Thursday is takeout (take away) night. Eating out once a week is going to sound like crazy talk to some of you, but I realized that if we didn't have a set takeout day, I was going to be craving restaurant food at 5pm every single day. Which would make cooking feel like work. I'm happy to report it's made me much more excited to cook the other days of the week. Friday and the weekend is easy, because Eug and I are able to take turns working and caring for Noah. And Monday through Wednesday becomes doable, because it's only three days.
As you've noticed from the lack of blogging, the new year has brought a lot of change for us. While my commute is shorter, we're still dealing with things like change of addresses, getting internet, remembering to get groceries, and so on. When we're in a routine, chores are just part of the routine, but when we're thrown off, every little thing takes a bit more energy. I've had to start working slightly longer days, in order to work a shorter day from home on Friday, which adds to this dynamic.
So tonight, we get to eat something we'd never cook. So far it's been crispy chicken Pad Thai (we've tried to cook that and it's been bad) and BBQ. We take turns paying out of our pocket money, which in our opinion doesn't affect our family finances.
We take along our reusable containers, which is fun for getting restaurants to remember us. They probably also remember us because we come before anyone else in Allston is even thinking of eating dinner.
I'd love to hear your take on eating out, particularly if you have a small child/children and you can't do the whole meal experience.
3 comments:
We eat out once a month, mostly fast food since Adam has an unhealthy LOVE of burgers and fries! So once a month seems fair and not too unhealthy for us. Since I have stopped working, our eating out budget has been shriveled to this...it used to be much more frequent, usually whenever I was too stressed or late to deal with cooking and I just wanted food NOW. ;)
Eug and I also love burgers and fries. There's this one place in Watertown called Wild Willy's, and we'd go there a lot when we lived in Watertown. You can get grass fed burgers, and it just felt like "real food" (cheese sauce aside)- which is our standard of choice.
Have you found that you are cooking a lot more/enjoying cooking more now that you've stopped working? Anything surprising about the transition?
I think I enjoy it about the same, I just have time to do it more often now that I'm not working. But there are still days when dinner time creeps up on me and I really don't feel like cooking. I think my general approach is to cook something that will last a few days, maybe Adam can have it for lunch one day too...that way I don't feel the pressure of having to cook every single night, and I think I enjoy the nights more when I do get to cook. For me the worst part about cooking are the dishes that accumulate as a result! I'm really bad about cleaning them right away, so often times my kitchen is still piled with dished the next night...and I hate starting a meal in a dirty kitchen! :( I have been trying a new approach, of having dishwater in the sink during meal prep, so I can do a few dishes here and there between other tasks. It has been working out pretty well, I just need to remember to be diligent with it.
I do think I bake more, and feel more inclined to experiment and try new recipes. I made the refrigerator bread from your blog last night! (It turned out great except that I let my first batch of rolls get a bit too dark). I also want to try making my own jam, but need to figure out a way to convert a pot into a water canner to be able to use a recipe my aunt gave me.
I find I approach dinner like it's a chore, and other types of cooking as more of a hobby. I do love setting up my crockpot in the morning and knowing all day that I already have dinner made (and the increasing food smell also helps make me feel good!). I would highly recommend the crockpot approach to anyone, it is quite liberating!
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