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?

Yes every night bar the odd take away. However if DH is out I cba cooking for one (kids eat dinner with CM) so end up with a bit of toast etc.

Jodie

I make a cooked meal every night, for the family (don't get knickers in twists, it's my job.) Sit down at the table, etc etc.

I admit most days, though, I can't be bothered eating it and prefer to make something much smaller for myself. If I did not have the family, I think I would probably just have soup and toast.

We often don't bother, there is just the 2 of us and sometimes DH is quite late home and I just do something simple. When DS was living with us, we always had a cooked meal together as he would come home from work or college starving, Also with 3 it seemed much more worthwhile, I must say I quite like not having to bother every night.

Nope. On a good week it'll be home-cooked 6/7 nights (and of those, at least a couple will be easy beige freezer delis). On a rough week, we might get as low as 4/7. Tbf that's primarily because the OH does all the cooking. If it were me, those numbers wouldn't be fit to read. I am not qualified to operate a kitchen. (He isn't qualified to operate a dishwasher whereas I have a PhD in stacking them right, so it all works out.) But yeah. No. Those golden dreamlands where we eat steamed veg and a freshly cooked roast and all that jazz every single day? HAHAHahahaaayeah... no.

We have a cooked meal every night, but maybe once a week is meat and potatoes - e.g., we had roast chicken and trimmings on Saturday, Sunday we were out for lunch so we had scrambled eggs on toast for tea, Monday was risotto with the leftover chicken, last night was chilli, tonight we're out, and tomorrow is pasta (vegetarian).

Yes I cook most nights or eat out (London)

You know there are plenty of places to eat out outside of London?

Yes! Though no meat as im veggie . Most meals take less than 30
Mins to make. Tonight I'm having bubble and squeak, left over from a roast, with asparagus and a fried egg! Random but I just tend to open the fridge and cook what's there! I need to eat dinner, unless I've had a massive lunch. And I enjoy cooking in the evening.

Not meat and potatoes every night as like most people me, dh and our babies need some variety.

Yes normally something is cooked, but this time of year we do start having salads a couple of time a weeks that require no cooking I am Lucky that my babies will eat salad. We do go out to eat often as well and have a take away once a month or so.

I've just remembered...tonight I suggested something a bit lighter...bacon and eggs with sausages if people wanted that too. DH agreed and then cooked sausages, potatoes and slabs of steak.

I just didn't feel like it. He couldn't understand why as "You said sausages"

But no! I said bacon and egg with sausages as a choice"

I don't... I live alone and have no kids to consider, though. If I have a bigger lunch, I often just have something like fruit and yoghurt or raw veg batons with hummus for dinner. Or egg and avocado on rye toast, recently, which is more of a breakfast food but who cares.

i haven't read whole thread but yes I feel I have to produce a hot cooked meal for the kids each day. I feel I'm not doing my job as a mother if they're not sat at a table eating properly at 6pm.
I take the cook double portions approach so cook 1 day and have reheated chili con carne or whatever it was 2 days in a row with extra veg or rotate from fridge. Do a sunday roast chicken, 2nd day chicken pasta for example so 6 nights are taken care of and then fridays or saturdays are burgers or pizza. In between stress about lack of imagination and my limited repotoire.
a couple of very fast pasta meals get me through days I just cba too

but i do sympathise OP, I often wish i were free from the yoke of cooking and could just have a soup or light snack in the eve instead of all this
cooking and modelling good eating that's just making me fat!

Personally I'd be happy with a sarnie or salad most evenings, especially when the weather is warmer and I feel less like comfort eating. DH though wants a "proper" meal. I tend to batch cook though, and would heartily recommend the same to you OP if these guests are staying much longer. Even if you bung a tray of chicken thighs or a pasta bake in the oven and serve with a green salad, it's enough of a cooked meal.

I never make 'meat and potatoes' type meals but I do eat a cooked meal most evenings, admittedly I often work late hours to eat dinner in a restaurant or catered.

Typical dinners: pasta, pizza, curry, risotto, stir fry, casserole, stew, some kind of one-pot veg thing, beans on toast, baked potato with stuff, mezze plate (falafal, humus, pitta bread, olives), big salad with goat cheese, burger.

