How many meals do you cook at home each week?

[Kim WB]

You've heard of weekend warriors, those folks who are dormant through the week and then play competitive hockey or softball ont e weekends...and then pull a major muscle or something? Anyway, we're weekend cooks...How it works is that during the week, I make all the kid food, which needs to be easy, quick and re-heatable. Ours are 17,15, and 12. Lots of sports, part time jobs, summer school and activities. Usually, I roast two chickens on Sat or Sunday. All the meat is pulled and packaged for the week. Differnet kids mean different prep: If the two older teens are home, they can be trusted to make their own pasta...then its adding either grandma's sauce she delivers. or prego, and a few handfuls f the shredded chicken. The little guy prefers veggies and red meat, so I might defrost some homemade meatballs, and pre-cook some borccoli that he can heat in the microwave. If my eldest daughter is home, its making sure there is romaine and fresh cheeses,her meal is complete. Middle son is mostly yucky prepared foods: rice a roni, mac and cheese, frozen raviolis and piazza. Without guilt, I admit at least a once a week foray to pizza or chinese..and often, Micky D's. Luckily in the summer, we also get a lot of sleepover invites...when they are the invitee, who cares, when they are th inviter, I make grilled steaks and pierogyis from a great Slovakian/hungarian shop in the town nearby. Somehow, the kids never starve, LOL. Usually, we have business dinnersduring these times...if not, we choose local Italian bistro places or sushi, at least 2x a week. WE go out to a reservation like place once a week, 3 times in NJ, one time in Philly or NYC. It's our date night. We only have planned family dinners on Mondays. EVERY MONDAY, and those of you with toddlers might think this is terible. but the truth is, its pretty good to have one day you always dine with yourTEEN kids. I mean, the gymnastic coach for son #2 doesn't co-ordinate with the owner of the flower shop that daughter #1 works for, nor the retail computer store running a DIABLO tournament that son #1 MUST attend..drop him off at 9, pick himup at 3am!!!! Plus, there are days during the week that one kid or another winds up with us for dinner...we're not always alone!!!

ANYWAY, weekends mean my husband shops for the main stuff..he'll do Wegman's, McCaffrey's, or Whole foods for fish, game and beef. Then, we'll figure a recipe from our books or our experience. I'll go to the farmer's market or Korean market to fill in the gaps of what he's bought...he'll shop wines either in the cellar or the stores, and we'll cook over the weekend. I make some variations the kids might like, certainly for my little guy who is more at home than his bro and sis, and luckily the most adventurous...lately, we've been big on duck, cause we can make it lots of ways, variation of spices, and he's loving it.

Gosh, I wrote alot. I kinda love my life, and love how my food and cooking stuff works out..I'm proud of what we can do within the constraints of our lives, activities. kids and abilities. None of them are conniseurs, but at least I do nothing to STOP them from being one! LOL. I sound like a geeky leave it to beaver person, but I figure for the 2000's, I'm as close as they come!

[Kim WB]

Wow, I drank a lot of wine last night. Yes, I am fully aware that the above posts shares WAY more information then anyone wants to know about me!! These keyboards should have a breathalyzer lock, you can't type boring monologues if you've had a few.

[sequim]

I enjoyed reading this old topic since I've been thinking about it myself and wondering how my habits differ from others. I think on this board, there is ALOT of money being spent on eating out and food than the average person. As an aside I'm kinda interested in that topic as well. I loved KimWB's drunken ramblings (go on everybody, drink and ramble ), am amazed that Col Klink can eat sushi 6 days a week (but what about BBQ?), and find myself impressed with SobaAddict70's stock making - oh there's just so much more I can be doing!

For me I take breakfast and lunch to work so that limits cooking. Since I don't like eating right after getting up and only having that pot of coffee matters, breakfast is things like fruit yogurt, bananas and any homemade baked goods I have on hand. I love PIE for breakfast. On the weekends I usually do oatmeal, fresh squeezed OJ and toasted country bread. I try to have a filling breakfast so I don't need lunch as it slows me down. Lunch during a work week is generally leftovers heated in the microwave from dinners I make or my mom's leftovers that she loads me down with on the weekend. For dinner, I enjoy eating out but that's costly and I do enjoy cooking and yes, get cranky when I don't for awhile. If I don't feel like being elaborate (and it's usually just me) I always have staples on hand for quick meals like bean threads or a variety of asian noodles, bacon, cilantro, soy and hoisin sauces (chow fun?), eggs ( for scrambled), bread (for toast), cheddar cheese for grilled cheese, vine ripened tomatoes and lettuce for salad makings. I have a well stocked freezer of frozen shrimp, meats, raviolis, asian dumplings. Once every couple weeks my friend and I will get together to make a fancy meal in which we try different things we're trying to learn. There has to be a variety of wine in the house. I might cook a full course-type dinner once during the week but on the weekends I frequently go crazy cooking, especially now in the winter. I can't get enough of it. But then I also have people around to share it with. Cooking for one tends to make more than enough leftovers and this can be a problem. What to do with all the leftovers as I hate throwing food out.

