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! 😴🥱🥔🥪🍳🌭🫘

Thank you. I’m 53 and couldn’t have said it better myself. I grew up in the North of England and that’s exactly how it was, with the addition of quite a lot of salami, rye bread and saurkraut because my dad was Ukrainian.

Very good.
Full stop.

This is why I cook a Gousto meal for myself/DH and something similar to what you've described for DC. They do still get the required fruit/veg because they have it in packed lunch and snacks. Figured it was actually better for them to eat and enjoy dinner than spend the whole meal coaxing them to eat and them being left hungry.

Some people enjoy cooking, I don't and I'm stood thinking about the million other things I'd rather be doing.

I love cooking . Love it . When I’m cooking for a reason , or a birthday ( not mine ) or it’s a cold winters day outside and I’ve got stuff on my kitchen tv to watch, and I can just bimble about uninterrupted in an unhurried fashion. Love it .

But , Jesus fucking Christ . Midweek , when I’ve been running round like a blue arse fly , I’ve got 3 people doing shift work , one is picky as hell , the other would give locusts a run for their money , the thought of even thinking about cooking , for that night , let alone a whole week…. No . Hell no .

Which is why once a month , I make the family come to Food Warehouse with me, they get £25 each and they can choose their own CBA meals . They think it’s a treat !

I never planned any of my children’s food..it wasn’t a thing in the 00s . They are all fully functioning adults and capable of eating anything that they can be bothered to cook.

Mine says “What’s for tea?’ Every day when he gets home and expects a proper dinner. Years ago I told him I wouldn’t be cooking on Saturdays because I needed one day that wasn’t the same slog as the rest.

So on that day he eats three identical meals of what he calls ‘bachelor chow’ (I think its a reference from the cartoon ‘Futurama’) which is peanut butter sandwiches, apple and yoghurt, doesn’t offer to make anything for me and doesn’t even notice if I eat nothing all day.

If cook myself a meal he looks hopeful and says ‘Can I get in on that?’

This has been going on for 23 years. Sigh.

Every fecking week I ask the mother and DH "what will I get in for dinners? " and every week Im met with blank looks

I dont mind the cooking, Im a pretty good cook and can make something out of nothing, but its the planning that does my fecking head in. I cook 6 days a week for three people who have completely differing tastes and likes and coming up with dishes that all three of us will eat is a complete nightmare

Ive got to the point where I will cook those two a meal and Im happy enough with something on toast, but then I get the "you not eating AGAIN" comment. Yes I am fucking eating but I really dont want to eat a roast dinner cos Im tired, so tired Id fall asleep in it so just leave me be, or yes I am eating but you know I dont do white dinners and cauliflower and potatoes together on a plate just turns my stomach so Im choosing a nice bowl of red soup thank you very much !!

And then, after Ive planned and cooked meals for their tastes, its eaten and not a word of thanks or a compliment

My perfect dinner is a bowl of pasta and a bottle of red

I’m 16 years in, there’s absolutely no hope for me is there 😭

I hate cooking to the point I won't even eat what I've cooked now.By the time I've meal planned,bought,chopped,cooked,served it up,and had to clean the kitchen afterwards....I just don't bother.I will feed everyone else,and have something random and whatever I fancy 10 o'clock in the night instead 😁

Aah bless you. Don’t be me, get him told!

Agree with some PPs. Food is fuel to me too and I hate hate hate the endless drudgery of trying to plan meals day after day after day.... I have a DH who only wants meat and two veg, plus permanently starving (but easy to feed) teenagers.

When I lived alone I cooked a batch of mince and used that for the basis of meals for about a week - easy. Or a lovely ready meal you used to be able to buy which was a steaklet with ratatouille, yum.

The thought of planning meals for the rest of my life makes me want to stick pins in my eyes. But DH is a dinosaur and can't cook. I foresee potentially decades of hell before I shuffle off this mortal coil.....😦

I enjoy cooking but yes, rationalising is the way to go!

I always cook enough to last two days – and my number one rule is that a meal is never allowed to take longer than 30 minutes to prep & cook and, ideally, they are one-pot.

