I'm doing slimming world and have been getting on really well. PIL live about an hour and a half drive away so we usually go and see them of a weekend with DS and will stay the night.
MIL ALWAYS cooks. I offer to help and she says she doesn't need help. DH didn't cook a thing until he moved out to uni because he was never allowed. I've never realised it before but the things she cooks, whilst they are nice and I am very grateful, are full of things that I should be cutting back on or substituting for something else. She cooks with butter, even the vegetables are covered in butter. We were supposed to meet DH's friend on Saturday after staying over Friday but he was late and we ended up having breakfast and lunch there. Which was a greasy fry up and then curry and rice, the fry up she'd made as I was getting ready and the curry was out of a jar. She tried to give me cake at every opportunity and I politely said no thank you but she made me feel guilty because she'd bought it just for us. She kept on putting out biscuits and cakes and cookies. She also only drinks really sugary drinks and I don't really like drinking water, it needs juice in or flavour! I've told her I'm eating healthier but she just keeps saying that DS needs a role model who doesn't deprive themselves. She can be quite controlling at times too.
I would never expect her to cook according to my specific needs. When eating the curry DH mentioned a slimming world one that I had cooked the previous week and how nice it was. FiL asked about it and I said "Why don't I cook it for us next week when we come? That way you can both spend more time with DS and we can be useful in the kitchen." This was met with an awkward silence and then MIL laughed and said "I don't think so, dear." I asked why not and she said FIL and DH prefer her cooking. DH stood up for me and said that he loves my cooking and that I only want to help. She then said that FIL needs real food and she has to cook that for him. I just said that we do cook real food at home and it was their loss of they didn't want to try it. DH was really embarrassed about it but I just told him not to worry. FIL asked later on, maybe just to be nice, about other meals that I've cooked. I showed him some on the slimming world website and said I would let him borrow a book of mine. He works away three days during the week and lives in another house so would be able to cook for himself.
Next weekend we're staying on the Saturday night. We've planned to get there later on and skip dinner with them but would it be really rude of me to take my own cereal and fruit to snack on and maybe a frozen meal that I'd made for lunch?