--rare "gourmet" meals/week
--2-3 inbetween gourmet and everday
--2 or 3 everyday meals
--1 or 2 scrounge meals
--eat out rarely
Breakfast most days is pancakes or crepes or muffins or such while dinner weekdays hasn't been to fancy because DH is on even shift.

We could almost entirely from scratch very few preprepared foods, lots of fresh veggies.

Boy I have to do math on this one...
--"gourmet" meals/week...gosh 3 or more (involves dinners and breakfasts...yes multi course breakfasts on weekends)
--inbetween gourmet and everday....almost any other dinner, and other meal
--everyday meals...only DS gets these
--scrounge meals...once, mondays typically, which might involve a precooked chicken or duck, but fresh (purchased that day) vegi and salad as well as an appetizer.
--eat out...Lunches almost always, DH 4 or 5 star and me, once or twice a week lunch 4 star and at least once a week in a very nice restaurant (date night)

we cook more european style, with at least three courses and always shopping fresh for a meal. we have access to fresh fish daily and take advantage of that year round.

cooking outside, in the main house we grill at least five times a week on a normal week (lunches and dinner) with real charcol and a smoker/grill (the big green egg) most often. DH is a foodie. prior to him...I unfroze nightly :) (sometimes more for dates...wait that makes me sound bad...I was good :OP Umm ummm nevermind) :OP

I don't really fall into any of those categories neatly.

I don't cook gourmet (multiple courses) because with 4 kids, they just want their food NOW...lol. We do a salad with dinner every night but that is served with their meal (mixed field greens, baby spinach and whatever add-ins I have fresh that day, croutons and dressing are homemade).

My youngest child has a few severe food allergies so EVERYTHING is made from scratch here. I got tired of reading labels for him, it seems everything has some form of soy, dairy, egg..etc in it.

We don't do "fake food" (artificial flavors, sweeteners, colors, preservatives, fillers..etc). If it's not found in nature, we pretty much just avoid it.

As for how often I cook, I do scratch cooking for breakfast and dinner daily and leftovers are used for lunch, never dinner.

We also RARELY do one-pot type cooking unless it's a soup/stoup. We aren't casserole fans and if a recipe calls for cream of (insert flavor) soup I just pass it on by.

We do go out to eat every other week or so and it's always at a place where we know things are cooked and assembled fresh so we can alter ingredients for the youngest (not applebee's or such...where a lot of the chicken and sides are frozen or already shipped to them prepared).

His allergies have been a blessing in disguise, we eat SO much better than we would have otherwise and now that we eat fresh, I can't imagine eating food that was dried and stuffed in a box for us to prepare at home.

"Gourmet meal" average 2/week...Saturday and Sunday meals. We usually make enough for leftovers during the week.
"Everyday meal" 2/week...seared salmon fillets with salad and a veg, for e.g.
"Leftover meal" 3/week, from the weekend cooking.
"Outdoor grilling" depends on the season. In summer, 1-2/week, and less frequently as the weather gets colder, although some of that is related to the shorter days of winter and the fact that I can't see what's cooking on the grill at 5pm in December!
Eating out...rarely, maybe once a month and that's usually to satisfy our craving for Indian or Chinese food, or when traveling, of course. We really like our own cooking :), and nearly always can eat better at home than out. DH and I both cook, though it's just the two of us. We've got a big garden and can enjoy fresh veggies from it about 10 months out of the year. I freeze and can some, so in Dec. and Jan. we still have garden produce. And when we have fresh beans and tomatoes and corn and squash and peppers and eggplant, why go out to eat frozen stuff?
We have a "diner-style" breakfast together 5-6 days/week...sausage, eggs, toast, juice or the like.
Pack our own lunches at home to tote to work.
When we travel, one of our favorite pastimes is touring local farmer's markets, and we even like to browse the local grocery stores in other cities. The way I see it, to quote Fran Lebowitz, "Food is an important part of a balanced diet."

