AlmiraGulch Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I've been looking at ways to cut expenditures from my budget and the one area that stands out like a giant sore thumb for me is dining out. My family dines out A LOT. More than anyone I know. Sometimes twice a day. I don't particularly like to cook, plus I work full time, I'm in grad school, homeschooling my oldest and I'm a single parent. By the time dinner comes around the last thing I want to do is cook. Plus, my oldest is very picky and doesn't eat a wide variety, so I hate to cook a big meal just for my little one and me. That said, I spend hundreds of dollars a week eating out, and it has got to stop. Period. I'm thinking that crock pot meals may be a good idea, but then I'll have tons of leftovers and they'll end up getting thrown out because I don't want to eat the same thing 4 days in a row, KWIM? I need ideas for cheap, easy and tasty. Oh....and I'm trying VERY hard to stay away from white foods (white flour, pasta :(, potatoes), so making a big lasagna is sort of out. Please help! I'm completely out of control in this area. (There. I've confessed.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoughCollie Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 (edited) My sister bought my kids a quesadilla maker. I thought it was a waste of money. Wrong! The kids use it every day. Food needed: tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa. http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-QM2R-900-Watt-Quesadilla/dp/B000KL09G4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1251643117&sr=8-1 The kids also like Kraft mac & cheese, with whole grain pasta. You can add peas and cut up hot dogs to it, but my kids won't eat it that way. I serve it with a fruit and a vegetable, and if the kids are really hungry, a hotdog in a bun. We also have hamburgers for dinner. Sometimes I serve it with frozen, fast-food type fries. Add a vegetable. Serve on whole grain buns. You can buy frozen pizzas, but it isn't real hard to make them at home. You can also buy Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza kits. Make it once or twice with the kids, and then they can take over that duty. You'll need shredded cheese, and whatever else you all like for the pizza, as the kit comes with pizza flour (you add hot water), sauce, and parmesan cheese. Breakfast for dinner is always a hit: I usually prepare bacon, French toast or pancakes, and fruit. Or eggs, bacon, biscuits, melon. It is easy to make spaghetti. You need whole grain pasta, Ragu, and 1/2 pound of ground beef or ground chicken. Brown and drain the beef, stir in the Ragu, heat through, serve over cooked pasta. You can make a lot more sauce and freeze it in the amount you need for one meal. You can make pancakes and keep them in the fridge for a few days -- reheat in microwave. If I were you, I'd buy a Betty Crocker cookbook. Follow the directions -- the recipes are not complicated. The best timesaver I know of is to cook a lot of something and freeze it for future meals. I do that with main dishes, soups, cookies, pancakes, muffins (Freeze batter in muffin tin in paper liners. After frozen, remove muffins and put in a freezer bag - muffin tin goes back in the cabinet. Remove what you need, bake as usual.) Here's a book of freezer meals to make ahead: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Panic-Dinners-Freezer-Great-Tasting/dp/0800730550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251644073&sr=8-1 Edited August 30, 2009 by RoughCollie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melenie Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 What do you like to eat? When I was living by myself I loved to eat salads, raw veggies, bread and the occasional pan-fried meat of fish. I know this is not everyone's idea of tasty, but I loved it. We never eat out, we cannot afford it so it is not an option for us. It helps to have a plan for the week. It does not have to be a well-planned menu, just an idea of what your week looks like. Here is what I mean. Monday we know we have 2 activities outside the house so I plan a crock pot meal. I also freeze half for another day. Thursday we have a late activity. I have a few moments to cook so I have my go-to meals. Here is my favorite at the moment. http://www.melenie.com/?p=1069 (scroll down to the second one, salsa chicken) Friday we have pizza or we do an appetizer night. The kids help with this and we pull out everything in the fridge and see what we can come up with. Don't try to give it all up at once, pick a few days that you will plan to eat at home and later add one at a time so that you don't feel overwhelmed. GL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Make things that you can freeze in single servings. The crock pot is a great idea just make sure that you can freeze the leftovers. You may not want the rest now, but next week it will be nice to grab it out of the freezer and simply reheat it. If you freeze in single servings then your picky one can choose whatever he likes. You can still have simple meals and all together if you stock them in the freezer. One way to start this is to use one of those services where you go in and make the meals in a couple of hours. They do all of the prep and clean up, you just go in and put the meals together. It is a little expensive, but much less than you are spending now