Worst thing about being an adult...... deciding what to have for dinner every night!

[Pollydollydoodle]

Just this ^
Am I the only one that despairs every morning at the thought of what to make for tea that night.

Before I planned the dinners for the week, yes.

Why Oh why was spag bol on a Tuesday? I dreaded Tuesdays

Yes. I meal plan for the week and do an online shop on a Sunday to be delivered on Monday. I despise having to come up with meal ideas.

Squidgy totally agree. I went veggie in my early teens, driven more by desire to avoid manky mince than anything else.

This is a decent website for ideas, you can look by ingredients too
No weird ingredients, easy to make and everything I've made has turned out great

https://www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk

Oooh. Maybe it was your mum - or maybe multiple people are doing it 😂 did you like it as a kid? Or didn’t care?

Thanks Kyse the chilli hot pot looks great.

Have a shortlist of say 10-15 meals that you can easily cook, and don't need exotic ingredients. Even if some are just suasage and potstoes or whatever.

Then just meal plan with them, and bung some in the freezer for when you can't be arsed.

Reduces the cognitive load of starting from a blank slate every night.

Well how do I explain sitting on my arse and not cooking while he was working? If he’s doing his share by working then he’ll expect me to do my share by cooking for when he gets home. Saying I couldn’t be bothered tonight simply won’t wash. He’ll say “oh well maybe I won’t be bothered to work tomorrow then!” The only excuse for not cooking is if he’s the only one who’s eating.

He sounds like a twat. Does he not even bother to check from the Chippy if you want anything? It double check at the supermarket if he can't get anything to make for you? Like even if he thinks you're unwell he doesn't even offer to make you food?

We all hate choosing what to eat here and it falls mostly to me, dh can be an arse at times in some ways but I never have to fake illness to get out of cooking, he doesn't think because I'm home before him then it means all the food prep belongs to me, if I can't be arsed then we have something easy like a jacket potato, I just tell him I can't be arsed because my head is battered and he either says he will cook for us both or he says let's get a takeaway. Sometimes I'll say we're having something basic like jacket spuds and he's more than ok with that too.

I go out once a week with friend and he always messages me on my way home to ask if I want any food making to reheat.

I can't imagine a man threatening not to go to work because his wife wants a night off cooking, does he never cook on his days off either? It sounds really crap that he doesn't make you good when he thinks you're unwell and it's pretty extreme to have to sneak a sandwich because he'll expect you to cook if he found out.

He sounds vile. Who would just buy for themselves, how selfish and how completely disrespectful! Disrespectful to you as a person, and to all the cooking, childcare, etc etc you do most days of the week.

You don't need an excuse for not being able to stomach a job you do day in, day out with no relief. You're probably busy with DC from 4 to 7 anyway. Whoever had the most capacity for making dinner that day should make dinner.

I've read of people using chatgpt to make meal plans and shopping lists for the plans. Keep meaning to try myself but forget. You can add specifics like no meat etc too.

I've found life a bit easier since I ditched potatoes. I was finding the potatoes the biggest faff, so I refused to have anything to do with them anymore. We just have some protein and vegetables. It's far easier. Ds likes pasta and does his own.

ooh that's an interesting idea @NoItsNotAndNeverWillBe

I riff off my trusty 8 week plan but every time I do one of these things I overegg it and put far too much actual cooking in.

4 - 6 week menu plan that everyone has to contribute ideas to (and help with prep, laying table, cleaning up as appropriate). Shopping lists to match meals, you can score off stuff that is in store cupboard and not required that week. If you fancy swapping meals around/having something else entirely one day then do that.

Once upon a time when I was a younger and very organised nanny I managed to work up to a 6 week plan (which I was flexible about) that included 3 meals and 2 snacks. I’m a bit more chilled (exhausted) these days and only consider lunch and dinner, but still love not having to think about what to make.

It's hellish & has always been so - apparently my grandmother 70 years ago used to declare she would give anything for a postcard through the door each morning stating that night's dinner!

I've found a few fixed meals in the week & batch cooking ease the problem. So there are simple nights of say pasta & pesto, soup & bread, things on toast leaving 4 nights to actually cater for then you batch cook each week one meal of 4 dinner servings worth, then each week is the 3 standards, plus that week's batch cook, plus 3 batch cooks you've already put in the freezer.

Generally I find a rhythm over the winter ok but it goes to pot as soon as it's warm...then having shredded chicken in the freezer is essential

Think I'm gonna start doing that. It's a good plan.

Mine are older now, 15 and 12. We meal-plan together for the week so everyone has their requests - takes a lot of the thinking out of it!

I've always maintained that parenthood would be considerably more bearable if we didn't have to feed them or do their laundry.

This. This is exactly how I feel.

Honestly, as challenging as living in a fully autistic household can be, the restricted diets are as much of a blessing as a frustration. Each kid has between three and six safe meals in rotation, depending on their mood, so no thought required there. DH sorts his own food because he can't eat anything I've made, even if it's his favourite. And I can eat nice things and not have to share them! And zero guilt if I can't be bothered with real cooking

I don't know how normal people manage it tbh.

When my sons were away at uni I carried on cooking Bolognese, chilli etc as though they were still there. It meant that I usually had a couple of days a week where I didn't have to cook.

I couldn't do that. Having the same meal 2/3 times in a week would really put me off that dish - ans I don't think my husband would like it either.
On holiday we generally do a mix of self catering and eating out. I will occasionally do a mince/onion/tomato base and split it over two meals, but not consecutive ones.

I think you will all enjoy this

😁

I used to feel like this too but then basically my life got more boring! Pre-kids we would eat at 8 and so there was time to decide what to have, pop to the shop if necessary etc. Now we eat at 6 and there is no time for any of that and I've got used to and adjusted to having no spontaneity in what we eat - it's all planned and often even made in advance and I just don't really even think whether I fancy it, if it's been in the slow cooker since the morning or if it's sat in the fridge waiting to be finished off then it's what we're having! It is a trade-off, for us under current circumstances as a household with two working parents and two under 5s convenience and health wins (this is literally the only way we can make it work so that we can have home-cooked meals together almost every night) but I totally understand why it isn't the right trade-off for everyone.

Oh and I have this argument every night 😂