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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Cooking and meal planning

59 replies

Cherrybakewellll · 24/09/2020 09:24

Am I the only one who gets utterly fed up of meal planning and cooking?

I ironically trained as a chef when I left school and I do like cooking but I'm on maternity leave and it's just become a pain in the arse to think of dinners every night. I do meal plan but even thinking up those ideas is tedious to me.

I'm probably just having a pointless rant.

My DH works long hours and would like to cook, but realistically he's a bit slow at it so if he starts cooking at 7.30pm when he gets home we won't eat until about 9.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds the whole thing tedious?

OP posts:
SmellsLikeFeet · 24/09/2020 12:10

I second Iceland. They do a roast with vegetables in a large Yorkshire pudding, it's lovely,
Give yourself a break
I think we get used to what people expect of us

Mintjulia · 24/09/2020 12:13

I'm fed up too, so tonight is

Wholemeal gnocchi (3 mins)
Sauce made of sundried tomatoes, Bacon, chopped peppers, garlic, olive oil, glug of red wine, seasoning. (5 mins)

Followed by baked apples & cremefraiche.
Core apples, fill the hole with sultanas and brown sugar, pierce the apple skins with a fork. Oven for 15 mins.

I had enough of endless cooking last lockdown. I've mutinied Grin.

Mintjulia · 24/09/2020 12:17

@hellswelshy in awe of an EIGHT week meal plan.

NUFC69 · 24/09/2020 12:21

May I suggest what we do. We've been married for 48 years and I often felt as you do. However, a few years ago we sat down and wrote a list, under different headings: chicken, beef, lamb, fish, vegetarian, etc and put on it all the things we eat for dinner every night. Now on a Sunday night we write down what we intend to have for dinner every night for the next week. With the meal list it's very easy to select things so we have a balanced diet and don't get fed up with things. It's not necessarily written in stone, and I do change things round if circumstances intervene. There are at least half a dozen meals down under each heading. There are only two of us at home now, but even when the children were here I always doubled up on making things like chilli, bolognaise, beef casserole, etc.

mrsm43s · 24/09/2020 12:27

I actually love meal planning!

I have a Pinterest page with a section specifically dedicated to everyday meal ideas, and I sit down with my calendar (which has a specific section for meal plans/shopping list) and I browse recipes that I've previously pinned and put them on the calendar and build a shopping list - doing it directly onto the calendar really helps to know when I need a quick and easy meal as we have lots on, or a meal just for the children if we're eating out etc, etc.

(I use this calendar boxcleverpress.com/products/weekly-planner-calendar)

I actually enjoy browsing Pinterest in my spare time for quick, easy varied recipes to do.

Without my Pinterest board, I think I would just sit there with a blank mind not really knowing where to start!

Tonight we're having this www.schwartz.co.uk/recipes/pork/pork-apple-cider-casserole
with carrots and kale. I've not done it before, but it looks really nice, and seems super easy to make.

2me2u2u2me · 24/09/2020 12:29

@NUFC69 i like that plan :)

hellswelshy · 24/09/2020 12:38

Mintjulia
Thanks! It's been borne out of sheer boredom and fatigue to be honest, as in bored of trying to think on the hop when good shopping and at the end of each day when I hear the dreaded 'what are we having for tea mum' Grin

hellswelshy · 24/09/2020 12:39

Food shopping, not good shopping!

2me2u2u2me · 24/09/2020 12:43

can anyone recommend a good chef for recipes that come out good, I saw on another post that Jamie Oliver recipes don't come out that well (and the poster was a good cook)?

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 24/09/2020 13:14

Yes, it’s the endless thinking what to have, rather than the actual cooking.
We don’t have a big freezer, just an under the fridge job, but I do often still make double and freeze half, so that’s one day less to have to think about.
I also have a few standard very easy meals for CBA days.

Cherrybakewellll · 24/09/2020 13:19

Trust me @SantaClaritaDiet this is my third child, the other two are 8 and 10 so I think I could do a whole other thread on the joys of packed lunches ConfusedGrin

OP posts:
GlumyGloomer · 24/09/2020 13:24

Yep, your standards are too high. I write a meal plan every week (mix of online recipes and cook books I'm working my way through). I also have a stock of stuff I can just shove in the microwave oven if things go south. Steamfresh veg are my saviour, 3 veg on the plate in 3 minutes, no prep no waste.

