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?

cooked meal each night here, too - unless DH is away - DD and I then often just have a toastie or an egg or a tin of beans or something.

I often do feel overfull - rarely eat breakfast and sometimes don't bother with lunch.

A 'proper meal' doesn't begin and end with meat and potatoes. I, DP or both of us cook most nights but only eat meat/fish maybe once or twice a week.

Also, there is a big gap between a full-on large hot meal and having yoghurt for dinner! If we can't be arsed cooking we'll often get something like filled pasta and have it with pesto. Egg on toast is also a hot meal –I'd classify that as a light dinner and I don't really understand why you don't.

Don't make a rod for your own back by asking people what they fancy all the time; say what you're thinking of making. If they're decent guests they'll say nothing other than 'Lovely, thanks.'

We often forage we plan meals for Sat, Sun, Mon and Wed. DH and I have 'starve' days on Tues/Thurs, and I feed the children chips something simple on Friday while DH goes to the pub and comes home clutching a kebab. It works for us!

WOrra they've been here ten days. DH has cooked 3 meals. It's not that he won't but he's working a lot.

No, I couldn't be arsed with that. It's just DH and I and he works early shifts so is home for hours before I am. He is always starving around 5pm so he'll cook and leave me some or he'll fend for himself and I'll do my own food when I get in around 7pm. Sometimes I'll cook, sometimes it's a sandwich.

Interesting to hear what people are doing with their weekly menus. We tend to run to a fairly loose schedule of two vegetarians, one or two fish, one roast or similar + leftovers the next day, and then one dish with cheaper meat (mince, occasionally offal) + one day of dd;s cooking (if dd is working late, this may mean jar of pasta sauce). Planning meeting over a cup of coffee every Saturday morning at 10; whoever doesn't make it up can't moan about the food for the rest of the week.

Yes, always. The children get tiny lunch portions and come home starving, so everyone needs a fairly hearty evening meal. It's not always meat and potatoes, though. This week the meals I've planned are roast chicken with various salads, green curry with salmon and brown rice, home made mushroom and olive pizza, tomato soup with bread and cheese, spicy fish stew, roast veg with chickpeas, and pulled pork.

Growing up, my parents simplified the whole "what should we have for dinner" problem by going by the following rule:

Monday - Fish
Tuesday - White meat
Wednesday - Seafood
Thursday - Red meat
Friday - Something baked

The sides/sauce/vegetables etc are all determined by what "looks good" at the market that particular day.

We have a cooked dinner with some kind of protein and vegetables every night, yes. (When we visit MIL we also have a cooked lunch every day! Now that's a bit much...)

Oh right, I see.

Maybe it would be easier if instead of asking 'What do you fancy this evening', you asked what sort of meals they like/dislike and started forward planning?

That way you can plan some easier meals?

LaContessa would you expect guests to have a starve day on Tues/Thurs too, or would you feed them but not yourselves?

Yes we have a cooked meal every night. DH and the kids only have sandwiches for lunch so they like a proper meal in the evening. Plus I like us all sitting down at the table together and talking about the day. I cook in the week, DH cooks at the weekend. It's not always meat and potatoes though!
I would be hungry if I just had a yoghurt! (Probably why I am not skinny )

If I am on my own I would just have something simple like egg & spinach on toast as it involves less washing up!

When i had teenagers in the house I would do a proper cooked meal every night - but not "meat and two veg": I'd do stir-fries or different kinds of quiche or soufflé, cauliflower cheese etc etc. Now it's just us "old folks" we quite often just have soup (usually homemade) and bread and cheese and fruit.
Which reminds me: I need to fill my fridge for next week as it's the Uni holidays!

However, one of my teens did a six month exchange with a German penfriend and their evening meal was the same as breakfast: bread, ham and cheese, cream cheese, jam, Every day for the six months he was with them: appart from Sundays when they just had "coffee and (homemade) cake" because they had a large lunch.