so it would be as great way to stock the freezer quickly. I found three online. Dinner My Way, Dream Dinners, Dinner on Demand. After that, plan to cook a couple of meals a week but make large batches and freeze the extra. Before you know it you will have a nice variety of meals in the freezer and still only need to cook a couple of times a week. You can also freeze things like breads and pancakes that are easy to reheat. I throw frozen pancakes into the toaster. HTH, :iagree::iagree: The idea of having to cook every night is very daunting to me, but cooking up a big pot of chili, lentils, or soup every once in a while isn't too bad. If we make a big pot of something, I usually have enough leftovers to freeze for 3 or 4 more meals. I agree with trying one of the Dream Dinners type programs a couple times, even if you don't use it long term, it will show you how little extra time it takes to prepare a second serving of something to freeze while you are cooking a meal. I have a couple friends that I occasionally meet with to have a batch cooking day - we choose 3 or 4 recipes and then make enough so we can freeze 8 or so servings of each recipe for each of us. It's so nice to have a stocked freezer!! Another good option is to cook up some brown rice and freeze servings of it in plastic bags, then when you need rice it is ready in a snap. You can also buy pre-cooked frozen rice at Trader Joes if you have one near you. My last bit of advice is to take it slow: Start with lunch at home for a week or two, then add one or two dinners a week, etc. Happy cooking!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConnieB Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 We were your family up until about two years ago when the store I was working part time at closed....it severely cut our "extra" money and so eating out three or four nights a week and buying a lot of convenience foods for the rest of the week had to stop. So I had to start cooking again. I agree with the others.....make ahead to freeze and eat next week/month. I tried the "once a month cooking" where you spend an entire day cooking and preparing meals to freeze and use for the month. First, with our schedule, it was just plain hard to find an entire day to devote to this....it became yet another thing on the already packed calendar. But even worse was how exhausted I was at the end of that marathon day. And I normally enjoy cooking, but that was just too much. So that wasn't going to work on any regular basis. But what I do that DOES work, and is very little extra work....every time I make a meal that can be frozen....I make two. For instance, tonight's meal is Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl......we'll make a double batch of the sauce, which takes no extra time at all, just a larger pot on the stovetop. My DH will grill twice as much chicken.....this does take twice his time because our grill only holds about 1 1/3 batches....so he does have to stand there and grill two batches....but now instead of starting the batch when the rice is half done, he starts grilling when I start the rice. Not a great deal of extra time or effort. Tomorrow I will have chicken and sauce in the freezer to use next week (or the week after) and all I'll have to do to have a meal that my family really loves is throw some rice in the rice cooker for 30 minutes....and our rice cooker has a steam tray in it to throw some cut up veggies (I decided I don't like thawed steamed veggies much, lol). I am typically home 30 minutes before we want to eat dinner, but in a pinch I have set up the rice/water sitting in the rice cooker with a lamp timer plugged into it....lol....the problem with that is the rice tends to be a little gummy because it sat soaking up the water for a few hours ahead of time, but it's not bad. I do the same thing when making spaghetti, lasagne, taco meat, etc. When I marinade meat for a meal, I marinade another batch in a freezer bag....it's usually even more tasty because it marinades longer. For seasonings that I use regularly, I've made up my own batches so we don't have to use those little envelopes with filler ingredients.....just save your empty spice jars and label them "Spaghetti mix" or "Taco seasoning" or "Asian chicken"....etc. No more getting a half dozen spices out and having to measure each one. The other thing that helps is making advance plans for meals for the week. We have a white board in the kitchen and it will have our plans for the week of meals. We make this menu plan on Wednesday evening because the sale ads come out on Wednesdays....so we can go over what's on sale and make menu choices based on the best price....if there isn't enough good prices for a week, we'll raid the frozen meals like the Chicken Teriyaki. THe white board also keeps a list of the meals that are already IN the freezer, so I don't have to dig around to see what we have to make choices. When you take it out of the freezer, it gets erased, when it goes in you add it to the list. While we make up the menu on Wednesday because of the ads, the menu from that ad doesn't start until Saturday....giving me Thurs/Fri/Sat to do the shopping on the ads. Another advantage is not having to constantly deal with the "what's for dinner mom"...the kids can go look for themselves and the picky eater can see that although they may not have liked last night's meal, they know that