After more than fifty years of cooking, I’m just plain tired of it.  When I was younger, I had all sorts of interesting recipes, but that was before they invented cholesterol.  Now I use a lot of take-out.

My husband and I also eat out a couple of times a week.  It’s his way of sharing in the meal preparation responsibilities.

Every day with relatively few exceptions—I love cooking. :-)

Actually, I love to cook, but since the kids are gone and my husband prefers unwinding in a restaurant, we eat out most nights…..my kids told me to be careful of that hot thing in the kitchen when I’m on my way out.  Our house was struck by lightning and it was days before I realized that my stove no longer worked!

Does it count as cooking if you heat up leftovers?  There are several dishes I make where I won’t have to make anything new for a day or two,  and chillie usually tastes better the second day anyway.  Who doesn’t enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers?  We use to go out to lunch or dinner about once a week.  Now it’s about once a month.

I cook at home every night of the week.  The reason is three-fold.

Who can afford to eat out of the house these days is part of the reason but the main reasons are that I absolutely love to cook and preparing meals, even if just for myself, is something I truly love.

Yet, the most import reason I eat at home is because in the United States it’s extremely difficult to find foods that occur naturally in nature and not produced in a lab.  Things that will never cross my lips include poisons like High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated oils that the body does not recognize as food and is incapable of processing.

I love shopping at the local Farmers Markets and all the fresh organically grown foods they offer.  They taste better and your body feels better, not to mention the most important part is that avoiding all "food products" and only eating food keeps you thin and young.

I cook every day , all the meals. I love to cook but now it is a bit of a chore.Husband is ill and he can only eat very soft food. Son is picky and hates vegetables. I eat what is convenient and fast to fix. So what I am saying is that I make 3 dinner menus. Where is my halo?

I like to cook, but more to the point, I need to prepare my own meals in order to work on losing those last pounds I need to lose following weight-loss surgery some years back. Yes, even after a gastric bypass and a 100+ pound drop, the body holds on tenaciously to those pounds!) Also, as a Type-II diabetic, I need to make sure I’m getting the right balance of protein and complex carbs, which is not possible when you rely on eating out. Then there’s the sodium issue - have to watch that, which means avoiding most processed foods and reading labels SUPER carefully. So I spend a lot of time cooking, mostly in a couple of marathon sessions where I prepare items I can divide up into individual servings and freeze. Early this week it was a fresh veggie casserole with orzo and some fresh-grated parmesan for a little oomph. Tomorrow it will be a meatless chili and a roasted chicken. "Clean" eating, organic produce, locally-grown whenever possible - it’s a challenge, it can cost extra, but the last thing in my budget I’m going to toss out is spending on the fuel I need to feel good and maintain energy. And cooking itself is for me a meditative activity - it allows me to focus on a multitude of chores (chopping, slicing, dicing, stirring), enjoy the tactile pleasure of those chores, engage my sense of smell and taste along the way, and - if all goes well - enjoy the visual of a well-prepared meal. It is hard sometimes, but once I’m in it, it’s worth it. Jeannot, I empathize with you - I cook only for myself, so I don’t have the issues you face. Must be a HUGE challenge, and your halo is already above your head, I’m sure!