People who love cooking for their families every single bloody day……

[Zippidydoodah]

…..and I’m sure there must be someone out there! 😜

Please could you inspire me? All I feel is seething resentment and verging on rage that I have to cook every. Single. Night.

I’ve tried “dump bags”- horrible name but amazing concept- nobody liked them.

The kids eat way too much beige and we don’t eat anywhere near enough vegetables. I’m genuinely scared for our future health!

Help us……please!

Are you a single parent?

Hello fresh helped us, you don't need to think of meal ideas and everything is there and easy to follow

No. 🙄

He works long hours and is pretty rubbish at home. I’m working on that.

My DH does all the cooking ... he enjoys it and we eat well! I was about to say I'm lucky, but I do all the washing, so we're quits.

😭😭😭

ChatGPT can make a meal plan for you.

We recently used Gousto for a few weeks as we had a 60% discount, which was quite fun.

My DS has lots of food allergies (no dairy, no egg), so meals can be really tedious if I'm honest , so just totally get where you're coming from.

I've had a recent try at being "low UPF", which has made it a little more fun.

I did it til A levels were done and dusted. Now it is shared between us all when they are home from Uni. DH and I are easy going can have beans on toast etc teenagers always want meat 🍖 ! They have learnt to cook their own meat laden meals very well though. Nobody likes takeaways post Covid as quality is crap now ioo.

I hear you - I like cooking but not every day and not two meals for ND kids who wouldn't eat otherwise.

Do you meal plan? It takes the pain of deciding away.

My kids refuse home cooked food, and therefore eat a lot of beige, but I serve veg with every meal and they have to eat some or I assume they are not hungry for dessert. Some beige is better than others - I try to buy lower upf beige like waffles, higher end sausages, pizzas I can add toppings to, make omlettes etc.

I use leftovers a lot - Bolognese with pasta on day 1 and rice on day 2, stews for the adults for 2 days at least etc.

We ended up embracing the beige unfortunately ds3 is autistic most likely a contender for ARFRID now he is older I bought an air fryer and cook his bland food ds1 eats pretty much what I eat but he has days when he nopes out and has bland stuff too

I love cooking, my work is really stressful and often long term, so I don’t see the end of something for nine months plus. When I cook I actually see the fruits of my efforts in an hour or so.

I like nice food so buy good ingredients and plan/think about what I want to eat. Single parent to now late teen DCs who can cook but only do so once a fortnight (because I like cooking).

What would you like to eat is a good place to start.

I don't (can't) have children, so my suggestions might not be right. How old are the children?

-Can you batch cook anything? Lasagne, pasta bake or even just the sauces like bolognese? Veg can be hidden in all these sauces if pureed into the sauce.
-Aldi do a range of packets like this and they are the cheapest I've found. Other supermakets have similar. Quick to prep and I add additional veg too. They do Thai flavours, Indian, Katsu curry etc https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-ready-setcook-pad-thai-meal-kit-265g/4088600294308
-Would the kids eat beige food which is home made? Like crumbed chicken or fish fingers? https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/homemade-fish-fingers

Edited to ask what on earth a dump bag is??? 🤔

Go easy on yourself. It's a chore! There are lots of easy ways of getting veg in.

I love having a bag of washed spinach it. Shred it and add it to cooked pasta or rice for an instant green hit.

Avocado is another easy win. Sliced with virtually any beige meal. Ditto cucumber.

One of my easiest meals is a tonne of salad on a plate. Pan fry some halloumi. Put wraps, hummus and condiments out and everyone makes their own halloumi wraps.

Buy those ready prepped roasting veg trays. Bung in the oven. Instant side of veg.

Boiling peas and sweetcorn is as easy as it gets too.

I meal plan. I also batch cook and freeze a lot - I do massive amounts of pasta bake, lasagna and Bolognese sauce for the freezer. Then I've got a couple of meals a week I can do with no effort.

At one point (should probably revive this!) we had a list of every meal we'd ever made and liked to use while meal planning.

