What do you eat? How do you eat?

[chamoisee]

I mean this question in the most general sense. If you were to order quantities of food, what sort of things would be on the list? Of course, include things that you produce.

I don't want this to devolve into a "I'm so impressive, I produce almost everything we eat!" thread, that isn't the purpose. I am merely interested in getting insight into the eating patterns of other people.

My children believe I am cruel because they don't get pizza and hamburger helper and enchiladas every night or even every week. I feel that we aren't eating in a very healthful manner already: I find myself buying items such as juice popsicles, ice cream, granola bars, and lots of white pasta...along with copious amounts of produce (I live in town now and my garden isn't very big yet).

Next, how do you eat? Do you cook three hot meals a day? Do you make leftovers or use the leftovers for a new meal or throw them away? Do you cook large amounts so that you'll have leftovers and won't have to make a meal from scratch each time?

Again, my kids whine that I don't cook three fresh meals a day. They seem to think that they're too good for leftovers (except for leftover pizza, of course). They used to live on brown rice, oatmeal, beans, and whole wheat pasta. It's only since they've lived in town that they've acquired this disappointing mentality. Yet, I think they have a point. I don't cook from scratch much any more. Nobody eats it half the time except for me anyway, so why bother?

[Peacock]

I am really getting tired of cooking meals that nobody eats...so this is a sore point with me. Especially dinner. My DD is a good eater but my son practically has to be tied into his chair to eat more than two bites, and lately DH has taken to either being "too busy" (trying to get things done before sunset) or "not hungry" (due to heat) so I wonder why I bother.

I'll admit we don't have the healthiest eating habits, but I am trying to get better.

Breakfast is usually some kind of cereal, or if I cook pancakes or waffles we'll re-heat it and have it for 2-3 mornings afterward. The kids usually have a sandwich with ham or turkey lunchmeat and cheese for lunch, or pre-made chicken nuggets heated in the toaster oven, or soup, or cheapie ramen noodles. Throughout the day they snack on a bit of unhealthy stuff like chips and cookies, but also fruit and raw veggies...though it's a huge challenge to get my son to eat a banana or a handful of raisins instead of something junky.

For dinner I have strict requirements. There must be one meat, one veggie and one starch at bare minimum, and I try to make it as "from scratch", homegrown or otherwise healthy as possible. I do often end up making something separate for my picky son, which I don't like doing, but what can I say, he's got me trained.

I'd love to keep the sweets and chips and other junk out of the house entirely and just make them eat good stuff or nothing at all....but my DH would have a fit. Yeah! Blame HIM!

[TC]

My kids are older except one, three teenagers and one who is 5. Breakfast is usually cereal or toast and eggs, or pancakes, not a big homemade 5 course meal. But they eat breakfast everyday.

Dinner is usually leftovers, soup and sandwichs, salads with soup, sometimes chili mac, pizza, hot dogs or mac and cheese. Hot meals but not huge either.

Supper is huge always and almost always homemade from start to finish. Meat, two veggies, starch, salad, bread, tea, and dessert usually.

Snacks- not big on them. We eat 3 meals a day and if they get a snack it's a few chips, some fruit, or milk or something small like that. When they were younger, I made snacks and the 5 year old still get them. Older kids, I think, learn how to eat enough at meals so they don't have to snack all day.

I buy very few packaged meals, we hardly ever "fast food" it, so little so that Taco Bell is a treat.

I enjoy cooking (thank goodness), because my hubby who would fall on the floor whining like a baby if I didn't produce a Martha Steward supper with all trimming nightly. Once I tried making a big chef salad for supper, it covered his whole plate, and he finished it and ask "okay where's supper" and he's 6'3 and only weighs 180 go figure.

[GrannyCarol]

My husband and I eat either cereal with milk for breakfast, or egg and toast (home raised duck eggs and home made whole wheat bread) or just toast. Rarely we have waffles or pancakes from scratch. For lunch usually sandwiches, chips and maybe fruit. Afternoon snack my husband has bread and peanut butter, I have a few nuts and maybe a bit of chocolate, or fruit or veggies. Sometimes for lunch I have leftovers. We eat lunch and dinner together most days. For dinner I cook a real meal, not usually fancy, but simple - meat, starches, veggies. We do buy meat in bulk, prefer to buy locally grown when we can from a butcher. We just got 1/4 of a beef. For the starches I make brown rice, potatoes, pasta (usually white, sometimes whole wheat). I do things like stir fry, or sauteed vegetables with my meats and sauces for the rice or pasta. There is just the two of us, we don't eat very heavily or very exciting.

