How much time do you spend in the kitchen?

[mummamilk]

Between the meals and snacks. Prep and clean up. I feel like I never leave the kitchen.

My youngest is 16 months. My oldest is almost 15. They are always eating. I'm diligent about the "food stays in the kitchen rule." We have ants.

We rarely eat out or get take out. Dinner is almost always at home. If we are gone for the day I pack a lunch.

How much of your day is spent in the kitchen??

[sanguine_speed]

I feel like I, too, spend a lot of time in the kitchen!
I need to take some time to do batch cooking so I can spend less time in there. There just aren't enough hours in a day.

[SubliminalDarkness]

Lately, not a whole lot. When it comes to actual food prep, maybe about an hour a day. Combined with cleaning and dishes, about two. But we're going through a lot of chaos right now, and one thing I've simplified is the way we eat.
When I get back to our 'normal' state, I spend about three hours a day making food. But I make everything from scratch when I'm doing that.
My kids eat constantly, too, and it drives me crazy sometimes!

[OkiMom]

Lately, not much. Just doing the bare minimum is getting to me. Can't wait to get to the 2nd trimester and start feeling better.
Usually, quite a bit. I do prep all snacks for the week on Mondays. My girls LOVE cut up carrots and celery so Ill cut about a weeks worth on Monday instead of doing them whenever they want them. I wash all the fruits and cut up the salads on the same day. We also usually would make bread on Mondays. I usually make all my bread products from scratch (sandwich bread, buns for hotdogs/hambergers, rolls, pancakes etc) and usually once a week. My girls love to help in the kitchen so it use to be Monday was their favorite day.

[maptome]

About an hour a day cooking and half an hour cleaning up.

I only have one child, and she is not eating solids yet. DP and I do bagels or cereal for breakfast. We eat leftovers for lunch. I make dinner.

We eat out maybe twice a week. DP buys lunch a couple of times a week when we don't have leftovers.

[mamazee]

I do spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I feel like I'm always prepping, or cooking, or cleaning up. One of the reasons I'm glad I SAH is so I can prepare foods from scratch all the time, but there's no doubt it eats up time.

[Schae]

Not a lot. My son goes to pre-primary school from 8am till 3pm, so i'm in the kitchen in the morning to make his breakfast (10 mins max). Then to wash dishes from the previous night (20 min). I'll make myself something easy and quick too (10 min max again).
Lunch is supplied at my son's school as are two snacks.
When he gets home and is hungry - he's been taught how to make his own food (he's 5) and call me if he needs some help.
And my husband does the supper cooking - as it's his passion. he loves to cook.

so on average about an hour a day is spent in the kitchen.

[scottishmommy]

Hours. But I dilly dally a lot too.

[newbymom05]

Too much! I batch cook breakfasts, we eat a lot of L/Os for lunch and I like meals that are either 1 pot or can be on the table in 30 minutes, but still, the cleanup for 3 meals a day is a PIA. Sometimes DH cleans up and I'll just relax w/ a book in the other room and it always surprises me just how long it takes to do it. I really should spend more time--I wish I had the energy to sweep the kitchen every night. So I'd say I spend at least 3 hrs a day, but that includes making it, staying w/ the kids and eating it and then cleaning it up.

You should also add in the time you spend planning and shopping for the meals. Now that I think of it, meal prep def takes the lion's share of my time. Man, my house would be spotless if I spent that kind of time cleaning.

[cappuccinosmom]

Not too much. We have set mealtimes, and eat pretty simply. Snacks are simple and non-mess--carrot sticks, apples, etc. In good weather, all snacking is done outside.

[treeoflife3]

very very little. I hate cooking and I have yet to learn how to make a lot of things from scratch. I feel guilty for not doing all whole foods from scratch but I seriously can't stand anything to do with food other than eating it. By the time I've meal planned and shopped, I really just want to go out to eat....

[justduckyangie]

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom

Not too much. We have set mealtimes, and eat pretty simply. Snacks are simple and non-mess--carrot sticks, apples, etc. In good weather, all snacking is done outside.

Ooh, snacks outside, I like that! Less mess, I may have to start doing that!

