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 signed up to simply cook and get a box once a month.
It’s basically things like curry kits. You buy all the fresh stuff but get a recipe card which takes the brain work out of it. It has made meal times a bit more interesting and I use ingredients I wouldn’t normally think to use, ie last week did a laksa curry with asparagus tips. I would never normally think to buy asparagus tips.
I tried a servic that sent the fresh stuff (gousto) but that was too much of a faff. Was under pressure to make the meals quickly and portions were small.

Deciding what to cook for dinner, and providing balanced packed lunches throughout the week, are the absolute bane of my life.

I keep boneless and bone-in chicken thighs, minced beef and pork (mixed together) in the freezer. I always have fruit and veg available, along with staples like milk, eggs, cheese, bread, yogurt, pasta, rice, couscous. Every now and then I will get some fish, but it’s difficult to get hold of seasonal, sustainable fish near us that’s not extortionate.

Then, once or twice a week, I holler “if nobody tells me what to cook this week, it’s going to be nothing but sprouts and yogurt* all week”. I did it once. ONCE. I always get suggestions now.

Then, I make enough for leftovers, and between those and whatever’s about to go off (I abhor throwing out food) and takeout once a week and an easy pasta dish one night, we get through it.

*equally gross sounding alternative each week

Hate it too, I like a simple meal, cheese & biscuits, a sandwich, something like that but DH loves a 'proper' meal & although he can, of course, cook, I do the vast majority of cooking as he works long hours with lots of travel & I have a very local, part time job. But the utter tediousness of meal planning .... been together over 30 years and I am just so fed up of it.

I used to love cooking, was even in a poncey magazine once featuring a dinner party I hosted but I really find it so dull & time consuming now.

I’m the same as most - tired of thinking of meal ideas and bored with our standard meals. Have an ok repertoire of dishes - had even factored in the 18 yr old veggie. Then the curve ball “Want to ditch dairy etc now - can my meals be vegan now?” Ffs😩

I have built up a 7 week plan. Now I just rotate through. Most meals come up 1 or 2 times in 7 weeks so enough variety. Occasionally I replace a meal If it is getting really boring or of we have tried it a few times and it isn't working for some reason. I sometimes do a plan for school holiday weeks as I include more lunches but basically I just shop for the plan that week.

I'm 62 and can't understand this. Am sure that when I was 10 years old all meals in the future would be a tiny pill.

Wish this had happened as after all these years I'm so bored with cooking....looking forward to a tiny pill lol

Yep hate it. Don't have the energy to think about it. Got ridiculously excited when I found a pack of Bernard Matthews turkey escalopes topped with cheese in freezer tonight. God bless Bernard!

I've been going back and forth through a rota. The usual chili, tacos, and spag bol and then:

-salmon fillets broiled skin-up in a sweet chili/wholegrain mustard/sambal oelek sauce
-baked chipotle-honey bbq chicken
-bone-in crispy-skin chicken breasts
-breaded pork chops
-chicken milanese (we eat so much chicken round here)
-steak Diane (beef medallions in creamy mushroom sauce)
-pan-fried fish fillets
-Savannah oven-baked red rice
-"shake'n'bake" chicken with hot honey
-meatloaf
-oven baked teriyaki-Thai chicken wings
-chicken tortilla soup (So. Much. Chicken.)

I have told DH that the day the last child leaves home - kitchen is closed. It will be toast, tinned soup or M&S microwave dinners for me. He can sort himself out. There will be none of this ‘all round to mums on a Sunday for a roast’, fuck that!

Did I write this? I'll cook whatever, I hate deciding!! I do love having a meal plan to work from though, if I'm organised enough I do it before the shopping list as they populate each other but I do get stuck in a rut and cook the same few meals all the time!

Stir fry is a great one because it is so flexible. It's also quick and healthy too.

I hate it too! I would gladly eat a meal pill sometimes rather than having to cook or plan.

I was reading about The Organised Mum on here earlier today and people were saying how good her meal plans are too. Here: www.theorganisedmum.blog/category/menu-plans/

Another great site if you are trying to lose weight and cooking for family is Slimming Eats. One of our current favourites is Pizza chicken. Whack chicken breasts flat with rolling pin, shove in roasting dish, top with pasata mixed with a few herbs, top with grated mozzarella, shove in oven. It looks like it takes more effort, so you can sit and play on your phone in the kitchen while it's in the oven!

