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! 😴🥱🥔🥪🍳🌭🫘

DP and i both equally hate cooking, but take it in turns.

We're rarely home at weekends and i dont get home till 8pm of an eve and i can't think of much worse than being in the kitchen.... Batch cooking is my idea of hell, i'd have to give up something fun to make time for it, for a start... not happening!! 😁

It's just an absolute chore and there's only 2 of us. If we could afford it, we'd eat out every day.

I decided to make a cottage pie today, everything just takes so long, wish I had a cook.

Anyone who thinks of cooking etc as 'women's work', and has to be told to make food for a loved one who's ill, I can't and won't have any particular respect for or think very highly of. And I won't apologise for not keeping my opinion to myself on a discussion thread.

Can I come round to your place for dinner every night OP? That menu sounds pretty good to me.

Heehee, I love you OP.

Because you’re just like me!

The comments on here from the “home cooked only martyr brigade” make the thread even funnier😂

If he was mine he’d have been buried long ago and covered with protected plants 😂 He would have starved to death, no way would I have cooked for someone who thought it was women’s work.

Ok, extrapolate and make up whatever you want to think about the whole marriage of two people you’ve never met. It doesn’t matter to me, I know you’re wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's the washing up that kills me and the constant cleaning and tidying of the kitchen, no sooner have I got it clean and organised it than it looks like a hell pit again. I live on my own so have nobody but myself to blame. I do meal plan, batch cook and very rarely have take aways, but I am with you on the boredom and the tedium. This is why i love going out for dinner, no shopping, cooking and cleaning up. I often ponder that the time spent actually eating a meal is minuscule compared to the buying the time expended getting the shopping in, preparing it and clearing it up.

I actually quite like cooking but I think the relentlessness of it has made me absolutely sick of it.

Especially on weeknights after work, taking DDs to clubs etc I just cannot be bothered.

We decided to really simplify our dinners Monday to Friday and cook more at the weekends when we have more time a few years ago and haven't looked back.

Mondays are always leftovers from the weekend e.g. yesterday was chicken and salad sandwiches with the leftover meat from Sunday's roast.

Tuesdays are always something on toast. Beans, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes or some combination of the above.

Wednesdays are jacket potatoes. I make a huge tray of them and roast them all together in the oven then freeze them and microwave them from frozen. That with some tuna, sweetcorn and salad is fine.

Thursdays are soup and bread. Or a garlic bread baguette if feeling fancy 😂

Fridays are either pasta, gnocchi or stir fried noodles as I can make all of those in under 15 minutes.

If you're getting a chest freezer that will be a lifesaver for storing meals. I do often batch cook at weekends so can always heat up something like a chilli or curry and serve it with a bag of microwave rice if I can't be bothered or am pressed for time.

Not preaching, I often feel it is a complete pain planning, shopping, preparing etc, etc also being on a calorie restricted diet for ages, slowly losing weight is another factor!

if I feel like this I give myself a reality check and think of the situation in Gaza, with most of the population on near starvation level who would give anything to be in my shoes. And yes, I would donate gladly if I could guarantee it would get to those in need.

I used to enjoy cooking, having guests for dinner but not any more.

My son cooks a lot he makes wonderful Mexican dishes with salads, taco, wraps, guacamole, sour cream. I'd like to cook those but husband just doesn't like it.

Tonight is meatballs with pasta, he'll moan if he catches sight of a pasta sauce jar🙈

This is the thread that keeps on giving

YANBU. Also you can do healthy meals that are low-effort too.

1. Salads but with protein source i.e. chickpeas, eggs. Have them with nice bread and feta cheese
2. Fried eggs, avocado, vegetables etc with toast
3. Throw some cherry tomatoes + boursin cheese + peppers into an oven dish, bake for 30 mins, add to boiled pasta
4. Baked potatoes (or even just microwave them) + cheese + baked beans. Can vary the toppings i.e. black beans + guac
5. Throw in some potatoes and carrots with seasoning into an oven dish, put in the oven, then add chicken breasts after 15 mins. Bake for 45 mins. Done.

Tomorrow turkey meatloaf in air fryer made from scratch and cooked in air fryer. He'll be a bit meh about that too. But it's really nice.

I had a glut of tomatoes last summer about 10kg) so I made vats of tomato and basil pasta sauce and froze it all into portions for the three of us. I warm until and add bacon and we have it with penne and Parmesan.

We’ve had it every week since August and that’s what we’re having tonight.

@justasking111

a good wife cooks her man’s favourite meals. Always.

I sometimes think he wants me to catch the bloody animal, kill, butcher, grow the veg too. Sigh....

@justasking111

well why don’t you then?

The neighbours would object to an abattoir in suburbia 😂

We used to do a beef meatloaf (in the years before air fryers) - served with plum tomato sauce and whatever veggies you like. I agree, it is really nice. And best thing about it - if any left overs you can heat up or have cold, in fact it tastes sort of better cold!

If washing up kills then get a dishwasher. Lifechanging.

It's yummy cold I agree

That was always on my mum's wish list if she ever had enough money (she kind of does have enough money now but she's retired and likes cooking), to get a cook.

I'll tell my DM that she didn't feed us properly when we were younger just because she dared to give us fishfingers with home cooked chips (in fryer) and baked beans then?!

Why do you think rich people all have private chefs then? 🤔

Most people do find the constant shopping, churning out dinner, breakfast, lunch etc a chore. I enjoy cooking if I have the headspace and not in a hurry, sure. But life isn’t like that - it’s a constant rush of kids, work, life admin, sleep.

But go ahead, you carry on thinking you’re above all the rest of us for enjoying it 👏