We usually have an evening snack, there again something small for me and a bit more for him - he's diabetic and needs some long term food before bed. We don't have a lot of junk foods, we do have canned stuff like chili and quite a few things we get to add to meat dishes (I like one pan dinners) like beans and tomato products and canned corn. If I get really tired, we buy "bar food" at the local bar or barbecued sandwiches at the coffee shop. There is no restaurant in our small town. The bar makes good hamburgers and fried chicken.

[MicheleMomof4]

We alot like other folks. Breakfast is cereal or waffles or pancakes. Then lunch is usually leftovers. Dinner is like others said meat, starch and veggies. I also recently started adding fresh fruit as "veggie" to dinner. My children will snack on fruit as a last resort. But on a dinner plate, will eat it first straight away. So whatever is in season we eat fruit wise. Snacks are cookies, granola, raisins, dried fruit (apricots mainly) and popcorn.
I cook one large meal a day, dinner. Then breakfast they prepare themselves and lunch I just warm it up in the micro for them.
As for eating healthly, I try my best. But with 5 growing children and small budget I do what I can when I can. I pray alot before shopping and hope that I am doing my best to give them a good diet. If there was more money I could afford them more fresh veggies and fish. But this is what the Lord gives us, so I am not worried that it is too unhealthily.
God Bless,
Michele

[booklover]

First how we eat: Breakfast is usually a cold breakfast during the summer. Dd (she's 5, btw) doesn't eat breakfast during the school year. She attends a language immersion school 45 minutes away, so she chooses sleeping over eating.

Lunch: leftovers or sandwiches. I try to send something hot for dd once or twice a week.

Supper: home-cooked meal from scratch.

What we eat: we don't eat processed food. It doesn't have to be organic, or from our garden or even local, but it has to be all-natural. Period. We don't really eat from boxes at all. Sometimes I'll make a rice mix, but I check the ingredient list.

Dd is on a modified Feingold diet. She is a focused, empathetic, sweet and pleasant, well-behaved child unless she gets artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, nitrites and nitrates (lunch meat), preservatives, etc. If she eats these, she tends to lose focus and gets in trouble. Sometimes I feel so bad when I see kids who are getting yelled at by their parents while they walk along with their artificially colored/flavored suckers. I always think, "Well, you're the one letting them have the junk... don't blame them for what you've done!"

[simplefarmgirl]

Breakfast here usually is cereal unless its on the weekend, then its a big deal, WhenDH isnt pressed for time, I have to pack him a big lunch every day when he is on the truck which is usually 2 sandwiches, fruit, he likes cherry tomatoes so he usually gets a container of them cuz he can eat and drive,salad usually pasta leftover form night before if we have it, he has a can of nuts, cookies or cup cakes , last week it was pumpkin pie for 3 days,,when ds or g-son ride have to add other snacks, dried fruit, love my dehyrdator.. Supper is always a big meal, meat,vegies,potatoes,rice or pasta,bread, drinks,,,, dessert is usually ice cream for DH kids get a snack before they go to bed it theyare hungry,, ,, I am looking into making my own pasta,, i have notice the rise in prices for pasta, dont know if i can make it cheaper,my mixer has pasta maker attachment, so going to try. We dont buy anything processed or box meals, I havent made macaroni and cheese in forever from a box, my g-children get that at home and dont understand why gram wont make it yuck. Home made is ok. Hopeing this yr to add a few more homemade things, want to learn how to make cheese, and yogurts, we all love them.

[trixiwick]

Breakfast and lunch are brought with me and are the same every day. Some people would hate this, but I like not having to think about it, and if it's food you like, why not? Breakfast: oatmeal with walnuts, fruit yogurt, coffee. Lunch: big salad with chickpeas, tomatoes and sunflower seeds. If DH isn't home, I also usually have the same thing for dinner every night: picked-apart sections of roasted chicken and steamed broccoli. Guess I'm boring.

