So very bored of meal planning...

[Charlavail]

For the children not to eat it anyway.

That's it. That's the thread.

I get this. If my OH isn't eating with us I just do sandwiches and fruit

Agree ... and it's only DH & I at home now . It actually irritates me that I have think about what someone else eats .. I know what I like to eat, which isn't necessarily the same as DH ... he does cook, but I don't really want to eat what he cooks. I hate the 'compromising' over meals. We quite frequently shop, cook and eat separately .. we can afford this but I am aware it is wasteful.
Looking forward to tonight as DH will be out watching the rugby and I can just cook exactly what I want to eat.

I've never meal planned. I didn't know it was a thing till I got on mumsnet. I get to the evening, and think what I fancy. Then have that. Stocked larder, stocked freezer, and fresh veg and salad in fridge every week.

Very similar. It’s just evolved into my job to think what we are going to eat….if I ask him…’any thoughts on tea?’ Everyday he just looks puzzled.

I hear you. I can't afford to not meal plan (or simply keep a 'well stocked larder', wtf?!) but fuck me its relentless and boring and thankless.

Yep I remember that.

I read & implemented the division of responsibility guidelines (Ellen Satter) and changed to making food I liked. It changed everything. Now on the rare occasion one Dc doesn't like it, I do & I don't care.

Dd15 is becoming "fussy" again after years of eating well but I keep on with what I'm doing.

www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-to-feed/the-division-of-responsibility-in-feeding/

Likewise, I just buy stuff and then make food.
I have a big freezer and I always buy frozen veg otherwise it just sits in the fridge until it rots.
Occasionally I will buy ingredients if I see something on youtube I really want to make.
So long as you have all the staples dinner can be made. I just do not have the time in my life for meal planning.

What kind of stuff are you feeding them? I just bung stuff in air fryer and be done with it, stuff I know they like. No thought in it
I don't get all this planning on here.

It doesn't have to be expensive either, I know what I eat so everything I buy will be eaten and I rotate the veg so I eat different ones everytime I shop.

Loving the thread.

I am sick of it too. Although I seem to do it religiously in a triumph of hope over experience. I have even prepared a half term meal plan for breakfast lunch and dinner in the hope I can get some nutrients into DS1.

DH is vegetarian and quite orthorexic. So he eats only fruit at breakfast and only salad at dinner. I occasionally make him veg meals like cauliflower cheese etc and he groans for days afterwards saying his stomach hurts and he ate too much.

DS1 has autism and sensory processing disorder and has to have his meals complemented by things like Complan drinks. He is under a paediatric dietician.

It is so demoralising trying to work out a decent set of meals only for no-one to eat them. Cooking and preparing food is part of how I show my love. I do cook separate meals now as otherwise I would never eat anything I like.

Yup. So boring. Bung all your meal plans in a drawer and just pull one out when you can't face doing it again. It helps a tiny bit.

I meal plan. Find it helpful to have a list in my diary of the meals everyone likes so that I can just pick one if inspiration is running low.

Fellow fed up parent here. I did recently buy a cookbook called What’s for Dinner which has several weeks of meal plans with accompanying shopping lists. I’d say this week we had 50/50 success with things they’ll eat and things they won’t, but at least I had to do less thinking.

I decide every morning what I want to eat that night, then go out and buy it.

Do your dc get involved in the meal planning?
Mine do and they can see that one day they'll have their favourite meal, another day it'll be someone else's preference. They're more willing to put up with it.

Maybe you need a break from it. Have a couple of weeks using cheats and shortcuts, either really quick, simple things like egg on toast, jacket and beans etc or ready made things like fish cakes and veg, breaded chicken, fresh pasta and pesto, sausage and mash. (All only examples just do what you know they like) Just serve peas, crudités, sweetcorn along side that time if you fancy cooking something more exciting for you then do so.

Literally all the 5 year old wants is spag bol or curry. And DP just wants steak 🙄

Spag bog and curry aren’t too bad. And curry has quite a lot of variety at least. Could you make batches and freeze in 5 year old size portions? You all eat it together once a week, then on other days tell 5 year old what’s for dinner and if they say they don’t want it thaw them a portion of food they like, but insist they at least taste the option the rest of you are eating. Make sure at least once a week the food is similar in some way to preferences so they might add an extra option into the rotation (so chilli and rice / pasta with another sauce / kedgeree). Then you cook food you want on the other nights.

I just don't have time for that although I would love to have that approach.

I fucking hate it, and am totally fed up with it.