I Have to Eat Again...

I'm going to venture from my normal here's-my-insight-about-my-life format today.  I apologize if I sound a bit more whiny than usual, but I'm kind of stuck on this one and don't have the mental energy to figure it out.

Ugh.  I don't dislike eating.  In fact, I quite enjoy eating.  I even like cooking...most of the time, but, oh mylanta, we have to eat 3 times a day??  That sounds so ridiculous to even whine about (and, yes, I know I'm whining).  It just seems like sometimes in an effort to plan healthy, balanced meals, I get bogged down with wanting it to be perfect that I end up giving up because we're so hungry that we just go out to eat.  It's so expensive to eat out and makes it really hard to stick to a budget.  Ugh...again.

So this is my cry for help.  What do all you healthy eating, busy, busy moms on a budget do to keep your family fed??  I don't want to end up eating a bunch of processed food and I don't want to spend my whole weekend cooking for the week (nor do I have time to).  What do you eat for breakfast and lunches?  We usually do leftovers for lunch, which I'm fine with.  Breakfast is cereal or eggs during the week.

What I'd like is to have a personal chef that picks food from my garden, cooks it fresh for my family and we eat around the table.  However, that is not exactly in the budget at this point.  My kiddos can help some, but I don't feel like they are quite comfortable with that idea yet (and I don't want spaghetti or tacos every night).  

So I ask again...what do all you fabulous, health conscience, budget minded moms do to feed your family every day?  I love my crock pot, but my hubby gets tired of soups and stews.  He does help cook, but he is not often the first one home, so it seems silly to wait for him to cook dinner.  My kids aren't too picky, but their repertoire is limited at this point.  I'd love to hear about different meal plans and/or services that you have used, loved, and felt good about.  I'm hesitant to spend money on something I haven't heard much about from real people.  I'm a Pinterest junkie, so I have a ton of recipes, but I need a plan that lasts longer than one meal.  Aaaaaaand...GO!  (This is where you fill up my comment section with all sorts of fabulous ideas.)