...to not want a roast dinner every Sunday?

[MissMarjoribanks]

DH insists that we have a full roast dinner with all the trimmings, every bloody Sunday. This effectively means that we don't actually get to do anything else, as he goes to church with DS in the morning, and goes off to do his hobby in the early evening.

So, if we have dinner at lunchtime, it goes on when he gets back from church and we will finish eating about 2.30pm. If we have it at dinnertime we have to eat at 5 for him to be out of the door for 6.30, so it goes on at 2.30pm.

He does the lions share of the cooking for it, btw, so this is not a whinge about that. It just seems that with trying to get a load of housework done, looking after 11mo DS and him inevitably wanting to fit in seeing his family at some point, there is no time at which it is just the three of us spending time together at the weekend, or getting to go out anywhere other than the supermarket. We're either spread throughout the house doing various jobs, have visitors or are visiting or are eating.

AIBU to demand boiled egg and soldiers for tea next week?

Roast dinners are foul. Nasty bland English food.

I don't think you can beat having the whole family round the table having Sunday dinner.

bland?
Rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, roast chicken with orange and lemon, deep aromatic gravy, yum yumm yummmmmmmm.

roast dinner is fabulous, but I agree there's no need for every week (though I like it because you get another meal from the meat too).

How much housework do you have to do - I am also a SAHM with one child and only do about 2 hours a week - so surely you don't need to be doing it at the weekend? And if your DH likes going to the supermarket with your DS why do you need to go to?

Your DH really does sound a saint ! (Check out some of the threads on here !!)

Roast dinners are fabulous! DH has never cooked one, but does other cooking. He is not overly fussed if we don't have one every week, but I prefer a roast on Sunday. He was out at a Gorillaz concert last night, and I made one for myself-with all the trimmings.
I do enjoy eating out on the odd Sunday, but IME gastro pub roasts are still inferior to the ones you get at home. Can't be doing with the piddly 2-3 tiny roast potatoes either!

I do 1/2 an hour to an hour a day housework and about 3 hours at the weekend. I'm quite slow at jobs though. For example today I have (as well as looking after DS) cleaned the bathroom, tidied and swept upstairs, emptied the dishwasher, put some washing away and put a wash on. Took about an hour in total.

I don't need to go to the supermarket, but if I don't then the right things don't always get bought. I don't go every week but every 2-3 weeks when its crucial to get specific things.

DH is a saint. I have posted before on my DH is a messy bugger threads saying that he is, but I forgive him because he is otherwise so damn useful.

Could you not have lunch earlier so that thereis time to go out in the afternoon.

You could start it sometimes?

YABU. I'd have one everyday if it was decent.

Eating together is nice time together.

Eating together is nice-it´s that a roast can take so long & then a relatively short time is spent eating together!

So is time out of the house as a family.

When I can't be bothered don't have time to do a full roast we sometimes have a "cheaty joint" ie one of those in a foil tray.

Bung it in oven, Cooks in about 1 hr, easy to carve, chuck tray in bin.

Stick some new potatoes in a little oil in the oven at the same time, then do frozen peas at last minute and instant gravy. Job done. Nowhere near as nice as the full works, but a good compromise and a LOT less hassle.

Roast dinner bland? hahahaha. Get yourself Jamie's Ministry of Food cookbook, cook one of his roasts (sitting it on veg trivet to make gravy with later) THEN tell me it's bland. Oh and the veg recipes are to die for. mmmmmmmm

My husband loves Sunday roasts but never cooks it or washes up afterwards. My solution is to cheat and get one of those ready roasted chickens from the Supermarket on Sunday morning, together with frozen roast potatoes, frozen yorkshire puddings and gravy from a tub.I persuade DH to peel some veg and they go into the pressure cooker.

Overall very easy and doesnt take a lot of time so that we have most of Sunday free.

On Saturday can you make enough food for two days?

YANBU - I was forced to eat large 'healthy' roasts through childhood then 7 years of boarding school. Just the smell of boiling veg let alone roast meet makes me sick. Poor DH who had a lovely upbringing with good Yorkshire cooking mum & fresh fruit & veg from garden would LOVE proper Sunday meal but only gets it when we're invited out or go out to a restaurant where I can indulge in junk and he can go to the YUCK carvery. My selfishness extends to the new kitchen we had fitted in April - I told him straight that there would be no roasting or any form of meat with fat in the oven. So he bought a halogen oven from JML (it looks like a spaceship) which is FANTASTIC, it roasts, browns, cooks sausages, bacon, anything properly, not like a microwave, then WASHES ITSELF UP !!!!!!!!!!!! No smell escapes from it and it is the best thing we've ever bought. So the cooker remains clean, I can continue with my junk at home & he cooks (puke) lamb or any other 'proper' food. I also dislike 'proper' puddings eg suet (puke), sponge, custard etc., another legacy from boarding school, so he eats this kind of thing while I eat fruit. I have always refused to cook roast meals and will never do so, at Christmas DH cooks a turkey crown for everyone which is much appreciated - this year it will be in the halogen cooker. I have a fit if there is any grease or mess in the kitchen, but it's the smell I hate the most. If your DH wants it, he should cook it and clear up too. :)

YABVU

harassedinherpants how do you do the roast chicken breasts?

We rarely have roast dinners as no one but me is a foodie and as I don't eat meat, I'd rather put the effort into other food.

Shammalamma - are you not a vicars daughter though?

Whaddya mean your dh insists? Can't you just say, not today love?

We also fell into this trap of losing a Sunday due to cooking a roast!

Might start again now that the children are older & busy with friends/homework.

I don't understand why it takes all day?

We have a roast most Sundays. Veggies I peel/ prepare as soon as I get up, takes maybe half hour. We then go out and do whatever we are doing.

Meat is either put on V slow before we go out or on normally when we get back.

The last hour before eating the roasties and parsnips are put in, and other veg is done, then wrapped in foil and placed at bottom of oven. Gravy is made from meat juice and veg water (this is the only bit DH does)

I reckon the whole thing takes an hour in the morning and an hour later on (we eat at 5/6) so plenty of time to do stuff in between.

I also bung all the leftovers in a saucepan (make extra on purpose) to make soup for Mon tea. Dd prefers this to the actual Sunday dinner!

Well, it doesn´t actually take all day.

But if you´re not especially organised, it can mean that there´s not much of the day left after you´ve eaten.

blimey what are you lot roasting?

I usually start cooking about 4.30pm and we eat about 6.30pm to 7pm

Yanbu. I love a veggie roast. We usually have one each week. It is more often on a week night though as we like to make the most of getting out and about as a family on Sunday.

YABVVVVVVVU not to want a roast dinner (esp cooked for you - assuming he's a good cook - and washed up afterwards)!

But YANBU to be fed up with the same old routine every weekend, and not getting to do anything fun on a Sunday.

We very often have a double roast weekend, because we are greedy and love/live to eat. Lamb shanks, pork belly slow roasted on a bed of fennel, beef on/off the bone, venison, chicken. We eat in the evenings though, so we go out in the day, then start cooking when we get back. It's my favourite part of the week; the smell of the roast permeating the house, relaxing with a glass or several of good wine, chatting over the veg chopping, anticipating a fantastic meal.

Could you swap the weekend roast to a Saturday evening? That way it doesn't have to be prepared early for your DH to go out to his hobby, and you can have a later and more leisurely meal. Then you can have time for going out both days, but DH still gets to cook a roast. If he won't agree to that, maybe every other weekend, then maybe you need to suggest to him that he's a bit set in his ways..