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?

Yes yes yes

make it easy on everyone-lower your expectations=reduce stress..Make a huge meal sunday(tray of veg lasagne,veg chili,pasta,curry etc)leftovers4monday..tuesday takeaway,weds large meal&leftovers4thurs&yep takeaway for friday..sat&sunday can be street-markets/eating out etc..or cheese toasties&cereal for afters🤣..lifes too short&theres too much fun stuff to do to faff about dinner-ive rolled with the above for years-eat pad thai/japanese/jalfrezi/tofu goreng as often as poss😉

We now have a really boring planner, where each week is basically the same. No one seems to mind.

I once worked with a man who still lived with is mum at 25. He had had the same seven meals practically every week of his life. He eventually moved out, bought a house around the corner and went back to his mum's every day to eat. He's probably still doing it now, 30 years on.

My least favourite job! We do get Gousto regularly which really helps. I am always tempted by the idea of Monday is x and Tuesday is always y but I worry we would get bored. DS would be happy but DH and I don't like being in a food rut.

@StCharlotte

Something that has helped is keeping a list of all the meals we eat so we can kind of choose from a menu and add in some seasonal extras.

Ooh I'm stealing that!

I don't think it helps that lockdown has meant little or no relief from the tedium of meal planning.

We do this, DH and I have a few shared lists on the Keep Notes app, one with the shopping list and one with a list of meals we usually eat. So we can go through and tick which ones we'll cook this week.

Except we usually forget and I'll get DH texting me at work asking what to make.

To be fair, he's getting better at deciding but he does have bipolar and when he's depressed he can't cope with the 'decision fatigue'. When he's hyper he will spend 3 hours making a bolognese that takes me 40 mins because he faffs and uses a million ingredients (mine still tastes better) or a curry or chili that needs a whole afternoon to cook, or lasagne with a cheese sauce that uses 4 different cheeses!
He can do 'freezer shit' or 3 hour cooking marathon and nothing in between like a pasta bake or meat and veg.

I quite like thinking about the week, people's activities and planning a varied menu. Since the first lockdown I have been trying to only shop once a week so it is more of a task when you include shopping and putting things away as well. What does really irritate me is when the family say they don't want something or pull a face when they have had no input but at the same time when I ask for input say they 'don't mind' or ask for something that we have on a regular basis any way.

Yes! We’re vegan but with kids and it feels like there’s no options!

Please try Gousto - it literally saved my life I like you used to hate thinking and shopping for dinner.

It made my life miserable - Gousto gets delivered in a box fresh to my door then I cook it. Not different to going to the supermarket really but the lame part of thinking/buying the ingredients it taken away.

It will save your life promise!

Bloody hate it. DH is so limited in what he'll eat, but then complains I give him the same meals too often. DD will eat no meat but pork, DH will eat no vegetarian, neither like fish.
I get anxious just trying to meal plan, I hate cooking so really can't be bothered with anything that's a faff. Lockdown is even worse, the bastards want lunches too.

Oh God yes. Just this.

@Flowers24

It is the utter drudgery and groundhog day of it, and agree, it is one of the worst parts of being an adult, Lockdown has made it worse as we would normally have a pub meal every other week (dh and i) and the whole family go out for a meal once a month which breaks it up.

I wish we didnt have to eat 7 days a week and could just take a tablet for half of it !

Lol, you could always try "Huel" or those meal replacement drinks/ bars!

Seriously though yeah it's a bit rubbish but it's just part of life. We just plan meals out for the week and do all the shopping online on a Sunday. That way we don't have to spend as much time thinking about it during the week.

We have a rotation of meals that we normally have, leaving one night a week free to improvise something or have a takeaway. It works well and isn't too boring, it just needs a bit of planning. It means we are not left asking "what's for dinner" during the day and stressing about it because we already know. I find it a lot easier if a little predictable.

Ugh, l have to plan around allergies and fussiness.
So sick of pre-planning for the week which seems to fall on my shoulders.
It was worse before lockdown when it was suggested I could decide the activities for the weekend too! at least we're all stuck in the same boat of boredom now.

I have now put up a list of favourite recipes & they decide what to eat before putting a food delivery order in (also a pita).
We make 2 batch meals on Mon Tue and have seconds Wed, Thu. A takeout on Fri & something from the freezer over the weekend or cooking again.

Favourites are beef enchiladas, lasagne, spag bol, stir fry noodles, chicken pie or bangers & mash, frozen ribs & chips, curry & rice. Actually reading that back, no wonder I'm the heaviest I've ever been.

