What do you want to eat tomorrow, or the next day?

In reply to EvanR:

I have exactly the same problem as you. I am also the person who does the shopping and cooking. I stop at the store every night on the way home and spend an arduous 20 minutes waiting for something to look appealing and inspire me.

It sucks.

The best decision we made was to sign up for 3 meals a week from homechef.com. At 20 bucks a meal for two it is almost exactly what I was paying at the store every night and it is always a bit of an adventure since she fills out the online form and I have no idea what we are getting.

When we're on our game, we have a pub dinner on Monday, take Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Fast (and our mental repertoire) to the pub, and pick some, shopping on the way home.

We usually only aim for three, since mayhem will likely overtake anything beyond that.

We cook at home every night - daughter has Celiac disease so takeout is not really an option.

As the main cook in this house with two adults and two kids, I do things just like mazdeuce. We have a big portfolio of recipes that have been tried and true over the years, and on a Saturday we go through them and see what sounds appealing and pick 5. The other two days I pick a new recipe to try.

It helps that none of us are picky in the least, and I always keep a backup meal or two in the house - frozen pizza and spaghetti usually.

If you have issues with planning out past a day or two, then buy narrow it down to what protein you want and have enough longer shelf life staples to make your choice of several meals with that protein. We try and plan out the week but sometimes it ends up being "pick chicken, ground beef, or fish" and we pick a recipe that uses that protein on the fly. There is also a recipe website that lets you put in what ingredients you have and spits out recipes that use those ingredients. I'll have to find it later and post it.

That's allrecipe.com

I'm lucky that my wife is an obsessively good cook and plans that all out. It's just my job to let the kids know that this is all there is for supper; over and over.

Btw: mazdeuce if you use quick rise yeast in that pizza crust you can make the pizza in an hour or so...

If you plan out three evening meals per week, shop for that plus whatever else you need for the week; your grocery bill will be smaller than hit & run shopping.

When we worked, we used to cook like crazy on weekends, big meals, then have leftovers for two days during the week.

My son had Blue Apron for a while, pricey but his wife doesn't cook and this was a good trainer. She also has Chrones, anything spicier than turkey on white bread darn near kills her. Do you have a small crick pot? Chicken, spaghetti sauce and peppers, go to work, come home to chicken cacciatore.

Dan

In reply to chandlerGTi:

I know. It will rise in that time. But unless I'm in the mood to knead the dickens out of it the gluten isn't there. The reason I do it overnight is because I can just mix it all, let it rise overnight, punch it down, let it rise again and done. When I'm on my game I have sourdough starter in the fridge and I use that, but my starter died over the summer and I haven't been in the mood to start over.

914Driver wrote: My son had Blue Apron for a while, pricey but his wife doesn't cook and this was a good trainer. She also has Chrones, anything spicier than turkey on white bread darn near kills her.

I have Crohns' also. Nutrition control is a huge key to helping control the disease. I've never been a spicy food fan anyway, but for me it's about controlling the types of food (macros...fats, protein, carbs). That's how I really started getting into fitness and nutrition. Once I realized that making big changes in my nutrition made huge differences in how I felt, I started exercising more, then it snowballed from there. 10+ years later and I'm a hard core gym rat, and so is my wife.

I almost forgot. Sometimes I'll look at what is left in the cabinet and just Google the items. That's how I discovered an awesome fried black bean & tortilla recipe. Just tell Google what you have on hand, recipes will be delivered. Great way to maximize the stuff that usually sits uneaten at the back of the pantry.

Sesame pork chops stuffed with sauteed mushrooms.

That is all

EvanR wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: It's much easier to make a list

Right. That's what I'm after. How do you make a list of things you'll want to eat a week from now?

Living alone, I don't. Food at home for me is mostly sustenance. Whatever is quick and easy.

At 46, I have a pretty good idea of the foods I like to eat and what I'm willing to invest time-wise into cooking. With that in mind, I tend to "blitz-shop" - doing a lap of the store, grabbing what I need and I'm usually out in under 15 min (depending on how bad the lines are). It helps to know the store well, but from my supermarket design days, I can instinctively guess where things will be in an unknown store with reasonable accuracy. Except Wegmans. Great store, but the layout defies conventional design patterns. Shopping there drives me nuts. Anyway, if I see something interesting as I'm passing, I'll grab that as well.

Once I was bugging my wife's grandfather asking him what he needed - he told me money. I then asked him what he needed money for since all his living arrangements and needs were met by family.

He told me he needed money so he could buy a country ham and make a southern style breakfast. Many years I think about that ham and wonder what I really need and I sometimes conclude a good, salty ham would be best.