But DH is home most of the time, and I do always cook dinner for us. We eat lots of turkey since that's what we raise, and when I buy meat it's mostly fish. I try to get a lot of veggies into dinner because DH doesn't eat many during a typical day. Starch is brown rice, potatoes or whole wheat pasta; veggie is whatever we have at the moment. I cook lots of variations on rice-and-beans.

Dessert is one or two of those mini Dove ice cream bars, much later in the evening.

[Cindy in NY]

DH does not eat breakfast but I have cereal and a banana. I'm planning to switch over to overnight oatmeal as soon as the cereal is used up. DH comes home for lunch so we have sandwiches or leftovers or soup in cool weather.

In the summertime, we are usually working around here until at least 8:00 so not a lot of cooking going on. We'll have sandwiches or something frozen (pizza, pierogies, etc) a couple times a week, grill out a couple times a week, and I may actually "cook" a couple times a week (something that takes longer than 10 minutes to prepare). With whatever we're having, we'll usually have a green salad, a baked potato (microwaved), or some fruit.

[Anita in NC]

We try to eat 3 well balanced meals per day with occasional treats.

Breakfast is usually some high fiber cereal or high fiber toast.

Lunch is something simple like whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce, turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread and sliced veggies or a home made quiche. Yesterday we had whole wheat pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade fruit toppings and sliced water melon.

Dinner is the only meal that seems to take a while to cook. Things we regularly do are stir fry veggies, grilled fish or chicken, steamed veg, spinach pie, rice, baked potato etc... Our meals consist of a carb, a protein and lots of veggies. Last night was cockpot pork loin with tomatoes and veggies, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. For dessert I made pineapple upside down cake. Everything was doubled so we have the exact same meal tonight - it just needs to be reheated. (I'm going to be out all day and didn't want to cook tonight as soon as I walk in the door).

Everyone has to eat what is made. The youngest is now almost 4 so no more babying him. He has to eat it like everyone else or no dessert.

[Snugglebunny]

A long time ago we had a sesame street book with elmo about "All the time Food" and "Sometimes Food". We used this as a basis to explain that there are some foods that are only meant for 'sometimes'.

Breakfast is varied between cereal (cheerios, but occasionally a sugared cereal made with whole grain), bagels, toast. Some weekends I'll make pancakes and freeze them for during the week. They also get 100% orange juice or milk, sometimes yogurt, and a banana.

Lunch is PB&J or deli meat (we're tryign to get the 'Natural' Ham instead of balogna), Apples or applesauce or other fruit, or baby carrots (organic if possible) and milk.

Dinner depends. We try to minimize convenience food - pizza or frozen nuggets nad fries on Fridays, pasta once a week, one night of 'leftovers'. The rest is meat or chicken, instant mashed or rice or baked potato (if the price is right), and a cooked vegetable (organic if possible). Might have hotdogs if Daddy is late, or mac & cheese instead of pasta. Leftovers are either saved for another meal, or given to Daddy for his lunch depending on how much I have left.

Snacks are crazy. We buy those ice-pop things that you freeze when you get home, because they're cheap. Apples or bananas, sometimes crackers or popcorn. They LOVE cinnamon apples, or sliced apples with baby carrots and pretzels with peanut butter for dipping. Hubby just discovered my son loves Sun Chips - we'll be getting those more often. They love when I make tortillas too. We buy Breyers or All natural ice cream.

We try to limit the amount of convenience foods we eat. On weekends we allow chips or soda or other 'sometimes' foods. That way they don't feel deprived of it, but understand that some things are just 'sometimes'.

[michiganfarmer]

If I had to order a large quantity of food.....
Hamburger would probably be number 1. I would want plenty of greens, and just enough citrus to prevent scurvy. I dont like the acid in citrus. I would want plenty of wheat ,sugar, and yeast for bread.

I could live on bread, brocholi, and burger.

WHen Im home I eat most of my meals from the freezer. WHen Im at work I order delivery.

[hunter gatherer]

We are fortunate to live in an area that appreciates good food. There is a big focus on Organic agriculture here and our food coop is thriving. Many people we know are transplants from larger metropolitan area, all missing ethnic food and so we have learned to prepare much of it ourselves.

