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I think learning more "method" cooking as opposed to specific recipes helps too...and finding easy staples. We like recipes that can be made 4-5-6 different ways...like risotto, pastas, etc to keep it different yet the same...

On average, 3-4 times a week. Usually a day is leftovers and the rest are take/eating out.

@winniebee: yeah, i hate meal planning. so having to do it only every other week has been great. i really thought about monthly, but i have a hard time deciding things i want to eat a month in advance plus we don't have enough space to buy in bulk, so it's not like i would've only grocery shopped monthly. the 2 weeks (so far...it's been about 2 months) seems like a good balance of planning and flexibility.

For the most part, I cook 6 nights a week - we have takeout on Fridays. I try to limit it to one 'freezer' thing a week (chicken nuggets, fish sticks) and add rice/noodles and a veggie side to those. Sometimes we have scrambled eggs on toast, though, or I make white cheese macaroni and add steamed spinach, tomatoes, green onions and chopped pre-cooked chicken to it to make it a little more nutritious. I really like cooking and wish I could be more ambitious more often but my husband doesn't get home until 5:40, we try to eat at 6, and my toddler is not yet at a point where he can (will?) entertain himself while I cook, so anything I do before my husband gets home has to be done one handed with a 2 year old on my hip.

Hardly ever. We eat out too much. I leave work at 4:45 and it's a miracle if I can get home by 5:45 or 6 p.m. Last night I didn't even make it to daycare until 5:30 and traffic was horrible. By that time, we are all starving and we usually pick something up. So maybe 2-3 times a week? We are going to try to work on it after the new year because we spend a ridiculous amount of money eating out.

I cook 3-4 times per week usually Sunday through Thursday night. DH does not cook unless it's pasta, and it annoys me, but he also gets home on the late side). They are often quick things though. LO does not eat with us though and her food is cooked separately. She has usually eaten by the time I get home. DH gets home late, and I will eat with him or by myself.

So I'm a bit type-A about planning our meals each week, but it's part of the household duties we split pretty evenly. I enjoy cooking as does DH so to enjoy good food we have to plan ahead with a rascally almost-2yr old and second one on the way.

I also blame my mom for my planner mentality, as she managed weekly meals with 4 kids and 2 working parents. I plan 4 nights of meals each week and make sure 1 or 2 of them are freezable and easily doubled. I make them during DD's two naptimes on the weekend, sometimes doing a couple minutes of prep if she's playing in the am by herself after breakfast. Here's this past week's menu:

pesto pasta with grilled chicken (make pesto with WW recipe but you can buy it too, and double the recipe each time so that I can freeze it), with grilled chicken made ahead and sliced and tossed with hot pasta the night we eat it.

jerk pork over rice with mango salsa (skinnytaste recipe I had previously doubled, came from the freezer and I bought the mango salsa at the store)

Cuban beef picadillo with rice and peas (williams sonoma quick suppers recipe we love, think beef chili without beans with raisins and a dash of cinnamon/allspice, DD loves it)

Thai chicken meatballs with stir-fried veggies (quadrupled recipe, these were from the freezer, and DD and DH love them)

Then Friday night we do takeout and sometimes same on Saturday. Sunday night we cook, usually one of the meals that's better eaten that day rather than re-warmed.

The key thing for us is stuff that takes minimal warming from when we walk in the door since DD likes to eat right around 6:30, when we get home.

@winniebee: I don't think frozen food is the devil, by any means I've been buying a bunch of these "fresh fit" meals lately and they're saving my ass. And taste delicious. And E loves hot dogs and macaroni, and sometimes you have to cut corners for your sanity

@Modern Daisy: we do the exact same thing! all hail the early bedtime.

DS usually gets his own easy non messy meal but I keep little tupperwares of chopped things and easily nuked things so he's fed within 5 mins. Meat, carb, fruit/veg, and milk.

Right now I probably cook two meals a week, one or both yielding leftovers, my mom leaves something for us to eat once a week, we do date night, and usually takeout once or twice. This is a huge step down from my monthly or at least weekly meal planning, but I've got a 15 month old and I'm pregnant so I've decided not to care. I make us all breakfast to sit down and eat at least 3-4 times a week in the morning and pack DH's lunches so I feel like I'm doing okay in the feeding family department.

This thread is making me nervous for the future. LO is 8 months old now and meals are pretty much the same as before she was born, since she goes to sleep at 6pm every night and we just cook after that. I plan 3-4 meals every weekend and cook them throughout the week, usually one or two that will last us more than one night, then on the weekends we frequently do delivery or takeout, often with friends.

Regarding the issue of husbands... DH knows how to cook and is more than competent at it, but it's primarily my job. But it's not a point of tension because we both have jobs in our house and they roughly balance out. He always does the dishes for example, and a ton of other stuff. The peace in our marriage all goes back to a 10-minute exercise we did when we were engaged: wrote down all the household duties and split them up between us. We've tweaked the list over the years and we're still happy with it. Neither of us ever feels bitter about doing more than the other one. (Well sometimes I have to "remind" him about his bathroom-cleaning duties more than I'd like, but such is life).

I batch cook on Sundays and any week that I skip doing that, dinners are a disaster. The stuff I cook on Sundays acts as dinners and lunches for the week. It takes me a few hours and then I don't have to worry about it until the next Sunday. I highly recommend it.

@winniebee: I saw that! I love Honest Toddler.

Most nights - but only because even though we both work full time (and often more than 40hours each), my husband's schedule isn't a traditional 9-5 and he cooks so he often gets dinner started while LO and I are on our way home. When I solo parent, I eat cheese and crackers for the most part. We also don't eat the same meals as LO, usually. I make batches of homemade stuff for her on the weekends and then she gets that's all week, so she can eat as soon as we get home from work and we can eat whenever.

I cook all breakfasts at home ... We do 5 dinners at home. I have to meal plan though. Weeks I don't make it to the store are an absolute disaster.