Tell me how often you cook ??

[bettyflinn]

I am really struggling with how often to cook to feed my family ! We are 4 people, 1 year old, 3 year old and two adults.

1 year old eats everything. I eat everything but try to keep it healthy/ low calorie. 3 year old is fussy and husband is fussy.

I'm cooking twice a day at the moment and it's really frustrating.

I need to work on a better routine. I work from home, just often cook in my breaks and it's annoying.

The evening meal will usually be two things at least. I don't want to cook twice a day. Or is this what everyone does ?

I think cooking once a day should be enough. The kids eat lunch at nursery etc. husband doesn't want to eat what I give my kids or what I eat. So it's still two meals. I'm tired.

Depends. I love creating things, cooking is a hobby for me so sometimes I try new things which take longer, sometimes I stick to known recipes and sometimes I can 't be arsed and just chuck something in the oven.

I don't entertain fussiness/fads/ any nonsense other than allergies. My dh is T1 diabetic and has never made this an issue for anyone so I wouldn't entertain anyone else's fussiness other than medical or religious.

Easy to say but some small kids will literally not eat for days if they don't like the food put in front of them.

This. I would never force someone to eat anything they actively don’t like, but I’ve worked hard at introducing new tastes, a bit of spice etc. over the years so that we can all eat the same meal. I would never cook twice once past weaning. We all try to eat together every night, which I know isn’t possible for everyone. DH just reheats his if he’s late home from work, which is rare these days, but used to be the case. It was trial and error while they were young, but we all pitch in with ideas for the week. Not everyone is over the moon with the choice every night, but we cope.

What sort of meals are you eating?

Can one of you not batch cook so your husband can heat something up when he gets in?

My ds was a fussy eater till about 5 and then his only choice was eat or starve. He had a few things that we accepted he won't eat but he has such a great variety at school which he happily eats so we stopped entertaining this nonsense. A night or two of going to bed hungry with no alternative and he now eats fine.

I used to cook every single evening when the kids were at home. Now, it's been just the 2 of us for quite some time, and I cook once a week. He's semi-retired and cooks 3 nights. We go to the pub once a week, and the rest of the time have salad

I cook once a day 6 days a week. I don’t cook on Sundays. We all eat the same although I’ll adapt if I know someone really doesn’t like something. Tonight was shepherds pie but I know my dd doesn’t like it so I took some mince off and made a small spag Bol for her. She isn’t mad on roast chicken either so I often chuck a couple of sausages in the tray for her but other than that we all eat what we are served

When the kids were at home, they ate what I made or went hungry. There were no options.
They mostly ate as they didn't like being hungry.
I wouldn't be cooking for your DH if he won't eat what I'd cooked op, he can sort himself out, he's not incapable.

Usually 4-5 times a week, DH 1-2, takeaway once, now my family is older that yours.

I designate an amount of time for cooking, not a specific meal. If one DC hates pasta, for example, s/he might have the bolognese served with a baked potato, or have a veggie cutlet grilled instead of fish.

I find small adjustments that don’t add to the time I spend cooking make meal times less stressful.

I cook most of the meals in our house but I'm the fussy eater, we meal plan and if there's something one doesn't like they have a different option. We are a big family tho so chance are there's always something someone doesn't like.

Generally I cook 5 times a week and DH twice a week. Kids eat separately to us as they eat earlier before DH is home from work. Kids usually eat what we had the night before e.g spag Bol reheated or I put something in the slow cooker before work that works for all of us

If you cook, everyone eats what you cook. If your h is awkward, he cooks his own stuff. He should be cooking 50% off the time anyway.

I cook most days but have a fussy water husband and 2 kids who are hit and miss. Both of us work f/t, one DC in school and one in nursery.

if we all eat together, which is weekends and some week nights, I either go for reliable meals that everyone likes or something which can have minor adjustments so that everyone will eat it.

on nights we eat after the kids then I often give them a light tea…. They like picky, picnic food. They both have cooked lunch at school/nursery so I don’t worry about a cooked tea every night.

Then I make something that DH and I like later…. Lots of quick & easy meals like stir fry, soup, salad, pasta etc.

Fussy eater, not fussy water.

Oh and if kids refuse what they’re given then they get toast or weetabix instead.

Never cook more than once but there are certain things I really like and my husband doesn't and vice versa so I also always make up ready meals from leftovers to freeze for those days, I don't consider microwaving cooking!

When I had DC at home o cooked twice a day but breakfast was just an egg on toast or similar. Now that it is all adults in the house it isn't always me who cooks . There have never been alternative meals .if the DC had one or two things they wouldn't eat they could avoid them but they ate the rest of the meal.

Recipe for disaster
It killed me after 20 years cooking one meal a day
Get a Rota NOW
If he's fussy he can cook 50% of the meals. Hell he should cook 50% anyway. You are both working. Otherwise you Will get bitter and hate him
Been there

Agree with what everyone has said about sharing cooking duties etc., although I know this can be hard with different work schedules - in our family my husband mostly works from home while I often come home on the late side, so he does almost all cooking during the week and I do weekends, although I also try to make at least one thing at the weekends that will pay back during the week, either for me to take lunches to work or that will work again for the family - like ‘broccoli rubble’ (from smitten kitchen), or a roast chicken (Mumsnet classic!).

I also wanted to offer another angle on the fussy eaters. A while back I got the cookbook from this blog http://www.dinneralovestory.com/. In it she has an approach to dealing with putting a single meal on the table with a variety of eating approaches in the family. Eg if the meal is spaghetti with tomato sauce, a fried egg on top and green beans, she preps all 4 things, puts 4 bowls out, and then puts spaghetti in 3 bowls (one kid won’t eat pasta), tomato sauce in three bowls (one kid will eat pasta but not with sauce), a fried egg on three (her husband doesn’t like eggs), and green beans on 2 (neither kid will eat green beans). I know this might seem over complicated but it was revolutionary for me trying to do just one meal for 4 appetites.

Good luck! This does get easier (IMO) as kids get older.

My DS4 has a meal cooked for him at 5pm and then myself DH & DS13 eat a separate meal after DS4 is in bed. What I try and do though is save something from the adults meal the previous night for DS4.

Your 3 year old will not starve. eventually she will eat if she is hungry so don't bend over backwards.

As a PP said there is fruit/toast/cereal if necessary.

Cook for dinner, usually one thing but DH is veggie so sometimes cook a different extra veggie component if we're having meat.

Often cook for lunch if I'm home but it will be something simple like a stir fry.

Once a week or so we have an "easy" dinner like hot dogs, shop bought burgers, shop bought soup, eggs on toast.

Generally I cook one meal for everyone, 4 nights a week, and DH cooks Friday-Sunday. DD used to be an amazing little eater when she was younger but then when she was about 8 she developed emetophobia and that made her scared to try new foods in case she was sick. She’s 13 now and getting much much better and on the whole will eat what we’re eating. On the rare occasion that she really doesn’t like something we’re having, I’ll do her pasta with pesto, a handful of grated cheese and a bowl of cucumber and tomato. Very easy to do at the same time - or if it’s something involving chicken and veg, like the other night we had chicken with peppercorn sauce, mash and veg from Hello Fresh - I did her a bit of gravy instead of the peppercorn sauce and a frozen Yorkshire pudding.

He complains ti you after?! Wtf?! You’re not his staff

how often does he cook? All weekend i assume?

if not that his new gig from this weekend