To hate having to think of dinner

[Lovethetimeyouhave]

I'm so fed up, I don't mind actually cooking the meal, but the thinking up of what to have for the entire week has begun to bore me! I try and do new meals and use Pinterest but I'm so fed up.

So aibu to ask for any of your ideas for the following week? I need to do the online shop so it can come tomorrow! The fridge is empty

I'm with you on this one. What about:

Cottage pie
Fajitas
Curry
Chinese chicken and rice
Sausage and tomato pasta
Pickies - rolls, ham, salad, bhajis etc
Steak and potato dauphinoise
Potato skins (cheese, cream, bacon)
Cauli/broccoli cheese
Chili

And.....repeat!

our meals generally are these

chilli
wraps
lentil and bacon soup
stir frys
meatballs and spag
chicken rice veg
fish new pots veg
roast dinner
omlettes
baked eggs
baked potatoes various fillings
breakfast fry up tea
mixed grill (cost a fricking fortune to do so dont have it so often)
pie mash veg gravy
liver and bacon
shepards pie
chicken casserole
spicy rice

I hear you on that one. Bane of my life, only to met with 'Again, didn't we have that last week' Arrggggghhhhhh

I live by myself and I find this a chore so you have my sympathy.

How many are you cooking for? Any fussy eaters etc

I've found my people

Same here, usually stick to boring, basic favourites.

I'm so bored of it too. And I used to love cooking but now it's such a chore. Doesn't help that DD and DH like bland food.

DH can't cook. For the love of God all mumnetters with boys teach them how to bloody cook.

I've been meal planning for a couple years now and couldn't do without it! But it is a pain thinking of new meals. I'll admit we usually have the same 3 weeks worth of meals on repeat with the odd thing added or taken away but it works - we eat what we like and everyone getes their favourite.

Some of our regular meals:

Homemade Chicken Fajitas
Chicken a la King (my personal fav!)
Chicken Korma and Rice
Creamy Chicken and Leeks with Veg
Fish Pie with Veg
Spaghetti Bolognese
Pork Chops with Garlic Onions and Veg
Minted Lamb Steaks with Veg
Steak with Sweet Potato Wedges or Dauphinoise Potatoes
Scampi / Breaded Fish with Chips
Bacon and Poached Eggs with Potato Waffles
Turkey Fricassee
Swedish Meatballs with Spaghetti
Chicken and Bacon Spaghetti Carbonara

Me too. I get so bored of eating the same meals. Standing in the middle of Sainsbury's thinking ffs what 3 meals can I buy?
I hate it with a passion.

These are my regular
Meals:

*Sausages and mash
Fajitas
Burgers
Chicken burgers
Quiche and salad
Steak
Stir fry
Spaghetti and meatballs
Spaghetti Bologna's
Jacket potatoes
Steak/chicken pie and veg
Chilli
Curry
Chicken kebabs
Roast
Pizza
Paella
Chicken fried rice
Fish and chips
Pulled pork
Gammon
Lamb shanks
Cauliflower curry
Shepherds pie
Lasagne
Beef casserole

It's a bit time consuming but I had loads of supermarket magazines lying around and I cut out loads of the recipes from them and stuck them in a scrapbook. So much quicker and easier than hunting through them to find meals. They're usually quite simple and fairly inexpensive.

I try to do

a roast
a main course soup
a pasta dish
a one pot rice dish
something and chips or sauteed potatoes and salad
something very easy from M&S (like a pie or chicken kievs) with fresh veg
a stew or casserole (in winter)

My other loose rules are fish once or twice per week, veggie two or three times a week, red meat once a week, chicken once a week.

I used to hate this. I had such a limited repertoire and DH could burn water making a pot noodle....

Then we discovered Gousto and four nights each week are sorted which makes the remaining three a real pleasure.

