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?

We have a hot meal every night, it might only be soup etc, or it might be veggie, or fish or meat, but it is our main meal of the day

I'm with Saucy Jack - I get excited about dinner time, although bored of the washing up :-) I have a massive foodie fan of a husband too so we share all the cooking and he would never get through an evening without 'proper' food! Always either fish or meat too.

Grab recipe cards from your local supermarket maybe? Or do a recipe swap with friends?

Is it just me who can't believe there was an actual bun fight about cooking dinner and if there is space for a table 😂

I am friends with a woman who her and her husband never have a dinner together, they both just grab a sandwich and it's because he is a total tight arse and says it's cheaper than doing a proper shop and meals every night, which are apparently a waste of money in his view, she doesn't like it, even though it maybe true and would much prefer to sit down to an evening meal together now and again.

He was appalled when they came to stay st mine and I cooked a meal for them every night, as according to him I was wasting money. didn't stop him wolfing it down though like he hadn't seen food for a month.

Yes, unless we've had a full on lunch like on Christmas day then its Turkey sandwiches.

I cook every night. However, it is pretty varied and includes a lot of fish and non-starchy vegetables. I try when possible to avoid carbs at night except those from a bottle.

Nope.

Sometimes just a salad. Sometimes a butty or bread and cheese. Sometimes fruit and yoghurt. Depends what we have eaten in the day. 2 cooked meals daily for me is too much. Sometimes (most times) at the table, sometimes on the knee if I am watching telly or a DVD, sometimes eaten standing up in the kitchen straight from the pan or bowl.

Yes every night, I tend to batch cook once a month, then meal plan each week

oooh MsJamieFraser can i come and live at your house?

tell me how you make the lentil and mushroom curry if you wouldn't mind!

often I just have a bowl of cereal or cheese and biscuits

DH is a farmer. Dinner always has a meat element and we always have a cooked dinner. I thought everyone did ?!
I rarely buy anything pre cooked, usually do from scratch apart from a few things like sweet & sour as apparently uncle bens is better than mine.

Freezer is always stocked with meals and we never throw out left overs always repurpose them.

Occasionally we have a weird random meal on what we call a "use up" I.e stuff that has to be used or it will go off so don't moan that it's a bit weird.

We nearly always have pudding too which is fine for lanky DH but a 'mare for me

Yes always unless we have eaten a proper meal out at lunchtime in which case it's a sandwich tea (this type of day is called a Topsy turvey day in our house). We always eat at the table and always at 5pm too.
Our childhood are 2 and 4 though so I'm sure it will evolve over time but both my husband and I have grown up eating that way so can't see it changing much.

I flipping love tea time. And lunch time and breakfast time come to think of it!

I cook a meal from scratch every night, Plus a Sunday dinner every Sunday. During the week we normally have chips, rice, pasta, mash, roast spud, I try to alternate meats depending on what we're having like chicken, fish, beef, mince, game - Monday to Friday, then sat its a pick and mix buffet style.

Omelettes, beans on toast, sarnies are more lunch things and cereal is kept to breakfast and supper times only.

I do cook most nights but I wish I could get organised to cook from scratch more often. I tend to stick to meals that I can assemble eg chicken kievs, jacket spuds & peas. Plus also my DH sometimes works quite late so I may do lighter meals. He would happily live on beans on toast!

MsJamieFraser Can I move in too? Sounds wonderful!!

Of course you don't eat meat and potatoes every night!
Cooking is a delight and shared meal a delight.

A varied menu is what one seeks of healthy nourishing foods.
If you have guests, of course they expect to be fed, it is rude not to feed your guests.
Eating a bit of yoghurt in front of your guests?
Get with the program.

We have fish 2 or 3 times a week. Snacks like beans on toast, eggs etc are for lunch

I don't always cook from scratch, but we will have a cooked dinner probably about 5 nights out of 7.

I feel bad if 'just raid the fridge/make sandwiches/have cereal/make a toastie' happens too often for everyone;, but with teens with self-propelling extra-curriculars there might be one or two people doing that several nights a week. But I do like to round up whoever is in.