Hmmm, my DH would say my greatest fault is that I'm incapable of just throwing something together in 30 minutes and instead I turn everything into a "gourmet" meal. It's not my fault both of his parents considered opening up a can of something or other "cooking dinner", LOL. Having tasted their "cooking" I would say he has a good case for child abuse :) I grew up in Europe where everything was bought fresh at the market and eaten that day. We grew a lot of our own vegetables and we caught a lot of fish so the concept of buying groceries for the week at the supermarket hasn't caught on with me yet. I prefer to shop meal by meal, which drives DH batty. Not that all of my meals are fancy, but they take more than 30 min to make most of the time. I've been cooking for years but I'm still really slow with a knife so prep takes long sometimes. But, if I'm not cooking we're eating out. I'm not a fan of leftovers so I try not to have any. DH is in charge of weekend breakfasts and he does a good job with that. We typically go out to lunch every day at work, but we go through stretches where we try to bring lunch to work (doesn't work too good most of the time).

To answer the original question:
Gourmet meals: 1/week
Everyday: the rest, including a lot of grilling during the summer

The breakdown is dependent on whether or not we are "in season" or worse yet make playoffs, but here goes:

gourmet meals: 1-2 times, rare in season
everyday meals: 3-4 times, 2-3 in season
scrounge meals: 1-2 times, 3-4 in season
eat out: rare, 1-2 in season
barbecue: kitchen reno starts this week so for the next couple of months, everyday

Scrounge meals aren't boxed tv dinners. I tend to do a blitz day of a lot of cooking and tupperware up portions.

chrissie, my 3yr old had pretty severe food allergies to nuts, strawberries, and shellfish, but on last testing seems to have grown out of them. We still eat mostly organic at home and when we eat out, it's Moe's or someplace else that we know the ingredients are fresh, etc. My 11 yr old is on a high protein, gluten free diet to help w/ his ADD. (not hyperactive, just focus problems) This means that all baked goods in the house come from my oven. It was a rough first 3 weeks when we started gluten-free eating during the experimentation phase(here, try this hockey puck))

Not sure how I'd fit in to these categories, but here goes.
- Gourmet meals - only occasionally, usually for special occasions (I've got a 2 1/2 yo and 4 yo so speed is of the essence day to day)
- My staple cooking is something between "gourmet" and "everyday" - I do cook from scratch 100% of the time and don't use any prepared foods at all. I make pasta dishes, chicken and fish the most - red meat maybe 1 time per week. Although we aren't vegetarians, I usually make at least 1 meatless dinner per week.
- B'fast & lunch are quick except on weekends (sandwiches, toast, cereal)
- We rarely eat out (less than 1 time per week) except for now during our kitchen reno. I only really enjoy eating out for the break or when it is either very high end or something ethnic I'm less likely to prepare at home.
I consider myself a very good cook and am comfortable making almost anything. I also create a lot of my own recipes and experiment that way.

Funny thing is, most Americans don't cook anymore - at least not from scratch. They open a few cans or make prepared meals and the avg. family eats out 4 times per week. It is a bit of a dying art, IMO.

Hi, Bluekit. This is an interesting thread. I think we're pretty normal for empty nesters.

I like to cook but am not a "foodie," i.e., it's not a hobby and courses are only for special occasions. I enjoy playing with new recipes and ingredients and my meals are usually enjoyable, but the term "gourmet" seems a little aspiring; I'm thinking of a television show where a panel sits around an elegant table and evaluates careful bites of the recipes being served, and suspect my presentations would probably lack culinary depth and sophistication. Most of my cooking's for dinner and we often have leftovers for lunch or even my breakfast. But for dinners at least:

Something good enough to serve us or guests: 4
Leftovers: 2
Scrounge (open a box or can) or eat out: 1

Except for scrounge, my cooking's basically from scratch. I grow a number of my favorite herbs. I don't roll out my own pasta or bake my own bread, though, and consider boiling up the boxed stuff "from scratch" so that needs to be taken into acccount. :)

I love to cook - and can't wait to get my new kitchen.
Gourmet cooking - 2x per week, normally weekends or when entertaining (which I also love to do).
Everyday meals - remaining meals, but always use fresh ingredients. I love experimenting with various flavours and techniques - they don't all work out, but I don't give up.
Scrounge meals - only DSs if they are going out or have sporting events. (at 22, 20 & 18 - they can fend for themselves)
Eat out - maybe once every 2-3 months unless we are travelling. That I'm sure will change when the remodel starts in four weeks.
Outdoors - bbq (grill) at least 4x/week in the warmer months - less often maybe 1x/week in 5 feet of snow

Here's mine. Breakfast is always simple, as none of us has time in the morning (work/school on weekdays, swim lessons on Saturday, church on Sunday). Lunch is always scrounged or leftovers or something simple (egg salad, grilled cheese) if we're at home, though we all eat out several times a week.

