What Do You Eat When You Dont Feel Like Cooking?

Im not sure what healthy choices I can make when I just dont feel like cooking. I have a family to cook for, but somedays, esp Mondays, I dont dont feel like it. Just a few weeks ago it would have been pizza or fast food. Bad I know, but thats why Im here - to change that!

Im thinking maybe Chili's or Outback to go and just getting myself a steak (and saving half for later), skip the potatoes that usually come with it and just ask for double veggies.

Any suggestions or comments?

order them a pizza and have an egg white omlete or something simple...if you don't want to cook at all, you can order a salad with the pizza...if you get fast food...all of them have fairly good options now.  this is duable!

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I make a sandwich.  Usually peanut butter and banana, or "grilled" cheese (actually toasted cheese is more accurate).  Salads are another easy fix for me because I have everything ready.  And on those hot summer nights when I just can't even think - a big bowl of cereal with cold milk and fruit hits the spot. 

Lucky for me, most of the time I love to cook.

And of course, if you can't make dinner, make reservations.

Well, no fast food for sure...since I was gone this weekend, my son had it twice while home with my hubby LOL

And as far as pizza...its one of those foods that Im best off not having around. Even if I order a salad I will still end up having pizza too. I try so hard to limit myself to just a salad and a slice or 2...but I have no willpower when it comes to pizza. So for now, I tihnk I need to put a temporary ban on it LOL

Here's a suggestion....why don't you buy those same items that you would get from the restaurants from your grocery store and cook it urself. I too, was in your position minus the family. I do have a fiance though. And we went to a lot of fast food joints and just made the best out of every trip......being tempted to bring on those potatoes and unwanted calories in general. Just as long as someone else besides me was serving it, I took advantage and was ready to eat!

I have been preparing my own meals for quite some time now. And I found out by me doing this is making me loose the weight FINALLY! Restaurants add so many unneccessary ingredents that are unknown to the consumer. So try picking up some fresh lean meats from your meat department some fresh veggies and get going. I bet you'll come out spending a lot less at the grocery store than eating out all of the time. All that going out to eat adds up!

Here is what I am cooking tonight for dinner....
Porterhouse thin cut steaks, with a baked potato and some steamed broccoli to finish it off. MMM it tastes so good, better than take out. You can add your sour creams or cheese but do it in moderation. At the end of our meal we are both full and feel good. I promise that you will feel good too. Taking the time out to prepare your own meals and not relying on your local rest stop will also make you feel good. And the best part is......you know whats in it because you made it! Give it a try.

Check out this site it offers a lot of other ideas for dinner, breakfast, lunch and snacks..... Good luck!
http://www.scottishsport.co.uk/running/menu.h tm

i have oatmeal. It's an old standby for when I am hungry and don't want to cook. Splenda to sweeten, cinnamon because it's great, and blueberries for variety.

i usually get the veggies when i go to the outback, they are YUMMY! i'm a big fan of sushi when i don't feel like cooking. i get the meal with miso soup, a salad and a few sushi rolls. delicious and not too bad on the cal. count!

order a salad when you order pizza/outback/chili's for everyone. leave off the croutons, cheese, & other high-calorie salad items, use low-cal dressing sparingly.

or order sandwiches instead of heavier meals for dinner - no one says it has to be a big heavy restaurant dinner. make yours with mostly veggies, maybe some lean turkey, no cheese, mustard instead of mayo, whole wheat bread instead of white & it should still be healthy.

or order something for everyone else & make yourself a bowl of cereal.

I am a big fan of having stuff made already.  On weekends I make batches of soup and a couple of healthy "casseroles" and freeze them in inidvidual portions.  All i have to do is heat them up and I have a quick, healthy, homecooked meal.  Maybe you should try doing this and see how it works for you.

As for tonight, go out to eat, order the steak or grilled chicken or something, get a salad on the side, and veggies, and skip the condimnets and the bread (or if you're like me and can't ask the server to bring only one piece for each person and no more, that way you can't eat too much of it)

A sandwich made with whole wheat/grain bread is easy and filling. For desert, throw a cup of strauwberries and 1 apple (or banana, or pinneaple...) in the blender, put in a small bowl, then top your smothie with 1/3 cup of light & fit yogurt.  This is more than enough with decent calories depending on what you make your sandwich with. My sandwich is around 200ca if I make it with the light whole wheat bread that has 45ca in a slice....  Hang in there, before you know it, you will become addicted to healthy food!!!

Good luck.

