Why is thinking/ making dinner so utterly soul destroying

[sweettoffeecake]

Honestly I'm just in from work and the 3 kids are glaring at me telling me they're hungry. It's my least favourite part of the day lol inspiration needed today 🙏

Worst thing is - you've just all sat down to massive homemade lunch which you've been spending an hour on when ds pipes up what's for dinner then mum.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Oh and my meal plan (whiteboard on the fridge) used to look like this (I always cook in themes)

Last week (example)

Mon- Pasta (such as pasta alfredo and salad)
Tues - Rice dish (such as paprika chicken)
Wed - Egg dish (such as omelette or oueffs en cocotte)
Thurs- Fish dish (salmon and salad and baby potatos)
Frida- roast chicken and vegetables
saturday - chicken noodle soup and charcuterie
Sunday- pizzas or out

This week (example)

Mon- freezer surprise
Tues- Larder surprise
Wed- McDonalds
Thurs-Freezer surprise
Friday- beans on toast
Saturday- larder surprise
Sunday- soup and toasties.

I do this too sometimes. The variables that have to go into meal planning can be exhausting and frustrating like @Hedjwitch says.

Days like these take out ! Dont stress u are doing it all long as there fed all that matters x

I'm glad you lot are on my team! Usually when I say this in work it's met with everyone in utter disbelief and perplexity with individuals telling me that they throughly enjoy cooking and how it allows them to relax and unwind - my blood pressure rises with each ballox sentence that pours out of them

I'm trying to do an online Tesco shop for the week and even that is making me angry trying to concoct dinners 🤣 think I need put to bed early tonight, been a long day 😂🤣

On a day like when you can’t be arsed or there isn’t much in I would do pizza and chips/nuggets and chips/beans on toast type of meal.

I started meal planning for the week abour 3 years ago and it’s so much easier for us.

For example..

Monday - Spaghetti bolognese & garlic bread
Tuesday - Chicken supreme & mash
Wednesday - Meatball and bean stew
Thursday - Chicken Biryani and chapatis
Friday - Pizza & chips
Saturday - Chilli Marrakesh
Sunday - Chicken roast dinner

That’s what we usually have every week until someone moans and then I switch it up.

Works very well for us and I don’t stress about it.

Polenta is quick to cook with milk and grated cheese and gluten free. Try with beans and some salad. Mix some frozen veg in it as well.
I usually make enough thick lentil soup for a few days. Can be a protein base for whatever is in your cupboard.

I have almost started fights over this!:) All my friends love cooking and think it's very creative. However, most of them have help, or DH's who act as sous chefs. Cooking is bollox, I say.

Those people do not have young children

@Unescorted can you elaborate? I don't seem to get it... (super tired today)

@midgemadgemodge
Can you explain that a bit more ie how long do you microwave, can you put all potatoes into microwave together etc? I love jacket potatoes but they take so long!

It’s hell. Really gets me down. DH hates plain food and seems to think we should have three gourmet courses every teatime, the kids only want to eat beige and the toddler just hates everything that isn’t a cookie or icecream.

@DancinOnTheCeiling not much more complicated than sticking a metal skewer through the middle of the potatoes (longest part) and bunging them in the oven. The heat is conducted along the skewer cooking the potatoes from the inside and outside.

Ploughman's? I just arrange platters when I cba.

I hate cooking, meal planning and food shopping.

In our house we have a vegetarian, a none vegetarian who won't eat meat and has dairy and soya allergy and is otherwise insanely fussy (3 year old) and then me who will eat most things but has to make and organise meals we can all eat.

I despise it

At least the baby is easy, just breastmilk for now. 🙈

I think the OP will know about meal planning

She just CBFA

Thanks @Unescorted What an amazing trick, never heard of it. And that means they only take about 30 mins? That'd make such a difference to our evenings

One veg teen
one non veg teen who doesn’t like mushroom/risotto or meals consisting of too much veg 🙄
Dh is grateful for anything he gets.

Does anyone else get zero pleasure from food they’ve cooked? By the time I eat it I’m so bored of it it may as well be dust. But if Dh or dd1 cook it tastes lovely even if beans on toast.

Reverse breakfast when I'm truly in a blackhole of depression.

My people.

the absolute tyranny of feeding the kids every day grinds me down.
I’ve got a vegetarian that won’t eat vegetables
one that hates potatoes
no one eats eggs
one that has the AUDACITY to request exciting meals “like my friends have at their houses” and then pronounce them “different” and also, the acme “I’m not sure I like pasta anymore”

AHHHHHHJHHHH

One also isn’t keen on eggs.

Easy to be brisk and “eat what you’re given” a La my mil helpful advice but if dd2 doesn’t like it she quietly just won’t eat it and she is quite slim and 14 so I want her to eat a healthy tea. If she likes it she’ll wolf it down.

Not helped by dd2 becoming best friends with the Dd of a mega rich family who have marinated steak etc for normal tea prepared by a chef. Can’t compete with that.

Because it's relentless.... people just keep on needing to eat. Except nobody wants to eat the same thing. Ever. Apart from maybe Birthday cake.

Because meal planing is boring and pointless because of the above; because food is so expensive; because the teens just fill themselves with junk in favour of fruit/cheese/crackers. If I don't buy it, they do!

I bloody hate food.

Never forget being on a hen weekend precious weekend away from the family kids were both early primary at the time. We were sitting on Brighton beach in the sun with a cocktail. Then we were herded up and we had to go and do “the activity”. Making our own fucking pesto pasta in an Italian restaurant. I could have cried. I do that every fucking day! I was on the beach!