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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:
AdoraBell · 06/04/2017 21:34

We have a cooked meal most nights. Not tonight though because we had a large meal out at lunch time.

We don't always have meat, or potatoes.

BitOutOfPractice · 06/04/2017 21:35

I'm actually desperate for a meat and potato gravy dinner now. I rarely cook it and now I'm craving it like mad

brickinitIam · 06/04/2017 21:36

We usually cook a meal every night.
It doesn't always include meat and potatoes.

Mius · 06/04/2017 21:36

Def. especially working for 12 hours. I'll be starving by the end of it.

M0nica · 06/04/2017 21:37

Not us, we had mezze tonight i just heated up some pitta Smile

We also have pitta with dips & vege strips sometimes

Soup with an egg cracked in

Etc etc

I hate being in the kitchen cooking is like bloody groundhog day so I've 'trained' the kids to be happy with this sort of food Grin

Loobeemum · 06/04/2017 21:40

We have a cooked meal most nights, generally meat / fish with either potatoes, pasta, rice or noodles. I have two children aged 12 and 9 and there's no way they would be full if we didn't have a decent meal in the evening.

ImogenTubbs · 06/04/2017 22:07

I think if you have guests for that long they should sort out some of the meals themselves! Maybe they just don't have the imagination to think of something else they'd like. I find the hardest part of cooking is having to think up what to cook. Have you tried saying, "Tonight I'm doing cheese and crackers"?

I quite like a cooked meal in the evenings but will often just have salad or tapas style nibbles. It's a lot to cook every night.

38cody · 06/04/2017 22:08

Yep - every night but always have a take away on a Friday - we're in London so take away can be quite sophisticated restaurants who deliver.

cowgirlsareforever · 06/04/2017 22:10

Grin 38cody

LoveBeingAMum555 · 06/04/2017 22:21

Interesting. We eat a hot meal every single evening and have done for as long as I can remember. Everyone here eats the same meal or a slight variation of the same meal even though my kids are nearly grown up. It's usually some kind of meat or fish dish with potatoes, rice or pasta and lots of veg or salad.

I love my evening meal. Breakfast is a bowl of porridge usually eaten while making packed lunch or tidying the kitchen. Lunch is a sandwich at my desk while I am working so I love to sit and relax with the family and eat a meal. We sit at the kitchen table with the phones on silent and the TV off.

Did someone really say that people who do this are more likely to be overweight? I go to the gym straight after work most days, another reason why I enjoy my evening meal!

ChocolateSherberts2017 · 06/04/2017 22:22

We always have a cooked evening meal here otherwise there'd be anarchy! Mainly rice, fish/meat or veg curry & dhaal but also comfort foods like jacket potatoes, macaroni cheese and lasagnes etc. We were both brought up on home cooked meals and snack meals don't fill me up. I would be raiding the biscuit tin one hour later. I prefer to eat well at dinner time to avoid the urge to graze.

Egoanono · 06/04/2017 22:55

I'm pescetarian. We have fish maybe twice a week, often with noodles/pasta/potatoes. Veggie the rest of the time. Homemade curries, pizzas, stir fries, pasta, meze. Mostly all quick and easy.

CountessWindyBottom · 06/04/2017 23:05

We have a home cooked meal every week night and then at the weekend we usually have a take away and also dine out en famille on Saturday or Sunday.

S4RA · 07/04/2017 00:52

Yes of course and ALWAYS a roast of some sort on Sunday and the odd Friday or Saturday we might have a takeaway.

Nixie60 · 07/04/2017 01:32

Reasonably healthy but all of us sitting round the table is the important thing. Dh and I both work and the kids are at school. It's when we reconvene after our day.

^^This.

Yes, we have a cooked meal every night but DH, DD and I all do some, with DS just learning to cook. He did us spag bol earlier in the week. Not meat and potatoes every night.

Fantail · 07/04/2017 01:45

Food for me is about family, fuel and it's also how I manage a couple of health conditions (T1 diabetes & hypothyroidism). I'm also a solo Mum who works full time.

Every single meal & snack is pre-planned for my daughter and I and there's very little processed food any more. It's easier to manage my health that way.

