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I never ever cooked! My late husband did all the cooking, but, now I have started doing simple, but, yummy cooking. I cook for my SO and he loves it. Nice healthy meals also. I'm a little bit impressed with myself
Yes. I have my elderly parents living with me so I scratch cook 5 days a week. I do get a break and we get take out 2 days a week. I enjoy cooking as I'm much more relaxed than when I was working.
I have always cooked but now I cook to please only myself, and only when I'm hungry, so it is less stressful. I am happy eating an avocado.
I am off to pick up a box of vegetables from my CSA now. If I get fresh corn, potatoes, and a mess of beans, I will cook a country dinner and share with my neighbors. I will enjoy doing that. I wish I had a cake made but that is more than I can manage in one day.
When I worked and fed my husband, who would not eat leftovers, I dealt with ground beef this way: made a meatloaf mixture and fixed salisbury steak for supper, froze another meatloaf hambuger steak, made meatballs and cooked them so that they could be dropped frozen into sauce. That is as far as I ever got with cooking ahead.
My husband was easy to cook for. Meat and three (usually two, one being potatoes) and hoe cake.
We're rural so going out is not an option. Every once in awhile DH and I would go out for breakfast if we were on the road, but since his bum hip we haven't done that in years.
When friends and family visit or we meetup I get to go out. That's about five times a year.
We were frugal when I was growing up. Mom cooked. Went out maybe once a month. The apple don't fall far from the tree.
I don't mind eating the same things 3 days in a row so when I cook I make a lot of it. I have always been that way so nothing has changed.
Pretty much the same here. I cook once a week on my days off. Last week I did a crockpot stew and some chicken breasts. Made a large green salad and a small potato salad. Then I can just add veggies or whatever. I actually 'ran out of' food before weeks end so cooked up a couple of pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy. Still have some salad left. IF I make more than I really need I can freeze some of it for later. I also bought some fresh peaches and strawberries but didn't really have a plan for how to use them so I made a cheesecake! Very good with fresh fruit! Also a loaf of banana nut bread. Yes, I eat pretty good...lol At least with two entrees a week I don't have to eat the same thing every day.
Now I just have to figure out what I'm cooking THIS week! I love my crockpots. Dinner can cook all day while I do more "important things".
I rarely cook for myself, though that didn't start just in retirement. Like others, once my kids left home it just gradually evolved into less time in the kitchen. Suits me just fine.
When I was single there was a Chinese place that delivered. I would order their deluxe dinner for two for under $20 and it would be enough food for three days. They brought wonderful hot and sour soup, which IMO is the best thing to eat when you've got a cold.
I keep hoping to find another deal like that, but maybe as you mentioned it would be worthwhile doing the occasional roast and portioning it. I must have 100 or more plastic storage containers left over from our Munchery meals.
So for years and years you have gotten by with little time spent cooking. Why do you think this will become a new hobby when you retire? Do you think you will have more time with nothing to do? I don't. I have too many things to do and little spare time.
Partly I'm trying to prepare my husband for life after I'm gone.
My aunt, who is 90 and widowed last year, was married to a man of Sicilian background, who always insisted on a hot dinner. They couldn't stand each other, so didn't go out to eat. She hated cooking and this imprisoned feeling of having to do this at a specific time, being the same age as him and also in fragile health.
When he passed, it's like she was freed. She adapted *very fast* and takes special pleasure in not cooking. When I visit, we go out all the time, or send out for pizza. (Send out pizza in the Philadelphia area is pretty great). She had a little word-finding problem and ended up sending me to Burger King for bagels (which I found confusing and went to Einstein's instead) but she finds real pleasure in eating whatever she wants, whenever she wants (her appetite is down, so it all seems like a fuss to her).
I think we'll drive to Cape May on my next visit and go to an American Indian restaurant there, if she's up to it. I adore her.
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