Finding the perfect middle ground on cooking, time, eating out

[Ricky]

I've been thinking a lot about this. It's something I'd like to "set and forget" so that I can focus on other things. I try to apply this mentality to everything in life. I wear basically the same outfit everyday, I keep the same computer/phone until it no longer works or I find that I need something more powerful. I'll keep the same car until it no longer functions. The trick is that I tend to buy things I really like and enjoy to begin with and then "forget" about it. I live in the same place until moving makes sense. In other words, I don't like to actively change things about my life that "work".

But cooking/eating - it just never seems to work out that way. Eating has to be the most confusing and convoluted activity that we do - and we do it EVERYDAY. You'd think we would be good at it by now.

I'm currently in a pretty decent routine. I'll wake up, cook the same breakfast, pretty much skip lunch besides a few chips or something to snack on, and then cook something else or eat out later in the day. I'm finding more and more that I don't desire to eat out because everything is overpriced and isn't that good or appealing. At the same time, I'm also finding more and more that I HATE cleaning up and the time it takes to do so. I'd rather be doing other things like getting engrossed in a book, writing, learning skills, or building a business.

Eating out is more expensive and sometimes just as time consuming (but not really, because I can bring a book or a laptop to a restaurant) - but I have freed mental space by doing so. Again, my current routine works pretty well. I pretty much exclusively shop at Trader Joes and the nearby giant grocer that is luckily right next door. So mentally, I only ever worry about driving to one area. I love Trader Joes because it doesn't matter how busy it is - I can still get in and out in under 10 minutes max. My point is that I'd rather save as much time as possible worrying about food so that I can maximize my income. This is great, but I'm still not satisfied. I desire to cook more appealing, tasty, fulfilling meals. But I have no desire to increase the time it takes me to cook and cleanup. That's why I stick to simple breakfasts and dinners. I'll usually just eat chips/nuts/crackers/fruit for lunch, eliminating the need to worry about lunch at all. When I eat out at a restaurant for dinner and choose a meal that has many different things on the plate, all of them amazingly good, I'm in heaven. I know that even if I wanted and could replicate that meal, I'd never want to because of time and cleanup.

Another factor to consider is health. I do believe (and have read) it's healthy to automate your meals and eat the same things so long as you're including all the food groups and getting all the protein/vitamins/nutrients that your body needs. But what about organic vs. not? What about non-organic vs eating out? I've basically concluded after reading that organic is not worth it for me and if you're going to shop at Whole Foods, you might as well eat out every meal. Don't get me wrong, Whole Foods is my favorite store on earth, literally. It's beautiful, smells nice, etc, but I'd never do my main shopping there.

But then you read about people on here or other extreme frugal sites that insist on living off rice/beans/lentils and a few spices. Food is NOT just calories - and super frugal people don't seem to realize this. Or maybe they do, but they'd rather have a healthy budget than a healthy body.

TLDR:

• I think automating mundane parts of our life is essential to growing as human beings. I've already automated stupid things that most people worry about like clothing, personal items, and my breakfast. I would like to automate all aspects of eating but there are seemingly too many options and it's hard to get into a routine.
• Eating out is a waste of time/money unless you're time could be better used doing the things you love, bettering yourself, starting businesses, etc. Eating out shouldn't be the excuse for laziness! You can get amazing meals (for a price) that you wouldn't normally fix for yourself because of time/effort and cleanup. But does eating out ever make sense for the long term? Should you only eat at more expensive restaurants that use local and real ingredients if you eat out at all? Eating out (where to go) can quickly become just another stupid decision unless you stick with a few restaurants/cuisines you know/love.
  

[Apples]

Sounds like you need to start meal planning and bulk cooking, and freezing pre-made meals.  Do most of your weekly food prep on one or two days of the week, and the cleanup of your pots and pans then.  And the rest of the week just clean up the couple of dishes you use per day.

If you put effort into it, you can definitely get your required fruits and vegetables cheaply based off of sales at your local stores.  There are other people on this board that know tons more about that than I do.  But generally local and in-season will be cheaper than exotic and out of season.  Also buy up meats when they're on sale.

Finally, it's more important that you get your daily fruit and vegetable intake right than whether it's organic or conventional.  Do you normally eat out at the types of restaurants that use solely organic produce anyway right now?  Conventional produce is shown to have more pesticide residues on it at the store than organic, due to the products used on it having longer effective intervals.  Whereas in organic produce generally the product breaks down more quickly (so you end up with less of a residue when you buy it) but the product has to be applied more times while in storage.  You should wash all of your produce when you get it home anyway-you never know if the stock boy who put it on the shelf or the grandma who inspected it before buying something else is sick and sneezed near your fruit/vegetable anyway.  If it's important to you then certainly buy organic.*

Budget bytes has good cheap and fast recipes, and plenty of websites have one pot or one pan meals to minimize cleanup.  You've basically hit on a major problem for all parents of youngish children across the country-making fast healthful meals without a lot of cleanup.

*Disclaimer to all of this:  I'm a fruit grower, and we grow conventionally.  Most organic fruit sold in grocery stores is grown on the west coast and shipped across the country to east coast stores.  So obviously I'm a bit biased.

[justajane]

When we eat out, we mostly eat out for the following reasons:

1) It's just been one of those days, and I just can't stomach cleaning the kitchen one more time.

2) We're both working from home when the kids are at school/daycare and want to get out of the house for 45 minutes.

3) The kids are being babysit by their grandparents and this is our time alone to enjoy a meal together without 3 kids interrupting us.

Yes, technically we could find a way around these scenarios and be more disciplined, but I think it's worth the extra $100-$200 in our monthly budget. We're meeting our savings goals, and yes, while we could up our savings goals by that much, life with 3 young kids is stressful and this is one of the ways that we personally find to mitigate the stress, if only just a little bit.

I imagine we actually spend more than that, since my husband eats out a lunch sometimes at work. But that's just not something I'm going to bother him about. I'm not going to nag him about packing a lunch. He's doubled his income in the past five years, is an awesome husband, so I let him do his thing.

[NoStacheOhio]

More and more, I find myself being disappointed in the meals we get eating out. I went out with my son and my mother a week or two ago (wife was sick), and sat there staring at the menu. Everything that was remotely appealing was something I'd rather have at home. "No, I don't want to spend my one red meat this week eating a mediocre burger. We make better ones at home." Finally I landed on fish & chips because we never make seafood at home.

Planning ahead makes a big difference, because even when your day doesn't go to plan, you can usually shuffle something around from another day and make it work. Forgot to defrost the pork chops? I guess we're having tomorrow's breakfast-for-dinner tonight. Let's throw those chops in the fridge now.

[Inaya]

Whole Foods actually has some pretty good sales. They're a bit like Macy's--overall pretty pricey, but great sales. And some of the bulk bin items at Whole Foods cost less per pound than elsewhere (oats, some nuts, etc.). Some meat sales beat my local supermarket, and the quality is so much better.

