You're welcome to cook for me! :D

Cooking is fun but I am too indecisive as to what to cook... everything sounds so yummy and delicious! I try to cook whenever I have ideas and it's usually elaborate using just fresh ingredients... none of that frozen/canned/preserved nonsense for me. As I like to say, presentation is half of the fun of eating! :D

Naah, I cook maybe every 2-3 days. My mind can't come up with that many recipes daily. Plus I'm lazy.

What is this "cooking" think you speak of :confused:

It's one thing I really miss on the road. About a year ago I had a three month break from travel. I was cooking at home, eating right, and working out 6 days a week. Now I don't even cook on the weekends because it's not worth buying groceries for the 2 days that I'm home.

Are you counting labor in that "same cost" estimate? When I did such a calculation a few years back, I saw a significant difference in cost between takeout and home-cooking ingredients unless the takeout was from someplace at the "Taco Bell" level...

Factor labor (at hourly consulting rates) into the picture and then cooking at home is far more expensive than takeout...

Glad to hear from a kindred spirit. I love to cook and the beloved Harpo does not exactly dislike cooking -- she just can't. Seriously, she cannot even boil an egg. Baking, however: wow. She's good. So between us we make one complete cook.
On cleaning, same thing. She's not yet grasped the concept of a dishwasher, but finds washing by hand and wiping counters rather satisfying.
So between us we make one complete clean freak.

To your question: I love to shop for groceries and love to create a meal. However, it only happens these days 2 or 3 times a week, with leftovers and maybe one takeout or meal out planned for the remaining days.
I miss cooking every day.

both of us love cooking, but cooking on weeknights is just not practical anymore. We go grocery shopping on Saturday, then cook Saturnight night or Sunday afternoon for the whole week. It's so nice to just pop something in the microwave and have dinner with only 10-15 mins preps after a full day of classes and work. We do make salads and small things once or twice during the week if necessary.
Eating out often just isn't feasible on students' budgets. Plus, there aren't that many good places around here in Ann Arbor :(

no but if I'm in town I usually try to. LOVE quick stirfrys and grilling.

Just purchased a slow cooker and will really start to look at using this cooking method which most slow cooker meals lend themselves well to cold Chicago evenings.

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We usually plan out our meals for the week, we use the 30-minute meals cookbook to help plan. I cook 3-5 nights a week, the Ms. can make a good spaghetti, but that's about it so it's left up to me. I don't mind cooking, gets my mind off of work for a while.

Yup. :)

Try cooking Chinese food every day. Lots of work. And lots of dishes to clean afterwards. But that's what we do at home! :D I wouldn't trade it for the world! Especially since there is authentic Chinese soup to be had every night :P It can really soothe your heart and soul.

I find eating out more than twice or thrice a week a little hard on my tummy...

-LDK

Hehe.. how cute! :D

An article was just posted on this very topic at the Christian Science Monitor:

For not that muc more, Americans opting to eat out

At certain times I do.

We cook way more on weeknights than weekends, actually. Weekends are usually the only time when we go out to eat. Or if it is super hot, I refuse to cook then.

I will cook dinner every night save once or twice a month at most.

We do have a 8 and a 4 year old and we both work. If it means we eat at 8pm just before the kids go to bed, so be it, but eating properly is a priority.