somewhere this week is a meal or two they really like. It has cut way down on the "but I don't like that, and we never eat what I like" whine. I can point out that three meals this week are their favorites, two are acceptable and so they have live through only 2/7 of the week's meals. If you have a plan for a meal you're more likely to follow it, rather than just opening the freezer door, declaring nothing in there, and asking if the kids want Italian or Japanese tonight, lol. If you have some meals already frozen ahead then the hardest part is remembering to take it out of the freezer the night before. Make that a part of your bedtime routine...the kids go get into PJs and start brushing teeth, and I go pull out the frozen meal for tomorrow. There are hundreds of books in the library with meals that can be made quickly. The problem with those is that unless you've made them and incorporated them into your kitchen, you may not have everything you need the same day you bring home the cookbook. BUT....I have an arsenal of these that we have tried that we do like and have made sure that we regularly have the ingredients that we need on hand. Then when I've forgotten to take something out of the freezer, or we haven't quite gotten the shopping done yet, etc....I know that I can pull the meat out of the freezer and microwave thaw it, and the rest of the ingredients are in the pantry. Those are our "unplanned" meals.....and also work great when our planned meal was for all of us, but half of us aren't going to be home now. Take it slow....but start making steps towards eating most of your meals at home in a month or two. Pick one night this week that you'll be home in time to cook.....plan that meal now so you have the ingredients and make a double batch of it to freeze. Ok, so next week, you now have one frozen meal to cook, and that one night to cook another double batch (different recipe of course). So you're up to two meals every week not eating out. Now try to incorporate a second day of the week making a double batch.....pretty soon you'll have a nice size stash in the freezer and be up to more than half your meals at home. Oh, another idea that I do when we've been so busy and the freezer meals are dwindling.............cook double batches of meals in your crockpot, but do it overnight, while you sleep. Freeze both those meals in the morning and now you're building your stash, but you can also throw another crockpot double batch in that morning, leave for the day and come home to another meal to eat and one to freeze. In the span of 24 hours you've fed your family one meal and frozen THREE more meals. It's two different recipes so there are two meals for next week, one meal for the following week, with no extra effort or time. Do this overnight for a week and you'll have two weeks of meals in the freezer, all while sleeping! THere are millions of crockpot recipes online, in library cookbooks, ...even a blog at crockpot365.blogspot.com. I have to say that we found only a handful of good recipes on the blog, but they did turn out to be favorites, so it was worth reading through. If you don't already have your own personal cookbook, start one! I have a bookcase full of cookbooks that I've been given or purchased and we use many of them, but it's often hard to find the recipe I have in mind...which cookbook is it in? So...I make copies of the recipes that we used and liked and put them in a binder. My own "best of" cookbook. I can make all the notes I want on them without messing up the original book (I am NOT one of those people who can write in a book that I own....mom's voice yelling at me for scribbling in a book is still there 40 years later.). I will note any changes I made...any steps that didn't work as promised and how I fixed it....how long it takes (because the cookbook estimates are never my reality!). Even things like, I can't double this recipe as it doesn't fit in the crockpot, so do 1 1/2 and it will fit. This also helps the kids as they plan our meals they can find the recipe and be sure that ALL ingredients are either in house, or on the shopping list. It's also a great source of inspiration in making up a menu....a binder full of recipes that we love, no experiments this week, lol. I have simple binder tabs dividing by main dish, side dish, dessert, appetizer/snack. I'm too lazy to break it down further, lol. Good luck with the transition....it takes a bit of effort to break the habit, but once you do the results are well worth it. Money saved, yes, but you'll also find that the kids get more involved in meals and so the work lessens (obviously depends on the age of your kids, but eventually they will be old enough!), mealtime becomes a family affair so prep/cook time plus sitting at the table eating time, adds up to more time than just the restaurant booth time before. And healthier. You control the amount of salt, sugar or unreadable ingredients in your meals. Eat This Not That's website was a huge shock to me...I knew those restaurant meals were high calorie, high fat, high salt...but I never realized HOW high. No wonder we were all gaining weight, and feeling less than chipper. Read that site about your favorite restaurants and it may help motivate you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I'm giving e-Mealz a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingersmom Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I am a single parent (2 kids), my daughter is the pickiest eater around and she ice skates 6 days a week. So we spend lots of time out of the house. The crockpot is your new best friend! You don't have to eat the same thing every night. Put it in tupperware in the freezer and you have food for the next week or two. Chicken freezes really well, soups, spaghetti sauce. I used to spend nearly $20 on food every time we showed up at the skating rink. I now pack a big whole foods recyling bag full of food. If its not in my whole foods bag you cannot have it. Also plan your meals 1-2 weeks in advance. Shop for everything you need and this will also cut down on eating out. In 2 months I think we have had chinese once and ate at the diner once. My kids are shocked. I am thrilled! