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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Whathappenedtothelego · 29/03/2021 12:31

I shop once a week and the fruit and vegetables are always fine in the salad drawer.

I plan for the less long-lasting vegetables to be used up first.
And I plan the week's menu around the same set of (seasonal) vegetables, so I don't have lots of different types and odds and ends hanging around.

I think lots of people are very keen to have completely different things every day.

Whereas I (and it sounds like some others too) have a smaller number of ingredients repeating across the week in different meals. And then you start again next week with a different set, so there is still plenty of variety.

It's much easier, it takes up less space, you have natural clusters of meals so the planning is partly done for you.

For example, the other week we had a beef and ale casserole, made with lots of carrots and onions, mashed potato and cabbage.
I made enough casserole for 3 meals. 1/3 went in the freezer, 1/3 in the fridge.

Next day, bubble and squeak cakes made with leftover mash and cabbage, with poached eggs and cumin roasted cherry tomatoes.

A couple of days later the casserole got topped with pastry and we had it as a pie with new potatoes, cauliflower cheese and green beans.

We then had a cauliflower and potato curry, (with the remaining half cauliflower and leftover potatoes), lentil dal and coconut rice.

The next day we had something from the freezer, again with green beans, and I think on the other day we had ravioli (3 minutes prep time).

The remaining casserole will come out of the freezer when we fancy it.

I didn't have to think much about the other meals as they followed the first, but were still varied.

towers14 · 29/03/2021 12:37

I actually like to meal plan, do 7 days & then different for the next 7. There are some repeats because Dh would eat 4 chicken thighs with jacket potato & cheese everyday if he could. I also alternate salad/ cooked veg (sides) meals so it doesn't get boring.
One meal is usually out the freezer of leftovers and always a takeaway in a fortnight period.

As for the wretching as pp mentioned, wouldn't put up with that from a child never mind an adult!

TheLovleyChebbyMcGee · 29/03/2021 12:40

This all resonates so much with me!! DH seems to be having a holiday from any domestic chores as I've had a day off work AL each week of march. He's barely lifted a finger to do housework and has left me to shop and meal plan on a Monday when I'm home with DS. So when I have a day off at home alone I spend it doing housework and laundry.

Its driving me up the fucking wall. I get that lockdown is tedious, but I just feel like he doesn't even notice that I just go and do it. When I'm back at work full time I'm going to leave it and wait to see how long it takes him to do something without being asked!

bluebeach · 29/03/2021 12:41

What I don’t get, is that dinner happens EVERY day, yet I am constantly surprised by its arrival. I am very good at making meals out of barely anything but do wish I could get my bloody act together!

balzamico · 29/03/2021 12:45

It's the only bit I really care about cooking for a family. I now do at least two weeks at a time so I can get the awful part out of the way.
The list goes up on the fridge so everyone knows what's for dinner and they can also see that if tonight's not much to their liking (dh as bad as the kids), tomorrow probably will be.
I'm definitely better when I have a new recipe or a child helping but can't always be arsed

WellJuhnelle · 29/03/2021 12:45

Only last week did I say to my husband that the absolute worst part of being a mum is deciding what everybody eats every day FOREVER Envy (not envy)

balzamico · 29/03/2021 12:45

Gah, the only bit I HATE about cooking for a family!!

BrownEyedGirl80 · 29/03/2021 12:48

My rotation is normally something like.

Monday.homemade cottage pie.
Tuesday:homemade lasagne and chips.
Wednesday.roast pork with trimmings.
Thursday.pizza.
Friday.snacky stuff and wine.
Sat and Sun god knows

PuppyMonkey · 29/03/2021 12:48

It is just so boring. Even the people posting their meal plans for the week are wasting their time as I can’t be arsed reading them.Grin

Roadtohades · 29/03/2021 12:49

Agree! I am currently following MasterChef and trying to get inspiration from all those amazing amateur cooks. Have also dusted down my old recipe books, looking at the pictures and making actual plans to try out some of the more exotic recipes. Smile

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 29/03/2021 12:49

Im a planner, especially through lockdown, cooking has become my new hobby. When i was working it was a pain thinking up new things to have and the freezer was always full of stuff that could be used for meals such as quorn mince, burgers, meatballs fish in crumbs etc. I recently dug out all my old slimming world recipe books and magazines and cut out the meals that i fancied the sound of into a scrap book. I planned out 4 weeks of meals and made a weekly list including the page number for the recipe and a weekly shopping list for all the ingredients its on the kitchen board so DH and DS can choose which to cook too. Its meant that i only buy what we need leaving freezer space for leftovers and for about 9 weeks now we have not had the same meal twice. It does help that DH and DS are not fussy eaters, i feel for those of you that have them.

