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! 😴🥱🥔🥪🍳🌭🫘

I am quite unreasonably excited about our breakfast for dinner tonight - white toast with real butter; unsmoked bacon; baked beans and scrambled eggs. I follow my mother's scrambled eggs recipe- she uses real cream instead of milk and then sprinkles chopped chives all over it.

Cheap, tasty, and most importantly of all- will fill small tummies. (Or as my father says; 'Will hold body and soul together').

I'm not going to justify it by analysing how many portions of fruit and veg we usually get or how much i angst over a healthy diet and organic farm shop guff.

It;s food. Good food. It will be eaten. Nothing will go to waste. 🍽🍷

Oh no! My DM years ago when we were DC and used to fight over the washing up was offered a dishwasher and a new tumble dryer (old one had died) by her mum (my nana), she refused for some reason. Years later when she got a dishwasher (I was 9 or so), she wondered why she'd turned this offer down!

Yeah totally agree @44PumpLane I find it a chore & especially now as I go out 3 nights in the week so need to be eating by 6pm every Tues & serving tea at 6 30 Mon & Wed before I go to my exercise class. So then I warm mine up after - so it needs yo be something that rehearsal well, ie not a stir-fry etc. Plus Dh & Ds16 have footie training Thursday & leave by 7 but DS skips tea that night & has toasties etc. The logistics are annoying. I like it when DH is out & myself & DS have scrabled egg/beans on toast too. Yummy plus quick & simple. DD back from Uni on Sat so I'll need to cook more probably & less leftovers 🤣

I personally enjoy cooking and so does DH. We both think we're the better cook so we fight over it lol. If I make an easy tea one night like pasta I'll cook another meal for the next night like a chilli or a curry at the same tine and make enough for a couple of nights. We don't mind eating the same meal over a couple of nights

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius Have you tried M&S baked beans? They’re the only ones I’ve found that come close to the old style ones, full of salt and sugar, that were actually pleasant to eat. I’m enjoying them before someone notices they still have some flavor and bans them!

How about making a menu for say 4wks at a time . Takes the what am i making today away and you could mix proper cook and not cook days as you wish. Helps with shopping too.

I had an acquaintance years ago with a housekeeper who did cleaning and laundry in the mornings (with daily help) and made all the evening meals in the afternoons. Madam Whatserface just had to slam them in the Aga at 6pm. That's the life I was born to but didn't end up with!

Bliss

That should have been my life too, @Shetlands. Maybe we could just identify as independently wealthy, and society will provide the things we need to affirm our identities.

Although, to be fair, since I got long covid and became largely unable to do anything round the house, dh does all the cooking, laundry and ironing, so I can't complain.

Hahah I’m glad I made you chuckle. The mental load of parenting is defo made worse by meal planning and fighting at the table (me vs kids). JUST EAT YOUR WAFFLES YOU TWERPS!!!

@SabreIsMyFave · Yesterday 23:09

@hayless

So sabreismyfave, you have two large supermarkets nearby. And you still unable to feed yourself properly?

That's correct. I live on dust, ice cubes, shit out of the bottom of the hamster cage, fried holly leaves, and deep fried family-sized toblerones. I'm just totally useless. I burn water, and can't even boil and egg or make a piece of toast. I have to read the cooking instructions on a tin of soup. What am I like eh? I bow to your superiority oh wise one. 👑

@Goodgravythisisfantastic

Mmm

Dinner at yours tonight then?

Yep for sure. A bowl of dust and 3 squares of deep fried toblerone do ya? sprinkled in sawdust and hamster shit?

What would like to drink? I have water out of the drain, yesterday's old coffee that DH left (it's still OK to be fair.) OR I have some flat, warm lucozade that may have a bit of starling shit in it (after I left the lid off yesterday.)

😆

I relate hard to this thread.

I am constantly on the look out for meals that are vaguely healthy but also genuinely extremely quick and easy. (And also meals that are not healthy and quick and easy!)

I don’t believe in making elaborate meals during the week (or at any time tbh), but have a range of things that seem like proper meals but only take like 10 mins prep. The Food/Recipes board is a good place to find them, also BBC food, Tesco food, Aldi website etc.

My mum never worried about our school lunches which were filling and nutritious. I never worried about my children for the same reason.

My grandchildren on the other hand

This thread has made its way over to Facebook and one of the comments contained this link.
So I’m closing the circle.

Yeah right 😂. It's getting them to eat it

What's for tea mummy.

Gazpacho,

Mmm thank you mummy

Mmm cream soda. I'm going to buy some today - thanks OP.

Ice cream soda was my favourite pudding of all time as a child 💛

Cream soda today a sad disappointment

One of my favourite quick dinners is what we call picnic dinners, a mixture of cold things such as:

Smoked salmon
Mozzarella and tomato salad (with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a bit of oregano)
Greek salad
Bread / pitta
Hummous / guacamole or other dips
Fennel and orange salad (just with olive oil and salt)
Ham
Minty courgette salad
Bean salad (with added avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, whatever)
Avocado and mango salad
Poached eggs if I feel like cooking 😅 or cold quiche from the shop

I love meal planning and cooking from scratch for everyone, so YABU. It took years for me to actually learn how to cook properly, and my family appreciate the effort I make.

Do you mean you make the salads? They sound beautiful, but no less effort than cooked things.

I actually find salads quite stressful because you often need a smallish amount of something, like a bit of two different lettuces, or half a cucumber, and then the rest hangs about in the fridge while I try to think of something else to do with it and eventually give up and throw it away.

Well, good for you. But the OP is unreasonable because she happens not to enjoy it and you do happen to?

YABU
Absolutely fine to have easy meals sometimes, but you need better quality meals.

This sounds much more work than a normal cooked dinner.

@OneSpoonyHiker I don't make the full list, just a salad, a protein or 2 and bread! Hummous and dips are ready made. Add to that that normally we dress our own salad once it's on the plate (pretty standard in Italy).
For example:
Mozzarella and tomato salad (small tomatoes so no need to chops)
pitta bread
hummous
smoked salmon