trips were mainly produce and dairy.