Eating Late

Even if you're picking up fastfood there's no reason you can't eat within your calories and make a healthy choice. That being said - you can toss some things in a crockpot when you leave for work and come home to dinner. Does your boyfriend work the same hours as you? If not and he is home earlier, he can start dinner.

Yes, my husband does work the same hours and already tried crockpot meals gets boring and not much of a meat eater. Do you have any recipes that you use?

I don't eat meat - so I use a book called The Vegan Slow Cooker

But yeah, every fast food place or take out place has a healthy option.

I would cut out the fast food completely. You need to break the habit of always stopping on the way home. Menu plan on the weekend and do most if not all of your cooking. Then just heat up your food during the week. Some weeks I grill 10 chicken breasts on Sunday and eat them all week different ways. Like chicken salad, burritos, with Vegs,and etc. since you dont eat much meat just do the same thing but with vegetables/beans/grains.

Cook healthy meals on off days from work. Save leftovers for your work days when you get home late and are burned out. Re-heat. Eat.

Maybe I'm just a really bad chef or something but all my favourite meals can be cooked in less than 30 mins. I have one favourite meal that takes less than 5 mins.

Just change what you're cooking to something speedy speedy. Quick carbs? Cous cous. Quick meat? Ham, something cold. Quick veg? Steam something or have it raw.

If I'm starving I usually have an avocado, some slices of parma ham, some cherry tomatoes chopped up and with some vinegar/olive oil and some cous cous. This meal is delicious (to me xD) and can be done in... 3 minutes? Depending on how fast you chop. Most microwave meals actually take longer

Or just have a healthy snack to delay your hunger a bit whilst you get something together? An apple or something.

Personally my normal mealtime is between 8 and 9pm anyway xP

Planning planning planning.

It's not the most fun activity in the world but it's totally worth it.

Also, multi-night meals. Big pot of beans or a casserole that actually makes leftover you WANT to eat.

Ingredient meals...like have everything on hand to make some tasty wraps or nachos/tacos in just a few minutes.

I agree! Planning ahead is the most important thing. I plan my meals on the weekend and then get all the groceries for the week. This also stops me from so much impulse buying (I can only do it once a week!). I'm not a huge crockpot fan, but I do like making soups in it. My favourites are tortilla soup, lasagne soup and tortellini soup. I also like marinating meat in a baggie, and then popping it in the freezer. I try to make enough for 2 meals, one I can have that week and then the other in the freezer so I can just take it out and BBQ it another week.

Here are links to the soup recipes. Please note that none of them are low calorie, broth types soups. They are all hearty supper soups.

http://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/2011/03/24/lasagna-soup/

http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/171098794/creamy-tomato-tortellini-soup/

For the tortilla soup, put in a thinly sliced onion, a can of diced tomatoes, 2 or 3 cloves garlic, chopped, half a rotisserie chicken (shredded), 1/2 t cumin, a carton of chicken broth. Garnish with cheddar cheese, avocado slices, tortilla chips.

Cook ahead and refridgerate.
Have salad fiixins in the fridge ready to go along with some protein (chicken, eggs, cheese, beans) to add to the salad.
I also make taco fillings and have it ready for flavorful additions.
Protein shakes with blueberries, cranberries, fruits, fiber and anything you want to add.
Barbequed chicken from the grill ready in the fridge, just zap it.
Barbeque corn on the cob, eat it like that or cut it off the cob, add vinegar and oil with some tomatoes, red bell pepper, red onions and a spoonful of dijon....viola! a corn salad. It takes 10 minutes, tops.
You can change your eating habits and the ingredients go a long way.

You could look for healthier fast food options. I work and commute a total of 14 hours a day so kinda know what it's like. When I'm too tired to cook I usually go for a Subway salad with no sauces and stuff, and add homemade hummus or fat-free dressings to it. Maybe you could try something like that.

maybe make up big pot of soups for the colder weather so cook only on weekends ? and salads with protein for the warmer weather, they are easy enough?

I also get home around 7 pm and I just cook and eat late. Sometimes I'll go to a yoga class at 7:30, so I won't eat until 9 pm. It doesn't really bother me.

Also, maybe you shouldn't freeze your pre-made dinners. If you have them sitting in the fridge about to go bad and be wasted, you'll need to eat them and not stop for take-out! Personally, I don't want to waste the money going out if I have food to make at home.

Why shouldn't you freeze the pre-made dinners?

Some of my meals freeze well, such as braised chicken (coq au vin, curry, tagine, cacciatore), bolognese sauce and stews. When I cook these (mostly on the weekend) I do huge batches and then freeze in small portions for weekday meals.

So what sites/recipes does everyone use for plan ahead meals?

This one and keyingredient.com for recipe planning. But I just bring up the date in question, add food to it and make sure I hit my targets (protein and fiber are my two main ones) If I am going to cook something, I use the recipe builder on here to figure out the nutritional information, and log it that way. But usually I can just copy the same thing from day to day for a week or so.

I also get home around 7 pm and I just cook and eat late. Sometimes I'll go to a yoga class at 7:30, so I won't eat until 9 pm. It doesn't really bother me.

Also, maybe you shouldn't freeze your pre-made dinners. If you have them sitting in the fridge about to go bad and be wasted, you'll need to eat them and not stop for take-out! Personally, I don't want to waste the money going out if I have food to make at home.

Why shouldn't you freeze the pre-made dinners?

to motivate you to make it home to eat it. if you freeze it it is easy to just leave it there for another day. lol