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! 😴🥱🥔🥪🍳🌭🫘

For some of us it is a chore. Maybe that is a bad thing but it is how it is. I have been married for over 50 years, my husband is disabled and can't cook. He is also a very unadventurous eater so it is the same round of stuff day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade and yes I've had enough of cooking.

I don't think it is above me or beneath me, I'm just sick of it.

Of course it's a chore, some enjoy it more than others .
Likewise laundry
No need to sweat any of it.
There's no law that says you must cook like Ottolenghi and his 37 ingredients every night!

Ultimately no one cares what other people do or eat
If you want to have an Omelette, crack on 🥚
It's the presenting it as something for other people to criticise that's odd.

There is a link between processed foods full of salt and low nutritional value and cardiovascular disease plus diabetes.
I think that's a good reason too cook.
I'm surprised with the amount of people who think nothing of eating regularly beans on toast and sausages regularly.
It's about looking a one pot receives and see what your favorite are. Fish cooks really quickly in the oven with a few vegs.
You develop a taste for real foods if you try.

It was the fish finger sandwiches I was wondering about, and the chicken burgers.

It's difficult cramming your 5 a day into lunch and breakfast

yeah it's a chore.

I LOVE meal planning. I watch meal planning and 'what we ate for the week' youtube videos for fun. But fuck me I am tired of it at the moment. i have one child who eats very little.

But just occurred to me I work in the office 2 days a week. I've been busting a gut trying to scratch cook the day before so can pop something new in the oven when home at 7 pm. THOSE nights from here on in are going to be 'breakfast for dinner' nights. Tomorrow.... scrambled eggs, bagels and beans. Delish.

Often dinner in my house is a lump of protein, salmon fillet done in air fryer type thing. Rainbow salad cucumber, carrots, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, sweetcorn, peppers in stripes on a big plate. Serve yourselves make it more interesting by letting them add a dressing.

So bored of meal planning especially as gratitude inversely proportionate to effort put in.

It’s boring as fuck. But you can’t eat just junk as that’s not good for you either. I batch cook stuff and Thursday is junk night here. You can eat whatever you like as long as it comes out of the freezer and is probably beige/brown in colour! You just need to mix it up a bit with non junk.

and I fucking love beans on toast!

Please tell me how you manage, as I'd love to. I'm serious. Thanks

porridge with blue berries and pear
banana and orange for snack
lunch veggie curry/soup - bunged in slow cooker, carrots and peppers, chickpeas and orange lentils
super tuna salad - cucumber, tomatoes, watercress and lettuce
fruit salad for pudding with yogurt

This is great but if you swapped dinner to beans on toast you’d end the day on 5, and 4 would be fruit with only 1 green veg. This is why a proper dinner is important.

Which is not to say that beans on toast isn’t the food of the gods.

RE how many fruit & veg the OP gets; 1) she didn't Fkn ask for feedback on that, and 2) she eats a wide variety. I mentally combined the ones I thought were likely less than a portion size until i thought that 2 or 3 would combine to make a portion together as I read through her list and it still comes out at more than 5 a day.

I didn't pick her up on it because I thought it was pointless to do so

Breakfast & evening meal are always pretty similar so don't take too much thinking about.

Lunch (main cooked meal of the day) can be anything tbh.

Ranging from lasagne to jacket potatoes to scrambled egg on toast.

Oh rice pudding!

Generally-what do people want & what can someone be bothered to cook?

I used to hate the daily “what to make for dinner” decision especially when I work FT so meal planning has totally taken the stress out of it for me.
I keep a list of dinners that we all enjoy and plan 3 healthy quick scratch dinners for Mon, Tue & Wed & shop for all the ingredients on Sunday so everything is in the house & I don’t have to think about it. Thur is usually something beige from the freezer, Friday is usually pizza & DH cooks Sat, Sun.

I love fish fingers & beans on toast as much as anyone but as I’m getting older I am more aware of the issues that can be caused by a poor diet so think trying to get a balance is important.

I realise I’m lucky though as there are no fussy eaters in the house and DH & I both enjoy cooking.

"Get some beans on toast down your neck hen"

Thank you for reminding me of my adored aunt-in-law.

You're right. The, occasional, quick tea was always my DC's favourite 😀

I'm enjoying all the posts that think this is how we eat all the time when clearly it's a lighthearted post about being fed up thinking about meals and cooking.

