To find planning what to eat more annoying than cooking it?

[HoppingKangaroo]

I seem to find planning/ choosing what to make for my family everyday more difficult than actually buying the ingredients and then cooking it. I also end up making and having the same meals.
Anyone else like that?

Yes, completely. Dh often says, "just let me know what you want to eat and I'll cook or tell me what takeaway you want". No! I make so many decisions, all day long, I just want to not have to think at all about what we are all going to fucking eat! You chose, dh!

Gousto gousto gousto

Life changer

Does save money and waste 100%

Stops us reaching for our phones to order a take away.

Don't feel guilty eating out/takeaway at the weekends as we know for £40 a week we've got Monday to Thursday sorted for dinners. Lunches are at school (free for our kids) or free at our work for us so we save so much time and money at the supermarket 🥳

We meal plan and do an online order each week. I agree its hard to think of what to cook, so we have a list of recipes/ meals we both like so we turn to this when stuck or needing inspiration.

Absolutely, that's why the likes of Hello Fresh are doing so well despite it not being good value.

They're called cookbooks

DH proudly points out that he cooked 4 out 0f 7 days in the week he doesn't get it when I say - but I decided what to buy, had the right stuff in, suggested the leftovers, had the stuff in the freezer - and even if he went shopping he asks 'what do we need?'. The cooking is the easy bit.

Don't winge. No one ever learns anything from listening to a winge.

The only way he will learn is if he do les everything about meals for a while. If he's great at it, problem solved. If he isn't ....

Cookbooks don't

1. Automatically list seven different recipes that are all different from anything you had last week, or in fact in the last several weeks.
2. Don't generate a single shopping list containing all the ingredients you need to buy, which is not the same thing as all the ingredients in all the recipes, because of all the non-perishable stuff you should already have.
3. Maintain a list of other supplies, and when you scan the barcode of a tin or bottle you are throwing away, automatically add its replacement to your shopping list.
4. Automatically create an order on supermarket web site so you can just get everything delivered.

A Hellofresh or similar subscription does most of this, other than point 3, but is a bit more expensive than just buying groceries, so I guess there is a niche that could be occupied by a free app (or one that has a one-time purchase price) that would just place the order with mainstream supermarkets.

Yes definitely. I'm the main cook and it's such a pain deciding what to cook for lunch/dinner. I'm happy to do the actual cooking but wish people would just tell me what they want to eat instead of leaving it all up to me!

43 votes in and 100% agreement.

That says it all!

I used to find this a pain, but since being with my husband it's been an absolute breeze. He's so much more organised than I am and it's pretty much stress-free now.

We basically just have a rotation of meals over 3 weeks which are mostly the same. We have about 15 'standard' meals. That's a mixture of home cooked meals, couple of ready meals, jacket potatoes, soup etc. which we know really well, but because it's over 3 weeks it doesn't get too boring.

We'll then have 1 or 2 nights a week that are more loose when we cook something a bit more adventurous. That's the only thing we have to think about each week.

It works really well and reduces the mental load because we just have our 'usuals' and the 1 or 2 cooking nights gives a bit of variety without being too arduous.

There is a website that does all that - I linked to it earlier. It's called www.lollipopai.com/. You select your meals (like Hello Fresh/Gusto) then it automatically adds everything to the shopping trolley for you to check out via Sainsburys online shopping. It's fully customisable, so you can change ingredients to your preferred ones (i.e. going up or down brands depending on your budget), you can take things you already have (herbs/spices/sauces etc) off of the list, and you can input your own recipes with associated shopping lists.

I'm fairly new to using it, but so far I've found it pretty good. Long term, I'll probably have to add plenty of my own recipes in, as I don't think there's enough pre loaded ones to keep us going indefinitely. I shop online at Sainsburys anyway, so that doesn't bother me, but might be problematic if you prefer a different supermarket.

100%. I would do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning if someone else would just decide for me.

YANBU. I love cooking and I don't even have to cook for kids, but I still absolutely hate having to go to the supermarket and decide what we might want to eat in a week's time. My planning is fairly minimal but I still find it weirdly stressful; I don't really know why!

I think I've found my tribe!
Yes, I DETEST planning meals. I shift work at the moment, and DH is out giving driving lessons so even when I plan, it doesn't seem to go to plan.
And DD seems to eat nothing but noodles and cucumber sandwiches at the moment. I try to plan for her but get an eye roll if I suggest something for her dinner, but had no suggestions herself.
😡😡😡

THIS!!! IN SPADES!!!!

Same here 🙁 I loathe meal planning.

@mrsm43s

thanks for that link - I’m going to give it a whirl.

It's endless - I've tried the various boxes, but the amount of packaging was a drag, and the fresh ingredients, meat, fish cream etc always seemed to have a very short shelf life, so it felt like I had to cook them all in a row as soon as they arrived. Simply cook is just the spices / marinades that you add to ingredients you buy yourself (not difficult things to find, usually just the main protein, carb, tin of toms or coconut milk and the odd veg), and honestly, they are all really easy and tasty. The kids love them, and they have made our mid-week dinners much easier to plan.

and whaddya know - a referral code for a free box!

simplycook.com/invite/31X4QY?t=cp&via=dt&pg=mr

YANBU what helps me is to make a menu plan of at least two weeks - i often dont stick to it and i dread making it but at least once its done its done

Sad I know but I love meal planning!
I plan a weeks meals every Wednesday and shop accordingly on Thursday, no food is wasted and we tend to have more variety.
I plan with my husband who has no interest in cooking only eating.
He will however trawl through recipe books and make suggestions!
The favourite at the moment is “The Roasting Tin” Rukmini Iyer all 1 dish meals.

I knick ideas off the Hello Fresh and Gousto websites, but buy my own ingredients. It’s meal planning, but costs less than the subscriptions because I make double the quantity, or a bit less than double but have leftovers, or half a bag of pasta etc left. Normally by the end of the week I have odds and sods left which makes for a perfect snack or small lunch or late supper. Actually becoming the most sought after Sunday evening food!

What I mean is that if you're giving selection over to a random app or website then just opening the cookbook at random 7 times achieves broadly the same thing, as an alternative to getting boxed food

I am very firmly in the 'hate meal planning' camp! And I only have to worry about myself. I was on holiday last week (away) and my overriding thought for when I got back was to simplify meal planning and cooking!!

Would hello fresh or gousto work for someone living on their own? Eg can a meal for two do a meal for one for two nights?

I’m the opposite. Really happy to flick through books, make lists, do an online shop. Then reality hits and it’s ‘oh shit, now I actually have to cook it’ 😂

During lockdown I compiled a list of all dishes I cook. I then meal planned for the week ahead. I think my repertoire, bearing in mind some are only slight variations of other dishes comes to 60-70 dishes. I still meal plan rigidly. I find it gives the greatest variation and saves money as I only shop once a week and very occasionally a top up of milk or the odd pot of basil or cream or something.