Sorry, my post might have gotten alittle off track. It's more about how I eat than how many times I cook....

[torakris]

Thanks for pulling this back up.

Except for this week which is quite unusual in the number of times I am eating out, I normally cook 7 breakfasts a week (ok 5 of those might just be make if you don't count things like toast or instant oatmeal ), and usually 6 lunches a week. For dinner we may eat out once or twice a month so generally I am cooking 7 dinners a night.

Breakfast and dinners are always for 5 people, the weekday lunches are usually for 2 (my son and I), though I make my husband a Japanese style bento lunch every morning before he goes to work.

Basically I spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

[GSBravo]

If I define "cook" as the main dish is done mostly from scratch, then I'm looking at 4-5 times a week. Breakfast, more like brunch, is done once or twice a month.

As I don't get home till after 8 in the evening, most often the big meals are on the weekends. Roughly every other week I'm off Friday and the following Monday, which allows me lots of time to cook.

Those are the days I make pasta, grind beef, and generally spend 3 or 4 hours on a thirty minute meal.

[Katherine]

I cook every meal.

If I'm out working at lunchtime or supper, I pack an attractive meal of leftovers.

On the rare occasions when I know I won't be able to reheat, I make sure to pack a cold meal.

[nessa]

Hmm. I eat homecooked meals for all meals except maybe 1 or two a week. However I don't cook them all from scratch every time. I'm big into bulk cooking so that I streamline my time. Like for breakfast, On Sunday's I tend to make a dozen or so Chinese Tea eggs. I'll take two along to work for breakfast. I might also take a slice of home baked sourdough if I made some on Sat. Lunch is always something I've cooked and partitioned out into meal sized tupperware containers. Couscous with lamb and spinach, etc. Dinner is when I tend to cook the most, and of course make extra to freeze for lunches and other dinners. I'm always watching my weight, so it helps me to have a yummy yet healthy choice, in a decent portion size for me. My SO's boss likes to take my SO out just about every night for dinner at some chain or another. I manage to avoid that all but one or two nights max. He also tends to provide lunch at work, so my SO eats out 90% of the time, even though I send a good home cooked meal that ends up in the freezer at work. Sigh. Oh well, he eats it eventually.

I try and cook on the weekends in case I'm too busy or tired during the week.

But you know how the cooking bug is, it bites randomly. Some days you get off work and just decide tht you simply must cook spanikopita, or whatever, tonight, or you can't go on. My cooking moods shift and swing so I guess I cook on average of 6 times a week.

[AzRaeL]

about 3 times a week *LOL* if you exclude frying bacon and eggs for breakfast.

i'm single; i live alone; i work late; and when i'm on the job, i eat on the house.

to me, cooking is a luxury, kinda like a (job related)hobby rather than a neccesity.

it's actually cheaper for me to eat out rather than go through the expense of the ingredients and all.

Edited January 4, 2004 by AzRaeL (log)

[jsolomon]

Hrm... I usually eat close to 21 meals from scratch every week. Breakfasts are usually a boiled egg and coffee.

My definition of homecooked does not include reheating something packacked at a store, with the exception of high-quality frozen vegetation. Usually even that gets seasoned and a kiss from a screeching hot pan or the broiler with some lemon juice.

I spend a lot of time grilling, broiling, and sauteing. However, I recently found steamed squash and blanched spinach as wonderful mealtime companions.

Also, the grill is WONDERFUL for roasting marshmallows to have afterwards with the beer still left in the 6-pack.

[Jake]

Great thread -- glad it got pulled back up. I generally do most of the cooking, although my SO will help, and occasionally do an entire dinner. Weekend breakfast is one or the other, and usually turns into brunch. We generally eat out once or twice a week, more if I'm working at my part-time chef gig. If I've been prepping and cooking all day/evening, the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook. I love eating out, but if I'm tired and sick of looking at food, let alone putting it together one of the biggest treats is having the SO make the entire meal, start to finish! (When I'm lucky, this includes shopping for the ingredients.) Otherwise, take-away suffices.

