Never. Mechanization and specialization mean that it would be a sub-optimal allocation of resources for me to "cook" at home. With a few clicks of a mouse I can have world-class cuisine brought to me by little men in cars, and I can concentrate on what I do best.

Breakfast and dinner are usually home cooked. I'd say we average 3 or 4 meals of takeout/restaurant eating a month.

FYI, eating frozen waffles for breakfast and warmed up frozen dinners doesn't count as "eating homecooked."

I WFH and make my breakfast & lunch at home most days. Dinner about 4x a week.

I am 2 months pregnant, however, and most cooking seems repulsive to me, so I have been doing much less of it.

Almost every breakfast and dinner. We eat out 2-3 times a week. DC packs a homemade lunch every weekday, DW packs leftovers, and I eat lunch out at the office.

We do Hello Fresh and add a salad 3x a week. It's easy without using any packaged foods and I don't have a fridge full of odds and ends left over from recipes.

Not good if you have older, non-toddler kids or like leftovers but works for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:all meals-I SAH but all three kids and husband take lunch 5 times a week. We go out once a week for late lunch/early dinner but only for things like sushi, Indian, Korean etc-food I cannot replicate well. I find most restaurant food to be really bad. I am often shocked how mediocre so much of the food at restaurants/grocery stores is. I don't know whether there is something off with my taste buds or people are just accustomed to bad tasting food, lazy, pressed for time so not overly picky?

i have amazing meals out regularly. you have to be willing to spend, unless you're doing ethnic food.

I disagree. I'm a hobby fine arts cook and it is rare that I find food that tastes better than mine. My ingredients are always better. For instance I only use dry aged beef that I purchase from a real butcher. I grow much of my own food when in season. I buy spices whole, toast and grind them. I make my own chicekn stock from old egg laying hens...have you had chicken broth from an old hen? The meat is pratocally inedible, but the broth so rich. I make my own beef stock again from butcher bones that are full of meat and marrow.I make whipped cream from real top line cream.

There are very few restaurants that could scale to the kind of ingredients I use. Little Inn is one of a very few. They arr also close to their food source so it makes a big difference in what they have access to. However, who can eat at the little inn on a regular basis?

OK, Thomas Keller

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crock pots in the freezer mean we can do crock pot or leftovers 4-5 weeknights. Totally worth it. Once a month have a night where we make a bunch of crock pot meals, toss in extra freezer, drop in crockpot morning of. Amazing for us.

Now THIS is the best idea I have seen in a long time!!!

I want to know how this works with chicken - will chicken breasts cook through? What about chicken on the bone?

Both work. A crock pot with a timer will allow you to not OVERcook things, but even if you do it isn't so bad. In fact, the only thing I overcook regularly (since my crock pot with a timer broke) that drives me crazy is salmon in foil.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/crockpot-sweet-and-spicy-salmon-recipe.html

I basically go through crock pot recipes and see if I think they can be prepped ahead and frozen. There are some recipe collections on Pinterest that address this idea directly, but i find many of them boring and bland.

This recipe is one of my favorites - just put the corn and peppers in a separate freezer bag and dump on top when you do it:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Corn-and-Chicken-Poblano-Braised-Chicken-358031

Ate this last night: http://www.getcrocked.com/2013/12/11/slow-cooker-paleo-honey-apple-chicken/

This i have several of in the freezer right now: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/01/how-to-make-pot-roast-in-crockpot.html


Other things that help make this work - you can do several at a time. So when I make the pot roast, I'll buy a large roast and cut it into 3 meals. The corn and poblano chicken almost always gets made in 3 batches, and i try to make 4-5 different recipes every few weeks, so I have a variety. We make more when we're down to less than a week's worth in the freezer. Pair that with a quick veggie side or a pre-made salad. If I need rice, I'll hook my christmas light timer up to my rice cooker. We eat within 10 minutes of walking in the door off the bus pretty much every night.


At the risk of losing my pseudonymity here, I'll share my Pinterest board where I curate the recipes:

http://www.pinterest.com/joncephine/efficient-food/

About 3x week. The rest of the time I buy rotisserie chickens, frozen dinners, take out is 1-2x week. I don't like cooking

Anonymous wrote:Crock pots in the freezer mean we can do crock pot or leftovers 4-5 weeknights. Totally worth it. Once a month have a night where we make a bunch of crock pot meals, toss in extra freezer, drop in crockpot morning of. Amazing for us.

Please provide details. This sounds likes a dream.

I cook for myself and DD about 3-4 times a week and pack our lunches. H doesnt eat with us. He eats jello, frozen meals, fast food, poptarts, chips, or take out for lunch and after we (DD and I) are in bed. I chose my spouse poorly.

I'm so making this crock pot carnitas tacos tomorrow!!!

http://www.eatliverun.com/crock-pot-beef-carnitas-tacos/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crock pots in the freezer mean we can do crock pot or leftovers 4-5 weeknights. Totally worth it. Once a month have a night where we make a bunch of crock pot meals, toss in extra freezer, drop in crockpot morning of. Amazing for us.

Now THIS is the best idea I have seen in a long time!!!

I want to know how this works with chicken - will chicken breasts cook through? What about chicken on the bone?

Anonymous wrote:Crock pots in the freezer mean we can do crock pot or leftovers 4-5 weeknights. Totally worth it. Once a month have a night where we make a bunch of crock pot meals, toss in extra freezer, drop in crockpot morning of. Amazing for us.

Now THIS is the best idea I have seen in a long time!!!

6 days a week - all dinners from scratch. Maybe use canned tomatoes in pasta sauce. Also, maybe 3-4 lunches from scratch (like another dinner).