Do you hate having to choose whats for dinner every day

[Flowers24]

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?

Yep. I got chastised on MN before saying one reason being rich can help with weight loss is I'd have a private chef making me delicious, varied and healthy food taking out all the boring work of meal planning, shopping, recipe hunting etc. I got called precious. I still stand by it!

Judging from some responses I think I might be a bit odd 😂

My favourite part of the week is sitting down with recipe books and apps and my notepad and devising a meal plan and shopping list. Geek alert or what!

We meal plan, which I do find helps - at least the decision making is done in one go, not every night.

The DDs plan and cook a meal each, and DH does 2. So that's only three left and I STILL hate it.

I follow a lot of cooking accounts on Instagram for inspiration

DH is on leave for two weeks over Easter and I have delegated everything to him - I don't have to think about dinner for a fortnight. So pleased!

Absolutely OP.

DS mainly eats chicken, noodles and brocoli but will tolerate salmon instead.
DD will generally eat what DH has.
I pick at bits while cooking and then have salad or a slice of toast. I can't get excited about dinner, I prefer breakfast and lunch

But most meal times I make 3 or 4 version's of a meal.

I can't imagine what it would be like if we all liked things like lasagne or shepherd's pie. The world might fall off its axis.

@cricketmum84

Judging from some responses I think I might be a bit odd 😂

My favourite part of the week is sitting down with recipe books and apps and my notepad and devising a meal plan and shopping list. Geek alert or what!

I also love thinking about food and looking at recipes and have hundreds of things in mind that I want to try.

I often think how much easier it would be if I didn't have all these ideas that I wanted to eat, because I just can't get through them all and the ideas come a lot faster than the number of eating opportunities available.

Pre covid we had a sort of plan based on what time I finished work and the children's activities (now none of course). One day was fast turnover, we would have eggs. So boiled / scrambled / omelettes / fritatta/ shakshuka. If we don't fancy eggs we have packed lunch, on the table as the kids get in. One evening a week my 9 year old cooks, so she chooses and it tends to be something she can do by herself - beans on toast, pasta bake. One evening I finish work early enough to pick the kids up, we alternate something more fancy with jacket spuds. Sundays we tend to have meat, a roast or a pie or a stew. On one level it is really boring but it makes meal planning and shopping easy.

I've started writing down a list of all the dinners everybody will eat.
Hopefully eventually we will have enough that come shopping day I can just pick 7 dinners off it.
I also like to challenge myself to a freezer night or two as well.

This has inspired me to do a list of meals on my iPad that everyone likes. There's a lot of chicken.

Yes. Many of my choices are considered "sad meals". I'm at the stage where I just want omelette, egg on toast or just toast.
It's mind numbing.
We get takeaway once a week/fortnight thank God.
I love the weekends when oh does a rotisserie chicken bbq and I do toasties. Or we make pizza ❤️
But the weekdays.... 🙄🙄

We sit down and menu plan every week as a family, then it's not always on one person to try and create something.

Meals out have more than been replaced by Deliveroo

It must be harder when you take conflicting dietary requirements into account. I just cook what I want or what's practical.

Today I'm making shepherd pie and chicken bhuna. Kids requested the pie. That's Monday to Thursday done. Last week it was mac n cheese for the kids choice, coq au vin for my choice.

Friday is fish/veggie. We often have baked potatoes cheese and coleslaw but I do different things every week. Sammy sea bass by Joe Wicks is a favourite.

If I'm not doing pre made meals I will order the 3 for £10 meat and fish from Waitrose for meals that just require veg/carb. Chicken Kiev is lovely or tuna steaks the 3rd choice will be something like a small portion of marinaded chicken I can chuck in a stir fry or make into a dish for dh and I whilst the dc get freezer meal.

I will often make more of an effort at the weekend. This weekend I made calzone which took ages but was yum on Saturday and Sunday. If I make a roast we have a second leftover roast in the week.

I love meal planning and sharing ideas and find gusto and hello fresh pointless and no fun compared to riffing on a recipie myself.

