How do you accomplish your evening meal?

[Orchidflower]

She's one lucky lady, FIREdreamer! Wow...you were a catch!

 

[Maurice]

Some combination of 1 and 4. We usually buy fresh daily what we'll eat that night. However we don't often have to consult a recipe because most of our dinners are pretty simple. (e.g. grilled fish and fresh vegetables).

 

[Tesaje]

I cook up a bunch of meat at once then package it in single meals and usually freeze it. Sometimes, I'll make a big pot of soup or stew and do the same. I've also taken to baking a more or less solid omelet that I cut into 12 pieces for breakfasts. Then I just grab out of the freezer, nuke to thaw, add a bit of a vegetable and that's it most of the time. I get home cooking with all the ease of pre-packaged and none of the garbage the food industry puts into them.

I have a freezer full of garden produce and meats I buy mostly when the food coop has the owners day - 10% off. During summer, I go out and grab fresh veggies and herbs. I have dozens of herbs on hand so I can vary the flavorings at a whim.

After some 45 years of cooking, I rarely use a recipe anymore. Mostly, when I cook, it is based on what I have and my mood. I shop 1/week to get a few perishables and sometimes the staples. I have in my mind lots of different flavor combinations so when I cook it is often a creative endeavor.

I think I will probably continue most of this pattern after I retire because I enjoy cooking but not everyday. When I'm focused on an activity and get hungry, I just want to eat and get back to it. Shopping everyday isn't really an option because I live too far away.

 

[Dawg52]

Tonight......I scooped up a cup of Iams dry dog food, put it in a bowl, added a little Purina Pro Plan salmon and rice wet food as a topper and walla.....a scrumptious meal fit for a king. Or at least my lab thinks so. Gulped it right on down. I on the other hand had a roast beef sandwich. Will have an apple later for desert. Being single I don't cook much. I usually pick up something at lunch that is somewhat balanced or eat at my mom's. First of the year I will be eating salads at night. Try to get back to my old college weight. Not way over weight but would like to lose 10-12lbs. I saw some low cal med's in the store the other night, something like 55 calories per 12oz. Forgot the name but might have to give it a try, next year.

 

[ejman]

Ask, very sweetly: "Honey, what's for dinner?"

 

[Kronk]

I wish I liked to cook. "Ignore it and hope it goes away" is one response to dinner. I'm not a bad cook, but I would much rather read a book, watch TV, play on the computer or something along those lines rather than cook. It takes me a lot of mental energy to cook, even if it is something fairly simple.

DW and I cook and eat separately almost all the time. With my martial arts schedule and her class schedule, we're eating at different times most days. Maybe we should change that up again, though. Throw some recipes in there for the two of us for nights we are both in.

 

[Kwirk]

If my wife, who enjoys cooking, prepares something then we enjoy that. I do most of the after-dinner cleanup and any grilling. Otherwise, we discuss which restaurant to visit.

 

[TromboneAl]

In our house, whoever cooks doesn't have to clean up. At all. Since I much prefer cooking, I almost always prepare dinner.

 

[FIREd]

She's one lucky lady, FIREdreamer! Wow...you were a catch!

That's what I keep reminding her!

 

[Walt34]

7. Just sit down at the table and wait for someone to serve it up.

I tried that once and nearly starved.

Actually we're both about the same on the "cooking skills" ladder, which means we can read a recipe but rarely do so and keep meals simple and short. I make a once a week shopping trip with sometimes an occasional extra trip thrown in for something we forgot. Stores are 10-15 minutes away. I do the shopping because I'm better at sticking to a list than she is, and she dawdles so much and goes off on a tangent so often I get impatient. I'm from the "stick to the list, hunt it down and kill it and get out of there" school while she likes to go exploring. In a grocery store?

We keep a list on the kitchen counter and add to it during the week as we remember or run out of stuff.

 

[BUM]

Tonight we're making... reservations!!!!! Artery clogging night at the area seafood mecca - 40% off any entree. I'm getting the combo fried platter; scallops, shrimp, oysters, and flounder fillet.

Did I mention draft beer?

 

[Moemg]

Tonight we're making... reservations!!!!! Artery clogging night at the area seafood mecca - 40% off any entree. I'm getting the combo fried platter; scallops, shrimp, oysters, and flounder fillet.

Did I mention draft beer?

We went to our local seafood mecca on Veteran's Day . I had the garlic shrimp & My So had the endless popcorn shrimp . We both had drinks and because he is a vet he got half off and because I said I had a picture of me in a nursing uniform I got half off ( This is our local hang out ) so our total bill was $11 and the food is great .

 

[vicente solano]

Reading all that fancy eating is making me mad...! Right so after having 4 teeth pulled put, plenty of scraping at the base of one of them and placed a provisional denture set...all of this done on Tuesday. Had so much anaesthesya food couldn´t find their way into my mouth
All my fault due to my fear of pain-kept asking the good dentist to dish out!
Now my gums hurt aplenty. Forget abiout chewing.