+1 to spending one day a week and preparing make-ahead meals. I wish I could do it, but my freezer space is nonexistent.

Maybe check out www.budgetbytes.com . She has some really great low-effort meals on there (many one-pot and low effort set-and-forget), with lots of guidance for freezing. She also breaks down her recipes by price which is useful if you're trying to cut down, and interesting even if you're not.

[Noodle]

I wonder if it would work for you to automate on a weekly basis. This is a really old-fashioned idea--you find it in the housekeeping manuals of the 1800s and early 1900s--where each day of the week gets assigned one kind of dish--roast on Sunday, fish on Friday, etc. Twenty years or so ago, I read a book about simplifying and the author said she and her husband did this--one day was grilled chicken breasts with some kind of veggie on the side, one day was breakfast for dinner, etc. Once you figured out your seven basic meals, that would automate the grocery shopping, planning, etc. As for clean-up, are you cleaning as you go? Throwing dishes in the dishwasher as you dirty them is less trouble than cleaning up a huge mess later. Also, although it's not hard-core Mustachianism, don't be afraid to use foil or parchment paper to line pans, or help yourself along with the occasional convenience product. I keep frozen brown rice in on hand, even though it's much more expensive than cooked from scratch, because an improvised rice bowl when I'm tired and hungry is still cheaper and healthier than going out.

I like the Frugal Girl blog--she cooks from scratch most of the time, but serves her family really simple meals that might be an example for you. Budget Bytes is good but she definitely operates on the "make it and eat it for awhile" plan which is not for everyone. There's also the free cookbook (can't remember the name but Googling should be simple) designed for people on food stamps...the recipes looked really good and were very simple also.

[Sweetloveginger]

I love www.budgetbytes.com.

Spending a day a week meal prepping never worked for me. I like to keep a fairly well stoked pantry for easy healthy meals I can toss together. Lentils, beans, tomatoes, etc. are the usual thing and then each week I only need to pick up some eggs and greens to add to the meals.

Things like Sitr-fry, soup, foil dinners and one pan pastas really help lower the volume of clean up.

I'm a blogger so of course I'm going to spam myself on this one. I hope the link helps though.
http://www.sweetloveandginger.com/21-easy-and-super-satisfying-weeknight-dinners/
I realize theres probably more pasta than you might want, but I've only just discovered the true error of my ways health wise.

[abhe8]

Op eating out will be more expensive and less healthy. But it still might be the best choice for you, if you would fix even less healthy foods at home (or. TV

[jfisher3]

By far the simplest way I've found to eat. I discovered this when trying to find a human alternative to dog kibble.


http://www.soylent.com/

Oh wait... MMM forums...

https://diy.soylent.com/

That way the rare occasion you eat out it's even more of a treat.


ETA: Here's a pretty decent 2 week review of a guy who tried it. After reading, I decided to add more whey protein to mine so as to (cheaply) add in more protein for weight lifting.


http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/08/20/soylent/

[Mtngrl]

If you don't want to dedicate a day to batch cooking, start doubling your usual recipes and freeze half. After a while, you will have a bunch of meals you can simply take out of the freezer and reheat. (And you might be surprised how much you can pack into a small freezer. We took a three-week camping trip to Canada last summer and I was able to get two weeks worth of meals in the tiny freezer compartment of our RV fridge.)

Having things I can simply take out of the freezer and heat has saved me from eating out on many occasions when I was too tired/rushed/not inspired to cook. The key is to have dishes you really like.

We tend to only eat out for special occasions or when we get caught out running errands and can't get home to eat. I am usually disappointed the quality of restaurant food, with a few exceptions that we save for special occasions.

[Hotstreak]

I have times I schedule and budget for eating out, and I will spontaneously eat out of I forget lunch, or end up needing to work a lot of OT and can't make it home at a reasonable hour.  I'm relying on this less since I started packing large containers of food to work, and eating them over several days.

If you don't want to dedicate a day to batch cooking, start doubling your usual recipes and freeze half. After a while, you will have a bunch of meals you can simply take out of the freezer and reheat.

+1

One way to optimize this is to freeze half before it's completely done cooking.  That way when you microwave it, it will be cooked to the correct level (instead of fully cooked, then heated/overcooked in the microwave).

[use2betrix]

My wife and I have the same breakfast every day and the same portions of our meals every day. Hers are about 1/2 mine, all same foods.

5:30 a.m.: 3 whole eggs, 3 egg whites, 1 piece Ezekiel bread, 2/3 banana

8 a.m.:1 scoop whey protein

11:30 a.m.: 6 oz meat 1/2 cup rice

3 p.m. : same meal as 11:30, but 1/2 the amount

6 p.m.: 1-2 scoops protein

8:30 p.m.: 6 oz hamburger or almond chicken breast and side salad with 2 tbsp light ranch

We have cheat meals about every other week right now. Well occasionally have a small square of chocolate or a "Coke float" with Diet Coke and light cool whip lol.

Our lunch and 3 pm meals are: chicken stir fry, beef koobideh, turkey burgers, chili, honey chipotle chicken and sweet potatoes. Those are what we rotate.

I've been eating this way for around 5-6 years. I vary the amounts in each meal depending if I'm trying to cut or bulk. I'm cutting 1-2 lbs a week right now and eating the above.

When I was single and cooked myself I'd just make 3-4 days worth of food at a time. It's take about an hour and a half and then all of do is microwave. Total breeze.

It's not rocket science and people make it way too difficult. I guess you have to get past the point of expecting every meal to be some amazing experience and realize it is a tool to actually help you on nearly every aspect of your life if utilized properly.

[Parizade]

I practice something I call "modular cooking." I try to keep the building blocks of healthy meals on hand, they toss together whatever sounds good. Lunch today for example, I had cooked/peeled shrimp in the freezer (stocked up during a recent sale) so I defrosted 6 oz in my kitchen sink (5 minutes). I also have whole wheat noodles on hand, so I boiled up a pan of water and made 1 serving (4 oz dry pasta). I had a bag of stir fry vegetables in the freezer and a bottle of Szechuan sauce in the fridge so I stir fried those up, tossed in the thawed shrimp, dumped it over the whole wheat noodles and ouala! Healthy balanced lunch, approximately 10 minutes total prep time.

Staples you need to have on hand include

starches (brown minute rice, potatoes (white or sweet) that you can bake in the microwave, whole grain pasta, quick cooking grains like quinoa or buckwheat, good bread, etc)

proteins (frozen shrimp, canned beans, eggs, canned tuna or chicken, cooked ham, sausages, tofu etc)

Vegetables (fresh or frozen, canned for things like tomatoes)

Fruits (fresh or frozen)

various seasonings like Mrs Dash, stir fry sauce, seasoned salt, etc

When mealtime comes, ask yourself what sounds good and throw it together. The more you do it the better you will get at creating combinations that work with your taste buds.

