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 had to explain this too. Same shit different house.

@OooScotland

"DH is obsessed with ‘proper dinners’, especially pork chops, at the moment. "

Pork chops is actually on my easy no fuss meals list.

Plop them on a tray and rub on some seasoning (whatever you like, I use the Nando's peri peri shaker).

On another tray empty a packet of pre trimmed green beans and a packet of prepared tender stem broccoli.

Drizzle with garlic oil.

Put in oven for 30 minutes, remove and eat. Prep is 2 mins then go do something else till the pinger goes off.

Or as a kid we used to have pork chop, oven chips and beans.

Having shopped and cooked for a family of 7 for many years, I totally get it. I didn't actually mind doing cooking but thinking of what to make and all the right nutrition can feel exhausting and soul destroying! Nothing wrong with having a few easy dinners in the week - jacket potatoes, fish fingers and oven chips or wedges, cheesy beans on toast! Throw a bit of salad on the side or those little bags of frozen veg you can microwave and some fruit & yoghurt for pudding, job done!

I’m with you, OP. When I read about “girl dinner,” it amused me because that is exactly the kind of thing I choose on the rare occasions I am home alone for dinner: cheese, hummus, bread, etc. and a glass of wine. Perfect. If I can pull it out of the fridge and assemble it quickly, that’s ideal.

We did that when we lived in Germany. Fantastic three course meal at school/work at lunchtime and bread cheese and apples for dinner at home. Out on a Saturday, Hot food at home on a Sunday. It was bliss.

We moved ro rural Scotland and its a constant grind of planning, shopping and cooking. I hate it.

God I hear you OP, its the bit I hate most about being an adult. Not only am I expected to plan, budget and cook, I'm also expected to be a mind reader.

"What do you fancy for dinner DH/DC?"

"I don't know really, whatever you fancy making"

Fuck all then in that case because that's what I "fancy making" actually!

Eat what you want I sometimes have breakfast for dinner

Truth. Until you die. Laundry too ugh until you die

YANBU

Food planning is hell here. What one will eat, the others won't. Then someone will suddenly decide that they can't bear something that they've told me that they love.

One won't eat beef, another won't eat chicken, another won't eat sweetcorn but then someone else loves it...

Then there's the probable intolerances, the weird aversions, and the real dietary issues... eg son won't eat soup, sandwiches, eggs or cheese (except he'll eat cheese if he's not at home). And there's been enough issues with literally getting enough calories in him that I can't push too much.

And any attempt at meal planning has come up against sudden changes of plans or refusal to accept something or whatever crisis that causes havoc.

Currently I keep the freezer stocked with easy stuff and leave every one to decide their meals for themselves. Of course, by the time I've made sure everyone else is fed, I don't have energy to make sure that I'm eating healthy but at least the men are fine.

In the past, I have been so desperate to get anything into son that he's had custard for breakfast.

I don’t have children but honestly it’s still every fucking day! You can’t escape it can you? “What shall we eat today” is the first thing that is spoken out of my husband’s mouth after “good morning “ we run a business together so I can’t escape that fucking question. We try to cook together if we can but I genuinely don’t give a shit what he wants to eat, I want to shout “stop fucking asking me and make toast”

Your food sounds lovely. You're right you shouldn't make a big fuss if it goes unappreciated and you don't enjoy cooking.
As long as there's some veg and salad with each meal then just make tasty things your family enjoy. Beans are awesome. And pretty nutritious.

No kids, just me and DH. I plan religiously because I hate shopping. I stick to a very simple rota with two 'on toast' meals a week. Plus a roast and cold leftovers with home made wedges and veg. Then fish once, pasta once, some kind of soup once. If I have time/energy I'll do a batch of something mince-based and freeze some. I used to like cooking but I have mobility problems and dread being on my feet making dinner, so try not to do things I have to stand over.

Ahh, the beatific smile on my fucking face when my eldest got a job which provides a free meal on shift 😍

The melody that issued from my heart when my middle one learnt to push down the toaster switch themselves and realised they too can push a bit of butter around bread with a knife 😍

The harp-wielding angels that frolicked around me when free school meals for all became a thing for my youngest, meaning at least the odd cold quick tea wouldn't be the end of the world 😍

The clanging of a million bells of joy in my soul when they are out, and I merely have to assemble a wodge of something to poke in my face and stave off starvation and not have to fill, stir, serve and dishwash eleventy pans 😍

I feel you OP. I used to enjoy cooking but the "mad baby chicks screaming open gobbed in an untidy nest" aspect of the best part of the last two decades of child rearing has shrivelled my gastronomic will to live somewhat.

😆😆

My mother didn't know how to cook and I was fed crap as a child - dinner would be stuff like bacon and eggs or pork chop and chips. Don't recall any vegetables. The result was that I got fat, not massively fat, but enough for her to put me on a diet when I was 8 yo (banana and milk diet). It was a really crap start in life in terms of a healthy diet. It took 20 years to get past it to learning about healthy eating and being a healthy weight.

It's funny because it's gone the other way for my dad now, he used to cook a lot and is very much "done enough, I'll live on ready meals and cafe food"
Now he turns up "that smells nice" < hopeful face >
Right I'll get you a plate then, funny how you always show up at tea time...

Loving this thread! I hear you, OP.

1 big change I made to the weekly shop was 2-day meals. DH makes one big thing on Monday to last 2 dinners- we switch up the veg/salad to go with it. Then I do something like a Persian rice with meat dish on Wednesday for 2 days, again we change up side dishes each time. This way, DDs and us are guaranteed 4 non-UPF dinners.

Ignore the PPs who are snooty over beans on toast, it is a fab meal and a staple of ours here too! As is, egg on toast, jacket potatoes, frankfurters and beans, pasta with ham and sweetcorn etc,. If DDs have a foody Saturday they get cereal for dinner and get crazy excited! I adore food but feel it shouldn't be taken so seriously. On MN some people are quite intense about it all.

I've never planned meals, I just made what I fancied eating that day, still do.
They either ate it or went hungry.
They didn't like being hungry, so they ate it.

😁

"We are the same, she and I"

I bloody hate cooking and I’m a single mum so it’s I cook or we don’t eat and some days I just cannot be arsed at all. Holidays are the worst, I feel like I live in the bloody kitchen. If you love cooking, can batch cook great-but thats
not everyone. I try and make healthy meals for 90% of the week. Some days I tell my kids I cba and we eat beige.

We call it "brinner" in this house 😆

Eh? 🧐

Some days I'll eat cereal and toast.

Other days I'll scratch make everything from sourdough bread, soup, pasta, sauces, pies, puddings, everything.

Mood is everything.

To those who meal plan, can you actually sit down and eat a meal that you're not in the mood for and really don't fancy? Or do you know ahead of time that on Thursday next week you'll be happy to wolf down a homemade Cottage Pie and Friday you'll definitely be hankering for that pasta bolognese on the set menu? I can't. I do buy meals in advance but in ingredients that usually keep for enough days for me to open the fridge and think, "great, I've got stuff for that curry I fancy." Or they get frozen until such time as everyone agrees that, for example, mum's honey and mustard grilled pork loin sounds perfect for dinner tonight.

And OP there is nowt wrong with simple meals like beans on toast with sausage and egg. In fact, I think I'll be making that for my dinner soon. I just don't know when. This week sometime. Because I might not feel like it tomorrow.