Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

62 replies

HoppingKangaroo · 13/09/2022 14:52

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?

OP posts:
GotYouJerry · 14/09/2022 13:19

Drives me mad always having to think what to make for dinner. Shift workers in this house so that makes it even more of a faff. I do all the cooking, shopping and deciding(retired) It’s the deciding I hate.
I have recently made a list of all of the dinners we all like as I find you do forget about certain things you used to make. Also on the list is (the many) packets to add to meat and veg to flavour the meals. They often go out of date as I forget I have them. Chicken in a bag is deffo once a week from now on. Just shove the lot in the bag and stick in the oven. Hoping I can be a lot more organised from now on.

theemmadilemma · 14/09/2022 13:21

Getoff · 14/09/2022 11:14

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.

Show quote history

In other words, it takes all the load out of it.

We happily pay a little more for that.

tuttifruit · 14/09/2022 13:23

YANBU I feel the same

Oblomov22 · 14/09/2022 13:23

Yep. The monotony of it. Hate it.

SquirrelFan · 14/09/2022 13:33

Both my DCs are off to uni shortly, it will be so easy to just rummage in the fridge when I get home rather than try and create a family experience every night! No planning, very little cooking... I'll be rested up for Christmas!

KeepYaHeadUp · 14/09/2022 13:34

We have a 4 week meal plan. Works out cheaply for making best use of ingredients / leftovers and minimising waste. And means I don't have to think about what's for dinner.

Mol1628 · 14/09/2022 13:42

I hate it as well. Not the cooking or cleaning up but the thinking.

We do meal plans so that reduces the thinking every day problem. We get two smaller shops delivered a week now so only have to plan 3/4 days ahead before we get fresh ingredients again. Having to plan ahead for 7 days was worse.

inappropriateraspberry · 14/09/2022 13:47

Yes! Once it's decided, list written, shopping bought and packed away etc the cooking is the easy bit!

Bearthepooh · 14/09/2022 14:56

Same, so I get Gousto now, less time deciding and less time in a super market!

noshinyshitstogive · 14/09/2022 15:02

Yep, 100%. I do all of the meal planning and online shopping, and DH does about half of the cooking.

I recently went away for a week without him and I think he ate sandwiches all week because he couldn't be arsed thinking of what to cook.

Also, I tend to have a couple of things per day on rotation, eg on Thursdays it'll be either pasta or risotto for example, so that I don't have to think too hard about planning and so that we're not eating the same thing all the time. When DSS comes on his days he will sarcastically say 'oh it's Weds so it must be X or X, which is it?' OK then you do the cooking and shopping!! 😡

hereyougoagain · 14/09/2022 23:43

I always hated answering “what’s for dinner then?” Recently saw a meme about it

To find planning what to eat more annoying than cooking it?
Deadringer · 14/09/2022 23:49

I am not sure which I hate more, planning or cooking, and I know that no matter what I make, someone won't be happy. When I am rich the very first thing I will do is hire a chef who will plan, shop, prep, cook, and clear away. Bliss.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page