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?

God I hate the word “dump bags”

It makes me think of someone taking a dump in a bag.

SO DOES HE

(not sure why your need for capitals).

You have no idea what he does in the house.

You are the one who tried to imply she’s not already pulling her weight.

Go vegetarian for a week
If she did, Op still needs ideas.
Suggestions?

So because you’re not a keen cook and don’t know much about food it means you don’t still appreciate variety?

😆
Pigs dick and lettuce
Cow's cock & onions
Shit & sugar on a butty

Plenty of variations !

😃

Leaving aside your dh issues, you're doing batch cooking all wrong here...

Based on what you're already doing:

• Monday is mince - make a big batch of chilli one week, bolognese the next, then keema. Freeze surplus & quietly defrost & rotate.
• Tuesday is chicken curry - fine, but do different variations (you need The Curry Guy, his recipes are idiot proof). Also swap in veggie versions. Again make double portions & freeze one.
• Wednesday is fish, so just mix up WHICH fish - you can airfry pretty much anything that swims. Add potatoes or noodles & salad.
• Thursday could be something like risotto or pilaf to vary up the stir fry. Use frozen veg if it makes life easier.
• Friday stops being steak, because that's expensive & apparently he's an ungrateful git, so you & the kids have whatever you like & he can cook for himself, whenever he gets in.

The other thing I'd suggest is getting him to make an accompanying salad each evening. This definitely worked on my mardy teens. It took them 10 minutes, made dinner nicer & healthier, & was a bit of a gateway to them eventually knocking up dinner for everyone.

& then you need to think about why your dh is behaving like a mardy teen, & if you're OK with that. But as a short term fix, you can definitely make your dinner plans easier.

Honestly the more you post, the more I’m going off this dude. He does no cooking, moans about variety and moans it’s “not healthy enough” too. He’d be cooking himself a boiled egg if I had my choice…..

Please say at least he washes the dishes or goes to the supermarket for the big shop or something??

Every adult needs to be able to feed themselves and their family, but no one needs a restaurant critic sat round the table.

I really like halloumi wraps. Chilli sauce and lots of salad. Really easy.

Or do one of the delivery kits to get some new ideas. Eg hello fresh. There are always offers on.

No I didn’t.

OP is perfectly happy to cook. She wasn’t inviting critique of her husband, about whom no one knows anything other than he doesn’t cook because he works long hours, she was asking for bloody recipes.

It makes perfect sense for the person in the house to cook the dinner.

The misandry on this thread is insane.

If you are on Instagram there's some really good recipe ideas on there! I'm trying to do at least one new recipe a week. A few of my current favourites are fish tacos, tortellini soup, lamb koftas and cous cous, alfredo pasta, smashburgers and sweet potato fries, monkfish and samphire with crushed potatoes, Thai meatballs, pork ramen, chow mein, guinness pie and mash, beef tagine. You could tweak your current recipes aswell. Stir fries are so versatile. I recently made crispy pork stir fry with orange sauce and it was fab. With chilli you could do burritos, tacos, nachos, quesadillas. For the spaghetti bol add some burrata and sun dried tomatoes. Do an Indian style curry butter chicken or tandoori.

I think it’s fine for one person to do all the cooking if that’s what works for the family - I do all cooking in our house. But if he’s getting bored then he needs to help by at least making suggestions!
some things we’ve had recently are:

Big frittata with bacon and loads of veg.

paella type rice dish.

fajitas.

fresh soup and crusty bread.

Kiev’s, new potatoes and veg.

grilled chicken Caesar salad.

beef, peppers & cashews in black bean sauce with noodles.

Someone said she already had a full time jobs between part time work and childcare.

Yoir response was ‘not if the kids are in school’

You appear to be an apologist for the unfair division of the unpaid shit work.

Whilst op is devoting half of her working hours to unpaid shit work her future security is being eroded - unless her DH is helping to contribute to her national insurance and private pension pot (and I’m willing to be he isn’t but would be delighted to hear he is)

I work full time DP doesn’t so he does the majority of the cooking. Recently he actually asked me to suggest some meals cos he felt we were having the same stuff and it was never the same thing every week like OP has said. CF I am I did suggest a few. I think quite often on MN there’s a down with the men vibe, not a fan. I bet if he’d suggested meals he would be slated for that too, he’s not as he’s asking OP cos she cooks and not expecting her to cater to his wants just give them some variety hardly a crime

Another huge assumption!

Why would you do that?

I haven’t worked for decades and everything, house, pensions, savings, you name it, is 50/50.

OP has asked for meal ideas.

You extrapolate from that that he’s bone idle and has made no provision for his wife and family for the future.

Mad.

Even if she does not work outside the house, that does not automatically make cooking every night her job.

On the gousto website you can see the recipes and just recreate them using supermarket ingredients

I didn’t make an assumption….

I don’t know what the situation is but the OP has already said he’s criticising, cant gone up with his own suggestions, is picky and wants meals to fit around his fitness regimen.

It’s a valid question - what exactly IS his contribution to the unpaid shit work that goes into running their lives? Because so far he can’t even run his own meticulous requirements for food to fuel his fitness lifestyle

I don’t like cooking so DH always did it and now DD does it. We work out what we want, I do all the shopping and most of the clearing up. It has never been a cooked from scratch meal every night, we plan to have leftovers, sometimes have ready meals or something like scrambled eggs and smoked salmon.
And I CAN’T cook but I can provide food if absolutely necessary.
How about baked potatoes? 😹

It isn’t the fact that the op does the cooking that’s problematic, it may well be perfectly fair for their life, BUT, the tone of the ops posts, constantly talking about the husband as if he’s some kind of God, is. She didn’t even need to include him. Could have just been ‘my meals are a bit samey, can I have some tips for healthy variety’ but she had to pointlessly shoehorn the husband in. Sounds like a deeply unequal unhealthy relationship.

Try different types of curry? Simply cook has many different ones

You did exactly that (“Im willing to bet he isn’t”).

Why the bloody hell should OP divulge her personal financial arrangements to you?

Mon- tacos/pasta with cream sauce
Tue-lamb biriyani
Wed-cajun salmon
Thur-chicken satay with noodles and veg
Fri- go to McDonalds for a burger if he doesn't want steak at home.

change up the types of curry (thai, indian etc) , change up the fish or do fish pie, trad fish n chips? spaghetti alternate with a different pasta bake?