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AIBU?

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Original poster

Do people really eat a cooked meal every single night?

611 replies

JonesyAndTheSalad · 05/04/2017 11:24

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 Shock

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?

OP posts:
bananafish81 · 05/04/2017 22:06

I think it is weird not to have a proper cooked meal

But as you yourself said @MrsD28, it depends how you view food. You enjoy cooking and see food as one of life's great pleasures. Great! To me food is fuel and it's tiresome having to think about it - if I could just take a pill to satisfy my appetite, I'd be all over that like a shot. I have absolutely no interest in the hassle of making or eating a proper cooked meal every night after work. When I go through phases of trying to get into the habit of cooking dinner, my heart sinks when I think about having to go home and prep and cook food. Either I have to stop at the supermarket on the way from the tube and have to decide what to make. Or I plan ahead and have to decide what I'm going to want to eat in 4 days time, and end up forcing myself to make a meal whether I do in fact feel like eating a stir fry or not. If I already hate cooking, I hate it even more when I'm only doing it because I've bought the bloody food and so have to make the damn thing!

DH is a better cook than me so sometimes he'll make us a proper dinner, but it's an awful lot of hassle for not much payback. As I said up thread, obvs if we had DC then we would cook evening meals because there would be a very important reason to do so. But as we can't have children and it's just us, why should we force ourselves to go through the motions when we aren't interested?

MorrisZapp · 05/04/2017 22:10

No I don't. Can't be arsed. I don't know how people have the time and energy to think of meals, buy for them and cook them. I eat baked potatoes a lot, soup from supermarket's fresh cabinet or homemade, and toast/ cereal etc. I'm still alive.

dowhatnow · 05/04/2017 22:18

Yep another proper dinner every night poster here.

user1489179512 · 05/04/2017 22:19

Of course. Veggie and cooked from scratch!

Lweji · 05/04/2017 22:21

Most nights a proper dinner, but many are leftovers.
I like rice and cook it often.
Some nights are pizza or supermarket lasagna.

Isawahatonce · 05/04/2017 22:22

I generally do. If I don't it's because I've had a really bad day and eaten several tonnes of chocolate and I can't eat a dinner. I don't do meat and potatoes though as I'm vegetarian and I only cook for myself so don't like to buy a whole bag of potatoes, it's easier to do rice, pasta, noodles etc. Honestly though, if you're still eating relatively healthily most of the time, I don't see the problem, there's no point forcing yourself to cook and eat something you don't want.

todayshey · 05/04/2017 22:22

Um, what? Yes of course we eat tea every day ConfusedConfused

Bluntness100 · 05/04/2017 22:24

When my daughter lived at home, yes,,,every night, when she comes back from uni, yes every night, when just my hubby and I probably about three times a week.

However I would never have guests to stay for a week snd tell them there was no dinner and I was having a yoghurt. Even if I didn't eat much I would always make the effort for guests unless they had made alternate arrangements.

Zippydoodah · 05/04/2017 22:33

I do but not always particularly healthy or adventurous. If I found the meals you are having too heavy - which they may be for the time of year - I'd do something light with a bit of salad. Maybe you could do some fish or chicken drumsticks and a jacket spud or too. BBQs are good, too, then you can eat as much or as little as you want and even just have the salad and save the meat for the guests.

Could you suggest a takeaway if it is that you're tired or cooking? I'm a bit CBA in the kitchen. I can't wait til my kids can cook me a meal themselves.

PeachyImpeachment · 05/04/2017 22:37

Healthy doesn't have to be cooked though OP, you could have humous, olives, salad, feta, whole-wheat bread or something simple like baked potato or sweet potato, chops in the oven or baked apples.

Oddbins · 05/04/2017 22:43

We have a cooked meal every evening
We both work FT so it takes planning but we cook every day.
We rarely have potatoes two days running
I don't use a lot of jars or convenience food has we don't like them but will have fish finger sarnies occasionally as a Friday night treat.

I do a lot of slow cooker meals
Bbq meals with flatbread in the summer
All in one oven cooked dishes such as chicken thighs with roasted veg and sweet potatoes

It takes some organising but it works for us

OneOfTheGrundys · 05/04/2017 22:45

Yes apart from Friday's meal which is always pizza. One night or so a week we all have 'tv dinner' meaning whatever's cooked is eaten together in front of telly, usually Simpsons.
Mon-chicken/bean wraps and salad
Tues-veg cannelloni and salad
Weds-fish and chips and steamed veg
Thurs-jacket potatoes w tuna cheese and steamed veg or salad.
Fri-pizza/garlic bread/salad. Yum.
Don't know re weekend yet.
I'm on slimming world too. 1/2 stone down so far!!

