Going against the grain, I am going to STOP meal planning

[Jessepinkman]

It does my nut in. Maybe because I have dh meat and two veg, dd1 white carbs, dd2 my love will eat whatever's going, like me, and dd3 just sausages.

So I can buy store cupboard food/frozen meat for them all. I always offer the dc fresh chopped veg before their evening meal, so the veggies are offered when they are hungry, they have the run of fruit. Porridge for breakfast on a school morning.

I just cant be arsed to say I have planned this for your meal to be met with three or four nays. I'm going back to a freezer full, and a store cupboard, fresh fruit and veg every week. Lets see!

Good luck, I CBA with doing different for everyone. Here it's "eat or don't", we have no real allergies to take into account so I cook what I fancy. I've just started planning because I'm bored and looking for ideas, so I nick 'em off other people's plans

Your problem isn't the food plan, it's the spoilt-brat clientele. I'd be introducing a 'eat what you're given and shut up about it' policy and going back to meal planning. Otherwise you'll just end up as a short-order chef.

Must admit I agree with CogitoErgoSometimes

How about a partial meal plan for now? To get everyone used to eating the same meal a few times a week? Surely there must be something they all like? :) get them involved and hope for the best :)

Good luck :)

I wouldn't cook different meals for everyone. I don't meal plan, I jsut use whatever is in the cupboards, and they either eat it, or make themselves a sandwiches.

How old are the children?

If you have sausage, mash, peas and carrots once a week, that should be ok with everyone.

Thanks for the responses. I do think that meal planning is rubbish if you have to plan for two or three meals per evening. My dc are all ready for a meal at around 5pm. My dh comes home at around 7pm, but then one of us has to do a bed time, so it is at 7.30 when we eat.

I hate that some of them are fussy, and don't understand it, but I do remember being force fed by a child minder when I was little, so I'm sympathetic.

What I thought was that I could batch cook and freeze the foods that they would eat so it was less for me to do.

Rather than optimistically chalking up the weeks dinners to be met with, please could I just have xxx, oh and yes mummy could I just have just yyy please.

Fruit and vegetables are no problem, breakfast is strictly porridge.

Having said that since I can enforce a strictly porridge rule maybe I will have one evening a week where there is no choice.

They all love it when we have a roast dinner. But I can't afford to do that everyday.

Update: I have been shopping twice this week and spent shitloads.

I'd plan for maybe 4-5 meals rather than 7. In the past I've got bored with meal planning and the variety of the food we ate suffered. Sometimes it's a pita but so is running to the shops every other day with kids in tow. Wouldn't be offering different meals either. I used to eat with the kids when they were younger, dh heated his food up when he came home....but we all ate the same food. Now dh and I low carb, kids eat what we eat with mash or rice on the side.