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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Do you hate having to choose whats for dinner every day

371 replies

Flowers24 · 29/03/2021 07:11

Every day its the same, every week Monday draws around and i do the weekly shop, maybe its the lockdown life but fed up of it all and just cant think of new ideas all the time, is it just me?

OP posts:
Justgorgeous · 29/03/2021 21:09

Yes, I literally buy the same food each week. I hate being so unadventurous.

Plumedenom · 29/03/2021 21:11

Yes!! And no one else seems to connect me going shopping and the ingredients needed to cook.

Krook · 29/03/2021 21:34

Ah, here are my people....

I hate cooking with a vengeance. One of my DC is a fussy fucker, others not so bad.

If I could give the whole family some sort of nutrition/calorie pills instead of dinner I would. Wish someone would hurry up and invent them.

Zerrin13 · 29/03/2021 21:53

I like cooking its all the cleaning up afterwards that I hate! My interest in eating proper meals wained years ago and its because I'm always the one doing the cooking. After all the faff of cooking it I just don't fancy eating it. I could happily live on toast, salads and paninis.

ParkheadParadise · 29/03/2021 21:56

I hate cooking
We eat out several times a week and also order takeaways 😃😃
Sometimes DH will cook

notanothertakeaway · 29/03/2021 21:59

Have tried Gousto and Hello Fresh, but we prefer 'simply cook' boxes

Thepennyhasdroppedq · 29/03/2021 22:39

Yes

Beancounterz · 29/03/2021 22:41

Yes, very much so

Original poster
Flowers24 · 30/03/2021 07:08

Are these Gusto and Hello Fresh expensive though? Tempted to try it

OP posts:
LouLou198 · 30/03/2021 07:18

Yes!! I think lockdown has made it a lot worse as at times I have had to make 3 meals a day everyday for 4 people. We would usually go for a meal out midweek to break it up a bit, then maybe have some lunch out at weekend. I would be happy some evenings with a bowl of cereal, but don't think the rest of the family would be impressed!

BarbaraofSeville · 30/03/2021 07:25

I would be happy some evenings with a bowl of cereal, but don't think the rest of the family would be impressed

Are you the only person in the house capable of cooking? How about some of the other people cook some of the time too?

Why are so many people cooking food they don't want to eat themselves for people who don't reciprocate?

Are these Gusto and Hello Fresh expensive though

If you look at what you pay for the food they send, yes they are expensive, especially if you normally keep a basic storecupboard of basic spices and seasonings and don't buy Schwartz/Waitrose Cooks Ingredients.

The attraction is that you can click on a few pictures of a meal from a reasonably small selection and that magically turns into a box of ingredients for those meals without having to make a list and order the food.

Franticbutterfly · 30/03/2021 07:28

Yes. I mean plan and I feel like My whole life is about deciding on, shopping for, then cooking food. In an attempt to spend more time on it I've been making double portions and freezing them. 2 hours cooking each day is getting silly!

Franticbutterfly · 30/03/2021 07:29

Meal* bloody phone

LadyOfTheFlowers · 30/03/2021 07:33

Absolutely OP

No one has any ideas or suggestions yet moans when I just crack on and organise the menu for the week

HmmAngry

randomsabreuse · 30/03/2021 07:37

It's the meal plan, go shopping to discover that crucial ingredient is not available/ has a crap date, get home, redo meal plan taking into account actual dates and hope that child dickishness will enable the preparation of dinner as planned - 5 yo and 2 yo sometimes get into a leaping off the sofa or wrestling each other mood which requires close supervision/refereeing and isn't great for dinner preparation!

DH gets home at around our ideal dinner time so can't really take a turn too.

Definitely bored of it.

Our experiments with online shopping haven't gone well. Always had either useless dates or key items missing and obviously you can't buy alternatives if it's a last minute sub!

