Less about cooking and more about motivation

[NewNewForest]

I am in a complete rut of peddling the same three or four meals out and eating them on our laps in front of the tv. I need to get back into the habit of more imaginative dinners and eating at the table.
busy house, both work full time and young teens with hobbies, but we’re all eating at the same time on our laps so why on earth aren’t we at the table! Help!
I keep saying that starting tomorrow we will not eat another Kiev and new potatoes/pasta/ sausage and mash type dinner on our laps!!! But we’re still at it. I’ve no aversion to the occasional lap pizza or takeaway, but every night is not good. We have a nice big table and chairs in the kitchen.
Children aren’t fussy, I can cook well enough, I do not even know how we have got to this point.

Please give me a hand on this one - both with food inspo and lifestyle kick up the bum! 🙏

TV and phones off during dinner. Teens choose, plan, cook at least once a week. Everyone shares one thing about their day or their plans for the evening, and everyone else listens politely. Are you a family that’ll do discussions without arguing? Maybe have some topics in your back pocket to get people thinking and talking?

Make meals that need to be assembled from the table. Tacos, fajitas, pho, things that have lots of toppings and come deconstructed. Lay everything on the table and everyone sits around making their plates from platters.

We often do a thing called High, Low, Buffalo. Everyone goes around and says their high from the day, their low, and the funniest weirdest thing that happened to them. Sounds weird but it’s actually really lovely especially with moody teens.

Have you got the motivation to clean and polish the table so if feels nice to eat there?

Can you do some simple meals to start with like a traybake or a slow cooker recipe?

I suppose get to the root of why you've slipped into this pattern. I.e. everyone is ready to eat at slightly different times so grab and go, people are doing other things at the same time e.g. teens doing homework, handier to make everyone grab their own stuff than set the table.

Then check are your family onboard. You can insist but easier if everyone agrees with you. That will determine how to go about it.

In terms of meal ideas, it totally depends. I've now got good at meal planning but that's because i scrapped what other people did and looked at what worked for us. So for example, how much time do you have to cook? Do you find it fun and relaxing or a chore? How much is your grocery budget? Is someone else washing up? What do you like/not like? Do you mind leftovers or prefer something new every night?