Really, really tired of cooking

[salmy]

We are on day 19 of our first whole 30. It's not been difficult to make the food changes and meal times with our three kids have actually been more peaceful! But... that's because I'm doing double duty in the kitchen. And I'm tired of cooking! Taking an easy night and going to wendy's or ordering pizza isn't an option anymore, and I'm feeling burnt out! Our food has been delicious so I'm not complaining about the food, I'm just tired of cooking it. I do use the crockpot atleast once a week and that helps a tiny bit. I guess I'm just looking for some encouragement

[bon]

Day 19! I feel you on missing the occasional "I'm tired and don't wanna cook option". The meal prep really is an adjustment!

In our house we do "snacky dinner" My boys love this. Basically we just put out a spread of this and that; the point being that it's finger food and based on what we have that's relatively quick and easy. It still requires a bit of work, but I guess it feels like less work because it's a little different and the kids get so excited. I put out a couple trays with a variety of things like this:

"sandwiches" with cucumber slices and applegate farms lunchmeat or tuna/salmon salad

veggie sticks: carrot, bell pepper, celery, cucumber and zucchini hummus

fruit - sometimes kabobs (strawberry, pineapple, banana, etc.) or just a couple bowls of sliced apples, cutie oranges, blueberries, whatev.

Olive tapenade (Eat Like a Dinosaur has a great recipe - awesome on cucumber and my boys LOVE)

a small bowl of nuts or nut butter (my boys love to dip things in nut butter)

toasted coconut flakes - a great popcorn alternative with a little sea salt and cinnamon (via clothesmakethegirl blog)

Jerkey

cubed cheese (our boys eat raw cheese on occasion and really enjoy it)

Grass fed hotdogs on a stick with homemade mayo and dijon mustard for dipping

You get the idea!

Hang in there! I get tired of it too sometimes. It's a heavier responsibility when your making food for a family.

Oh, and another idea is to have a "leftovers" night - if you don't normally have leftovers, make extra! It really is nice to simply reheat!

[Joey]

I find that the longer I do this the less cooking I do. Have you been able to do the big weekly cookup? I try to cook a whole bunch of ingredients ahead of time and then it only takes a few minutes to throw them together in different combinations. I've all but given up recipes though.

How picky are your kids- and how old? Some days I'm just half asleep in a chair pointing at the fridge and saying "Meat. Salsa. Cauliflower. Go to town."

[salmy]

great ideas! We do leftovers nights and snack nights, and while it's easier there is still a bit of prep! My kids are 9-7-5 and the boys (7 &5) are quite the persnickety eaters. They are eating quite a bit of what DH and I are eating, but with additions according to their tastes. I haven't looked into the big cookup yet, and just started using some of the protein + veg suggestions in It Starts With Food which didn't appeal to me at all at first. I have been surprised at how easy those combinations are to throw together. One question, for ground beef meals in ISWF, is each person really intended to eat a lb of beef? I'm having a bit of trouble interpreting the instructions.

[whitjm5]

Cook-ups are key. If you don't have "Well Fed," invest the <$20. The "hot plate" section will pay for itself in time savings in 1 week. Straight genius.

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Fed-Paleo-Recipes-People/dp/061557226X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366422160&sr=8-1&keywords=well+fed

[Robin Strathdee]

One question, for ground beef meals in ISWF, is each person really intended to eat a lb of beef? I'm having a bit of trouble interpreting the instructions.

Noooooo. Not a pound per person. A palm size usually works out to 1/4-1/2 lb for the folks in my house, so we use about 1.5 lbs per meal.

[SonyaT]

My schedule has recently changed quite a bit and I haven't been able to get on track with my weekly cook ups so this week whenever I am cooking I prepare at least twice as much of everything as we are planning to eat. That way we always have plenty of protein and veg in the house as left overs that can easily be thrown together for a quick meal. It has made for a somewhat boring week for food around here but easy and boring works a lot better than off plan and time consuming for me!

[Danielle Schwartz]

I'm late to the party here, but I highly recommend throwing chicken into a crock pot (whole or pieces, whatever you prefer). Put the chicken over a bed of onions, carrots and celery, and season with whatever spices you want. After it's cooked but while it's still warm, pick the chicken apart. You will have delicious, moist chicken to do whatever you want with: put over a salad, make chicken salad, dip into mayo as a snack. Additionally, strain the broth and you'll have soup!

[TriciaLo14]

I'm a huge fan of hot plates from well fed.... Huge! I'll make a turkey hot plate w sweet potatoes and apples in the am. Some nights I'll do a grassfed beef w tons of veggies over cauliflower rice or zucchini noddles. So satisfying and fast.

I hear you on the no cooking thing. Especially w summer around the corner. My husband loves to grill, so I usually throw him in the mix to change it up. We'll grill steaks, grassfed burgers, veggies. It's a nice change, and I'm not technically cooking. Ha

[LoisH99]

I got into the habit of cooking twice as much as we needed for any given meal. There's usually just 3 of us at dinnertime. I'd cook twice as much chicken as we would eat, and the rest I could eat for lunches or even a dinner another night. Same with cooked veg. Just as easy to roast twice as many veg at the same time, then we could put the leftovers into a salad or heat them up and eat another night. Almost every day I'll have a big salad with an assortment of leftover roasted mets and veg on top for lunch. Cooking spaghetti squash? Cook 2! Cook a bunch of taco meat and eat it for days.

[Deborah Brommer]

For those of you who cook hamburgers or other meat patties, do you cook them all and then just reheat them one at a time in the microwave? Or do you just "patty up" the ingredients and then freeze them until you're ready to cook them?

