Husband moaning about dinners

[Willow990]

I meal prep every Sunday for dinners for the week ahead, a typical week looks something like this:

Mon - chilli or spaghetti bolognese
Tuesday - curry (chicken)
Wednesday - fish (salmon usually)
Thursday - stir fry
Friday - Steak

I told DH this morning what I was planning for next week and he asked whether there’s any chance of some variety and for me to try some new dishes. He works long days and I’m usually about to serve up as he walks through the door.

Has anyone got any ideas for how I could freshen things up?

Tell him to have a word with himself 😀

I don’t think people tend to post about happy marriages where both parties pull their weight.

Poor OP, all she wanted was a few recipes 😁

I’d tell him to fuck off and to make his own bloody food…

1. marinade some chicken mini fillets in yogurt, tomatoes purée and curry powder. Preferably in the morning. Cook in the oven for 25 mins. Serve with salad, Greek yoghurt, chilis, and rice or pittas
2. Batch cook some cottage pies, made in the slow cooker, with pearl barley. Freeze in relevant portion size and serve with steamed veg. Same for beef bourginon.
3. King prawns cooked with chilli, ginger and garlic. Put the chilli, ginger and garlic in mini chopper (£10 from Aldi) whizz for 30 seconds. Fry in a wok for 1 minute, add prawns. Serve over cous cous and salad, top with coriander.
4. Tell him he is cooking 2 nights a week. And you expect variety.

Casserole in the slow cooker, burger night, fajita mix with shredded chicken on flat breads , pizza night, pork loin with veg and potatoes, loaded potatoes and salad.

I hate the ‘what’s for dinner?’ question when I don’t know the answer - so I meal plan every week and shop for what we need. I saw an idea ( possibly on FB) of having a jar of lolly sticks with meal ideas. I saved a coffee jar and got some craft lolly sticks and gave it a try. I save recipes I see on FB/ online and add them to the collection. We also eat a few things regularly but it it is handy to find other ideas ( or things I had forgotten). We have over 80 ideas now I think…..

I can understand the same menus every week can be predictable and boring. Surely there are enough recipes in books or online to be useful for you? Even something basic like ham, egg and chips?

I tend to have a mix of the following each week -

Chicken
Other meat
Pasta
Rice
Fish
Vegetarian

This base is the starting point, then find a recipe

Lentil bolognese is good. Or prawn risotto

Do you have a pulled pork recipe you could share please? Also the Jamaican butter bean curry

Everything sounds lovely x

Actually that’s a simple but great idea - mental note made!

Meal prep dump bags for the slow cooker at the weekend....

These are popular in our house. We usually have these once a month. They also work well for batch cooking.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-bean-chilli-bowl-chipotle-yogurt
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sausage-ragu
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/thai-red-curry
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-curry

These are easy and go down well too, but can't batch cook. All very quick and easy though...
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/asparagus-chilli-feta-farfalle
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-risotto
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/prawn-fennel-rocket-risotto
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pea-feta-summer-herb-frittata
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/best-ever-macaroni-cheese-recipe

The same five meals on rotation are going to be dull for anyone, regardless of who is cooking. There are literally billions of recipes, BBC Good Food is an excellent place to start.

He taking the piss! You do 2 jobs - childcare is a full time job in itself! - and the cheeky bugger is “fussy” and criticises instead of being extremely grateful for everything you do!😳😳😳

Jeez. Mumsnet at its finest. Man's not thrown his plate against the wall and demanded she gets herself chained back to the sink.
If I ate the same 5 meals on loop every week, I'd be bored as hell, of cooking as well as eating.
I second hello fresh/green chef. You dont even have to sign up necessarily, you can look at recipes
We tend to have similar meals, but on a 3 week rotation
So we'd do
Lasagne/bolognese/chilli
Fish with either gnocchi and sauce or pots and veg
Spaghetti carbonara or pasta bake
Chicken rice and veg(numerous flavour combos here and interchangeable veg)
Curry and sides
Gyros
Stir fry/ramen
Lamb meatballs with cous cous
Lamb steak and chermoula chick peas and apricots
Pizza and salad
Wraps and fries
Burgers
Chicken sweet potato salad/chicken bacon avocado salad
Have a look at good food recipes and subscription box recipes for inspiration.
Yes he could cook, but if that doesn't work for your family set up, it doesn't work.

Do you work OP?

DH is veggie and DS is very fussy so I cook to suit DS and DH cooks (!!) all his own meals. Occasionally, I’ll make something suitable for DH to share. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Try typing your query into Perplexity AI and getting ideas that way?

Could you still do a chicken curry - but mix it up with Korma, butter chicken, chicken vadagam, chicken bhuna etc? So different flavours on different weeks. Or maybe a lamb rogan Josh or a prawn curry etc. Maybe even a Thai curry rather than an Indian one? Or a Moroccan tagine.

Change up the salmon by doing plain, Cajun seasoned, lemon seasoned, Parmesan crusted, tomato and mozarella topped…

Do a veggie chilli instead of beef chilli - it’s surprisingly tasty and different to a beef one! Or do a big batch of bolognaise sauce this week and freeze some to make a lasagna easily in 2 weeks time (with something different in between). Or do different kinds of pasta and sauce meals based on chicken or prawns or sausages or meatballs. Or pies like chicken and mushroom, smoked fish and broccoli, shepherd’s /cottage, fish and peas etc - could be pastry or mash potato topped and all those could be made in advance to throw in the oven.

instead of steak, do lamb chops or pork chops or lemon and garlic chicken joints or feta and thyme under the skin chicken joints…

im guessing you have a plan to make it easier to manage - you can keep the structure while extending the range of things that can work on that day. Or is it the structure that he doesn’t like?

To take that mental load off me my family choose what they want to eat in the up coming week

With sliced cheese ( not cheese slices ) , sprinkled with pepper.

“Let me know what you’d like to add to the meal plan before I do the weekly shop on xday”.

I do all the cooking in our home - but we both sit down on a Saturday morning to jointly do the meal plan for the following week, we do a shopping list together then one of us, or both, does the shopping. My DH is a fussy eater, so he has to come up with the meals he fancies. (We have a list of about 20 meals that he chooses from so we don't start with a blank sheet)

Not if the kids are in school.

Go vegetarian for a week.

SHE WORKS WHILST THE KIDS ARE IN SCHOOL/CHILDCARE