We cook from scratch. I make yogurt, bake all of our bread, make pizza, yogurt etc.... My family loves all of this and are honestly grateful that we're not eating prepackaged foods. By and large my children's friends eat like this as well and so they're not feeling deprived by going to a friend's house for dinner. Quite the opposite, they are usually bringing home a menu idea or recipe for our family to try.

For the most part, we eat simply:

Breakfast is usually oatmeal or scrambled eggs or toast and a banana if we're pressed for time.

Lunch can be leftovers, a sandwich, egg salad and crackers, pita bread pizza, whatever. During the summer, lunches are fend for yourself.

Dinner is usually whatever is coming up in the garden, sauteed or stir fried, served with rice or pasta. In the winter we have lots of soups and cornbread and more casseroles. I also make homemade pizza, enchiladas and curries.

I am a big baker and will treat my family regularly to things like cinnamon rolls, banana bread, cookies etc....Everyone is slender and fit and so extra treats aren't a problem ( well maybe a little for me!)

[mistletoad]

We eat oatmeal for breakfast most days, maybe once a week DH will offer to cook eggs or french toast and once every couple of months he will offer pancakes.

Lunch is leftovers, sandwiches (cheese, egg, pbj - we don't buy deli meat), a stir fry, a pasta and veg dish.

Dinner is cooked from scratch - like hunter gatherer it usually depends what is growing, but sometimes I will make a pizza.

Snacks are fresh fruit or vegetables (yesterday it was cucumbers and tomato from the garden) and I keep nuts and dried fruit on hand too.

I bake our bread (100% wholewheat) and we eat organic brown rice, but I tend to lapse on the pasta and buy white (or green). I don't know when that crept in but it just sort of happened.

[RockyGlen]

Three hot meals a day.

Breakfast is large - bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, and toast. Or biscuits and gravy with eggs, or pancakes, sausage and eggs. Those are typical. Sundays are sausage and waffles (homemade). Cereal is only for birthdays.

Lunch is our biggest meal of the day. It involves meat, a starch, 2 vegetables, bread of some sort, and dessert. sometimes a side dish salad as well. Most of the time I cook extra of at least part of it - if I am using ground beef, I will cook double and put the rest in the fridge to be turned into something else. Pot roast I cook extra and shred for sandwiches. Etc.

We have a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, also. Usually celery and peanut butter, cheese and crackers, fruit and cheese, something like that in the morning and in the afternoon it is usually pudding and a cookie, granola bar and ice cream, etc. Something a little sweeter.

Dinner is our lightest meal. Very rarely it will be sandwiches and a veggie tray (dh considers sandwiches a snack!). Usually it is something quick and easy like tacos (using leftover ground beef), something thrown on the grill, fish, a casserole, etc. Fridays it is homemade pizza and a movie. Once a month or so in summer I can do chefs salads as long as they have tons of meat, eggs and cheese and I serve bread with it.

Our summer meals are much larger than our winter meals because we all work so hard. In winter, we usually skip the snacks, eat the same breakfast, have soup and bread and dessert for lunch, and a smaller dinner.

[coalroadcabin]

Foods that we seem to use a lot of:

Hamburger-we buy this in bulk at our local meat shop and usually have 2-3 meals a week made with hamburger

Milk-we go through 2-3 gallons a week. I just buy it at the grocery store

Eggs-we go through 3 dozen a week. We buy from a local farmer.

Bread-I don't bake mine. I buy whole wheat at the grocery store and we use 3 loaves a week.

Chicken-I buy this in bulk at Costco. We ususally have 2-3 meals a week made with chicken

Green beans- we grow and can our own. We have green beans for just about every supper.

Cheese - we buy in bulk at a local shop. Use a couple of pounds a week.

Tomatoes- we grow and can our own.

Tea & Sugar- we go through 1 1/2 gallons of sweet tea every day. I'm not sure how it is that we use so much since the grandkids don't drink it too often.

