To be sick to death of cooking

[Icedlatteplease]

It's been a rough year. DS15 has been seriously ill since February, we've had carers in and out the house, social services involvement and l've had trouble recovering from a serious injury. This month I've been ill on and off for pretty much the last three weeks. DD is ill. And DS is reaching a crunch point treatment wise which is leaving everyone in the air

I'm usually a meal plan cook everything from scratch right number of veg kinda person. I love watching eat well for less

I just can't be bothered, and DD is off anything with dodgy texture wise (no mushrooms is actually a right bugger) which happens when she's stressed and the antibiotics are giving me waves of nausea. Meal planning is just so much decision making.

This week I decided I had enough. I bought a selection of family sized ready made lasagna, pasta bakes, shepherd's pies etc

Frankly I'm loving it. Everyone is enjoying the food and there is barely any mess. Dishwasher needs unloading and loading less. It seems to be comparable cost wise.

So AIBU? Will the initial novelty wear off?

Sounds perfect for now. We did it for a while. But when you are feeling better you might want to cook again. Ready meals have a texture and taste that if you are used to eating fresh will likely wear on you. Meantime crack on and enjoy the break.

It's always handy to have a few in the freezer to fall back on when life gets in the way.
I'm sure when you're all feeling a bit better there will be more washing up.

I do a mixture of ready meals and easy to cook stuff. No one cares, no one notices. I just add veg to stuff and have stopped worrying so much. Life is stressful enough.

Thank you I'm trying to clear the guilt.

I notice the texture and taste, but I have a horrible feeling DS and DD prefer it.🙄🙄🙄

I have a funny feeling the mixing both ready made and make from scratch might actually be me

Don't blame you... whatever makes your life easier.

Those are all pretty easy low-stress and effort dishes to make yourself at home in a big oven dish - perhaps you just need to put less pressure on yourself with the type of meals you cook and aim for simpler dishes with just a few, familiar ingredients?

My husband of 40 years announced last week he was sick to death of me cooking 'the same old shit' week after week, words were exchanged I can tell you. He says he'd prefer processed packet meals. Once the 3 full freezers are empty that's what he's getting.

I feel like this most days and haven't been through your year! I just hate the relentlessness of it and the expectation on the woman to sort the shopping, the food, the cooking. I'm currently on strike.

Oh lordy no. Lasagna and shepherd's pie are way too much faff although DD will sometimes. When she does the number of saucepans chopping boards and general mess.... it may be a break from cooking but I end up clearing up afterwards.

I have kinda been doing a lot of meat and couscous type dishes and a varity of based tomato pasta sauces. I'll get a variety of fresh veg and meat with plans to cook all sorts but look at it then default to the basics. The veg ends up going off and I have a plethora of meat I've ended up slinging in the fridge.

@Icedlatteplease you absolutely are not being unreasonable. I'm sick to death of cooking all the time. It pisses me off daily.

You've got a huge amount going on...I hope that your ds has good news soon and that you're on the mend too. Give yourself a break and buy the meals. X

I'm kinda feeling like your DH. only it's me exchanging words with myself😳🙄🤪🤣

Must be frustrating when you put so much effort in and you know its better

@Icedlatteplease I'm embarrassed to say that I'm cordon bleu trained. I work full time 50ish hours a week and am now 62. Kids are grown up so I have nothing like the stresses and strains you have been under.

I cook properly on Saturdays and Sundays and batch cook one dish every weekend: casserole, spag bol, cottage pie, etc. 3/4 portions for the freezer. This is when I am good.

Every week we have some of the following: pizza, chicken in a bag, ribs, lasagne, fish pie, sausages frozen mash and beans. Plenty of bagged salad and frozen peas.

I completely understand. It's hard and it's mindnumbingly boring. And I like nothing better than making a velvety hollandaise or fucking about with choux pastry when I have time and headspace.