[Beets]

I generally ball mine up as needed. I only season with salt and maybe some cumin. If the beef has been thawed for a few days I will cook a few patties or sautée. Otherwise on demand. I like my beef and lamb hot, crispy and greasy.

[Physibeth]

I tend to cook mine all up and reheat them. Mostly because I almost eat lunch/dinner at work so I'm usually reheating them anyway. We do have an electric grill at work but people get fiestey about the smell lingering in their offices. Really who complains about smelling yummy yummy meats all day?

[Kirsteen]

For those of you who cook hamburgers or other meat patties, do you cook them all and then just reheat them one at a time in the microwave? Or do you just "patty up" the ingredients and then freeze them until you're ready to cook them?

I've tried it both ways and I prefer to freeze them raw and cook as I want it. I use a burger press http://www.lakeland....and-Accessories and with the waxed discs between them, they're really easy to bag and freeze. If I remember, I'll slip one out to thaw, otherwise I just saute from frozen.

[Anandi]

I like to make soup or chili on a weekend and it'll get us one dinner, maybe two, PLUS a few lunches. If you don't mind eating the same thing a bunch of times, it makes life a lot easier. Throw a few portions into the freezer and then you can save yourself some time in the future, too (esp if you're getting sick of it during the week you cooked it.)

[PamH]

I'm in love with Pakistani Kima, Fast Paleo's spaghetti squash with chicken, bacon and pesto, Mark's Daily Apple Crispy Carnitas, Mo-Rockin Beef Skillet, Indian Spiced Beef and Spaghetti squash (threedietsonedinner.com), and everyday Paleo's sausage n cabbage "noodles" with fried apples. They all make plenty for leftovers unless you get piggie like we do sometimes!

You can google each dish to find the recipe. Sorry, I didn't have the time to provide all of the links myself.

I've also started cooking a stir fry with the base of red cabbage: brown 2 pcs bacon and remove from pan. You can use the grease or pour it out and use ghee (I do that so my hubbie won't freak out). Melt 2T ghee and saute one sliced onion until soft. Add 1# halved brussel sprouts and fry until starting to brown. Toss in mushrooms if you'd like at this time and soften. I then add about 1/2-2/3 of a cabbage sliced thinly. Fry it up (may need to add a few splashes of water) until soft. Add a glug of balsamic vinegar or cider vinegar, salt/pepper and some red pepper flakes if you like heat. It is SO GOOD and makes the protein portions less tempting to over eat.

I've been having a blast. I also am doing double duty, but I am a stay at home mom until the 22nd when I go back to work after 14 years! My kids are 16, 15 and 12. Some pickier than others. My husband will eat what I make him but he is an MD and believes coconut oil is evil and saturated fat is the devil. I try to respect that as much as I can by using bison and lean meats much of the time.

Oh, and my best friend is the grill many nights!

I'm not a fan of freezing food, but I know it helps lessen the time in the kitchen.

[7babies]

New to the Whole30 but I cook a meal for 9 from scratch almost every night. The crockpot will save your sanity. I also make 2 or 3 meals of whatever I'm making and stow the extra away in the freezer. It seems like a lot of work on the weekend but prep ahead is a. Time saver later. I know it's getting warmer but soups and curries are crockpot friendly and can hang around for a couple nights.

[Susan W]

New to the Whole30 but I cook a meal for 9 from scratch almost every night. The crockpot will save your sanity. I also make 2 or 3 meals of whatever I'm making and stow the extra away in the freezer. It seems like a lot of work on the weekend but prep ahead is a. Time saver later. I know it's getting warmer but soups and curries are crockpot friendly and can hang around for a couple nights.

Okay wait..do you really have 7 kids? Holy moly.

[GLC1968]

New to the Whole30 but I cook a meal for 9 from scratch almost every night. The crockpot will save your sanity. I also make 2 or 3 meals of whatever I'm making and stow the extra away in the freezer. It seems like a lot of work on the weekend but prep ahead is a. Time saver later. I know it's getting warmer but soups and curries are crockpot friendly and can hang around for a couple nights.

Wowzers, I can't even imagine. And here I am thinking that cooking for two all the time is tiring! I'll just shut up now.

[7babies]

Okay wait..do you really have 7 kids? Holy moly.

Yep, really. All mine and my dh's. 21-5. Keeps life interesting

[Guest]

Day 19! I feel you on missing the occasional "I'm tired and don't wanna cook option". The meal prep really is an adjustment!

In our house we do "snacky dinner" My boys love this. Basically we just put out a spread of this and that; the point being that it's finger food and based on what we have that's relatively quick and easy. It still requires a bit of work, but I guess it feels like less work because it's a little different and the kids get so excited. I put out a couple trays with a variety of things like this:

"sandwiches" with cucumber slices and applegate farms lunchmeat or tuna/salmon salad

veggie sticks: carrot, bell pepper, celery, cucumber and zucchini hummus

fruit - sometimes kabobs (strawberry, pineapple, banana, etc.) or just a couple bowls of sliced apples, cutie oranges, blueberries, whatev.

Olive tapenade (Eat Like a Dinosaur has a great recipe - awesome on cucumber and my boys LOVE)

a small bowl of nuts or nut butter (my boys love to dip things in nut butter)

toasted coconut flakes - a great popcorn alternative with a little sea salt and cinnamon (via clothesmakethegirl blog)

Jerkey

cubed cheese (our boys eat raw cheese on occasion and really enjoy it)

Grass fed hotdogs on a stick with homemade mayo and dijon mustard for dipping

You get the idea!

Hang in there! I get tired of it too sometimes. It's a heavier responsibility when your making food for a family.

Oh, and another idea is to have a "leftovers" night - if you don't normally have leftovers, make extra! It really is nice to simply reheat!

This is excellent!