Sparkletastic · 24/09/2020 13:28

I feel the same OP. I used to meal plan religiously otherwise DH would never cook until I was home from work to give him instructions (and I had a long commute). Now we are both WFH I've ditched the planning as I do all the cooking but I should go back to it really and share the burden. My one tip would be that when I previously got in a rut I joined Gousto and got 3 meals a week from them. Got us into new recipes and were nice and simple so DH and DDs could make them. There's usually offer codes kicking about for Gousto and Hello Fresh so makes it cheaper.

InDubiousBattle · 24/09/2020 13:42

I feel exactly the same op. I have always loved cooking, I used to love going to food fairs, subscribe to foodie magazines etc. I'm not sure why but it just feels like such a chore nowadays. On Monday I sat with a blank piece of paper to do a meal plan and just could not be arsed. I definitely over think it too, my dc have packed lunches now and plan their lunches so that they don't have hummus/tuna/cheese whatever two days in a row, don't have sandwiches everyday so buy bagels, wraps and so on, make omelettes and pasta salads for them...I beat myself up over it a bit.
I have started to buy things like Cajun Chicken fillets from Aldi and just put them in the oven with some peppers and courgettes and have them with cous cous. I find something good like this and have it once a week for three weeks then get bored of it (and guilty because it isn't organic chicken). I need 20 'chuck it in the oven' recipes!

GinnieHempstock · 24/09/2020 13:50

I’m another one who enjoys cooking but not meal planning, so I second what @GingerAndTheBiscuits said.

We have Gousto or HelloFresh 4 times a week. I’ve been amazed at how much stress it has taken away. We tend to have the more complicated recipes at the beginning of the week and the rapid ones near the end. Friday is then something simple, often from the freezer.

SantaClaritaDiet · 24/09/2020 14:03

Cherrybakewellll

order a fish and chips or a pizza tomorrow, you deserve it!

elp30 · 24/09/2020 14:07

@mrsm43s

I actually love meal planning!

I have a Pinterest page with a section specifically dedicated to everyday meal ideas, and I sit down with my calendar (which has a specific section for meal plans/shopping list) and I browse recipes that I've previously pinned and put them on the calendar and build a shopping list - doing it directly onto the calendar really helps to know when I need a quick and easy meal as we have lots on, or a meal just for the children if we're eating out etc, etc.

(I use this calendar boxcleverpress.com/products/weekly-planner-calendar)

I actually enjoy browsing Pinterest in my spare time for quick, easy varied recipes to do.

Without my Pinterest board, I think I would just sit there with a blank mind not really knowing where to start!

Tonight we're having this www.schwartz.co.uk/recipes/pork/pork-apple-cider-casserole
with carrots and kale. I've not done it before, but it looks really nice, and seems super easy to make.

Pinterest has been a complete Godsend to me too!

I used to hate deciding what to make for the family but now I have a wealth of ideas at my fingertips :)

If left to my own devices, I'd be eating potato crisps and dip (not an entirely bad idea) but thanks to my searching, I'm making chicken mole enchiladas with rice and street corn today.

Enjoy your meal tonight!

passthemustard · 24/09/2020 14:13

I'm absolutely done with it.

I love cooking and eating.

But what I hate is making something and one of the people I'm cooking for (DC x4 plus DP) will say wtf is this? I'm not eating this shit. I don't like THAT. Or some other variation of no.

I gave them soup last night. DP didn't want soup so he made himself something else.

I'm done.

sashh · 24/09/2020 14:14

There is nothing wrong with using the odd tin or packet.

I put chicken breasts in the slow cooker with a tin of condensed mushroom soup and a pot of crème fraiche.

Sometimes that's it, usually it has mushrooms in it, some times it has leeks, sweetcorn and peas in it, sometimes I dole it out into foil dishes and add a pastry lid, this is often then frozen.

The easiest ever pasta sauce. It uses cream cheese

Cook pasta in water, turn off but do not drain.

Get a frying pan, put a tablespoon of cream cheese in per person and heat. Add one dessertspoon per person of the water the pasta is cooked in.

Drain the pasta and add to the pan.

If you want something more substantial fry mushrooms, onions, peppers, whatever is in the freezer first. You can top with grated parmesan.

InDubiousBattle

Can you do one plan for 2 or 3 weeks? Then you can just add in other things.

OK bung in oven meals.

pork fillet slices
potatoes
1 packet paxo stuffing
1 jar apple sauce
oil
salt and pepper

Slice the potatoes thinly, put on a baking tray drizzle with oil and add salt and pepper, toss the potatoes about so they are covered in oil

Add the pork slices on top

put apple sauce on each slice of pork

make up the paxo and completely cover the apple sauce with it

Bung in the oven for 30 mins - you will need some salad or a veg to go with it.