Dinner is cooked from scratch about five nights a week, usually between what you have defined as gourmet and everyday. (I.e., they're not one-pot meals or casseroles, and I make my own sauces, but they're not as elaborate as what I would serve at a dinner party.) About once a week, we have an everyday dinner, usually a certain black bean casserole that we all love. Leftovers are part of the scrounged lunches.

We rarely grill out, maybe a couple times a summer. We eat out several lunches a week and maybe a dinner every two weeks.

My husband does all of the cooking, but I'll answer for him.

Gourmet-type 1-2 (Sunday dinner is huge at our house. Always a big meal with a regular circle of guests plus some irregular guests - something carried over from his father. Sometimes one other dinner each week is special like this - depends on what he feels like trying that week.)
Everyday 4-7 (Dinners range, but are always prepared from scratch with fresh ingredients. Breakfasts on weekends.)
Leftovers 0-2 (Leftovers are usually used for lunches)
Eat out rarely

Of course, our now-9 month old baby has slowed this down a little, but I'm actually pretty surprised by how much cooking he still does. When he gets home from work she goes into the baby carrier and they make dinner "together" each evening. I guess it helps that we live in a rural area, so going out for dinner is quite the trip, and there's only one place that delivers.

gourmet meals: 1-2 times per week

everyday meals: 3-4 times per week, usually salmon, pork or chicken with salad and potato or rice.
scrounge meals: 2 times per week. Usually one weekday and one weekend supper. We don't eat packaged foods due to some dietary restrictions but on these days we eat a collection of stuff that doesn't require much cooking if any.

left overs: just about every lunch for DS and I. DH is not much of a fan

eat out: 1 time per week

barbecue: we use our grill for meat and some veggies most of the time in the summer for our regular meals (june-september)

Wow! Could some of you share with us what your gourmet meal consists of?

Us: zero gourmet meals
7 everyday dinners per week, about 5 of them are barbequed, all year round.
Eat out about once a month. We prefer our own cooking.

Scrounge meals- none.

fun thread! hmmmm--I guess I'm getting caught on the 3 courses--appetizer, salad, entree, right? We rarely have an appetizer but I would consider most of my meals gourmet. Last night we had grilled london broil with a saute of potatoes, fresh fava beans and garlic scapes on the side. Salad to start. AND without benefit of a kitchen ;-) We belong to a CSA and that keeps me on my toes, seeking out recipes for the "new to me" veggies. For instance, fava beans are easy to deal with if you char them on the grill first! I rarely use prepared foods, never have, my mac n' cheese is legendary among my children's childhood friends! Also, I have a wheat allergy so I am constantly experimenting with gluten-free recipes especially for dessert. I batch cook and make planned leftovers (some item that morphs into something else the next night). Scrounge nights are usually when DH is traveling and I do a "dump" salad with leftovers. We do eat out on most Fridays (date nite!) and get take-out Indian food once every 2-3 weeks. I do grill outdoors in the summer but still cook sides inside. I use my trusty grill pan in winter and am looking forward to using a range hood with that.

I've still cooked throughout this remodel, mostly because there isn't a lot of take-out that is wheat-free. I'm really proud of the fact that I haven't used a single paper plate but admit that I am really sick of washing and drying dishes in the bathroom and carrying them to the adjoining room for storage.

Wow - this is a great thread. It's fun to see how others deal with eating stuff! Like one other here, though, my cooking habits have a lot to do with school year vs summer. I do more in-kitchen cooking during the summer than during the school year. This has a lot to do with the fact that DH works swing shift - so during the summer, lunch becomes the big meal of the day. During the school year, he has to fend for himself.

Gourmet meals? Moi? Hardly! Mark that as "none".

Everyday meals - about 3 or 4 days a week and 2 evenings.

