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?

GOUSTO will change your life!!!
Here is a code for 50% off your first box. It’s definitely worth a try at that price. It’s also saved us a small fortune in take aways because come Saturday night we always have something decent for dinner rather than ordering in.

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=SARAH42074707&utm_source=iosapp

I cook so I choose

Can't deal with the dithering if it goes to a vote

We just have what we fancy, isn't it boring planning what you might want to eat on a friday when it's only monday?
We surprise each other, sometimes I have no idea what he's cooking.
He usually guesses what I'll cook.

YES!! Total meal-planning fatigue. No sooner have I written one week's meal plan and done the Sainsburys order, than it is time for me to start the next week's plan and order.

I have been meal planning for about 20 years now - that's 1040 meal plans and shopping lists - no wonder I am beyond pissed off with it now.

Sometimes, when it gets too much, I dream about having a week or two off - I plan to raid the ready meals at M&S and buy enough microwave meals for me and dh for the fortnight. Of course, lockdown has made that dream much harder to achieve.

Before lockdown, dh was working away a lot - we live in Scotland, but he was spending a lot of time in London, so I would have two or three nights a week when it was just me, so I could lay in ping meals and not have to bother with planning meals. But dh has been wfh for a year now, and I feel I have to feed him properly. In fairness to him, if I plan the meals and do the internet order, he puts it away and does at least half of the cooking, but I do miss my lazy dinners.

Yes! I used to love cooking and meal planning, but now it's a chore.

I recently asked my 4yo what we should have for dinner this week and he just reeled off an entire weeks worth of dinners. It was brilliant! Took all the thinking out of it for me!

We did mix things up earlier this year by doing Hello Fresh while it was on offer. But the kids moaned too much and it annoyed me more than planning meals.

I've found it so much easier this last year since I've been working from home and can start cooking earlier in the evening. We also did the Gusto & Hello Fresh thing for a while to get some new ideas, and I use a lot of those recipe cards.

I've been remembering how my mum used to asked for input on the meal plan/shopping list and then moaned that everything I asked for was too complicated or expensive, so I'd ask for pasta with tomato sauce, then she moaned it was too boring! I loved the few years where she "gave up" and we had the same meals every week. Even now Tuesdays make me think of chicken pie!

Yes hate it op. We get two takeout dinners a month. Pizza on a Friday night. Cleaning up is endless too. Tonight is spag bol. Kids are teens no help with ideas!

I roast a chicken on Sunday, lasts the rest of the week

Well I’m a Nanny! So I choose my dinner all week and the children I look after I choose their dinner all week.

I’m the one that plans and cooks so I choose what I want. It isn’t such a chore then! But DH couldn’t care less what he eats and toddler DS eats most things as long as I don’t add too much chilli. I’m on a health kick so using Pinch of Nom recipe book a lot lately.

We're rubbish at planning meals unless I'm off work. Tonight we're having the tomato feta pasta thing that's all over Instagram because we had a huge roast yesterday and it it's easy and delicious.
No clue about the rest of the week! I keep forgetting to get meat out of the freezer which doesn't help!

Was fully expecting this to be an ad for Hello Fresh!

Yes I’m so bored, I don’t even care what I’m eating anymore and then feel guilty that I’m not making nicer food.

I go through phases of being in a groundhog day rut about it, then pull myself together, find a few new recipes or remember some things we like that I haven't cooked for ages, or find a recipes website I like. The most recent one to pull me out of the rut is the modern proper . I've made about 8 things of theirs in the past 2 weeks!

I also got the (free) StashCook app, which lets you import recipes from websites, edit them, change the number of servings (which automatically recalculates ingredient amounts) and file them by type.

I think when I fall back into a rut again I'll try doing the same - find a single website/cook or pick one of mybrecipe books and spend a few weeks doing loads of recipes from that one source. It's easier than searching around!

I was so organised at the beginning of last year.
I sat down with the teens and went through all our cool books- we wrote lists of meal, veggie, chicken, pork, mince and fish. I then put them into weekly lists and we didn't eat the same meal for over a month.

It didn't last long and I'm back to a list of about 12 meals.

I don't mind the dinners. There are only two of us and we're both unfussy, adventurous eaters so I normally have many more ideas than days.

But I HATE planning lunches. It feels like a step too far, especially with us both being at home at the moment.

YES! It is mind-numbingly tedious, especially with fussy DC.

I have offloaded some of the responsibility to DH - he’s now in charge of all weekend meals. The decision-making process and cooking it. If he tells me in advance what he needs I’ll buy it (when I go food shopping) otherwise he has to sort it out himself. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner!

Lunches are another pita. My DC always ask ‘what’s for lunch’ as if I’m magically going to conjure something else up rather than the standard sandwiches, rolls or wraps, that they’ve been eating since they were little.

TBH, I’d happily live on toast but they don’t share my love for it.

My DD sent me this yesterday. She feels my pain:

www.instagram.com/reel/CMm2O7NggMC/?igshid=1suah76aqh5sb

This week its
Mon - nasi goreng which is basically veg fried up with rice and curry powder with omellette on top
Tue - stuffed peppers using any rice leftovers and lots of veg
Wed- pan fried haddock on a bed of indian spiced potatoes
Thur- harrissa veg and chickpea tagine
Fri - smoked haddock kedgeree
Sat - spaghetti carbonara
Sun - salmon fishcakes
Next week is ...
Tarka dahl with eggs
Sweet and sour pork with noodles
Courgette and chilli pasta
Jerk chicken with carribean slaw and rice and beans
Chipotle salmon and stir fried veg
Tortilla wraps with chilli prawns and salads
Thai fish curry and rice
Week after....
Lamb cochifrito
Boston beans and meatballs
Beef stifado
Chilli and rice
Chachouka
Linguine with rocket pesto
Beetroot and chilli risotto

I quite like it! I do a meal plan on Sundays,
Everyone chooses a dish, and we enjoy going through the recipe books (I compiled my own set mostly from the bbc good food site and other personal recommendations). Some of the meals this week are home made pizzas, beef cobbler, nut roast and chicken cacciatore. It's a bit more interesting when everyone chooses.

This is why I started using Gousto, during the first lockdown, and couldn't ever go back! Just can't be arsed coming up with ideas!

@StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes - that all sounds fabulous but where on earth do you find the time?! Do you sit down once a month and write out every meal for the next month? How long do you have in an evening to prepare them? I pick up the kids at 5 after work and if they are not fed by 5.30/6 then the evening routine doesn't work!