Take-out

[AllisonR]

How often do you do take-out and fast food?
We used to do it once every month or two. But now my husband has an hour commute each way and I have to pick up both kids who are now at different schools and sometimes there are play dates or other activities and.... ugh time has gotten so tight. So if we have run out of groceries or it is insanely busy, we go for take out pizza or falafel or thai or chinese. None of which is healthy, but fast and convenient. What used to be once every month or two is now almost once a week. I don't particularly like any of the food, but I do like the less stress and being able to relax and eat with my family, even if it is not the healthiest.

[BedHead]

I said once or twice a month, but it's really more like once every month or two.

I went thru a period like you are experiencing. Finally I said enough is enough, and just decided that if we ate late, we ate late. I tried to make double recipes of things so we'd have leftovers on hand, or cooking on the weekends to stock the freezer. And experimenting with fast easy meals. And meal planning - I find if I have a meal plan in place it's so much easier to go home and cook on autopilot.

[oiseau]

We pretty much have a standing date night on fridays so we almost always eat out then. Sometimes we have lunch out when we're running errands on the weekend. We go through phases of eating out more often, but rarely less. I just can't get it together to cook every single night.

[la mamita]

ok i voted never, because in peru, i never order takeout. i got parasites and was sick for 6 weeks in june/july and i do not trust anyone else to cook food to the standards of cleanliness that i need to keep myself healthy. refrigeration is a luxury here...

that said, in the US, i usually had take out once or twice a month. it's so expensive though! except for the little caesar's 5$ pizza....

[zinemama]

We go to a local fast food restaurant once a year, when we come back from vacations. We do go to other "faster" food places, like the burrito place down the street now and then, but by "fast food" I think you meant McDonalds's, chain pizza, etc., right?

I'm pretty adamant about sitting down to dinner as a family every night. My kids aren't in activities that preclude that; it isn't how I want to live. I have plenty of time to plan meals and shop, so there's no reason for us to resort to fast food. However, I'm well aware that not everyone has that luxury.

[GardenStream]

I like eating out once a week or so. We rarely do Wendy's unless we're on a road trip, but then again we go on a road trip at least 2 times a month. If we go out we go to almost-fast food places like our local Mexican restaurant, Chipotle, or Chinese. We always sit down and eat, but we can be in and out in less than 20 minutes. My kids don't have the ability to control themselves for much more than that. I don't remember the last time we had actual take-out or ate in the car, maybe a year ago.

[mamadelbosque]

I haven't had take out/fast food/etc for a while now (a couple weeks), but thats mostly due to the fact that we simply haven't *gone* anywhere in a while, mostly cause' ds1 has a broken leg and its just not a lot of fun to try and haul him AND ds2 around, yk? Previously though, it was about once or maybe twice a week we'd end up at mcdonalds, mostly.

[mommariffic]

When we lived in a more rural area we barely did take out because no place was close or delivered. Now outside Manhattan we have options out the BUTT - Thai food, Spanish, Mexican, Indian...sometimes I order cheap lunch specials to have for dinner. SO MUCH yummy stuff so we are ordering out 1-2 x a week and I have a love/hate relationship with it

[hollytheteacher]

Depends on what qualifies. I clicked every day...but it's not like fast food takeout, it's like hot food at the co-op or a burrito made with local ingredients, smoothies and salads from another local place, premade sandwiches or deli stuff at the little market near my work.

I know i'm spending waaaay to much money on food, but dh and i feel tapped for time. We leave the house at 7am and we're lucky if we get home by 7pm. We work constantly (maybe we wouldn't have to work as much if we ate out less....hmmm....lol ) because we want to get out of debt as fast as humanly possible.

[Magelet]

We can't afford to go out to eat very often. So if we're going to pay for restaurant food, it's a date, and we go someplace niceish (though not nessicarily expensive), and have an evening out. We got a to go pizza once, and only once. In a year and a half of living together.

Fast food never. seriously, I'd go without rather than eat most fast food.

[ollyoxenfree]

Once or twice a month, and it's usually because of a time crunch or because we're traveling or off to some event. Sometimes, if the kids have friends over we'll order pizzas in for everyone. Sometimes though it's just because we get a craving for something in particular. There's a shop that makes yummy perogies - way better than I can - and another with really great fish and chips. I don't deep fry ever, so if we want traditional fish and chips, it has to be take out.