HoxtonBonnet · 30/03/2021 09:06

I hate it too. DH and I have an arrangement where I cook Mon-Thurs and he cooks Fr-Sun, although we quite often get a takeaway on a Friday. DH loves cooking and has no problem coming up with delicious ideas but works long hours during the week - I work part-time so it's easy for me to cook weekdays. I have a 4 week meal plan that covers my 4 days and shop for that. DH decides what he is making and either shops for himself or I add the items to the weekly list. Sounds complicated, but it more or less works for us!

bellabride · 30/03/2021 09:06

DH and I, both following Slimming World, meal plan for a few days at a time, so we don't have to think about it once that's written down ( put up on kitchen notice board).
But I don't look forward to doing that, and I think it's one of the pleasures of going away on holiday, eating out and not having to think of what food to buy in.

ceilingsand · 30/03/2021 09:13

I don't do many recipes anymore. I just keep in mind plenty of sauces/bases, and then cook according to what I have in.

CordeliaCurtains · 30/03/2021 10:34

@Flowers24

Are these Gusto and Hello Fresh expensive though? Tempted to try it
They are more than it would cost to buy the ingredients yourself, but we find it really worth it. We have made so many different recipes and it has made life much easier! You can get deals for the first meal boxes, so not expensive and there's no obligation to contribute after that.
Shmithecat2 · 30/03/2021 10:52

@Flowers24

Are these Gusto and Hello Fresh expensive though? Tempted to try it
The introductory offers are amazing - particularly Gousto. I've got my first box from them - 4 meals for 2 people (so 8 dinners in total) for £17.50, approx £2.20 per plate. That's pretty reasonable, and there's no waste, which makes me happy. I'm just going through all the different companies using their intro offers, picking up ideas and keeping recipe cards along the way.
chillied · 30/03/2021 12:19

It is mental load, and I think it's become more noticeable in lockdown because it's 7 days home meals a week. Instead of, as people mentioned, patterns where sometimes different members of the family are out or away on different days or it's a quick snack meal because of dashing out somewhere, or, someone comes round for tea, or you go for tea somewhere else or the kids stay for tea somewhere else...

For me also it became exacerbated because paying for food became my job (due to DH income stopping) whereas paying and buying food used to be usually his job. So I've meal-planned. We started a theme where I'd put the menu of things that can be cooked with this week's ingredients, on the fridge. So whoever cooks can pick one of those.

It has progressed to me getting a bit more adventurous with recipes so that I am the only one who 'can' make more than half of our menus. Bit of a backward step that I'm reflecting on...

DH is a good cook so this should be shiftable!

weaselish · 30/03/2021 13:49

100% agree; worse in first lockdown when lunch was in the mix too, no option to eat out, and I normally love cooking...
Since then, Gousto has honestly changed my hatred of meal planning. Don't even have to think and the meals are good (and better portion controlled than I would use so have lost weight too).
PM me if you need a discount code.

Original poster
Flowers24 · 30/03/2021 13:52

Thanks as dh loves cooking I have a cupboard full of herbs and spices anyway so not sure Gusto is worth it ?

OP posts:
weaselish · 30/03/2021 14:12

I have the same - loads of stuff in the cupboard but no inspiration...! Gousto just made the thought process easier and it is quicker which was so helpful when trying to catch up with work in the evening due to trying to homeschool in the day. Also often recreate from the recipe cards when we don't get a box.
I think as we go out of lockdown I'll move to every other week but it definitely helps me avoid the takeaway option and has made the kids try more things and even help make it.

Lweji · 30/03/2021 14:18

Not really. But I don't do advance meal planning.
I tend to go to the supermarket, see what meat or fish is available, then go from there. I stock most ingredients and will go to a local shop if any are missing when I need them.
Most of my cooking is reasonably plain, with just enough seasoning. Or make it up as I cook.
And I tend to decide what I'll make when I start cooking.

The advantage is that, more often than not, I'll have something that I feel like eating, so I can't complain. Grin