The Summer Eat-in Challenge

My job is stressful. Some nights it is hard to come home, work out, and cook dinner. This results in way too much eating out. The sad thing is, I love to cook. I own every kitchen gadget and appliance known to man (okay, maybe it's not that extreme) and more than 30 cookbooks...but when you are tired, dinner out just seems easier.

Unfortunately, eating out is not free, or even cheap. Even a fast food restaurant sets us back about $10. It is also unhealthy, especially when you consider that the eating out is often accompanied by a lack of working out, because I am SO tired. This=5 pound weight gain in the last few months. That may not seem like a lot, but when you are 5'3", this can mean the difference between your "skinny" jeans and your "not-so-skinny" jeans. And since I just lost a bunch of weight last year, my "skinny" clothes are pretty new. I do not like the idea of having to "upsize." Finally, eating out is really kind of gross. I HATE fast food, except for a few exceptions (Chick-fil-a, Zaxby's, Krystal-yes, KRYSTAL) and even casual dining restaurants kind of gross me out these days. I like knowing what's in my meal.

So, I have decided that now that vaca is out of the way and I am off for the summer, I will start a summer "eat-in challenge." This means that I will cook dinner EVERY night, with a few exceptions-on Saturdays, we may cook breakfast/lunch and go out for dinner; we eat dinner at my parents' house on Sundays; we will probably go somewhere really nice for our 8th anniversary (yea!) in July; and if we do a weekend trip or something, cooking is obviously out. I want to try to cook as many different things as possible, but my main goal is just to cook a meal at home every day. I have also decided that frozen meals (pizzas, Bertolli meals, etc.) count. They are not ideal, but they work in a pinch. We are label readers, so we try to choose the healthiest frozen meals, and it's definitely less expensive than eating out.

So, the challenge starts tomorrow. Wonder what's for dinner....