Chicken curry and rice
Chicken curry and pasta
Chicken sweet and sour with egg noodles or ooddles of noodles
Chicken fajitas
Chicken chips and beans
Hunters chicken
Slag Bol
Hot dogs (ashamed)
Meatballs and long pasta
Roast
Egg wraps
Omnollettws

These are the ideal ones

Fecking hate it too. Do we really have to eat every day???!!!

Posting to placemark to get ideas.

I feel your pain OP

I just have a schedule. Boring but it works.

Same thing every Monday, every Tuesday etc. We eat out at the weekend or I cook something more special but honestly I just got sick of thinking after 20 years!

If anyone complains, the kitchen is that way.

Placemarking too, loving all the ideas..What is Gammon? Aussie here....is it a sort of ham steak?

I bulk cook and freeze when I can so that when I have a spectacularly lazy or busy week, I can whip out something...I freeze lasagne, bolognese sauce (in differing quantities so can defrost enough for 1 or 2 fussy eaters if needed), chicken pies (dead easy, filling into foil BBQ tray and piece of puff on top), curries, soups and mini spanakopita - when I am not working I cook and fill up.

Every night also includes a big steamer full of veg...one kid only eats one or two kinds, everyone else eats a variety.

Weekends leftover veg get cooked up into either soup or frittata

Our regular rotation (bear in mind we are in Oz and use the BBQ on the patio at least 3 times a week...I have a weber, which is brilliant because you can do veg etc on it too)

BBQd salmon/pork fillet/lamb chop/garlic chicken with rice or baked sweet potato and veg (or salad)
spag bol
curry, rice and dhal
sesame soy chicken drumsticks and fried rice
pork fillet with apples, mustard and quince, new pots and veg
roast lamb or chicken
tagine and couscous
stuffed zucchini or capsicum
salmon cream (dreadful cupboard meal of white sauce with tinned salmon stirred through, boiled eggs added, breadcrumbs on top grilled till golden, served on rice...sort of poor mans' fish pie)
salmon patties
burgers
italian meatballs with basil, lemon and pine nuts on risoni
chicken cacciatore
spaghetti puttanesca
cottage pie
baked white fish with fennel/tomato etc
sausages
lamb shanks with mash
pumpkin soup with polenta chips
chicken fajitas
tacos (dreadul supermarket kits for these last two)

I also buy some dinners from a local cooking service...they cook really well using good recipes (like Ottolenghi, Stephanie alexander, etc) and make some great curries, marinades, pies, stews etc. If I like it, I copy the recipe, sometimes it's great and gets added to our repertoire, sometimes theirs tastes better or is much easier, they sell different sizes and fresh or frozen so great to adult up our meals a little...I might give the kids spag bol for 2 nights and we'll have something more grown up the second night.

The two tasks I dislike the most - Meal planning & Ironing!!

DH has no idea why it bugs me so much! He keeps saying leave it to him which sounds great but we’ll eat takeaway at 8pm every night that week!

I have a list of our most common meals. My DC will eat anything so long as it isn’t spicy. I have Pinterest and very kitchen gadget known to mankind and yet some weeks I sit and think ‘What the actual F are we going to eat on Tuesday!’

Total bane of my life.

I'd happily iron every day if I didn't have to cook. And do people really need 'proper' meals every day, I am more than happy with an interesting salad or toasted sandwich .... why do so many people, my DH included assume it's essential to have a 'meat & two veg' type meal every evening. We all have a varying schedule in our household so it's not so easy to have a standard meal plan, the other day I cooked a full roast only for DH to say he had to stay away for a last minute business emergency & DS to be called up for some sporting event ...... so tedious, not like you can just shove a roast in the freezer for the next day without faffing around.

What always gets to me is that I can go to the supermarket, spend £80 and still not know what to cook.

I’m lucky. Only me and DH and he will eat anything I cook. Still annoys me though.
I get a recipe box from Riverford every few weeks. Some of the recipes have added to our standard meals.

I am loving this thread and will be back later to write down all of the ideas. I guess that if I Google the names of these meals I'll find recipes for them?

Meal planning is my Sunday chore, and as pp I demand input or we‘re having rice pudding every night. I used to love cooking, can’t stand it now.

Just wondering where everyone kept their lists? Just wondering as I start to do this and it never really works. Do I need it in my cupboard or is there a magic app thats going to save me!!

Just wondering where everyone kept their lists?

Mine is saved in myfitnesspal. But that's only because I calorie count everything.