Need motivation to prepare meals at home

NiftyNancy

Hi! I'm really excited to be a part of this community and have met some great people:) I've noticed that I am getting lazy about preparing meals at home which is leading to eating out. Not good if I'm trying to lose weight. How do you stay motivated to cook all the time?

I get tired of preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. Even with help from my boyfriend (it is just the 2 of us at home). The reason I reach out for junk food sometimes is b/c I don't have to prepare it. I just open a bag a walah! It just seems to me that I am constantly making a mess in the kitchen and wash dishes all day. I don't have a dishwasher...so it ends up being a lot of extra work to cook at home. Does anyone have any tips? How do you stay motivated? What do you do to cut preparation time? Do you cook all 3 meals?

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the food in my fridge and don't even know what to do with it. it is more out of laziness than anything b/c i do know how to cook. And I'm tired of reaching for the easy food. Help!

lexis0911

wow!! you sound just like me!! i have no dishwasher too and it feels like i am ALWAYS doing dishes...i hate it!!

for me it's all about planning...when i have a plan of what i am going to eat throughout the day, it makes it easier to stick with and i usually don't stray too far away from it. it's when i have no idea what i am going to make that laziness creeps in and i grab something quick...

maybe you can try planning your meals?

Suedre

It helped me a ton when I realized that eating is fuel and doesn't always have to be an event. I literally slap natural peanut butter on whole wheat bread with sliced bananas every morning of my life. Even look forward to it most morning. Other than two or three knives in the sink, not a huge mess. I just had a great salad that took less than five minutes to put together and I love my hand blender for smooties, rinses right off in the sink. Just keep trying stuff, you'll get it!

alison2429

You could also track the meals that you are planning to eat in advance. I find that this helps me to stick to those foods.
Best of luck.

x

sassyg

I have cereal and milk for breakfast. No cooking there.
Lunch is fruit & raw vege sticks and/or a sandwich - Fruit is the ultimate fast food. It only takes a few seconds to peel a carrot, and a sandwich only takes a minute or two to prepare
So I typically only cook one meal a day unless I make something special.

Some other solutions would be to consider making double or triple batches, and freezing for more 'fast' food. A slow cooker is great for this.
Also make up a huuuuge batch of soup and freeze it in 1 cup portions.

Frozen vegetables are fast and easy, straight from bag to microwave to mouth in less time than it can take to microwave a frozen dinner

BTW I work full time from 6am - 2pm and have 2 school-aged kids, so its possible to not resort to takeaways AND not have the luxury of all the time in the world.

JulieBoBoo

Top 10 reasons I make my own food:
1) I hate wasting food and buying food at the grocery store only to throw it out is stupid.
2) I hate packaging and contributing to the huge already existing landfills. I get my produce delivered in a reusable bin, buy my meat from local farmers wrapped in brown butcher paper and when I DO go to the grocery store I bring my own bags/bins for taking stuff home.
3) There is too much sodium in packaged food.
4) there is too much sugar in packaged food.
5) there are ingredients I don't recognize and don't necessarily think are actual FOOD in processed food.
6) I need to teach my girls how to eat healthy and treat food responsibly (i.e. not waste or create undo waste)
7) I need to feed my girls healthy food that will allow them to grow at the proper rate (instead of hitting puberty years earlier than they should).
8) Making my own food saves me and my family money.
9) I'm teaching my girls how to cook so they can be self-reliant when they get older and have families of their own.
10) It tastes better.

ETA: I cook breakfast for me and Dh (the girls like cereal), I make lunches for all of us (the kids and DH brown bag it) and I make supper every night for all of us. I also make our own treats (muffins, cookies, cake, etc) and desserts. I try to make our own bread in the breadmaker as much as possible as well.

Painten

I have the same problem. I also have my oh refusing to eat half of my healthier meals and complaining that again he is cooking for himself and then ofcourse twice the saucepans, pots etc to wash.

We also don't have a dishwasher. Unfortunately i find it incredibly hard to stay motivated ad haven't managed a week without a takeaway or eating out.

NiftyNancy

Thank you for everyone's great ideas!!

amycal

Top 10 reasons I make my own food:
1) I hate wasting food and buying food at the grocery store only to throw it out is stupid.
2) I hate packaging and contributing to the huge already existing landfills. I get my produce delivered in a reusable bin, buy my meat from local farmers wrapped in brown butcher paper and when I DO go to the grocery store I bring my own bags/bins for taking stuff home.
3) There is too much sodium in packaged food.
4) there is too much sugar in packaged food.
5) there are ingredients I don't recognize and don't necessarily think are actual FOOD in processed food.
6) I need to teach my girls how to eat healthy and treat food responsibly (i.e. not waste or create undo waste)
7) I need to feed my girls healthy food that will allow them to grow at the proper rate (instead of hitting puberty years earlier than they should).
8) Making my own food saves me and my family money.
9) I'm teaching my girls how to cook so they can be self-reliant when they get older and have families of their own.
10) It tastes better.

