Do you cook something different for dinner every night?

[ErinAndTonic]

Just wondering what other people do... I tend to cook a recipe either for myself or for my partner and I.. it always makes at least 4 portions once I work out the nutritional info etc. Makes sense as well to get multiple portions from the effort and washing up etc 😅 (this makes it sound like I don't enjoy cooking when I do - but I mean from a time perspective)

So often end up having 2-3 meals of the same thing in a week. Unless I freeze it. I also find it quite cumbersome to organise 5 different dinners every night (I wing it on the weekends).

I'm starting to meal plan, repeat more for breakfast/lunches and aim for more variety at dinner time and this led me to thinking I wonder how everyone else is doing it 🤔

If you have a dinner that's different every evening, do you tend to eat the same thing for breakfast/lunch?

I guess everyone's process is different. If you repeat the same recipes or stick to what you know and love yes it could be, whereas I'm forever making totally new things week after week, which is why if I have something two nights in a row it doesn't bother me much.

Still good tips on here though how I can make a few tweaks.

I eat like a sociopath! Same thing until it’s done.

Yes, no way I eat the same meal 3x in a row.

We are three for dinner and if there is any leftovers DH often eats it for lunch or it goes in the freezer, especially curries and pasta sauce.

If we are only 2 then I just half a recipe or do something easy and simple.

We shop at the weekend until Wednesday and then do a top-up for 2 days as DD is at her sport and one of us goes shopping while waiting for her.

Haha I love this 😅

Pretty much

End of the week we usually have 'tapas' which is basically fridge roulette

We always have dinners two days in a row. Kids only have a sandwich tea so I'll cook something to feed 4 and we'll have that Monday Tues, DH tends to then cook Wednesday so we'll eat that weds and Thursday. Burgers Friday and takeaway Sat/Sun.

Massively cuts down on the work and thinking

A different meal every night. I've tried it your way and but I never want to eat it, so it ends up frozen for an eternity or wasted.

I think this makes a difference if you are cooking for 1, or for two, against if you are feeding 5 or 6 every night.

When I lived alone, I would quite often make something which I then had over 3 nights, but when used to cooking for a family, it doesn't work like that.
Cooking for one, it's not worth making say a cottage pie or a lasagne just for one meal.

I do that too. I call it a nibble plate, but I may steal your fridge roulette term now 😅

We eat a different meal every night. But, to save time, I usually batch cook meals. So I always make 2 lasagnes, 2 shepherds pies, etc, then freeze one and cook the other.

I also freeze leftovers In single portions. And I make huge batches of soup and freeze into portions.

I cook once a day usually, sometimes I'll skip a night and we'll have leftovers. Lunch is sandwiches or leftovers, as well. So I do bulk cook some things and eat on the days I can't be bothered or for lunches when I want something hot. Breakfasts are the same every day, except occasionally on the weekends when I'll do something hot.

We have something different each day but tend to follow a pattern so Sunday is usually a roast, Monday is a pasta dish, Tuesday risotto or stir fry, Wednesday freezer dinner, Thursday pasta again, Friday curry, Saturday something more exciting like homemade pizza or casserole. I always menu plan which saves money on shopping.

We occasionally have the same thing twice but never 2 nights running and it doesn’t happen often

I meal plan, have 6 weeks of meals on a spreadsheet. Sounds like a lot but Sunday is always a roast, and some meals are similar - e.g sausage and mash and toad in the hole, fajitas and enchiladas

Friday and Saturday I make the more treaty fakeaway meals like chicken wings, pizza etc 😋

One or two of the meals each week make leftovers such as spag bol, pasta bake. I buy and make extra on purpose and freeze into portions.We don't use these as dinners but my husband has a hot late lunch when he gets home from work and it's always one of these meals. There's always about 10 in the freezer and he just picks what he wants the night before.

We don't have kids and Im pg and can't do my normal duties atm so I work from home, I appreciate i might have a lot more spare time than others, and I really love cooking and meal planning. This all might change in the future though 😅😅😅

Same breakfast and lunch everyday for me. And have the same dinner 2 nights in a row then switch. I'm not inventive to cook something different every night and I don't mind "boring" food, just eat it and get on.