Pandoraslastchance · 29/03/2021 12:50

Yep I hate it! Every other Friday night I get to sit and plan a fortnight's menu and do the online shop. I'm sick of food and meals.

Me:What do you want for tea this week?
Kids:I dunno
And repeat until end of time Sad

Ploughingthrough · 29/03/2021 12:50

Urgh I can't stand it. One kid likes this one kid likes that, all that effort for it to be gone in a few minutes. I just rotate the same stuff for weeks on end until they start moaning then I'll try jazz it up a bit. But not too much or they moan. Its drudgery of the highest order.

userxx · 29/03/2021 12:53

I hate it. Am sick of thinking about it.

AnneElliott · 29/03/2021 12:54

Yes - a task I hate. I constantly try and get DH to take a share of the work, but he won't express a view on dinner until it's time to cook it, at which point he says 'doesn't look like there's anything for dinner'

BiddyPop · 29/03/2021 12:54

I have DD who's always been fussy about food but who has become ultra fussy about no red meat, no oil, no cheese, no cream, ......but wants lots and lots of spice....wants sugar free but is eating tubs of SF ice cream....etc (and yes, there are SN's involved as well as teenage hormones and a reaction to lockdown which is still happening here, she's not due back to school for another fortnight, fingers and toes crossed).

I have a DH who just wants "food", but then rejects a lot of my ideas. And has become even busier than usual with lockdown so has almost no time to alternate cooking with me (we used to be almost 50/50, but it has slipped over the past 5 years or so, and it's now almost entirely 100% me at this stage).

Covid and Brexit have both had impacts on supply chains and limited what we would normally buy. And we've had to change a number of things as certain brands or items are no longer available for various reasons.

And due to DD fussiness, I can no longer spend time cooking a dinner - so we are eating a lot of "chicken with a jar of sauce and pasta/rice" when we used to have quite a varied diet with a mix of different meats/fish, lots of veg, different types of carbs, a wide range of sauces and cuisines, lots cooked from scratch etc. And I used to be able to batch cook to take nights off cooking on occasion - but the freezer is currently so stuffed full of things that didn't get used as planned and no one wants to use again....

I am seriously frustrated in the kitchen for the past year. And it's only getting worse.

Today, I have chicken joints out as DH wanted those, but he is off for the afternoon so I am putting him in charge of cooking as I have some serious deadlines to meet (I'm waiting for someone to email me a doc they'd been working on while I had physio, hence mucking around on MN as they are taking longer than planned).

blowinahoolie · 29/03/2021 12:55

Already got the dreaded question from DH....🙄

Yes I hate it. Every single day.

Ploughingthrough · 29/03/2021 12:58

Also one thing I've stopped trying to be is adventurous.
We are a pescetarian family so we just have veggie versions of the same old shit because at least I know it wont be wasted:
Toad in the hole, lentil bolognese, quiche, pasta pesto, chickpea tagine. That is basically it. I went through a phase of trying new things and the fussing and whining was more than I could stand so that's what they get every week. At the weekends I might go wild and do a tuna pasta bake.

Eleganz · 29/03/2021 12:59

I'm pretty lucky that DP loves cooking and we do genuine share meal planning although I do probably end up sorting out more of the mid-week "refuel" type meals and he does more at the weekends where he can spend time "creating".

ButterflyOfFreedom · 29/03/2021 13:02

Yes! I actually don't mind cooking or doing the food shop, it's thinking about what to have that's the stressful thing.
None of us are particularly fussy but I still find it hard thinking of new ideas. We tend to go through the same 10 meals over and over and over again!
And yes, I do have recipe books and look online for inspiration but still defiant back to meals we know and just get stuck in a rut sometimes.

This week we're likely to have:
Mon - salmon stir fry
Tues - chicken curry
Wed - frozen fish & chips
Thurs - chicken stir fry
Fri - pizza
Sat - pasta
Sun - roast dinner

ButterflyOfFreedom · 29/03/2021 13:03
  • default (not defiant)
megletthesecond · 29/03/2021 13:03

Yes. I have to cater for three us of us with different likes.
DS is a growing teen who needs substantial portions (although easily pleased), DD is ultra fussy and will go hungry and have a meltdown if not fed, and I can't eat gluten, am trying to stave off middle age spread and have IBS.

thenorthernluce · 29/03/2021 13:03

This feeling is going to be amplified for me come Sept, as my child will be starting school and I’ll actually have to cook her dinner every day now, instead of the excellent food she gets served (and inhales, little bugger) at nursery Mon to Thurs!

lanthanum · 29/03/2021 13:04

We plan our menu so that what we eat at the end of the week uses stuff that keeps better. Fish and salad soon after delivery, pasta bake with frozen veg near the end, and so on.

Pet8 · 29/03/2021 13:18

I was just flicking through mn to put off thinking about what to have for bloody tea tonight. Hate it.