All in all I think we've done pretty well. Taco Bell and Round Table are now right down the street, and we said our long goodbyes to the Taqueria and Chinese joint around the corner from the little apartment, but I don't feel like we regressed at all down our path away from eating out.
Here's a little of how we did it:
1) Trader Joe's, thy name is savior. Cheap, minimally processed, convenience food. Need I say more? We dropped a good c note there when we got really frazzled and ate off it for a month.
2) Food Processor Pasta: Put salted water on to boil. Whiz up an onion and some garlic in a food processor, dump into a skillet with a little olive oil. Open a big can of tomatoes and whiz 'em up in the same unwashed food processor bowl (skip this step if your husband and/or kids don't have an aversion to cooked chunks of tomato). When the water boils, toss in the pasta. When the onion is soft, toss in the tomato. When the pasta's done, toss it in the sauce.
Done. In like 15 minutes. Portion it all out into individual tupperware and eat for lunch and dinner for a week.
3) Clementines and baby carrots. Or any other ready-to-eat anytime fruits & veggies. A good vegetable side or salad is the first thing to go when home cooking slacks off. We've often reminded each other to grab a clementine to prevent scurvy. We're mostly joking.
4) Forget what "dinner" looks like. Cheese, crackers, hummus, naan and baby carrots gets the job done.
5) Keep a loaf of bread and a jar each of peanut butter and jelly at your office if you can. If you can't get dinner on the table, what's the chances your making your own lunch? It takes me less time to whip up a sandwich than it would to go grab something.
6) Have an awesome mom who brings you a full home cooked meal with leftovers when she thinks you've been TacoBelling-it too much. This one's a little tough to control, but do what you can. And thanks, mom.