I usually either pick up some sushi, make a stirfry - takes 5 minutes to chop the veggies and tofu (or you can get the bags of frozen prepped veggies), and about 5 minutes to cook, and being veggies, it gives me an extra energy boost - or throw some rice in the rice cooker and top with a ready-made tuna curry from Trader Joe's.

If you want to keep your money spending to a minimum, i just go to the grocery store of my choice, and I buy rotisserie chicken and 2 packaged salad, (and if you have kids, probably some carbs like potato salad or a dessert) would fill every one up without emptying your pocket all the time, and i just take the rotisserie chicken skinless! 

Going out is also a good choice...not fast food, but restaurants- cuz you can always make sure everyone gets some greens in each of their plates...and you can split yours in half and take the other part for lunch the next day!

the fastest, easiest thing you don't have to cook is fruit/vegetables and you won't get fat eating them either

When it's cold, I make an omlette.  When it's hot, we have Yves veggie dogs, cherry tomatoes, chopped lettuce, maybe corn.  Very simple and fast.

If I'm lazy I pop in a frozen entree like Amy's Organic entrees or Celentano, Cedarlane, etc.  I try to get organic ones and look for the ones with low sodium.  They also have great burritos or pocket sandwhiches that hit the spot.

There's also always soup..... 

What do I eat when I don't feel like cooking?

Well, I make my husband cook, so whatever he cooks is what I eat. I'm glad he is mindful of my healthy tendencies.

If both of us don't want to cook, it is pizza or Subway.

Applebees has a really good low calorie menu. (If you must go out).

I have 3 kids (that are very thin so they dont need alot of the stuff I eat). I keep alot of things that are easy for them to heat up or fix themselves (depends on age of your kids) for days I don't feel like cooking. Then i can just make myself a salad or something.

Another thing I do is when I do cook I cook extra. Then I make plates and freeze them so they can just be popped in the microwave.

If I want to pick up something fast, I hit Subway.

At home..I make a salad (it's easy to toss a chicken breast on the Foreman grill if I'm up to a LITTLE cooking for my protein)

A bowl of cereal & fat free milk

fruit and yogurt

assorted veggies wth some low cal dip

I have a book I bought called "restaurant confidential" that was quite an eye opener...it's got the calorie counts of a lot of restaurant items.

To be honest this may be weird but...if you want a burger for instance, the ones at a fast food restaurant are BETTER than the ones at a dinner house and here's why:

Dinner houses use "better" cuts of meat - aka better tasting with more marbling/fat.  They also have larger portions BY FAR and they tend to use more condiments like mayo, bacon etc and specialty items like eggs, blue cheese, and so on than the skimpy toppings you'll get on your McD special.  And finally...fast food just cooks in enough grease to get the job done, whereas dinner houses will pile on as much as they can for the juicy taste.  Um....yum?

A steak however, doesn't look like that bad of a choice, and that you CAN'T find at fast food places, besides which it's better than the fast food burger.  Here's some info (from the above mentioned book)

12 oz sirloin steadk  -  410 cal, 18 total fat, 9 saturated, 170 cholestorol

better yet!  order the same steak trimmed (a lot of restaurants will, apparently):

12 oz sirloin trimmed - 390 cal, 15 fat, 8 sat fat, 165 chol

9 oz fillet mignon (untrimmed) - 360 cal, 19 fat, 10 sat, 125 chol

Book recommends:

Order the sirloin or the fillet mignon.  Way better than most other cuts of meat (ribeye [13 oz = 610 untrimmed, 550 trimmed],  new york = [12 oz = 630 undrimmed, 570 trimmed], t-bone [16 oz - 800 untrimmed, 690 trimmed], porterhouse [20 oz = 1100 untrimmed, 930 trimmed], prime rib [16 oz = 1280 untrimmed, 980 trimmed] for instance?)

order it trimmed or at least trim the fat off yourself.

and you're definitely better off with the veggies than the potato! (veggies = about 90 cal per cup as served with a bit of butter as long as it's not saturated, potato = 280-620 cal depending on what you load it with)

I don't know...I think your choice sounds okay :)  just log your calories and eat the rest of the day appropriately.

If you go to the Outback Steak House though don't even touch the blooming onion or the cheese fries:

fried onion [1690 cal, 2130 w/the sauce]
cheese fries (single order) = [2380 cal, 3010 w/ranch dressing]

YIKES!

Also, don't always feel like you have to deprive yourself!

Eat healthy often, but every now and then you can treat yourself if you do it responsibly.

Red Baron's makes thin crust personal pan pizzas that are for sale in the grocery store's freezer section that are only 290 cal each and very good!