If you are the sole chef in the family...

[GlumyGloomer]

...how often do you make what you want as opposed to what you know everyone will eat?
My dd's are currently turning their noses up at toad in the hole. They have waffles, veg and gravey so they won't starve, but at a minimum of once a fortnight I throw caution to the winds and optimistically cook something because I want to blood eat it. AIBU?
Kids are too young to cook their own food, they are stuck with what I make.

I don't think you are being unreasonable. I cook all meals for our family and follow the one meal, one family approach. I would never serve a 'hot' curry but often will make food flavoured with intense spices to our four year old and one year old. They often comment/make faces. I continue to enjoy my meal- there will be at least one aspect of the meal they can consume e.g. plain boiled rice, so I know they won't starve. I would highly recommend the book "Getting the little blighters to eat" (cheap on Kindle) which pretty much follows the 'dish up and shut up' approach where you contine your usual meal/conversation without engaging in much conversation around the food.

My DDs are 15 months, still getting to grips with solid food, and pushing four.

I am firmly in the "eat it or go hungry" camp, as my parents were with me. Unfortunately my wife has a different view and will often say "but DD won't eat that" when I tell her what's for dinner, which guarantees that DD then won't eat it, naturally. If it's something she (DD, not DW!) really won't eat then we'll often have something leftover lying around she can eat instead.

I'm tempted about once a fortnight to say "you can bloody cook then" to DW, but then we'd all starve. Been married six years, and I don't need any fingers or toes to count the number of hot meals she has cooked.

I tend to do what you do and have options. So it might be 2 of the same dish, one with less spice. Or pasta pesto alongside macaroni cheese because my 9yo hates cheese sauce. Or vegetarian enchiladas alongside chicken ones. Or just some extra carrots or asparagus for the dc who won’t eat broccoli. There’s 6 of us so most meals have an element someone won’t want!

My kids love this - but I use half the amount of spice blend recommended.

www.spicepots.com/blogs/recipes/chicken-korma-curry-the-original

As often as I want and have time. Mainly preparing separate meals.
DH and I love spicy curry,kids don’t so they will have something else.

My diet consists of things that my family doesn’t find appealing ( I’m Polish so much different) and if I want to eat fried herring or sprats I will 🙂 leaving them to their perfect white fish

I'm a lone parent and often gave to cater for three different meals every day. I'm veggie and GF, teen DS needs soft food for his brace and is having a growth spurt and DD is really fussy. So, I always have what I want and the dc's usually get what they want. A mix of home made and ready meals.

Everyday. I cook what I want to cook! I do listen to the other residents but I expect them to pick out the bits they don't eat, as they are adults, if they aren't happy with the catering they can cook for themselves. Dp's dd is the worst, long list she supposedly doesn't like yet magically she eats them if she doesn't realise it's in a dish! My DD's are well trained and no never to bother saying "I don't like" and dp knows he's onto a good thing food catering wise so wouldn't dare

We're in that phase where the kids are starting to be old enough to eat with us, time wise but not totally so maybe 4 days a week they get a separate dinner to dh and I. On days we eat together I do tend to only cook things I know they'll eat which is fine art the moment because dh and I can be more adventurous on our nights eating alone. Even for meals we all eat though there'll be some variations on the parts each dc will eat.

We eat simply so it's not really a chore to provide a mixed selection.
eg.,

• DS2 doesn't like curry -- he gets a boiled egg instead and a piece of bacon
• Some DC don't like fish (grilled) - 1.5 sausages instead each
• I don't like plain pizza, I get boiled potatoes insted
• DSs don't like rice, they get roasted potatoes instead -- we try to have left over boiled potatoes for this

All with mix of veggies (ones that each person doesn't dislike)
It doesn't feel impossibly complicated.

Just DP and I here but if we didn’t live together he would genuinely live on frozen pizza. He just has no interest in food at all and grew up with MIL who believes things like seafood will give you food poisoning

I admit that I cater to his whims much more than I should but he does have the decency to go out once or twice a week so I get to cook something I actually fancy then.

I hadn't checked this thread in a while, thanks for all the responses. I do sometimes cook a separate meal for myself, but mostly can't be bothered with the extra washing up. I always eat with the kids as they're a pain to get to bed and I couldn't deal with it while hungry or be bothered to cook after. They aren't to bad, eg will eat curry if it's mild, just some stuff I love which they hate.

I make what I want. But I try and be mindful of what family members like and I try and cook seasonally and mix it up. I don't get any complaints!