Boston1954

I like to cook from scratch a lot, even baking cookies and other good stuff like that, for suppers when my Jim gets home from work, but I am not afraid of the microwave. I use it for quick stuff when Jim is not home, when I am just getting myself a little something for lunch.

marsye

I cook.....I only zap popcorn or to reheat something. I haven't found any frozen foods I care for.

Lisanne

Being single, I've always cooked for one unless I was having guests. I far prefer my cooked meals to the ones you buy frozen or canned - yet I'm lazy and will almost always reach for anything instant that I have on hand rather than cooking. I also take out far too often.

Most recipes are for 4 - 6 portions, so I cook, freeze, then zap. I don't think of the extra portions as "leftovers" at all. Leftovers are when I don't finish what I took for my plate or dish for that evening's meal and stick in the fridge because I don't want to throw it out. I eat those in a day or two with varying degrees of enthusiasm. But the extra servings that I freeze are just pre-made dishes, not leftovers.

I use the microwave for:
-- popcorn
-- thawing those pre-made frozen one-dish meals
-- some (not all) bought frozen dinners
-- thawing frozen fruit for morning shakes or salsas, if I forget to thaw them in the fridge

But I can cook full meals in the microwave. I lived in one place where all I had was a microwave. I bought a crock pot but almost never used it as recipes often required cooking on a burner before putting the food into the crockpot. Once you have to do that, what is the point?

I also once lived in a place where all I had was a 2-burner hot plate and a toaster oven. I got to where I could cook absolutely anything I wanted except for a Thanksgiving turkey, which wouldn't fit. Really, using a full-sized oven is overkill for most things.

fabric-holic

I agree about the crockpot. I have one that I've never used. I asked for it in our Xmas gift exchange 5 years ago, but after reading the manual I never took it out of the box.

Melinda in Tulsa

You need and electric skillet! I use mine most of the time. Which reminds me, I need to get a new one.

Melinda in Tulsa

Crock pots are really nice but I usually don't think about fixing dinner until it's to late to use the crock pot.

dmackey

As a 13 year empty nester, I only cook whole foods since the start of the year, no processed anything, no microwave in the home.

I make a large pot of brown rice once a weekand keep it in the fridge, use frozen or fresh veggies, and fish or chicken to saute with olive oil and some herbs. It only takes me a few minutes to cook a fast dinner in a saute pan this way. I make extra sometimes and just put it in a pan on warm for about 15 minutes and get another dinner out of it.

I need to lose a ton of weight, cause by eating convenience foods, so breakfast is now organic yogurt and fruit, lunch is a greens and veggie salad wth olive oil and lemon. Fruit is my snack food.

I drink green tea with a cinnamon stick in it, and water with lemon all day long. I have a juicer and make juice about three times a week. I guess you could say I'm part of the Food Revolution.

It's rare I have anyone over, but if I do, I will cook a roast beef or roast chicken with fresh veggies and salmon bits. I can get meats at Trader Joe's without hormones, antibiotics, and it is grass fed or organic. I don't find it that much more expensive than the local grocery store. In the summer, I grow some veggies and herbs in pots.

My downfall is ice cream. Homemade, local dairy, and Haggen Daz.......kills me.

I have given away the majority of my baking pans ( all but three ceramic stove top pans), and all of my serving dishes and now just keep the minimum of what I need for myself. I store fabric in my cabinets and hutch now! LOL!

Now, if I would just exercise, the weight might come off faster!!

Diane

starlight

We just became empty nesters and neither of us like processed food. My two crock pots are going every weekend then freeze. It is usually late by the time that I get home from work and I don't feel like cooking so this is the way that I get around that problem. We do nuke the frozen foods and being as my husband is out of work right now he can have it fixed by the time that I get home. Otherwise we have breakfast for supper which is all that he can cook.

zz-pd

I cook if the pain is not to bad other wise hubby cooks. Penny

fabric-holic

Oh I hate trying to lose weight. I should lose 60lbs but I can't get more than 20lbs off in the past year.
You've made more changes than I have. Keep us posted how you're doing. Maybe it'll spur me (and others) to keep up with you!
Good luck.