[tejon]

I cook practically all meals, aside from the occasional night out to dinner (which happens perhaps once a month or so). I do almost everything from scratch, aside from some baked goods. Combination of reasons for this - we don't have much disposable income, I love cooking, and we have two very small boys (see recent thread on children and restaurants - they are way too young to foist on other diners as of yet!).

[Katherine]

  AzRaeL said:

about 3 times a week *LOL* if you exclude frying bacon and eggs for breakfast.

i'm single; i live alone; i work late; and when i'm on the job, i eat on the house.

to me, cooking is a luxury, kinda like a (job related)hobby rather than a neccesity.

it's actually cheaper for me to eat out rather than go through the expense of the ingredients and all.

Frying eggs and bacon for breakfast does count.

Bacon...mmm...

[chezlamere]

  Kim WB said:

Wow, I drank a lot of wine last night. Yes, I am fully aware that the above posts shares WAY more information then anyone wants to know about me!! These keyboards should have a breathalyzer lock, you can't type boring monologues if you've had a few.

ahhh many glasses of wine and the computer , been there, done that.....

[chezlamere]

well I don't have 4 ovens at home, I don't have 2 gas ranges at home, I don't have 2 steamers, or 2 soup kettles, or a grill either for that matter. And don't get me started on the counter space and the fact that I have to wash my own pots at home. So what's the point? I hate cooking at home. It seems so ........provincial so backwards, like I'm using a campfire or something. If I have a weekend off and a couple of bottles of wine handy I sometimes cook for two days straight and maybe prepare two weeks worth of food. But you know... It just has to be repeated again and again, the people in this house eat it all up unfortunatly. It's like grocery shopping.It would be fine if one has to do it only once in awhile. I buy the stuff, put it away and before you know it they eat it all. It would be great if my family would just maybe look at the stuff and admire it and then go somewhere else. But they don't

[Al_Dente]

Somewhere between 0 and 1.

I'm a very bad man...

[bankchef]

Maybe once a month do I really dig down and make a mess in the kitchen. Usually it means we have company coming over. Well...once a month seems like a lot.

[fresco]

  chezlamere said:

well I don't have 4 ovens at  home, I don't have 2 gas ranges at home, I don't have 2 steamers, or 2 soup kettles, or a grill either for that matter.  And don't get me started on the counter space and the fact that I have to wash my own pots at home.  So what's the point?  I hate cooking at home.  It seems so ........provincial so backwards, like I'm using a campfire or something.  If I have a weekend off and a couple of bottles of wine handy I sometimes cook for two days straight and maybe prepare two weeks worth of food.  But you know... It just has to be repeated again and again, the people in this house eat it all up unfortunatly.  It's like grocery shopping.It would be fine if one has to do it only once in awhile.  I buy the stuff, put it away and before you know it they eat it all.  It would be great if my family would just maybe look at the stuff and admire it and then go somewhere else.  But they don't

I'm working my way backwards to a peasant economy--soon there will be hams and flitches of bacon hanging in the room behind the kitchen. Probably prepare somewhere between seven and 21 meals a week, depending on the week. The more basic things get, the more pleasant life becomes.

[Moopheus]

I cook at home a lot more now than I used to. I've worked at home for the last two years and my wife has a long commute, so I do all the cooking, probably 4 or 5 times a week. Terra doesn't like to have leftovers, so I usually eat them for lunch. On weekends things get kind of lax. We don't go out for dinner that much, though weekend brunch is a regular thing for us. But I like to cook and I'd way rather be in the kitchen than on the subway. One of the reasons I haven't gone looking too hard for another office job. Not that I'm making a gourmet meal every night, and when I make sauce or soup I make a lot so I always have something in the freezer for busy days. Though I bake less than I used to, since not having an office job means having fewer people around to eat the excess.

[Marlene]

It really depends. Some weeks I cook every night. Especially since we re-did the kitchen and I now have two ovens to work with. Breakfast in our house during the week is catch as catch can. On the weekend, hubby usually takes over with the bacon and eggs routine except sometimes I'll make pancakes or waffles.

Sat and Sun are my big cooking days. However, when we are entertaining clients, we can find ourselves eating out every night of the week. It boils down to the fact that on the weeks I have my son, (every other week) I cook more. When I don't, we tend to eat out more.