To not have a takeaway, roast dinner or dry up every week?

[Peanutbutterismyjam]

I was talking to a good friend yesterday about Easter, especially with the current situation. She mentioned that she's gutted she can't have her usual lamb roast dinner this Easter. I said we had a dinner last weekend so doubt we'd have one for Easter. Conversation then extended into roast dinners every week come hell or high water, weekend takeaways and fry ups, etc.

She has a takeaway every Friday, cooked breakfast every Saturday and a roast dinner every single Sunday, even during a heatwave. Her family have been this way since she moved in with her partner. They now have two boys 9 and 7. Neither particularly enjoy a dinner but will eat meat and Yorkshires with gravy. They can afford a takeaway most weeks but aren't loaded. It works for them.

We, however, rarely eat these things. I don't enjoy greasy food first thing in the morning, it repeats on me. I will have eggs on toast occasionally. Takeaways are for days like Mother's/Father's Day, rare night off, celebrations. I like a dinner but not every week. I find it a huge faff, a good couple hours of cooking, lots of washing up, and all eaten in no time at all. I'd honestly rather have pasta for a quick/easy/lazy meal. To add, my children are still small. My 3 year old has a restricted diet (ASD) and doesn't touch meat or veg, the baby will. Neither like pancakes, despite a few attempts, I won't give them takeaways yet due to salt content. They will however, happily wolf down homemade pizzas, and peanut butter on toast instead of a fry up.

Light-hearted conversation but she was fascinated with the that we won't be having a roast dinner tomorrow. We are having roast chicken, homemade flatbreads, tzatziki, and, Greek salad with feta.

So, AIBU to not have takeaway, cooked breakfast or a roast dinner every week? Do any of you? Just curious.

Duckingell I had gin and a twister ice lolly!

@Duckingell I misread that - reading quickly - and thought you had written 'caviar and crisps' rather than cava. I think caviar and crisps sounds excellent!
OP, why can't your friend have lamb - it's for sale in butchers and most supermarkets?
We've got roast pork tomorrow. I love a roast.

Hold the front page for "Different People Eat Different Food" shocker.

Your OP would make more sense if you hadn't have added "YABU".

Takeaways are for days like Mother's/Father's Day, rare night off, celebrations. sounds like a punishment more than a celebration!

We have a Sunday Roast every week. In the summer it might be barbequed butterflied chicken with lemon potatoes but I would still say that's a Sunday roast.

I don't buy takeaways ever really. A fry up only at Christmas, New Year and Easter, or if we have friends to stay and have all got missed the night before.

We are having a dry up on Easter Sunday then roast pork in the evening. Lovely.

I think food traditions are nice. Food brings people together.

This is a genuine question, what does ‘it repeats on me’ actually mean? I am 31 years old and I have never heard anyone say this in real life and whenever I see someone type it or in a book or something I am never sure what it means?

So mystified. Tzatziki Sounds nice but why not have it with kleftiko if you're going for Greek.

It means it makes you burp and you can taste what you ate again!

Everyone is different. I remember my mum always cooked a Sunday roast until we were teenagers. Then she stopped. We had a midweek dinner instead after that. Every Sunday we had sandwiches for tea and 3 cakes. Only small like a mini roll, a piece of cake and a cherry Bakewell. That was our Sunday tradition. We had a Chinese probably 4-6 times a year. Never had macdonalds and chippy was rare. I remember Saturday bacon buttys too. The rest of the time we are healthy.

The reason I have no structure with things is we are in the thick of having young children. Our house is always a mess with toys etc (it's clean though) I'm forever chasing my tail. I hope as the kids get older/tidier we will be able to do Sunday dinner. I like the smell of it cooking and the Sunday feeling that goes with it.

Personally I don't often have bacon etc but that's because my partner can't eat it. We have sausage baps sometimes at the weekend though.

I personally like the idea of little routines like that but I'm too unorganized

So I read that all the way through only to discover the OP is, in fact, having roast chicken after all.

Fortunesfave took us years to get cabbage right. Slice the cabbage very thinly, fry a load of streaky bacon in butter, throw in the cabbage , toss it about and put the lid on for 5-7 mins on medium heat until soft. Then take lid off , turn up the heat and keep tossing it a bit to get a slight caramel quality onto the edges if you like it.

@koshkatt thanks for clearing that up. I have always wondered!

Your are surprised your friend's family eats differently to yours? You need to get out more when this lockdown is over.

I’m always interested at how/what others eat but wouldn’t really discus it with people.

For me a good thing about this lockdown is there being no take aways, I’m not a big fan of them but the kids (teens are), we occasionally get a dominos or fish and chips, often grab a McDonald’s when out but we can’t do any of these now. I’m enjoying cooking and I’m enjoying the fact my kids have to eat more healthy food and help cook it. My eldest dd keeps moaning about the lack of dominos 🤣.

We probably have a roast dinner once every 2 weeks, sometimes once a week in the winter, I cook from scratch probably 4/5 times a week and then other days we have something not so healthy.

Saw a friend post a photo of his breakfast on Fb this morning and was shocked that he had made his own sausage and egg McMuffins, he had 2 on his plate along with 6 hash browns, that’s probably more than I eat in a day 🤣.

So eat, cook or get a take away when ever you want, doesn’t really matter what people’s eating habits are, if they want to be unhealthy that’s fine, if they want to cook a roast every Sunday then that’s fine too.

@PurpleDaisies and @GrumpyHoonMain

Jamie's recipe says 35 minutes. Can't you do a roast dinner in that time? I'll time myself tomorrow (way too much time on my hands) but I'd say it takes me 10-15 minutes.

Plus no flour all over the place. Messy

@MysweetAudrina

We had take away Thursday, I cooked a bug fry up this morning and brought dh and the kids theirs in bed as a treat. Full legnof lamb in the fridge for tomorrow. Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, very wrong. You are not living in my house and doing this for me. I'll just wait in bed for my fry up. Extra brown sauce for me, thanks love

I’ve always admired people who have their shit together enough to make a roast every Sunday, I find them SO much hassle and I don’t enjoy them enough to do it! 😂 takeaways we usually save for really really bad days, it’s not often but sometimes the day will go so badly and it gets to 6/7pm and no one has ate so we order a takeaway, probably once every 2 months? And I love fry ups but can’t say I ever eat them for breakfast, usually that’s a brunch thing and not massively often because my young children aren’t a fan at all!

It repeats on me

Grim. Please do not use this phrase.

@ilikebooksandplants it's that thing that happens when you eat a big bag of frazzles then burp frazzle flavour all day

Although we are having a roast tomorrow, but it’s also a takeaway and we’re ordering it from the local pub!

Have you all missed the point?

OP is far superior than her friend and she is having a far superior meal of roast chicken, homemade flatbreads, tzatziki, and, Greek salad with feta.

We know this because she went out of her way to try and pretend she was being light hearted while simultaneously looking as far down her nose as she possibly could.

I have never eaten a roast dinner.

They look so very bland and when I see people having them in restaurants they have to smother them in gravy and pepper.

Jamie's recipe says 35 minutes. Can't you do a roast dinner in that time?

No. Proper roast potatoes take longer than that for me. So does red cabbage. I don’t eat meat so making a vegan alternative (pie etc) takes longer. Yorkshire puddings take longer because there’s not enough oven space.

A roast dinner you can do in 35 minutes sounds a bit lacking really, unless you’re like Jamie on his meals in 30 minutes programme where most of the prep is done in advance.

Each to their own. Today we are having leftovers for lunch.

I would love the Greek salad but DH would think the world had ended if there was no Sunday roast.