[Llyra]

Very rarely. It's usually about once or twice a year. But I'm not against take out or fast food-- it's just that DS and I have dietary issues that mean we can't eat a lot of the usual fast food. He's allergic to soy, and it's ridiculously hard getting him anything he can eat at most places. And my disease restricts my diet a lot, too. The places where we CAN eat tend to be more expensive, and we are on a tight food budget. On the few occasions when we do have the money to eat out, we'd rather go to a slightly more upscale place with table service. So it just doesn't happen for us.

[AllyRae]

Once or twice a month, we'll eat out, but it's always at Chipotle or a Vietnamese restaurant...both of them are relatively healthy compared to the other choices. I'm sure we'd eat at the less healthy places once in awhile if it weren't for allergies though.

[Alyantavid]

It's usually 1-2 a month. Some months, like this one, it's more. We live in a really small town without many options so the most we do around here is pizza or Subway for lunch once in a great while. But when we do go shopping to the bigger town, we usually eat there. I try to avoid going there on Saturdays so it's usually in the evenings and my kids are ready to eat way before the 1/2 hour drive home and the time it takes to cook dinner.

[Jayray]

I am pregnant and tired, so we were eating out A LOT for a while. But as far as "fast food" or take out, maybe twice a week. We used to eat at Chik-fil-a once a week and still do that sometimes. Our take out is usually Chinese or pizza.

[amma_mama]

We do not do a lot of take out from restaurants (though we do eat out one dinner per week and lunches if we are out and about on the weekends). We do, however, do a "heat and serve" type meal about once per week - something from Trader Joe's or similar that just needs assembly or to supplement leftovers.

[junipermuse]

I put multiple times a week, though for me and the kids it definitely isn't everyday. But my dh gets lunch out everyday. Last week dh and I met for lunch during the week one day and ate at Panera Bread (dd was at school and ds was at the sitter). I like to grab a coffee at Peet's or Starbuck's a couple times a week. Most weekends we'll get lunch out at least once (often Mcdonald's). We take the kids out to a Restaurant to eat a couple times a month, and dh and I go out to a restaurant on a date night a couple times a month as well (though I suppose that isn't really take out or fast food). We also get either pizza or mcdonald's a little less than one night a week. I also get lunch out not quite one time a week (today we had lunch at panera with a friend and her daughter, sometimes its just grabbing sushi from Whole Foods).

It sounds like a lot, but it doesn't feel like it. I cook dinner usually about 4-5 times a week. I pack lunch or make lunch at home for me and the kids 5-6 times a week. But we do like to buy snacks while we're out (coffee, soft pretzels, croissants, etc). Also we do seem to get together with friends several times a month and that often involves take out or dining out. And of course their are times our life just gets crazy and mcdonald's or pizza is just quicker and easier than cooking at home.

I do continue trying to increase our homecooked to takeout ratio. Things are actually much better now than they were after dd was born. We had take out or fastfood most nights of the week. Of course where we live there aren't that many choices nearby so I'd rather cook. Pizza and mcdonald's is too monotonous.

[Smokering]

I don't know how to answer this one! DH gets it once a week - he has a Saturday night movie/takeout tradition with his friends. He gets Burger Fuel, which is healthier than some, but still fries chips in canola and so on.

I often share a milkshake from NZ Natural with DD when we go into town, which was once every week or two for a while, but never at the moment due to first-trimesterness. For some reason, I never thought of those as take-out!

And for a while, DH and I would get a custard square or a doughnut from the bakery next to the fruit and veggie shop when we walked there... maybe once a week? That was a fairly brief phase though.

Things like McDonald's, pizza, fish and chips for dinner? Almost never, although I did have (gourmet) takeout pizza twice recently due to aforementioned first trimester. So I guess "wildly varies" is my answer. I don't feel guilty about our takeout situation - we nearly always have a homecooked, more-or-less-from-scratch, more-or-less-healthy meal every night, and I expected we'd have to cut a few corners and make a few compromises while I was pregnant.

[deditus]

Never - literally never. Dd is gluten, dairy, soy, and egg intolerant so there is no take-out that is safe for her to eat.

[WorldsBestMom]

Once every two weeks. Sometimes I may not get anytime to cook.