 

[W2R]

Reading all that fancy eating is making me mad...! Right so after having 4 teeth pulled put, plenty of scraping at the base of one of them and placed a provisional denture set...all of this done on Tuesday. Had so much anaesthesya food couldn´t find their way into my mouth
All my fault due to my fear of pain-kept asking the good dentist to dish out!
Now my gums hurt aplenty. Forget abiout chewing.

Vicente, I'm sorry to hear you are in such pain!! Soon it will go away, I am sure.

I had a wonderful, delicous, superb, mouth-watering lunch at a nice restaurant today with Frank - - better than you can even imagine, but I won't tell you what it was so that it doesn't torture you.

 

[Orchidflower]

W2R: You're still in New Orleans, too, you doggette you!!!! Boy, I hope you eat-up before you leave that area for Southern Missouri!

 

[W2R]

W2R: You're still in New Orleans, too, you doggette you!!!! Boy, I hope you eat-up before you leave that area for Southern Missouri!

I have to admit that weight loss may be a LOT easier in southern Missouri than it is here!

 

[Tesaje]

Reading all that fancy eating is making me mad...! Right so after having 4 teeth pulled put, plenty of scraping at the base of one of them and placed a provisional denture set...all of this done on Tuesday. Had so much anaesthesya food couldn´t find their way into my mouth
All my fault due to my fear of pain-kept asking the good dentist to dish out!
Now my gums hurt aplenty. Forget abiout chewing.

ice cream ...

 

[Tesaje]

In our house, whoever cooks doesn't have to clean up. At all. Since I much prefer cooking, I almost always prepare dinner.

This arrangement was a disaster when I was a teenager! My brother claimed he had excema from dish soap so got to do all the cooking and I had to clean up after him. If he had had to clean up after himself, he wouldn't have made such huge messes!

 

[old woman]

I am a simple cook and eat simple foods. I buy what is on sale and freeze meat and fruit and some veggies. I can whip up something even if everything is frozen but try to get some meat out of the freezer every few days.

We don't eat the same things at the same time usually just what we each want when we are hungry.

Last night I made mac and cheese but didn't give him much. Then I made him a frying pan of buffalo stew meat from the freezer with frozen mushrooms and a fresh onion. I told him it was soup. I keep lots of frozen mushrooms and bell peppers and have a big bag of onions. I don't eat buffalo or mushrooms if I can avoid it but he likes them and it is easy.

Tonight I asked him if he was hungry and he said not really so I didn't feed him. I had nuts and califlower, I had oatmeal and raisons for lunch at about 2:30 so not really hungry. I might have frozen nectorines later as a snack.

I only buy groceries if they have a sale worth the trip. If something is too good I might avoid the store. This weekend they have pie for 1.99, I shouldn't eat pie so might not shop at all.

 

[marvholly]

I am single & still working but use a combo of many of the things mentioned. I do plan meals ahead as far as entree based on the sale ads. I keep a HIGHLY stocked pantry & freezer. I cook ahead, generally a stew, soup or 9 x 13 pan of.....I eat that 2-3x in the first week and portion freeze the rest.

I have a basic meal plan that includes 2 fish meals, 2 red meat meals, 2 chicken meals, 1 veggie meal, 3 cottage cheese lunches, 2 leftover lunches, 2 egg breakfasts, 2 yougurt/fruit breakfasts, 2 cereal/fruit breakfasts, and 1 waffle or pancake or bagel/cream cheese + fruit breakfast. I am NOT totally bound to my plan. I frequently pick up something for dinner on Friday. I usually have a junk food day on Saturday (pizza, italian sausage, nachos.....). I add salads, veggies and fruit as needed/whats on sale/whats in the freezer to complete a reasonably healthy daily and weekly diet.

I do keep a written plan but am NOT wedded to it. If someone from work or a friend calls to invite me to their place or go out I generally do it and just move that meal idea to my running list of things I have a taste for. Examples: baked stuffed potatoe, grilled cheese w/tomatoe soup, tuna salad have all been on my list for a couple weeks.

I pretty much shop weekly, especially at my local produce markets. I KNOW I will need x servings of veg & y servings of fruit + salad stuff and buy whatever I like that is on special.

 

[Rambler]

I usually do much of the cooking on weekends and DW handles the weekdays. She is away to handle some family business for about 3 months (will be toghether here and there in between), and I am really suffering. Not eating right at all. I have always been a bit of a "party chef" meaning that I cook huge amounts of whatever it is I am cooking. Now that both kids are at university and DW is away, whatever I cooks gets frozen and eaten every day for a week or so. My biggest problem is that I hate cooking for myself, and I have a very hard time cooking for two (two days, two of us, etc). I need to learn how to do this a little better.

R

 

[vicente solano]

ice cream ...

Very funny I´ve grown an ulcer and the dentist says I have to carry the denture nevertheless...
On second thoughts, ice cream might be a good idea-cold and soft...mmmm Thanks for the tip