How often do you cook dinner?

[Anonymous]

I'm sick of watching my young kids eat pizza and chicken nuggets. It's also so expensive to order in, but it's getting expensive to cook a quality meal too. Anyways, I'm wondering how many nights of the week you eat out/order in versus cook a meal? I'm at 3 nights of cooking and looking to do another so we eat out only 2 times a week. I will go out for lunch if I'm craving something.

[Anonymous]

Most weeks I cook 6 nights.

[Anonymous]

Why are your kids eating only pizza and chicken nuggets?

[Anonymous]

6 nights a week (we order pizza on friday nights)

[Anonymous]

5 nights cooking, 1 night out or takeout, and 1 night where my son eats takeout pizza and I typically make my own pizza at home (because it is SO much better than any pizza place in my general vicinity).

[Anonymous]

I cook a "real dinner" probably 5-6 nights a week. We will do frozen pizza or spaghetti 1-2 nights.

[Anonymous]

Pretty much every night.

[Anonymous]

Take-out or restaurant 1-2 times a month (usually when we’re out and about for a full weekend day and I didn’t have the energy to pack lunch as well as snacks. I also usually get take-out dinner for my birthday.

[Anonymous]

I cook 2-3 nights a week, DH cooks 2-3 nights, and we get takeout or go out 1-2 nights. Sometimes if leftovers pile up, we do a “fend yourself” night. So it varies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take-out or restaurant 1-2 times a month (usually when we’re out and about for a full weekend day and I didn’t have the energy to pack lunch as well as snacks. I also usually get take-out dinner for my birthday.

I would add: most of my meals are low energy. When you cook a lot, reusing leftovers or throwing together a healthy meal your kids will eat from stuff you have in the fridge gets a lot easier.

We don’t do chicken nuggets or pizza because my children unaccountably dislike both but we do meals based around super processed foods like pretzel dogs or tortellini or shumai 1-2 times most weeks.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been in a cooking slump. I am ambitious early in the day, and then lose all motivation from 4pm onwards. I just cooked a proper meal last night for the first time in a couple weeks! I thought I’d cook more in summer, but I’ve gotten lazier! Most nights we all scrounge around and make sandwiches, eggs, simple pasta, or my kids even reheat TJ’s frozen pastas.

[Anonymous]

I cook one night a week. I hate cooking. DH and I go out two nights a week. He cooks three nights a week, and one night is whatever's around.

[Anonymous]

Kids are 4 and 7. I or dh cook 6 nights a week.
Nothing complicated. Grilled chicken, salmon, tacos, stuffed peppers, burgers/sausages. And lots of veg and fruit for sides and usually a carb/starch side for the kids like pasta, rice, potatoes.
Summer makes it hard as we spend so much time at the pool in the afternoons but i make meals we can eat cold there or grill the main at the pool and bring sides.
I can do pizza once a week max and no-one likes chicken nuggets at my house. Today I'm making panko crusted chicken tenders, 15 min and better than a nugget and no oven heating up the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

To manage the expense. We eat a lot of eggs as well. Shop at Aldi and try to throw out less food.

[Anonymous]

Every few nights. I make sure I cook enough for leftovers. kid is impossible to feed so they often have a rotation of home cooked and Mac/pizza/pasta. Her palate was quite good when she was younger but things changed. Thankfully, she will eat a few vegetables and some fruit so for now I am going with it. I make extras of the kid food too. I get home after dinner time and my husband is not a great cook. He can make a few things though. So between the two of us, someone cooks every other night, but sometimes we just reheat. I try to batch a few things on days off.