Another one

Sausages (I like Cumberland)
potatoes
onions
peppers
sweet potatoes
carrots or parsnips

Chop all the veg into wedges, put on a tray with sausages, a drizzle of oil and put in oven for 15 mins, turn everything over and cook for another 15 mins, it might need a bit more time.

A couple of bung in the slow cooker

Pork ribs
Passata
Chorizo
Tin of beans, cannellini or kidney
1 pepper
seasoning.

Put the ribs in the sc, they will make a sort of crown.
Drain the beans, chop the chorizo and pepper
put everything in the slow cooker and leave for 6-8 hours.

When you come back to it you can just pull the rib bones out. Serve with crust bread to dip in.

Chicken

Put the chicken in the slow cooker, switch on and leave (you can season it with herbs and black pepper)

Buy a mixed salad and some bread on the way home from work and let everyone make hot chicken sandwiches.

Drain the liquid from the sc but don't wash it, pull any left over meat off the chicken and freeze it to make a curry later.

Put the carcass back in the sc, and herbs some onion and garlic and in the morning add boiling water and leave - this will give you stock you can freeze or use.

French style onion soup.

Put the stock back into the sc. Finely slice onions (about 1 per person) and add to the stock. When you come home grill some baguette slices (or use frozen garlic slices) add cheese and grill again, serve in a bowl with the toasted bread floating on it.

Ragwort · 24/09/2020 14:16

Mint - I would call your meal a 'cooked from scratch' meal - an easy meal for me would mean beans on toast Grin.

I loathe it too .... another who usually cooks from scratch but just find it so boring and tedious ... only DH and I at home now that DS is back at Uni, I also don't particularly want to eat a 'proper' meal every night, cheese and biscuits is enough for me.

My DH does and can cook not that I like his food but I'm at the stage where I don't even want to have to sit at the table with food chatting over dinner .... bored with all that Grin after 30+ years of marriage!

1stTimeMama · 24/09/2020 14:20

I actually enjoy it. Every Saturday I sit and plan our meals, involve the family, look through my cookery books trying to find new recipes to try. I have 5 children, although ones a newborn, so its tricky to please everyone, but I try! I then shop online for delivery, and cook fresh each night. We've had 1 takeaway this year, which was nice, but I do enjoy cooking.

1stTimeMama · 24/09/2020 14:21

@passthemustard

I'm absolutely done with it.

I love cooking and eating.

But what I hate is making something and one of the people I'm cooking for (DC x4 plus DP) will say wtf is this? I'm not eating this shit. I don't like THAT. Or some other variation of no.

I gave them soup last night. DP didn't want soup so he made himself something else.

I'm done.

If anyone said I'm not eating that shit about anything I made, they'd not be eating. Full stop!
BiddyPop · 24/09/2020 14:23

Yes do think about batch cooking. Not even full on batch cooking days - just when you make a spag bol for 1 night, make enough for 2 or 3 nights and freeze the rest for another couple of nights next week. The same with curries, shepherd's pie, stews etc.

So you can still cook from scratch, it's a little extra chopping etc but really not that much when you are already started, and it means that next week, you might decide to make a side salad or some garlic bread if you really feel you need to "cook" and not just boil pasta and reheat sauce.

And there is nothing whatever wrong with burger and chips - no need for salad unless it suits you, or cheese etc.

When you have a baby to mind, (hot) food that will provide calories is the priority. And a happy baby. After that, you can start to think about making sure it's healthy, or that you have side bits, or that the house is clean, or the laundry is done......IF you have time and energy. Basics are happy baby, food for everyone, and important parts of the house clean enough (bathroom, kitchen to prepare food, and place for baby to play). The rest are bonuses that you will get to as you can/

BiddyPop · 24/09/2020 14:26

(I say this as DH and I are sooooo relieved that teen DD has gone back to school, so is not here for lunches and dinners anymore and we can eat "normal" meals again - not full of spice, they have red meat some days, a wider range of veg than DD tolerates, we're allowed to put olive oil in the pasta cooking water or butter into mashed potato etc. So meal planning here has been absolute s**t for the past few months.....)

Cherrybakewellll · 24/09/2020 14:27

Well in a weird way I'm glad it seems I'm not the only one.

I did think about being petty and doing marmite sandwiches for every meal until someone else stepped up with some ideas, but then I realised the person who would be most unhappy with this arrangement and crack first would be me Confused

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