Do you actually enjoy cooking every night, or is it just me who’s completely over it?

[Alyah]

I feel like I used to enjoy cooking, but lately it’s become such a chore. Between work, kids, and everything else, by the time I get to the kitchen I just want something quick and easy. But then I end up feeling guilty for not making “proper” meals.
Everyone on social media seems to be whipping up homemade dinners from scratch every night — meanwhile, I’m here trying to convince myself that oven chips and fish fingers count as balanced.
Does anyone still genuinely enjoy cooking daily, or have most people just accepted it’s about getting everyone fed and moving on?

What’s your method for flatbreads pls CharSui? I’ve never been any good with bread or baking!
I think having a decent kitchen really does help, but I’ve cooked most of my life in tiny kitchens so have learned to manage.

If I never had to cook again I’d be happy. I use my slow cooker a lot so that meals are pretty much good to go when I get in. It does mean I am prepping the next days meal the evening before though!

No, I don't much enjoy cooking, but thankfully my husband does most of the cooking in our house.

Used to enjoy it but am totally over it.
I am a fabulous cook which does put pressure on me as my children and husband love my food.
Don't blame them but I cannot be arsed.
So I have reduced the amount I do and let them crack on themselves. All old enough to take care of themselves.
My son is visiting tonight so a lovely meal is on offer and they can't wait, but mostly now I cannot be bothered with it.

I don't mind the cooking, its the amount of time I have to spend coming up with something to serve that I am over!

I meal plan once a week.
I stay in bed for an extra hour one day a week and write what I fancy to eat. Then I order the ingredients for it and figure out what leftover bits I'll have. Then I figure out what I can make with them, and add any extra bits to the order. Then I get up and check the freezer to see if I can delete anything from the list that I already have.

The money saved is my treat money and I buy treats with it.

Voila. Meal plan, done in bed, with a posh coffee.

On weeks when I really don't fancy anything I buy the best protein on offer or scroll through Reddit rate my plate til I see something and think, oooooooo, I fancy that.

I really enjoy my meal plan mornings. I used to hate it too, but I turned it into me time and now I look forward to it.

I've got moussaka and chicken wings that I fancy this week, and another poster has said the gammon is on offer in Tesco.
The other person in my house always says 'dunno' if I ask what they want, so I now I just do what I like!

Oh, also, if you start this, and anyone bothers you:
You have to say, if you're hanging around, you're helping and make them help. Say everything in your head out load.

They either end up doing it themselves so you shut up or they bugger off and leave you in peace with your posh coffee and your list.

Having a DC has ruined any enjoyment I used to get from cooking, now it’s just another bloody chore.
and because he’s so sodding restrictive with his diet, we can’t even go on holiday somewhere where they feed us, stuck in Britain, self-catering

Bored shitless with it. If it was just me I wouldn’t have any pissing dinner.

Hate it!

I actually like cooking noce food but the mind numbing everyday Ness of it is soul destroying. I have a asd daughter that is constantly STARVING. After breakfast she is asking for lunch 😖

Dh loves it and is amazing at it (I’m the worst cook ever and literally just do it when I have to) but he goes all out, music on, ignores everything else (hence the reason my cooking doesn’t work out, I get called away by kids or the dog does something). Maybe this weekend try it with a glass/ cuppa of something you like and some music on

I hate cooking! Planning meals, shopping for meals, cooking fucking meals, sick to my back teeth of it! The only thing worse than cooking every day is batch cooking imo. It wouldn't work for us anyway as we are a family of 6, all pretty much adults so would have to cook huge quantities if batch cooking. Its my least favourite household chore.

Love cooking, hate the "what's for tea" bit.
Also the limitations of cooking for others. I would eat loads more veg and more variety, more pulses, less meat, more fish. No one else likes mushrooms or aubergines or spinach for example, I really love all 3.

I don't enjoy cooking every night but my DH, who does the cooking, does.
We'd eat a lot more salad and sandwiches if it was just me. I actually do like cooking but I don't like to do it every night. We're vegan living overseas where that isn't easy and have two kids with very different tastes. DH fucking trashes the kitchen every time he cooks but he does keep us all fed.