[RetiredAt63]

Modular cooking is great, also using bases.  Basic meat sauce (brown ground beef, saute onions and some garlic and add to meat, add a can of crushed and a can of diced tomatoes) in one serving containers is great for fast meals - one container can have Italian seasoning for spaghetti, one can have chili, one can have taco - then add what goes with the sauce flavour and you are set.  Shredded cheese in the freezer - linguine, quiche, mac and cheese - cheese is ready to go, easy to cook.

Cooking for one is not easy, most recipes are geared to 2-4 servings - so make the full recipe and save.  Cuts down on dishes,electricity, time, gives convenience, flavour and nutrition.

For shopping organic/not, check out the dirty dozen and clean 15.

[Inaya]

I practice something I call "modular cooking." I try to keep the building blocks of healthy meals on hand, they toss together whatever sounds good.

I call this "some assembly required" cooking.

[gliderpilot567]

By far the simplest way I've found to eat. I discovered this when trying to find a human alternative to dog kibble.


http://www.soylent.com/

Oh wait... MMM forums...

https://diy.soylent.com/

That way the rare occasion you eat out it's even more of a treat.


ETA: Here's a pretty decent 2 week review of a guy who tried it. After reading, I decided to add more whey protein to mine so as to (cheaply) add in more protein for weight lifting.


http://fourhourworkweek.com/2013/08/20/soylent/

I'll be interested when they come up with a green version.

[backyardfeast]

I'm one of those passionate cooks who always feels like she has to create "a meal" that's different each day.  It's just habit for me, but I have to remind myself sometimes that food is just fuel, not every meal has to be full of variety, or even nutritionally balanced (because our overall eating is).  Nothing wrong with scrambled eggs and toast for dinner now and then.

If you're not someone who cares about eating the same thing for a few/several days in a row, I might approach this like a 3rd world (healthy) peasant: one consistent starch, one consistent flavour profile, one pattern that has a little variety in it.  In the first world, we're used to having Chinese one night, Italian the next, Thai the next, etc.  But within any given food culture, there's a pattern that's pretty simple.

So, I would start with either picking a culture (Mexican this week) or picking a starch.  Am I a rice guy (this week)? Am I pasta? Bread? Whatever you pick, it's then automated: make a big batch and clean the pot.  Then pick a protein (or two).  Will this week be chicken?  Roast one on the weekend, or pick one up at the deli.  Shred, boil up the bones for stock to freeze; vary with eggs during the week if you get bored.  Then pick up whichever vegetables are appealing/priced well that week.  You can buy pre-cut or frozen for a little more, or buy whole and chop them up on Sunday when the roast is in the oven.  If you want, buy flavour sauces that you like (soy sauce, sweet chili, salad dressings, whatever)

Then all you have to do through the week is assemble and reheat (either one pan to wash, or you can put everything on a plate in the microwave): rice, chicken mixed with veg tossed with sauce.  Cold rice tossed with chicken, veg, and salad dressing.  Chicken, veg, and rice simmered in the stock you froze for soup.  Have the same thing every day, or do these minor variations.  Rice, veg and a couple of fried eggs.  As soon as you get home and start to assemble dinner, make the first thing you do filling the sink with hot soapy water.  As soon as you finish using a utensil or pot or glass, put it in the sink (at least, or wash it if you have a minute while the microwave is one).  Presto! No clean-up.  Repeat until you get bored with chicken and rice; then move on to a new protein and/or starch.

The other option, depending on your food needs/wants and what you're eating for the rest of your meals, is to not cook dinners, just eat a huge salad.  Having a raw meal really gets rid of the clean-up, it's good for you, and mentally freeing (I have found), while also having lots of potential for variety.  Buy bulk salad greens at Costco and pile on your plate, grate a root vegetable or two on top of that, chop an avocado in the skin and dump on plate, throw a few cherry tomatoes from a container on top.  If you're feeling fancy, you can take out a cutting board and add whatever else you want.  Toss with oil and vinegar or lemon juice, or buy salad dressing if you must.  Add toasted nuts, cheese, a can of tuna or chicken, or a couple of eggs you've hard boiled while assembling; eat with bread or tortilla chips or whatever.  Presto: no cooking, 1 dish (your plate and a fork and possibly a knife), maybe a cutting board to wipe down.

My mom is an AMAZING cook.  Now, on her own, she eats toast and peanut butter for breakfast, a bowl of fruit with yogurt and granola for lunch, and a big salad for dinner.  Super-healthy, tasty, brainless, simple, and no clean-up.  I really should take lessons!

[herbgeek]

There's also the free cookbook (can't remember the name but Googling should be simple) designed for people on food stamps...

This one?  https://www.leannebrown.com/s/good-and-cheap.pdf

We eat simply for the most part.  Dinner on the table in under 15 minutes.  That's a combination of a little bit of batch cooking (eg like pot roast in the crockpot, that I'll divide into meals and put in the freezer), easy ethnic food (Mexican, Indian) where the protein (beans) comes in a can and you just need to saute veggies and spices, grilled food in the summer, salads or steamed veggies as sides.  Anything complicated is a weekend project, but I almost always make enough for extra meals to be thawed out during the week.

[Dee18]

+1 herbgeek
I "fix" dinner as often as I cook it.  One thing I like to do is think of some of my favorite food from restaurants and imitate the dish, such as fish tacos.  A quick home prep involves 5 minutes of prep time with 30 minutes of oven time:  cook two frozen fish filets in oven or toaster oven (on parchment paper so no pan to clean), mix shredded slaw with seasoning  (lately mayo and apple cider vinegar), add avocado, warm a couple Trader Joes tortillas, and assemble tacos with TJ Cowboy Caviar for some spice.  So quick and so good.  Another is to cook veggies (either fresh or a Green Giant box of mixed veggies--often on sale for $1 a box), then microwave a couple Quinoa burgers (from Aldi's) and serve them on top of the veggies.   The trick is to plan ahead enough to have the ingredients you need.

[horsepoor]

Sounds like you live alone?

In that situation, I think it makes a lot of sense to set up a pretty simple system.  Like cook beans or chicken - have them with a side steamed veg night one, in a tortilla night two, and then over a salad on night 3.

Also, lots of love for the Instant Pot.  It sounds like you don't want to be tied to the kitchen, and this automates a lot.  You can throw in beans, for instance, hit a button and walk away, then come back whenever you're ready for cooked beans (or soup, stew or a delicious curry if you're so inclined). 

Salads are probably our most automated meal.  We buy the big box of spring greens and pre-shredded coleslaw (yeah, face punch for the convenience...), celery, green onion and carrots, then DH and I each have our separate preferences on dressing the salad.  But it's nice to be able to just say "salad tonight" or "pick up salad stuff" and the expectation is the same each time.  You could go further by batching up your salad ingredient prep at the beginning of the week, or making jar salads, so all you have to do during the week is throw it on a plate and add dressing.  Definitely faster than leaving the house to get to a restaurant and come back.