It wasnt so much the cooking as the meal planning and shopping that did me in. All that effort so that we could eat the same 10-15 meals over and over again for years on end.

We do a combo of a meal delivery service and 'treat meals' now (we have 3 or 4 fat bastard meals that never get old). I absolutely love it. I don't think we spend any extra on the meal delivery service because there was always something gone to waste because we couldn't face it and we haven't bought a takeaway in months because the food we make at home is better.

Im also much less stressed. If the meal delivery business goes tits up I shall cry.

OMG @been and done it. hope you told
him to cook his own ruddy packets! Blooming cheek!

My enthusiasm for cooking has evaporated. I used to cook from scratch, things like curries, and thai curries with my own spice blends, but years of family life with incompatible dislikes, a phase of allergies so every label had to be scruitinised, and an autistic child who likes consistency and and distinct foods rather than my slapdash chop it up and sling it in a pot together ways. Nothing quenches the appetite quite like a face falling at the fruits of an hour of work. 2020 was the final straw, being responsible for all meals, the aggro of queuing at supermarkets and unpredictable stock and then the whinging because I'd bought x brand instead of y because the shelves were bare.

I'm on team convenience right now. The nutrition you eat does you more good than the nutrition you push around your plate with a grim expression. I hope my culinary mojo comes back one day.

Totally with you, OP. Like many others on the thread, I’m totally over it when it comes to cooking.

Sometimes it’s important to do what’s easiest in one area of life for a bit, when so many other things are tough.

Oh lord God OP if anyone deserves a break here, it's you!!! Enjoy the family meals without the faff. You can always go back to cooking. Those prepped family meals were so handy when we were in the throes of it with a poorly newborn. I've compromised now and rely on handy pre chopped frozen veg, slow cooker, air fryer and simple meats. It's only as complicated as you want to make it - literally!!! Enjoy your kids, enjoy your stress-free meals. X

For a while, that's fine but the nutritional value of ready meals is not great and you need nutrients when you're ill to help you get better. I'd be having easy nutritious snacks like nuts, fruit, cheese and crackers etc to balance out the ready meals.

Also after a while ready meal texture starts to taste like slop.

Vaguely healthy easy meals we have: fresh pasta (stuffed or tagliatelle type), jacket potato, omelette, soup. Meat or fish just done in a pan with a bit of butter and some noodles.

“I just hate the relentlessness of it and the expectation on the woman to sort the shopping, the food, the cooking.”

It’s women who put that ‘expectation’ on themselves. I’ve got no sympathy with martyrdom.

@UWhatNow I assure you I'm not a martyr, I like food, I just don't like cooking it.

I absolutely cannot be bothered with cooking different meals !! I buy a selection of home meals and husband and son add extra veg etc .

I’m 57 and worked out I must have cooked thousands of meals since getting married 32 years ago. I’m fed up with it so now do a mixture of simple meals like baked cod and stir fry’s and ready meals which I add lots of veg to. It works for me and dh is just grateful!

God, I am so over it too. When the kids were tiny I loved cooking from scratch and giving them lovely meals. Now between them and DH there isn't all that much that everyone would be happy with that isnt just fish fingers and chips. Food shopping, 'what's for dinner' followed by 'urgh', cooking it, clearing it up. Every day.

DH does do some of the cooking at the weekends, but if that happens he acts like he has just delivered the world's most delicious meal and therefore doesn't have to lift a finger to clear up or anything.

And the worst thing is its not like its going to stop anytime soon either. I have to decide what to have for dinner every night for the rest of my life.

OP

Sounds like you are doing the right thing. At the moment there's loads of Xmas food about so lots of easy to cook.

I find adding salad to a ready meal or having it as a starter.

I love cooking, but most of the time there is only me and as I have arthritis I can't always cook so I do a mixture of cooking, having ready meals in the freezer and getting meals on wheels.

My local council opened meals on wheels to everyone

This is why we got hello fresh and gousto for a while just because I hated choosing what to eat every night