It's not strictly answering your question, but there's a middle ground between "cooking for 2 hours and having to clean up a devastated kitchen" and "eating out

It's not strictly answering your question, but there's a middle ground between "cooking for 2 hours and having to clean up a devastated kitchen" and "eating out for every meal." I have trouble getting the motivation to cook food for myself, so what has helped me: * Try dishes that only require assembly. I am a big fan of these as a lot of them are also hydrating and enjoyable in hot weather. My go-tos are turkish cacık, chinese smashed cucumber salad, caprese salad, cold cut sandwiches. * Have a good dishwasher, and only buy dishwasher-safe dishware. * Buy more premade dishes. Salads, soups, etc. * Premade bread has the lowest prep requirements of any starch, so rely on it if you need that (though rice and pasta are hard to beat on price). * Buy more freezer food. You can store it for months and most of it IMO is still quite good. Favorites here include dumplings, premade meat like pulled pork, berries, veggies. * If you do have to clean, don't be super anal about it. A little bit of leftover oil on a pan won't kill you and you're going to heat it up anyway. If you are already spending $2700 a month on food, you can afford to cycle out cookware earlier if it gets too beaten up. * Still let yourself eat out regularly, especially if it's at cheaper places.