So when you're enjoying the hoovering and dusting or whatever try and feel happy this is the domestic duty you enjoy. I might like cooking but I hate cleaning!

DH and I plan together - I don't mind it.
I'd much rather do it than empty the dishwasher or mop the floor.

We have a routine across the week, so we can just slot meals in that fit.

E.g. has to be something quick on a couple of days because of after school activities, always "Sunday dinner" on Sundays, Monday is usually make something with roast meat leftovers day, Friday is nearly always something from the freezer.
Wednesday is something that takes a bit more effort - sometimes a new recipe from a cookery book, or just a favourite which is a bit more complicated.

I try to use seasonal veg etc as much as I can and that means meals will gently change throughout the year.

I don't feel the need to have something new and exciting every day. A bit of familiarity and structure is good, and to be celebrated.

I love being able to choose what we eat. I’d hate someone else deciding for me.

Honestly meal-planning has really lightened the load for me here - no thinking as I go round the supermarket, no clock approaching 5 and me having to figure out what we have in and what to make, no negotiations with the kids.

4 nights it's a set menu every week (Burger Monday, Meatball Thursday, Steak Friday and Curry Sunday), the other 3 nights we have 'something that looked nice at the supermarket', or something that we haven't had in a while - so Kedgeree, fishfingers, fish pie, pizza, stir-fry, occasionally takeaway, lasagne, shepherds pie, wraps, roast chicken or whatever - but planned ahead on Sunday so I don't have to think about it.

Leftovers or forage for your own lunch (DS1 likes to microwave some rice and have it with something, or something on toast etc) so I don't have to think about that either, and the big meals like meatballs, or lasagna or curry I freeze the spare in meal-sized containers, so most meals for most of the month I don't even actually have to cook, just defrost!

There’s 4 of us here (adults) at the moment. I shop, but at dinner the previous evening before shopping we plan out the meals for the week, so I know what to buy. We always have roast and usually a cooked chicken, some sort of fish (x2), mince or meatballs ....It’s easier with 4 of us as everyone chooses 1/2 meals. We also pick up recipe cards. Fortunately my son mostly does the actual cooking.

Gosh, fussy kids makes life easier, the options are simpler.

I love food but I don't need huge variety. Always intrigued by MNers who get bored. I don't think you're very hungry if you're bored. Hungry people find raw lettuce pretty damn exciting (ok, it's better with dressing, but doesn't need a lot when you're hungry).

The actual daily chore of cooking can be dull, but not the food itself or the shopping, for me.

It used to take me ages and I hated it. Now I have a notebook with every meal I've ever made more than two or three times written down, separated into a page for pasta dishes, one for dishes with rice, one with potatoes and one for other carbs (tacos, fajitas, bread etc). Then I pick one or two from each page to cover the week, based on what we already have and need to use up and whether it's a busy day or not. Job done. It took an hour or two to set up, but now meal planning is a breeze, I just get my notebook out and pick, easy peasy.

No, love it and one of the great things about wfh. But I have no children at home and so can understand it will be very different for even a family of four.

My favourite part of the week is sitting down with recipe books and apps and my notepad and devising a meal plan and shopping list. Geek alert or what!

Same here.

No, I actually like being in ‘control’ of what we eat. We eat well, decent meat etc, if left to DP it would be frozen pie, chips and peas, pizza etc. One of the highlights of my week is popping to our lively (albeit expensive) butcher and seeing what he has on special. The other week it was stuffed lamb breast and huge ribs.

Lovely, not lively.

Always my decision, we have a varied range of meals, if left to DH it would be curry every day.

I'm just desperate (like everyone else) for a holiday, that I can choose from a menu and do no cooking.

Hate it and wish l lived alone so l could have cheese on toast or breakfast cereal every night

I hear you ! TBH I have got so fed up with it that I have regressed into "If its Tuesday ,it must be Sausages!" kind of thing .Tend to cook more or less the same meals during the week .Will normally have a takeout once a week and at WE will try out some new meals then . So Mon to Fri Spag bol .Roast Chicken,Sausages! F and C from shop .