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5wolfcubs Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Has anyone suggested having your 13yo do the cooking? She plans the menu & helps with the shopping and she does the cooking! This summer my 12yo had an art class that ended at 6pm, so on those days, my 14yo did the cooking. It was wonderful to come home to dinner ready! And she loved doing it also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Not reading all the replies, so forgive repetition if necessary... I had to learn to keep about 3 quick emergency meals on hand. I literally set them aside in separate small brown bags in my pantry and labeled freezer bags to prevent me using them unless I needed them. At times I have even used a small box or plastic tub in the freezer to set aside items in there. Here's 1 bag: large jar or can spaghetti sauce box of pasta (whole wheat spaghetti has gotten a lot tastier than it used to be - either use that or go half-n-half w/regular) can of fruit of your preference can of olives meat in freezer - 1# turkey or beef, or a package of frozen meatballs, best if the meat is precooked, label and rotate when necessary Here's another: cans of each chili ingredient - black beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes, corn chili spice packets can of fruit can of olives box of cornbread mix again, meat labeled in freezer Also, frozen fish thaws fast and bakes up fast, so another quick plan could be: frozen fish frozen broccoli or mixed veg box of rice-a-roni fruit or fresh tomato if you have one We do not each "prepared" foods all the time. I really try to avoid too much of that. However, your short-term goal is to save out-to-eat money and you can use a few boxed/canned items while you're training yourself to eat at home. Save out-to-eat for DATE NIGHT! HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 We were your family up until about two years ago when the store I was working part time at closed....it severely cut our "extra" money and so eating out three or four nights a week and buying a lot of convenience foods for the rest of the week had to stop. So I had to start cooking again. I agree with the others.....make ahead to freeze and eat next week/month. I tried the "once a month cooking" where you spend an entire day cooking and preparing meals to freeze and use for the month. First, with our schedule, it was just plain hard to find an entire day to devote to this....it became yet another thing on the already packed calendar. But even worse was how exhausted I was at the end of that marathon day. And I normally enjoy cooking, but that was just too much. So that wasn't going to work on any regular basis. But what I do that DOES work, and is very little extra work....every time I make a meal that can be frozen....I make two. For instance, tonight's meal is Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl......we'll make a double batch of the sauce, which takes no extra time at all, just a larger pot on the stovetop. My DH will grill twice as much chicken.....this does take twice his time because our grill only holds about 1 1/3 batches....so he does have to stand there and grill two batches....but now instead of starting the batch when the rice is half done, he starts grilling when I start the rice. Not a great deal of extra time or effort. Tomorrow I will have chicken and sauce in the freezer to use next week (or the week after) and all I'll have to do to have a meal that my family really loves is throw some rice in the rice cooker for 30 minutes....and our rice cooker has a steam tray in it to throw some cut up veggies (I decided I don't like thawed steamed veggies much, lol). I am typically home 30 minutes before we want to eat dinner, but in a pinch I have set up the rice/water sitting in the rice cooker with a lamp timer plugged into it....lol....the problem with that is the rice tends to be a little gummy because it sat soaking up the water for a few hours ahead of time, but it's not bad. I do the same thing when making spaghetti, lasagne, taco meat, etc. When I marinade meat for a meal, I marinade another batch in a freezer bag....it's usually even more tasty because it marinades longer. For seasonings that I use regularly, I've made up my own batches so we don't have to use those little envelopes with filler ingredients.....just save your empty spice jars and label them "Spaghetti mix" or "Taco seasoning" or "Asian chicken"....etc. No more getting a half dozen spices out and having to measure each one. The other thing that helps is making advance plans for meals