Yes cooked dinner every night here, salad in summer months but with new potatoes and home cooked chicken or fish. I often cook for a few/couple of nights at once so its a simple reheat option as I work full time.

Our Nanny seems unable to cook a proper meal so DD gets reheated home cooked food for main meals and usual Jacket potato/soup/sandwich for a light tea.

We eat a lot of veg, this week we have had chicken roast dinner with lots of veg, spag bol and chicken casserole (with 7 types of vegetable in).

Do you eat your main meal at lunch time and the DC have school dinners? otherwise where are you getting your vegetables into your diet?

We have a cooked tea every night, I can't imagine not. We all sit together and it's the best bit of the day. I'm veggie and try to not cook meat for the rest every day so it's often stir fry, veggie pasta bake, or even warm salads with salmon etc but we cook every night. Saturday night we sometimes share a takeaway but I can't imagine eating toast or cereal for tea . In summer we often use the BBQ 2 or 3 nights a week.

Cooked meal every night here. I don't eat huge amount during the day. Easy meals though. Fresh pasta and pesto with added bacon or chicken, stir fries, bolognaise (cook enough to last 2 nights) baked potato with vegetables and chicken/gammon/fish. You can have quick meals which are also nutritious.

We cook every night, hardly ever meat and potatoes though! I would also be sick of that if it was every night, but that's not the definition of a cooked meal.

Yes, but rarely meat and potatoes. Pasta, stew, curry, fish, veg... We sometimes cook enough for 2 days.

If I am visiting someone for a week, I offer to cook at least two days, or take them out for a meal. I do not expect to be served. However I would be pretty if someone told me dinner is a cup of yoghurt.

There is a cooked meal every night but I don't always eat. I have gone of my own cooking. There is uneaten meat in the fridge that the kids will eat. It makes me sick to look at it.

I have a cooked lunch and a cooked dinner, I have a big appetite and would feel robbed if I didn't get one. I have a big breakfast too.

I cook most nights, but sometimes I just can't be bothered, and the DC have fruit salad with custard, or soup, toast, or scrambled eggs/omelette. I always throw in veges though. They can have have p/butter on toast, as long as they also have some cherry tomatoes and cucumber, or a carrot or something. I was going to say nothing wrong with leftover chicken for a chicken/sweetcorn sandwich, but there's never any leftover chicken in my house lol - the DC will pick a carcass clean in 10 minutes flat!

Personally I'm perfectly happy having some muesli and yoghurt for my own dinner . I've never been one for 'heavy' food.

We cook every night. Some. Find more exciting meals than others. Nighy before last was steak, chips, salad, onion rings, mushroomss and onions sautéed and peppercorn sauce. Tonight I'm probably going to do something with prawns. Tomorrow night may be something simple like jacket pot, salad and veggie burgers.
Last night was an exception as I was at the hospital so picked up a McDonald on the way home

Usually a cooked meal every night for us unless we've had a proper meal out at lunch time then we'll make something like toasted sandwiches and soup/ploughmans/bacon bap/ or an omlette.

It's not always meat and potatoes for us though,we have stir frys,currys,spaghetti bologneise,carbonara,quiche,pizza,macaroni cheese,pasta and vegetable bake,lamb tagine with cous cous.
Alot of our meals are with pasta,cous cous,noodles,rice of some kind or salads.

Cooked meal every night here too, we have lots of variation though. So curries/ lots of Chinese/ Japanese/ Vietnamese style meals all with rice/ rice noodles. On average we have pasta 1 night a week and potatles twice a week.

My husband and I both enjoy cooking and eating good food. It's a good part of my day, kids are fed/ bathed/ in bed, I can relax, have some nice food and take it easy for the rest of the night.

Most days we cook - days when we don't are when there are enough leftovers from the day before.

It's always meat or fish, as we love meat and fish. Rarely do we have potatoes though.