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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
mathanxiety · 06/04/2017 06:20

I serve a home cooked meal every night.

However, it may be a thawed and reheated meal of a previous large batch that I made in a previous month. Tonight we had chicken and sausage gumbo that I originally cooked in early February. I made fresh rice. We will be finishing the gumbo off tomorrow. The next day (Friday) we will have a freshly cooked meal (don't know what as yet but it will be meatless) and then on Saturday I will use chili leftovers from Tuesday for empanadas, with salad.

I like my freezer a lot. I also like my George Foreman grill that we got at Christmas. It has made dinner prep and cleanup really fast even when I decide to cook on a work night.

Notso · 06/04/2017 07:25

I cook the majority of nights, a few days a a week I cook twice or three times depending on when DH gets home and what DC are doing after school. I'm a SAHM now but I did when I was working too though it was a bit less adventurous.

I do sometimes have CBA or busy days when we have toasties, Welsh rarebit or beans/egg on toast orI buy a pie from M&S, supermarket take away, frozen pizza etc. The closest to mashed potato my two youngest will eat is M&S carrot and swede mash so I buy that often.

BoboChic · 06/04/2017 07:33

Having a freezer well stocked with home batch cooked meals is the best way to ensure that you don't end up eating cereal/omelette when things go wrong and you run out of time to shop and/or cook. Which can happen to the best of us Wink

skerrywind · 06/04/2017 07:37

I cook most nights too, with the odd takeaway, so I cook 6.7 nights a week.
I do batch cook, so some nights that's just taking home made bolognese out of the freezer and making pasta and salad.
I don't serve ready meals or pies, they are pretty rank.

Yogurt just wouldn't do it, and with 5 adult family members to feed grazing the fridge would be expensive and not very filling.
Lunches in our house tend to be light- soup and a sandwich, so everyone is ready for a hearty meal in the evening.

It's cheaper and simpler to cook every night.

Roomster101 · 06/04/2017 08:28

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!

I think most parents generally have to cook whether we like it or not, once children have passed a certain age. Mine are teenagers and would be really unhappy if I tried fobbing them off with a sandwich or yoghurt. Even baked beans on toast would be seen as lunch rather than tea. It's like having demanding guests 7 days a week.

Itaintme · 06/04/2017 08:33

This is MN. Every one who doesn't cook from scratch every night has given this thread a swerve.

skerrywind · 06/04/2017 08:33

Roomster- exactly.

With 5 nearly adults in the house ( youngest is 16) they wouldn't be fobbed off with a sandwich after a hard day.

5moreminutes · 06/04/2017 08:34

ScaredofPigeons not many people could afford take aways every night or even a couple of times per week for a family of 4, 5 or 6 could they? Last time we ordered pizza it cost 32€ for all of us, which is the price of 3 or possibly 4 evening meals for everyone cooked at home!

I actually suspect the OP is a stealth boast about her tiny appetite, and that she's one of those people who tries to shame her friends and family (probably specifically the women) by shaking her head at what they eat and declaring she couldn't possible eat all that - and then stealing half their chips and desert by leaning across and sticking the cutlery she's poked at her parsimonious low fat yogurt or green salad with...

skerrywind · 06/04/2017 08:36

I have one elderly family member who would hardly eat if left to her own devices.
OH often works through lunch and doesn't have any. School lunches are poor ( often selling out before the end) and I will often just have a snack or fruit and a coffee for lunch.

So most days everyone is ready for a large evening meal.

lljkk · 06/04/2017 08:41

I never heard of dosas. I meant pictured kinds of things when I say curry. Or potatoes with veg & chicken for that matter for breakfast. Which is what I had yesterday, in fact.

It is faster for us to cook veg + potatoes +grill meat than it is to go get a take away. We mix & match things like a pack of ready meal battered chicken with the home-prepared veg & starch. Would not do powdered mash, though (vile thought) & don't bother with prepack supermarket veg either (though I don't know why we wouldn't).

Do people really eat a cooked meal every single night?
heron98 · 06/04/2017 08:42

DP and I have no kids so we don't bother with cooking. We just eat toast or a boiled egg or cereal in the evenings. We are very lazy though.

Athrawes · 06/04/2017 08:44

Of course I cook a meal, how else would I feed a six year old? Sandwiches, really, after a packed lunch? Dinner is where I can see he gets his veg and protein.
If I was single I would still cook something, maybe just soup but still FOOD.
Quite shocked that so many people think you don't really need to feed kids.,.

BoboChic · 06/04/2017 08:46

These sorts of threads always have the same effect on me: I'm so disturbed at the thought o families not sitting down together to a proper home cooked evening meal that I get my cookbooks out and start menu planning in order to erase the unpleasant images of cereal packets and yoghurt pots and laziness.

motherinferior · 06/04/2017 08:49

If I finished the day with a bowl of cereal I would feel the day had been wasted. This may be my failing, of course.

Agree about the stealth boast.

Roomster, the point of having teenagers is you get them to cook. Or at the very least to make the salad.

Manijo · 06/04/2017 08:49

We sometimes have a what my lot call mum's buffet...usually Friday night if not going out. Cold meats, cheese, olives, bread...deli counter stuff. Nice bottle of wine. Even the kids love it

UppityHumpty · 06/04/2017 08:50

Either my dh or I will always cook from scratch in the evening. Dd likes to eat alot due to her sports/dance so it's healthier and cheaper all round for us to cook. It's not really all that complex - quick home-made pastas/rice etc.

skerrywind · 06/04/2017 08:51

not sitting down together to a proper home cooked evening meal

Yes to the home cooked meal.
Rarely do we all sit down together to eat dinner- everyone too busy working/ extra curricular to eat at the same time. Two or three of us may, but rarely everyone.

BoboChic · 06/04/2017 08:54

We sit down together in order to update and synchronize and work through the problems the day has thrown up, as a household.

Goldenhandshake · 06/04/2017 08:55

Manijo the buffet or the wine? Grin

skerrywind · 06/04/2017 08:57

bobo- you are lucky that you can have such a leisurely dinner.

Sounds a million miles away from my evenings.

Whole family eats together a handful of times a year.

Itaintme · 06/04/2017 08:59

If I've worked a 10 your day it's hardly laziness to not cook a MN approved dinner.I've been known to have a ready meal Shock get your knickers knotted about that.

OneWildNightWithJBJ · 06/04/2017 08:59

Scared - yes, heated up is cooked to me! I generally make things half from scratch though. For example we had cheese and bacon lasagne on Monday. I made the sauce but not the pasta. But usually lasagne is from jars, it's only because it's the school holidays and I've got more time. A pie I'd just stick a bit of pastry on top of some chicken and gravy... I rarely buy ready meals because they just don't taste as nice.

I think as long as you offer your kids something warm and it includes veg, protein, carbs then it certainly doesn't have to be made from scratch. I personally don't understand parents giving their kids a sandwich for the main meal, but that's just not what I'm used to. If you're on your own, entirely up to you what you eat.

Itaintme · 06/04/2017 09:00

Hour

Goldenhandshake · 06/04/2017 09:03

I do tend to cook from scratch, last night was a cottage pie with sweet potato mash topping, but I did use frozen diced sweet potato as it cooks and softens quicker, plus no peeling and chopping, so speeds up the meal.

CrumpettyTree · 06/04/2017 09:04

I agree OneWild

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