Almost any veg can be roasted and hands-on kitchen time is minimal.  There are the obvious carrots, potatoes and onions (all very cheap, BTW), but you can also venture out into squash, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, asparagus, leeks, beets, parsnips, broccoli and even kale.  Pretty much just add a bit of fat, salt and pepper, throw in the oven and walk away.  You could do a big batch of roasted veg and enjoy for several days.  While the oven is on, bake some potatoes or sweet potatoes, which are easy to top with leftovers or cottage cheese for a basic, easy meal later in the week.

[GreenSheep]

+1 for cooking extra and freezing it! I cook only for myself, so I usually end up with 3-4 extra servings. I can eat the same thing for 2-3 days in a row, but after that I get tired of it, so I freeze most of my leftovers and enjoy them later.

I also do a bit of "modular" cooking. I make beans and brown rice in advance and freeze them. Then I pull them out to use in all sorts of recipes, or I just create a bowl of beans, rice, greens, sweet potato or avocado or mushrooms, and a sauce (which I also typically make in advance and freeze in ice cube trays). I spend about 3-4 hours cooking, 1-2 times per week. I thoroughly enjoy it, though. I like saving money, knowing what's going into my body, and choosing things that are both tasty and delicious.

I'm a big fan of smoothies or oatmeal for breakfast. Smoothies can obviously vary a lot, and they're super easy. Oatmeal, in my opinion, is really just a warm and cozy vehicle to get all sorts of good things into your mouth -- fruit, cinnamon, chia seeds, etc. Change it up based on whatever you have in the fridge/freezer. You can even make overnight oats (Google recipes -- just throw a few things in a jar the night before) so all you have to do in the morning is warm it up a bit -- or eat it cold if you like.

As far as the time factor goes, maybe it would help to listen to a podcast or invite a friend over to cook with you? Then maybe you wouldn't feel like it's a waste of time. I enjoy the quiet and the cooking itself, but if you don't, you can multitask!

As others have mentioned, I truly don't enjoy eating out very much any more. There are a small number of truly creative, delicious, and healthy restaurants that I think are worth patronizing. Otherwise, even though I'm not a professional chef, I can do better at home -- cheaper, healthier, tastier. I still go out once a week, but that's only because my boyfriend enjoys it, and that's the compromise we've reached.

[monstermonster]

Oh my god. I'm SO into automating my food.

Here's my current methods, and but I'm always interested in learning.

Every morning I have three tacos, four if I've worked out for an hour or have a long bike commute. I've got the prep time and clean up time down to <8 minutes. The tacos cost me between $.08-.21 cents a taco, depending on seasonal variations in cost of ingredients. They each contain: a fried corn tortilla ($1.29 for a pack of 100, I stock up on these every 3 months from Fred Meyer), lettuce, black beans (cooked in bulk in the slow cooker while I'm at work every 10 days or so and then reheated in the microwave each morning), habeneros, hot sauce, and (in my case, vegan) cheese. The cheese is the largest expense, which I try to stock up on when it's on sale, but I'll cut it out when the budget is tight and it brings the cost for breakfast down to under $.30/day.

We spend 20 minutes planning our meals for the week on sunday, head 2 blocks to whole foods, stock up, and come home and pre-chop veggies. It's about 45 minutes out of our week on average. In the summer season, we get a  CSA share, and we do our meal planning around our CSA share email that comes out on Sunday night based on what veggies we have.

I never prepare a different lunch for work than dinner the night before - we always make enough that both of us will have enough for lunch the next day. We have automated the days of weeks for the meals, and only when we have late night events that preclude cooking do we make exceptions. Here's ours (based on our preferences- yours will be different, I'm sure):

• Mac and Cheese (with sauteed veggies for health!) Monday (
• Casserole Tuesday (made in the slow cooker while we're at work)
• Roast Wednesday (roasted veggies + pasta)
• Slow Cooker Thursday (usually Kung Pao tofu made in the slow cooker)
• Stirfry Friday
• Bad Adulting Saturday (usually something deep-fried like falafel or tater tots)
• Pinterest Sunday (that means we make some fancy new recipe that takes more time for our "leisurely" meal together)

I'd venture to say outside of our silly/fancy meals on the weekend, I spend about 10 minutes before work on food prep on slow cooker days and 30 minutes cleaning up/eating after work. I actually enjoy cooking, but don't have time during the week for much of it. Most of our cleaning up is cleaning the crock pot and knives, which I listen to podcasts while I do to make it more enjoyable.

I totally understand hating the inefficiency and slowness of eating out for the purposes of getting food. The odd exception to  not eating out for a leisurely meal is occasional $3.50 burritos at my favorite burrito place (~1-2 times/month.)

Side silly note, I'm a cheapskate but I also buy most of my groceries at whole foods because it's 2 blocks from my house and the extra time to go further to Fred Meyer/the giant trap that mega-Fred Meyer take 9000 years to get in and out of and the grocery outlet is a good 6 mile bike ride away. Also Trader Joes is hella expensive for most things except snacks, vegan sorizo, olive oil, and booze so I avoid it unless I need those things. This is an area I totally feel guilt about, but for the moment I've accepted it.

For a single person, I spend between $115-$145/month on groceries at whole foods. I can cut that down to $100 or so if I shop exclusively at Grocery Outlet and the Asian megamarket, but I do that fairly rarely since that adds about 4 hours overall to my grocery-shopping time each month. And because I am lazy (mostly the latter). My partner eats dairy and drinks coffee (unlike me), so he spends a tiny bit more than me each month, but we're about $240 for both of us each month without much sale-shopping.

[Fitzy]

You may want to try a company called Freshly.com.  They will deliver cooked meals to your home and all you need to do is heat up for 2 minutes in the microwave.  The minimum is 6 meals.  It's kind of expensive at $11.50 a meal, but it's very convenient, very tasty, and you get a good variety of meals.  If I was living on my own, I would definitely subscribe.

I don't know if these codes still work.  Try 3freemeals (3 out of 6 free) or gethealthy (6 meals for $30).


 

[Parizade]

Modular cooking is great, also using bases.  Basic meat sauce (brown ground beef, saute onions and some garlic and add to meat, add a can of crushed and a can of diced tomatoes) in one serving containers is great for fast meals - one container can have Italian seasoning for spaghetti, one can have chili, one can have taco - then add what goes with the sauce flavour and you are set.  Shredded cheese in the freezer - linguine, quiche, mac and cheese - cheese is ready to go, easy to cook.

YES! You can make some really wonderful bases in the crockpot that require minimal prep time. Here's one of my favorites:
http://www.fromvalerieskitchen.com/2012/11/crock-pot-chicken-tacos/

You can use this as a taco filling or a sandwich filling, as a topping on a baked potato, you can mix in some rice and veggies for a delicious casserole, or make personal taco pizzas on a split bagel. All easy, fast, nutritious meals.

[golden1]

Cooking for my family of 4 has become a bit of a nightmare for me and I am definitely in a rut.

