Do people really eat a cooked meal every single night?

[JonesyAndTheSalad]

I just can't!

I have done this week as we've got guests so it seems the polite and right thing to do...to cook a meal each night.

But the endless stream of meat and potatoes is awful!

We've had pasta one night but that was also with meat...another night we had pizzas...home made...the other nights it has been curry with chicken and rice and a variety of red meat with various potatoes.

I always ask the guests "What do you fancy this evening?" and it's always meat and potatoes of some kind!

Is this usual? Tonight I just didn't fancy it so said I didn't fancy a full meal and I ate some yogurt...they were a bit

Do you eat like this every night? Or do you sometimes think "Meh I'll have a sandwich" or "The kids will be happy with egg on toast and some fruit"

Or is it only me?

Yes we have a proper cooked meal every evening unless we are eating out ( once or twice per week ) or having a takeaway ( once every 14 days or so ) some meals are much quicker , easier or simple than others but in each case it's always served at the table and a time to spend together relaxing , chatting and catching up about what we have each been doing that day

We like to spend time planning nice meals and a wine that compliment them although we don't drink wine every night

I never used to menu plan but the last 10 or so months I have planned out roughly what we are eating for about 10 days at a time inc eating out and occasionally a takeaway , it makes it much easier for me to be organised and make a nice variety of meals

Example of a typical 14 days eating at home would be ...

Sausage & home made herby wedges
Dijon chicken, new potatoes , green beans
Paella with seafood
Jacket potatoes with cheese and salad
Chilli con carne & rice ( some put in the freezer for use in a week or so time )
Salmon , new potatoes & salad
Chicken fajitas
Spaghetti carbonara
Chicken Kiev's with new potatoes & salad
Steak, chips, mushrooms, peas & tomatoes
Mushroom stroganoff with rice
Crab and prawn linguine

We both like meat but try to have several meals meat free , to be honest this list actually looks quite a 'safe' one but I'm quite a foodie with a love of exploring the unknown and DP is a willing ( 99%of the time ) Guinea pig to my efforts

Also worth mentioning that saying 'having meat at each meal/day is bad or expensive' is only true if the quantity of meat yu use is quite high.
We do have meat every day but then I also know we use very little meat (we average around 250~300g for 4, 2 adults and 2 teenagers eating more than us).

I don't understand people who never have a salad as their main meal. When the weather is hot (not a frequent occurrence, as I live in Scotland), I don't want to be slaving over a hot stove, or eating a hot meal - I want something cool and light.

@EpoxyResin - dh is out at work most days, or working from home, so having the main meal at lunch time just would not be practical - unless I had mine at lunchtime, and plated his up for him to microwave in the evening - so we'd only eat our main meal together at weekends (he doesn't usually have the time to stop for a main meal when he is working at home).

Stealth, yes you're right. But pasta night (which this week is spag bol but next week might be Macaroni cheese) and curry night (this week chicken, next week fish), sort of rings the changes. I should say we on average eat meat 6/7 to be fair.

Depends on the salad SDTG. I need protein or I get hungry. So a salad with cheese, lots of nuts, or maybe half a sliced duck breast, is great. Just leaves and veg doesn't do it.

We might have salad in the summer - with chopped chunky ham from the deli tossed through it (or griddled halloumi) along with a massive french stick. I'm still on warming, comfort food until about June though.

Surely egg on toast is a cooked meal too..? Raw egg and bread sounds less appealing somehow.

I don't get this not wanting a proper meal in hot weather either, but then my mother came from India.

We have a hot cooked meal every night. Logistics mean that dp and dd don't get the chance to have a hot meal during the day - after having sandwiches for lunch I prefer to make something decent for dinner.

However, we do not have potatoes every night! Potatoes aren't high on my list of 'likes' except the new potatoes which are lush.

Tonight's meal is fresh ravioli with a homemade tomato sauce

Other meals this week - home made chicken curry and spag bol

I tend to find it's more weekends when we don't have a big meal as we are normally out and busy. Then it's soup, pasta or something on toast for quickness.

I enjoy cooking and I enjoy others appreciating my cooking.

We have lots of salads in the summer but it will always have some sort of meat or fish with it.

In fact, we eat meat or fish every day. I've tried having purely vegetarian meals but I feel so hungry afterwards. We always have between 3 - 5 different types of veg with most meals though.

We try to, but in reality sometimes we just don't need it and we have a snackier thing. I think you have to go by what you feel you need, to some extent.

Yes, we have a dinner every evening and I do most of the cooking as I get in from work earlier.

