Aussie:

I know it's hard on you because your husband works and comes home late so he really has no desire to go and learn to cook and do stuff in the kitchen.,

Now let's talk about chinese takeout. The BEAUTY OF CHINESE TAKEOUT IS THAT YOU CAN ORDER IT "YOUR WAY".

When I dont' want to cook (and that's rarely) because we live on a fixed income, but let's say I was at Cornell all day long in NYC and I come home at 7.p.m, I might phone Alan from the Access-a-ride and tell him to go around the corner and pick up some chinese.

Want to know what he orders?

Steamed Chicken and veggies. You can tell them "no salt, just steam the chicken" and then you can say, "with baby corn, with carrots, with mushroom". You can say "no sauce". YOU CAN SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU ORDER IT. It's very hard to eat this way because most people are ordering Spare Ribs, and Chicken with Broccoli, which is made in a brown sauce THAT'S LOADED WITH SODIUM.

But Alan can't have any sodium so everything has to be steamed for him.
Now when I roast a chicken in my oven, I put everything on this chicken (BUT NO SALT) . I put garlic powder, I mince up some onions and sprinkle them. I use something called Cumin and sprinkle it. Then I put some extra virgin olive oil and put it in my clean hands and rub the whole chicken.

Then I take fresh parsley and mince it and sprinkel that over the whole chicken. Then I add some water into the tin foil pan. I have the oven pre-heated to 350 and I cook this big oven stuffer chicken (with a pop up timer thingee in it) and I cook it for 2 and one half hours. During this time, I baste it with the juice in the pan.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS COMES OUT!!!!! And there's no sodium. Imagine if you just sprinkle a little salt into it?? mm mm mm

So to sum it up, if you want to eat healthy chinese take-out, don't order spare ribs or anything like Mu Shu Pork (that will kill you, it has something like 70 grams of fat in the dish). Order the food steamed with fresh veggies and BROWN RICE. not white. You'll be good to go. Now it's one thing to get your OWN taste buds to like this way of eating.

It's a WHOLE OTHER THING TO GET YOUR HUSBAND TO LIKE TO EAT THIS WAY. Guys like spare ribs and pork and fried this and fried that.

I mean, IT TASTES GOOD but it's not good FOR YOU!!!

I had to learn this the hard way. I became a diabetic.

I'll pm you the muffin recipe.

Melody

We spend about $150 for 2 (21 y.o. is living on campus @ college), with a beagle hound and a Siamese cat (who are always hungry).
We both work and get home about 6 pm and say "well..what are we gonna eat tonite?" We look in the freezer and decide.
I cook most nites and its a round-robin of chicken (boneless skinless breasts), then (lean) beef, then pork, then fish- but it seems more often chicken - grilled, in sauce (cacciatore), baked with a coating, or in a Caesar salad. Beef is a 1 lb steak (8 oz ea) or a roast, or lean 97%-ground (tacos, spaghetti sauce, chili). Pork is lean boneless loin chops or a trimmed lean loin roast. Shrimp is a usual, too (on the grill, steamed, in jambalaya, garlic sauce & linguine, etc) Salad is a must (low fat dressings), and pasta, beans or rice a usual side. We stick to 4-6 oz (cooked weight) per serving. We use spray oils (Pam) mostly for cooking & on the grill. Olive oil other times.
My wife is a Weight Watchers 'lifer' and counts points, as well as shops - so that is a deciding factor. She also 'brown-bags' her lunches. I take an apple (or other fruit) and granola bars to work, daily. But my wife maintains her (lost 50 lbs) weight, and I seem not to be able to lose - but I'm not as stringent about my diet as she (and being on Lyrica doesn't help matters).

Bob:

I'm coming to your house. A MAN WHO COOKS!!!!!

Heaven


Mel

wow im the spendthrift here, i easily spend over 1000 a month for food for 4 not counting dogs.

Wow, lol

Alan and I, after we pay the rent have to live on $900. And that's for utilities, cable, phone, co-pays, meds. AND FOOD.

And paper products, soap, etc. etc.

Wow, I must know how to stretch a buck!!!!!

lol

Melody

kids get expensive

With unemployment, sickness benefits, old age and disability pensions payments all get paid every 2 weeks, i thought that was to long, but by the sounds of what Melody said, do you guys in the States get paid monthly ? whew, geez you would really have to be careful that it lasted until next pay day.

Anyone that is on any of the above payments, are giving a health care cards so any medication you need only should cost only $4.80 per item, sometimes they could be a dollar or two more but the pharmacies always ask if you want the cheaper brand or not, so should be able to get the inexpensive brands for the $4.80 each, once you have brought 52 items in one year then its all free for the rest of the year.
How do you guys in the US get on for medicines if on social security benefits ?

I am going to make myself a little book of things I can cook quickly. I never thought of making an omellette for dinner Glen, That's a great idea!

Bob, I also make really good chile,and it's winter here now so it would be perfect. I think I will make a weekly menu,and post it up on fridge and try to stick with it best I can. That way I can rotate around the food groups.

I googled up "costco", and beleive me there isn't anything remotely like that here. We definately need one. My customers tell me that they spend an average of $300 per week on food for a family of 4.

So I know something is really wrong when I hear that. I can easily spend $200 and end up with nothing in my fridge. My husband always says, "you went shopping, but there's no food in fridge".

I have to learn to shop smarter,and ofcourse cook easier meals.

As far as the husband goes, I have to start making those baby steps towards liberating myself a bit from this 2nd shift as I call it. But I have to take baby steps towards this. I sware if I left that man to his own devices he would be living like a bushman, with no concept of clean.

When people ask me how many kids I have I always say 2... if you count my husband.! LOL!

I just saw this OT thread in the list of New Posts. Being an aussie, I thought I'd chime in if that's alright.

Don't forget the exchange rate. Our AUD is not worth the same as the US Dollar.

Aussie, the banana situation I saw you mentioned. I'm a Queenslander so the minute bananas are mentioned I notice. lol When you posted about that problem with the insects following you... I wondered then about bananas and fruit fly too. LOL

Heck, that was awful. Almost all of our bananas got wiped out in that shocking cyclone. There are a few pockets like in northern NSW where there are bananas growing that weren't affected and they filtered through to the market at very high prices. The reason the price went up so high also was because instead of buying in cheap bananas from overseas a decision was made to stick it out without them and wait till the new crops started to bear fruit here.

OK, while I was typing that I was looking up the exchange rate.

0.8199 AUD = 1 USD as of last Friday. Haven't seen today's yet.
http://www.rba.gov.au/Statistics/exchange_rates.html

I'm single mum with 2 grown children at home. One is now 20 and other is 18. I can't really give you an amount spent per week on groceries because it varies a lot but I can't really buy what I want to buy anymore. I've had to restrict our diet a lot. If I bought my organic foods and meats and snacks like raw and local nuts, it'd be all gone in an hour. Bummer really because I want to feed us all the very best produce but a lot of the time I just have learned to make do with cheaper items but good cooking skills. I do love to cook so that helps.

Yes in US we do get paid by the month,diability,socail security ect. And
you do have to learn to stretch it out.

Aussie i was lucky my husband believed everyone in the family should
learn to cook,do house cleaning all chores shared. My children are
all married now. And my daughter-in-laws just love the way there
husbands were raised. My daughter found a big guy who's not afriad
to haul the baby around and change diapers while she sleeps.

But to eat healthy in US for 1or 2 people i find it is costing far more
as well. Mel's muffins are very good,i make them up put them in my
freezer so i don't over eat. Yum, Of course Bob girls are good cooks.
This has been interesting Thanks Sue