Here are my issues/limitations:
1) Autistic son with sensory issues regarding food - I have to make something for him separately most nights but we keep it very simple and if we are too tired we have him fix his own "snack plate" with protein starch and a fruit or veggie. 
2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

There are probably about 4-5 meals that I make that everyone will eat, and then outside of that it becomes chaotic.  My daughter has started making a lot of her own dinners.  She is particularly fond of Asian food.  Many nights it ends up with me making something with DH and then leaving the kids to their own devices, which feels like a failure, but I am not sure how else to manage things right now. 

I totally don't get the Soylent thing at all.  It seems like a depressing existence to me.  I don't mind a meal replacement bar once in awhile if I am on the run, but drinking that all day every day?!?!  I am curious whether people will end up staying on that long term.  I also wonder about gut biome diversity if you are consuming the same thing all the time.  Too many unanswered questions. 

[Inaya]

2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

Have you tried Fairlife brand milk? It's lactose free (and bonus of half the sugar of regular milk). I think it tastes better than regular milk. It is more expensive, but it's less expensive than Lactaid. Some people with lactose intolerance can also handle kefir. The commercial stuff is expensive and mostly dead, so it's best if you make your own.

Nut milks will also sub into recipes in place of dairy, supposedly. I can't vouch because I don't like the taste and never tried.

[Sweetloveginger]

Cooking for my family of 4 has become a bit of a nightmare for me and I am definitely in a rut.

Here are my issues/limitations:
1) Autistic son with sensory issues regarding food - I have to make something for him separately most nights but we keep it very simple and if we are too tired we have him fix his own "snack plate" with protein starch and a fruit or veggie. 
2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

There are probably about 4-5 meals that I make that everyone will eat, and then outside of that it becomes chaotic.  My daughter has started making a lot of her own dinners.  She is particularly fond of Asian food.  Many nights it ends up with me making something with DH and then leaving the kids to their own devices, which feels like a failure, but I am not sure how else to manage things right now. 

I totally don't get the Soylent thing at all.  It seems like a depressing existence to me.  I don't mind a meal replacement bar once in awhile if I am on the run, but drinking that all day every day?!?!  I am curious whether people will end up staying on that long term.  I also wonder about gut biome diversity if you are consuming the same thing all the time.  Too many unanswered questions.

Cabot makes a surprising number of lactose free cheeses that taste and act like regular cheese. We even found a latcose free mozzarella in the regular grocery store that was pretty delicious. One of my friends became lactose intolerant last year and it's been a huge change for us, but once we found those it was like urika!!!

2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

Have you tried Fairlife brand milk? It's lactose free (and bonus of half the sugar of regular milk). I think it tastes better than regular milk. It is more expensive, but it's less expensive than Lactaid. Some people with lactose intolerance can also handle kefir. The commercial stuff is expensive and mostly dead, so it's best if you make your own.

Nut milks will also sub into recipes in place of dairy, supposedly. I can't vouch because I don't like the taste and never tried.

Nut milks can work. Personally I LOVE this recipe.
http://minimalistbaker.com/creamy-vegan-garlic-pasta-with-roasted-tomatoes/

[monstermonster]

2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

I highly recommend googling the "easy vegan ____" for whatever your usual routine meals are. It's likely there's an easy sub for most of the dairy in the dishes that doesn't involve buying stupid expensive replacements. That said, Daiya brand cheese costs about as much as a pack of dairy shredded cheese and is a really good stand-in for people who can't or don't eat lactose. I've been not eating dairy for 20+ years so I've seen all the evolution of non-dairy cheese, and I'd say this one is the best (it actually melts!)

My SO has dairy and I don't, and we often can make one meal that has dairy cheese in one serving and non-dairy in another. Example: enchiladas - all the same core ingredients, but we make them in two separate pans and I layer on my non-dairy cheese and he layers on his dairy cheese. Or we make tacos but there's a separate non-dairy cheese and dairy cheese at the end. Works great for us.

[GreenSheep]

Cooking for my family of 4 has become a bit of a nightmare for me and I am definitely in a rut.

Here are my issues/limitations:
1) Autistic son with sensory issues regarding food - I have to make something for him separately most nights but we keep it very simple and if we are too tired we have him fix his own "snack plate" with protein starch and a fruit or veggie. 
2) Recently lactose intolerant teenage daughter - this is throwing a real wrench in the works because many, many of the recipes I have been making for years include dairy or cheese. 

There are probably about 4-5 meals that I make that everyone will eat, and then outside of that it becomes chaotic.  My daughter has started making a lot of her own dinners.  She is particularly fond of Asian food.  Many nights it ends up with me making something with DH and then leaving the kids to their own devices, which feels like a failure, but I am not sure how else to manage things right now. 

I totally don't get the Soylent thing at all.  It seems like a depressing existence to me.  I don't mind a meal replacement bar once in awhile if I am on the run, but drinking that all day every day?!?!  I am curious whether people will end up staying on that long term.  I also wonder about gut biome diversity if you are consuming the same thing all the time.  Too many unanswered questions.

This is where vegan recipes can be helpful even if you don't consider yourself/selves vegan. People seem to be afraid of that word, and convinced that anything labeled with it will be gross, but for heaven's sake, potato chips are vegan! (Not that I'm advocating eating them, as they are terribly unhealthy, but they are a tasty thing that is vegan.) So are Oreos in many countries. So is a big bowl of perfectly ripe strawberries.

Here are some sites that have delicious vegan recipes:

ohsheglows.com
veganricha.com
mynewroots.org

I have to respectfully disagree with the vegan cheese concept. (No harm in the fact that some people like it -- sometimes I wish I could like it!) I don't eat "real" cheese anymore, and I've decided that going cheese-free is better than eating that fake stuff. I just don't like it. I think dairy-free cheese and meat-free "meats" are a big part of the reason that people think vegan food is gross. I prefer to just eat all of the wonderful things that don't include animal products (vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, mushrooms) and let their delicious flavors speak for themselves. I do make exceptions to this when I make cashew "cheese" to put on pasta or enchiladas or whatever. For some reason, when it's in liquid form, it's pretty good! Plenty of recipes for that in the links above. Maybe that would be helpful for your daughter.

[Jouer]

I'm going to go in a different direction here.

I suggest forgetting about automating your whole life and have some fun with cooking. Cooking (and cleaning up afterwards), if you are enjoying it, can be great times to get creative juices flowing. In no-time, you might even come up with great business ideas (or whatever you want to be thinking about).

If you feel the need to automate or be efficient, you could develop a system by which you clean as you go. It'll be a win-win - getting your efficiency juices flowing....and shortening the amount of post-meal clean up time.

[Rosy]

Great suggestions all around:)
You asked about finding the perfect middle ground on cooking, time, eating out - well, good luck with that:)! There is a little thing called life, circumstances and enjoying social interaction over a great dinner - home made - ordered in or out - or at your favorite restaurant.

Automation sounds bland, beige and boring - ho hum, but I can confirm that the 7-day meal plan routine works works like a charm.
Basically, you come up with a meal plan based on 14 of your favorite dishes. (lunch and dinner for seven days). Rinse and repeat.

