I am starting to get a little tired of cooking. Don't get me wrong I have always done 95% of all the cooking for my family. It just seems now it is getting harder. It seems before this WOE we just grabbed a bowl of cereal a couple of bagels or a meat sandwich and went out the door. Lunch box in hand containing sandwiches chips soda and cookies. Diner was some meat with lots of mac n cheese, or potatoes or fries. Diner out was more frequent. My husband and I are following the plan and we are slowly but surely moving our children over to a modified version as they are very young. I am just worried of how I am going to handle all of the cooking when classes start up at the end of August. Just needing to vent. I in no way want to quit I am just needing a cooking break. No quick fixes for this WOE. Unless you want to pay $5 for just a burger from some fast food place and throw away everything else.
My husband does do as much as he can he works long hours though sometimes out of the house by 6am and not back again till 7pm. He does do some cooking on the weekends.

Babybear

Every family runs their home differently. I will share with you what works for me....

Every week I cook a HUGE roast or bird.
Every week I cook 2 dozen hard boiled eggs.
When I cook hamburgers or chicken....I cook enough for 2-3 days.
I buy veggies and wash them right away...easy to throw whatever you want together.

I rarely cook if I don't want to.

I always keep the essentials in my kitchen....mayo, olive oil, butter, sourcream, porkrinds,....ect.

Usually by the weekend my fridge is still so full that there is no cooking allowed until we clean it out.
Alot of days I let my family eat whatever catches their eyes in the fridge and all I worry about is myself.

Since they refuse to follw my plan I also have a container of potato salad for them to add to any meal.

The better planned ahead I am....the easier things are. In the winter I tend to freeze many things...burgers, meatballs, portions of turkey and chicken...you get the idea.


you will find a way....
have a great weekend....cin

Each family is different, and some of our diet plans are different. So perhaps what works for me, won't work for you, but I thought I'd share some observations with you.

- For lunch, it's usually no cooking here. I eat a lot of salads. At least in the summer. I'm not sure what I'll do when winter rolls around.

However, for now, it's lots of salad - perhaps with some feta cheese or tuna thrown in it.

- For the kids, you are easing them into a modified version. Perhaps they could still eat sandwiches? We allow our kids whole wheat sandwiches. They are doing fine.

We also (like Cinderella) allow them to eat potatoes. However, unlike Cinderlella's kids, mine have chosen to stop eating them! I would cook them and put them on the table for the kids, but no one took any. I've thrown out the last of the potatoes, and I'm not buying any more. One less thing for me to cook!

- And no, you can't eat at McD's anymore - (or maybe you can. Didn't I hear they are coming out with salads now?) but perhaps you can find an all-you-can-eat buffet. They are great. You pick what you want. No throwing away the bread, you just don't pick it up. We find the buffets around here to be as cheap as McD's, and the food is better. (Mind you I'm in a different country!)

Good luck!

I cook my lunches on the weekend. I will smoke a roast or pork whatever or chicken. I buy the Express Salad and Salad Dressing.

Once a week I eat out for lunch...

1. An all you can eat steak house is great!!!!

2. The Wendy's salad are terrific. I take my own salad dressing.


I will sometime go out to a hamburger joint and throw away the bun... However I am usually hungry afterwards because of "Where's the Beef!" <g>

I also get some of the low-carb tortillia shells and make wraps out of them...the ones I buy are wonderful and they don't make me crave bread.

Hope these ideas help

Dee

Thank you everyone for the wonderful ideas. I am actually feeling a little better now. We went to my grandmothers yesterday and she had made a mountain of burgers and chicken breasts. She was so stressed over cooking for us and I still cant figure out why when we ate the same things everyone else did just no bread. Anyway today hubby made breakfast : eggs and bacon and then took us out to dinner. Yes, we have an all you can eat buffet too. Tonight was steak night. I had 2 steaks a small salad and then some sugar free jello. It has been a nice break. Tomorrow after running errands I am going to cook a roast and slice it up for the week, and then make a bunch of burgers and eggs. Thanks for the ideas.

babybear

I'm glad things are going better for you. Believe me, I can understand where you're coming from...I got to that point myself a few months ago.

My fiancee and I both work all day. On top of working all day, I have a long commute and don't get home until about 7:00. Since my finacee doesn't cook at all, starting this WOL meant that I had to cook every night after working all day. (Then clean up the dishes, etc.)

Planning ahead really does work. I started strategically planning my week's menus so I could do most of the cooking on Sundays. I'll make dishes that I can either make ahead and freeze; ones where I can cook the meat ahead and just assemble ingredients in the evening; or ones where I just have to throw a couple pieces of meat on the grill. Since I can cook a lot of stuff at once, it doesn't even take me that long on Sunday to do all the prep work for the week. It does take some practice and planning, but it's working soooo much better for me now. (Of course, when I have to travel on weekends for work it louses everything up, but most of the time it works really well.)

Great suggestions from everyone.

my problem is a bit opposite. i am single, live alone, so while i love to cook and try new recipes i find it isn't very economical do make a big batch of something for just myself. Unless of course i can freeze it.

Dee, the low carb tortilla chips you were talking about. what is the brand name. I live in central MO and we just got a schnucks grocery store. I noticed they have a lot of low carb items but didn't see the chips. i would love to try some. thanks.

Hi MDX...

I buy La Tortilla Factory Whole Wheat Low-Fat/Low-Carb Tortillas. They are wonderful!!! They gave 12 gms of carbs with 9 gms of fiber and no sugars. So a net of 3 gms of carbs per tortilla.

I like rolling up tuna salad in them. I substitue the sweet pickle relish with chopped celery and 1 teaspoon of splenda. They are also great to cut up and fry to eat like chips.

I hope this helps.

Dee

The planning and cooking ahead is a good idea. You can still have good lc quick lunches by using sliced cheese in place of bread on your sandwich or wrap. I still do McD's and other fast food places for the burgers and broiled chicken. just ask them to make your's with no bun, they usually put it in a box (Wendy's uses a baked potato container)...don't forget to ask for a fork. When you go out to eat, buffets are great and if you end up somewhere else, ask if they will sub veggies or small salad for the potato. LCing hasn't stopped us from eating out at our favorite haunts.....except for Macaronni's (similar to Olive Garden)....I haven't had the nerve to venture into that one yet.

I only eat lunch away from home one day a week when my visually impaired support group meets. I like to use a divided plastic container and make sugar free jello in one of the slots. I have taken meat wrapped in cheese, chopped roast beaf, chicken, etc.

Good luck!!

thanks dee. i will check these out at the store tomorrow. i miss my salty crunchy stuff like potato chips.

now about the frying them....explain please.....

mdx..

These are soft tortillia shells. The kind you use for soft tacos. To make them into chips I cut them like a pizza and then deep fat fry them. They are wonderful.

Dee

LOL!! sorry for the misunderstanding. glad we got that cleared up or i would have been roaming the chip aisle screaming "where are they"!!!

I am going to try the fried recipe though. sounds great and thanks, kelly

ldypgmr where to you get the La Tortilla Factory Whole Wheat Low-Fat/Low-Carb Tortillas??

i couldn't find the particular brand but i found some that were a lot lower in carbs than most and deep fried them. they were wonderful. i put a dab of salt and some parmasean. awesome. they are great as midday snack the next day also. thanks for the idea. kelly

You can get low carb tortillas and other low carb products at netrition they sometimes advertise on this site and you can order on-line.

Beth