I always cook a huge amount on the weekend and then have tons of stuff to reheat during the week. People don't cook healthly because they don't want to change their bad habits and blame everything on their circumstances.

It strikes me as a little odd. Since I am the better cook (by her admission) Nan usually lets me make dinner when I get home from work. We are almost always chowing down within 30 minutes and often in 10. I usually make a little extra for my lunch the next day also. Maybe a generation has grown up without instruction on basic kitchen skills.

mike

Yep, I'll agree that a little prep and smart shopping can save a lot of time. I have 5 people to feed in my house (DH, 2 teenage boys and an 8 y.o. boy). Anyway, dinner tonight was soooo easy and nutritious: coated chicken breasts with carbquik and seasonings, put on foil-lined baking sheet and popped in the oven (preheated before coating chicken), put a pot of water on to boil and threw a bunch of pre-chopped veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, carrots, onions, zucchini, red peppers) in the steamer. When the water was boiled I threw in some veggie-pasta. Drained the pasta, mixed in some butter, minced garlic from a jar and sprinkled on fresh parmesan, drizzled the veggies with olive oil and soy sauce and the chicken was ready. How hard was that, really?? I work full time, very busy job and do the majority of everything here at home....

While dinner was cooking I also threw a bunch of chicken legs in my crock pot with chipotle sauce and hot sauce, added water and put that on to cook for snacks/meal in the next few days.

Preparing veggies ahead, buying prewashed bags of salad, preparing extra to save cooking twice all help to avoid stressing over meals.

While the cooking may be quick, you often end up using a whole host of utensils and dishes in preparing your own food. Burgers are eaten right out of the box/wrapping paper, fries out of the box, and pizza can easily be used with paper plates. That helps the meal be even more effortless. I'm not advocating an all-burger/pizza diet, but come on...it is easier.

One of the best things a parent can do is teach their children to cook for themselves. I am a mom of 4 ages 15, 12, 10, 7. I work full time as a teacher for special ed kids (grades k-3) and I go to school part time. My family always has hot meals. Not due to DH though but because I plan meals ahead and my kids know how to cook. Even my 7 yo can help out in the kitchen with prep work. They love it. No day care for them either. I work my schedule around theirs still. It is not hard to do just takes time to preplan. We eat out maybe 1 time every 2 weeks and usually that is as a treat on weekends. I know people that they eat out every night. Kids actually hate it. They are always asking what we are having and if they can come over. LOL some nights I have 3 extra kids at the table

Personally, I'd rather wash a frying pan that I cooked my eggs in than drive to a fast food place, sit at the window, drive home, unpack everything - yes, I realize it isn't a huge burden like I'm making it out to be, but there are VERY easy fast choices that you can make at home that are less effort. Eggs would be at the top of the list

well..I dont know ..I reheat my pre-made meal in my bowl...and when Im done I rinse it and put it in the dw. My husband and I have discussed using paper products to save even that energy...then we said NAW! On Sunday when I cook and prepare...we work as a team so it goes quickly ..even the cleanup...and we use that time to enjoy each other.
So Id say no...the styrofoam containers dont make it much easier...especially when you consider the taste of the food in those containers...

Perfect example of the above:

DS2's best friend came over yesterday and I was chatting with the 2 of them while I finished off making dinner (preparing dinner is a great time to spend time with family members, working together and chatting). Anyway, Friend comments - "I wish my Mom made dinners like you do! All we ever have is takeout, fast food, frozen stuff. She hardly ever makes anything real". Needless to say, he shows up to hang out with DS2 right around dinner time quite often

Yeah, I'll admit that takeout is easier if you've been out running around and don't want to face having to prepare a meal as soon as you get home and ordering in is easier than plotting, planning and preparing a meal. I won't argue that - I'm just arguing that preparing a meal at home isn't as hard as a lot of people say it is to justify not cooking. Also, look at the expense (we're feeding 5 people, 4 with adult appetites) and a lot of the time it's not exactly the healthiest food, either.