Not every night here as it depends on DHs shifts. If DH is doing a late shift and DDs been in Nursery because I've been working I'll just give DD a snack and some milk (she has 3 meals plus a morning snack at Nursery) and I'll grab something quick like soup and bread or a sandwich (i'm a nursing home housekeeper so if there's food left over and I'm hungry while at work I can eat there). But if DH has an early shift we do sit down together either just us two or on the days DDs not in Nursery all 3 of us and eat a proper cooked meal like a roast dinner or something

Mrs Strygil gets a freshly cooked meal every night except Sunday - she works at work, I work from home - and as we are both vegetarians we avoid the parade of meat and two veg which so appals the OP. Pasta sauces, lasagna, risottos, savoury bakes, batter puddings, souffles, omelettes, curries cheese dishes, tofu, Quorn, pies, tarts - I have a nine-week menu of fifty four different meals which also allows me to fill the freezer so that every two months or so we eat out of the freezer for a fortnight. Sundays we graze, or have pizza and chips or a takeaway. It's a faff sometimes but rather that than ready meals and tat.

No one in my family including me would be impressed if we had sandwiches for dinner. I don't even really like sandwiches. Sometimes we have soup and toast/rolls, but this is always met with disdain. Even things like frittata are viewed more as lunch options.

I (or DH) do cook every night but the complexity and home-cookedness of it varies. Tonight for instance it's going to be a mixed veg bake with a cheese sauce - all from scratch. Yesterday it was a lamb tagine with couscous, but there was passata in it. I use a lot of tinned tomatoes and tinned pulses, and I use some sauces including curry pastes etc (later this week we're having aubergine and tofu in hoisin sauce and I don't make my own hoisin). But we consider dinner to be a focal point of our evening. Whoever is in will all eat together at the table around 8, so I should start cooking.

Cooking is a delight

Not for everyone it's not QueenofPentacles

I spend most of the day looking forward to my dinner! I would feel hugely cheated if it was a bowl of cereal or a yoghurt.

Cereal or toast for brekkie. Fruit and yoghurt for lunch. Dinner is always hot, usually chicken or fish with a small carby thing and lots of veg or salad. Always a small pud, cheesecake or greek yoghurt and berries, or a mini magnum. Even an 'easy' dinner is cooked, tonight Aldi pizzas, McCain wedges and salad and coleslaw.

I don't think I'd bother getting up in the morning if dinner wasn't yumm

This week we have had (me, DH, the two DDs who are old enough to eat):

Chick pea, spinach and lentil curry, cooked from scratch
Spaghetti bolognese, cooked from scratch
Sausage, egg and beans
Chicken and vegetable tray bake (cooked from scratch - but it was just chicken stuffed with courgettes, cheese and red pesto, and some roasted veg - peppers, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes etc)
Squash and sausage risotto (made from scratch)

Tomorrow we have a play date and wil have 8 kids here. I was thinking of doing home made meatballs and pasta.

I have cooked more than usual this week as DH is off so it's easier (I have a three-month-old baby, too, so it's not always easy). We also have pizza with loads of cut up salad veggies - cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, maybe corn on the cob.

We do have jacket potatoes, omelettes, soups, beans on toast etc for dinner some nights, often to keep costs down. We also give the kids bits and pieces for dinner sometimes - like all the bits and bobs in the fridge made up into a plate. It might be a yoghurt, some grapes, some raisins, a couple of slices of cheese, a bit of ham, some bread and butter, some cucumber and tomatoes, or whatever. That's basically their favourite dinner of all time.

We have a lot of home made but very easy pasta dishes, like pasta with lemon and prawns, pasta with home made tomato sauce and spinach or peas, macaroni cheese with broccoli and cauliflower. We also have fajitas made with one of those spice mixes, quite a lot of curries and stir fries.

DD1 is 5 and eats like a horse. DD2 likes pretty much everything but is a slow eater and likes to pick.

I make 3 meals a day:

Eggs at breakfast, sandwiches and homemade cake for packed lunches. Proper dinner.

It's what my mother did and dhs mother did and it works for us. I also enjoy it, wouldn't bother making so much if I didn't. We don't snack and have no fussy eaters or any weight issues. I appreciate I'm really lucky.

I always cook some kind of meal yes! 'm trying to eat less meat though so tonight I'm having steamed potatoes with a small tin of tuna and beans (my favourite dinner). Dh likes his big dinner, he grew up on a farm and they like their meat and potatoes! (He's having pork chops tonight) I actually end up cooking a couple different things.