for the week. We have a white board in the kitchen and it will have our plans for the week of meals. We make this menu plan on Wednesday evening because the sale ads come out on Wednesdays....so we can go over what's on sale and make menu choices based on the best price....if there isn't enough good prices for a week, we'll raid the frozen meals like the Chicken Teriyaki. THe white board also keeps a list of the meals that are already IN the freezer, so I don't have to dig around to see what we have to make choices. When you take it out of the freezer, it gets erased, when it goes in you add it to the list. While we make up the menu on Wednesday because of the ads, the menu from that ad doesn't start until Saturday....giving me Thurs/Fri/Sat to do the shopping on the ads. Another advantage is not having to constantly deal with the "what's for dinner mom"...the kids can go look for themselves and the picky eater can see that although they may not have liked last night's meal, they know that somewhere this week is a meal or two they really like. It has cut way down on the "but I don't like that, and we never eat what I like" whine. I can point out that three meals this week are their favorites, two are acceptable and so they have live through only 2/7 of the week's meals. If you have a plan for a meal you're more likely to follow it, rather than just opening the freezer door, declaring nothing in there, and asking if the kids want Italian or Japanese tonight, lol. If you have some meals already frozen ahead then the hardest part is remembering to take it out of the freezer the night before. Make that a part of your bedtime routine...the kids go get into PJs and start brushing teeth, and I go pull out the frozen meal for tomorrow. There are hundreds of books in the library with meals that can be made quickly. The problem with those is that unless you've made them and incorporated them into your kitchen, you may not have everything you need the same day you bring home the cookbook. BUT....I have an arsenal of these that we have tried that we do like and have made sure that we regularly have the ingredients that we need on hand. Then when I've forgotten to take something out of the freezer, or we haven't quite gotten the shopping done yet, etc....I know that I can pull the meat out of the freezer and microwave thaw it, and the rest of the ingredients are in the pantry. Those are our "unplanned" meals.....and also work great when our planned meal was for all of us, but half of us aren't going to be home now. Take it slow....but start making steps towards eating most of your meals at home in a month or two. Pick one night this week that you'll be home in time to cook.....plan that meal now so you have the ingredients and make a double batch of it to freeze. Ok, so next week, you now have one frozen meal to cook, and that one night to cook another double batch (different recipe of course). So you're up to two meals every week not eating out. Now try to incorporate a second day of the week making a double batch.....pretty soon you'll have a nice size stash in the freezer and be up to more than half your meals at home. Oh, another idea that I do when we've been so busy and the freezer meals are dwindling.............cook double batches of meals in your crockpot, but do it overnight, while you sleep. Freeze both those meals in the morning and now you're building your stash, but you can also throw another crockpot double batch in that morning, leave for the day and come home to another meal to eat and one to freeze. In the span of 24 hours you've fed your family one meal and frozen THREE more meals. It's two different recipes so there are two meals for next week, one meal for the following week, with no extra effort or time. Do this overnight for a week and you'll have two weeks of meals in the freezer, all while sleeping! THere are millions of crockpot recipes online, in library cookbooks, ...even a blog at crockpot365.blogspot.com. I have to say that we found only a handful of good recipes on the blog, but they did turn out to be favorites, so it was worth reading through. If you don't already have your own personal cookbook, start one! I have a bookcase full of cookbooks that I've been given or purchased and we use many of them, but it's often hard to find the recipe I have in mind...which cookbook is it in? So...I make copies of the recipes that we used and liked and put them in a binder. My own "best of" cookbook. I can make all the notes I want on them without messing up the original book (I am NOT one of those people who can write in a book that I own....mom's voice yelling at me for scribbling in a book is still there 40 years later.). I will note any changes I made...any steps that didn't work as promised and how I fixed it....how long it takes (because the cookbook estimates are never my reality!). Even things like, I can't double this recipe as it doesn't fit in the crockpot, so do 1 1/2 and it will fit. This also helps the kids as they plan our meals they can find the recipe and be sure that ALL ingredients are either in house, or on the shopping list. It's also a great source of inspiration in making up a menu....a binder full of recipes that we love, no experiments this week, lol. I have simple binder tabs dividing by main dish, side dish, dessert, appetizer/snack. I'm too lazy to break it down further, lol. Good luck with the