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I'm trying to reduce how much I eat out because I've been looking at the costs of eating out for myself for the past 2 months and I've literally spent $1k on food alone eating out breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm trying to plan out a week worth of breakfast and dinner for just myself that fills me up until lunch, etc.
Thing is I can eat and eat and still not feel full so it needs to be something substantial for breakfast and dinner. Lunch I have no choice but to eat out because of my job, so if I can cut out breakfast/dinner eating out that should save me quite a bit of money, right?
Another thing is I've tried this in the past, but I always end up going out to eat because I just don't want to cook or anything. So I'm trying to find meals that I will want to cook and keep me from going out to eat. Another problem I have is I wait until the very last minute to eat and I think that's why I just go out to eat because I'm literally starving and need something right then.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,786,226 times
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Egg muffins. Eat 3. Super cheap and if you eat 4, then you are a bigger man than I am. 2 will fill me up. It's literally pennies per egg muffin. Switch it up with Canadian bacon and cheese. Or sausage. Or all 4. You didn't say it had to be healthy.
You could eat breakfast cereal for every meal. Or oatmeal packets. I eat oatmeal all the time. I'm the same way. "Dang, I'm hungry." Nuke 2 packs of oatmeal for a minute. Eat. Done.
Learn to cook. Seriously. If you can't do an over easy egg. you're going to find cooking substantially for yourself to be frustrating, and abandon it.
Pick up a couple of "cooking for dummies"-style basic cookbooks at Half-Price Books and master the basics.
It's also likely that you don't NEED to eat as much as you think you do. If you are never filled up by normal food portions, and have no medical conditions that would cause unnatural cravings/satiation levels, you're probably just used to eating more food than you need. You can recondition your body into becoming accustomed to healthy portions.
I buy those big boxes of Special K bacon and egg flatbread sandwiches at Sam's Club. Even if you eat two of them, it's still likely healthier than a fast food breakfast.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,786,226 times
Reputation: 6435
Get a head of broccoli or cauliflower and eat the while thing raw with some salad dressing. It fills you up for very little calories. Plus, it's so boring that you tire from eating it. Both are incredibly filling. That, and boiled chicken legs/thighs.
Hard boil a dozen eggs, peel and keep in the fridge. In the a.m., do a couple of slices of whole grain toast and have with a couple of the eggs. Also, it doesn't have to be "traditional" breakfast food. In parts of asia, soup is common for breakfast. In England, bangers & mash -- beans & mashed potatoes & sausage -- is a common breakfast. Throw last night's leftovers in the mike and nuke for breakfast.
Keep a little bag of nuts or sunflower seeds with you for the cravings; the protein & fat will help keep them at bay until your next meal time and they aren't messy.
There are lots of semi-made items in the stores that are pretty good and still cheaper than eating out. Stouffer's stuffed peppers are almost as good as what I can make at home and the time savings & clean-up savings is enormous. Hitting the salad bar in the grocery store and making a big dinner salad is also a time & clean-up saver and still cheaper than eating out.
Pick up a rotisserie chicken at the store, nuke a couple of potatoes, and then nuke a packet of frozen frenched green beans. Save one of the potatoes, and pull the breast meat off the chicken and save that as well. Eat the dark meat with the green beans & potato for one meal. Next meal, cube the chicken breast & potato, add some celery, a little mayo, S&P, some chopped pickle and have a hearty chicken salad.
For cooking eggs over easy, get a small non-stick skillet, put over medium to medium high heat, add a little pepper to the pan while it's heating, get your bread in the toaster but don't toast it yet. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan (the pepper should be aromatic by now) and crack in your eggs, add S&P. Start the toast. When the eggs are mostly set, just a bit clear right around the yolks & the yolks very jiggly when you shake the pan, then flip them gently (back into the oiled part of the pan). Your toast should have popped up by now. Flip the eggs onto the plate. Bon appetit!
Don't be afraid of fat (good, healthful fats) to keep you from getting hungry, especially in the morning. Limit sugar.
Make fruit smoothies with coconut milk, kefir or even throw in some full fat yogurt, and then add half an avocado to it. You won't taste it, but it will help to fill you up and keep you feeling full.