*shrug* sure it is easier. But as a middle-aged person whose health isn't what it once was it is a trade-off I'm willing to make. It maybe helps to have a few years of perspective on what old-age is going to be like if I don't make those sorts of choices to spend 10 minutes loading the dishwasher versus going through a drive through.

It is so unfortunately that parents aren't teaching their kids to cook. Heck, probably half the parents out there don't know how. And especially their male children, as if it were unmanly for them to know how to cook... *sigh* I feel very fortunate my Mom taught me to cook. But I don't think she ever taught the boys in our family to cook.

I have an assistant chef who is 6 years old, she shows up for work every weekday morning and is often in the kitchen before I get there. She just learned to crack eggs a few weeks ago and did 5 yesterday without a single broken yolk or piece of shell in the eggs. Just had to brag on her. I've taught all the kids some cooking skills, and am also showing the wife some new tricks. Cooking was my first career, since moved on to chemistry which is just cooking with non-edibles.

I agree that there is way more time involved than 10 minutes, even for a chicken breast and veggies. There's procuring the food, bringing it home and portioning it for storage, thawing ahead of time, as well as cleanup (my personal least favorite aspect). And don't forget to buy more dishwasher soap, always out of that.

We eat at home most of the time, its a good habit to get into. It is not as easy as some would make it sound, but it is worth the effort in many ways.

LOL! I don't count time when I don't have to be hands on, like roasting something for 4 hours. I have 4 hours to do something other than just stand in front of the oven. Same with thawing, that's cheating!

I work darn hard at cooking my family healthy meals.....here's how I get through working, looking after kids, and all the other responsabilities that being a busy wife, mother and woman brings....I cook usually twice a week, and do massive cookouts. I cook maybe 3 or 4 dishes at a time which will feed the family, that way, I always have something in the refrigerator to re-heat for the following few days.
There isn't much excuse in my opinion not to be prepared.

I agree, and I applaud you parents who making food a priority.

Another thing that amazes me is how far down the priority list food can be - almost an afterthought. It seems that organized sports, homework and social activities take priority over eating well. You can do so much damage to your health with improper eating - I guess it just stuns me that it isn't a priority in some households

Hope I didn't step on any toes with that

sometimes it is just a learning process. i grew up not only as a very disorganized person, but in a meat and potatos familiy. we also ate out quite too often. what i was familiar with is dinner preps that take at least an hour, like meatloaf and roasted potatos, or fast food. dinners also had to be a certain way, meat, starch, veg, salad. i was very rigid in my thinking as to what constituted side dish. the thought of serving something so simple as a plate of sliced tomatos would have not only appalled me, but would have never occured. equally appalling was the thought of serving unappetizing platesful of reheated leftovers. as i grew into an adult, i did learn how to cut corners and shave time, not by quicker means of meat preps though, i've always had difficulty with cuts of meats and the different ways to prepare them, nope, my shortcuts were of the boxed side dish and bagged salad variety. i slowly learned how to perfect my familiy's favorites, but they still aren't quickies, nor are they low carb. spaghetti, enchiladas, baked chicken and rice. i'm still not miss swifty with different cuts of meat and what to do with them, but i do bake chicken quite often, as well as pork ribs, pork loin, and sometimes we grill tri tip. seldom do i pan fry or grill chicken breast for my family because half of the family doesn't like it. i usually end up juggling 1 low carb meal and a regular meal for the other three. fortunately i have learned a little balance in that regard. defrost a pound of hamburger for their spaghetti, dump 3/4 of thw burgwer into the sauce and use 1/4 to make taco salad for myself. since starting this woe, i've learned to cook and serve a much wider variety of vegetables and foods, balance is still a problem though. like i said, it's been a learning process, and we aren't all kings and queens of organization and planning. i am a sahm with plenty of time and yet i still find myself struggling to pull it all together in terms of time spent, preparation, and balance of different meals/same ingredients.

"It's a catch-22. If you're not eating right, you don't feel like fixing anything good for you, and you won't feel good until you eat right..."

This is an excellent point and one I can certainly understand. I think the same is true for exercise.