Cooking in your country

[Amaraen]

A trick I have learned: at our local Walmart, they set a lot of their "sell by" dates for meat on Saturdays. On Friday mornings, they go around and mark these down like 40-60%. It is easy to find USDA Choice steaks for like $5 a pound, or Tyson chicken for like 50-75 cents a pound. Then just take it home and freeze it for when you need it. I've been doing this for about a year and it has worked really well. It's nice to be eating 10 ounce tenderloins at about $8 a plate (with sides).

Cooking at home almost always is cheaper. One thing about this too is that fast food for example just doesn't have many nutrients, so you feel hungry again later. The sodium content is so high, all you are really getting is salt and calories. Having say wheat bread and peanut butter for lunch is incredibly cheap and will give you energy for hours. This would literally cost less than 50 cents and you could not find anything at a fast food restaurant that will satisfy as well.

For time, there are usually ways to make it. You just have to get creative. When I was single, I worked full time and also had volunteer activities pretty much every evening and weekend. On Sunday afternoons I would cook a lot of food, then portion it and store it in the freezer or fridge.

 

[mimic]

THREE times per week, so I'm not quite sure how to vote. I eat leftovers the other four days.

 

[cultcross]

I cook every day, or very near to. I enjoy cooking and over the years have gradually moved towards a home cooked diet. Although I should stress that the alternative is not eating out all the time. Culturally that's not done here half as much as in the US. I am comparing 'cooking', i.e. preparing a meal from fresh ingredients, to the 'bung it in the oven', 'mix it in a jar sauce' type of meals I used to eat when I was younger. What I refer to as 'home heating' rather than 'home cooking'.

 

[Timby]

I am comparing 'cooking', i.e. preparing a meal from fresh ingredients, to the 'bung it in the oven', 'mix it in a jar sauce' type of meals I used to eat when I was younger. What I refer to as 'home heating' rather than 'home cooking'.

Before I spent a few years working on a line in restaurants, about all I could do at home was make a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese or scramble some eggs. Amazing what some time learning from a Michelin-starred chef who traveled the world can do for one's skills. Nowadays I actually hate eating out if I can avoid it. The only time I eat fast food is when I'm in airports, honestly.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I love to cook and with with 3 small kids, outside of lunch when they are at school means I have a meal to prepare. However we've gotten away from the already prepared and packaged food. We had to change our way of thinking, we use to go shopping once a week or two. Fill the freezer with meat or other things and try to remember what we have or even worse, remember to pull it out. Which didn't always happen and meant calling for Pizza delivery. Now, I go food shopping at least 3 to 4 times a week. However instead of the two hour marathon that it was before, its a quick strike of 10 to 20 minutes. We sit down on Sunday and plan out our menu for the week. Its usually depended on my wives schedule, especially if she is on call overnight at the hospital. While I now spend more time at the grocery store, we have far less amount of things just languishing in the refrigerator or freezer. Also everything gets used, less waste and overall better meals. Plus this has made adapting my diet because of my recent diagnosis of being a Type 2 diabetic even easier.

 

[Karzak]

Fortunately, I'm someone who is pretty ok with eating the same meal over and over again a couple days in a row so I generally just make a big batch of something (spaghetti, for instance) and live off it for the week.

That said, I agree with those saying that actually cooking every night is not the insurmountable task it may seem to be. I can easily whip up a different meal every night in under 20 minutes if I plan and get the groceries needed to do so at the beginning of the week. Usually I end up with leftovers for lunch the next day. Easy-peasy.