OneOfTheGrundys · 05/04/2017 22:45

Slimming world chips home made are yum btw. Surprisingly nice!

Mrswinkler · 05/04/2017 22:50

I had a bowl of honey nut loop thingies for my tea yesterday at half nine. Sometimes I just raid the fridge for a bit of cheese etc.

Always cook my DS a separate earlier meal (fussy eater and I eat late) so meals for me are random. Enjoy cooking if I have time or if friends/ex coming round or I lift something out the freezer I've cooked and batched up previously.

2rebecca · 05/04/2017 22:54

We cook most evenings. We don't eat much breakfast and have sandwiches for lunch so dinner is our main meal.

Herhighness · 05/04/2017 22:57

Cooked meal every night, two nights fish, one night eggs, one night pasta , one night rice , leaving two traditional meat and two veg meals.
Make a pudding if the main has been 'light'. Have been doing it for 38 years and I'm bloody sick to death of it.
Give me a lump of cake and a cup of coffee and I would be more than happy.

Pallisers · 05/04/2017 23:07

We have a cooked meal every night. Mostly cooked by me. take out including a meal picked up from a local restaurant maybe 1 or 2 nights a week.

Sometimes I'll buy a lasagne. Mostly I cook. We like sitting together and eating and I enjoy cooking. At the weekends, lunch is hit or miss but we always figure out a dinner. Left to myself I'd probably have pasta and home made tomato sauce 5 nights out of 7 though (that is mostly what we had before kids and when we had no money).

Checklist · 06/04/2017 00:04

We have a cooked meal every night! Rarely meat and potatoes though! I use the slow cooker probably 4 - 5 nights a week, with rice or pasta; stir fries; a roast once; tray bakes of meat with Mediterranean vegetables....

user1andonly · 06/04/2017 00:25

Most nights yes but it's more driven by DH then me. If it was just me and the teens, it would be a lot more haphazard. If I am in creative mode, fine, but, on the whole, I find the whole thing very tiresome. At the moment, I do four meals a week, DH does three and everyone fends for themselves at breakfast and lunch. I hate having visitors and having to think about those meals too!

Not sure what I'll do when the dc have all left home - certainly can't see myself being inclined to cook (or eat DH's meals - he tries but he's not a great cook) every night for the rest of my life.

I'd rather wait till I'm hungry and put together a plate of bits I fancy than conform to a rigid must eat a big plateful just because it's dinner time.

ScaredofPigeons · 06/04/2017 01:00

A surprising amount of posters saying they cook every (or most) nights. I'm a bit astonished at this especially as most of you are parents, I'm feeling slightly inadequate now ha!

Just curious, when most of you say 'cooked' meal do you mean prepared mostly/completely from scratch? Or would you consider a 'cooked meal' for example to be a pie bought from a supermarket served with some potatoes/vegetables?

MiladyThesaurus · 06/04/2017 01:12

I cook every day in a manner than involves starting with ingredients. The complexity of what is serves varies depending on time, energy and inclination.

Pallisers · 06/04/2017 01:24

Or would you consider a 'cooked meal' for example to be a pie bought from a supermarket served with some potatoes/vegetables?

I would consider this a cooked meal. Mostly I would make my own pie or cook a pasta sauce or stirfry but I have no problem heating a pie or lasagne from the supermarket (as long as it tasted ok - half the time I cook because I like the taste of it better)

DingDongtheWitchIsDangDiddlyDe · 06/04/2017 01:26

A surprising amount of posters saying they cook every (or most) nights. I'm a bit astonished at this especially as most of you are parents, I'm feeling slightly inadequate now ha!

You're surprised that most parents cook dinner for their children of an evening? I'm surprised that anyone would be surprised by that, how else will children eat?

CakesRUs · 06/04/2017 01:52

I cook every night, have done for 25 years (except Saturday - take away night), but I hate it. I'm sick of it and would love beans on toast or a sandwich regularly and, if I were doing it just for myself, I would.

ScaredofPigeons · 06/04/2017 02:56

@DingDongtheWitchIsDangDiddlyDe

"You're surprised that most parents cook dinner for their children of an evening? I'm surprised that anyone would be surprised by that, how else will children eat?"

What I meant was surprised that someone would make something from scratch every evening, I wasn't counting ready meals or takeaways in what I said.

I didn't mean it in a derogatory way, but simply that I find it commendable that people find the time to rush around after kids and cook something they've made after probably working all day! I am impressed by people who are significantly more productive than me... which isn't that difficult, I must confess.