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Eating in for Every Meal

August 19th, 2007 at 01:37 pm

DH got home from the hospital Friday, which was great news! He seems to be doing pretty well. He has to take an antibiotic for 2 weeks and take it somewhat easily physically, but is otherwise none the worse for wear.

The identified his infection as an aggressive strain of strep bacteria. The infections disease doctor said that with this bug some people notice a little bump one day and by the next morning their life is in danger! Very scary. I'm very glad we went to the ER when we did. And, of course, thank God for health insurance.

Until DH's blood sugar is back under control, I've declared a halt to all eating out. It's just too hard to get a meal that fits DH's guidelines. Why spend money to go somewhere and be tempted by all sorts of things that aren't good for you to eat and then pay money for a meal you didn't really want. Maybe later when we're a bit better at keeping things under control we can slowly start looking for good places to eat out. Until then, it's 100% at home.

This is quite a culture shock to us. It's kind of embarassing to admit, but we've gone entire weeks without cooking dinner in. And even a "good" week would have us eating out for several meals.

I think it's going take some practice to get good at this. I would appeciate any advice! I keep finding myself caught without the food I need to make what I want. Like I'll want to make a chicken dish, and realize we have no meat defrosted. Or I'll want to make a casserole and find out I'm missing a key seasoning.

I think the key is going to be a lot of advance planning, and also keeping a better pantry and freezer stock than I have been. This is going to be an adventure, but I'm sure it will be really good for us in the end!

7 Responses to “Eating in for Every Meal”

  1. monkeymama Says:

    I love the Light & Tasty mags. I actually have an extra one sitting on the table right now (we thank someone renewed a gift subscription before/after we renewed so now we are getting 2). I can send you this copy to check out if you like - just e-mail me your address. Big Grin

    It is nice on these recipes they show the calories, carbs, etc. & they always have a lot of quick/easy stuff (as well as a full weeks menu and shopping list for those who don't want to think too hard...).

  2. baselle Says:

    Some tricks -
    1. Work up at least 5, or better 10, go-to recipes that you can cook in your sleep. Things like pasta, pesto, and frozen peas; salads with a bit of sliced meat over the top; lentils and rice; mixed vegetables with curry sauce over rice. Then make a master list of ingredients against those recipes.
    2. Cook extra over the weekend and make Monday your leftover day.
    3. Don't be frightened by having to substitute or eliminate seasonings, etc if you don't have them on hand. I'll bet that casserole you blogged about would still taste great even if you were missing that seasoning.

  3. Amber Says:

    Glad your DH is doing much better. I have done the dining out thing for a while, last week was the first time I actually brought my lunch and made breakfast for 4 days and I can say I saved a lot of money.

    I do not know why I ever stopped this but when I lived on my own I use to print out a calendar and list every day's meal (including what would be left over) as well as snacks. When I went to the grocery store I only bought what was on the list. I saved a ton of money
    I think I will go back to doing this next month

  4. LuckyRobin Says:

    Take an inventory of what you have, everything in the cupboards, freezer and fridge. Include all your seasonings and spices and then work from your inventory and you'll be able to figure out what items need to be bought to fill in the gaps. Knowing what you have on hand is 3/4 of the battle.

  5. mbkonef Says:

    Check out www.savingdinner.com for Leanne Ely's menu mailers. She offers dinner menus for a week complete with shopping lists. She has different options like lo-carb etc. It is a subscription service but the price is way cheaper than even one meal a week out and you can try the sample week first. I don't subscribe myself but I have and love her book Saving Dinner which is written along the same lines with weekly menus and shopping lists organized by seasons. I highly recommend it.

  6. pearlieq Says:

    Thanks so much for the advice--very helpful!

    And thank you very much, monkeymama, for the kind offer. Great minds must think alike, because I just ordered myself a subscription to Light & Tasty! I'm glad to hear it's helpful and I look forward to seeing it.

  7. monkeymama Says:

    Cool! IT really helped us transition to home cooking. Mostly what we eat.

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