Apparently most people have 6 meals they make on a loop? How about you?

[BarrelOfOtters]

Some random study I read.

It's probably about right..

stirfry
fajitas
a roast of some kind (not every week)
salmon and veg
sea bass with veg
fishfingers chips and peas (or similar)
a curry - usually prawn.

Yes pretty much. Mainly because I have food intolerances. DP does cook his own food from time to time so he isn't subjected to such boredom!

I usually have:
a variation on fried rice (either with bacon, prawns, tuna or chicken)
salmon and veg
chicken and veg
salads
omelette and veg
lentils and veg
soup (various)

I was making home-made pizza for awhile, but after Covid it tasted weird.

@DiscoBeat I love it. Its such a cheap meal!

Yep I've heard that too.
And yes it baffles me because we have a much bigger repertoire. It remnds me more of dc repertoire re cooking. He is 20yo and a student though....

lol same. I've got three. But I absolutely hate cooking so avoid it as much as possible

We tend to have some repetition, so every week we get mince, chicken breasts, salmon and some kind of roast (if we dont have other plans on a Sunday), so every week we will have one mince meal (usually spag bol but occasionally lasagne or shepherds pie when time permits), one meal involving chopped chicken (fajitas or curry or stirfry usually), one salmon meal and a roast if we are going to be at home on a Sunday (meat and sauce vary, although it is most often chicken, but sides tend to be the same). Other meals vary a bit more (depending on what whoever is doing the online shop fancies, plus trying to eat more veggie meals). And we do eat out a bit with friends or work go to events, and whoever is not out will tend to have something simple. It does sometimes feel like we eat on a bit of a loop as we always have mince, chicken, salmon every week, but there is actually some variety in what we do with them.

I have a few I do more frequently than others - but my rotation is much bigger than just 6. But my go-to's are:

Spaghetti bol
Chicken curry (usually vadagam)
Chicken and mushrooms with creamy sauce and carbs (I have a few ways of making the sauce, and can do pasta/rice/potatoes depending).
Feta chicken w/rosemary & garlic potatoes, roast tomatoes
Chicken fajitas
Steak
Nasi goreng (Indian stir fried rice with veg and prawns/tuna dish)
Stir fry

If it were up to DH, we’d have a rotation of two meals. He wouldn’t even get bored 🙄

I'm a good cook and don't mind cooking. But when I actually sat down and thought about it...most weeks it's a variation on the above.

often a change of protein - but it's still a stirfry or a curry.
Occasionally pasta - like a spag bol or similar.

I do cook new stuff but tends to be on the weekend or when people are around.

Following as always love new meal ideas!

We are totally stuck in a meals rut. Not helped by children with various dietary requirements meaning I cook 2-3 different meals a night.

For the last month or so I've been keeping a spreadsheet of evening meals so I can see what repeats and I'm it's also making me trying to add new things in or variations of things. I'd add a pic but I don't think you could all read my scrawl but in a nutshell it's been...

Spaghetti carbonara
Homemade Turkey meatballs and spaghetti.
Sausage pasta pesto
Chicken korma
Chicken peanut noodles (new meal, taming twins recipe)
Fishcakes wedges and frozen veg
Frozen pizza and chips (treat meal)
Pulled pork tacos (new meal)
Normal taco
Chicken fajitas
Halloumi fajitas (new meal)
Chicken fried rice
Slow cooker lasagne
Macaroni cheese with chicken drumsticks (new meal)
Gammon egg and chips (new meal)

Tonight is another new meal, have got a chicken in the slow cooker and and just cutting it up later and putting it on the table for a help yourself tea. There's also crusty bread and butter, salad, potato salad, rice. Everyone can have whatever bits they do or don't want. Will see how it goes!

That would totally be me but DH got sick of it and took over the cooking. He's very experimental and rarely cooks the same thing twice. Then I get bored of having to politely grin at some weird miso and lavender sardines concoction and take over again to do my usual spag bol, chicken traybakes and home made pizzas.

Similar to most others, same broad categories but different variations. We do thai curry but that might be green or red or massaman, might be beef or prawn or chicken etc.

Only 6 meals on a loop!? That'd drive me loopy!

It doesn't surprise me though, I think my Mum & Dad probably do this but then they don't really like cooking.

Yeah we have about eight meals that would make up most of our dinners. We both work full time and need things to be simple.

Different variations of them though - I have 3-4 different stir fry combos for example.

Forgot the paella; lamb, date and pomegranate tagine and chicken, apricot and chickpea tagine.

so that is 20! It still feels very repetitive though.

We have a rotating 4 week menu. It will include a freezer meal and 'quick meals' like beans on toast but the main 3-5 meals a week are all different each week. I batch cook food for the quick meals too so don't include those meals (spag bol, chilli, curry) in the plan to ensure there is variety. It took a while to sort out but it's been so good because we use it for a shopping list and then assign the chef for each night. No more "what do you want for dinner?" "Don't mind" infuriating conversations

Yes!

-Veggie Chilli
-Vegan bolognaise
-Various curries / Dhals
-Some kind of hash with whatever veggies we have
-Posh egg and chips
-Risottos
-Pesto pasta / tomato pasta / homemade pizza for DS who won’t eat lots of the above.

I started doing organic recipe boxes to break the monotony and it’s great. But DS won’t eat them. So the recipe boxes are just for DH and I, while DS eats pesto pasta yet again…

He taught me to cook before we married.We both cook, always have.

In a very long marriage we've accumulated many old favourite recipes (far more than 6) and we both still try new recipes seen on TV, in magazines, eaten in reatuarants or shared by our adult kids (all keen cooks).

Off to finish making the moussaka. One of the old favourites.

I'll mix it up sometimes but yeah that's usually us... Our top 6 and eaten often are:
Curry
Spag Bol
Veggie Pasta
Homemade pizza
Fajitas
Egg, ham and beans

DH jokes that we never have the same meal twice as I rarely tend to follow a recipe... therefore everything is always a bit different to the times we've had it before.

I think my christmas lunch is fairly predictable but that's about it

We got recipe boxes for a while to try and get out of the rut but have gone back to the old favourites.

Prawn spaghetti
Salmon with roasted veg
Butternut squash and sage risotto
Roast chicken
Chicken noodle soup the next day
Lentil lasagne
Spag bol
Chicken cacciatore

I like to try out new recipes on a regular basis because I get bored eating the same things all the time and I quite enjoy cooking anyway.

I usually write a 2 week meal plan that is a mixture of things we eat on a regular basis and things we don't have often or that we've never had before.

I can understand the convenience, but goodness how boring! I live alone so can please myself, and enjoy cooking. I make a large variety of meals from different cuisines - Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, Italian, French, Greek, Spanish, Polish, Moroccan, Middle Eastern, British. And I mix my own spices, so my curries are never the same twice running, just loosely adapted from a basic dhansak or whatever. I do batch cook though, and either freeze portions or work through a casserole for a few days.

Pizza
Lasagne
Veggie Lasagne
Veggie Chilli
Fahjitas/ wraps
Chicken and leek Pie
Steak and Ale Pie
Meatballs and Pasta
Salmon and Rice
Bao Buns and chips
Chicken and pasta in tomato sauce
Chicken and pasta in cheese sauce
Bolgnese
Eggs (omlette / fried / however you want)

I'd do Thai curry more often if DS would eat.
I can't do Indian curry at the moment as DH is having his teeth fixed and can't eat tumeric

I'm trying to expand it. But DS and DH are both fussy... We are having chicken and chorizo with rice tonight.

I have 6 weeks of no repeats but I still feel like we eat the same thing all the time!