transition....it takes a bit of effort to break the habit, but once you do the results are well worth it. Money saved, yes, but you'll also find that the kids get more involved in meals and so the work lessens (obviously depends on the age of your kids, but eventually they will be old enough!), mealtime becomes a family affair so prep/cook time plus sitting at the table eating time, adds up to more time than just the restaurant booth time before. And healthier. You control the amount of salt, sugar or unreadable ingredients in your meals. Eat This Not That's website was a huge shock to me...I knew those restaurant meals were high calorie, high fat, high salt...but I never realized HOW high. No wonder we were all gaining weight, and feeling less than chipper. Read that site about your favorite restaurants and it may help motivate you! These are some genius ideas - thank you for taking the time to type this all out. I'm printing it and mulling over it. THANK YOU!!! 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Allearia Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 We have a big problem with this too and are slowly getting better. One thing that helps is to have some frozen or packaged meals. Sure they are expensive, but they save a lot of money compared to going out! While you are getting used to making food at home don't be afraid to do some convenience foods. As you get better at cooking, you can phase these foods out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I'm giving e-Mealz a try. That is what I was going to suggest. Her meals are so easy it is almost as fast as eating out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 Crock pot ideas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Make things that you can freeze in single servings. The crock pot is a great idea just make sure that you can freeze the leftovers. You may not want the rest now, but next week it will be nice to grab it out of the freezer and simply reheat it. If you freeze in single servings then your picky one can choose whatever he likes. You can still have simple meals and all together if you stock them in the freezer. One way to start this is to use one of those services where you go in and make the meals in a couple of hours. They do all of the prep and clean up, you just go in and put the meals together. It is a little expensive, but much less than you are spending now so it would be as great way to stock the freezer quickly. I found three online. Dinner My Way, Dream Dinners, Dinner on Demand. After that, plan to cook a couple of meals a week but make large batches and freeze the extra. Before you know it you will have a nice variety of meals in the freezer and still only need to cook a couple of times a week. You can also freeze things like breads and pancakes that are easy to reheat. I throw frozen pancakes into the toaster. HTH, This helps a lot, actually. It never occurs to me to freeze stuff. Not sure why, since my mother always did when I was growing up. Also, I have done one of those "make and freeze" things near my house and really enjoyed it. It's not the same as actually making it myself but it's certainly cheaper than eating out, and much more nutritious. I think I'll try that again to start easing my way back into the land of "normal people." Maybe I won't feel so overwhelmed. Thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 [quote name= Another good option is to cook up some brown rice and freeze servings of it in plastic bags, then when you need rice it is ready in a snap. You can also buy pre-cooked frozen rice at Trader Joes if you have one near you. Ok, I know this is going to sound really stupid, but how do you reheat the frozen rice? If I even put leftover rice in the fridge it's hard as a rock, even if I add water to it before trying to reheat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 My sister bought my kids a quesadilla maker. I thought it was a waste of money. Wrong! The kids use it every day. Food needed: tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa. http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Fe-QM2R-900-Watt-Quesadilla/dp/B000KL09G4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1251643117&sr=8-1 Here's a book of freezer meals to make ahead: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Panic-Dinners-Freezer-Great-Tasting/dp/0800730550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251644073&sr=8-1 I just ordered the quesadilla maker AND this cook book. Thanks SO much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Yeah I think if you don't have stuff ready to go (by making it ahead) it will be too difficult to cook all of the time with your schedule. I don't blame you one bit for being too tired to cook. If you could spend one day a week cooking and prepping ahead that might help. If the stuff is ready to go you will be less tempted to eat out. Thanks for the support! I'm really having a hard time with this! I feel terrible about the money I'm wasting, but I'm just worn out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlmiraGulch Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 What do you like to eat? When I was living by myself I loved to eat salads, raw veggies, bread and the occasional pan-fried meat of fish. I know this is not everyone's idea of tasty, but I loved it. GL
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