When There is No Time to Cook

ChanellG

ChanellG

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Joined
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Louisiana
Today I had a lot to get done and I didn't have the time to stop, prep, cook, eat, and then clean. I debated about what I would eat since I didn't want to lose any daylight for the tasks I was trying to complete. I didn't want to just snack through the day, and I wanted to be able to have some leftovers so I wouldn't be in the same predicament again tomorrow when I go back to work.

I finally settled on Chinese takeout. Nothing major, just fried rice, wantons, and crab rangoons. What do you do when you're too busy to cook, but want to still eat something relatively healthy?
 
I try to eat salad and soup on those days that I don't want to take the time to cook. I make homemade soup and freeze it so that I will have it when I don't want to cook.
 
Sometimes I head to a local restaurant chain and grab a skinless barbecue sandwich or go to the local fishing town for a grilled fish platter. I must confess, I don't do this as often as in the past. I am not very trusting these days of fast food outlets and other outdoor cooking and for me there is nothing worse than paying for food I do not enjoy.
 
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ChanellG said:
Today I had a lot to get done and I didn't have the time to stop, prep, cook, eat, and then clean. I debated about what I would eat since I didn't want to lose any daylight for the tasks I was trying to complete. I didn't want to just snack through the day, and I wanted to be able to have some leftovers so I wouldn't be in the same predicament again tomorrow when I go back to work.

I finally settled on Chinese takeout. Nothing major, just fried rice, wantons, and crab rangoons. What do you do when you're too busy to cook, but want to still eat something relatively healthy?
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I usually go Thai so we're on a similar Asian boat when ordering out. If I'm on my way home I might pick up a rotisserie chicken from the local mart & some frozen veggies. Ends up working out as a great quick dinner.
 
If I had no time to cook a main dish I just always prepare my wheat bread with scrambled egg cooked with onions and tomatoes and eat this together with fresh mango juice or pineapple juice. It is already a heavy meal for me and it is healthy too! Sometimes when I am cooking foods and I know that I will be busy for the coming days, I tried to cooked extra for that dish and keep it in individual plastic container and put it in the freezer as my food stock in case I will have no time to cook.
 
We live miles from the local town ,so if we say have not got time to cook. It really means we cant be bothered ,and then drive into town and sit down at a restaurant ,very rarely have we bought a take away home and if we do its chineese
 
When there is no time to cook, one of the things we would do, if we do not want to go for fast food, is to buy a boxed rice or a packaged rice. These can be prepared very quickly, anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes, and since they are all seasoned already, there is no preparation to be done. Chinese food, like chicken chowmein, is a good option too. Canned soups are fine, but are not as filling.
 
This will be horrible to say, but if we are too rushed and there is no time to cook (or nothing to cook) then we just get take out from McDonald's, which is very close by. We have gotten take out from other places as well, but it is always so expensive. At MacDonald's we just get some fries to all share and some cheeseburgers, it's a very fast and cheap meal.
 
A sandwich takes less than 5 minutes to make and only leaves one knife and a plate that needs to be washed. Pretty much the same thing with most basic salads.
If you want something warm then replace the butter on your sandwich with ketchup and throw the thing into the oven for 10 minutes or so.
 
Make breakfast. Super simple an quick, makes for a delicious meal any time of the day. You can make some scrambled eggs, whip up some pancakes (even quicker if you already have batter prepared) and some bacon. Or, you can try Shashouka, which is this Middle Eastern dish that's basically eggs in a tomato sauce with bell peppers. Really easy to make and really good
 
Pat said:
I try to eat salad and soup on those days that I don't want to take the time to cook. I make homemade soup and freeze it so that I will have it when I don't want to cook.
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I didn't have any homemade in the freezer, and as I said I was trying to save time on preparation and cleaning, etc. I did have some prepared soup that I heated for breakfast the next morning. I thought of stretching with some veg stock I had (also store bought), but that would just have meant another open container I would need to finish. I need to stick the remainder of the butternut squash soup in the microwave so I can have it today.
 
kclarin said:
sandwich is always a fallback. so is pizza. :(
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I thought about pizza! It's one of my favorite things, but I was trying to avoid bread/flour and anything too starchy (though I ended up with rice, lol). I wanted something quick and easy, but pizza alone wouldn't have been enough. I like to have salad when I have pizza so that I have a more balanced meal. I'll be having pizza soon though!
 
winterybella said:
Sometimes I head to a local restaurant chain and grab a skinless barbecue sandwich or go to the local fishing town for a grilled fish platter. I must confess, I don't do this as often as in the past. I am not very trusting these days of fast food outlets and other outdoor cooking and for me there is nothing worse than paying for food I do not enjoy.
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The only thing I eat from fast food restaurants is french fries, though sometimes I get onion rings. One of the things I was trying to avoid was pulling through the drive through and making a starchy snack food dinner. It's not healthy, and as you pointed out, there can be issues with the quality of that food. There is nothing worse than paying for food that is not satisfying.
 
There are plenty of nights around my house that are crazy busy and I do not feel like cooking, or have time to cook. We keep a freezer supply of quick dinners for just this reason. It is usually some sort of food that I was able to get at Costco in bulk stock, but hey it works. Sometimes I will go to the store and pick up a roasted rotissere chicken and then make some veggies and pasta to go with it, or transform the chicken into a chicken salad. The grocery store near my house also has these amazing chopped salads that include everything in the bag, and they are a nice fall back as well.
 
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