Scrounge meals - 1x a week for lunches, every day for breakfast, and dinner when DH is working. I try to keep stuff in the house these days that's easily fixed, will work with DH's health issues, and can be prepped easily on top of the stove in 15 minutes or less, or in the MW.

Eat out - one of the problems that DH faces in his current job is travel - his job calls for him to drive from site to site, and not necessarily be at the office during the dinner hour. When I'm at home in the summer, the lunch is big enough that he can take snacks along rather than stop at places to pick up something to eat. (With his heart condition, most of those fast food places are no-no's.)

The school year is a different story. DH is currently on a job hunt for something that will be DAY shift, or at least give him his weekends back!

DonnaR/CA

I cook somewhere between gourmet and everyday probably 5 times per week, then one or two scrounge/leftover meals, and then we eat out maybe once per week.

We grilled a lot last summer, and only once or twice this year.

Hmm...

Gourmet - not every week, maybe 1ce a month

Everyday Gourmet - 1-2 times/week - not 3 courses, but everything's fresh, usually a special trip to Whole Foods and/or farmer's market involved, plus interesting seasonings, sauces, etc. Company-worthy.

Everyday - 3 - 5 times/week, but not too many convenience foods.

Grilling -- happens for just about all levels, 3-4 times a week, pretty much year round. Our oven has been broken since January and we're not replacing it til we start the remodel, so I've learned to grill such things as muffins, cookies, brownies, and hot pretzels.

Scrounge - 1-2 times/week (my kids are too young to scrounge for themselves, but this is what I call nights when it's "spaghetti AGAIN?" or pancakes). DH doesn't eat frozen dinners; none of us like frozen pizza.

Eating out - 1ce or 2ce a month, though in summer we'll order pizza at the neighborhood pool more often.

Well, when I actually have a functioning kitchen it's:

-- Gourmet cooking: once a week
-- Everyday meals: 3-4 times / week
-- Scrounge: We almost never have leftovers and we don't do a lot of packaged foods. I'd say maybe 1-2 x / month
-- Eat out: 2-3 x / week
-- Outdoors: I'm in California so almost every meal gets cooked outdoors.

Hubby doesn't cook at all and I have a 3 - 4 hour round-trip commute 3 days / week. Simple is all I can manage when I finally do get home. Add to that the fact that I just can't stand our kitchen. If it weren't for that, I'd be doing gourmet meals much more frequently as I love to cook.

I am not sure about the whole "gourmet" thing. I am home today, but generally, no one is here any more for lunch. Back in the day, it was peanut butter and banana, etc.

Weekday breakfast is generally cereal and coffee. Weekends are generally coffee, and yogurt with fresh peaches or other seasonal fruit, and wheat toast with a marmalade.

Dinners here are sit down with wine and cheese appetizer or bruchetta while we cook and talk. Tuesday dinner was risotto, shrimp scampi, tossed salad with fresh bread. Last night was grilled teriyaki tuna steaks, penne tossed with a mixture of sautéed onion, green pepper, olives, fresh tomato and garlic. And, tossed salad. Tonight is crab cakes, rice and salad. (Can you tell we are on a seafood kick?) We rarely have a dessert. Almost never actually.

What is a taco dinner with all the fixings? What is a home made pizza? What is grilled steak with baked potato, asparagus and salad? What is a breakfast dinner with eggs, sausage and home fries? What is home made soup and bread?

If the question is - do you make frozen, hungry man dinners or store bought casseroles, etc- the answer is never.

I like Rosie's definition

Dinners per week:
Suitable for guests: 5
left overs or 15 minute meals: 1
Eat out: 1

I'm having a hard time answering this poll. While I like to cook interesting food and that often means special trips to the store/interesting sauces/etc., I rarely cook multi-course meals, even when we have guests. So...I guess you could say most of what I do would be "everyday gourmet" stuff. I usually cook 4 nights/week and the others we do leftovers, scrounge, eat out/order in or dine with friends or family.

Uh oh - I feel a little out of place here, but I guess I'll throw in my responses just so the poll results aren't quite so skewed to all you more-than-occasional gourmet cooks!