Preferably also talk one or two family members into cooking their specialty dish once a week. Steak on the grill with salad is the perfect guy's meal. Then all I had to do is convince DH to throw some foil potatoes on the grill or whole peppers or whole corn on the cob - easy. Add watermelon in the summer:)
Winter is Chili time or his special lentil soup or .....

Kids can learn to make tuna salad or whatever - let them experiment with simple things and praise their efforts - you may find yourself with a budding chef in the house. My son is a great cook, it is a useful skill.

For me Saturday was always house cleaning, laundry and clean your car day, so cooking was limited to a big pot of kitchen sink soup to clean out the fridge/freezer and a big pot or pan of a favorite dessert or pie/cake. Sunday re-heat or eat out and if I felt inspired, pancakes in all variations, nutty pancakes with apples or fluffly egg pancakes with cherries and whipping cream or savory pancakes with veggie/bacon/meat filling and cheese sauce - or I might cook an elaborate supper.
I detest repetition when it comes to food, so for me doing something fun and creative with food on the weekends was always a recreational activity.

It helps to have a routine of some sort when it comes to a busy life, but I would add that sometimes the best ideas occur when you are happily socializing with your friends and family, relaxing with a brew or a glass of wine. So don't fret too much about the prep and clean up time - find a way to share with friends once a week - dinner and dishes.             
When I was a widow living alone and my budget was rather tight - two friends and I would swap food and invite each other over once a week. So someone else did the cooking and clean up and it was free entertainment.
Food at it's best is nourishing and appetizing, a treat for body and soul:) when consumed with family and friends. Just sayin'. 

If you live alone and just want to streamline your food activities I would suggest that you take your meal plan to the next level, by integrating brain foods and say a couple of health-diet type dishes alongside your regular favorites, before you set it and forget it. Don't forget salads or the occasional dessert treat.
The instapot is both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker (better for you)and you can get an optional stainless steel insert which will last forever - one dish cooking is the way to go.
Just stick with your meal plan over the weekend, if that makes you happy. It will give you more time to concentrate on your business.

Anyway - there you go, all you need is a plan, the execution is up to you - have fun with it:)

[meyling]

I agree with everyone else suggesting budget bytes. I love that website.

I'm going to go in a different direction here.

I suggest forgetting about automating your whole life and have some fun with cooking. Cooking (and cleaning up afterwards), if you are enjoying it, can be great times to get creative juices flowing. In no-time, you might even come up with great business ideas (or whatever you want to be thinking about).

I agree with this too! I actually used to hate cooking. I complained about about every step of the process: planning meals, grocery shopping, prepping, actual cooking, possible cooking disasters, and cleaning up. But I think after about making 50 meals or so (I'm a slow learner in the kitchen) the food I made finally tasted good and I started to really enjoy it. I don't actually make my own meals, I just take recipes from various food blogs. Now I don't mind that cooking takes time, because I enjoy the process. And I suggest listening to music while cleaning. It makes it a lot more tolerable.

[halftimer]

Lots of great ideas here so far!

Recently saw this Realistic Lunch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFIKXXj2HIs&feature=youtu.be
it's meant to be this guy's well rounded, easy prep and clean up lunch that can be repeated daily. I like the bit about making the couscous in your glass, then rinsing it out and using the same cup to drink from.  Just a different perspective.

Other good ideas are to standardize - meal plan based on # meals you need at home for the week and get that many protein portions, then get twice as many veg portions. Have some template recipes that you can mix up easily. Read about the low stress, easy to remember method and template recipes at http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2011/02/the-simplest-method-for-menu-planning/ there are sample meal plans but you customize for your tastes and dietary needs, then just cycle through 4-5 weeks of different shopping lists and flexible template meals. 

[RosieTR]

By far the simplest way I've found to eat. I discovered this when trying to find a human alternative to dog kibble.

There is such thing as Monkey Chow. Before purchasing a large amount, you may want to watch this: http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html

Why in the world you would want to eat a human alternative to dog kibble is beyond me, however. A diet of beans, brown rice, a half-dozen or more of your favorite veggies, a few fruits and a bit of meat, eggs or milk products (on most days) would make up a generally complete human diet. If you have access to an array of spices and/or herbs, this could be fairly easy to automate: Indian spices on Monday, Mexican on Tues, French on Wed and so forth. Throw in eggs or throw on yogurt every other day and whatever veggies seem to go with the theme (can of tomatoes and some frozen corn for Mexican night, for instance; bell peppers and cauliflower on Indian night, maybe). Automatic, variable, easy to add further variations per season or sale (different vegetables, different variations on region, add meat perhaps).

[SeanMC]

This thread has a lot of great tips and links already.

I think the issue is that you need to automate or streamline clean up, not cooking, because that's the part you detest. What contributes to clean-up problems?

For some tips besides "one pot cooking" recipes:
http://www.thekitchn.com/10-ways-keep-your-kitchen-a-little-bit-cleaner-while-you-cook-cleaning-tips-from-the-kitchn-205132

It hit home for me because most of my clean-up mess is my fault. I spill, splatter, put things down on counters directly, etc. Using a garbage bowl, pouring over the sink, etc. really helped me cut down on that.

Do you have a dishwasher? Can everything you use go in your dishwasher? I find that I have pots or utensils that I only hand wash, which is where a lot of my clean-up time goes now. I too dislike it to the point where I don't use my cast iron pan enough because I don't want to have to clean it asap (and it can't soak). So maybe this is about using the type of tools that lend toward automation more easily.

Do you lack counter space or clear surfaces to put dirty pots and utensils as you work? Can you clear off and declutter to make more space? Can you get a free fold-out table or cheap "microwave" cart?

If you're not sure, pick a nice dinner to cook for yourself as a test and then come in and track where the clean up is in both time and mental energy.

[clarkfan1979]

+1 on the meal planning and bulk buying at Costco. Cook at least 4 servings. Two servings go in the freezer. You eat one serving and one serving goes in the refrigerator for left-overs tomorrow.

[ETBen]

Ive started doing what others called modular cooking (I think).  I buy a months supply of pasta, beans, canned soup, rice (actually it's a massive bag), and other non perishables. I also buy a frozen bag of shrimp, fish, and chicken. I generally keep an array of sauces and spices around.

So each week I only need fresh veggies and eggs. Every dinner that I cook is a bean/pasta/rice and a flavorful sauté of veggie and meat fish. It's quick and makes life easy. I always have 1 serving left over for a lunch later that week or to toss in the freezer. (Not a huge leftover fan). I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

This also keeps my cost down. Breakfast is either a) pb toast and piece of fruit or b) turkey burger on whole grain flat roll.

When I decide to cook something different, Bc I do like to cook, it's more enjoyable and special.