As for meals, we only eat supper together. Breakfast and lunch are all different because my husband, son-in-law and I all work outside the home:

Breakfast: My daughter and two grandchildren ususally have eggs and toast. (Some mornings they have Cheerios.) My husband has toast and tomatoes or oatmeal during the week and eggs, sausage & toast on the weekends. I have oatmeal during the week and eggs, sausage & toast on the weekends. Son-in-law usually skips breakfast except on weekends then he has eggs, sausage & toast.

Lunch: My boss buys food for the office so I have whatever we have on hand here (usually a sandwich or soup) My husband packs leftovers from the previous night's supper. My son-in-law goes home for lunch with my daughter and grandkids - usually they'll have sandwiches; sometimes they'll eat leftovers from the previous night's dinner.

Supper just depends. We always have green beans and some sort of meat along with a starch (noodles, pasta, rice, macaroni and cheese or potatoes) and some other kind of veggie-usually carrots, broccoli, peas or corn. We always cook extra so we can have leftovers for lunches. I cook a lot of things with tomato sauce or canned tomatoes-meatloaf, spaghetti, lasagne. My husband likes to grill and he does a lot of the cooking so we grill chicken or hamburgers several nights a week.

[MaineFarmMom]

Breakfast is oatmeal (not instant), yogurt and granola, toast with butter or jam, eggs or once in a while, cereal. One of us usually cooks breakfast one weekend morning and then it's bacon or sausage, eggs and toast, or pancakes with blueberries or strawberries and maple syrup (not artificial).

Lunch is a sandwich, salad or leftovers.

Supper is usually meat, potatoes and a vegetable. Sometimes meat and two or three veggies or salad. I almost always cook. If it's too hot we'll make cold sandwiches and fruit or veggie sticks.

About the only thing we eat from packages is pasta, cereal and oatmeal.

[Elffriend]

I never make a hot breakfast and we typically don't eat breakfast-like food. Breakfast here is often a sandwich, or yogurt, or fruit or sometimes leftovers from the night before.

I sometimes cook lunch. We often have salad with chicken on top, or veggies and dip and a sandwich or again leftovers. We never have the same thing for both breakfast and lunch though.

I always cook dinner. There must be a protein, 1-2 veg (or 1 cooked veg and a salad) and a starch.

We don't always have breakfast together. We typically do have lunch together and we always have dinner together.

I love leftovers and delibrately make extra food most nights so that there will be leftovers. Sometimes we have them the next day, and sometimes I freeze them.

[littlebird]

Hmmm,

Breakfast is Red River cereal and fruit for me, a coffee and a bagel on the way to work for DH!

Lunches are leftovers. DH likes a hot lunch at work, and it's easier for all when we just pack it up after dinner the night before, ready to go in the morning.

Dinners are a meal with meat twice a week, the rest is vegetarian with lots of beans or eggs or sometimes tofu for protein. Veggies make up about two thirds of every meal, either in the form of big vegetable curries, or side veggies or salads. We eat whole grain for almost all our breads and pastas and noodles, but we do eat white rice. I *love* jasmine and basmati rices.

Snacks are always around, whether it's fruit or veggie sticks or sometimes a little cheese plate with olives and whole grain crackers. I also make bannana or bran muffins or rice puddings in the winter, and home made ice cream or fruit salads or yogurt and fruit smoothies in summer.

We sound pretty healthy, huh? Well every now and then we duck out of the house and grab a little fast food treat. Not too often, maybe once every couple of weeks. But sometimes we just get the urge!

[ginnie5]

breakfast is usually something cooked....it might be grits & toast, cheese toast, muffins, oatmeal, or once in a while I splurge and buy a bag of cereal. Lunch is usually leftovers or some type of sandwich or mac & cheese (which the kids love). Suppers are usually a hot meal or if I'm just too hot to cook a pasta salad or something along those lines. Our garden is a flop this year. I never got the corn out, the peas did lousy, the cabbage was tiny, and so far the tomatoes are too. So far the only thing doing good is pepper and even it is not as good as usual. snacks are either leftovers, popcorn, or something with peanut butter. Right now I'm in the process of paring the grocery budget of any non esseniatial items so the things like cereal are out. I can cook much cheaper than that...especially since it seems so much gets wasted. I need to get out grocery bill down to about $200 a month so I'll be using quite a bit of my "stock" over the next few months. Luckily I still have a freezer of meat.