I know this sounds bizarre, but add a spoon of butter (real butter, not margarine) and/or a spoon of coconut oil to your coffee in the morning and give it a quick whizz with a hand blender or whatever you have so it all incorporates. It will go a long way toward helping you feel full and give you energy to power through til lunch.
Cook in butter or ghee, olive oil and coconut oil (use what works best for what you're cooking).
Try to avoid packaged and processed as much as possible. There's often so much added and unnecessary crap (especially sweeteners) that don't do you any good.
Invest in a crockpot and figure out a few good meals you like. Once or twice a week, put something on before heading off to work, and when you get home, dinner's ready, and you portion out the rest to possibly have some for lunch for leftovers, or for a few meals once a week the next few weeks. Very clearly label and date any meals you freeze and make sure to rotate them out.
Along the same vein, spend some time on a weekend making up a couple pans of lasagna, baked ziti etc. They're the kind of meals where it's minimal extra time and effort to prepare 2 or even 3 trays of a dish at the same time and then to divide up the portions and freeze.
A few weeks of cooking larger meals and you will have a stockpile of ready to go dinners (or lunches) that will reduce your cooking time for the months ahead. When you run out of curry in the freezer, it's time to make one up to toss in the crockpot in the week ahead.
Meal planning is your friend to both save money, make it easier on yourself to prepare, and to minimize food waste. There are some great meal planning services to be found online, especially healthful wholesome eating plans, if you think it's a daunting and overwhelming task to take on for yourself.
...and lastly, here's an easy cheat for over easy eggs. Put your pan on low to medium-low. Eggs should be cooked low and slow. Let it heat up, then put a smat of butter, or bacon fat in the pan to melt and spread. Crack your eggs into the pan when it's properly warmed, and then cover the pan with a clear lid. Leave the eggs alone until a fine white film forms over the yolk of the egg, at which point they're done and you can slide them right out onto your plate. You don't have to touch them, flip them, or do anything other than wait for that film to form.
Don't be afraid of fat (good, healthful fats) to keep you from getting hungry, especially in the morning. Limit sugar.
Make fruit smoothies with coconut milk, kefir or even throw in some full fat yogurt, and then add half an avocado to it. You won't taste it, but it will help to fill you up and keep you feeling full.
I know this sounds bizarre, but add a spoon of butter (real butter, not margarine) and/or a spoon of coconut oil to your coffee in the morning and give it a quick whizz with a hand blender or whatever you have so it all incorporates. It will go a long way toward helping you feel full and give you energy to power through til lunch.
Cook in butter or ghee, olive oil and coconut oil (use what works best for what you're cooking).
Try to avoid packaged and processed as much as possible. There's often so much added and unnecessary crap (especially sweeteners) that don't do you any good.
Invest in a crockpot and figure out a few good meals you like. Once or twice a week, put something on before heading off to work, and when you get home, dinner's ready, and you portion out the rest to possibly have some for lunch for leftovers, or for a few meals once a week the next few weeks. Very clearly label and date any meals you freeze and make sure to rotate them out.
Along the same vein, spend some time on a weekend making up a couple pans of lasagna, baked ziti etc. They're the kind of meals where it's minimal extra time and effort to prepare 2 or even 3 trays of a dish at the same time and then to divide up the portions and freeze.
A few weeks of cooking larger meals and you will have a stockpile of ready to go dinners (or lunches) that will reduce your cooking time for the months ahead. When you run out of curry in the freezer, it's time to make one up to toss in the crockpot in the week ahead.
Meal planning is your friend to both save money, make it easier on yourself to prepare, and to minimize food waste. There are some great meal planning services to be found online, especially healthful wholesome eating plans, if you think it's a daunting and overwhelming task to take on for yourself.
...and lastly, here's an easy cheat for over easy eggs. Put your pan on low to medium-low. Eggs should be cooked low and slow. Let it heat up, then put a smat of butter, or bacon fat in the pan to melt and spread. Crack your eggs into the pan when it's properly warmed, and then cover the pan with a clear lid. Leave the eggs alone until a fine white film forms over the yolk of the egg, at which point they're done and you can slide them right out onto your plate. You don't have to touch them, flip them, or do anything other than wait for that film to form.
You expect someone who can't make an egg to make lasagna?
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