[Parizade]

I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

I think not having a recipe to follow simplifies everything. You don't get halfway through and realize you are missing a key ingredient that requires a speedy trip to the closest convenience store. You're not stocking your cupboards with exotic ingredients that you will only use once a year. You just look in your freezer and cupboards and think, "what looks good tonight? Cuban black beans and rice? oh look, I've got some ham I can chop up into it as well, yum!"

10 minutes later it's done.

[ETBen]

I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

I think not having a recipe to follow simplifies everything. You don't get halfway through and realize you are missing a key ingredient that requires a speedy trip to the closest convenience store. You're not stocking your cupboards with exotic ingredients that you will only use once a year. You just look in your freezer and cupboards and think, "what looks good tonight? Cuban black beans and rice? oh look, I've got some ham I can chop up into it as well, yum!"

10 minutes later it's done.

Exactly. And I have certain flavors I gravitate towards. So it's always there. If I want to try something new, then that's a special meal. This also assumes you have some basic cooking knowledge, of course.

[golden1]

Thanks for all of the suggestions regarding lactose intolerance. 

My daughter, being 13, is very resistant to lactose free substitution products.  I suggest them and I get, "It won't taste the same!"  Maybe she will grow out of that in a year or two.  She would honestly just rather eat dairy free and pop the lactaid tabs occasionally when she really craves pizza or something dairy. 

I think if it were just me, I could eat very cheap and easy.  I am happy eating a few staple foods 80% of the time and then adding in more interesting stuff a few times a week.  It is catering to a family that is the challenge.  I want to respect their preferences as much as possible without being overly inconvenienced. 

[horsepoor]

I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

I think not having a recipe to follow simplifies everything. You don't get halfway through and realize you are missing a key ingredient that requires a speedy trip to the closest convenience store. You're not stocking your cupboards with exotic ingredients that you will only use once a year. You just look in your freezer and cupboards and think, "what looks good tonight? Cuban black beans and rice? oh look, I've got some ham I can chop up into it as well, yum!"

10 minutes later it's done.

Totally.  And the more you experiment, the more you realize that most things, thrown together, taste pretty good.  I've stopped giving most dishes a name, because my husband gets it in his head that certain things must have x, y, and z ingredients and be prepared a certain way.  So I know not to make a casserole with spaghetti squash and try to call it lasagne, because then he gets disappointed.  If I call it "weeknight what we had in the cupboard bake" or don't give it a name at all, he eats it happily. 

One book I really like is "The Improvisational Cook" by Sally Schneider.  She has basic recipes, and then gives you some ideas to riff on them with different ingredients.  Probably fancier than most people want to be on a weeknight, but it can help recipe-based cooks branch out more.  The other problem with recipes (and honestly, IMO, the weekly menu rotations) is that they tend to create waste.  Learning flexibility in using ingredients means: 1) you can take advantage of what's in season and on sale and 2) you can use up all those random ingredients around the house and 3) you don't need to purchase specific sauces or ingredients because you can improvise and substitute and get a similar result.

[Inaya]

One book I really like is "The Improvisational Cook" by Sally Schneider.  She has basic recipes, and then gives you some ideas to riff on them with different ingredients.  Probably fancier than most people want to be on a weeknight, but it can help recipe-based cooks branch out more.  The other problem with recipes (and honestly, IMO, the weekly menu rotations) is that they tend to create waste.  Learning flexibility in using ingredients means: 1) you can take advantage of what's in season and on sale and 2) you can use up all those random ingredients around the house and 3) you don't need to purchase specific sauces or ingredients because you can improvise and substitute and get a similar result.

Yes, this book is amazing!

[Sweetloveginger]

I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

I think not having a recipe to follow simplifies everything. You don't get halfway through and realize you are missing a key ingredient that requires a speedy trip to the closest convenience store. You're not stocking your cupboards with exotic ingredients that you will only use once a year. You just look in your freezer and cupboards and think, "what looks good tonight? Cuban black beans and rice? oh look, I've got some ham I can chop up into it as well, yum!"

10 minutes later it's done.

I can both agree and disagree with this. I almost always come up with my own recipes, but there are so many times where if I don't have a plan when I leave work then I'm like a lost puppy stairing into the abyss of my freezer without a clue where to start. Even a loose meal plan helps (eg. monday - venison, tues - vegetarian, wed - chicken, etc), but there are still times I just can't even.

[kite]

How set it & forget it works for us....

Bought a copy of Everlasting Meal. 
Took Tamar Adler's instructions to heart about going to the farmers market with an eye toward what was cheap, abundant and in-season.  Came home, washed and cooked all the produce that needed cooking. 
Emerged with the building blocks for a week's worth of meals. 
Beets were roasted.
Root veg were roasted.  As were eggplants, zucchini, fennel & butternut squash.
Broccoli boiled, cauliflower or cabbage boiled (or roasted).
Greens sautéed.
Broccoli stems & greens stems diced fine and turned into pesto.

There are a finite number of ways to cook stuff, roasting is probably the easiest.  Indeed, if my shopping/cooking day is going to be busy, I only buy things that can be roasted.  After a few weeks at this, I became fairly proficient and run on auto-pilot.  I also became spoiled by the "forget it" feature built in to this process.  I can forget all about what is in the fridge, safe in the knowledge that a variety of healthy somethings are there, ready to be turned into roasted vegetable salad, ready to top a bunch of rice or pasta, ready to go into a sandwich or quiche or ready to be the star of the plate with a side dish of a quickly prepared animal protein.  The roasted veg can also get pureed into a soup.

I can shop with almost no list, eyeballing by volume how much vegetables we'll eat in a week and if they aren't meant to be eaten raw, that I can & will cook that day.   A huge benefit here is no boredom from the same sequence of meals, but one meal that tumbles into the next one and but it never feels like we're having left-overs.   

With the vegetables well in hand, the proteins seem to take care of themselves. 

   

[Parizade]

I don't know if it's really easier or quicker, but it feels that way Bc you don't need to think about it.

I think not having a recipe to follow simplifies everything. You don't get halfway through and realize you are missing a key ingredient that requires a speedy trip to the closest convenience store. You're not stocking your cupboards with exotic ingredients that you will only use once a year. You just look in your freezer and cupboards and think, "what looks good tonight? Cuban black beans and rice? oh look, I've got some ham I can chop up into it as well, yum!"

10 minutes later it's done.

I can both agree and disagree with this. I almost always come up with my own recipes, but there are so many times where if I don't have a plan when I leave work then I'm like a lost puppy stairing into the abyss of my freezer without a clue where to start. Even a loose meal plan helps (eg. monday - venison, tues - vegetarian, wed - chicken, etc), but there are still times I just can't even.

Cooking for one is much simpler than cooking for a family, I did more planning when I cooked family style.