It’s just me and DP, and we often have the same thing (or a variation on it) two nights in a row. We usually try and do a twofer on a Sunday so no-one has to cook on Monday. That tends to be something like a cottage pie, curry, lasagne, or a roast chicken which can be used in a risotto the next day.

He travels a lot for work and I am too lazy to cook for just me, so often end up with stir fries, M&S oven meals etc. tonight and last night I had pan fried gnocchi with pesto, Parmesan and spinach which normally would be a one night meal for two.

I have zero discipline and a condition which causes impulsiveness. To lose weight I’ve had to eat the same thing each week from Mon - Friday and I can switch it up on weekends. Each week the menu changes.

If anyone told me years ago, I would be able to do this I’d think they were crazy. I love food and eating. I’ve only managed because I make quick meals so at the very least they’re not leftovers.

This is just for me though, the family gets different meals every day.

Whatever we have for dinner, we occasionally have for lunch the next day. I don't intentionally make extra portions. I never do 2 of the same meal for dinner, and always do something different with lunch. E.g. add salad instead of chips, rice instead of potatoes. DH wouldn't be happy if I served the same thing all the time so we don't have the same meal often- my meal plan is a 4 weekly rotation.

I'm also always put off by eating leftovers, so the DC have it at lunchtime!

I couldn't do that, maybe if I made a lot I will have it for lunch. But to have the same meal x3 in a row is depressing and reminds me of being broke and a shitty childhood

Luckily for me my husband does all the cooking and he cooks something fresh every evening. He makes enough for 4 portions. We have one each and the other 2 I box up and freeze to take to my elderly Dad, then he gets homecooking alongside the ready meals he also has.

Tend to have the same things for lunch - usually ham or tuna sandwich.

breakfast is always the same Mon-Fri and then Sat and Sun I ‘treat’ myself to tea and toast

My sister and her husband often make a huge pan of pasta and sauce and then eat it every day until it’s all gone - yuk!

I have three children so one lot of something usually does us a meal- because things like a jar of pasta sauce is the right amount for 5 people.
If there is extra of something I save it before combining it into the meal and then would make it a bit different, like if we have spicy chicken with rice and veg and I have left over chicken, it will go with salad in a wrap the next day. If we boiled some potatoes to make mash, I would take some unmashed potatoes out and then have them with spinach in a curry the next day so I don't have to boil potatoes again but I'm not eating mash for 3 days.

I don't want to go back to skint teenager days where a pot of pasta would last me a week of identical boring pasta meals that got steadily claggier and more congealed in the fridge throughout the week

If you fancy trying something new then Gousto are offering 70% off their boxes for the next 2 hours only.

So you could get 4 meals x 4 portions for under £18.

You can cancel anytime.

If you use my code I will get £30 credit and you will get 70% off your first box plus 20% off for the rest of the month.

You could even use your partners email after and get them to sign up with your code, giving you £30 off and then getting another 70% first box.

www.gousto.co.uk/raf/?promo_code=ANOUA43129362

If someone served me the same dinner two nights in a row and it was something I liked (not even loved), I'd happily eat it.

As it is, I am the only person who has cooked in my household for 13 years and before that I loved alone. So I believe I should eat what I fancy each night which is rarely the same thing, so I wouldn't eat the same dinner twice in a row. I do batch cook and freeze and sometimes will creatively reuse something for my son eg last night was ham with baby potatoes, carrots and broccoli and today it was cold ham with chutney, air fryer chips and sweetcorn. I'd not have eaten ham 2 days in a row by choice and would usually freeze the cooked meat but he loved it.

Aside from a handful of regular meals (chilli, pasta dishes, quesedillas, curry etc) which are on rotation at some point, yes, different meal everyday. I plan my evening meals for 2 weeks with a selection of cookbooks and make a shopping list. My second week would include simpler meals or ones which require meat to be frozen or veg that's long lasting like butternut squash.
If I have a recipe that uses spinach, I'll plan 2 or three meals with spinach. I have no leftovers and no waste. It is a big planning job though and i'm CF!

Yes, I'd get bored having the same thing 4 nights in a row. We are a family of 2 so I freeze a lot. Usually we have salmon twice a week in various forms (teriyaki with noodles, fish pie, Thai fish cakes, salmon risotto etc), a chicken dish, a mince dish, a pasta dish and then a takeaway or eat out one night.