Do other families eat like this?

CleoKitty

I love to cook, but more often than not I'm just too tired and short on time to really mess with it. I prefer cooking when I can take my time to plan out a really nice meal, I'm not so fond of the day to day drudgery of trying to find something to slap together and throw on the table. And on nights like tonight, when my dh isn't home, it really just isn't worth making a real meal.

Lately, especially now that the weather is warm, I've not really been cooking hardly at all. They're eating cold slices of deli turkey, cheese, and a bag of some seasoned veggie blend that I threw in the microwave. A cup of milk and whatever fresh fruit we have around for dessert. It's easy, lazy, and no stress. 

Are there many other people who eat this way a lot or do most people here actually sit down to a hot, cooked dinner most nights?  Sometimes I feel a momentary twinge of guilt that my kids are eating turkey and cheese yet again, but that twinge of guilt passes very quickly and I figure that as long as I'm feeding them something then it really doesn't matter.

Jodi&Joe

Joe is Polish. Grew up in a house with his parents AND grandparents. Need I say more?!?! 

Every night (or almost every night) is a fully homecooked meal.  Tonight was watermelon, cantaloupe, green salad, teriyaki rice (Lipton packaged), and Jennie-O's turkey roast.

Last night was hamburgers and hot dogs.  Nothing fancy there.

The night before was applewood bacon pork roast with alfredo noodles (again, Lipton packaged) and green beans.

We probably have a "thrown together" meal 2 times a week.  All other nights are full dinners (meaning starch, meat and veggies).

It's annoying.  I much prefer a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.  And it used to be Joe that did all the cooking -- now it's "my job."  good times! 

WBs_Bride

We eat the same exact way. Most nights I do cook, but we have our weeks where more often than not it's grilled cheese or chicken nuggets and a can of peas and carrots. Tonight in fact, DH and DD#1 went to the circus so I gave DD#2 some turkey deli meat and canned carrots---there are worse things we could give them! At least there are vegetables involved.

KrisBriMcBunny

this time of the year I usually throw something on the grill.  lately thought its been fend for yourself kind of deal.

What you are doing is perfectly fine well balance....better than most of the stuff I throw on at them....dont have my dining room table or kitchen table right now...damn remodeling.

Starr_Mom

Now that we're doing WW, we plan a bit more, but yeah. That's usually like our meals. Hastily thrown together and extremely lazy.

femmegem

DH usually cooks or we do leftovers, but occasionally we do a very lazy meal. I wish I could say our lazy meals were as healthy as yours.

breezee_bean

we do that a couple of night per week.  We make fruit parafaits alot (fresh fruit, yogurt and granola.) 

CleoKitty

femmegem:

DH usually cooks or we do leftovers, but occasionally we do a very lazy meal. I wish I could say our lazy meals were as healthy as yours.

Eh, don't feel bad. Tonight's a pretty good night, actually. All too often our lazy meals lately have consisted of ordering a pizza or hitting a drive thru- more often than I'd like to admit. 

I'm trying to break the pizza/drive thru/take out Chinese habit though which is why lately I've been trying to keep things like semi-healthy frozen pizzas (like the Kashi ones), some cold meats and cheeses, and those microwave-in-a-pouch kind of veggies around.

Amanda&Chris

I much prefer to cook when I have the time and can do something nice, but I also think it's important that we have a home cooked meal and eat together every night.  I meal plan for the week before I go to the grocery store so I know what we are going to have each night and I have all of the ingredients, that way I have less of an excuse to be lazy and not cook or order out.

However, MH was gone two nights this week so one night we had leftovers and the other night we had bean and cheese quesadillas.

I think your dinner tonight sounds healthy, so I wouldn't stress about it.

preemiemom

I usually do cook a hot dinner but we always eat lunch like that.  I wouldn't think twice of making a dinner like that on a busy night.

CPSTmama

Dh is at work 3 evenings a week and those nights are usually soup, sandwiches, salads (ds wont eat the lettuce though) chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. We always have a veggie and fruit with dinner. Tonight we had chicken nuggets, broccoli, applesauce and rice.

When dh is home we make a more "normal" dinner but this time of year it tends to be thrown together a lot. Crock pot type meals never sound good to me in the summertime and with soccer practice and t-ball and everything else we have going we just don't have a lot of time in the evenings.

ridesbuttons

As long as you are providing balanced meals, don't stress about how pretty it is!  We sit down together as a family for a cooked meal probably 2-3 times a week.  The other days are leftovers, or dad is away on business or, like tonight it was just me and the kids (DH has a ride night).  We had grilled cheese sandwiches (whole grain bread, cheddar cheese), milk, grapes, bananas and carrots.

 

Tomorrow is steak, sweet potato and broccoli and Saturday will likely be at one of the grandmother's homes.  I'll tackle next week's menu with limited success on Sunday.

 

I do well if I plan ahead, but if I'm on the fly (which is 50% of the time!) I'll throw together whatever.  I try to have handy stuff in the fridge or freezer to make things easier.

camrude

I would say the majority of our meals are easily thrown together - sandwiches, omelets, quick steam bags of veggies with fish, cereal and toast. When I have time to clean up the mess I do like to cook a good meal.

Tonight's meal was a pick your own- Mac and cheese with broccoli for M, a salad for me and P&B for MH.

august06mom

Yep, I do this all the time. DH is only for dinner maybe 2 nights a week, and I'm just too lazy to cook a full meal for just DS and I. So I feed him something -- tonight was a few chik'n nuggets, some cheese, a cereal bar and a pear. I try to get a veggie there somehow, but it doesn't always happen.

praline

Yes, this happens to us, and right now it's terrible because I am on bedrest and DH has to do everything.  Once I have this baby and settle in I want to try to do better.  I think what I'll do is try to make some meals (like meatloaf, etc) and freeze them and then have fresh fruit/vegetables and healthy grains and that should make easy evening meals.

We do try to still be healthy, but we eat a lot of rotisserie chicken and microwaved chicken nuggets and quesadillas.  Your dinner sounded fine actually.  It's hard.  I just know that to get back to my ideal weight which was about 7 pounds less than I was before this pregnancy I need to do a little better with meal planning.

I feel that if i'm staying home it'll be easier...but I might just be naive.

DandelionMom

Every Friday I have a "throw together dinner" that sounds like that.  DH has his golf league that night so I make scrambled eggs or pancakes or quesadillas with fruit salad or frozen veggies. 

mamarazzi

We do that a lot.  We call them "fend for yourself" nights.  H will make himself some chicken patties, a ham sandwich or a hotdog and I'll have a salad, some fruit, peanut butter or French toast.  Law will have a combo of something we're eating and a fruit and/or veggie.  We've been having more of them since I've been on the MSPI diet because it's so hard for me to eat what everyone else is eating and I just don't feel like cooking meals I can't eat.  We do have hot meals more often than not (last night was tacos, the night before was dinner out because we had a showing and the night before was pasta), but I try not to feel too guilty about FFY nights.