Gourmet: moi? never!
Everyday: uh, that involves cooking, right? uh, not so often.
Scrounge: 4-5 days/wk - may involve take-home rotisserie chicken, chinese food, or bagged salads with some sort of protein thrown on top (usu. cottage cheese, but sometimes some of that leftover rotisserie chicken)
Eat out: 2-3 days/wk
Outdoors: want to invite me to your barbecue? ;-)

Okay, this is embarrassing. I'm hoping the situation improves somewhat when I have a more functional kitchen - like, a dishwasher would help since cooking involves making dirty dishes and I *hate* washing dishes. Countertop space would help too. So would having a stove that isn't going to blow up the building. (See the worst kitchens ever thread.) I suspect, though, that even post-reno, I'm not going to suddenly turn into a chef.

FWIW, I'm single and live in NYC where I suspect this is all considered pretty normal. :-)

Well I think I am a little different from most here, 1. because I live alone, 2. because I have been without any sort of kitchen since FREAKING THANKSGIVING, and 3. the "kitchen" in this house prior to Thanksgiving consisted of a sink, a pantry and a microwave. No counterspace and no stovetop/oven. So my cooking options were very very limited ... mostly sandwiches, and warming up soups made in a crockpot. Rice cooker was handy too. Cleanup was really difficult, so I admit that I relied far too much on takeout/fast food/eating out. Which is fine for a while, but months and months ? Ugh.

Even though I still don't have a kitchen (but I interviewed a new contractor last Friday, his references check out GREAT, and he says he can have my kitchen and bathrooms functional with two weeks of work), I bought myself a new gas grill about a month ago. Remember that my previous contractor is now IN JAIL (has been since end of March), and that one of his demo crew stole my brand new unused grill. I gave up on getting him to replace it, so I just bought myself a new one. Ouch.

But it has been so good for me. I have used it every day, and hardly eat out, I LOVE being able to prepare great meals. The grill has been used for everything from bacon and eggs, to burgers and steaks, salmon, slow-cooked pork shoulder, quesadillas, bruschetta, roasted tomatoes, grilled veggies every night, and I even tried my hand at No-Knead Bread ! Which was absolutely fantastic, see ... ?

It's still a huge pain to prep and clean up, since there is no working sink in the kitchen and everthing needs to be schlepped to the bathroom. but I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

So I can only answer this poll as how I hope to be cooking in a couple weeks :-)

Gourmet - definitely once, maybe twice each week for dinners. Maybe special Sunday brunch too. I can't wait to start making some of my old favourites - handmade pasta, lovely risottos and gnocchi, slow simmered minestrone .... I have a lot of friends who need to be "repaid" with meals !
Everyday - most days. I plan to fill the freezer with easy to warm staples that can be added to fresh veggies or salad for nights alone.
Leftover - I love leftovers ! I don't really understand why some people don't. Good for the two nights per week when I have plans and need to eat first.
Eat out - Ugh. I never want to eat out again ;-)
Outdoors - I suspect that this will be quite often, since the gas grill is just a couple steps outside my kitchen, and VERY handy to cook stuff that would be too smoky inside. I'd say at least 3 nights/week, year around (the joys of California !)

Gourmet - once a year during the Christmas season
Everyday - 2 or 3 times a week max.
Leftover - 1 or 2 days if we cooked during the weekend.
Eat out - pizza/KFC/pre-cooked meal from local store I'd say 2 or 3 times a week
Outdoor/grill - 2 or 3 days during the summer grilling season.
Needless to say, our renovation didn't include professional level appliances.

This is a hard question to answer.

I'm certainly not a gourmet cook, but I do occasionally get a wild hair and do it up right.

The rest of my cooking totally depends on everyone's schedule, so it varies wildly.

I do try to have a very nice dinner on Sunday nights. I try to at least.

My definition of an everyday meal would be something that involves a meal cooked mostly from scratch, for instance, a protein, a couple of veggies, and maybe some sort of starch.

Kinda sorta gourmet: Once a week.
Everyday meals: 4 to 5.
Scrounged dinner (meaning everyone is on their own and probably means sandwiches): Once a week.
Eating out: Maybe once a week or once every other week.
Grilling: In the warmer months, DH grills a couple of times a week.

We live in the PNW and don't have air conditioning. We do eat out more in the summer than the rest of the year. We will probably eat out several times this weekend with temps ranging from 97 to 100 degrees. I don't care where we go as long as the place is air conditioned!