@SusannaMorvern

Bloody hate it. DH is so limited in what he'll eat, but then complains I give him the same meals too often. DD will eat no meat but pork, DH will eat no vegetarian, neither like fish. I get anxious just trying to meal plan, I hate cooking so really can't be bothered with anything that's a faff. Lockdown is even worse, the bastards want lunches too.

Why is it your responsibility to cook for your DH? If he won't eat most normal meals and then complains when you give him one of the few that he will eat, there's no pleasing him. How much brain space does he give to the task of eating? I bet he wouldn't put this much effort into cooking for you.

For me its making sure the menu I have in my head works so chilli and rice fine but then can't have paella in same week cos it's rice again, can't have cauliflower cheese and then lasagne as cheese sauce again so it's not just the planning what to eat but the order you eat it in too - that really gets my goat.

Yep but I batch cook so today I just defrosted a casserole for tonight. Some nights I buy a ready cooked chicken. Others it is pasta pesto. But I try to make an effort the other nights. But it is dull. Dh doesn't cook so it's all down to me.

I'm lucky - my husband does the shopping, meal planning and cooking (he's a good cook and finds it relaxing). However if all these things were up to me we would live on pasta seven days a week by now.

@BarbaraofSeville

He works I don't and he isn't too well, so I feel obliged. But he's morbidly obese and his cooking/eating habits reflect that. I don't want to eat food soaked in oil and cheese etc so tend to be the one who cooks.
He considers the food he eats to be normal meals - meat, 2 veg and spuds. Not something like fish tacos, which would be my choice.

He's a lovely bloke generally, it's just food that's an issue.

Agree with those suggesting gousto, total game changer. Only having to choose 3 meals a week makes the world of difference, and I’ve discovered so many recipes I cook regularly now.

I enjoy meal planning for the odd weekend where I have more time to cook something more elaborate, but I hate weekday meal planning.

My DH and I alternate who does the food shopping, but the unwritten rule is that we each have to suggest (and cook) about half of the meals. DH used to always suggest the same three or so meals, but he has now built up a repertoire of 10 or so dishes that he'll happily cook.

I remember Katy having the same problem in What Katy Did:

At first Katy thought this great fun. But after ordering dinner a good many times, it began to grow tiresome. She never saw the dishes after they were cooked; and, being inexperienced, it seemed impossible to think of things enough to make a variety.

"Let me see—there is roast beef—leg of mutton—boiled chicken," she would say, counting on her fingers, "roast beef—leg of mutton—boiled chicken. Debby, you might roast the chickens. Dear!—I wish somebody would invent a new animal! Where all the things to eat are gone to, I can't imagine!"

Then Katy would send for every recipe-book in the house, and pore over them by the hour, till her appetite was as completely gone as if she had swallowed twenty dinners

[quote Boxty]www.facebook.com/DirtBirdsProductions/videos/1028170954273749/[/quote]

Single parent here, so it all falls to me!

I do think recipe boxes like Hello Fresh / Gousto etc are good. Although I only use them when I have a discount code!

^^
For breaking up the monotony of it i mean!

I used to - hated the endless thinking what to have, far more than the actual cooking.

But during the first lockdown, when shelves were so often bare, I got in the habit of going through what we did have in fridge, cupboards and freezer, and planning several days in advance. A lot of things were used up, inc. some well out of date cupboard things (all fine). I tried the odd new recipe to use what we had - orzotto was just one, with snipped streaky bacon (left over in the freezer after Christmas) instead of pancetta.

I do have (somewhere) a list of dishes and add to it now and then. But I still think at least 3 or 4 days ahead now, both to use up what we have and only buy what’s needed, or what’s always going to be used anyway.

I wish I’d been in the habit of this years ago - it’s so much easier.

Ugh this is the bane of my life too.

With lockdown I feel like it's just thinking about meals and cooking all day.

In the first lockdown I was really organised and planned out lunch and dinner for the week on the blackboard. Mainly because I was relying on supermarket deliveries.

Now I'm still in lockdown but going to supermarkets so it should really be easier.

I have one kid who is a bit fussy (no pasta, nothing in a sauce) and one who eats everything. We fall into the same old dishes.....sausage and mash, roast, chicken and sweet potato, fish and chips, fried rice dishes.

The other night I realised I hadn't chosen something based on what I like to eat in so so long. So I announced I was making a tuna pasta bake and everyone was (not envy). But when I made it, both kids loved it. So that's another to add.

We are trying hello fresh this week for two meals but I think it might be too expensive to use regularly without a code for discount. I guess we will work out way around all those meal prep services a d collect the recipe cards!