We don't eat a hot meal in the middle of the day - salad or sandwiches etc so I like to cook something 'proper' in the evenings.

Doesn't always involve meat or potatoes.

DD is not a great eater so dinner is important to me as it is a meal she likes - we struggle with school lunches.

I couldn't imagine just having yoghurt (which I hate anyway) or giving dd a bowl of cereal for her main meal..

We do, but I can say for sure that if I lived alone I wouldn't bother! I used to have a real interest in cooking, and the years of providing a family meal night after night have sucked the joy out of it for me. I try and get around it by cooking extra portions every time I make a curry or casserole so I can just get something out of the freezer if I can't be arsed. To be honest the biggest problem for me is actually deciding what to cook that won't get moaned about by one family member as they all have a preference for something different 🙄

I'm not home from work till after 9pm (3x a week) so on those nights usually have scrambled egg/soup/toastie.
DH generally cooks a pasta dish or chicken and wedges for him and the DC or sometimes they have leftovers/freezer dip. Depends what time they're all in from work/school/activities.
The other nights I cook as I'm in the house in the early evening and I like us to all eat together at least some of the week.

That's true Middleaged I don't bother if DH isn't home. I tend to have a kind of sofa picnic instead... some slightly bizarre combinations I admit!

Cooked meal every day here, usually at night. Ds1 struggles to eat anything substantial at school. I've got some meatballsin the fridge for the boys, but I be rubbed some pork steaks with a spicy mixture for me and dh and we actually will be having those with a few new potatoes! Not too many because I picked up some onion bahjis in town, earlier, I fancy a good load of veg with them and I have made some rhubarb crumble, since I had a load of rhubarb that didn't get used, yesterday, when we were expecting people for tea, but had to cancel.

I love salads and make lots of them. Cous cous salad with roasted veggies, warm salad which is shredded leaves, mushrooms cooked, boiled eggs, beetroot, tomatoes etc. my favourite is cos lettuce, crispy bacon bits, tuna, avocado, and other shredded things like onions/peppers - so it's definitely a whole meal in our house.

I cook a 2 course meal everyday for the children I mind but it's rarely meat and veg. Tonight is lasagne and salad with garlic bread, tomorrow will be a veggie bake - we only have meat around once a week.

DH cooks for us and our teens at about 7:30 unless they have already eaten what I made for the children.

Something on toast, or cold stuff from the fridge definitely counts as a cooked dinner!

I don't kinow any families who do NOT have a cooked meal every day.

I think it is an excuse for laziness to give your kids a bowl of cereal or a sandwich for their main meal

Yes. 99% of the time. Even an omelette is cooking. Or jacket potatoes is still cooking. Maybe we have a salad. Or ' bits and bobs', or cold chicken satay squewers, pork pie, olives, hummus etc. But largely yes.
Why? What do you eat OP? What is your preferred meal?

I'm on my own with ds and I get fed up cooking every night. Sometimes I'll just have cereal or toast

I don't kinow any families who do NOT have a cooked meal every day.

@springflowers11 what do you define as a family? Do you mean people with DCs? Or anyone who doesn't live alone?

I don't know anyone with children who doesn't cook a meal most days. DH and I can't have children but still consider ourselves a family. But we don't cook an evening meal most nights because we don't enjoy cooking and much prefer snacky dinners.

Every so often I'll go through a phase of cooking proper dinners, and then very quickly lose interest.

If we had a child then obvs we would make an effort to cook a meal. But as it's just us, we don't feel the need to force ourselves to go through the hassle

Yes, cooked meal every single night! Ofc there are times when I think fuck it well order take away(like we did Monday night) or kids can sort themselves out but that's maybe once a month at most.

We do pizza party Fridays every week and a roast every Sunday! Last night we had chicken and bacon pasta with garlic bread and salad, tonight we're going fajitas/burritos/tacos/nachos that sort of stuff, tomorrow is sausage and mash and Saturday will be chilli probably with nachos again

Yep try to cook every night apart from the odd chicken kieves thrown in the mix. Last night : sausages and Beans casserole served with homemade bread ! Easy Peasy and fast !

99% of the time. I look forward to it, I like cooking (when no one is being difficult) and its a chance to sit and have a chat.

Very rarely will have something like tapas instead (or more accurately stuff out of the fridge that will go off otherwise).

But I don't think I'd find it weird if someone didn't.

Not sure it equates to skinniness either - have overweight friends who say 'oh I just had crackers and cheese for tea' as well as skinny ones. I just nod as that was fine for them but I'd have gone for something hot!