Can't think of what to cook every day

[Cantcook842]

Morning. I'm nearly 40 years old and I still cannot cook at all. I hate cooking. When I try to cook properly or bake it ends up as a disaster. So I try to stick to simple things.
Lately been getting into a rut and eating the same set of food each week. It's boring and every morning I wake up and am mithered about what meal to make that day.
My husband has to eat gluten free. This adds to the difficulty. My daughter is very fussy. Doesn't like cheese. Doesn't like potatoes in any form. This makes cooking meals very hard for me. She's willingly tries them but actually gags whilst trying to eat them. I don't like veg or pulses.
Got into the habit of each person in the family having something different. Such as a ready meal for my husband. Fish fingers and beans for the children as an example. We eat very simply. The type of food I like is what you'd get in a standard British pub. For example, gammon, egg and chips. Steak pie and chips. Lasagne and garlic bread. Sunday roast. Cottage pie. But because of the gluten, potato or cheese element to most one person in the house won't eat it! I'm sick and tired of trying to plan meals! I don't want to do it anymore! Last week I didn't eat an evening meal at all as I was so sick of trying to please everyone. I just had a bowl of Cereal!
Any advise on how to come up with a meal plan that incorporates everyone's choices?

That sounds like an absolute nightmare.

What about trying to make one pub favourite new meal a week? You could try making your own potato wedges to go with gammon steaks. They’re not hard and you can vary them easily by adding different seasonings. If you’ve got a good frying pan, eggs aren’t too tricky to master. Your daughter could maybe have rice on the side. That’s what dh has when we’ve run out of chips!

The cottage pie could be adapted for your daughter by keeping a portion of the filling and serving with pasta.

Thanks for that. I hadn't thought of just replacing her meal with another part. Thats a great idea.

I can cook all of the foods I mentioned no problem, but we end up having just those and hardly anything else!!

Today I'm cooking a whole chicken and we will have it with salad and Wraps. We all like that

No wonder you are struggling. The GF cannot be helped, cheese aversion is a thing I guess but potatoes - that's odd. But the oddest is yourself - you don't like veg or pulses, what's that about?

With those strict parameters then I'm not sure you'll find much that'll feed you all. But I can think of one:

Chicken/lamb/beef curry & rice

This is probably not that helpful but I've just stopped pandering to it (different for the gluten obv!). This week were having curry, lamb chops and bokkeumbap. The kids will moan and most likely pick but at least I'll be eating something I like! Since I started doing that DD has actually tried a lot more foods and even found a few she likes! I used to avoid all the things other people didn't like, but one day I just couldn't be arsed anymore 😁

I'm gluten free, and DD is very picky, so I feel your pain!

Much of the time we just eat different food - I'm not willing to restrict myself to DD's diet.

Sometimes she has a variation of our meal, e.g. salmon without the sauce added, or missing the veg she won't eat.

It does mean we use a lot of pans for most meals....

Sorry I missed that you were a competent cook. I’m blaming not having finished coffee!

Something like a mild chilli could possibly work for everyone. If you can’t bear kidney beans, either leave them out or add them after you’ve taken a portion out. It could become burritos/enchiladas with GF wraps for your dh, or he just eats his without the wrap. Tortilla chips, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese for those who like it on the side as a treat!

Why doesn’t your DH do any cooking?

Also I know this isn’t helpful but I cannot understand how someone can live without any vegetables or pulses in their diet at all.

I would move towards not pandering to picky eaters (obviously the gluten allergy not included here) and do everyone the same meal and they can leave the parts they don't like.

You could also look to creating a two week menu of things you know that they will (mostly) eat and do that on repeat. Saves you having to think about it all the time.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-leek-filo-pie/amp

This sort of pie is a good one for leftovers from a roast. Use GF flour in the sauce. Your dh gets mash on top instead of pastry. I make a big pot of mash and freeze in portions for that sort of thing.

Get your DH and DD to plan the meals for a week between them. And get them to shop for and cook them.

It might be worth posting on the food board. Lots of creative posters there with great ideas.

Ask them to both write a list of what they like. I found it helpful with my vegan/veggie/picky lot.

Lately I've been getting into a rut and eating the same set of foods every week

If it makes you feel better, I tend to cook the same meals on rotation every week too. I hate cooking and meal planning so understand how you feel!