There’s also the thing where you have 2 meal plans and shopping lists on a fortnightly rotation so you don’t ever have to think about what to cook or shop for – no brainer really…

My kid-friendly 30 minute meals:

• Cauliflower cheese + salad = Cook cauliflower and pasta in separate pans, make a cheese & mustard bechamel while they’re cooking. Mix all of it together and serve with a salad / veg

• Spag bol + salad (ideally, include courgettes and peppers in bol!)

• Egg fried rice (with veg: peas / cabbage / carrots) – serve with a side/starter of ready-made frozen spring rolls and a dipping sauce

• Baked (sweet or white) potatoes with (store bought) hummus / tuna mayo + salad / broccoli

• Cassoulet with sausages (sauté onions, garlic in oil, add a tin of baked beans, butter beans, cannellini beans + chopped tomatoes. Cook on low heat for 15 mins, add a dash of tomato ketchup, seasoning, dash of chilli and pre-fried, copped up sausages. Simmer for another 10 mins and serve with crusty bread – if you can be asked, add loads of chopped fresh peppers together with the onions in the first step

• Bean / lentil chilli with rice

• Cheese and mushroom omelette + salad

• Tortellini + red pesto + salad

(luxury version: sauté onion, garlic, loooooots of peppers – add minced beef, fry/simmer till cooked, then add red pesto, give it a couple of minutes and then ladle over ready cooked tortellini – serve with salad)

HTH .....

Cook what everyone eats…absolutely nothing wrong with baked potatoes, beans, pasta, fish fingers, omlettes. As long as the kids have plenty of fruit & veg, dairy etc aswell, no problem at all. Soup is packed full of veg.

We do easy dinners in the week (alot of the above), bigger meal on a Saturday night/Sunday. I try and get the kids out for lunches at the weekend (picnic on a walk or day out etc) as so much nicer having lunch in the fresh air and its a break from making lunch at home.

gammon egg and chips, mince and tatties, soup and bread, and fish suppers.

^^

To be fair this does sound lush

I’m with you OP. We had beans on toast for tea tonight, it’s what my 3 year old wanted and quite frankly I couldn’t be bothered with trying to force feed him some healthy shit that I’ve spent over an hour cooking 🤷‍♀️ he had a big bowl of fruit after to make myself feel better! 🙈

Beans count as one of your 5 a day. I think it might be the tomato sauce but they do count.
Says so on the tin (and so do spaghetti hoops)

Mmmmmm fry up.

My kids have left home and I am divorced and sometimes I live for days on hummus and snacky bits out of the fridge.

Fucking lush.

Another vote for ham, egg and chips.

We have reverted to tea being the same and simple. I say reverted because it’s what my grandparents used to do.
bread - pref homemade soda for speed.
green salad
cold cuts/ bit of cheese/ hard boiled egg/ salad potato
soup
Leftovers.

Oooh, I’m going to try some of these, @Haleluljaa, thank you!

Yes. I have three dc, and none of them will eat the same stuff. I know of only 2 week night meals two of them would both eat but it is wearing having to do 3 dinners every night then something separate for me.

And it's all the 'oh not again' - well stop being so fucking picky then.

I actually love cooking and love food. I would be happy to cook big dinners that everyone actually ate but it just doesn't happen in real life.

I hear you @Goodgravythisisfantastic

I am right in the thick of it with family meals, and no end in sight. Yesterday I took DC on a frog spotting walk, and so popped a very healthy Italian bean stew in the slow cooker before we left. Grabbed some fresh crusty seedy bread on the way home. DD, DH and I loved it. DS' behaved as if I had served them nuclear poo with a topping of toenails, on toast.

However, tonight, I threw some puff pastry over leftover chicken, and they spiralized some potatoes, and it was declared the best meal ever.

Argh!!!!

(Ps: my favourite dinner is soup and toastie. It's just THE BEST)

Not in UK. WHat are UPF chicken burgers?

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.
Glad you enjoy them. Maybe the Irish do too. I have never been to Ireland. It's a healthy choice, not denying that, just that you all act like it is normal for the rest of the world. And we are all going WT?

I totally get it. My rule is - I cook as long as 90-95% of the time this cooking doesn’t exceed 15-20 mins. It works for us.