Hate preparing food

ehimay10ins

I am a mom and wife. I make breakfast for everyone in the morning (or at least over see the process). I make lunch for 2 of my kids, and sometimes my husband. I make dinner every night for everyone.

I dont want to make my OWN lunch. I want a break. I end up spending lots of money eating out and I usually make good decision but every so often I slip up.

any suggestions other than just "suck it up"?

tzur21

I hear you! I have 4 kids ages 4-14 and work f/t, as does my husband. I hate making lunch, and all 4 kids bring (refusing to buy the yucky lunchroom food any day other than Friday - pizza day. Making Thursdays nights my favorite weeknight b/c I don't have to make lunch.

What I do is practically make my lunch at work. Today I shoved a head of romaine lettuce (whole), and empty tupperware, dressing, and a frozen veggie burger in my lunch bag. I make the salad at my desk. I also brought a low cal protein bar and a single serving wholly quacomole. I try to leave a bag of frozen steam in the bag vegetables and if I'm hungry around 2:00 I microwave that.

Not sure if this helps.

lattarulol

Eat what the kids eat and do it all at once.. Or, make extra dinner and pack that for the next day.

Grimmerick

Eat what the kids eat and do it all at once.. Or, make extra dinner and pack that for the next day.

I agree with this^^ just make a little more dinner. When I cook dinner I cook a lot and make freezer meals, especially if it's spaghetti with veggies because you can make a lot easily and it freezes well.

Iron_Feline

Get your husband to make dinner some nights.

missADS1981

if you want to succeed with nutrition and diet you'll have to work to find the time to prep meals otherwise you run the risk of not knowing what you are buying at a restaraunt. Grilled chicken in a restarauant can be made with tons of different oils, salt, etc. at least at home i know how my food is made and what is going in it.

it doesn't take alot of time to make a batch of grilld chicken, a bunch of cut sweet potatoes, etc. i make all my meals for the week in under 2 hours on a sunday.

Cheeky_0102

I work in my house, so a different boat, but when i worked in an office i would keep tuna or salmon, crackers or rice cakes, a bag of apples. some cheese, almond butter, a clamshell of salad and hummus at work... any combination of these foods worked for a meal. Cheese and apples. Apples and hummus, tuna on salad. tuna and hummus on rice cakes.

not exciting, but at least i didn't have to think to hard about it.

I did eat out more than i meant too, probably because my lunch was too boring.

these days i eat either apples and almond butter, a bowl of cereal, a quesadilla, eggs... but I'm at my house so i can do whatever i want

susannamarie

Ditto the 'eat what the kids eat/your husband eat or make extra dinner'

PlayerHatinDogooder

You have two options

1. Hire a personal chef

2. Suck it up buttercup

LoraF83

Do a large prep once a week. Chop your veggies, portion out meats, cook food for lunches, etc. Then, it's all grab and go for the rest of the week.

Eat what your kids and husband eat. You don't need to eat special "diet" food. And if you're just eating healthy, then they should be too right?

Make extra dinner and eat the left overs for lunch the next day.

ehimay10ins

(again let me warn you that i may sound like a baby and maybe that's my problem and not the food)

tzur21 - At one point i was making myself salad and maybe i should start that again, but i think i stopped because i was getting bored of lettuce

lattarulol - I do eat the same dinner as my kids/husband, however, breakfast is not the same because it's usually something like a waffle or "bar" type item for the kids (nothing for my husband) and my kids take toast to school (i know VERY VERY nutritious, but there is a no nut policy and they're picky eaters.) I guess I could eat last night's dinner for lunch but again thats not exciting.

I guess my issue is not even the prepping it's that I love food and want it to be exciting and pre- planing is not exciting and neither is the same lunch day after day or week after week.

odusgolp

I hate cleaning floors.... so I made sacrifices elsewhere and hired a housekeeper. I suggest you hire a chef. If no... get back in the kitchen!

greenfalls107

Last night while I was preparing dinner, my daughter and I worked on putting together a veggie/pasta salad. Getting it done while making dinner (waiting for pasta to boil, meat to brown, etc) I got things done without it seeming like extra work. We cut the cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, canned artichokes, corn and just mixed it all together while the johnny marzetti was baking. I find if I have things prepared that healthy I am more apt to eat them. I just scoop out a cup of the pasta salad and enjoy my lunch. No mess, no fuss.

Alex_is_Hawks

I guess my issue is not even the prepping it's that I love food and want it to be exciting and pre- planing is not exciting and neither is the same lunch day after day or week after week.

you shouldn't be getting your excitement from food....it's just fuel....

that being said....I love a good exciting meal occasionally....

Do you have a kitchen at work? Can you keep things in the fridge there if you do? not all salads have to have lettuce...

what about a strawberry, avocado, walnut salad...

or a feta, onion, pepper, olive salad....

think outside the box...

odusgolp

I guess my issue is not even the prepping it's that I love food and want it to be exciting and pre- planing is not exciting and neither is the same lunch day after day or week after week.

you shouldn't be getting your excitement from food....it's just fuel....

skinnyforhi

Last night while I was preparing dinner, my daughter and I worked on putting together a veggie/pasta salad. Getting it done while making dinner (waiting for pasta to boil, meat to brown, etc) I got things done without it seeming like extra work. We cut the cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, canned artichokes, corn and just mixed it all together while the johnny marzetti was baking. I find if I have things prepared that healthy I am more apt to eat them. I just scoop out a cup of the pasta salad and enjoy my lunch. No mess, no fuss.

THIS. I do the same thing. It's not unusual for me to have 2 things going on the stove so it all gets done at once. And I also agree that you must have healthy options already prepared to stick to your plan. My refrigerator is full of bowls of cut fruit, 2 or more healthy entree dishes that I've made, string cheese, hummus, salsa, etc. The trick is to make it just as convenient to reach for the healthy food as it is to reach for the unhealthy (and often convenience) food. I also find it helps to make it pretty Get glass food storage containers and nice fruit bowls if it's in your budget (and you can find lots of nice looking cheapies, too). Make it LOOK like something you want to eat.

IpuffyheartHeelsinthegym

I just do food prep Sunday's and bake a ton of chicken and put it away for the rest of the week.

brower47

In Soviet Russia, food hates preparing you.

Sorry, I had to get that out.

If you really feel the need to eat out for lunch a lot, just ask for half an order. Every restaurant I've been too (fast food withstanding) and asked to have this done are fine with doing it. Most even charge you less for the meal. This will help with portion control which tends to be the biggest obstacle to eating out regularly. If it's fast food you're talking about, just toss half of it as soon as you get it in order to get the same result.

Alex_is_Hawks

I guess my issue is not even the prepping it's that I love food and want it to be exciting and pre- planing is not exciting and neither is the same lunch day after day or week after week.

you shouldn't be getting your excitement from food....it's just fuel....

i was waiting for you my love....


LOL

diliveslife

I have been doing the prepping on Sunday thing lately (just these past two weeks) where I grilled a load of chicken for the week and roasted some veggies. I baked a few sweet potatoes and done. Today I am having lunch with my Dad so I am breaking the routine but that's okay every now and then as a treat. Before this I would buy stuff to make lunch at work. We have a refrigerator and a microwave, so I can make sandwiches or bring leftover dinner stuff. I like eating out too but like others have said, we don't know what all is going in it, and my biggest thing is that it's just getting too expensive. That's money that can go towards something better while I am putting something better in my body. It's hard to resist temptation though all the time and always be thinking of what you are going to make. I get it.

melindasuefritz

soups, hotdogs, sandwiches, tuna- buy them and keep them on hand at house..........