To think cooking a roast every weekend is completely unnecessary

[ChristmasAlone]

Stems from a conversation I just had, I'm cooking a roast at the moment and mentioned it was the first one I've cooked this year. I love a roast, but just think cooking one every weekend (I know it's Monday) just feels completely unnecessary and takes away from its beauty if you're having every Sunday.

Its liberating not to have one every Sunday. We grew up with that and although I did enjoy eating it there was untold stress and pressure surrounding it. I love not living like that! You don't have to do it every weekend 😆

I do a roast most Sundays. I think it's a time efficient meal...whack it all in the oven, then come back 2 hours later. Steam some greens and it's done. Plus there's loads of leftovers for Monday dinner so you don't have to think about cooking again til Tuesday.

Absolutely love them. I live by myself and cook one every Wednesday.

I cook one roast a year, at xmas. Like @ExpectingToFly I grew up in a house with much stress and hassle around getting a roast dinner on the table every Sunday. I prefer a more chilled approach to feeding the family. My DH would like a roast every week, but he doesn't want to spend time cooking one either so it doesn't happen!

We rarely have a roast dinner at the weekend. We don't even have one most Christmas Days, let alone every Sunday.

We had the full Sunday roast every Sunday when I was a child. There was no breakfast on a Sunday in order to make you enjoy the meal more. The aromas that abounded all day prior made you salivate in anticipation as my mother liked the beef to roast on low for hours before adding thickly sliced potatoes to the fat and juices to make her special kind of soft roasties. Her beef would be soft, tender and darkly caramelised on the outside. She would serve with soft cooked dried peas (not mushy peas), mash in winter or new potatoes in summer, her delicious sweet caramelised beef gravy and Yorkshire puddings.

My SIL had her own version, more of a Christmas dinner like meal which was also lovely.

Maybe it was special because all of the family was there.

I could cook both and other variations by myself by the time I turned fourteen and sometimes did so. I used to do one for anything up to fifteen people, family plus guests, by the age of fifteen and I used to take great pleasure in dong it. I was very good at it.

I used to do one, together with DH, when we first were together but somehow it just faded away and we have rarely bothered for years. Maybe we're too lazy now, maybe it's the expense for just the two of us, probably a little of both. It's a shame really but hey ho.

I have never cooked a roast on Sunday..mainly because I have always worked on a Sunday and all my children barring one actually moaned whenever I did!!
I actually love a roast so would happily have one any day of the week if someone else enjoyed it as well!! Ironically I roast a chicken twice a week for the dog because it’s the only meat she will eat 🙄

I love a roast and find them really simple to cook, but I don't go overboard with six veg ... personally I find it one of the easiest meals to cook, my DH isn't that keen on them but when I'm cooking I choose .

I do not get the British love for a roast dinner - takes ages to prep and cook then the pots afterwards! They fill the dishwasher and sink 😠

However if we did like them, there's absolutely no way we'd have one every weekend. Surely you prefer to vary your weekly menu?

We have one every week. Usually on a Sunday but if we're busy it gets pushed to another day.
It's out favourite meal of the week.

@1AngelicFruitCake a nice chunk of beef eg topside/silverside only takes 90 minutes max to roast. All your other timings work within that. So, spuds on to par boil when the meat goes in, put them in to roast after 30 minutes, carrots and parsnips in the potato roasting tin 30 minutes later. Chop your other veg and mix your Yorkshire batter. Everything out the oven after 90 minutes, meat on the side to rest, root veggies in serving dishes in the 2nd oven to keep warm (if you have one, otherwise cover with foil and just sit on top of the stove). Temperature up, yorkshires in, steam your veg, make your gravy, the whole thing takes an hour and 45 minutes and there's a lot of sitting around watching telly in the early stages.

I absolutely love a roast dinner and would happily eat one every weekend if I wasn't the one having to cook it! But necessary? No, of course not. I hardly ever make a roast tbh, because dh loves cooking them and does it so well. Only every few weeks though, usually.

Surely you prefer to vary your weekly menu?

We vary our meat and veg.

I think a roast is super easy to cook, and one of my faves so weekly wouldn’t wear off for me.

Is a roast more faff to cook than a chilli or fish pie or anything else really? Have them if you like them as we do, but I never find them hard or repetative. Surely you mix and match with the sides and meat and no two need ever be the same.

I love roasts, love them...but I rarely cook a meal that takes so long now p.... a steak or chops are quicker. I'd love one now...I can almost taste it...maybe next w/e...

We vary the meat too, @DelBocaVista. And the dishes to use the leftovers for the next couple of days. It's actually quite a cost effective way to meal plan for the first part of the week.

I do a roast pretty much every Sunday. I quite like the cooking because it's time set aside just for that and will often bake scones or make a crumble while i have the oven on. I like remembering Sundays when I was a child having a traditional meat and potatoes dinner, home made pudding and that being the focus of the day. A quiet day to spend at home with family before another crazy week.

You can also favour the meat with a variety of things too, often roast a chicken with lemons, can have a herby crust on the beef, spices etc

@ineedaholidaynow

So what sort of things do you eat *@Voomster953*?

A simple roast can be very tasty

Lots of things. Literally anything else.

I like a roast, but I find them a bit too much, a bit rich as when I cook them I like to go all out and have them with all of the traditional accoutrements.

I don’t like a pared down roast, I find them bland and bleak and would rather have literally anything else.

My simple roast is very tasty and healthy.

It's the least intensive thing to cook.

I whack the oven on automatic, set for 90mins.
Fling a chicken in, sprinkled with salt.
Either put jacket potatoes in too, or peel them and pour melted goose fat on.
Make a cheese sauce from cream cheese/cheddar/milk/cornflour, pour over frozen cauliflower.

So ten minutes prep. 90 mins later it's all ready.

It's easy & yummy though 🤷🏻‍♀️

@DelBocaVista

Surely you prefer to vary your weekly menu?

We vary our meat and veg.

Varying meat and veg is still a 'meat & veg' meal though!

We'll have one meal like this then have chilli, fajitas, burgers, fish, before we think about meat & veg again.

I'm not really the right person for this thread though as 'meat & veg' meals are just something to tick a box in this house!

We rarely have roasts.

No-one (other than me) loves them so it's a huge effort for just me.

Also I grew up with Sunday dinner, week in and week out (I think my mum used to give the Sunday before and after Xmas a miss). My mum wasn't the best cook either I'd give my right arm to have the chance for another Sunday roast with her though, she died suddenly 7 months ago

Oddly two of us siblings have very rare roasts and the other two have them weekly like Mum used to do!!