ETA: I cook breakfast for me and Dh (the girls like cereal), I make lunches for all of us (the kids and DH brown bag it) and I make supper every night for all of us. I also make our own treats (muffins, cookies, cake, etc) and desserts. I try to make our own bread in the breadmaker as much as possible as well.

I love this! I should hang it on my refrigerator.
Crockpots and cooking ahead are huge helps. I am working this weekend but yesterday before my 2:30 - 9 pm shift I cooked up meat sauce to go with a vegetarian ziti I had frozen a while ago. Today chicken cacciatore is in my crockpot so my hubby just has to cook the rice and bring me a plate of it! I brought salad and some healthy snacks with me. I downloaded some apps to my iphone - I got the baked ziti off the spark people app and the chicken cacciatore from the crockpot recipe app.

NiftyNancy

Suedre - great idea for the blender! I think I'm gonna go get one!! What is your recipe for the salad?Thx for responding!!

NiftyNancy

Allison- how do you track them? Do you mean you use a food diary to plan ahead and then print out the menu for the day? That is a fab idea. How often do you do this?

NiftyNancy

Alexis- I'm so glad someone can relate!!! Somemtimes I think I'm the only one out there with this problem!! How often do you plan your meals? Every night before bed? Once a week? Do you also factor in calories? How often do you go grocery shopping?

rileysowner

I have not used this but an acquaintance of mine who struggles with a similar thing uses the book "Frozen Assets Lite and Easy" by Deborah Taylor-Hough. It allows her to one day make a bunch of healthy meals that she then freezes ahead of time. It avoids the pitfalls of store bought frozen meals, namely very high sodium levels among other things, and allows a person to cook their meals ahead of time.

Overall my suggestion would be looking into recipes you can make multiple servings of and freeze. That way other than some meals in the week, you can prepare ahead of time. You could even, assuming you have the freezer space, cook ahead for more than a week as well.

rileysowner

I have not used this but an acquaintance of mine who struggles with a similar thing uses the book "Frozen Assets Lite and Easy" by Deborah Taylor-Hough. It allows her to one day make a bunch of healthy meals that she then freezes ahead of time. It avoids the pitfalls of store bought frozen meals, namely very high sodium levels among other things, and allows a person to cook their meals ahead of time.

Overall my suggestion would be looking into recipes you can make multiple servings of and freeze. That way other than some meals in the week, you can prepare ahead of time. You could even, assuming you have the freezer space, cook ahead for more than a week as well.

sassyg

In an ideal world I'd plan my meals weekly, or even the night before.
In reality though, I usually open the freezer about 4pm decide from there what I'm making LOL

Pandorian

If you can't stand the thought of "cooking" every day, make your own convenience items.

When I make a batch of pancakes I'll at least double the recipe and freeze the extras in "serving" size bags, take out a bag per person that is eating that meal, they reheat fine in the toaster just like the store-bought pancakes / eggo's etc. Cook once and eat multiple days for at least that week from it.

Soup make up a big pot and then into mason jars for freezing currently, though I am looking into a pressure-canner, had one too many experiences with the freezer failing.

Even things like mac n cheese do freeze short-term, just keep some fresh grated cheese ready to put on it when you reheat, I've had it up to a month frozen with no noticeable ill effects.

Practice more one-pot cooking, if you can cook your whole meal in a single pan so there's minimal cleanup involved it helps wanting to do it again next meal.

Rice, cook a bunch and portion it out for the week, meals changed up each day by combining with something different, for me it's beef or chicken breast.

"CHEAT...err make that SNEAK" .. if you have the oven on for something sneak something else in around what you're making, if you're cooking a casserole you've got room to do half a dozen baked potatoes at the same time!

simply don't cook every meal, have a bowl of cereal, I have bran flakes here and I grab a bowl, then top it... raisins? home version of raisin bran without all the added sugar frosting on the cereal, raspberries... blueberries..bananas it's a different meal every time I have it! have a pb & jam sandwich, if you're boiling water for eggs boil a couple extra they keep for at least a week in the fridge and make a nice pre-packaged snack.

.... guess working on the slide show got my creative side going again, back to work on that now.

NiftyNancy

Riley, awesome and thanks! I will look for it:)