Am I actually forever cooking?

[forevercooking]

I was chatting to my friend whilst I was cooking dinner and I laughed I felt like I was forever cooking.
She said 'That's because you are' I then wondered how much other people are cooking and if not what are they eating 😂

So kindly tell me please Mumsnet, how many nights a week do you eat a home cooking meal?

Every night unless treating you a takeaway or eating out, but generally every night. And I mean actual home cooked, not frozen oven food

To a takeaway * typing one handed as DD asleep on my arm !

Every night! Sometimes it is very quick or simple though - jacket potato with butter or smoked salmon bits on toast.

During lockdown I made 3 meals a day, 7 days a week for 4 people. I think that's 84 meals.

I think my DH may have actually done a couple of them but anyway, it felt like I was constantly cooking/preparing meals, washing up and emptying the dishwasher.

Why do you feel like you are forever cooking?
how often are you cooking?
how long does it take you to cook if you were cooking dinner “earlier”.

Every night , except the one or two nights a week that DH does it.

We are retired, and we like good food.

Most nights, I don't ever eat jars or ready meals (except pizza!). I don't have children though
But I do a lot of batch cooking as I'm on my own so a large cottage pie, stew, pasta bake all portioned up and frozen
Some nights it's an omelette or jacket potato or one of the batch cooked meals microwaved. I don't do anything complex as a one night thing!

@KindergartenKop that was me. Except my DH didn't make any of them.

And the children got used to a lovely breakfast - homemade cinnamon rolls etc.

I have hated cooking since lockdown.

I have gone from making most things to serving supermarket tortellini, flash fried fish and salad from a bag, risotto where it all goes in the pan and I don't add things bit by bit, etc.

It doesn't help that I have to make at least two things for each meal as DS is ASD and eats about 3 things, none of which the rest of the family eat.

In fact I largely don't eat dinner I can't be bothered after all of that. I nibble as I'm cooking or eat leftovers while I'm loading the dishwasher.

Every day here, too. Barring the very odd pizza or takeaway (twice a year or so) plus eating out about twice a year as well.

But I didn’t always do that when I was a mum to very small children, nor when I later became a single parent and was working/studying. Back then it was probably about 50/50 from scratch and also pop-into-the-oven food or sauce from a jar.

Every night. From scratch. Absolutely does my head in.

DP and I share the cooking, and it's just the two of us mostly, but we do always cook from scratch unless invited to friends, and making the simplest meal seems to take me forever these days!

So I think you can make it OK health wise but make it quick but you probably need to cut corners

6 nights a week. DH generally does the Sunday one.

Every night but only 'difficult' cooking about twice a week. So tonight it's chicken korma, but I will keep back some sauce and have paneer korma later in the week. If we have a roast it will be soup then the bits in bubble and squeak with an egg on for day three. DH cooks one night and we might have a salad or baked potato the remaining night

ASD kid only eating certain food also makes it more of a struggle. Five years until both kids at uni, I’ve warned my husband for the first month of being kid free im not cooking at all. Not a single thing. I’m done and I used to love cooking

By pop-into-the-oven food I mean quick and easy things like all-in-one tray bakes. Everything’s still fresh and unprocessed but it’s not a recipe as such and doesn’t take long nor is it taxing when you’re busy or tired.

We eat home cooked food every night, apart from occasional take away (perhaps once every 6 weeks) or special occasions out.

Each DD cooks once a week - I'm in the kitchen but usually working, not actively involved. DH cooks twice so I cook 3 evening meals a week. I manage the meal planning with their input.

I also make 4 days of packed lunches for the DDs; DH and I fend for ourselves at lunchtime WFH.

DH occasionally does a cooked breakfast on a weekend.

So while we overwhelmingly cook and eat at home, I don't feel I'm cooking all the time

Oh yes when DH and I were both working (very long days) we usually cooked together, or if one of us got home first that person would cook. So we shared it pretty evenly between us. At the moment I’m not working and DH is, so I’ll do the vast majority of meals.

Every night except Friday, which is posh ready meal night. But I don’t cook lunch or breakfast, so it’s only 6 times a week, and I make sure that a couple of them are things I’ve batch cooked at the weekend. It still feels like a lot of time thinking about food, writing a food meal plan and shopping list, buying food, checking what food we’ve run out of, cooking food, tidying up remnants of food, remembering to use up leftover food.

Everyday cooking drives me slightly mad, lockdown was insanity. I feel morally obliged to cook nutritious food, but I’m lucky that I finish work about 3.30 ish so I can cook and do other stuff. I also use a Thermamix and that helps a bit

Kids also get a cooked breakfast but DH does that

We eat a cooked from scratch meal every night. DH cooks at the weekend, I cook on week nights but sometimes adult DS will cook too.
DH and DH take packed lunches from home for their lunch too (they each make their own).

Every night. I love cooking.

Basically every single night of the week and also most lunches for the kids involve some form of cooking

Weekdays I cook from scratch every single day even if a simple dish. We have takeout about twice a month. If we have takeout I still cook something for the kids.

I love love love cooking it's my top hobby but I begrudge it, too.

Three kids is three too many!!

The dishwasher goes about 2 times a day too. I hate unloading it!

Well, I'm fucking not tonight. I usually cook all the time, from scratch, including making my own bread etc. But I've been getting increasingly pissed off by the DC getting pickier and pickier over my homecooked food, the amount going in the bin, the way they're constantly demanding what's for dinner, the way DS1 needs expensive ingredients for cookery lessons at school, brings the results home and doesn't want to eat them, expecting to just sling it in the bin and have me cook him another meal from scratch, the way he's constantly pestering me for junk that he can just hoover up rather than healthy food...🙄

In addition, I've just started a low carb diet and am fasting to boot, and I can't face making 2 meals. So, I've made DS2 a sandwich (he has school dinners), and DS1 can sort his fucking self out. Hopefully using the katsu curry sauce he made in cookery today ("that looks like shit" 🙄), the paneer I put on the side ready to teach him how to cook before he stropped off, and the leftover rice from yesterday.

Or maybe he'll just eat muesli and sling 3 quids worth of ingredients in the bin. I'm past caring. In solidarity with the train drivers and the postmen, I'm on fucking strike.