To give up on dinners entirely?

[Goodgravythisisfantastic]

So bloody sick of thinking about food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, every day, every week, every month. Who cares?

Tonight we had beans on toast with sausages and fried egg. Son (nearly 3) ecstatically happy. I realised everyone is happier with the simpler meals and I'm happier for cooking them.

I'm ready to give up and cook only beans on toast, baked potatoes, tuna pasta, fish finger sandwiches, toasties with soup, and chicken burgers.

YABU- stop being lazy and cook a decent meal ffs
YANBU- embrace the lazy dinners. Everyone's happier. In fact here are some lazy dinner ideas of my own...

Thanks in advance! 😴🥱🥔🥪🍳🌭🫘

@beatrix1234

lol

My DM used to make hamburgers with fresh beef minced beef, with herbs. No burger buns. And then potato salad (German style), which is apparently baby potatoes with French dressing and maybe mint. And a salad.

@hayless

for some people on here I honestly think they must be thinking about food all the time and doing stuff in relation to food - eg food shopping, meal planning, batch cooking, cooking from scratch each night etc etc

there is more to life - hobbies, the gym etc!

@beatrix1234 · Today 12:50

This is all up to you and how much you care about you and your family health. That diet of highly processed food you're mentioning is also called "the poor mans diet", it's quite fattening and taken daily is very bad for you. Aren't there any healthy take away options in your area? I do agree with you that grocery shopping and cooking takes more time (probably money) and is a total pain in the bu-tt when you just got back from work, I hear you... but this is your health that you're putting at risk.

😂LMFAO!

What a breathtakingly ignorant and narrow-minded post. I'm embarrassed for you. OMG have a word with yourself! 😬

If you want to look at processed food then Michael Mosley is good at pointing out (he's a bit on the saintly, smug side though) how many of us fool ourselves into thinking we have healthy diets but in supermarkets we actually don't.

[[https://www.channel4.com/programmes/michael-mosley-secrets-of-your-big-shop

The only thing which drives me mad with him is he rarely posts any recipes, you have to sign up to his conferences/websites and pay. But e.g. in one programme, he had people who were eating lunch and he made changes so it was more healthy and filling, even one person who had a sausage roll and wanted to stick to that he made it healthier! In fact, since then, I've started eating beetroot, adding more grains, feta cheese etc and cutting down on UPF.

100% agreed with you @SabreIsMyFave .

I swear some people get off on putting other people down.

My grandparents had the 'unhealthy food' diet but actually, thinking back, it wasn't that bad! My own nana, had her own business, hated cooking, but would cook fry ups and made apple pies and trifles, the best ones she made, all the latter dishes! The rest she left to her husband.

It's completely true. If you want to bury your head in the sand as to the impact of UPF, fine. You'll regret it

@hayless

But now, despite a Tesco on every corner, some people just can't be arsed to prioritise feeding themselves and their families properly.

And we wonder why we have such high levels of ill health, obesity and unhappiness.

I don't have a Tesco for 15 miles. And many other people are in the same boat! I have no Sainsburys or Asda either - both 17-18 miles away. I have only Morrisons closeby - 3 miles away - and they are routinely overpriced. (I also have an Aldi which is OK, but doesn't sell half of what I want and need.)

But hey, don't let that stop you from spouting offensive and ignorant nonsense!* *😎

Exactly. It's all a load of nonsense. And as for the 'poor man's diet!' WTAF? 😬

I don’t think anyone here has ever declared that any dish is normal for the rest of the world, so that’s a bit of an odd comment.

I have lived in a few countries and they’re definitely a thing. True, they’re not called “Jackets”, but I’ve had baked potatoes from lunch menus and also served with a steak as one of the sides.

How many countries are you speaking on behalf of? 🙄

@SabreIsMyFave So you have two large supermarkets nearby. Are you still unable to feed yourself properly?

duplicate post

I get very bored with it too sometimes, but healthwise I'm just not willing to live on processed food, and I love home-cooked meals. Fortunately dh is a brilliant cook and loves cooking, so he probably does 60% of dinners.