Meat, Veg and Potato 6 nights a week here, this is what I was brought up on too.
Some nights we will have lasagne, Chilli or Spag Bol.
Sundays we have a take away.
DH is a self employed car mechanic, works hard he would think Id gone mad if i gave him soup or similar.
and certainly wouldn't fill up Ds1 who's 18, 6ft 3in and always Hungry.
or Ds2 whos 15 not quite as tall as Ds1 but again is always hungry.

You need to decide who is in control of the menu and cooking, either you or DH or you split it nightly or whatever. Is DH doing the grocery shopping? Having sausages AND steak on one night would wreck the meal options for the rest of the week here (as well as being an unpleasantly meat-heavy meal imo).

AssassinatedBeauty no, we'd cook if we had guests (or get a takeaway).

Since everyone else is stating dietary preference, our weekday meals are nearly always vegan - meat is saved for the weekend, mostly because DH is the only adult meat-eater and he CBA to cook it himself in the week.

Guests would either get a vegan homecooked meal or the takeaway of their choice. Most choose the homecooked version which is nice!

Bit surprised that people aren't counting soup as a meal - a filling homemade soup (perhaps carrot/pumpkin/sweet potato, or minestrone, or courgette/broccoli/kohlrabi) with good bread definitely counts as a 'cooked meal' here.

Cooked meal every night here. Usually something like pasta with homemade tomato sauce and lots of cheese, or cauliflower cheese with rice, or baked potatoes, creme fraiche, homemade tomato relish/hummus and salad, or potato gratin with green beans, or soup as above, or stir fry, or homemade veg lasagne.

On Saturdays we sometimes have ciabatta/garlic bread/antipasti and cheeses. And on Sundays we quite often have a cooked lunch (here or out) and just rolls or something in the evenings.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I'd do a cooked meal but by that I mean something like kebabs & rice, stir fry, meatballs, chicken wraps, sausages, burgers, nachos etc.

Thursday is a cheap takeaway (only me and dd so not too expensive) or leftovers if I'm broke.

Friday is either leftovers, soup & toast or pies. And often salad in the summer, something easy that doesn't require much effort.

Saturday I'll do a roast or maybe a lasagne.

Sunday is homemade fish&chips or pizza.

Because there is only the two of us it's not much point doing big meals otherwise we'd be drowning in leftovers.

When I have people to stay I'll do a casserole that will do a couple of meals, then a maybe a roast chicken which we can have the next night cold. Fish that only has to be grilled. Stir fry that is quick to make etc. You don't have to make something from scratch every night.

Sorry I think NOT having a cooked meal every evening is just weird!

It doesn't have to be of the meat and two veg variety but yes, cooked and hot (except salad accompaniment).

How on earth do you manage to eat a decent amount of veg if you just have a yoghurt or a slice of toast

We cook here every night and when possible eat together.
Nobody eats anywhere else apart from dining room table.
It's usually meat or Fish with a selection of potatoes and veg.

It wouldn't be the same eating cold food, unless of course it was salads

I also make extensive use of the slow cooker when we have guests - the evening meal is then set in stone from 10am or so, no quibbling.

Yes we have a cooked meal most nights. Sometimes the kids just have make your own wraps or a picnic dinner and I will have cereal but more often than not it is cooked.

I don't do meat and potatoes often though, I try to mix up the carb element as much as possible and always have vegetables. we have fish often too.

Cooked meal here around 5 nights out of 7. Personally I hate cooking but kids need decent food. DH cooks too when he gets chance. We have pies, spaghetti, curry, pasta, fajitas, roast, sausages. ..I often find it more boring just figuring out what to cook.

On the off nights it might be a takeaway, toasties, soup or scrambled egg.

How on earth do you manage to eat a decent amount of veg if you just have a yoghurt or a slice of toast

I'm a veggie - former vegan of ten years - all I eat is veg!! Like I say, huge breakfast (by the standards of my peers at any rate), snacks and a cooked lunch. If I had my cooked meal in the evening and a sandwich at lunch how would I be getting any more veg than the other way round??