Having said that sometimes when there's a tired 6 year old the easiest and best dinner is a soft boiled egg or soup and toast.

In summer we often have a picky dinner with leftovers and cut up vegetables.

I batch cook & have a well cooked freezer.

dorisdog · 07/04/2017 07:41

We had schools dinners, so grew up with eating 'tea' in the evening - bread, jam, peanut butter, etc. Had evening mears at weekends. So, yeah, even now I sometimes have sandwich.

imNew1985 · 07/04/2017 07:44

Fantail would love to see a meal plan example from you. I have an under active thyroid. I come from a family of T2 diabetics so I kind of treat myself as in a pre-diabetic state

Original poster
JonesyAndTheSalad · 07/04/2017 07:49

I have a really sedentary job and work from home...because I'm desk based I don't eat much. I walk...that's my only excersise as I have an ankle issue which makes other forms hard...I can't swim either......if I ate as I have been doing since they arrived, I'd soon be the size of a house!

I have actually put on weight since they arrived.

I think that I do need to cook because he's not much of a chef and his DD is too young...only a young teen.

But what I am going to have to do is to cook far less meat. It's costing a bloody fortune apart from anything!

He has contributed in a way as when he arrived he brought us a lovely and quite expensive gadget...as a way of thanking us for having him.

But I'd quite honestly rather he'd chipped in with the shopping!

I will do a vegetarian thing tonight. A stir fry. Which is more like something I'd actually eat anyway.

Then tomorrow I will do perhaps something like vegetarian curry or wedges and homemade vegetarian burgers.

If he wants meat he'll have to buy it! Grin

OP posts:
duvetdaisydo · 07/04/2017 08:01

The sitting around the table is a big deal for us as well - it's a good time to talk - even the teenagers enjoy it. Dh is often home quite late but we will all happily hold off eating so he can join us at the table.
Kids have been deliberately trained to expect good home cooked food so when they leave home they continue to eat good home cooked food. We have the odd take away - but when we renovated the house we didn't cook instead had lots of takeaway and ready meals - I thought they'd love it but I was wrong they were quite vocal in their objections - and I was secretly very pleased.

Carriecakes80 · 07/04/2017 08:03

Feeding six children and a husband and myself every night we started to run out of ideas, so we decided on a two week dinner menu of all the tings we liked, enjoyed cooking, and now I will make extra large portions and freeze some for the following week. When my youngest was born I was shattered as I home educate my lot too, so, now we make one of our 'lessons' cooking, and we get food prepared for the evening. Following a dinner plan also saved us so much money, as befoe we would do a big shop, then fancy something else the next day for dinner so husband would pop to the shops again on the way home, how, we only buy what we're going to cook, and the kids get a decent hot meal every night. I come from a home where mum and dad worked full time and made us a good tea every night, I like to do the same for my family! Its where we sit together and talk, and connect I guess! I love dinner time! (Not that there is anything wrong with a lazy night now and again!) xxx

duvetdaisydo · 07/04/2017 08:11

I get my kids to help too, especially at weekends....occasionally they will make the whole thing - the joy of teenagers!

starlight13 · 07/04/2017 08:46

Yes we do but will only have meat about once a fortnight. My husband is vegetarian but not me or the 3 children but we just prefer vege meals - quicker, less stress, cheaper and easier to prepare and less stodgy. Not just pasta, we have rice, cous cous, pies, salads etc and of course Quorn is fantastic - really healthy. Hubby runs ultra marathons, triathlons and 100 mile iron mans on it so it does prove that you don't need to eat meat to give you energy ☺

Ticketybootoo · 07/04/2017 09:10

Yes cook every night but do feel it's a bit of a bind to be honest ! Not meat and pots though lots of chicken , veggie things or fish .

Susiethetortoiseshellcat · 07/04/2017 09:28

Definitely, but I love cooking and I love eating! I could not have an evening meal of a yoghurt, I think I would cry! I do quite a bit of batch coming though so have lots in the freezer and only have meat maybe twice a week.

What makes you think your guests want meat and potatoes every night? That sounds quite boring. If I had guests I would presume part of the hosting was cooking for them but I suppose it depends on the circumstances.