I think I need to write a list of these. I am stumped at the moment and I am so bored of my current rota of pesto pasta, chicken curry, chilli, bolognese, roast, sausages and then a cheat meal. Thanks for the above ideas.

yes it is tedious, totally tedious

I just do the same stuff and did for 18 years and my children stopped complaining

we had variations of
chilli con carne
spag bol
tacos (the kits, v easy and everyone loved these, can do chicken or mince)
chicken curry
sausages
kedgeree
carbonara

almost always served with either a big salad or lots of veg

no-one got scurvy and they have all gone on to university fine so I think you just do what you can!

also you can often get mussels on special and they are so quick and easy!

Years ago when I had dd1 I resolved to cook. Bought a subscription to good food magazine and tore out recipes that took my fancy ( bonus points if took less than 30 mins to cook and didn't involve more than six ingredients!) I put them in a ring binder divided into fish/ chicken/ seafood/ beef/ lamb/ pork/ ham. That was 14 years ago and I still revisit it regularly! occasionally add to it, more often go on line and look up an ingredient see if there is anything there.

Favourites of ours are salmon paella (dead easy!), Summer-in-winter chicken (chicken, baby tomaties, pesto, creme fraiche, rice/ couscous) and pork in sole syrup and mustard. I found using recipes also encouraged me to try ideas of my own.

Sole syrup???? Maple syrup!!

Spaghetti Bolognese
Baked potatoes with: cheese/beans/sausages/chilli/tuna &
sweet corn
Ham/cheese/mushroom omelette
Roast pork & trimmings
Fish pie
Salmon & salad
Shepherd's pie
Pasta bake
Ham, egg & chips
Chicken (roast, casserole)

It's children that suck the joy out of cooking. I am making a meal this evening that is my favourite (a veggie thai curry) that all 3 of mine hate. They've all been in the kitchen moaning about it and making themselves sandwiches. Told them DH hates beans on toast but we still have that sometimes.

Last week DH made a really tasty new recipe (chorizo, hash browns and cabbage) and they all refused to eat the potatoes. Sigh. We try and cook seasonally so what we eat varies from month to month. Universal favourites include: chilli, haggis, sausage casserole, chicken casserole, beef casserole, lamb casserole, pork casserole, mince and tatties, Delia's macaroni with leek and bacon, spag bol, fajitas, quesadillas, various pasta dishes based on a tomato sauce, or pesto and pasta, beans on toast.

Annoyingly they don't like soup, or any kind of frittery thing (not even sweetcorn fritters which are superbland and they love sweetcorn all other ways) or quiche or any interesting veggie meal.

I am so glad it isn't just me.

The thinking and planning and turning the nose up is soul destroying. DH doesn't get why it makes me grumpy.

Fecking hate it.

Dd is 14 and a veggie.

Ds is nearly 5. Fussy and hates all vegetables. And strong tasting food.

DH is 50. Doesn't like veggie food or bland food or oven chips or pasta in anything but white or cheese sauce.

Neither dc eats eggs which is annoying as we have our own chickens.

I do variations of omelette, mexican wraps, summat and chips for the dcs, pizza for the dcs, tuna and pasta (ds fave) and cheesy pasta, will do spag bol every so often as me and ds love it, the other 2 can fend for themselves that day. Jacket and salad and whatever. Chinese curry, thai curry (veggie version for dd), sunday roast, chilli for the grown ups, and fish with veg/potatoes.

I don't actually mind cooking. It's trying to think of 3 similar but compatible meals that gets right on my pip.

I feel totally flat when trying to think of meals at present. I have a bookcase of cookery books but I can't face having to come up with family meals so the last two weeks I have insisted that each family member states a meal they wish to eat. I may have to do the shopping and cooking but I am spared some thinking and they can't complain if they have all agreed to it.
We have had soft tacos with chicken, tofu stir fry, marinated salmon and noodles, homemade pizza, chilli and poke bowls.

I don’t mind cooking but thinking up ideas is such a pain.

We now use HelloFresh so three nights of the week are generally sorted with things that we wouldn’t usually have.