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I love all of this. And btw, R- "run lots of errands (laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, paying bills, mowing the lawn etc)" is NOT GAL! But having dinner with your friends is. What other positive, fun or relaxing things are you doing for yourself?

I agree about the depression- ALL of us here suffer it to some extent. Things like getting outside, getting enough sleep, not isolating and getting some aerobic exercise are all good things to start with short of ADs (which can also be very helpful- and don't need to be taken forever for many people).



Ok, 5-10 min may be a tad unrealistic, guy. But under 30 min? Definitely. I think someone suggested crock pot and someone else rotisserie chicken- that's one of my faves, we get one every week. Here are some things I do- now I don't know how you feel about frozen food, but it can be healthy. And sometimes - not always- but sometimes healthy and easy might cost a bit more- see below.

- Target has some awesome packaged dry "side" dishes you can get creative with. I love their mushroom risotto- takes less than 20 min on stove, and I put in rotiss chix and some steamed broccoli (or frozen- frozen veggies have lots of vitamins) in it, and it's great.
- Safeway Eating Right Lasagne in frozen food section- takes about 20 min in microwave, add bagged salad/veg
- Annie's Mac n cheese- in organic section sometimes. Has no additives/preservatives and is delish. (ok, just noticed you mentioned mac as an old one, sorry)
- Boboli pizza crust plus jar of tomato sauce, pre-shredded cheese, nitrite-free pepperoni (to be healthy, if you want)
- do you have a Trader Joes? They have some great frozen fairly healthy stuff, pre-made pizzas and other dishes in their meat area- like marinated chicken, salads etc. pretty inexpensive.
- Bertolli frozen pasta meal in a bag- not sure how healthy, but I do this and throw in extra frozen or fresh veggies. They have many different kinds.
- frozen (yeah I know, I'm getting repetitive) chicken stir-fry or fried rice- at TJs or safeway- not too unhealthy.
- omelet- pre-shredded cheese, ham lunch meat you rip up into pieces
- breakfast 4 dinner- whole grain frozen waffles with fresh fruit on top- D would love it
- Whole Foods Deli items ($$ but good)- awesome soups and other dishes
- grilled cheese/ham and cheese (takes under 10 min), add fruit/salad, etc
- My BFF has a great cookbook, I think it's called meals or cooking for busy families and she swears by it. Might check it out-
- can't say enough about Safeway rotisserie chicken- just shred it when you get home and you can do lots of stuff with it all week.
- find a good casserole recipe and make enough for a few days (allrecipes.com has good stuff)
- Can of cream of chicken soup (they make fat free)+rotisserie chix+ cooked broccoli florets heated up over rice

OK, the single guy with kids menu.
Here's a few suggestions.
Tonight, I'm in a rush so I'm going to cook some chicken weinies, toss em in buns and put cherry tomatoes on the side.
A few nights ago I cooked chicken strips, sweet potato fries (you can buy them frozen in bags) and broccoli.
Lets see, boil pasta, toss in a can of cream of mushroom soup, fry up some pre-sliced mushrooms and toss them in and top with a bit of Parmesan cheese.
Fried rice is easy to do, just cook the rice the night before (refrigerate afterwards), toss in mixed vegetables, slice up a chicken breast (I sometimes used to fry sliced extra firm tofu instead), toss some soya sauce in and it's done.
Bagged salads can be good and tuna or salmon casseroles are pretty easy to whip up too.
Sometimes I just make burgers and boil some frozen spinach to top them with (dry it off first), they don't even notice because it really has no taste but is a good vegetable. Once they top it with condiments, tomatoes etc it's all good!
Anyway, a few of my little tricks.

Oh maaaaan! I wrote a long reply to each of you that responded and when I hit submit the network connection ate it! Grrr

DG, Geronimo, Alice, Wii - thanks to all of you for taking the time to respond and giving me some really cool ideas. I need to make a list of staple foods that I can buy for one or two weeks at a time. Frozen foods are great. Only problem with the rotissery chicken is that after a day or two in the fridge it tends to get really dry- veggies and fruits don't last more than a few days either but I suppose once a week shopping is not out of line.

We do have TJs here and it's kinda on my way home so maybe I need to start shopping there more often as opposed to shopping for grocery at Target I like Target though...I can buy just about everything there.

STBXW had a couple of crock pots but I see they're not there anymore. I saw a small 1.5qt one which seems to be the perfect size for two. I'll need to search for recipes. DD and I prefer rice, beans, lentils, bread over the typical cassaroles, pasta etc. We're not big meat eaters either, usually just chicken or sliced turkey.

Re: dry chicken- no, as soon as you get the rotisserie chix home, strip all the meat off of it and put it in a tupperware. It should be fine for a week or more with very little drying out- don't leave it on the bone in its original packaging

Tacos and or taco burgers are really quick and easy too. Fry up the meat, add seasoning and water, add shredded lettuce, cheese, tomato or whatever you like in it.

My kids aren't crazy about this but I love it. Take cream of chicken soup mix it with 1/2 of the can milk. Boil some egg noodles (takes about 10 minutes). After draining the noodles add the soup mixture and heat. I love this over toast.

Just an idea.

kat

Kat, I like both of those recipes, thanks for sharing!

I sent STBXW an email this morning (her and DD got back from their trip last night) trying to confirm that I'll keep DD tonight and she can have her Fri-Sun for mother's day. She didn't reply all day until 2pm I get a text asking if I'm picking DD up from school today...

I replied back saying I will and that I sent her an email about it this morning.

She replied back saying 'sorry, didn't check the email yet. Can I see her for mother's day on Sun?'

That's interesting because she has an iPhone and gets her emails right on it.

I replied 'yes, of course, I mentioned it in my email that you can keep her this weekend. check your email. don't you have your iphone?'

half hour later she texts back:

"yeah, just busy today. u can keep her till sat if you want"

Hmmm...so busy to not even read emails right on the phone? wonder what she's up to now.

so I'm about to reply with "it's ok you wanted to keep her this weekend. We'll stick with the routine."

Still wondering why she's so busy or what she's up to? maybe in her [presumed] lover's arms...ugh! I'd rather not know

Romeo, You were doing great until you got toStop. That. Now.
You might as well just go to the kitchen, grab a skillet and start bashing your own head

^^ What he said. R- got to replace those thoughts with something else- how fun the weekend will be, how buffed you're looking, something!

SR, it's just going to take time.