Oh I feel your pain op. I'm a single parent and a good cook but oh my hod the RELENTLESSNESS of it just kills me. I do menu plan but it only works if everything else goes to plan - so it's been shit this week because my middle son had a car accident and I had some heavy work deadlines which put paid to everything. I'm working on getting the offspring to pitch in with the cooking but it's still a work in progress. Batch cooking is your friend but I find I can only do that when I'm not chasing my tail with other stuff!

What is it about cooking?
The planning or the cooking? Or something else?

Urgh, I feel your pain. I used to like cooking, once upon a time, before children and then even with children but before covid and lockdown. Now I'm working most days and it's such a chore. Today we had sausages as hotdogs, with fried onions and some fries, and some token cucumber. Whilst it was being prepped I made a bolognaise for tomorrow (which I probably won't fancy eating tomorrow, but still 😭).

I love it. I come home and go in the kitchen for some calm, chop some stuff, it transitions from the outside, work day to the home and family one.

DH pops in and out and chats (and will help if needed). DS11 comes and lays the table (table is in the kitchen) and helps if he has finished his homework.

After dinner DH does All of the washing and clearing up which is his moment of calm.

Dump bags look great! Thanks for the tip.

For CBA days I would say vaguely healthy things on toast (eggs, beans, tuna) or baked potatoes with some salad from a bag. Or pre made fish cakes or quiche with salad from a bag.

My other favourite low effort “recipes” are:

1. roast a whole thing of feta with a tub of cherry tomatoes, with olive oil drizzled over, for 20 minutes then mix it all with cooked pasta and a bit of the pasta water to make it saucier. Mix a bag of rocket in with it to serve if you want.

2. fry some grated courgette with olive oil and garlic. Cook pasta. Mix together.

I hear you, deciding what to have for dinner every night is tiresome.

I try to make 2 or 3 meals one day a week but make double of each of those so one set for the freezer and one set for the week ahead, things like bolognaise with hidden veg, a nice homemade pasta sauce or dish, chicken and veg curry etc, things that freeze well. You build up a bit of a freezer stash I use those frozen dinners when I can’t be bothered and would reach for beige food or a takeaway.

DS12 has started to get into cooking so he made smash burgers on rolls with salad tonight which was tasty so hoping to train him up more!

Omg I could have made this post... was thinking the exact same thing tonight. Feel bad I'm getting the exact same things for the kids and that any time I add variety there's a high risk of them rejecting any cooking completely... grrrr

One of my go-tos (being veggie) is pasta and cheese with a sneaky healthy dose of some tinned beans mashed up so you can't see/taste them.

Edamame beans from the freezer are also an easy go to! (Sorry that's not really cooking but just something that's easy and green)..could have as a side

Could you roast a load of veg on one day and use it over the space of a few days?

I used to love cooking before kids but now it feels like the worst job... especially when they just shout YUCK... ungrateful shits!!

Cook once, eat twice. Either double up and freeze one for later or cook something which can be the basis of more than one meal eg pork shoulder roast dinner then next day pulled pork chilli and rice (next day as burritos etc).

DCs 11 and 13 favourite veg are cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, ‘tomato salad’ consisting of really juicy Grappe tomatoes chopped up (can add a little salt, and or olive oil as needed), raw peppers, in fact peppers in any form (cooked in a pan until soft then tossed with some chili powder and dried oregano is a favourite), frozen peas, homemade ‘ratatouille’ made from slow cooked aubergine and courgettes (and peppers, if we have them), mushrooms in any form, and absolutely anything if it’s made into lasagne. Also any kinds of vegetable soup.

This all sounds delicious! The problem is, the kids don’t eat vegetables really, and I’m running out of energy for it all.

Thank you!!

Part of the problem is definitely that I cba to cook something that’s just going to be rejected. I keep saying I’m going to just put a plate infront of them and leave it to them to eat or not, BUT…. The waste! And the fact that they’re still hungry when they inevitably don’t eat it!

The problem is, the kids don’t eat vegetables really, and I’m running out of energy for it all.

There are several toddler/childrens book on how to hide veg in everyday foods. I don't know the names of specific books, but cheap copies off ebay might help.