Is it some diet with bread and dripping?! Or heaven forbid, the odd fish and chips diet?!

If you look at diets going back hundreds of years, yes, people lived to a younger age, yes, their diets weren't great - if you were richer you had more access to fruit/vegetables etc but the vast majority of diets were at least filling so you could work. What's next, criticising Chinese and Indian diets because they consist of a lot of rice?

Also, I hate to be the bearer of news that may not be appreciated, but there is ( to my knowledge) no other country that counts "jackets" as a thing. Happy to be corrected by someone who doesn't live in ENgland. They are not a bad idea, but just a tad weird that your whole country has them , it seems , once a week.

Why is it any weirder than specific things that are popular everyday foods in other countries? I mean...potatoes are a pretty common carb element to have with a meal elsewhere too. Why is baking them in the oven weird. Or is it the nickname 'jackets' that upsets you for some reason (judging by the quotation marks)?

Oh change the record. You sound like the OP has said it's chicken nuggets and the cheapest frozen chips every night from now on. She's mentioned many things that are nutrition-rich and/or can be stuffed full of good things.

In this sainted 'Europe' some posters are dribbling on about, there is plenty of consumption of white bread (Spain and France particularly IME), pasta (Italy, obviously, but loads of other places too), highly processed meats of which the countries that produce them are so proud, cheeses etc etc; in Italy, breakfast often seems to be a coffee and a pastry or a biscuit.

Oh come on!
As a nation our diets are terrible!
Around 84% of it is UPF.
I'm not British and in my country people are starting to consume more processed foods but on the whole we eat far more healthily.

No one is saying one portion of beans on toast or fishfingers is bad, stop being so chippy and self centred.
Rates of bowel cancer in the UK are rocketing due to the poor diet and its impacting the young specifically under 30s

1 in 4 children lives in poverty and the impact of poor diet is life long.

When I spent a year in France I, and my French student friends, lived off cigarettes, baguettes, cheese and chocolate. Washed down with Diet Coke and red wine.

@MarkWithaC sausages baked beans and eggs fried in oil is hardly the healthy meal you're making it out to be!

@concernedchild

what exactly do you think op should be cooking then?

I haven’t fried a sausage in years! I buy them from the butchers and do them in the air fryer.

I can understand exactly how you are feeling, @Goodgravythisisfantastic - I remember having a bit of a meltdown in the middle of Tesco, whilst dh and I were doing the weekly shop, because I was so completely fed up with planning meals, doing the shopping, putting away the shopping, cooking the meals, clearing up after the meals and starting the whole thing over again!

I actually decided that we were going to have a ready meal week - a fridge full of things that could either be easily cooked in the oven, or microwaved, so that I could have a whole week off from thinking about food.

I never actually did it - I think that, knowing I had a get-out clause, helped me to carry on with it all - I saved the ready meal week for when I was desperate, and never quite got that desperate.

On a practical level, I think it helps to have a list of meals that you all like, so meal planning and writing the shopping list is easier - and making at least some of those meals easy ones, like the meals you mentioned, is a really good idea. One of my favourite easy meals is a fish finger wrap - I put tartare sauce in the wrap, then salad and the fish fingers - I think that is a pretty healthy meal.

“Tell me more about the microwave marmite cous cous”
Inspired by Nigella’s recipe.
In a high-sided bowl or jug, put a blob of marmite, a generous amount of butter, cous cous and water to cover.
Microwave for 2 or 3 minutes.

Please, if you can find where I said this is a healthy meal, do point me to it, cos I don't remember saying that.
Or are you being deliberately facetious?

YANBU op! Food planning and prep is a never ending chore, I love when dh is out and I can have toast for dinner. If I were single I’d alternate between toast and jacket potato every day and probably be a damn sight slimmer than I am now.