Those sammiches look delicious.

My ribs are coming out of the oven momentarily. Cranked up some tomato cheesy grits with jalepenos, and some country green beans.

Love having a nice big meal with the family before I head overseas.

Mrs. Deuce made jambalaya and fresh French bread. I was too full for spice cake. I'll eat that later. Life is good.

Wife and I very seldom eat out but we only go to the grocery store and butcher shop once every two weeks. The last time we went to the butcher shop we got 4# of ground round, 4 strip steaks, 6 center cut pork chops, 6 skinless chicken breast halves, and a pound of stew meat. That will last us at least 2-3 weeks.

Over the 47 years we have been married we have accumulated a large number of recipes for all of those items. Using those recipes we never have the same exact thing more than once a month (may have the leftovers some times).

I love shopping for one meal. Well not the actual shopping but going and getting a couple of fresh steaks ect. and cooking them that night. Fresh food is so much better than something taken from the freezer. It can get expensive though.

D2W wrote: I love shopping for one meal. Well not the actual shopping but going and getting a couple of fresh steaks ect. and cooking them that night. Fresh food is so much better than something taken from the freezer. It can get expensive though.

I don't agree with the "expensive" part of the story in all cases. I know that bulk buying can be cheaper, but I always have to factor in the spoilage and discard rate. My exwife would go to Costco and buy a 5 head package of lettuce, then throw at least half of it away. I buy what I want, when I want it, and throw out nearly nothing...except last Sunday, I dug some pork chops out of the bulk pack I had in the freezer, and I will likely toss the last five. They were just not really worth eating.

We try to plan our meals 2 weeks at a time. It's always a cause for a groan from my wife and I.

We usually buy and freeze meat. Then take out what we want for dinner in the morning, but still you don't really know what you want in the AM. You just have to train yourself to do it, then think about it all day at work, and before you know it you are drooling in anticipation. The key is to have enough of the basics in the house to prepare something with the frozen meat.

I keep seeing the thread title and thinking: "One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer..."

"I'll have the rent money tomorrow, the next day... I don't know..."

We had this problem for a while in our house. One of the outcomes was the hot food of Jan 2011: seriously, it just got hotter and hotter as the month went on. By the end of the month I had to sit down with the wife and discuss that my insides could not handle it anymore. Then, we tried Blue Apron. We loved it, and found that it saved us a ton of money by not having to make a daily grocery run. We had to stop when our daughter was born due to lack of an hour where we could both focus on making dinner together (it really was fun). Now, we use the old recipes for ideas and buy whatever is on sale. Basically plan a protein and a vegetable. I try to do 1 pan meals when I can and nothing too spicy for our not at all picky toddler. We also make soups in bulk and freeze them. Tonight we had beef stew, tomorrow is pork tenderloin and asparagus. Probably some taco salad the following 2 nights.

EDIT/ADD: blueapron might be pricey for the food, but its not bad for the lessons and time with your significant other.

Pizza...pizza...pizza...pizza...pizza...

I buy stuff in bulk then simply make a meal based upon what's in the fridge or pantry at that time.

Years of eating in military DFACs has made me completely indifferent to what's in front of me. That attitude drives my wife nuts because I'll literally eat whatever is presented without complaint. I don't go out of my way to plan meals unless I'm at the grocery store and decide I want to make something specific that night.

Appleseed wrote: Pizza...pizza...pizza...pizza...pizza...

Pizza is definitely a favorite junk food for me. Had it for my cheat meal last Friday. 3 slices and nearly polished off an entire bag of fries (the ones you buy at the grocery store).

When I was younger, I worked for Domino's, Pizza Hut and Little Caesars, so I spent several years in the pizza business. I used to work 50-60 hours per week at Domino's, so it was my breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes. Of course, that was 25 years ago, I could never do it now.

We are in a CSA with our farm, we buy our half-cow every year, and whole frozen chickens in bulk. We get veggies for the week and make the rest up.

Bachelor man here, I grocery shop once/week on the weekend. I try to decide how many meals mostly.

Crockpot about every other week, chili or chicken and noodles, makes at least 3-4 servings including SWMBO when she visits. Frozen Skyline burritos are always in the freezer. Some sort of frozen pizza (Stouffers french bread lately). Her daughter got me into some frozen stuff that's actually really good:

this, Chicken n Waffles, Buffalo chicken version... all good.

Rotate in grilled cheese and soup occasionally, eat out once or twice. Pretty much covers me for the week. Typical groceries including lunches and snacks for work $55-80 a week.