Back in the summer as I approached Ironman I confess that Hubby and I were eating out a lot. Between all of my training and Hub’s 12 hour shifts that he was working neither of us felt like cooking very much. We tried to keep it healthy, but let’s face it, eating out is bad for your waistline and bad for your wallet.
After Ironman was over (and our mini-vacation in Vancouver) I told Hubs that I wanted to challenge us to not eat out in September until our Disney vacation at the end of the month. Hubs also switched jobs at the beginning of September and he was now working regular hours. With us leaving for work and getting home at the same time I figured we’d have no excuse to not prepare dinner at home together now. I also knew that eating at Disney isn’t always inexpensive so I wanted to put some pennies away for those dinners out, instead of blowing them at home because we were lazy.
We succeeded at eating all of our dinners at home in the month of September (for me at least when I wasn’t travelling, which seemed to be a lot of the time that month). I still needed to work on bringing my breakfast and lunch to work more often, something I’m doing much better at this month. I’m also back to making my coffee at home in the mornings and being tempted less and less by the Starbucks in our building.
If you ever watched the Costco Craze documentary on CNBC you should know that I was fascinated with it. We have a Costco membership and we were using it mostly to buy tires, a TV, laundry detergent and toilet paper. With us cooking more now we’ve definitely upped our shopping at Costco. It can be a challenge to shop there when you are only shopping for two, but I think we do a good job. We’ll grab enough stuff to eat through the week so that we won’t waste anything, making us feel like we are getting good value for money. Repurposing ingredients can be a bit of a challenge to make sure we aren’t getting bored though. Last weekend we made a lamb roast that turned in to an awesome Shepherd’s pie two days later. Part of the challenge is realizing that maybe not every meal is going to be awesome, but that fast and tasty can be good enough.
What are some of your tips to eat healthfully throughout the week without spending all night, every night in the kitchen? How do you keep your meals interesting so your taste buds don’t get bored and want to sabotage things by grabbing a meal out instead of coming home to a plate of leftovers…again….?
I noticed Marlene had mentioned on twitter that she prepped a weeks worth of steel cut oats and quinoa on the weekend. I think this may be something that we have to try too!
I struggle with the “keeping it interesting” thing all the time. I find repurposing is the best way to use everything up and keep it tasty. It just takes a lot of planning, creativity and research though…
Linda here:
Rethink your meals & don’t be afraid to play with your food. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I do not spend hours in the kitchen every night. What I usually do is cook several dishes at once once or maybe twice a week, stuff that keeps well & can be re-purposed easily. Stews, quiche, roast or BBQ meats (men love playing with fire & a well marinaded bunch of meat done up on the BBQ can ensure tasty lunches & suppers for days). I’m totally on board with the brown bagging lunch to work idea. However, I see no reason to have to eat a PB & Jelly sandwich every working day, or variation on that.
Here is what we have eaten for lunch at work this week thus far – Monday was an organic beef tenderloin steak which had been marinaded in ginger, honey, olive oil, gluten free soy sauce & some zataar (mid east spice mix with thyme & sumac being principle ingredients). To go with, slow roasted organic sweet potatoes that had been coated with olive oil, drizzled with real maple syrup & sprinkled with fresh rosemary & organic plain cauliflower that had been steamed to just tender stage. Ripe juicy organic rustic bosc pear & organic pink lady apple to snack on during the day. Today lunch was free range duck with baked beans which had been baked together with real maple syrup, shallots, lots of thyme & some diablo salsa sausage to spice up the meal with. Used some leftover turkey stock to boil the beans in prior to popping them in with the rest of the ingredients to bake until tender. Another juicy organic bosc pear – fresh fruit makes excellent snacks – plus two organic dates.
Tonight will be a creamy potato soup – we have a Vita Mix. I’ll use some more of the fresh rosemary I used to bake the sweet potatoes & baked bean dishes & I’ve already baked the potatoes – when the sweet potatoes & beans were roasting together in the oven Sunday I also baked the potatoes for use tonight. Supper last night was beans with a diablo salsa sausage – yes, same Sunday dish but two separate meat items in the dish, duck legs & sausages so variation all done – with a hunk of rosemary focaccia picked up at the local grocery store & a glass of white wine.
Then I have some greek salad – organic baby cherry tomatoes, organic broccoli, hothouse peppers in red, yellow & orange, pitted black olives, she eps milk feta cheese, more zataar & a splash of lemon juice. Don’t need to add any olive oil because the olives have enough already. Since everything is raw & fresh, the olive oil & lemon juice keeps it fresh for days & a big bowl makes a great lunch or add on to a piece of the BBQ chicken Keith did with the organic beef tenderloin….. (to be continued…)
So BBQ chicken with greek salad is likely to be our lunch tomorrow & steam the leftover raw broccoli I didn’t use in the greek salad & make another fast soup for supper, using up the focaccia bread or…. So how much time did I spend preparing all this? Actual time chopping etc. & not counting time stuff was cooking since I could do other things while that was going on? Including shopping, washing, chopping etc. maybe 4 hours all told since Friday last.
Oh yes, I also baked peanut, chocolate chunk & peppermint cookies since the double chocolate cookies were nearly gone – 12 minutes baking time, 5 minutes putting the batter together, 10 minutes cleanup. I clean as I go so no big mess to worry me at the end, just sit down, eat & enjoy. We eat like this all the time. The more you cook & play with your food, the more variation you have & making several things at once that keep or can be transformed.
BBQ chicken chopped with organic celery, shallots, organic apples, some walnuts & a 1/4 cup of real mayo makes a killer salad & takes maybe 10 minutes to chop & mix – throw in some dried cranberries – craisins – for color & some added yum. I already have the BBQ chicken – Keith did it with the beef tenderloin on Friday…. so now we are up to this Friday & not a single repeat meal, but lots of super good food all week long.
Breakfast is always simple – toast with jam or honey for me, fresh perked coffee with lots of milk while Keith chows down on granola with organic pumpkin seeds, yogurt, organic banana sliced in plus whatever dried fruits & nuts we have on hand. Or a fast smoothie with the Vita Mix does the trick & super charges you for the day.
Oh yes – another money saving trick – take the leftover fresh perked coffee to work in a thermos with you. Too much work? Here is a simple way to look at it. $10 per person per working day for lunch, 200 working days per year. For a couple, that is $4,000 per year. Times 25 years at work – $100,000 you didn’t spend on lunch. I don’t spend $10 a day? When an extra large Starbuck’s latte is $7, you are likely spending a lot more than you think!
Keith this time. That stupid captcha robot test is not much fun.
I’ll have to admit one of the hardest parts of my work and training schedule is trying to eat in. Kudos that you guys were able to go a month without eating out. One of my training partners was suggesting a crock pot because you can throw your food in during the morning and have dinner done by the time you get in from work.
Also greek yogurt and instant oatmeal tends to be my staple breakfast.