We eat a lot of salmon and veg, chillis, curries, risottos, roast dinners, stir frys etc etc.

But with a 2 year old who's happy and smiling over his beans on toast it's fun to have a whinge on Mumsnet about the daily grind.

Some posters are above such conversation. Well bollocks to them and they're 10 portions of fruit and veg a day.

Growing up we knew what we would eat every week. I can't remember it all but it was bacon and cabbage, stew, spag bol, fry, savory mince, frozen pizza/ similar, roast beef. Sometimes chicken curry but there were a lot of us things like mince travel further.

I do cook from scratch but I have a pressure cooker and do a lot of 1 pot meals. So every single ingredient goes in at the same time, raw, and comes out cooked in the end.

I only cook for myself.
Mostly chuck something in the oven or microwave or just order something.
Or just munch on what i fancy from the fridge.

For those of us who aren't quite neurotypical food planning can be dreadful. I'll plan then shop and something will happen - late at work, LPG delivery doesn't show so no hob (that was this week),dh works away at short notice, dd turns up with bf, someone invites me out/round, just don't fancy what I wrote down we had to eat three days ago... Plus, after being with dh 40 years, the novelty has definitely worn off!

I would quite happily live on simple foods. Unfortunately, DH doesn't think beans on toast is a meal 🥲

I get this really silly flicker of rage when he asks what's for tea right after eating breakfast or dinner. I DON'T KNOW. I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO NOT THINKING ABOUT FOOD FOR SEVERAL HOURS. LEAVE ME ALONE.

Stressy week at KnitnNatter Towers last week . . . . resorted to toasted foccacia, hummus and sliced peppers followed by yoghurt and bananas . . . .5 minutes from fridge to table and much enjoyed!

This reminds me that I often do what I call 'mezze platters' to the family. A few dips and raw veg and breads, salami and cheese. They always love it and really it's just leftovers and whatever I can't be bothered to turn into soup. (Dear Lord I hate soup).

I might do that tonight. I have meatballs in tomato sauce left over and a whole bunch of cheeses and raw veg. Add some of the chicken nuggets I have in the freezer and DS1 will be in heaven.

Instead of batch cooking meals just batch cook a pot of tomato sauce made with a base of celery, carrot, onions and peppers.
Divide and freeze.
Take a pot out before work and at night add
mince or lentils and basil for spaghetti bolognaise
mince and chilli for chilli con carne
mushrooms and basil for veggie pasta bake
diced pork, olives and basil for Mediterranean pork.
Chicken and chilli for Arrabiatta

Feeding everyone is relentless and thankless. I do cook a lot from scratch. And a fair bit of extremely varied, wide ingredients. My 4 kids are under 11 and I’m noticing now they are starting to eat almost anything. And request unexpected things like garlic pak Choi and want to try escargot. So all these years of putting out the variety is finally paying off and I genuinely think having a wide palette is a valuable life skill.

my biggest concern with sticking with the easy meals is UPFs and not enough balance. But if you can figure that out, then I totally get why you’d do it. We love sausage, egg and chips as much as anyone but I couldn’t put it out regularly and feel ok with it.

At least one of the posts commenting was unhelpful, the one saying something along the lines of ‘you know there are portion sizes attached to it’. However, many simply highlight the fact that for something to count as a serving it has to have a certain size.

Someone else said they are genuinely interested how someone managed to get 10 servings a day in. What OP provided as an example wasn’t 10 full servings. It is right to point out to anyone who is interested to get the recommended amounts in what actually does count as a serving.

OP didn’t list 10 full servings but labelled them as such.

My people OP. 15 years of doing all the healthy family meals, full time working, on a tight budget and I’m absolutely done. Throwing my metaphorical fish slice at the fucking wall.

One DC eats no veg (inc no potatoes), no cheese and no eggs or anything remotely ‘weird textured’. Lives off bread.

One DC won’t eat meals at all. So has to have constant snack sized portions.

DH who decides half way through me cooking that he’s popping to the gym and can I get him ‘something simple’ instead when he gets back.

Beans are cheap, quick (and don’t require a fucking fish slice).

Oh we love a comfort dinner here ….. had a bad day? Let’s have brunch dinner, tired? Let’s have beans on toast and a glass of wine. Got caught in the rain? Cheese on toast and a cup of tea it is!!

we do eat ‘proper’ dinners to but sometimes isn’t it just lovely to have something warm and easy. And as you say op, who even really cares?!