How often do you cook dinner?

[Anonymous]

We cook 3 nights a week. Then we usually eat leftovers 2 nights a week and go out or order in 2 nights a week.

My kids are super picky but I can make a big batch of something like mac and cheese and they can eat that for a couple of days for dinner and I just add sides to it from what we adults are having.

[Anonymous]

5-6 nights a week

[Anonymous]

6x a week. We typically do takeout once per week on Fridays. I WFH full time though; if I worked in the office, I'd probably do takeout more often or get pre-prepared stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most weeks I cook 6 nights.

+1

[Anonymous]

5-6 nights a week. DH and I switch days, and we get pizza every Friday night. Breakfasts and lunches almost always at home.

We found that we were spending wayyy too much money on eating out.

[Anonymous]

Actually cooking a meal from scratch? 3-4 times a week. Using some sort of short cut, like pre-marinated meat, frozen ravioli, rotisserie chicken? 1-2 times a week. We eat out 1-2 times a week, usually on weekends. I try to cook enough when making a meal from scratch to have leftovers for at least one day, but that's becoming a challenge now that the kids are older and eating SO MUCH.

[Anonymous]

I cook most nights, usually 5-6 out of 7. Weeknight dinners are simpler: a pasta dish, salmon and roasted veggies (or sometimes just raw ones), rice and a stir-fry, soup, etc. Weekends might be a bit more elaborate or time-consuming.

[Anonymous]

I cook 5, DH cooks Sundays, we usually go out Fridays. I'm already missing my crockpot and hearty winter meals, but now I'm usually grilling chicken/salmon/shrimp and making a big side of some sort like orzo alad, quinoa salad, pasta salad. All heavy on veggies. I like to do that in the morning so dinner is easy and flexible later on.

[Anonymous]

Every night, but a couple of those nights are leftovers. If kid doesn't want what is prepared, her options are an omelet or yogurt.

Mostly for meal-planning for budgetary reasons, but my kid is so clued into this when I get coffee in the drive out she will say - why are you wasting your money, you should make coffee at home - she's five. In the summer when I don't have to also prepare a warm school lunch, it's a lot of sheet pan veggies, salads, etc. My kid likes to help cook, which slows the process down, but then she's very excited to taste things.

[Anonymous]

Probably 3 nights a week of fresh cooking, 2 times those leftovers plus scrounging(like the kids make themselves a bagel and eat fruit), 1 night takeout.

[Anonymous]

When kids were younger, we ate in M-TH, then usually out F, Sat, then back home for Sun. On F or Sat, the kids were usually with a sitter and we would leave a meal for them. When they were 2ish, the sitter would usually take them to eat out one night at a local place.

Then dinner at home from toddlerdom through the start of middle school save when we went out. Once they reached middle and the club sports cranked up, we usually ate in 4 nights, ordered out 1 night, and some combo for F and Sat.

I miss family meals (kids off to college), but I do not miss when it was hectic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much every night.

+1

[Anonymous]

We cook 4-5 nights a week. If we have leftovers from those meals, sometimes those take up a night. But since DH and I WFH now, we often eat the leftovers for lunch, thus more cooking at dinner.

We have some meals that barely count as cooking for when we are feeling lazy. The other nights we are either out of the house, ordering take out and my kids may eat pizza or nuggets or mac and cheese, or they may have takeout with us. Or we are eating what I call "rummage" meals from whatever is laying around.

Having fresh veggies and fruit around to round out any meal helps balance our less exciting nights.

[Anonymous]

We go out once a week. It took me ages to get it down to a science, but it takes me 2 to 3 hours on Sun night to chop, prep, cook everything for the week. Then, we just heat it up every night. I keep everything in airtight fontainers.

[Anonymous]

^ containers