I mean this in the nicest way but why don’t you ask someone to help you learn to cook? A family member or a friend?

It must be a nightmare trying to accommodate everyone when you aren’t a confident cook.

How about some soups for Autumn and Winter?

Everyone eats the same but DH can have GF bread…..

Hot Salads - Chicken Caesar salad

Casseroles are good as everyone can have this with vegetables on the side.

I also rotate a few meals, it’s so boring but I hate cooking after all these years.
My SIL used to eat 7 meals on rotation. You always knew what she was having for tea by the day if the week. She worked full time and hardly had time to cook after the commute, but she was happy.

I would plan a theme each night to lighten the weekly chore of ideas - we are in a similar boat in every way except the cheese aversion is an intolerance so I can use a little but too much leads to stomach pain.

I had say Monday as meat based dish, Tues something international like making a pad Thai , pasta another night, Spanish omelette and salad or Indian Dahl, and always a roast with fruit pudding on Sunday. Some basic structure helped me.
I also hate cooking but look at Jamie Oliver / other ideas on you tube which helps with fresh ideas a bit. I feel your pain!

Ps I sometimes just make us all gf pasta too like buckwheat or lentil/ pea pasta . Though this is more expensive I know.

I tend to think:

Pasta
Rice
Sausages
Vegetarian
Chicken
Salad
Vegetarian
Freezer

And work it out from there…..so…..

Pasta Spaghetti Bolognaise
Rice Curry
Sausages and mash with broccoli and onion gravy
Vegetarian - minestrone soup with sourdough focaccia
Chicken - Roast chicken dinner
Salad - Greek salad with veggie skewers
Vegetarian - Bulgar wheat salad with halloumi and jacket potato
Freezer - Freezer Surprise!

I got so sick of the brain work involved in l cooking, I started to get Gousto boxes. We've had lots now, and I keep the recipe cards for most of them and just use that as my new recipe book. I find we order a LOT of international foods we've never tried before which is brilliant when I'm in a rut and find myself defaulting to spag bol. This is what's arriving this week (photo).

They do have a large gluten free section.

Is anyone wanted to try the boxes, if you use my link you get 60% off your first box and then 30% off any more boxes in the next month and I get £15 credit towards my next box 😁 cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=ALLIS33205208&utm_source=androidapp

I think in the past few years we've not liked about 2 dishes - they are usually so good. We tried Hello Fresh again last week and all three dishes we ordered were absolutely tasteless which was such a shame.

I know, meal planning just gets so dull.

YY to cooking one meal for everyone and just adding different carbs. We have one GF person too. Does your daughter eat anything like rice or couscous? We find microwave rice and flavoured couscous packets good for a quick one-person carb sub. GF pasta is relatively cheap, especially spaghetti, so sometimes I just do GF for everyone to cut down the number of pans. Focus on meals where the carb is served separately or just added in right at the end, unlike lasagne and cottage pie. We eat a lot of curry and Chinese, because rice and rice noodles are easy, and my children eat veg this way.

I think it helps to find a new recipe regularly. Here's what we had last night www.delish.com/uk/cooking/recipes/a35426947/baked-feta-pasta-tiktok/

Sounds like hard work! I have just done if it's Tuesday must be sausages kind of thing. You all like roast chicken so that's good. Maybe have another chicken dish say Thursday or Friday. Those cold chicken pieces are nice .I am doing a stir fry. If you Don't like veg .maybe just rice or noodles. One night maybe a mild curry .look online or here for ideas .

Try Gousto, you get all ingredients and instructions. You can try it for a few weeks and build up a recipe card folder/some ideas. Or try it one week a month, whatever you fancy.

If it was just me on my own, I would eat a very small meal. I would probably just have a ready meal every day or something small like beans on toast or a jacket potato. I don't like large meals.
My husband on the other hand likes his plate piled high. I'm a housewife and he doensnt come home until 7pm so I like to have tea ready for when he gets in.

I think I'm going to do what's been advised and stop pandering to people and just cook one meal and they can either eat it or not.

@Cantcook842 two of mine dislike potato too. Not quite in all forms but they'll both eat those really, skinny fries - unsure if it's a texture thing. It's a staple accompaniment to a lot of meals.