[jooles]

I automate my food prep by

choosing to eat and use up the food that is in the house
cooking/prepping food no more than once per day
  I make dinner immediately when I arrive at home
  Whenever I prepare food I do more than one meal
While preparing dinner I make tomorrow's lunch and this evening's night time snack

Tonight dinner will be steamed broccoli on brown rice with teriyaki sauce and a side of coleslaw.  Tomorrow's lunch will be salad made from whatever is in the house + 1/2 can of black beans, I'll toss in some grapes because they need to get eaten.  Tonight's snack will be an apple, or some of those gapes that need to be used up, and some Trader Joe's fig and olive crackers with a cup of tea.  Total food prep time will be less than 30 minutes to feed 2 people 2 meals and one snack. 

We rarely eat out.  But when we do it is to celebrate a special occasion and we splurge.  When we vary from this pattern we regret it.  Eating oil free vegan means it's hard to find food outside the house that fits that criteria.  When we eat something else we feel ill and regret it almost immediately. 

We can get by on $50/week for a mostly beans and rice week with less fresh food or spend as much as $100/week for lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

[jooles]

Make a list of your go to meals.  What are the things you LIKE to eat?  Most people have a limited number of meals (7 to 10) that they eat on repeat.  Most of do this even though we don't realize it.  It certainly makes it easier to develop a routine and dial in the grocery shopping and the food prep.

[mm1970]

This is a fun and timely discussion.  Today, I ate out for lunch.  It was an impromptu going away lunch for a coworker at a Chinese restaurant.  I ended up sitting with four others, and we agreed that four items would be fine for the 5 of us.  I let them order.

It was glorious!  I am female, and I've taken on the bulk of the cooking and meal planning for my family.  It's exhausting, and it definitely takes up a lot of "brain power".  When my second child was born, and brain power was at a minimum, I had a weekly rotation.  I cooked two big meals on the weekend and we ate them until we ran out.  I made a third meal big enough for lunch.  And Weds was crock pot day, because that's when we were out of the 2 big weekend meals.

I rotated lunch.  So, one week, lunch was pasta.  Next week it was soup.  Next week bulk-made burritos, next week sandwiches. 

Now, though, cooking for four, it's hard.  Food doesn't last long.  I gave up and let my older son get the school lunch.  One less thing to think about. 

We used to be members of a CSA, but it ended last year and hasn't started again due to drought.  Just this week we started getting a produce box - similar, but they deliver. 

Goodness, it's tiring, no?  I look at everything we get and have to figure out what to do with it.  Then I have to prep it.  It's not automated at all.  Shopping is automated.  Buy a bunch of vegetables - eat salads and steamed or roasted veggies with protein and a carb.  But the produce box?  Okay, figure out what to do with celery, carrots, red cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, etc. etc.  Oh, and prep it all at the beginning of the week, or most of it.  I love the freshness of the CSA/ box, but it does make my brain hurt.  I used to love it when I was working part time, but with a job and kids it's HARD.

For a single person, I would recommend considering:

http://mybodymykitchen.com/

This is just an example of meal prep methods.  Meal prep is common in families and with people who are trying to lose weight, or get fit, or whatever.  It does require "work" but automates much of the rest of life.  So in the example above, this guy cooks, say, 5 servings to 6 servings of a meal.  He preps 2 different ones each week.  This allows for one for lunch and one for dinner.  Of course, if you do it right (eat out a few times, eat sandwiches, or prep 3 to start), then you can get a nice rotation going of the different meals.

I think I'd do this if I weren't cooking for 4.  As it is, I have salad for lunch every day and really only worry about dinner.

So a couple of hours on the weekend and you have many servings in the freezer ready to go:
Fish, broccoli, rice
Chicken, potatoes, green beans
Spaghetti and meatballs with sauteed mushrooms
etc.

You do have to use up some time and brain power to pick the 2 items to make each week, but then it's pretty effortless.

[GreenSheep]

Make a list of your go to meals.  What are the things you LIKE to eat?  Most people have a limited number of meals (7 to 10) that they eat on repeat.  Most of do this even though we don't realize it.  It certainly makes it easier to develop a routine and dial in the grocery shopping and the food prep.

This might sound like a lot of extra work, but I've found that it makes things easier/faster and more enjoyable for me in the long run. And I'm a bit of a culinary nerd who likes this stuff. :-)

I have a long Word document on my computer in which I save all the recipes I love (with their source). It's organized by season, and within each season, there are categories for things like breakfast, soup, dessert, etc. It's a bit of extra work on the front end, but it makes it really easy to eat things that are in season (and therefore generally fresher and cheaper), and it's easy to scroll through and find, say, a great winter muffin recipe. (I can also use the "find" function to search for a particular ingredient if I have a lot of something I want to use up.) No need to rack my brain for something that sounds good or to flip through a million cookbooks or websites. It also keeps things interesting! Since I'm not eating, say, "Chipotle Quinoa Sweet Potato Tacos with Roasted Cranberry Pomegranate Salsa" every week throughout the year, I'm more excited about them in the winter, when cranberries and pomegranates are in season and a warm, filling, spicy meal sounds good.

[galliver]

I'm currently in a pretty decent routine. I'll wake up, cook the same breakfast, pretty much skip lunch besides a few chips or something to snack on, and then cook something else or eat out later in the day. I'm finding more and more that I don't desire to eat out because everything is overpriced and isn't that good or appealing. At the same time, I'm also finding more and more that I HATE cleaning up and the time it takes to do so. I'd rather be doing other things like getting engrossed in a book, writing, learning skills, or building a business.

I really wanted to respond abrasively to this paragraph, but I am resisting.

You say you want to learn a skill? Why not cooking? And if you must be productive in an intellectual sense while you are at it, try podcasts, audiobooks, or documentaries. Though, on the flip side, you know the story of Einstein and the patent office? Maybe to bring your Grand Ideas to fruition and become the next Elon Musk you should give your brain a break for a half hour each night while doing a mundane and somewhat repetitive task!

In terms of the perfect middle ground between home cooking and eating out, I'm in the "modular cooking" camp. I find that meats take the most time and hassle to cook and clean up from (you have to keep track of cross-contamination, etc). But fortunately unlike vegetables, meats reheat quite well. So what I did when I lived alone (on good weeks) and what my bf and I have recently gotten into the habit of (on good weeks) is spending one evening cooking meat for the next 3-4 days (I'm fine with a week but bf gets suspicious of it). That's a beef/pork/whole chicken roast, or a pan of chicken (this one is hard to mess up http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-garlic-chicken-5478), grilling, etc. Then throughout the week we can have different incarnations of this food...e.g. we had meatballs with pasta, with gravy  and potatoes, with hoisin sauce and fried rice. Chicken goes on salads, in pasta, in stir fries, and becomes flautas (wrapped in tortillas with salsa and cheese and baked). Incidentally, I find starches reheat pretty well, too, so I would also make pasta/rice/potatoes in bulk. Most vegetables, however, I can't stand the texture if they are overcooked, reheated, or frozen/thawed since they get soggy and slimy. To expedite, you can clean/prep/chop them all at once and most will keep in this form a few days (peppers, onions, cukes, broccoli, zucchini, green beans, etc). Or, get some/all of them already prepped; pricier than "raw" but a small concession next to eating out.