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I am married for 3 years & we live in the US. Since, both of us are working, it's hard for us to manage cooking, especially since I do not at all like to cook. We eat out a lot & it's expensive. Moreover, we get bored by same home food each day & like to eat out too. I don't know how to cut our expenses in eating out. I am curious to know, how often do people eat out & how to stop ourselves to eat out.

Saheli replied. Hi Parul,

After I put my reply to your posting in this board, I saw a lot of replies suggesting to buy frozen stuffs from Ind Grocery. By cooking on weekend, I only pointed out money saving aspect. Your first worry is eating out and wasting money, isn't it? I hope the suggestion I made earlier in this board would help you save some money. But if you are looking for food with out doing much work, then frozen stuffs would be the best. You are to choose.

God bless! amit replied. Hi Parul,

Did you try Tasty Bite like indian precooked stuff ? They dont cost much, like $3 or so, you can just microwave and serve with rice cooked at home. Even if you buy other stuff do creat a habit of eating at your own dinning table at home rather than at a restaurant. Once you have developped this habit, try cooking a few easy items from cook books may be as suggested by few others. Nina replied. Dear Parul,
I understand your dilema...

By the way; which area of US do you live...you don't happen to be in Palo Alto do you? Just curious...

You should go to your nearest Indian grocers and look in their frozen food area.

You will find all sorts of naan, side dishes and even main course. What you could do is allow those frozen goods to help you make meals.

Also,
Make a menu...like those before mentioned, you should try cooking ahead and freezing the foods.

You can cook rice enough for two meals and divide half and put in refriderator for next days meal.

I am thinking you may do like my friend Charnell does, she grills chicken breasts, divide them up and freezes it. When she wants a masala, as she cooks it, she does that seasoning...if she wants tandoori...she seasons accordingly.

I hope that makes some sense.

If you are vegetarian,
it is more difficult because there are hardly any resturants that adhere to the guidelines.

In that case, buy frozen rices, pulses, veggies...in bulk. Divide.

Take care,
Nina Saheli replied. Hi Parul,

Both of you working and managing the home well may not be as easy as we think. But there are some options.

1. Do some cooking in the weekend. You need not spoil the whole weekend with cooking. Just dedicate 2-3 hours in Sunday afternoon. Don't choose Sunday night as cooking time. Because you would be so tired and it will sweep all the thrill of weekend away.
2. Make 4-5 easy dishes. Keep 2 items in the freezer and 2 in the refridgerator. Keep one item in more than 1 container. By this what I meant was, keep items in small quanities. On Monday, you can cook some rice/microwave roti and have 1 or 2 of these curries with it. Tuesday the same, wednesday you can take the 3rd and 4th items from the freezer and keep it in the Refridgerator. And as the need arise, you can have it, on Thursday too. By this way, you are not at all bored by the same curries. If you are already bored by eating the same thing on thursday too, eat out on Friday!!!! Only one day a week, you are eating out!! Isn't that better compared to what you are doing now?

Practice this and tell me if you are feeling better.

Regards
hs replied. Hi,
I am also in the same boat and since i am a vegetrian very few options to eat out also.I also hate to cook and clean and make food a big deal in life.
But i have come up with some ideas to make everyday dinner quick and less cleaning.

If you cook certain dishes during the weekend you will be able to save a lot of time in cooking and cleaning.Use frozen for vegetables like okra,green beans ,spinach etc.Don't waste time on cutting veggies which are difficult to cut.Cook daal enough for whole week and freeze it.If you want to add veggies to it ,do it just before you eat.Make a few vegetable dishes in the weekend ,I buy roti from the indian store ,otherwise there are many indian women you can buy rotis from.Make rice fresh. May be you can make non-veg items also for the whole week.I can't tell u much about it.:)
Weekly cooking reduces cleaning time and the mess that is created with it.Also don't think that you have to make variety of dishes everyday,make it simple and you will be fine.Eat out when you get bored.