Anyone want to partake in a "No eating out Challange"?

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

So DH and I eat out WAY too much. We need to cut back. Part of the reason is that I hardly get a minute to cook with Isabella screaming at my feet and part pure laziness. :rolleyes:

It is killing our bank account and our health. Plus I find its a double standard. I'm finding time to cook Isabella these super healthy meals but can't muster up the energy to do it for DH and I.

So I'm starting a NO EATING OUT CHALLANGE!!

Interested in joining me?

You can make up your own personal rules and guideline but here are mine:
1- No eating out unless absolutely unavoidable (emergency keeps you away from home/family gathering or paid for by someone else).
2- Attempt 2 *new* recipes each week.
3- Goal is the remainder of the month of September.
4- Occasional treat is fine ie: Family bagel breakfast tradition on Saturday mornings before headed to Saturday Market.

So I thought we could use this thread to share meal ideas, new recipes and to provide support :thumbsup:

Even if you don't want to participate, feel free to post some of your recipes and meal plans to help give us some ideas!

So who is in?
We start tomorrow. Sunday September 12th!
:hula:

[Meshell]

I don't eat out a lot, but man is it tempting! ;) I am trying to get better at my meal planning and actually cooking the food again. It's been hard since DH has been gone to find the energy to make a meal. I feel like we're in a food rut too and need some new recipes. I wanted to do freezer cooking but we don't have an extra freezer and our extra $$$ is going to our backyard and a family vacation. So I'm going to do crockpot cooking 3x a week. When I get it figured out I will post my new meal plan with links to the recipes. I'm in though! My biggest thing is starbucks :blush:

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

I LOVE crockpot cooking and I have loads of recipes!! :hula:

[Bootysaurus]

We eat out or get take about about 2 times a week. This is to keep me sane. :hehe:

Good luck on your challenge!

[Ashley]

I can't promise not to eat out, especially with dh going to be gone for a month, BUT, I will post a link to my weekly meal plan each week! I post one on my blog along with links to the recipes (usually including one or two slow-cooker meals a week).

I try not to dinners out during the week and save them for one on the weekend, but since I've been doing it on my blog & linking up to a site where there are hundreds each week, I've gotten so much better with meal planning. It has seriously made such a difference in how often I run to the store and has resulted in us eating out probably half as much.

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

That's great Ashley! :hula: I would definitely love to see your meal planning.

Even if no one wants to partake, maybe you gals can keep me accountable!

[Ashley]

Sure, it's easier to keep you accountable than me :hehe: Having Tyler's soccer games really makes it even more necessary to meal plan, so I'm glad I started doing it!! this site, http://orgjunkie.com, she hosts a Menu Plan Monday, and there are hundreds of links. Like here's last week's: http://orgjunkie.com/2010/09/menu-plan-monday-september-6th.html
(http://orgjunkie.com/2010/09/menu-plan-monday-september-6th.html)
And people put whether they have recipes, if they're gluten-free, if there are coupons or frugal meals, etc. It's pretty neat (though I tend to get lost in links forever! :hehe:)

[Jojo]

I can promise. We never eat out because we are so broke :lol:

[AmsterDamsel]

We rarely eat out. It is too expensive out here and not nearly as convenient was eating out is back in the U.S. We eat out maybe 2 times a month and that includes take out.

Good luck with your challenge. I did lose a lot of weight when I moved here and I think not eating out so much helped in addition to their not being high fructose corn syrup in everything and me riding my bike everywhere. :)

[Caitlin]

I can promise. We never eat out because we are so broke :lol:

Ditto! Although we do pizza once a week or every other week. Even that I want to cut out though.

[Jojo]

I can promise. We never eat out because we are so broke :lol:

Ditto! Although we do pizza once a week or every other week. Even that I want to cut out though.


Only time we have take out pizza is when our inlaws treat us...pathetic!

[Elaine]

I can promise. We never eat out because we are so broke :lol:

Ditto! Although we do pizza once a week or every other week. Even that I want to cut out though.


Only time we have take out pizza is when our inlaws treat us...pathetic!
We rarely, if ever, eat out either. We just don't have the cash to do it. We used to have pizza once every few weeks especially after a really busy day. Now I've got some pre-made crusts in the freezer along with some homemade pizza sauce and pepperoni portioned into one pizza servings (the only bag we could find of sliced pepperoni was HUGE) so I can't justify ordering it anymore when I can make one for 1/4 of the price. :hehe:

[Paula]

We rarely eat dinner out, but I can commit to trying to eat lunch out less. I need to get better at packing my lunch for work...so I am partially in.

I just bought a lot of chicken to make chicken sandwiches for work this week, so it is a good time for me to start.

[Jenni]

We don't eat out much either. Even in an emergency situation I'll get the girls something to hold them over until we get home. I even make pizza from scratch. On rare occasions DH will go for take out and it's almost always from the BBQ joint up the road. Not whole to pick from in PO-DUNK.

[bettercowpatty]

I eat out almost every day at lunch. It's just too much to bring my lunch, though I do try to run to Whole Foods and pick up several days worth of food to try and save money. At home, we go through phases of delivery, but we were just talking about how we needed to cut back. We just got 6m worth of meat and veggies delivered to us since I am on a grass-fed beef and free range chicken kick. We NEED to use this food or my DH will kill me! So far, we made burgers and had some organic grass fed hot dogs, and I am making BBQ chicken in the crock pot now in anticipation of the Skins game tonight! I would love to get more crock pot recipes.