I am absolutely sick & tired of the relentless daily/weekly grind of meal planning, purchasing, prepping and cooking. After so many years my love of cooking has been destroyed.
Can you tell this thread has caught me on a bad day😂
I get dh & the adult dc who has boomeranged back to cook but tbh the lions share is down to me as I no longer work ft.
Batch cooking, the slow cooker and one pot dishes are what I mostly cook now and rarely cook at weekends.
I have no trouble finding my mojo when it comes to baking cakes though!

I quite like cooking every night. I have a desk based job so the manual food prep is a good change of pace.

We go to Costco every few months and stuff the freezer with semi prepped food (like chicken drumsticks frozen in the marinade) but you still have to remember to get it out to defrost in time!

Don’t menu plan, the rigidity would get me down.

Dinner A Love Story is a great old skool blog about the daily grind of dinner. The author Jenny Rosenstrach has a few books too and tons of ideas on how to deconstruct dinners for picky eaters, fast dinners that adults and kids will like. I lover her stuff, been a fan for like 8-9 years.

It’s so tedious.

I enjoy the actual cooking part…..

But once I’ve cooked the meal, I often find myself with no appetite to actually eat it 🫠

I finish work early so possibly I'd feel different if I wasn't getting home until 6pm, but...

I enjoy cooking dinners because I watch a series on the IPad while doing it, which makes all the difference and helps me switch off from work. I can then enjoy some peace to myself without feeling guilty. I wouldn't say I'm a great cook but I can do basic meals such as spaghetti bolognese, macaroni cheese, omelette and jackets or home made pizza so they don't take very long. I don't like full on batch cooking but I do make double portions of the bolognese and the pizza dough.

We have a freezer meal once a week (i.e. fish fingers and oven chips), which I'm fine with and sometimes eat out or get takeaway over the weekend so I'm not perfect, but I would never, ever do a whole week of covenience-type meals such as ready made lasagne or nuggets. If I was that pushed I'd do scrambled egg and beans on toast with some veg sticks or something, which is really easy anyway.

I am SO over it it's not even funny.

I used to love cooking: trying different recipes, buying different ingredients, cookbooks, etc etc.

Now I'm just like, yeah our stomachs need something to think about

😂

Yes mostly. I’m the menu planner so have three items from the freezer defrosting in the fridge for the next three nights and I buy in on sale/specials.

the morning after, I get something else out of the freezer for dinner once it’s been thawing in the fridge.

generally the OH will do the BBQ, so shares responsibility to some degree each meal . He has to peel potatoes if we have them as I hate peeling spuds and steams the rice if we have that.

once a month or so we will go out for dinner and/or he will bring fish and chips home. We have pretty firm opinions about eating at home as a family so that helps.

i also love cookbooks and will use a sticky place marker for recipes I want to try. It mostly works out, and if it doesn’t we don’t have it again. It’s not the end of the world with the family.

theres one person I will no longer host and that is a friend of the OH years ago. He stayed with us for about 4 weeks some time back. Said I cooked like his mother…. And he didn’t like it. I made an exception for the OH’s special zero birthday, hosted 12 people for lunch the following day and had pumpkin soup, breads, and separate charcuterie board. He didn’t eat anything of it.

our other friends hooked in and thought he was weird. Interestingly I’ve never been invited to theirs for a meal.

I love it. I have a crazy busy intense day job and cooking in the evening is relaxation. It's like therapy.

I enjoy cooking

i Cook twice a week. We eat what I make the whole week. But I only cook twice. It’s good that way.

I like cooking but after what felt like centuries of cooking for the family every bloody evening (except sometimes at the weekend when DH would do it) I have had enough.

DH once complained that I made spag bol too often. I almost chucked the pan at him: I could cook it with my eyes shut, all the DC loved it, and I could make enough for 2 evenings in one big batch. So bloody eat it, Sunshine, and be sodding grateful.

These days, DC largely flown, DH does most of the cooking. He has it easy, but I don't think he appreciates quite how easy.