[becoming]

Well, I have streamlined our breakfasts & lunches, and it's cut down a LOT on my time in the kitchen. For breakfast, we have a rotating three-day meal plan -- eggs & toast (my kids like eggs fried in butter, so very easy), pancakes (I make the batter ahead of time), oatmeal or cereal, with fresh fruit (which I pre-wash & pre-cut) served with all of that. It helps so much to know what I'm cooking every day & to not be fixing different things for everyone like I used to. For lunch, we either have cheese quesadillas (suuuper easy -- throw a tortilla on the electric griddle, put cheese on one half, fold the other half over, flip) with beans, grilled cheese sandwiches (also on the griddle) with fresh fruit, or leftovers if we have any. So I'm basically spending maybe 5-6 minutes each on breakfast & lunch prep. Most of these meals, especially the quesadillas & grilled cheese, have very little clean-up involved, also. Dinner is really the only significant amount of prep time I have, and I TRY to do a lot of the prep earlier in the day when I have a few free minutes, like cutting up veggies, browning the meat, etc. That way I'm not spending a huge chunk of time in the kitchen all at once. I used to feel like I was in the kitchen ALL DAY, now it's just a small part of my day. Simplifying what you're serving is key, IMO.

[becoming]

Oh, & our snacks are pretzels and fresh fruit that I have already washed & cut up beforehand, so that's really easy, too.

[Katie T]

A lot of time. I make all our bread products, meals from scratch, desserts, play dough, canning, cleaning. It is never ending. My feet hurt at the end of the and really bad in to morning from being on my feet so much in the kitchen.

But I and the kids really enjoy it so I just need to remember to get a supportive pair of shoes.

[peainthepod]

A lot. I love to cook and bake and I'm just entering my third trimester, so my nesting instincts are starting to kick in with a vengeance. I'm making lots of soups and casseroles to freeze for after the baby is born, and I bake all our breads and cookies (also very freezable) so I feel like I'm constantly in the kitchen. My toddler eats simple foods (scrambled eggs, peanut butter on banana slices, plain yogurt with a little honey stirred in, homemade whole grain bread toasted with butter, fresh fruit, etc.) so it's easy for me to plop him in his high chair and keep him busy with fun finger foods while I work.

I anticipate spending a LOT less time in the kitchen once Number Two is here...hence all the cooking and freezing in advance.

One thing I can't recommend highly enough if you spend a lot of time standing in the kitchen is a set of those thick black rubber no-skid mats. You can get them from restaurant supply companies. They are a bit expensive but make a huge difference by the end of the day. Also, even though I feel like a complete tool wearing them: Crocs. There's a reason they're so favored by chefs, gardeners, and surgeons.

[damona]

i probably spend about 4 or 5 hours a day in the kitchen, cooking, baking, and cleaning. 2 of my boys are on a dairy and gluten free diet, so i do a lot of stuff from scratch, including making bread. i did finally get a bread machine, though, so that helps!

almost every night i make some kind of cookies of muffins or something for the next day.

oddly enough, i'm typing this in between running to the kitchen to flip the brats and stir the beans for dinner

[Siennaflower]

Probably 2 or so hours cooking and cleaning up, with an extra hour or two thrown in every few days when I need to bake bread, muffins, etc. We're newly gluten free and I'm making everything from scratch now so the days of throwing together a meal in under 5 minutes are over.

[MCsMom]

Pretty much all day :-) I am typing this right now between putting things into the salad for dinner. We eat pretty much EVERYTHING at home, made from scratch (except bread).

[allaiter]

wayyyyy to much time. With 4th kids and all most all meals made and ate at home it takes up a ton of time.
I have tried the freezer meals and they take too long to cook the day I need them.
During the school year, which is coming very soon, we have all kinds of activities in the late afternoon/early evening and I have most days booked up with my teen moms, so there is lots of "prep" work on the weekends/night before.

Lots of vegies and fruit washed and cut when I buy it. I make hummus and put it in little cups, but sometimes IF it is a really busy week I will buy the togo cups at costco. As much as I hate buying prepackaged things...sometimes it is really what I need.
I try to bake on the weekends and days inbetween crazieness....